.^^i^foTmNCEfo^ •^OtOGICAL SE^^"!^ 3P The Non-Sense of Christian Science The Non-Sense of Christian Science By ALBERT CLARKE WYCKOFF Author of *'The Science of Prayer " New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1921, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London : 2 1 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street Contents Introduction 7 I. Non-Sense Science . . II II. Non-Sense Science and the Bible 38 III. Non-Sense Christianity 67 IV. Non-Sense Healing .... 109 V. Non-Sense Revelations 152 VI. Where Non-Sense Ceases and Sense Begins 199 VII. The Psychology of Its Appeal . 246 Introduction THE time has arrived when no longer can . the Church afford to content itself by dis^ missing Christian Science with a depreci- ating remark or joke. It has thrived too well upon this treatment. And this is not at all sur- prising, for the average stock criticism of Christian Science which passes current in religious circles, such as, that it does not believe in sin, sickness, pain or death, is based upon a complete misunderstand- ing of its fundamental teaching upon these sub- jects, and is easily met and explained away by any of its adherents. Nothing short of a comprehen- sive, accurate, intelligent knowledge of what Christian Science teaches, and a clear, reasonable, fair, and justifiable ground for objection to its fundamental principles, can ever cope with its ceaseless, shrewd, persistent propaganda. There seems to be no insurmountable obstacle in the way of obtaining just this very knowledge. Christian Science has but one, standard, author- ized text-book — Science and Health. No appeal can be made from its teaching, for it is unerring and final in its authority. If from this book Mrs. Eddy's fimdamental teaching is secured it cannot 7 8 THE NONSENSE OP OHEISTI AN SCIENCE be gainsaid. To this book we will confine this part of our study. Other references are but confirmatory. It is no easy matter to ferret out the real teach- ing of Science and Health. This is not because it is deep, but because it is intellectually tricky. One reason lies in the fact that it is written in a lan- guage all its own. The words look like familiar words, but their meaning has been arbitrarily changed to suit Mrs. Eddy's fancy. For this rea- son it is practically impossible to understand what is written unless one is perfectly familiar with this new language. By this trick its real teaching is so superbly camouflaged that even to-day the great majority of its followers have not the faintest idea as to the real character of its fundamental teach- ing. From beginning to end there runs through it a purposeful ambiguity in the use of all the great key words of religion, so that the first im- pression one always receives is of being in per- fectly familiar religious territory. All the old words and phrases are used ; the Bible is declared to be its only authority, God the only helper, and Christ the only Saviour of humanity. What more can one ask to guarantee its genuine Christian character ? Not only this, but great care is always taken to see that its real distinctive teaching never stands out in too conspicuous contrast. If in one edition this has inadvertently happened, the next edition INTEODUCTION 9 of Science and Health will be found to have remedied the defect, by skillfully camouflaging the offensive point so that it, like all the others, shades off imperceptibly into the local colour and tints of the surrounding religious environment and atmos- phere. In all propaganda literature, in all the lectures delivered to the general public, and in the conversations of personal proselyters this camou- flaging is most noticeable. For here the real teach- ing of Christian Science is disguised and stretched to its highest attenuation. As the result of all this, to the untrained eye Christian Science can hardly be detected from genuine Christianity. The whole scheme, to one who sees through it, is " charming in its adroitness.'' The purpose of this study is to remove, for its readers, this camouflage, and to present Christian Science teaching, stripped of all its disguises, in its naked character. When this has been done it takes on a very different aspect. Every effort has been made to be scrupulously exact in the presentation of this fundamental teaching. For misrepresenta- tion is unnecessary, and exaggeration is impossible. It is beyond the capacity of the human mind to add anything along either line that can improve upon Mrs. Eddy's own statements. To the intelligent thinker, or the sincere Christian the simple state- ment of her fundamental teaching furnishes the most convincing and unanswerable argument that exists against Christian Science. When our study 10 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE has been completed, and the material is all in hand, we will then be in a position to form a just estimate of Mrs. Eddy and her system of religion. Should the reader desire to investigate the ques- tion of the Quimby origin of Mrs. Eddy's science of mental healing beyond the limits of the treat- ment in chapter five, this is now for the first time made possible by the publication of The Quimby Manuscripts edited by Mr. Horatio W. Dresser. In this book Mr. Dresser presents to the public much interesting material which hitherto has been accessible only in manuscript. To the publishers of The Biblical Review I wish to express my appreciation of their kindness in permitting the republication of this material in its present form. A. C. W. Spring Valley, N. Y. nr NON-SENSE SCIENCE O describe Christian Science as non-sense _ is no reflection upon its character. On -*• the contrary, it is but emphasizing its chief point of merit. For Mrs. Eddy proudly boasts that the structure of her whole philosophical and scientific system rests upon this one distin- guishing feature. The real question at issue between Christian Science and all other science, when reduced to its lowest elements, is nothing less than balancing over against each other the respect- ive claims of sense versus non-sense perception as the most reliable interpreter of the nature and order of the universe. Mrs. Eddy takes her stand unequivocally upon the side of non-sense percep- tion, and therefore rejects in toto all sense knowl- edge as false and erroneous. There need be no doubt or confusion upon this fundamental point, for she reiterates it over and over again. Here are a few instances: The five physical senses are the avenues and instru- ments of human error [p. 293f.]/ *A11 references, not otherwise indicated, are to the 1918 edition of " Science and Health." II 12 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Corporeal sense defrauds and lies ; it breaks all the commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own demands [p. 489] . Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the material senses, and thus tears away the foundations of error. Hence the enmity between Science and the senses [p. 273]. The question is sometimes asked: How can in- telligent people become Christian Scientists? The answer is here given by Mrs. Eddy; Relinquish all theories based upon sense testimony [p. 249]. This furnishes the one and only condition upon which any one, intelligent or otherwise, can become a Christian Scientist. At first sight one does not realize the full sweep of this demand. But a little study of Science and Health makes it very plain. The sum of all that great fund of human knowl- edge which, down through the long centuries, man has laboriously amassed is included in this re- pudiation. For all of this knowledge is the prod- uct of mortal mind and sense perception. Both of which are the supreme sources of error. While this radical demand does not appear on the surface, it is everywhere present and imperious. Mrs. Eddy presents it in these unmistakable terms: We cannot serve two masters nor perceive divine Science with the material senses [p. 167]. We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit, for the one absolutely destroys the other, and the one or the NON-SENSE SCIENCE 13 other must be supreme in our affections. It is im- possible to work from two standpoints [p. 182]. In another place she says: Material hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shepherd boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with Goliath [p. 268]. From the above quotations it is very clear that Mrs. Eddy regards this particular point as the most fundamental in her system. Everything that follows hinges upon its acceptance. No term in the English language, therefore, quite so fittingly describes her science as non-sense. This word alone partakes of the very essence of its nature. The consistent adoption of this term will do much to help clear up wide-spread misunderstanding con- cerning the whole subject. Browsing Around in the Non-Sense World of Christian Science. Before plunging into the prob- lems presented by Christian Science, it may be well to browse around a little in this new world which Mrs. Eddy's non-sense science has built up for the setting of her system. Those who have always lived in a sense world will find the experience novel and interesting. A non-sense world is exclusively a non-sense thought world. Even the thoughts which make up its whole reality differ radically from all other rational thoughts. All reason and knowledge having been arbitrarily discarded, the imagination is given free range so that thinking naturally becomes U THE NONSENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE purely fantastic. This being the nature of the Christian Science world we are about to enter, two demands will be made of us: first, one must acquire the habit of seeing thoughts; second, one must never expect to find things reasonable or sen- sible. Mrs. Eddy explains this first new demand in these words: Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear to the ignorant to be apparitions ; but they are mysterious only because it is unusual to see thoughts, though we can always feel their influence. * * * Seeing is no less a quality of physical sense than feel- ing. Then why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one? Education alone determines the difference. In reality there is none [p. 86]. When one understands that the thoughts which one sees in a non-sense world are nothing more or less than the things of the sense world, houses, lands, men, women, and all that goes to make up this material universe, seeing thoughts is not such a mysterious faculty as at first it might have seemed. The simple trick by which this material world is transformed into a non-sense world is per- formed by the consistent practice of calling things thoughts. Mrs. Eddy puts it in these words: Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and ex- changes the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul [p. 269]. Shakespeare put it thus: " What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell NON-SENSE SCIENCE 16 as sweet." So also the things which in non-sense science are resolved into thoughts still remain the same. When, however, we pass from the new ex- perience of seeing thoughts to that of reasoning in a non-sense world we are face to face with a very different problem. For in reasoning the correct and stable meaning of the words used is the funda- mental requirement upon which the validity of the whole process rests. Now in a non-sense world,' non-sense language is the only vehicle of expres- sion. And non-sense language is a language out of whose words the natural sense meaning has been taken, so that they become chameleon-like and change their meaning to suit any occasion. Just to familiarize ourselves a little with this language and its processes of reasoning let us think through a few characteristic statements. Here is one: The history of error is a dream narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind ; there- fore the dreamer and the dream are one, for neither IS true nor real [p. 530]. To a mortal just fresh from sense-world think- ing it is puzzling to understand why a dream should be expected to have reality, intelligence, mind, for the word dream simply means imaginary ideas. But that is not as puzzling as to figure out how it is possible to have either a dream or a dreamer when neither the dream nor the dreamer are true or real. Also one is a little surprised to find Mrs. 16 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE I Eddy defining matter as " sensation in the sensa- i tionless " (p. 691). One wonders how there can I be sensation in the sensationless, when sensation- less simply means that in which there is no sensa- j tion? Thinking in a non-sense world, through the instrument of non-sense language, is one of the processes to which the student of Science and Health has to become accustomed. Non-sense science is particularly proud of its - logic. Of this Mrs. Eddy says: In Christian Science there are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syllogism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic. Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in premise or conclusion [p. 129]. Here are a few samples of this logic: The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the method in mathematics, proves the rule by inver- sion. For example: There is no pain in Truth, and no truth in pain ; no nerve in Mind, and no mind in nerve ; no matter in Mind, and no mind in matter ; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter in good, and no good in matter [p. 113]. Such logic IS irresistible. It might be continued 1 indefinitely as follows: There is no ice in water, \ and no water in ice ; no rainbow in beauty, and no beauty in a rainbow; no Science and Health in Truth, and no truth in Science and Health; no Mrs. Eddy in Honesty, and no honesty in Mrs. NON-SENSE SCIENCE 17 Eddy ; no Christian Science in Good, and no good in Chri^ian Science. This is the type of logic of which it is said, " Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in premise or conclusion." We will know more of it soon. It is because this is the kind of reasoning which prevails in a non-sense science book that Mrs. Eddy is able to maintain that there are no contra- dictions in Science and Health. This is her asser- tion: It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science, that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no small matter to know one's self; but in this volume of mine there are no contradictory statements [p. 345]. So confident is she of this fact that she unhesi- tatingly stakes the fate of every statement in the book upon the discovery of one single error. This challenge she puts into these words: If one of the statements in this book is true, erery one must be true, for not one departs from the stated system and rule [p. 547]. We have just learned that "The divine meta- physics of Christian Science * * * proves the rule by inversion," therefore it is perfectly willing to prove the above statement by inversion. So that if one statement in Science and Health is found to be untrue, every one must be untrue, " for not one departs from the stated system and rule." In the progress of our study we will have abundant 18 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE opportunity to test some of these statements, and leave the reader to draw necessary conclusions. We are now prepared to make our entrance into the real world of non-sense science. To fulfill the conditions necessary to effect this transition one has but to follow the simple directions given by Mrs. Eddy, and the intoxicating bliss of feeling one's self gradually floating away into the realm of " fetterless mind " will be experienced. Here is a simple experiment any one can try; Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a flower, — that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn that the flower is a product of the so-called mind, a formation of thought rather than of matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see landscapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves and which stimulate mind, life, and intelligence [p. 71]. Now if one should happen to apply a little sense knowledge and psychology to this very same ex- periment it would become quickly apparent that there is a radical difference between the dream flower, landscapes, men, and women, and those with which one comes In contact in the hours of waking consciousness. And no possible conjuring can change the one into the likeness of the other. Just a little knowledge of dream psychology would have saved Mrs. Eddy from making such a blunder. Lower Forms of Life as Thoughts. As might be expected in a non-sense world, where all NON-SENSE SCIENCE 19 " things " are called " thoughts," the products of the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms are also called " the products of the so-called mind," the '' formations of thought rather than matter." This is the way in which Mrs. Eddy puts this idea: Minerals and vegetables are found, according to divine Science to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter [p. 543]- It is a self-evident error to suppose that there can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life, when such so-called life always ends in death [p. 309]- The plant grows, not because of seed or soil, but because growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mortal thought drops into the ground, but the im- mortal creating thought is from above, not from beneath. Because Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a lower power [p. 520]. This may all be true, but in actual experience Christian Scientist farmers and gardeners give as much attention to seed and soil as though there were still something " left to be made by a lower power," and the '' mortal thoughts " which they drop into the ground are as carefully selected from seed catalogues as though they had some essential contribution to make to the success of planting, ?^€-Z^?iA"&?I>^£^j^^*2:. If ^^^ knows nothing about the type of animals that exist in a non-sense world, It will be interesting to drop into the zoo and take a look at some of them. Here again it must 20 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE be kept constantly in mind that one is not in reality- seeing animals but only metaphorically represented thoughts. For our guidance Mrs. Eddy makes this explanation : To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, aeri- form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor- tals metaphorically present the gradation of mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender [p. 511]. Let us wander about through the park and look at some of the different varieties of the gradations of mortal thought which are metaphorically pre- sented to us by the animals mentioned in the crea- tion story of the first chapter of Genesis. Their identities within the realm of thought and ideas are thus given by Mrs. Eddy: The fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven, correspond to aspirations soar- ing beyond and above corporeality to the understand-* ing of the incorporeal and divine Principle, Love [p. 5iif.]. The great whales symbolize spirit as " strength, presence, and power" (p. 512). The beasts of the earth symbolize " Mind's in- finite ideas " which " run and disport themselves " like wild beasts. " In humility they climb the heights of holiness " (p. 514). The lion, " king of the mental realm," is " moral KOK-SENSE SCIENCE 21 courage," " Free and fearless it roams in the forest Undisturbed it lies down in the open field, or rests in 'green pastures, beside the still waters'" (p. 614). Here again that irrepressible sense- knowledge cannot help wonder why the habits of the lion, '' king of the mental realm," are so un- like the lion, king of the beasts of the jungle. For the lion, king of the beasts of the jungle, is not in the habit of lying down in the open field, or rest- ing in ** green pastures, beside the still waters." In fact green pastures do not present the allur- ing appeal to the lion which they do to sheep. For the lion does not eat grass. But in the non-sense world pastoral poems and jungle books all look alike. " The cattle upon a thousand hills " " are likened to " " diligence, promptness, and perseverance." " They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose " (p. 514). " The tireless worm " symbolizes " patience * * * creeping over lofty summits, persever- ing in its intent " (p. 515). The §erpent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its adroitness [p. 515]. It Is well enough to know that one need have no shuddering fear of these thought animals, for they are not treacherors prowlers, lurking in invisible ambush unexpectedly to spring out upon one. They are the kind of thoughts and Ideas that can 22 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE always be plainly seen. And even though this were not true, we are assured that all the animals in the non-sense world are harmless because they are controlled by Love. The forces of Nature in a Non-Sense World, Now that we have started upon this subject it may as well be followed to the end. Step by step we have been descending. Rocks and mountains are " grand and solid ideas," " animals and mor- tals " are '* gradations of mortal thought," "min- erals and vegetables " are " the creations of errone- ous thought," seeds are '' mortal thoughts dropped into the ground," so that, as we come to study the invisible and spiritual forces of nature, we are not surprised to learn that they are the " counterfeits of spiritual forces." Of these Mrs. Eddy says: The material so-called gases and forces of nature are counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind [p. 293]. Yet it is upon these counterfeits, and not the real spiritual forces, that even Christian Scientists rely for light, heat, and power. When it comes to the destructive forces of na- ture we learn that in the non-sense world they lose all of their power to harm. Upon this point Mrs. Eddy says: There is no vapid fury of mortal mind — expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, beastial ferocity. * * * Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the en- NON-SENSE SCIENCE 23^ tireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil [p. 293]. Inasmuch as these "counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine mind " are impostors, and can be overpowered at any time by the real spiritual force of a non-sense mind, it is a calamity beyond com- putation that Christian Science did not " bring to light Truth * * * ^m^ the nothingness of evil " before that " nothingness " was allowed to rage for centuries, through the highways of civiliza- tion, in its unsubdued destructive ferocity of earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, and fire. With regard tq^electricity she says: According to human belief, the lightning is fierce and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Sci- ence the flight of one and the blow of the other will i become harmless [p. 97]. \ Up to the present time no Christian Scientist has been ready to demonstrate the truth of this state- ment. With regard to the earthquake the author of a recent book in refutation of Christian Science, entitled The Real Key to Christian Science, gives the following conversation : I asked a Christian Scientist if he thought earth- quakes could be prevented. " Certainly," he said, " I believe that if a few good Christian Scientists in San Francisco had been demonstrating before the disaster, it would never have happened." If he lived in a sec- tion where earthquakes were common he " would most certainly try to demonstrate " and he believed "with perfect success" (p. iif.). 24 THE NONSENSE OP OHEISTIAN SCIENCE To one who lives in a sense world such a state- ment seems beyond belief. But here is a recent one just as amazing. It is found in the issue of the Christian Science Sentinel of December 21, 1918, in an article entitled War Relief Work in France. In speaking of a group of ten Christian Science workers it says: During weeks of air raids and long range bombard- ment they turned to their books in order to gain a higher understanding of God and man's relationship to Him as an indestructible idea. They recognized that health, harmony, and protection are normal and natural states of being, and that in the benign govern- ment of infinite Truth and Love there is adequate health, peace, and protection for all. During the last air raid which took place in one locality, several war workers stationed there rejoiced because of the heal- ing messages which always reach man through God's direct means of communication, angels. [It may be well to remember that angels are " God's thoughts passing to man."] * * * 'p^g rejoicing over this spiritual fact on that particular night healed or re- lieved the city, wherein these war workers were sta- tioned, from fear of future bombardment and de- struction. This experience reminds one of the songs that Paul and Silas sang effectively in prison during the watches of the night when the damp pestilential cells of the Philippian dungeon were opened and the prisoners set free. No doubt there were thousands of other people in that city that night just simply praying in the old- fashioned way, as Paul and Silas did, who attributed the cessation of bombardment to the efficacy of NON-SENSE SCIENCE 26 their prayers. And no doubt those soldiers who that night forced back the enemy and kept their air men so occupied in other places, laid the cessation of bombardment to the efficacy of their heroic work. It seems hardly fair for the few Christian [ Scientists who happened to be located in that city; to take all the credit and glory to themselves. The '• writer was upon five of the battle fronts of France \ during the big fights, and he could not help notic- ing that the Christian Scientists present during ; bombardment turned not to their books but to the dugouts just like every one else. As might be expected in a world where there are only thoughts, thought must fulfill all the functions of transportation which in the sense world our expensive devices bunglingly try to perform. The system works, according to Mrs. Eddy, after this fashion: In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend. The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed inhabitant of that body carries it through the air and over the ocean. This shows the possibili- ties of thought [p. 90] . Divest yourself of the thought that there can be substance in matter, and the movements and tran- sitions now possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally possible for the body [p. 90]. This seems a simple way in which to solve the perplexing trafKic problems of large cities and the country. But it will only operate in a non-sense world. The number of automobiles standing be- 26 THE NON SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE fore the " Mother Church" during service, and the slavish dependence of Mrs. Eddy herself upon her coach, bear sad testimony to the fact that no Christian Scientists have as yet been able suffi- ciently to " divest " the mind " of the thought that there can be substance in matter " to demonstrate the incomparably superior advantages of thought transportation. The tyranny of mortal mind seems to be so much more powerful than the om- nipotence of non-sense mind. A Sketch of the Real World of Christian Science. We are now in position to report upon the make- up of the Christian Science world. The first thing which impresses us is the noticeable lack of those features which customarily make a real world. Negatively the world of Christian Science con- tains: 1. No material universe — no heavens, no earth, no matter, no animals. 