Christian Science

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 21, 1908

Christian Science

IN very plain language an English writer deals with Christian Science and its fundamental tenet after this fashion:—

The doctrine that pain and death are not real at all, except in so far as their victims are cowardly enough to submit to them, is a diabolical doctrine, obviously calculated to produce all the purely diabolical qualities, such as intellectual cruelty and contempt for the weak. To tell any man that it is his own fault that he has the toothache is to cease to be a Christian while uttering eight words. If there is one thing that is against the whole trend and tide of Christianity, it is any method which permits the man called strong to triumph over those whom he calls weak-minded. . . . Christian Science says that pain is not a reality. Christianity says that pain is so great a reality that even the Creator could feel it. Christian Science says that a man need not think of death at all. Christianity says that even God thought of it with awe. And the ethical results of the two principles have been exactly what might have been expected.

And yet there are thousands of people who are proclaiming the doctrines of Christian Science as the latest and highest development of gospel truth. When this teaching is analyzed, it will be found to be simply one of the many forms in which human pride manifests itself in the way of self-salvation.