The apostle James tells us: "Ye ask, and receive not, because...

B. F. Chandler

Bluefield (W. Va.) Telegraph

The apostle James tells us: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." Now, asking amiss does not necessarily mean that one is asking for something which he ought not to have, but that the method of asking is defective. Probably every reader of this letter has at some time offered a petition for relief from physical or mental anguish which has apparently been unnoticed, and which has tempted him to rebelliously wonder if there is a God. At such times there is very little comfort in being told that the torture of a loved one is "for the best,"—it so ill accords with the teachings that God is Love. On the other hand, prayer, as taught in Christian Science, "availeth much," as hundreds of thousands who have used it and thereby been healed of sin, sickness, misery, and sorrow will testify. Such prayer is defined on page 1 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as "an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."

The clergyman says that Christian Science is an attack on the dogma of the Trinity. In the afternoon following the morning upon which the dogma of the Trinity was promulgated, some one offered an explanation of it; and in the evening some one else explained what the explanation meant. Ever since, some one has either been explaining or denouncing some one else's explanation of what that dogma means. It has been generally conceded, however, that the Trinity is a "divine mystery"—its very mystery proving its divinity—a so that the reasonable, simple explanation of the Trinity offered by Mrs. Eddy would naturally be looked upon by scholastic theology as an interference with its vested rights.

Holy Ghost and Comforter have, with Scriptural authority, always been considered synonymous, and it is in that sense that Mrs. Eddy has defined Holy Ghost as "Divine Science" (Science and Health, p. 588). Now, divine Science, or Christian Science, has proved its right to be called the Comforter by what it has done and is doing for thousands of individuals who have turned to it after every other means had failed.

Mrs. Eddy no more invented Christian Science than Christopher Columbus invented America. This continent had been in the western hemisphere since time immemorial. All Columbus did was to discover it. Mrs. Eddy's claim is to have "discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love" (Science and Health, p. 107), which with a discoverer's right, she named Christian Science. She says, on page 110 of the same book, "In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook;" and on page 262, "Christian Science takes naught from the perfection of God, but it ascribes to Him the entire glory." It is to be hoped that the clergyman may feel more kindly toward Christian Science when he learns that it is not a human system, but the divine laws which Jesus used in performing his mighty works, made available to present day needs.

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