2. No humanity — no spirits, no souls, no per- sons, no marriage, no births, no sin, no sickness, no death. The emptiness of this world bears a striking likeness to the condition of the world before God's first creative act, recorded in Genesis. Everything is without form and void. This fact consistently bears out Mrs. Eddy's contention that God never did create a material universe and the first chapter of Genesis, when correctly interpreted, does not so state. NON-SENSE SCIENCE 27 Positively, the world of Christian Science con- tains: 1. Divine Mind. 2. Idea. 3. Heaven. Concerning this Mrs. Eddy says: Christian Science reveals, incontrovertibly, that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are divine Mind and idea [p. 109]. The only fruition that has been brought forth by this Divine Mind and its idea during the long centuries has been " man," " God's spiritual idea, individual, perfect, eternal" (p. 115). The Heaven of Christian Science is harmony. In a world where nothing exists but one mind and one idea it is not difficult to see how such a Heaven can exist. For where there is nothing but one mind and one idea in existence there is nothing in the world to disturb the serenity of this one mind in the enjoyment of its one idea. Strange as it may seem, however, this statement brings us face to face with; one of the most sur- prising features of this non"^nse world. For it turns out that " nothing " is what makes all of its trouble. Right at the heart of this non-sense world is to be found this vulture " nothing " gnaw- ing at the very vitals of its harmony. This vulture " nothing," mortal mind, is the Goliath with whom, " like the shepherd-boy with his sling, woman goes 28 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE forth to battle." '. Perhaps some belated sense- thinker may be wondering how a vulture can be- come a Goliath, but in a non-sense world where birds are " soaring aspirations," and human beings " ideas " the explanation is very simple. This second " nothing " world separates into two con- stituent parts : 1. Mortal mind — *' Nothing claiming to be something." 2. Matter — " Nothingness — the want of some- thing "— " evil." The issue that comes from mortal mind and matter is sin, sickness, death. Sin is error — un- true; sickness is behef — false; death is illusion — unreal. Just how such a disturbing " nothing," w^ith its brood — evil, error, false belief, an illu- sion — ever succeeded in gaining entrance into a world where " divine Mind is All-in-all," is a ques- tion which puzzles one. Mrs. Eddy quickly sug- gests that they are bom of delusion. This answer makes the puzzle still more acute; for, of all things, how can delusion ever find a place in a world where Divine Mind is infinite, omniscient, and " All-in-all " ? This question also Mrs. Eddy answers, without any hesitation, in the following way: Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a sup- posed standpoint outside of the focal distance of in- finite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and NON-SENSE SCIENCE 29 substance with everything turned upside down [p. 301]- We have here one of the choicest specimens of non-sense reasoning. If it does not satisfactorily explain away the existence of a material universe, sin, sickness, and death, then " nothing " ever can. One naturally hesitates to mar such a v^ork of non-sense literary art. But irrepressible sense- thinking still relentlessly continues to demand: Whence springs this guilty culprit, *' sense knowl- edge," which bears this " false testimony," in a world from which all sense knowledge has already been rigorously excluded and where " divine Mind " is " All-in-all " ? But even this question does not baffle Mrs. Eddy, for, by her theory, sense knowledge is born of " mortal mind." Whence then Cometh " mortal mind " ? tantalizingly persists this sense-thinker. At this question the hard- pressed author of non-sense science leaps with the joy of deliverance, and would say: Oh, mortal mind is " nothing claiming to be something," so it comes from nowhere; if it came from some- where, or something, don't you see it would be something instead of nothing? If this squirrel track only ran up a tree it would not be so hard to be satisfied with such reasoning, but there is not even a tree left up which it can run. In sense philosophy the fundamental proposition with which all thinking begins is: Bx nihilo nihil fit, " From nothing nothing comes." On the con- 30 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE trary, in this non-sense world the fundamental pos- tulate of all its philosophy is: From "nothing" every '' thing " comes. But this nothing must be properly located before it can give birth to every '* thing.'' The exact spot is '' a supposed stand- point outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit." Here again sense-thinking comes upon a problem: How can there be even a ** supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit," if in- finite Spirit, by its very nature, is everywhere present? Of course, if such a place can be found it is not at all surprising that it should present "an inverted image of Mind * * * with everything turned upside down." But all of these questions are sense questions, and unless one is willing to enter this non-sense world upon the conditions expressly set down by Mrs. Eddy, no progress in the understanding of it will be possible. This perpetual clinging to the idea that one is still in a sense world is the cause of ceaseless confusion, and is seriously interfering with our progress. The only world in which Christian Science claims for itself the right of existence is a non-sense world. Mrs. Eddy has plainly said : " We cannot perceive divine Science with the material senses." Two Worlds at a Time. It is not an unusual spectacle to see religious systems harness up two worlds tandem and drive them together in that relation, but to find a system of religion trying to KON-SENSE SCIENCE 31 drive two worlds at a time side by side as a team is something new. One present world is about all that the ordinary metaphysician can successfully handle. The practical application of Christian Science requires the presence of two worlds at a time. One in which to live, the other in which to do one's thinking. The first world in which we live, God has pro- vided, and it is this material world. In it all Christian Scientists, just like other people, live, and move, and have their being. Mrs. Eddy calls it an unreal or dream world. In this connection it may be well to recall Kant's famous remark : " A dream which all dream together, and which all must dream, is not a dream but reality." The second world, " the real world of Christian Science," is, as Mrs. Eddy has already informed us, a " thought world." This world she created simply because she was incapable of thinking her way through the metaphysical problems presented by the universe in which we live. She might have gotten along without doing this, like most mortals do, had it not been for the fact that she started to teach a system of mental healing whose fundamen- tal propositions were that " Mind governs all " and that " there is no intelligence or sensation in mat- ter." It was not long before some of her more skeptical pupils were demanding of her that she explain to them the true relation between spirit and matter in such a world. Having no knowledge of S2 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE philosophy, Mrs. Eddy found herself utterly inca- pable of doing this. Had she known just a little about philosophical idealism, like Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davis, Quimby, and Evans, she might have saved herself from the blunder into which she fell. But while she is sometimes igno- rantly identified with Bishop Berkley and his school of thought, any one who knows anything about philosophical idealism and Mrs. Eddy's philosophy realizes tliat they have nothing whatever in com- mon. Mrs. Eddy does not merit this compliment, for she knew nothing whatever about Berkley's philosophy. Here again to Mr. Wiggin she owes the honour of having her name linked up with Berkley. In that notorious chapter entitled Way- side Hints, which he wrote for one of the earlier editions of Science and Health, in speaking of Berkley he says : He was a great Natural Scientist in his day, and held opinions concerning " absolute idealism " which advanced his memoi-y near the border-line of Chris- tian Science [20th ed., p. 230]. That hint was so valuable that it has been made much of ever since. Being thus unable to avail her- self of the aid of classical philosophy she had to find some substitute. After floundering about for a time in several different theories, she at last resorted to the child-mind method of escaping from intellectual difBculties — that of denial. Using KON-SENSE SCIENCE 33 her own graphic figure, we may say, that, driven to desperation, she hunted up the Httle sHng of her childhood days and putting into it the smooth pebble of the denial of the existence of matter, she went forth in mortal combat against the great Goliath of materialism, and striking him between the eyes with this denial she slew him. Then tak- ing the sword of reason from his hands she cut off his head and hurled his lifeless corpse out of the world of Christian Science. This heroic act made Mrs. Eddy the proud champion of a new system of metaphysics in which spirit, or mind, is left in undisputed possession of the field, monarch of all it surveys. Thus within this new world at least the eternal conflict between spirit and matter is ended, and peace and harmony reign. AH the profound problems of philosophy and metaphysics have been eliminated at one stroke. The material universe, the cause of them all, is no more. Of course the reader must remember that this tragedy -is enacted only in the "thought world" of non- sense science. As if by magic a new school of philosophy is born. Soon it is the parent of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College of which Mrs. Eddy naturally becomes the president and the whole faculty. This college was typical of the non-sense world in which it was established. No entrance examinations were required to be passed by applicants for admis- sion, if they could produce the $300 fee that was 34 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE all that was demanded. Not only this, but Mrs. Eddy went a step farther and advertised that *' no intellectual qualifications are required of students." From the most unpromising material, uneducated factory hands and others of the same class, in from seven to twelve half days she was able to graduate from her metaphysical college, physicians, teachers, preachers, theologians, metaphysicians, all of whom had completed the full curriculum course in pathology, ontology, therapeutics, moral science, metaphysics, and their application to diseases. (See "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy," by Sibyl Wilbur, p. 272.) This magic college and its modern substitutes have introduced into the cultural realm of meta- physics a new type of philosophers who gain no little satisfaction out of the distinction of being able to use the erudite word, " metaphysics," and learnedly to discuss the non-existence of matter in company where familiar knowledge of such pro- found subjects naturally creates considerable won- der and admiration. All of these benefits con- ferred by the simple expedient of denying the ex- istence of matter, which is as unaffected by it all as the mountain by the boring of the mole. Mrs. Eddy herself delighted in the attention and renoun which she thus occasioned, and gained — In some quarters — a reputation for being a deep thinker such as she never could have obtained in any legit- imate scholarly way. NON-SENSE SCIENCE 36 It must be acknowledged that she knew what most of her followers have failed to sense, and what many critics of Science and Health have realized, this denial of the existence of matter and those which naturally follow from it, — the denial of the existence of sin, sickness, and death, — are no legitimate part of her real system of mental healing, but if pressed to their conclusion practi- cally stultify it. But she did not expect to win disciples from scholars, and she had to find some way out of her intellectual difficulties. This scheme was the easiest and looked most promising, so she adopted it; and experience has shown that she made no mistake; it has worked like a charm. Even it, however, has its perils, for when one is driving two worlds at a time side by side there is grave danger of getting them tangled up. Some one might happen to try to think non-sense science in the rational world where we live ; or one might some time try to live in the non-sense world created exclusively for thinking. The occasional casual- ties that occur in Christian Science from such blunders have to be accepted as unavoidable. But Mrs. Eddy, as we see in the chapter, Where Non- Sense Ceases and Sense Begins, never took any chances herself, and did everything within her power to safeguard her followers. She gives her healers this liberty in trying to fathom the Science of Being: 36 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE It shall be the privilege of a Christian Scientist to confer with an M. D. on Ontology, or the Science of Being [" Manual," p. 47]. It is for this same reason that she separates Science and Health into two distinct parts and restricts her teachers, in instructing healers, to the chapter on Recapitulation and the Christian Science Platform (see Manual, p. 86). The difference between this chapter and platform, and the other parts of Sci- ence and Health will be brought out in a later study. She had good reason for fearing that dab- bling in the other parts might take both teacher and pupil over into the other world of Christian Science which is meant only for thinking. With consummate skill Mrs. Eddy keeps these two worlds stepping along side by side through Science and Health, and never once does she allow them to get beyond her control, jump their traces, or pull too much of each other's load. With the firm hand of a master she keeps them in their places. When dealing with the practical subject of healing, she stays in the natural world where people live, and sticks to the theory that *' Mind governs all, and that there is no intelligence and sensation in matter.