Article August 29, 1931 Issue

It is gratifying to read in your issue of March 2 an account...

Francis Lyster Jandron, Committee on Publication for the State of Michigan,—Grand Rapids

Herald

It is gratifying to read in your issue of March 2 an account of a sermon on divine healing. The clergyman's progressive views on this very important topic invite serious and friendly consideration. He classifies "Christian Science, Unity, Couéism," and other systems as "so many techniques for bringing the healing forces of the divine into lives of sickness." It would be a mistake to conclude from this statement that Christian Science has anything in common with methods which employ mental suggestion or human will. All of the methods named, and many others, are mental, it is true, but a mental method cannot be a spiritual or a divine means of healing unless it acknowledges God, infinite Spirit, as the only true source of health.

To illustrate: A Christian Scientist seeking relief from sickness turns away from matter and material means to the omnipotent divine Mind, outside of himself; while an adherent of the Coué method attempts by mental suggestion to substitute an impression or image of health for a mental impression of sickness. The success of the Christian Scientist depends on his genuine self-surrender to the divine will, whose creation is wholly good; but suggestion or human willpower, so called, can do nothing to uplift the patient spiritually; and it may be as readily employed for an evil purpose as for a good one. Christ Jesus made the distinction very clear between the healing which the human mind attempts to produce and the healing accomplished through reliance on God, on an occasion when the Pharisees accused him of casting out devils by mental but unspiritual means. It is a distinction which is equally important to-day.

In Mrs. Eddy's book "Unity of Good" (pp. 9, 10) there is this important statement as to Christian Science healing: "What is the cardinal point of difference in my metaphysical system? This: that by knowing the unreality of disease, sin, and death, you demonstrate the allness of God. This difference wholly separates my system from all others. . . If there be any monopoly in my teaching, it lies in this utter reliance upon the one God, to whom belong all things."