Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/29

Rh what she gets in she can get out. It should be said, however, as a matter of truth, that there are some ideas common to Christianity and Christian Science. This is only natural and what any one might expect. The same is true also of Christianity and Buddhism. But these similarities are accidental. The two religions are essentially different. So, too, there are a number of similarities between Christianity and Platonism and consequently between Christianity and Neoplatonism. And these are those similarities which appear between Christianity and Christian Science. But these similarities, I repeat, are accidental; that is, they do not belong to the genius of the two systems.

For example, Mrs. Eddy teaches the self-existence of God and says certain pretty things about it, quoting legitimately God's word to Moses at the “burning bush”, “I am that I am”. Now this truth is taught in the Bible. It is implied in the favorite name for God in the Old Testament, Yahweh, improperly transliterated in King James' version, Jehovah. But this conception of God was well proclaimed by Philo, who tried to harmonize Plato and the Old Testament, and was taught by the Neoplatonists; and it would seem to be a necessary belief of every man who turns his reason to religion. Let it be said also in this connection that Philo's attempt to interpret the Old Testament according to Plato was a