Article June 13, 1931 Issue

The address delivered before the Cape Town British Israel...

Philip H. Simpson, Committee on Publication for Cape Province, South Africa,—Cape Town

South African National Message

The address delivered before the Cape Town British Israel Association on the fourteenth of May, 1930, a report of which was published in the June issue of the South African National Message, under the title of "The Rock and the Sand," conveys an implication derogatory to Christian Science, in that it states as a result of certain "downward steps" of the churches "the teaching of Jesus comes into comparison with that of Buddha, Confucius, theosophy, and of Hinduism, Islam, Christian Science, and all ancient and modern creeds." I should be glad of the opportunity, so far as Christian Science is concerned, of correcting such an erroneous impression.

Christian Science and Christianity are identical. Christian Science is based entirely on the Bible—both the Old and the New Testament—including particularly the teaching of Christ Jesus. Instead of departing from this teaching, it stands for its wider and more practical application to the affairs of humanity in every way. It has revealed in this age an essential of Christianity in the healing of the sick. In "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 35) Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "The truths of Christian Science are not interpolations of the Scriptures, but the spiritual interpretations thereof."

In regard to Mrs. Eddy's being able to claim equal status with Christ Jesus, I should like to make it quite clear that Mrs. Eddy never at any time made such a claim, nor do Christian Scientists make such a claim on her behalf. Mrs. Eddy was quite clear on this point. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 34) she wrote, "Study the Bible and the textbook of our denomination; obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ."

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