Authorized Statements on Christian Science by Committees on Publication

with contributions from R. Ashley Vines, Benson Tatham Woodhead

R. Ashley Vines, Committee on Publication for Victoria, Australia
The Spectator, Melbourne

"Faith in the untried" has always been regarded as a virtue, provided there is reason for the faith that is in us. In a recent issue of yours, Dean Harold Hough is quoted from The Christian World as giving credit to the people of the United States for the existence of the Christian Science religion there, "partly owing," he says (in a paragraph under the caption "The Urge to Experiment"), "to the touching national faith in the untried."

Progress in the understanding and demonstration of the truth as taught in Christian Science is not confined to the United States, nor are citizens of that republic the only people with "faith in the untried." Christian Science has been tried in man's extremity by people in almost every part of the civilized world, and has not been found wanting, as may be seen even by a mere perusal of the many well-authenticated testimonies of healing published weekly in the Christian Science Sentinel, and monthly in The Christian Science Journal.

Christian Science does not "invent a Utopia by standing truth on its head," to use the phrasing of Dean Hough. What Christian Science does is to put the individual on his feet in a world which, according to general belief, both Christian and pagan, has been turned upside down by attempts to build Utopias on more or less well-intentioned but nevertheless materialistic hypotheses. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writing on this subject in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," says on page 162, "The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind."

Benson Tatham Woodhead, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England
Manchester Guardian

I was very much enjoying "This Happy Breed," the interesting and clever play by Noel Coward, at the Opera House last night, but I was disappointed to find that it included a skit on the subject of Christian Science, which seemed to be introduced merely to produce a number of laughs. It was not a real Christian Scientist who was portrayed. It may have been a brilliant character study of someone who would like to be a Christian Scientist but who most certainly is not. It is a pity a good play should be marred by the ridiculing of anyone's religion.

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