Article August 29, 1931 Issue

In a sermon on Christian Science reported in your issue of...

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

Cape Times

In a sermon on Christian Science reported in your issue of the seventeenth instant, a clergyman admits having read the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, many years ago. On his own showing he did not then understand the teachings of Christian Science, and it is obvious from his remarks that he does not understand them now. His objection to one of the fundamentals of Christian Science, namely, that matter and evil are unreal, covers most of the points raised by him, including the erroneous statement that Mrs. Eddy was inconsistent and illogical in her teachings.

Mrs. Eddy, entirely through deductive reasoning based on the absolute truth that God is Spirit and that God is All, has declared that matter the antipode of Spirit, is unreal. She writes on the subject in Science and Health (p. 268) as follows: "Belief in a material basis, from which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from matter to Mind as the cause of every effect;" and on page 483, "Science has called the world to battle over this issue and its demonstration, which heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal harmony." The dethronement of matter as an entity is wearing away the foundations of evil, for all evil is to be found in the carnal mind, which believes in the reality of material intelligence, material sensation, and material causation. This so-called carnal mind, which Paul describes as "enmity against God," is thus being deprived of its mainstay through the teachings of Christian Science.

The reasoning of Christian Science "that because man was made by perfect God, therefore man is perfect," is not a fallacy. Man who is created in the image and likeness of God is not finite, imperfect, or limited, but partakes of the nature of the creator. Jesus demonstrated the ability of man in his many marvelous works — stilling the tempest, healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead. He commanded his followers to do likewise, and said, "He that believeth on me, . . . greater works than these shall he do." He also said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." As men grow in the understanding of their real spiritual selfhood, so will they express in a greater degree the perfection and infinitude of God.

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