[Readers of The Christian Science Journal will be interested in the editorial note on the writer of the following article, as it appears in the Table of Contributors to the December (1913) issue of The North American Review: "'A Churchman' is a priest in the Protestant Episcopal church. His work among his own people and his observations of those outside his communion have led him to the conclusions embodied in the present article."]
IF correctly reported, the church commission on healing the sick says, "Any attempt on the part of the clergy to enter into competition with the medical practitioner by any separate and independent treatment of the sick is to be strongly deprecated, not merely on practical but also on religious grounds." This statement disregards the commands of the Christ. It reveals ignorance of the practical and religious grounds on which the remarkable success of Christian healing is based. It rejects the central fact of the kingdom of God, which is the superiority of spiritual power over every form of physical phenomena.
The writer would submit the proposition that Protestantism must substantially adopt the faith and practise of Christian Science if its churches are to fulfil their mission to the world. This conviction is the result of several years' critical and philosophical investigation of the doctrines and practise of Christian Science compared with the experiences and observation of many years as a priest of the church. The fact that such a proposition shocks the church sense and meets with contempt is presumptive evidence of its truth. Men do not condemn a movement unless they feel its influence penetrating their prejudices and false positions and awakening them to unwelcome truth. The church always has denounced and persecuted whatever has not accorded with its inherited traditions and formulated beliefs.
