Your contributor on the subject of Christian Science is...

Charles M. Shaw, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England,—Nelson

Leader

Your contributor on the subject of Christian Science is guilty of a serious misrepresentation of this religion; and it is difficult to account for, except on the assumption that he is imperfectly acquainted with its teachings.

It is quite true that Christian Science teaches that sin is unreal in the absolute sense, but it admits that sin appears to exist in human thought and experience, and that it is unforgiven of God until it is overcome. How unjust is the insinuation that Christian Science tends to cancel the all-important distinction between right and wrong will be gathered from the following quotation (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 339): "Only those, who repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand the unreality of evil."

According to your report, your contributor incorrectly quotes the saying of Paul to which I referred, namely, "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Am. Rev. Ver.). In his comment upon this, your contributor makes the strange admission that there is something not subject to the law of God. What becomes of divine omnipotence? The apostle uses the term "subject" only in the sense of obedience, for the law of God utterly does away with "the mind of the flesh." The teaching of Christian Science is that sin, sickness, and death are the effects of error—ignorance of God, selfishness, self-will, and so forth—entertained in human thought, and that these errors must be eradicated before men can achieve either health or holiness.

The Christian Scientist can subscribe to much that the contributor says about Christian healing, that is, to the spirit of it, though he would use different phraseology. As a matter of fact, all that Christian Science healing involves is the "clean heart" and the "single" eye. Such sayings of our Master as, "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;" and, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," imply an infallible system of salvation.

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