The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1905-04-15
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
Another interesting Letter From Mr.. {. H.
2iersOn On This Subject.

The following letter written 10y Mr.. e..
II. Piorson. OF Caroline. Appeared in the
Noriohk Dispatch recently and as il will
no doubt prove OF interest to many oi
our readers. we take pleasure in repro
ducing it,
Through the kindness of a friend ] am
eniOying the discussion going on IN your
columns ON the subject OF Christian
Science. and the disputants arr showing
such courteous regard for one another
that ieel constrained. WithyOur perlnls-
sion. to add my quota To the symposium.
Space will fail me To answer dinctly the
arguments Of others. and must be con
tent very briefly to state my understand
ing of Christian Science, and leave it TO
your readers to make their own appllca-
tiOn.
II il both poetry and common sense
that things are not what they seem.
What are things? One thing To one and
another thing To another 1t depends
entirely on the mental equipment. When
the savage was given pair of TROUSERS,
having no idea OF their llse, he thrust his
arms into the legs and strutted about
with his upper works thus wOndrously
adorned-and TO him il was all right.
What il reality The smartest man
who ever lived could only So the appear
ance OF thing, and not the thing
itself. which is known only TO God, who
made it. My first point is: God knows
things in themselves. their reality; man
knows things as they appear To him,
seeming and not reality.
God is Spirit, and He is the only Gre
ator; therefore all that is made il spirit
ual-like begets like. The creation ap-
pears to us to be material, but that does
not make it so in reality. II cannot be
material. If God is spirit, for spirit and
matter are opposites What is matter,
then? Simply human conception OF
spiritual reality.
Further. God is good; therefore all that
He makes is good, and there il no evil.
All reality is good. Sin, sickness suffer
inc. death itself. are not made by the
good God. and therefore they are not
real. but simply the vain imaginings Of
man who cuts his consciousness off from
the spiritual source of his being by per-
sisting in wOrshipping the creature rather
than the Creator.
From all this the Christian Scientist
concludes that man, as the child Oi God.
il spiritual and peIfect-nOt Is To be, but
il now-and therefore that sickness is
merely the fancy ol n disordered mind
disordered because separatefrom the one
and only Mind. Heal this wandering
mind by bringing it into union with the
one Mind, the ever-Present and contin-
nous Fount Of being. all disorders and
ailments flee before the universal har-
mony. which is the only reality. Fix it
AZ poor. wandering human intelligence
may. it remains eYerlastingly true that
"All is well. -
II is very necessary To warn the public
against mixing up Christian Science with
mental science, hypnOtism, or animal
magnetism. Ii cannot be too emphati-
cally insisted upon that Christian Science
has nothing IN common with these coun-
terfeits of the truth The distinction is
nlain-these spurious sciences depend
upon the supposed action OF one human
mind upon another human mind; whereas
Christian Science draws its healing
mower from conscious communion with
the Divine Mind, and the ever-present
Christian Truth does the work,
By way of conclusion it is important
to observe that noadequate understand
ing Of Christian Science can I've acquired
without careful and open-minded study
OF the Bible as interpreted by Science
and Health With Key to the Scriptures, .
by Mary Baker &. Eddy.
c. HERBERT PlERS0N,
Summit, Va.