** Thus she gives her medicine, " Mind,'* a chance to act upon the human body which is ailing. Only when she is engaged in the intellectual by-sport of philosophizing upon the Science of Being and interpreting the Bible spir- itually docs she move over into the " Thought NON-SENSE SCIENCE 37 World " of Christian Science where he^ denial of the existence of matter gives spirit, or mind, un- trammelled freedom to live alone. Mrs. Eddy showed great sagacity, she did no healing herself, she confined her activities to teaching others the theory of mental healing, and then let them put it into practice in the other world as best they could. This was why she was in a position to make any kind of extravagant claims for it, and blame all failures upon the fact that her practitioners did not understand her science well enough success- fully to apply it. As we shall see later Mrs. Eddy herself lived in one world, and thought for her followers in another. The reader now has some idea of Mrs. Eddy as a metaphysician and her system of metaphysics. By denying the existence of matter, dethroning the human mind, discrediting reason, discarding all knowledge, impeaching the testimony of the senses, she has deprived nature of her ability to reveal the truth God entrusted her to communicate to mankind for his instruction, guidance, and help. If any large number of people should seriously try to apply such teaching to their daily living the con- sequences would be disastrous. But they never will. What the application of this same non-sense science does to the truth which God has revealed through the Bible will be shown in the next chapter. n NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE features the Bible. Mrs. Eddy is constantly asserting that from it alone she derived the truth of her system. A few typical statements will bring out this fact: Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible [p. 146]. Christian Science, understood, coincides with the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively every point it presents. Otherwise it would not be Science [p. 358]. He that decries this Science does it presumptu- ously, in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct command of Jesus, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel" [p. 342]. I have found nothing in ancient or modem systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no other guide in the " straight and narrow way" of Truth [p. 126]. Such unqualified assertions of loyalty to the Bible are calculated to allay any doubt as to the Scriptural character of this new system of religion. And they are used with telling effect as talking 38 NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 39 points by its proselyters. To the casual reader they seem to settle this point, but to those who are familiar with Mrs. Eddy's art of camouflaging they stimulate a little further investigation. It will help very materially in understanding Christian Science if at the outset the position which the Bible occupies in this religious cult is clearly realized. Instead of being the source of its truth and its " only authority " it occupies the anomalous position of being only one of Mrs. Eddy's many camouflaging agents. As such she makes constant use of it. Just as the boys at the front, when en- camped in the woods, cut down branches from the trees and covered them over all the guns, trucks, ambulances, tents, so that the whole camp blended harmoniously with its surroundings and seemed a natural part of the forest, so Mrs. Eddy cuts out passages from the Bible, fixes them over and skill- fully places them here and there throughout Science and Health so that they create the impres- sion that its truth blends harmoniously with the Bible. And this is what all loyal Christian Scien- tists honestly believe. The Bible and Science and Health Ordained Pastors. One of the shrewdest moves she ever made to clinch this impression was ordaining the Bible and Science and Health pastor of every Christian Science church upon this planet. The universal Christian Science ministry thus instituted formed an exclusive co-pastorate between the Bible 40 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE and Science and Health. To these two especially ordained pastors alone is granted the honour and privilege of preaching in Christian Science pulpits. Not only are they alone allowed to preach, but in every Christian Science reading room and home they are the sole teachers of the truth. For the benefit of those not familiar with Christian Science practices we will quote the by- laws which govern the respective duties of these co-pastors in the regular church service, and those of the readers who act as their mouthpieces. They read: The First Readers in the Christian Science churches shall read the correlative texts in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures ; and the Sec- ond Readers shall read the Bible texts. The read- ings from the Scriptures shall precede the readings from Science and Health [Sect. 4, p. 32]. These Readers shall be members of The Mother Church. They shall read understandingly and be well educated. They shall make no remarks ex- planatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time [Sect. 6, p. 32]. From this by-law it must not be assumed that these two pastors occupy positions of equal author- ity, or that when it comes to a show-down the Bible is the superior authority of the two. As we shall soon see, quite the contrary is the case. In spite of Mrs. Eddy's profession that the Bible has been her ** only authority in the straight and narrow way of Truth," she never allows the Bible to exer- NONSENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 41 cise any authority over her teaching. Science and Health is her only authority, and as such it be- comes the real pastor of every Christian Science Church. The Bible is nothing more than its as- sistant pastor. As a superior official Science and Health is very exacting, it never allows the Bible any liberty, or any rights and privileges. It is never allowed to speak alone to any Christian Scientist. Science and Health may be studied alone, but a loyal Christian Scientist would sooner take poison than read the Bible without the Key to the Scriptures at hand to guide in the under- standing of its " inner or true spiritual meaning." For in a non-sense world poison is harmless, but a Bible truth that has not been so ''spiritually inter- preted '* that it agrees with the teachings of Science and Health would be a deadly draught. It is quite common to hear Christian Scientists virtuously remark: " I never studied my Bible as I have since I became a scientist." And they honestly believe this is so, for it does seem to them that they are diligently studying their Bible. They do not realize that a loyal Christian Scientist never really studies the Bible. It is Science and Health that is studied, and the Bible is simply dragged in to confirm its teaching. And only when it com- plies with this requirement is it allowed to be studied. Naturally some readers will be a little skeptical about all that has just been said concerning Mrs. 42 THE NOK-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Eddy's use of the Bible as a camouflage agent, and its subordination to the authority of Science and Health. The idea is so contrary to general im- pression that it is hard to believe. At this point we are not disposed to quarrel with any one upon this score, we passed through the same experience ; but we are confident that those who follow this study through to the end will find that Mrs. Eddy's own words will abundantly confirm what has been said. Having professed in such unmistakable words her loyalty to the Bible as her " only authority," it requires considerable skillful manipulation to work things around to the point where she will be per- mitted to take the liberties with its teaching which characterize her habitual use of it without arousing suspicion of duplicity or insincerity. But at this sort of thing Mrs. Eddy was an adept, and she knew so well the people with whom she had to deal that she finds little difficulty in accomplishing this feat. Would you like to see how she does this? Then follow her along the devious way through which she guides the faithful to the point where she wishes them to stand. It will be a liberal education in the art of camouflaging. Her first step is to call attention to the obvious fact that the Scriptural sanction which she claims for her system is not derived from the English translation of the Bible. It is so self-evident that the plain meaning of the English words contradicts NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 43 her non-sense science from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation that even she does not pretend otherwise. It is for this reason that she finds it necessary to discredit the accuracy and authority of all translations. This is most adroitly done by introducing into Science and Health her Key to the Scriptures, which she in- forms the reader unlocks the door to the '' inner and true spiritual meaning of the Word." Begin- ning with the first chapter of Genesis, she chal- lenges the unreliability of the English translation by thus discrediting the translators: The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and power. From that standpoint of error, they could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit. Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which is so glorious in its spiritual significance [p. 545]. As our study progresses It will be seen that the only chapter in the whole Bible to which Science and Health gives its unqualified approval is this first chapter of Genesis. And even this has to be fixed over by means of "spiritual interpretation" and distorted out of all semblance to its natural and true meaning before it gains approval. Even this might be overlooked if the unrelia- bility of the Bible were confined to the errors of the translators, but this is only a small item. We are 44 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE next informed that those who selected what should constitute the Bible were also victims of this same " false sense of being," and so have not given us the true Bible. This additional fact Mrs. Eddy brings out in this paragraph: The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testa- ment, and the three hundred thousand in the New, — these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darken- ing to some extent the inspired pages [p. 139]. Not only are the translators and members of church councils victims of " material sense," but the unreliability of the Scriptures penetrates into the very structure of the books themselves, for the writers of these books are often victims of this same '' error " — material sense. In order to make room for overcoming glaring denials of her inter- pretation of passages, she is forced to claim that the inspired teachers themselves are the only ones who had a true " sense of being," and this is often obscured by " uninspired writers who only wrote down what an inspired teacher had said " (p. 319). One other factor enters into this problem and seriously impairs the true meaning of even those remaining parts of Scripture which are left after the errors of uninspired recorders, councils, and translators have reduced its reliable proportions to NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 46 a very small minimum. This is the fact that both the historic and present-day interpreters of what is left show themselves to be but the helpless victims of the same " mortal and material sense " ; for this reason they must be recognized as utterly incapable of interpreting " the Scriptures in their true sense." Mrs, Eddy the One Person of the Ages Bs- pecially Chosen and Prepared by God to Interpret the Scriptures Correctly. Fortunately three Prov- idential things have transpired, in the course of human history, which combine to relieve this des- perate situation and give us back our lost Bible. First, where man has so miserably failed, woman comes to the rescue. Because in the garden of Eden she was the " first to confess her fault " she thereby reveals the significant fact that woman is the one who possesses the " true sense of being," and so alone is endowed with the potential pos- sibilities of some day bringing to light the true sense of Scripture. This fact Mrs. Eddy thus describes: Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat ; " as much as to say in meek penitence, " Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. * * * This enabled woman to be first to interpret the Scrip- tures in their true sense [p. 533f.]