Why does The Boston Post repeat what Billy Sunday says...

Judge Clifford P. Smith in

The Boston (Mass.) Post

Why does The Boston Post repeat what Billy Sunday says against other people's religions? Take, for instance, the following paragraph brought from Kansas City and given space in the Post: "Sunday took occasion in the morning service to denounce Christian Science. He declared Scientists did not believe in prayer, and that they did not believe Jesus was the Son of God. He said they said there was no sickness, and the Bible said there was, and that the sick came to Christ, and he healed them." In this paragraph there is not a single statement that is calculated to convey a right impression of Christian Science. Two of the three statements it contains are not true at all, while the other is a half-truth put in shape to serve the purpose of an untruth.

Christian Scientists do believe in prayer; prayer is a vital and essential part of their religion. Every one knows this who has cared to make reasonable inquiries for authentic information. Prayer is taught and enjoined throughout Mrs. Eddy's writings. Prayer, both audible and silent, is part of every meeting or service in the Church of Christ, Scientist, and whoever joins this church must give his promise to pray daily. (See Church Manual, pp. 16,40.)

Christian Scientists do believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Christian Science is based on the oneness of God, the sonship of Jesus, and the way he showed by which all men have power to become sons of God. Any one who wishes to read a sermon by Mrs. Eddy on this subject may find one on pages 180-185 of her "Miscellaneous Writings."

Christian Scientists say there is sickness in the same sense that Jesus spoke of it, and they also endeavor to heal the sick as he did. Some apprehension of this fact may be gained from the following paragraph in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 495) : "If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our Master did, when he spoke of the sick, 'whom Satan hath bound,' and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and sets the captive free physically and morally."

Is it not evident, therefore, that no good purpose is subserved by giving additional currency to what Billy Sunday says against people who do not agree with him? Whatever beneficial results may ensue from his preaching do not spring from these attacks, but come to pass in spite of them. More-over The Boston Post, unless I have mistaken its principles and policy, does not countenance in other situations such conduct as constraint sought to be exercised through denunciation, defamation, and wilful misrepresentation. Such being the case, I would respectfully appeal to the fairness and justness of its publishers, its editors, and its readers against antisocial and antireligious conduct of this sort.

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