The reported statement of an evangelist that "Mrs. Eddy...

Thomas E. Boland

Chambersburg (Pa.) Public Opinion

The reported statement of an evangelist that "Mrs. Eddy says there is no such thing as sin," does not place the matter fairly from the Christian Science standpoint. That sin exists as an experience of human living, that it is the forerunner and producer of untold misery and suffering, and that mortals are eagerly and in many ways looking for release from its thraldom, every Christian Scientist admits. To do otherwise would be to imitate the proverbial ostrich, which by the simple expedient of burying its head in the sand thinks to shut away all danger. The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," puts the matter fairly thus: "The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony" (p. 327). So much for sin as a human belief and experience.

Christian Science, however, stands firmly and immovably upon the declaration in Genesis, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." It declares that God is good,—perfectly, entirely, and completely good; that in Him there is and can be no evil sin, sickness, disease, distress, or calamity, and therefore that He does not send these errors upon mankind. And naturally if these errors do not come from the one and only creator, they can have at most only a theoretical, mythical, fabulous existence in mortal mistaken thought, and never have had and never can have an existence as metaphysical, eternal, unchanging fact.

These two propositions are consistent and in agreement. The world is trying to get free from the misery caused by sin. The Christian Science way is to loosen the grasp of evil by uprooting its very foundations, by gaining the metaphysical understanding which shows sin to have at most only an apparent existence, and so take away the fear which mortals have of it and its power over them. It is safe to say that the power of sin cannot be lessened through propagating the belief that it is God-sent. Such a belief operates to fasten sin more tightly upon humanity.

No earnest person can without prejudice read Science and Health and fail to be impressed by its lofty spiritual tone and its constant pointing to God as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient,—"a very present help in trouble," a Being to be taken daily and hourly into every relationship of life. Therefore to sneer at this book as "humorous," serves but to show an ignorance of its contents comparable to those instances where others, failing utterly to grasp the message of the Bible, point at it the finger of ridicule and say "inconsistent," "untrue," and "unfit to read." However, the Bible has never lost anything through a sneer, nor will Mrs. Eddy's book in any whit suffer from a similar thrust. Science and Health has through its illumination of the Bible turned multitudes who previously had little use for the Book of books, into daily students of that matchless volume. It has opened up the spiritual, consistent message of the Bible more clearly to human comprehension, has made its teachings more applicable to human affairs, and therefore has accomplished a work for which it would seem every Christian ought to be grateful.

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