Dear Madam: I have just finished reading Mrs. Gestefeld's Christian Science Lectures, or Statements of Christian Science. As a constant reader of Science And Health, I recognize every thought as taken from your book, but as lacking your spiritual benediction. To those not so familiar with your textbook, the omission to state plainly that Mrs. Gestefeld's quotations are taken from Science and Health has a tendency to mislead people. As every chapter in Mrs. Gestefeld's book is headed with a quotation from Through the Gates of Gold, this naturally sends people to that work for further information. I recognize the same difference between Mrs. Gestefield's Lectures and your book, that I do between the zeal of Saul and the zeal of Paul. Her Lectures lack regeneration. She has not yet been to Damascus. Like the Prodigal Son, I return hungry to the parental house, Science And Health. I hope that those students who have had Mrs. Gestefeld's Lectures recommended to them by their teachers, as superior to any other publication, will stop to think what they want or are searching for in the study of Christian Science.
In connection with the above subject come many inquiries, some of which I will answer. Has Mrs. Gestefeld been in the Normal Class of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and thus fitted herself to teach Science and Health? No! She was never in the Normal Class; and hence is no more fitted to comment on Mrs. Eddy's work, Science And Health, than an infant is qualified to teach its mother. Is Mrs. Gestefeld a Christian Scientist? Mrs. G. is a member of a Theosophical Society in Chicago. Can a Theosophist be a Christian Scientist? Read what Mrs. Eddy says in No And Yes: "Theosophy is no more allied to Christian Science than the odor of the Upas tree is to the sweet breath of springtide, or the brilliant coruscations of the Northern sky to solar heat and light." .
