I thank you for publishing my letter in the South China Morning Post...

William H. Adler, Committee on Publication for Hongkong, China,

South China Morning post

I thank you for publishing my letter in the South China Morning Post of October 17 and shall be glad if you will kindly permit me to trespass on your columns again, in order to correct some of the misstatements made about Christian Science in the letter by a "Member of the church of Occult Science," in your last issue.

Let me assure your correspondent at the outset that Christian Scientists do not hold differing beliefs in contempt. Religious organizations are successfully founded and maintained only on the fundamental things of Spirit—not on adverse criticism and contempt.

The letter states that Christian Science and the science of the occult have both the same Christian foundation. Now Christian Science is indeed founded on the Holy Bible, but in the same way and to the same extent that all forms of superstition and necromancy are denounced in the Holy Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy has shown how entirely separate are all such beliefs from Christian Science. On page 104 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes: "Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action, and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of all divine action, as the emanation of divine Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the opposite so-called action,—evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism."

Your correspondent cites Christ Jesus' healing of the blind man as a proof that the great Nazarene used occult means, and speaks of "his holy spittle" as having power to restore the man's sight. Such an interpretation is quite opposed to the teachings of Christian Science, which recognizes that our Master healed solely by spiritual understanding. In answer to the accusation that he cast out devils through Beelzebub, Christ Jesus clearly stated that he did his healing work by "the finger of God;" in other words, by the power of God. On pages 170 and 171 of her book "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy is quoted as saying: "In the passage recording Jesus' proceedings with the blind man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power. 'Hand,' in Bible usage, often means spiritual power. 'His hand is not shortened that it cannot save,' can never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human hands."

Just as there has never been and never will be any connection between Christianity and occultism, so there never has been and never will be any unity between Christian Science and occultism, since Christian Science is simply the reinstatement of primitive Christianity. Furthermore, occultism in all its forms is positively denounced in the Holy Bible from cover to cover; and occultism stands in the same position with regard to Christian Science, which is squarely founded on the same Scriptures and declares for the allness of God. Rightly understood, the purpose of Christian Science is to bring salvation from all forms of occultism.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit