Article August 7, 1937 Issue

I notice that your correspondent, in your issue of July...

Miss Alice E. Rose, Committee on Publication for Susses, England,

Hastings and St. Leonards Observer

I notice that your correspondent, in your issue of July 11, takes severe exception to Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, coupling the word "Science" with "Christian." One wonders why. According to dictionary definitions the word "science" should signify "knowledge classified and made available in work, life, or the search for truth." Now the vital truths of Christianity, which your correspondent concedes are accepted by Mrs. Eddy, have been, through the teachings of Christian Science, made available to be employed in every detail of human existence, overcoming poverty, sickness, sin, and all other ills of the flesh. All the world over, the adherents of this religion are proving its name to be singularly appropriate. On page 342 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident. Shall it be denied that a system which works according to the Scriptures has Scriptural authority?"

In order to prove his statements that "Science and Health is a mass of contradictions," our critic proceeds to give his own concise interpretation of what he terms the "theories" of Christian Science, by quoting isolated sentences, without their context, from our textbook, and making other statements which are not in it. This method of criticism would make any scientific work appear contradictory.

However, had our critic placed the words "In reality" (the latter word used in its correct meaning of "actual being in distinction from mere appearance") before each of his statements, he would have given a correct, concise presentation of the teachings of Christian Science, and they would have read in part as follows: "In reality there is no material universe or material things. In reality Spirit is the only substance. In reality there is no such thing as sickness, disease, pain, evil, sin, etc. In reality man is perfect." One of the fundamentals of Christian Science is that "nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. ... Everything in God's universe expresses Him" (ibid., p. 331).

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