. 46 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Second, of all the women who might have been chosen ** first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense," after waiting six thousand years, God especially called Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Patter- son Eddy to perform this supremely important task. She does not hesitate to undertake it be- cause, as she says : God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation [p. 107]. Third, in order properly to transmit and pre- serve this precious revelation, Mrs. Eddy com- mitted its truth to one infallible book — Science and Health. Vouching for its infallibility she says: In this volume of mine there are no contradictory statements [p. 345]. If one of the statements in this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from the stated system and rule [p. 547]. There is neither place nor opportimity in Science for error of any sort [p. 232]. Gradually our problem has been narrowed down until it forces the conclusion that to Mrs. Eddy alone God has entrusted the stupendous respon- sibility of correctly interpreting the Scriptures for humanity. This distinction she does not hesitate to claim. She says: Even the Scripture gave no direct interpretation of NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 47 the Scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, until our Heavenly Father saw- fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health, to unlock this mystery of godliness [R. and I-,p.55f-]- Christian Science separates error from truth, and breathes through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of life, substance, and intelligence [p. 548]. In approaching her task, she lays down two con- ditions as essential for the correct understanding of Christian Science and the Bible. They are: " Ac- quaintance with the original texts, and willingness to give up human beliefs" (p. 24). These, she says, " open the way for Christian Science to be understood, and make the Bible the chart of Life " (p. 24). The second of these claims, "willing- ness to give up human beliefs," has already been treated. It alone opens the way for non-sense in- terpretation. The first condition, " acquaintance wath the original texts," hints at real scholarship, and enables her to account for the most unusual meanings which she gives to Scriptural v^ords by saying these are the correct meanings of the origi- nal Hebrew and Greek words. This explanation may satisfy those who do not know^ Hebrew and Greek. How it stands the test of knowledge of these languages we shall see. If " acquaintance with the original texts " is one of the essential requirements to " open the way for Christian Science to be understood, and make the Bible the chart of Life," then two things inevitably 48 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE follow: First, only those who know Hebrew and Greek can hope to understand Christian Science; second, Mrs. Eddy herself then must of necessity have been an expert Hebrew and Greek scholar. For, to rely upon the assistance of any other per- son, at this point, would open the door for funda- mental error, and envelop in an atmosphere of uncertainty all of her " inspired interpretations." Those who knew how backward she was, as a child, in her studies, how limited were her educa- tional advantages, and how full of errors her un- revised writings, never dreamed that she would ever claim to be a classical scholar. But in the later years of her life she does even make this claim. In her autobiography she says: From my brother Albert I received lessons in the ancient tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. My brother studied Hebrew during his college vacations [R. and I., p. 20]. Now Mrs. Eddy was only nine years old when her brother Albert went to college, and thirteen when he graduated and left home to enter law. So that if at that age she learned Hebrew from her brother, who himself was only studying it in spare moments during his vacations, and also Greek and Latin, she must have been very preco- cious in acquiring the classic languages. But why bring up her early childhood studies? She con- fesses that this early learning did not remain with her. In the very next sentence she says: NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 49 After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had gleaned from schoolbooks van- ished like a dream. Learning was so illumined, that grammar was eclipsed [R. and I., p. 20]. Any one who has read the first fifteen editions of Science and Health can testify to the apparent truthfulness of this confession. The best evidence, however, is to be found in her securing the services of Rev. James Henry Wiggin, an ex-Unitarian minister, to correct the defects which resulted from this " eclipse " of grammar. In explanation of this unaccountable procedure on the part of one who is transmitting an inerrant revelation, Mrs. Eddy made this statement in the New York American, November 22, 1906: It was a great mistake to say that I employed Rev- erend James Henry Wiggin to correct my diction. It was for no such purpose. * * * j especially employed him on Science and Health with Key tc the Scriptures because at that date some critics de- clared that my book was as ungrammatical as it was misleading. I availed myself of the name of the former proof-reader for the University Press, Cam- bridge, to defend my grammatical construction. [Quoted from The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Sibyl Wilbur, p. 3i3f.] Why correct grammatical construction should need defense she does not tell us. One thing is certain; her grammatical construction needed either defense or correction. And when the six- teenth edition is compared with the preceding 50 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE p fifteen, it does not take long to find out what Rev. I James Henry Wiggin did. He did not defend, he "^ simply corrected it. At the same time her " grammar was eclipsed," her schoolbook knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin must also have " vanished like a dream." For no real attempt to use this knowledge is found in the first fifteen editions. Here again it is with the advent of Rev. James Henry Wiggin and the sixteenth edition that we find distinct technical knowledge of Hebrew and Greek making its way into the text. This statement will be abundantly illustrated later. It is also an interesting coincidence that it is in the sixteenth and some following editions that Mrs. Eddy first manifests particular fondness for the sermons of Dr. William Ellery Channing, the great Unitarian preacher. So frequent, in these editions, are the quotations from his sermons that this formula is at last resorted to, " recurring once more to Dr. Channing" (see 20th ed., p. 160). In this study we are not primarily interested in the controversy as to whether Rev. James Henry Wiggin " practically rewrote Science and Health " or not. That is but a trifling incident to which, in passing, we may refer as relevant facts come under our observation. We will now give an illustration of the way in which Mrs. Eddy sustains her pious claim: "The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no NON-SENSE SCIENCE Am> THE BIBLE 61 Other guide in the * straight and narrow way ' of Truth." The First Chapter of Genesis, Spiritually Inter- preted, is True; the Second, is a Lie, When all the material things and creatures mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis are properly resolved into thoughts after the fashion exhibited in the non- sense world and the non-sense Zoo already studied, Mrs. Eddy pronounces this account of creation the true one. But when she comes to the account in the second chapter even she is not able to twist this into harmony with her non-sense science, so she has to get rid of it some other way. Notice how she does this: Quoting Genesis 3: 15, which reads: *' And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," she comments : In this text Eden stands for the mortal, material body. God could not put mind into matter nor infinite Spirit into finite form [p. 526f.]. Why not? Simply because such a statement contradicts her theory that there is no " matter." That the Bible plainly says that God did put '' in- finite Spirit into finite form," and "mind into matter" she does not presume to deny. How, then, does she get around a Biblical statement which contradicts her fundamental premise? Without the slightest compunction she brands this Biblical statement a lie. Here are her own words: 62 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE This later part of the second chapter of Genesis, which portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in constructing the universe, is based on some hypothesis of error [p. 522]. Then a little later she adds: Is this addition to His creation real or tmreal ? is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and Grod? It must be a lie [p. 524]. This is typical of the way the Bible is always treated whenever it comes into indisputable con- flict with Science and Health. Her book must al- ways be accepted as the unquestioned and ultimate Authority. She puts this requirement in these words: Whatever seems true, and yet contradicts Divine Science * * * must be, and is, false [R. and L, p. 128]. In order to maintain the assertion that the above Scriptural truth is a lie, she does not hesitate to impeach the character and standing of the God of the second chapter of Genesis. In the early edi- tions of Science and Health, before she has secured any one to supply a substitute for her " vanished " knowledge of Hebrew, she makes this unpardon- able slip: In the first chapter of Genesis the word " God " is wholly used. In the second chapter, when error is stated in contradistinction and its creation is given a history, the word " Lord " is introduced. As the be- NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 53 lief of Deity is expressed by human thought, it is given .the appellative of man. The term " Lord " is an honorary title such as Sarah gave her husband [3rd ed., vol. 2, p. 149]- Now any one who can read Hebrew knows that the word " Lord " in Genesis 2:4, and follow- ing, is Yahzveh, and the word " lord " in Genesis 18:12, as used by Sarah, is adon — two radically different words. The first, Yahweh, or Jahveh, so far from being the " appellative of man " hap- pens to be the most sacred of all the names of Deity ; so sacred, that this name is never uttered by human lips. For this reason its consonants are vocalized by substituting the vowels of another, less sacred, word for God — Adonai. It is this combina- tion of consonants and vowels which gives us our familiar word Jehovah.* Yet it is this most sacred of all words, which Mrs. Eddy identifies with the honorary title, adon, and calls it the " appellative of man." Is not this enough? Jehovah is a False God, the Creator of Error and Evil. With the advent of the Rev. James Henry Wiggin, whose knowledge of Hebrew, for- tunately, had not " vanished," and who possessed the additional knowledge of the critical theory of the Elohistic and Jehovistic documents in Genesis, this new theory appears: Elohim, the God in the first chapter, is the true God — Spirit ; and Jehovah, * Since the word Jehovah, instead of Yahweh, is always used in Science and Health we will retain it in this study. 54 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE the God in the second chapter, is a false God, or finite, corporeal deity. Elohim, the true God, is the creator of man, who is perfect. Jehovah, the finite, corporeal deity, is the creator of Adam, error, mortal mind, from which springs matter, sin, sickness, pain, and death. The reader ought to know that in the early days of Christian Science, in the 1870 class-room manuscript, in the little pamphlet published in 1876 entitled The Science of Man, and in the early editions of Science and Health, Jehovah was in perfectly good standing as the true God — Spirit. Any number of refer- ences such as the following might be quoted in proof: Physiology, anatomy, pharmacy, theology, have no claim to compete with Jehovah, or the principle of being. In order to discredit Jehovah, she exclaims: Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite deity, that He should now be called Jehovah? [p. 524]. In another place she says : In the name Jehovah, the true idea of God seems almost lost [p. 524]. In her Glossary, under the words, Lord God. Jehovah, she says: This double term is not used in the first chapter of Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro- duced in the second and following chapters, when the NO]^-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 65 spiritual sense of God and infinity is disappearing from the recorder's thought. * * ♦ From this follow idolatry and mythology, — belief in many gods, * * * as the opposite of the one spirit, or intel- ligence, named Elohim, or God [p. 59of.]