Letters to the Press from Christian Science Committees on Publication

with contributions from William Kenneth Primrose, Frank T. Norman

William Kenneth Primrose, Assistant to the District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland Hornsey Journal, London

The correspondent whose letter appears in your recent issue should know that the teachings of Christian Science are in no way pantheistic. This fact should be clear to one familiar with Mrs. Eddy's address in 1898 and now published in the pamphlet "Christian Science versus Pantheism." Your correspondent will also find many statements in the Christian Science textbook contradicting the theory of pantheism.

Your correspondent must also surely know that Christian Scientists do not accept as real what they know of nature through the physical senses. In her work, "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 87), "In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: 'I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind.'"

Some people have at one time thought the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, was inconsistent, but as they have grown in spiritual understanding they have found the textbook to be clear, logical, and consistent throughout.

Frank T. Norman, Committee on Publication for Dunbartonshire, Scotland Helensburgh and Gareloch Times

The utterances of a minister in a recent sermon which he gave on Christian Science displayed a lack of understanding of the subject and a want of Christian charity in attacking a religion which does not conform to the creeds, rites, and ceremonies of his own denomination.

Christian Science enables men and women to work out their own salvation, and the time has long since passed when any particular body of religionists had a monopoly of Christianity.

Christian Scientist are a God-loving people and reliable religionists: they embrace all mankind in the love of God. They are to be found in all parts of the world preaching the gospel and healing the sick and sorrowing, in obedience to Christ Jesus' injunction (Matt. 10:7, 8): "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." Narrow and parochial views they eschew, for in the words of a well-loved hymn:

"There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty."

It is this liberty, this freedom, which the message of Christian Science brings to tired humanity: freedom from fear, want, sickness, and sorrow, enslavement to creeds and outworn doctrines.

On page 107 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes: "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named mydiscovery Christian Science." And again on page 131 of the same book she says: "Must Christian Science come through the Christian churches as some persons insist? This Science has come already, after the manner of God's appointing, but the churches seem not ready to receive it, according to the Scriptural saying, 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not.'"

For a correct interpretation of Christian Science, it is advisable to receive it from one who is authorized to speak upon it, and from time to Christian Science lectures are delivered to the public by authorized lectures, in order to present the true facts and to protect thinking people from fallible human opinions on the subject.

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