Article August 19, 1933 Issue

Under the title "Christianity and Christian Science" a...

Count Helmuth von Moltke,

Sylter Inselbote

Under the title "Christianity and Christian Science" a critic writes to the Sylter Inselbote. It is not possible to deal with every point that needs correction, but I should like to reply to some of them.

The idea that human will-power is sufficient to heal sickness without doctor or drugs is not to be found in the Christian Science teachings. No one is truly healed by will-power, but rather through knowing that God is almighty, all-present, all-helping Love. "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." This is as true and demonstrable today as when it was written, as Christian Science is proving.

In response to the statement that Christian Science teaches "that sin is an empty dream, an error of mind.... Jesus sees in sin a terrible reality," let it be said, it is true that Christian Science asserts that there is no reality in sin; but sin becomes an "empty dream" only when belief in it is overcome. Until humanity has seen and proved that sin is a delusion, sin seems a solid fact. Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Mankind frees itself from sin by penetrating through false material beliefs to the spiritual man. Of this, Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 327): "The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony." On the above-cited page she also writes, "Reform comes by understanding that there is no abiding pleasure in evil." Reform is necessary before drunkenness and misery, hate and want, can disappear. Only then do they become "nothingness" to men. In many proved cases Christian Science has healed drunkenness.