Article September 19, 1936 Issue

Christian Science makes clear that Science and Christianity...

Extracts from an address by John M. Dean, Committee on Publication for Tennessee,—at the Capleville Methodist Church, Memphis, May 31, 1936

Christian Science makes clear that Science and Christianity are inseparable, and the Christian Scientist esteems his religion as provable and practical in all the affairs of men both now and hereafter. Christian Science inculcates the incorporation of God in the lives of men to such an extent that the loving Father's ever-presence will permeate every avenue of existence and ultimately control all that concerns individual and universal welfare. An understanding of this normal relation between God and man will enable every individual to work out his own salvation, and to begin that work here and now. This continuous understanding may be said to constitute prayer "without ceasing," for it inevitably keeps one in close communion with his Maker, and this nearness to God is surely prayer in a high and effective sense of that word. Christian Science is not merely a method of treating physical disease. The belief that this is its sole mission is due to the fact that the healing of disease makes the most immediate and universal appeal. This was true in Jesus' time. To the unenlightened thought of that day Jesus was merely a miracle worker. Many of the people followed him for the mere taste of the loaves and fishes, and not because of any real comprehension of the deeper meaning of his divine mission. And yet, then as now, the healing of sickness was only an incident in the onward march of the truth.

That Christian Science does heal is no longer doubted by well-informed people. Hypnotism, or the so-called control of "mind over matter," has nothing to do with Christian Science practice. In Christian Science one name for God is Mind, the divine Mind, which has no relation to the carnal, or human mind. We are enjoined in Philippians, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," and just in the degree of our obedience to this command are we able to perform the works of the Way-shower, Christ Jesus. No belief in an opposite power, however hoary with age or however firmly entrenched, can stand in the presence of a right understanding of the living God. The method of healing used by Jesus has been summed up by Mrs. Eddy in the following words from Science and Health (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

Christian Science does not deny the divinity of Christ. The teachings of Christian Science on this point are very clear and admit of no misunderstanding. That Jesus was the Christ is one of the cardinal teachings brought out in our textbook. No Christian Scientist questions the divine origin of Jesus. Because of this divine origin he was fitted to be the Saviour, or Way-shower, of the world.

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