Extracts from Reports of Christian Science Committees on Publication

Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Although nine letters of correction had to be written during the year, as compared with seven in the previous year, five were duplicate letters to different papers refuting a statement, made by two medical men, that Christian Science was akin to magic. However, it would appear, according to the articles written by these medical men, that both had witnessed healings through Christian Science which they could not explain from a medical point of view.

It was reported to the Committee that a Glasgow clergyman, in the course of a sermon, not advertised as dealing with Christian Science, said, "Christian Science is doing more good for humanity today than any other religion in the world."

In the Glasgow papers this year there have appeared three helpful letters from non-Scientists in reply to critical references to Christian Science. One of these contained the following: "I am not a Christian Scientist, but I have met many who are and many who have benefited greatly by following the Christian Science teaching."

Lesson-Sermon extracts continue to be published in six Lanarkshire papers, one of these being a Glasgow evening paper with three editions. The late Saturday edition, although devoted largely to "sport news," nearly always carries the extract. This must take it into many quarters where otherwise it might not penetrate.

The Committee has to thank the Literature Distribution Committees of the three Glasgow churches for their ever willing co-operation in supplying editors of newspapers with The Christian Science Monitor. The editors of the larger papers get one Monitor every week, and the editors of the smaller papers get one each month. These are always gladly received and sometimes quoted from with credit. Special numbers, like the Silver Jubilee number, were widely distributed among the editors.

North Island of New Zealand.

Upon renewing his subscription, the editor of one daily newspaper made the following comment: "May I say that this paper [The Christian Science Monitor] is one of the finest I know, and that I read many of its news and editorial articles, both on American and foreign affairs, with the utmost interest. It has long been my habit to use quotations from the Monitor in my own editorials, always, of course, with full acknowledgment. I have long had an admiration for your great paper, and I think it is improving notably as time goes on."

In a lecture entitled "Psychological Factors in Medicine," to the nurses of the Auckland Public Hospital, a well-known Wellington medical doctor is reported in the New Zealand Nursing Journal as follows: "Similarly there is something to be said for the methods adopted by Christian Scientists. They believe that matter is an illusion and that nothing really exists except Mind. . . . Although we may regard this theory as fantastic, it is futile to deny that many of their patients are improved and some cured. You may say that people who are cured in this manner are just neurotics with imaginary ailments, but this is only begging the question. It would be just as reasonable to say people who are cured by orthodox methods only imagined they were ill. If we free our minds of bias and make an impartial investigation, we find that genuine cures do result from these methods." This testimony from our medical friends is gratifying and encouraging.

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Editorial

From a letter dated 1893

April 18, 1936

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