Permit me space in your valuable columns to reply to a...

H. Ernest Vincent, Committee on Publication for the Province of Natal, South Africa,—Pietermaritzburg

Natal Witness

Permit me space in your valuable columns to reply to a letter written by "J.H." appearing in your issue of August 22.

Christian Science is eminently Christian, being based upon the teachings of Christ Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets. Therefore, the God worshiped by Christian Scientists is not a "new God," but is the same God who is worshiped in common by all true Christians, and whom John declared to be Love.

The term "divine Principle" is one of a number of synonyms, namely, Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, Love, which Christian Science applies to God, and which is fully sustained by Scripture. John states, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." God, then, must be divine Principle, since He is the source, cause, and origin of all that really exists; therefore, all that really exists is established in divine Principle.

Jesus taught that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This divine demand can never be met while God is regarded as "Person" in a finite, human, or corporeal sense. Such a conception of Deity necessarily limits Him, and denies His allness, omnipotence, and omnipresence.

God is infinite Spirit. Matter, being Spirit's opposite, is unknown to Spirit. God, therefore, can never be known materially or through what are termed the physical senses. Only through spiritual sense can He be known, understood, and demonstrated. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 140): "That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm. The Bible represents Him as saying: 'Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me, and live.' Not materially but spiritually we know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God."

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