The article "Christ or Christian Science," published in...

C. Shelton Agar, Committe on Publication for Natal, South Africa,

Newcastle Advertiser

The article "Christ or Christian Science," published in your columns of November 27, is somewhat at variance with the truth about Christian Science and the attitude of clergymen who have had wider experiences of its teachings.

The Rev. Lyman P. Powell, D. D., briefly records several beautiful tributes to Mrs. Eddy and to Christian Science by people whose influence is of social, intellectual, and spiritual significance. In his book "Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait," which can be read in most public libraries, tributes will be found from the late Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Randall Davidson, the Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend and Rt. Hon. William Temple, and many other clergymen, so that there is common ground for accepting the good Christian Science is teaching and accomplishing.

The article declares that "Christian Science has no room in its teachings for the doctrine of the Atonement." On the contrary, the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, contains a chapter of thirty-eight pages dealing with this vital doctrine. This chapter, "Atonement and Eucharist," begins as follows (p. 18): "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage." Also, the fourth religious tenet of Christian Science reads (ibid., p. 497): "We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death."

The unreality of matter, which is one of the fundamental teachings of Christian Science, is based upon the Bible. The record of creation, as set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, reveals the spiritual nature of the universe, including man. Consequently, Christian Science draws the line of demarcation very clearly between the absolute reality of Spirit and the unreality of things temporal or material. It will be remembered that our Master, Christ Jesus, also emphasized this point when he said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profieth nothing." Mrs. Eddy, who was so spiritually minded that the illusion of the material senses was again unmasked, told the world, over half a century ago, that there is no substance or intelligence in matter. (See Science and Health, p. 468.)

Dr. Alexander Findlay of Scotland, in an address before the American Chemical Society, said, "Matter is a vacuum as empty as the sky, and the most we know about it is that it is almost entirely space."

Christian Science does not ask us to believe only, but declares (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii): "The time for thinkers has come," and compels us to prove the truths of being only so far as we apprehend them. The comforting assurance for all is that Truth can be demonstrated when understood, and thousands who have been healed in Christian Science can testify to this fact.

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