I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. (To the Editor.)

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1926, Page 15

I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. (To the Editor.)

1 Sir,- —In her last letter Miss Madge ' Bell states that 'Christian Scientists: ' accept the first chapter of Genesis as the j i record of the creation of God's universe. I ' Sow, in that chapter it is declared that - ! God made "sun and moon, the earth, > yegetation, and. animals. Theee are •- material ■ Therefore • God created matter. But Mrs. Eddy 1 asserts that "Nothing possesses reality '■ or existence except God"; that "God; 1 being all, nothing is matter"—or matter! • is nothing. So the' universe God created i —earth, sun, moon, etc.—has no reality > or existence,.and being matter, is nothi ing. Will Miss Bell tell us in plain I English the answer, .to this Christian - Science riddle? Speaking this week r at, the, meeting of the British Medical I Association at' Nelson, Dr. s Gjbhs advor cated the establishment of an institute 1 for studying the causation and prevent tion of disease. From the Christian i Science point of view such an institute would do more harm than for the only real disease is belief in disease. . Christian Science teaches sickness is caused by believing it' exists, and to prevent it we have only_ to persuade purselves that it has no existence. What fools these doctors are! In my,previous letter I asked this question: "If Miss 1 Bell, fractured her skull would she try 5 to cure it by right thinking, or would 5 "she send for a'doctor?"- Miss Bell's I answer to this plain'question is .is fol- • lows: "If Christian Scientists find their C; knowledge of, or faith in, Gdd, is unequal > to their proving that God supplies all I their needs, they are free to ask help • from surgeons if they wish to do so, but ; they know that the limitation lies not , with Gpd, but "with them." Help!—l ■ am, etc., NORMAN E. BURTON. • (To the Editor.) Sir,—Miss Bell has become ■ aware "how great a matter a little fire.kindl leth." The conclusions drawn from 3 newspaper correspondence are for - yonr I wide - circle of intelligent .readers .as , well as for the writers. But even so, it ' might be. hoped that .the ;-writers' would j. sometimes see eye to eye when the truth is 'presented. Miss Bell now &iys that " The • first , chapter of Genesis' is ( ' accepted by over a million Christian i'-Scientists as the record, etc." Are v we to understand from this that they all, r like Miss Bell, reject the second chape ter? This also is Bible. Miss Bell 8 refers to the claims made by myself, '• but this is hardly correct, as I merely fc presented for her acceptance the Bible P in its own defence. She goes on to say !•' that a Hebrew scholar says of the word 1 God in Genesis that it " refers in the • original to.a metaphysical—not a physin cat , being." But the Bible:will instruct v her that God is both physical and metaT physical since the Incarnation, and that t in Jesus Christ "dwelleth the fulness-.of. i, the Godhead bodily." This also will c have its application to the later portion r of Miss Bell's* letter, where she quotes s mc, " the infinite is infinitely human— a infinitely man," and. adds, then ."there :■. can be no place for God, who is spirit, i since there-cannot be anything beyond .infinity." But surely spirit is human— . it is man, Divine man, not an abstrac- £ tion. It is not surprising that the , infinite bothers Miss Bell; it is "the .'. difficulty of philosophy,?'- - but some • people seem anxious" to make it a c refuge for their lack of reasons. Miss Belle "best definition," however, brings her well within the human scope, when she says that "God fs incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite' mind, spirit;' . soul> principle, life, truth, love." Will ' she: do herself the kindness to just reflect; upon how many of these attrie butes Jesus Christ claimed as. His own. •p If.she" willnot accept Him:whois ''Gpd 1 with* us," and thus -the only God-we " cankqov, God.not ■with, us being deafly incomprehensible, how can she claim (in speech) to be Christian ? Christian b Science in such a case is a misnomer.— I am, etc., ROBERT STRONG.