Article June 7, 1941 Issue

Christian Science versus Ecclesiasticism

VIOLET KER SEYMER

The human notion that evil is a factor in working out the purposes of good is a theological superstition from which Christian Science rouses and rescues us. According to divine law, adversity and discord are not requisite to progress. Every hypothesis of evil is contrary to pure Christianity, since it is a denial of the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, good. On pages 98 and 99 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "The way through which immortality and life are learned is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine, not physical but metaphysical, not material but scientifically spiritual." Ecclesiasticism misrepresents God and confuses humanity. Christian Science reveals God and enlightens humanity.

Human doctrines would have one believe that man is a buffer between conflicting forces of good and evil. Wherever this theory is accepted, it misdirects human effort. It engenders resignation to what is mistakenly assumed to be God's will. The truth is that God's will is manifested in divinely natural righteousness and harmony. Man, God's likeness, is expressing the everlasting perfection of spiritual being. On the full acknowledgment of this fact rests every demonstration of healing and redemption in Christian Science.

Paul recognized that man-made philosophies and traditional beliefs, posing as good, are subtly misleading. He accordingly wrote to the Colossians, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, ... and not after Christ." Human philosophy deceives a blindly credulous individual into adopting a cheerful attitude towards adversity without presuming to eliminate it from his thought or his experience. Christian Science lifts one above condemnation to the recognition and proof of his spiritual birthright. It supplants tradition and submission with spiritual enlightenment and dominion.

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