A recent issue of your paper carried a letter presenting...

The Hon. C. Augustus Norwood, Committee on Publication for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts,

Lynn Daily Evening Item

From Letters, Substantially as Published

A recent issue of your paper carried a letter presenting several questions about different diseases, as well as references to the work of the X-ray camera and to the knowledge of medical schools, all intended to refute statements of a Christian Science lecturer that disease is not genuine, but exists in belief, in appearance, or in ignorance, rather than in reality.

In reply to these questions, I wish to assure your correspondent that Christian Scientists admit that all the diseases which he mentions seem real to the material senses. Similarly, the material senses indicate that the sun rises and sets, that the earth is flat, and so on, although all such conclusions are without foundation in fact, or—shall I say—without reality.

Today, even the physical scientists tell us that matter is not what it seems to be. For instance, Sir James Jeans says that "the objective and materialist universe of the Victorian natural scientist is proved to consist of little more than constructs of our own mind."

In reasoning about what is real regarding man, we are justified in beginning with his creator, God. The Scriptures assure us that God made man in His own image and likeness, and that all that He made was "very good." God is Spirit, and man made in His image and likeness must be spiritual, not material. God could not create anything the opposite of His own nature; therefore sin, sickness, and death are not of His perfect, spiritual creation—are not real.

The unreality of disease was demonstrated by Moses when he put his hand into his bosom and it became leprous; whereupon it was immediately restored by the same simple action. The Old Testament contains many examples of spiritual healing, which could not have been brought about if God had made disease. Christ Jesus demonstrated supremely God's healing power, the perfection of God's creation, and the unreality of mortal sense testimony.

Jesus' followers were able for some years to demonstrate his teaching in regard to healing sickness by spiritual means, but the light of Truth was almost extinguished during the so-called Dark Ages. This period was followed, in turn, by the Reformation. And after moratl thought had awakened sufficiently, Mary Baker Eddy, having discovered Christian Science, was able to organize a church designed, as she said, "to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Church Manual, p. 17).

Loyal followers of Mrs. Eddy are proving, in proportion to their understanding, that the spiritual law of God destroys sin and sickness, thereby demonstrating their unreality.

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