. Had Mrs. Eddy stated that double term in the original Hebrew as it occurs in the second chap- ter of Genesis, she would have been forced to write it in these tell-tale words: Jehovah-Elohim. These two names for God are always purposely joined together by the writer in the second chapter of Genesis to make impossible the contrast she tries to create, and forever to establish their mutual identity. Let us follow this contrast else- where in the Bible and see whether it is sustained. After quoting the words: " Thou shalt have no other gods before me,'' Mrs. Eddy remarks: The First Commandment is my favourite text. It demonstrates Christian Science [p. 340]. In another place she says: The first demand of this Science is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This me is Spirit [p. 467]. As a matter of information let us check up this statement in the original Hebrew and see whether this "me'* is Elohim, Spirit, or Jehovah — "the opposite of the one Spirit, * * * named Elohim, or God." In the Hebrew the words read as follows: "And Elohim spake all these words 56 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE saying, I am Jehovah, thy Elohim. * * * Thou shalt have no other gods before me " (Ex. 20 : 1-3 ) . This statement throws into strange con- fusion the contrast of Mrs. Eddy's fundamental theory. She did not scruple to question the reha- bility of Jehovah's words. But what is to be done when Elohim, the true God, says : " I am Jeho- vah " ? Can Christian Science continue to hold a theory that Elohim's words flatly deny? This question is for it to answer. Eden not a Garden, but the Human Body. Another interesting illustration of Mrs. Eddy's use of the original text is to be found in her com- ment on Genesis 2: 15, the verse already quoted; here she says: In this text Eden stands for the mortal, material body [p. 526]. Of course, in the original Hebrew Eden does not mean anything of the kind, but for the sake of argument let us substitute this new meaning in some of the verses where Eden occurs, and see how it fits. In the eighth and ninth verses of chapter 2, we read: "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. * * * And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." At first sight this would seem to have been a rather unusual procedure, for a garden planted even in the eastern end of one's body, in which " every tree NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 57 that was pleasant to the sight and good for food " springs up, might have a tendency to crowd quar- ters a trifle. But in the long run the esthetic and practical rewards of having both beauty and food so convenient might easily compensate for any re- sulting discomfort. The most serious difficulty, from the standpoint of Christian Science, arises when we read in the twenty-third verse of the third chapter: "There- fore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden " — his mortal, material body. If it ,be true that way back there in the very beginning of human history God drove Adam forth from his mortal and material body, and placed flaming Cherubim before the entrance so that he could never again return to inhabit it, then the amazing truth dawns upon us that Adam and Eve were the only mortals who ever inhabited a mortal and material body, and they only for a short period be- fore the birth of Cain. So that the rest of the sinning race of Adam cannot possibly have fallen heir to its ills. And the whole elaborate theory of Christian Science which Is built up around this theory of the mortal and material body collapses at the very beginning of human history. Another delightfully interesting specimen of non-sense Interpretation is found in her comment on Genesis 2: 13, which verse reads: "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Now 58 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE the word Gihon means, Mrs. Eddy says: " The rights of woman acknowledged, morally, civilly, and socially" (p. 587). Of course, in the orig- inal Hebrew the word Gihon does not mean any- thing of the kind. It is the name of a river. But for the sake of argument we will assume that it does, and see what this meaning produces. Im- mediately the student of political science finds him- self wondering why, away back in the very dawn of human history, it was found necessary to start this agitation for woman's rights. For at the time this agitation is first introduced by the word Gihon, woman herself has not yet been created. She does not make her appearance in this account of creation until the twenty-second verse. It does impress one as a little unnecessarily prema- ture to start a campaign for the recognition of woman's rights before she has come into exist- ence. Adam not a Man. As the theology of Science and Health is built up on the distinction between Elohim and Jehovah, so its anthropology rests upon the distinction between Adam and Man. As has previously been stated, man, whose creation is re- corded in the first chapter of Genesis, is the product of Elohim, the true God, and so is perfect and eternal. While Adam, whose creation is recorded in the second chapter of Genesis, is the product of Jehovah, the finite deity, and so is " error, a falsity; the opposite of Spirit and His creation" NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 69 (p. 579f.). This distinction is fundamental. Con- cerning it Mrs. Eddy says : Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity between God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning race of Adam [p. 345]. This distinction clears up the puzzle of the claim of Christian Science that man cannot sin, be sick or die. All ridicule of this claim results from the mistaken idea that the two words Adam and man are synonymous. It is never man, but always the sinning race of Adam, or *' poor humanity '* that sins, is sick, suffers pain, and dies. It is only by ringing the changes on this distinction between Adam and man that she can sustain any of her claims for man's immunity from the many ills to which flesh is heir. Upon this point Mrs. Eddy says: I regret that such criticism confounds man with Adam [p. 346]. Here again let us adopt Mrs. Eddy's suggestion and turn to the original Hebrew to see what war- rant it gives for regarding man and Adam as two different types of beings. There is a slight excuse for one, who, reading simply the English transla- tion of these two chapters, makes such a blunder, for the two apparently different words occur. But in the original Hebrew it is absolutely impossible to make any such distinction. For the word for 60 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE man in the first chapter and the word for Adam in the second chapter are identically the same Hebrew word — adam. In the first chapter, and in the second also, down to the nineteenth verse, this Hebrew word is translated into its English equivalent, man. In the rest of the chapter wherever this '' first man " functions as a distinct individual, the translators felt that this historic individuality ought to be brought out and pre- served, so they adopted the practice of designating this fact through the simple expedient of trans- literation. Instead of translating the word into its English equivalent, man, its letters are trans- literated into their English equivalents, A-d-a-m, and capitalized. This schem.e of the translators is solely responsible for the presence, in the Eng- lish Bible, of the two different words, man and Adam. To the scholar who reads the original Hebrew texts they do not exist. For he finds the word adam in the first chapter, the spiritual account of creation, just exactly the same as he does in the second chapter. Therefore, if, in the first chapter, man is " God's idea," then, in the second chapter, Adam is also " God's idea." And if, in the second chapter, Adam is " error, a falsity," then, in the first chapter, man is also " error, a falsity." For there is no getting away from the fact that, in the Hebrew, the word is exactly the same in each in- stance. As in the early editions. Lord and lord were NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 61 made the same words, and called honorary titles of man, so also in the early editions Adam passes through something of the same experience. For example, in the second edition (p. 146), Mrs. Eddy says: Adam is from the Latin, demens meaning " mad- ness." * * * And the word should have been written, as it was originally rendered, "A damn." The Scripture plainly declares Adam accursed. This absurd derivation revealed such palpable ignorance of both Latin and Hebrew that it did not long survive the light of day. With the arrival of Rev. James Henry Wiggin, and his knowledge of Hebrew, here also we find a new derivation for Adam. In the sixteenth and following editions we read the now familiar words: The word Adam is from the Hebrew Adamah, signifying the red colour of the ground, dust, noth- ingness [p. 338]. Had the writer been content to stop with the word " red," and not attempted to push this deriva- tion into " nothingness "—a Christian Science idea — it would stand. With this new derivation there also follows a new rendering of the word itself. We are not longer urged to write the word "A damn," but this more refined suggestion is given : Divide the name Adam into two syllables and it reads, a dam, or obstruction. * * * n^re a dam is not a mere play upon words ; It stands for obstruc- 62 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE tion, error, even the supposed separation of man from God [p. 338]. It is to be hoped that Mrs. Eddy's friends will not insist in holding her responsible for the Hebrew exegesis found in Science and Health. For who- ever worked out the contrasts between Elohim and Jehovah, and Man and Adam, withheld more knowledge of Hebrew than was disclosed ; and the knowledge withheld, if honestly revealed, would have forever put an end to the two pretty theories of Christian Science which have been floated upon the general public's ignorance of this true meaning. This brings our study of the Old Testament to a close. The Little Book of Revelation 2: i, 2, is Pro- nounced the Truth of Christian Science as Found in Science and Health. From Genesis 4:16, the Key to the Scriptures jumps to Revelation 10, then 12, then 21. This makes up the total amount of New Testament material to be found in the famous Key to the Scriptures. When we realize that her discovery is called " Christian Science," it strikes one as somewhat remarkable that the Gos- pels, The Acts, the Epistles should all be left out. Especially when we remember that " none may pick the lock," without the key of Divine Science. The truth is that even these few stray passages from Revelation had a very belated acceptance. For it is not until the issue of the now famous sixteenth edition, and the advent of Rev. James NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 63 Henry Wiggin, that their significance for Chris- tian Science begins gradually to be recognized. Let us now look at the clever attempt which is made to appropriate these passages for the benefit of Christian Science. Quoting Revelation 10 : 1, 2, in which are these words: "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, * * * and he had in his hand a little book open/* Mrs. Eddy says: This angel had in his hand " a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science? * * * Mortals, obey the heavenly evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from beginning to end. Study it, ponder it [p. 559]. The greatest objection in the way of obeying this command of Mrs. Eddy lies in the fact that this particular " little book " was not made to be read, but to be eaten. And that, not by all, but solely for the consumption of the writer of the book of Revelation. For in the ninth and tenth verses the writer says: " I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up. * * * And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up." Thus endeth the short career of this little book. If it did " contain the revelation of divine Science," then the writer of the book of Revelation was the first person who literally swallowed this kind of teaching, and his subse- 64 THE NON-SENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE quent prophecies should give some evidence of its presence. Yet one can search the remaining chap- ters of this book and never find a single hint of Mrs. Eddy's fundamental teaching. It is certain that she did not get her " revelation " from this little book; for already more than twenty editions of her ** revelation " had been pubHshed before even she discovered that it contained the revelation of divine Science. In the same manner the claim that the " woman clothed with the sun'' (Rev. 12: 1) typifies Mrs. Eddy, or the one " whom God has appointed to voice His word," falls to the ground when we read the second verse of this chapter. It reads: " She being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." Now any one at all familiar with Christian Science knows that the very first boon it promises to motherhood is pain- less child-birth. It is inconceivable, therefore, that any passage which so grossly misrepresents the truth of Christian Science as to imply that, within its realm, mothers ever have cause to cry out in child-birth, and are in pain to be delivered, can be held, even remotely, to convey the truth of Christian Science. This brings to a close the first part of our study of that revelation of Divine Science which Mrs. Eddy has informed us is " always right " and in which " there is neither place nor opportunity for error of any sort." Our faith in Mrs. Eddy*& NON-SENSE SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 65 claim to hold in her exclusive possession