Article February 10, 1934 Issue

In the report of a lecture there are many statements...

Charles W. J. Tennant, District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland,—London

Muswell Hill Record

In the report of a lecture there are many statements which need correction.

Our critic has misunderstood our use of the word "reality." To the Christian Scientist, "reality" means that which is "spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 335). Evil does not enter into this category, and is, therefore, outside the realm of reality. Christ Jesus said that he had come to destroy the works of the devil, and he proved this by destroying sin, disease, and death. Further, he defined the devil as that which "abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." The works of the devil, therefore, cannot be true or real, and this can be proved by the knowledge of God's infinitude, His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, and of the perfection of His spiritual creation. If sin, disease, and death are realities, as our critic asserts, then they must be creations of God, and it would be impossible to destroy them, and the mission of Christ Jesus, as the Way-shower, would have no meaning for suffering humanity. He stated plainly that those who believed on him (understood his teaching) would do the works which he did, and it is recorded that for about three hundred years after the ascension Christians continued to heal the sick, and even in some cases to raise the dead, in proof of their profession.

Our critic will no doubt acknowledge that Christ Jesus' method of healing the sick and reforming the sinner was the most perfect the world has ever known. He did not depend upon material means for healing. It was his spiritual understanding of God and of man's relationship to Him which healed the sick, by destroying the mental error in the minds of the patients. If our critic believes that it is God's will that we should use all the material means which have been used at various periods or that are in use today, then he must argue that Christ Jesus was working against God's will in not doing so. We are sure he does not mean this.

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