From a report in the Review of the proceedings at a recent...

Peter V. Ross

Pacific Grove (Cal.) Review

From a report in the Review of the proceedings at a recent meeting of the Itinerants' Club I notice that one of the speakers selected as the subject of his discourse, "Substitutes for Christian Science." Possibly if he had investigated Christian Science as thoroughly as unnumbered thousands of other seekers for the truth have done, he might, with them, have reached the conclusion that Christian Science and Christianity are identical, and then have styled his address "Substitutes for Christianity."

In this land and age he would be a bold advocate indeed who, notwithstanding all the mistakes that have been made in the name of Christianity, would recommend any substitute for it or argue that its teachings, if understood and practiced by all mankind, would result in anything short of establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth. Yet is not this precisely the stand that any man takes when he commends some other system of healing and regeneration in place of the Science taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus and aptly designated by Mrs. Eddy as Christian Science? Such advocacy, however, would have this much in its favor: it would carry, by implication, the admission that there is merit in Christian Science, else why offer a substitute?

This disposition to seek some other than the straight and narrow way marked out by Principle is no new development of the human mind. Centuries ago, it will be remembered, Jesus, who so well understood human nature that he "needed not that any should testify of man," discerned that tendency and referred to it in the parable of the man "that entereth not by the door," but "climbeth up some other way."

At one point in the course of his address the speaker characterized Christian Science as being in the nature of a metaphysical healing system and "not religious in its character." Now, anyone who reads the New Testament can hardly escape the conviction that religion and metaphysical healing are most intimately associated. The Founder of Christianity made no attempt to differentiate the two. On the contrary, teaching spiritual truth and practicing it in healing the sick and sinful went hand in hand with him. "Whether is easier," he exclaimed when healing the man sick of the palsy, "to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?" And if it is necessary to show further the closeness of the relationship between metaphysics and Christianity, this is shown in the oft quoted declaration of the Master, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

The speaker advocated "recourse to prayer and trust in God," and thought that thereby "greater wonders in healing might be expected." Certainly this is wise and wholesome counsel, and exactly what Christian Science advocates. Prayer and treatment in Christian Science are essentially synonymous terms, and faith in God's ability and readiness to heal is no small part thereof. Such prayer consists in a realization of the all-presence and all-power of God and the consequent absence or nothingness of disease and evil. It is not merely pleading with God to heal and save, but rather an affirmation of that spiritual truth of perfect God and perfect man which breaks the supposed laws of disease and sin and sets the sufferer free.

Speaking on this subject Mrs. Eddy has said in her inimitable way (Science and Health, p. 1): "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."

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