Article December 17, 1932 Issue

I noticed in your issue of the 6th inst. that a rector had...

Miss Alice E. Rose, Committee on Publication for Sussex, England,—Brighton

Sussex County Herald

I noticed in your issue of the 6th inst. that a rector had given an address to the Church of England Men's Society on the "Evils and Heresy of Christian Science." As the substance of the address is not reported in your paper I can only deal with the title, and I shall be glad if you will give me space to do so. Had the speaker read the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, without prejudice, he could never have spoken of the subject in such terms.

Christian Science is restoring an essential element of Christianity—namely, divine healing. Its followers are humbly claiming the promise of Christ Jesus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Creeds, dogmas, and manmade doctrines have never made this promise a present reality, but Christian Science is doing so. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Preface to Science and Health (p. vii): "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. ... Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith." Are there "evils" in a religion which is leading thousands of people all over the world to study the Scriptures in their spiritual signification, in order to gain a better concept of God and of man's relationship to Him and a fuller understanding of the import to mankind of the life and works of Christ Jesus?

This illumined understanding is enabling people to overcome all manner of sin, sickness, and sorrow. Mrs. Eddy wrote to her students (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160): "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science." Is this counsel "evil"? I can only say with Gamaliel, "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."

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