the real key to the Scriptures has suffered a severe wrench. For v^e now know too much about the character of the truth which this key unlocks. Not one passage of Scripture which we have studied, as interpreted by Mrs. Eddy, correctly presents the plain and natural meaning of the author's words. And what is true up to the present time will be found equally true of every passage in Science and Health. This may seem like a sweeping general- ization, but a careful and detailed study of these passages will confirm it. There is nothing in the whole history of Biblical exegesis which can quite parallel this consistent misinterpretation. The little ruse of attempting to throw the responsibility for this strange interpretation back upon the " original texts " has resulted in more clearly ex- posing her deeply plotted scheme of treachery to the very Bible she claims to honour. What Mrs. Eddy is endeavouring to gain through her oft-asserted loyalty to the Bible now becomes apparent. She is not in the least interested in teaching the truth of Scripture, but she is mightily interested in trying to make the Scripture teach the truth of Christian Science. Now, any one familiar with both Scripture and Science and Health, knows that, when correctly interpreted, Scripture can never be made to support such teaching. Mrs. Eddy realized this fact far better than any one else. It is for this reason she adopted her duplex policy 66 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE toward the Bible. At the same time that she stealthily robs Scripture of its true meaning by her confusing use of non-sense language, and inner or spiritual interpretation, she keeps asserting her loyalty to the Bible. This scheme produces two results: First, it disarms suspicion; second, it enables her to appropriate, unimpaired, the su- preme authority of the Bible as the Word of God for the exclusive support of her non-sense science. One would naturally suppose that such duplicity, so poorly concealed, would speedily be discovered and exposed. It has survived to the present time simply because the few who know Science and Health are not interested in exposing it, and those who would be interested in exposing it do not know Science and Health. As for the rank and file of sincere, but uninformed. Christian Scien- tists, if Mrs. Eddy is able to persuade them to be- lieve that the " things " of this material world are only " thoughts," she can also persuade them to believe that the Bible, like nature, does not mean what it says, but just the opposite. The principle is identical in each case. For in a non-sense world everything works by opposites, and the truth of the Bible is no exception. To establish its fundamental teaching, Chris- tian Science has been forced to change our world into a non-sense world, and our Bible into a non- sense book. What it does to our Christianity the next chapter will reveal. Ill NON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY IN a little book entitled, " No and Yes," Mrs. Eddy remarks: "The two largest words in the vocabulary of thought are ' Christian ' and ' Science.' " This observation discloses the motive which must have inspired the shrewd policy of placing this system of non-sense science under the protecting wings of these two mighty words. Having already learned the one qualifying fea- ture — non-sense — which alone justifies its asso- ciation with the word science, we will now proceed to investigate its right to the protection of the word Christian. Here also it will be necessary to prepare for just as radical a change in the nature of Christianity as has already been encountered in the character of the universe and of the Bible. For, if Christianity is to have any place in a science which turns our world into a non-sense world, and our Bible into a non-sense book, it will have to be transformed into non-sense Christianity. This profound and radical change Mrs. Eddy does not hesitate to make. Yet she introduces it with such astute and deceptive skill that the great majority of people, Christian Scientists as well as others, have no idea that this 67 68 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE change has been effected. As in her treatment of the Bible, so here, she attempts to allay all suspicion by vigorously proclaiming her steadfast allegiance to the very Christianity she is about to undermine. Her method is calculated to deceive the very elect. Artfully she scatters through her works such ex- pressions of loyalty as these: I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none [p. 269]. Christian Science is the pure evangelic truth [R. and L, p. 89]. Surely after having frequently encountered such reassuring expressions of loyalty, the unsuspecting may be pardoned for assuming, without further question, that Christian Science is sincerely and genuinely Christian. But those who know Mrs. Eddy, her use of non-sense language, and her un- varying campaign strategy, are never deceived by such tactics. They immediately scent trouble. It is not too much to say that, to those who under- stand her, these constantly recurring affirmations of loyalty are like a barrage sent over by the enemy; they serve as a timely warning that an attack is about to follow. This preliminary strat- egy, therefore, is practically disregarded in pre- paring to meet the real attack. The place upon which to concentrate our atten- tion then is, not these isolated statements, but NON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY 69 upon the fundamental and indisputable teaching of Christian Science concerning the essential ele- ments of the historic Christian faith. By adopt- ing this method Christian Science is given a fair chance to present its teaching, and the truth is destined to come out. With an air of injured innocence, Mrs. Eddy asks: "Why do those who profess to follow Christ, reject the essential religion he came to establish?" (P. 27.) If by this question she intends to imply that Christian Science is that " essential religion," we will endeavour to give a few reasons why those who follow Jesus Christ are compelled to reject Christian Science, In the progress of our study it will be noted that none of the questions involved in the dif- ferences of opinion between the older and the modern point of view are raised. This is be- cause none of these questions affect in the slightest degree the fundamental difference between historic Christianity and Christian Science. The accept- ance of neither the modem nor the conservative position reduces at any point the contrast. For, when thoroughly understood, Christian Science differs as radically from the most advanced, as from the most unyielding conservative theological and Biblical positions. For this reason all the various shades of belief which fall between these two extremes count for nothing. The God of Non-Sense Christianity, Christian 70 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Scientists are very religious. They have the name of God constantly upon their lips. Such phrases as, " God is All-in-all," " God is good," " We rely only upon God," " God is the only Healer," " God is Love," and the like, are their conversational stock in trade. Setting the example, Mrs. Eddy remarks: "Christian Science does honour God as no other theory honours Him" (p. 483). Such familiar use of the word God touches elemental religious instincts and has a tendency to establish the undoubted spiritual character of this religion in the minds of those who are easily captured by words and phrases. Those, however, who have learned to understand the non-sense language in which Science and Health is written have acquired the fixed habit of holding up every important word used, and demanding its exact meaning. In no instance is this more necessary than when Mrs. Eddy is using the word God, for '' there be gods many.** To get at the heart of this subject, it is necessary to ascertain what kind of God Christian Science has. A little diligent digging unearths this unex- pected fact: The God of Christian Science has nothing whatever in common with the God of the Bible or of historic Christianity. It does not take a theologian to detect this truth. Here Is a general proof. The religion of the Bible is theism, and Christianity is distinctly a thelstic religion. No scholar would think of denying this statement. NON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY 71 Now theism contains three essential elements, the personality of God, the personality of man, and both the possibility and reality of communion be- tween these two personalities. Christian Science categorically denies all three of these fundamental postulates of theism. It denies the personality of God, the personality of man, and all possibility o£ personal communion between its God and mortal man. Mrs. Eddy says: A personal God, a personal man, a personal devil * * * are theological mythoplasms, mere beliefs that must finally yield to the opposite science of God and man [2nd ed., p. 145]. Just what the nature of that ** opposite science of God " really is, we shall now ferret out. Under Questions and Answers, we read : Question. — What is God? Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, in- finite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Question. — Are these terms synonymous? Answer. — They are [p. 465]. The first point which impresses one in examin- ing this definition of God is, notwithstanding the large number of words included, the one word, most frequently on the lips of Jesus — Father — is not among them. The reason for this striking omission from a supposed Christian definition of God lies In the fact that the word Father is too strongly impregnated with the idea of personality. 72 THE NONSENSE OF OHEISTIAN SCIENCE ^ *rhe second and most interesting point is the per- fect circle which is described by this definition. Should any one seriously desire to obtain a clear idea of the real content of any of the words herein used, this is the circle their answers would force you to follow: What is God? God is Mind. What is Mind? Mind is Spirit. What is Spirit? Spirit is Soul. What is Soul? Soul is Principle. What is Principle? Principle is Life. What is Life? Life is Truth. What is Truth? Truth is Love. What is Love? Love is God. Of course you are supposed to get intellectually dizzy and fall off long before you get around to the last word, and this is what universally happens. But if you should be an exceptionally good rider and able to stick on to the end, you would discover that you at last arrive at the very place you started and have gotten nowhere. If you have a childish mind and enjoy the merry-go-round sensation, you are satis- fied. If you want to get somewhere in your think- ing, you are not. Just so long as Christian Science is allowed to keep these undefined terms chasing one another around, like wild horses, unbroken to control, and able to unseat most riders after a short run, things go along smoothly. For taking a try at the sport furnishes primitive intellectual diversion for some untrained minds, and gives them a few novel psy- chological thrills. The trained scholar, however, whose life business has made this work an old NON-SEJSrSE CHEISTIANITY 73 story, has no difficulty in dealing with these frac- tious terms. Notwithstanding Mrs. Eddy never intended any one of them to be captured and broken to work steadily in sense-language harness, the scholar fearlessly goes out into the group and makes the leading term his prize. This controlling word, which is the determining factor in the char- acter of the Christian Science God, and of which all the others are but synonyms, is Principle. In No and Yes Mrs. Eddy says: When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that fully conveys the ideas of God [p. 20]. Properly to understand this word Principle when used in Christian Science for God, it must always be thought of as strictly opposed to the idea of Personality. For God is not a person, God is principle. This distinction is fundamental in Christian Science theology. Mrs. Eddy brings it out in these passages : God is Mind, He is Divine Principle, not person [20th ed., p. 377]. A better understanding of God as divine Principle, Love, rather than personality * * * jg required [P- 473]. It is just possible that some one may at this point have his attention called to a few isolated passages in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy seems to refer to God as a person, and where she uses the term Father. These may at first sight tend to disprove the above. It is true that such 74 THE NON-BENSE OF CHBISTIAN SCIENCE passages can be found in Science and Health. They are very few, and are thrown in as hazards to assist in intellectually unseating any one who may have shown enough sticking power to ride her idea of God — Principle — to the dangerous point of understanding it. If any of these passages are carefully studied it will be seen that, just as soon as they have served their purpose in unseating the adventurer and properly disposing of him, they are so modified that the faithful are gently led back to the correct idea of God — Principle. We will insert a typical illustration of each case: The world believes in many persons, but if God is personal, there is but one person, because there is but one God. His personality can only be reflected, not transmitted. * * * The only proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal [p. 517]. Jesus * * * could demonstrate the Science of Love, His Father, or divine Principle [p. 30]. Having now^ learned that the Christian Science God is Principle, and not a person, the question naturally arises what Is the relationship which ex- ists between the individual and this kind of God; and in what terms are worship and devotion to express themselves? In Christianity the relation between God and man is best represented by that of father and child, or personal relation. It ex- presses itself most naturally and elementally in the act of prayer, or talking with God. In Chris- tian Science this relation and this act are impos- NON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY 76 sible, for neither Principle nor idea are conversa- tionalists. Mrs. Eddy fittingly devotes the first chapter of her text-book to the task of correcting this misunderstanding of God. Audible prayer and petition, asking God, as a person, for things, is but a waste of time and words. Particularly is this the case when prayer takes on the form of pleading with God to heal the sick. Real Chris- tian Scientists are never guilty of this inconsistent folly. This is a very important point to have clearly in mind, for it is not generally understood, even by Christian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy uses this illustration to bring it out: Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to -solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work ? