A few heated clergymen having made the following false charges against Science and Health, we shall reply by quotations from the work:—
"'Science and Health' teaches free-love."
Read this in reply: " The last infirmity of error that would fasten itself on society, to see it hobble under a new burden of guilt, is 'free love.' Marriage is the only legal and moral form among the higher species for generation. Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge of all peoples; the commandment 'thou shalt not commit adultery,' is not less imperative than 'thou shalt not kill.' Virtue is the basis of civilization and progress; without it there is no true foundation to society, and it were utterly impossible to attain the Science of Life."—Science and Health.
"It denies a personal Christ."
"Anomalous as it appears at this age, Jesus was called a pestilent fellow, the stirrer up of seditions, and was followed only by a few unpretentious Christians, whose spirituality was not a name, but so vital it enable them to understand the Nazarene and the glory of his life If that Man of immortal meanings was personally on earth to-day, he would be scoffed, ruled out by pulpit and press, denied the rights of person, and made the steady aim of superstition, sensualism, and malice."—Science and Health
"It teaches spiritualism."
"Mediumship, or spiritualism, is without foundation or fact. While we entertain no doubt of the humanitarianism of many spiritualists, we have proofs of the incorrect views of spiritualism."—Science and Health
"It teaches there is no sin and no punishment for sin."
"That we receive all the punishment we deserve before the change named death, is quite as impossible as that we have all our rewards here. The design of Love is to reform the sinner, and if his punishment here has been insufficient to reform him, the good man's heaven would be to him a hell."—Science and Health.
"It aims to overthrow the churches."
"We early united with the orthodox church, and not less but more do we love the spiritual signification of the church militant. But the glorious gospel of healing should be preached, and what pulpit will permit the unhallowed tread of its messengers, or defer a lottery, under its sacred sanction, to give room to the truth."—Science and Health
"It denies that we are saved from sin by faith in a personal Saviour."
"The demonstration that Jesus gave of Christ casting out error and healing the sick did more for the world than was ever done before. Contemplating history from all moral data, we learn that faith in Christ which caused our martyrs to be burned, and the rights of man christened on a gallows, shares the same fate to-day. He bore their sins in his own person. He knew all the mortal error that constitutes this body material, and through this consciousness he could destroy it. Through the magnitude of his life he demonstrated life; from the amplitude of his love he could explain love, and with the affluence of Truth vanquish error. The world did not acknowledge his righteousness, yet it needed the harmony that his glorified being introduced."—Science and Health.
"It denies the efficacy of prayer."
"The prayer of the righteous that heals the sick is after the manner that our Master taught when he bade his students enter into the closet and there enter into the spirit of prayer; the door of the senses closed, lips mute, and man in audience with his Maker. We have taught our students the footsteps of prayer, and the prayer that is more than faith—it is demonstration."—Science and Health.
