Dear Brethren:—The reproof by the Publication Committee, in the December Journal, of expressions in the October and November issues, is unreservedly concurred in by the writer of the articles in which they stand. Lack of watchfulness lest reproach fall upon the cause of Christ shown in them, merits severe rebuke. That in October Journal is capable of being construed as depreciation of the Bible, and that in the November was a deduction from individual experience that ought not to have been given as official and universal.
The interests of Truth require that the standpoint from which they were written, and the thoughts really meant to be conveyed, be made clear. To the writer, the Bible and Science and Health are one book, one thought—"the Sacred Scriptures." A seeker for Truth unacquainted with the Bible, might be advised to take up the Gospels and Psalms before the Revelation and Book of Daniel; so, to a patient held in the bondage of Theology and the thought of old associations in his or her church, it may be wise, —as a means of isolation from thought that works against the Christian Science treatment,—to recommend momentary, undivided and devoted attention to Science and Health. This course has been frequently pursued by the writer, with happiest results. But in such cases he has always explained to the patient that it was only to open his understanding to the real meaning and sacredness of the Word.
The utterance in November Journal, under consideration, expressed, also, frequent individual experience. But an expression entirely competent and wise in individual practice and made to a person seeking advice, and putting himself by the act under the direction of a worker, may be zeal without wisdom when employed in another relation where it may be construed as interference with light of private judgment. That it was dictated by deep sense of the wrong and injury done to the cause of Christ and to individuals, by so-called Christian Science literature, does not cover its unwisdom as editorial.
