Article January 1, 1944 ISSUE

You have given generous space...

S. Pontoppidan Broby

S. Pontoppidan Broby, Committee on Publication for Quebec, Canada Westmount Examiner, Montreal

You have given generous space in a recent issue to "M.L.F.," who is making an attempt to prove that Christian Science is "ignorance concerning the truth" and has "misleading and unscriptural theories." Hoping that you will be just as generous in printing this reply I submit the following.

A definition of the word "prejudice," according to Webster, is "prejudgment without due examination." It is abundantly clear that your contributor is confounding man created in the image and likeness of God, pronounced by God "very good." with the Adaman made of the dust of the ground (nothingness), as depicted in the allegory found in the second chapter of Genesis. The failure of mankind to distinguish clearly between these two accounts of creation has been and will continue to be the main stumbling-block to the understanding of spiritual teaching.

When the lecturer, from whom your contributor is quoting, said, "Man never sinned, he knows no such thing as sin; man is ever sinless, deathless," he certainly was not referring to a mortal, human being called man, but to the perfect unchanging, sinless image and likeness of the Supreme Being which we call God, good. Can it be that "M.L.F." is in doubt as to the existence of such a man? Christian Science is in perfect agreement with Paul's statement that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The reference, however, is to Adam and his offspring, and not to God and His creation.

Referring to the counterfeit creation called mortal man, Isaiah says: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" And Job is just as discerning as to the temporary nature of mortal man when he says: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." But John, who had witnessed the resurrection and the ascension of the Master, saw clearly that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God." There is ample authority in the Bible for the statement that the real man never sinned, that he coexists with God and therefore never dies.

Trying to make a case by taking a few words out of a sentence or paragraph is always a dangerous practice. But this is evidently what has been done in regard to the subject of Jesus and the Christ. What the lecturer said was: "Jesus was not the Christ; he manifested the Christ. He appeared as a human being; he knew the divine fact that Life was demonstrable." On page 583 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Christ. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." And on page 332 of the same book we read: "Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual,—yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As Paul says: 'There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.'"

It is difficult to understand how anyone can make the statement that Christian Science repudiates the atonement, in view of the fact that Mrs. Eddy has devoted a whole chapter to this important subject which evidently she considered of paramount importance to the understanding of the teaching of Christ Jesus. Your correspondent may be surprised to learn that many ministers of the orthodox church today are making use of this chapter in preparing their sermons.

Christian Science is restoring the seemingly lost kingdom of heaven on earth. It demands that men awake from the Adam-dream of life and substance in matter to the realization that, as John says, "now are we the sons of God."

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