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation [p. 3]. Our picture now is sufficiently complete. The God of Christian Science is Principle, not a per- son. This Principle is best likened to the principle of mathematics by which the solution of a problem IS worked out. This abstract principle, whose ** work is done," is powerless to assist us in arriv- ing at the solution, or working out our own salva- tion, for " His work is done." The Christ of Non-Sense Christianity, What- 76 THE NON-SEKSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ever foundation there may have been for a Nicene controversy concerning the respective natures of the God and the Christ of historic Christianity, no such controversy could possibly arise in Christian Science theology, for its God and its Christ are in- disputably of one and the same nature. The Christ of Christian Science, like its God, is not a person. It is a blunder of unpardonable ignorance to think that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of Christian Science. He is the Christ of historic Christianity, the second dispensation, not of Chris- tian Science, the third. Failure to understand this fundamental fact is failure to understand Chris- tian Science. Until of late, this is the v/ay Mrs. Eddy in her Glossary defined Christ: "Divine Principle, not person " (20th ed., p. 530). In the very latest edition, 1918, we find this explanation: Yearning to be understood the Master repeated, " But whom say ye that I am ? " This renewed in- quiry meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so mysterious to the popular mind? * * * With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ! " That is: The Messiah is what thou hast declared, — Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally [p. 137]. There is no excuse for misunderstanding this statement. The key to its meaning is found in the skillfully introduced shift from the word " who " to the word " what.** No meaningless tautology NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 77 leads her to introduce that second pronoun, " what," into the sentence, " Who or what is it that is able to do the work so mysterious to the popu- lar mind/' This is her deHcate way of gradually drawing the mind away from the idea of Christ as a person, to Christ as a principle. In the very next paragraph she adds : " The Messiah is what thou hast declared" (the italics are the writer's). When this indisputable fact is clearly recognized, the frequent recurrence of the word Christ — Truth — in Science and Health, and also upon the lips of Christian Scientists, takes on an entirely different character. For when Christian Scien- tists talk about Christ as our Saviour, they are not referring to Jesus of Nazareth, but to the " Truth which heals mentally ; " not to a person, but to a principle. This introduces another irreconcilable difference between Christian Science and historic Christianity. The Trinity of Non-Sense Christianity. It fol- lows now from the very nature of things that Christian Science cannot have a personal Trinity. Every time the chance presents itself Mrs. Eddy takes a whack at this doctrine. Here are two typical instances: According to false philosophy and scholastic the- olog>^ God is three persons in one [No and Yes, p. 24]. The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polytheism [p. 256]. 78 THE NON-SENBE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Christian Science therefore voluntarily separates itself from that great group of Christian churches which accept the Trinitarian faith. Yet notwith- standing this hostility to the idea of a personal Trinity, Mrs. Eddy, with her mifailing instinct for detecting elemental religious values, is not quite willing to abandon the idea of trinity. So with her inexhaustible resourcefulness she proceeds to form a trinity to suit her own system. It is com- posed as follows: This rule clearly interprets God as divine Prin- ciple, — as Life, represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love represented by the Mother [p. 568f.]. At first sight this statement would seem to pre- serve the idea of three persons in this Christian Science trinity. But when the word Father is understood to mean Principle, and the word Son, Truth, or the idea, that heals mentally, there re- mains but one unknown term in the trio — Mother. To the uninitiated this word may seem somewhat vague and mysterious. To the Christian Scien- tist it has but one clear and certain reference: The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master * * *. This immaculate idea, represented first by man and according to the Revelator, last by woman, will bap- tize with fire [p. 565]. In still another passage we read: Tke Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a NON-SEJSFSE CHEISTIANITY 79 woman clothed in light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love [p. 561]. As skillfully worked out in the idea they hope to convey as these passages are, still Mrs. Eddy is not content to let them interpret themselves. She assists their proper interpretation in various ways. In the early nineties she published an illustrated poem entitled, Christ and Christmas. One of the pictures represents Jesus sitting, while standing by His side holding His right hand is a woman closely resembling Mrs. Eddy, with a scroll in her hand upon which appears the words, Christian Science. The light which is streaming down from an open heaven, envelops them both alike, and there is to be seen a halo hovering about each head. And these words explain the picture: As in blest Palestina's hour So in our age 'Tis the same hand unfolds His Power And writes the page [ed. 1903]. Supplementing this in her autobiography, she writes : Thus it was when the moment arrived of the heart's bridal to more spiritual existence. When the door opened, I was waiting and watching; and lo! the bridegroom came! [R. and L, p. 36]. During a Christian Science fair held in Boston in 1888, when at a late hour Mrs. Eddy made her appearance, the orchestra struck up Mendelssohn's Wedding March, " to symbolize," so the Journal 80 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE explains, Mrs. Eddy's " indissoluble union with Truth." [See Milmine, Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy, p. 379.] Is it possible for us to close our eyes to the pur- port of these words; "As in blest Palestina's hour so in our age " ? And to the idea which is evolv- ing from the use of this suggestive word, ** Mother," as the third member of the Christian Science trinity ? The logical and inevitable flower- ing of the idea there budding, when it bursts full- blossomed on the thorny stem of time, will be the deification and worship of Mrs. Eddy. The rapid strides which have been made, since her death, to- ward the realization of this goal are prophetic. Much of the old practice of camouflaging this idea has been abandoned, and greater boldness is mani- fested in pressing the recognition of Mrs. Eddy's divinity. Proselyters unhesitatingly assert that she was divinely inspired, healers inform obdurate patients that they cannot expect to be healed unless they properly love Mrs. Eddy, and authorized lec- turers, whose duty it is in each lecture to bear fitting testimony to Mrs. Eddy, astutely announce that she is divine. After having taken the trouble to familiarize one's self with the easily obtainable and well authenticated facts of the life of this thrice mar- ried, once divorced, perpetually suing or being sued, avaricious, petulant, and altogether very human woman, the thought of exalting her to a KON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY 81 position above that of Jesus, and of worshiping her as divine, surpasses the outsider's comprehension. Yet this feature of Christian Science is the very- heart of its religion. Eliminate it and the Chris- tian Science Church will die to-morrow. The Holy Ghost of Non-Sense Christianity. Although, as we have seen, the stern necessity of the situation has forced non-sense Christianity to retire the Holy Ghost, as the third member of the Trinity, and substitute " Mother '' in His place, still the Holy Ghost is not entirely forgotten. Mrs. Eddy does her best to compensate Him for this loss. She forthwith changes His nature and then bestows upon Him the highest yet unoccupied position in her hierarchy. Thus it is that the Holy Ghost of the apostolic age becomes the Di- vine Science of the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies. (See Glossary, p. 588.) To prove that Divine Science is the Holy Ghost, she quotes the promise of Jesus to His disciples: " He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever," and then adds: "This Comforter I understand to be divine Science" (p. 55). From this promise she takes us to its fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost and states: His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suf- fered, they were roused to an enlarged understand- ing of divine Science. * * * jhe influx of light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming power as on the Day of Pentecost [p. 46f.]. 82 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE There can be no excuse for misunderstanding the clear teaching of Christian Science upon this point. The Holy Ghost which Jesus promised and whom the apostles received on the Day of Pentecost was nothing more nor less than " an enlarged understanding of divine Science." Fol- lowing out this idea, are we not justified in ex- pecting to find the sermon of Peter, the one dis- ciple of all others most conspicuously overwhelmed by the sudden influx of this new light, uttered un- der the immediate inspiration of this descending Spirit, to contain a clear and unsurpassed pre- sentation of the fundamental principles of Divine Science? Surely if these fundamental principles are not to be found here, either assumed, implied or expressed, where shall we hope to find them in the New Testament? Yet this very sermon of Peter may be searched from beginning to end, and Christian Science can be challenged to find in it one statement, anywhere, that bears the slightest resemblance to the teaching of its system. On the contrary, we notice the denial of every one of these fundamental principles of Christian Science is either assumed, implied or directly ex- pressed, while Peter sums up the burden of the message of his sermon in these words: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ " (Acts 2: 36). In the light of this climax, what becomes of Mrs. Eddy's elabo- KON-SENSE CHEI8TIANITY 83 rately worked out theory that the Christ is not Jesus of Nazareth, but " Truth which heals men- tally," and that Peter is the disciple to whom this particular truth was revealed ? There is one other fact which this claim of Mrs. Eddy, that divine Science is the Holy Ghost, calls to our attention. It is the striking contrast be- tween the attitude of the apostles and that of Mrs. Eddy toward the proposition of commercializing the power of the Holy Ghost. To the apostles there was no suggestion quite as abhorrent as that of making money out of dispensing the power of the Holy Ghost. This fact is impressively brought out in the incident between Peter and Simon the Sorcerer, recorded in the eighth chapter of Acts. The attitude of the apostles is well expressed in the following report of Peter's reply to Simon's pro- posal : Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he oflfered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said unto him. Thy sil- ver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. In amazing contrast to this apostolic attitude, we find Mrs. Eddy from the very beginning com- 84 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE mercializing the holy ghost of Christian Science. She always placed it upon the market as a com- mercial product and refused to dispense it unless paid for. And if the pay was not forthcoming, she did not hesitate to take the matter into court and sue for payment. Mrs. Eddy, her teachers, lecturers, publishers, healers, and readers, dispense this holy ghost — Divine Science — for money. In fact, it is a Christian Science sin to allow any per- son to get something so valuable for nothing — the one sin recognized by Christian Science. This point is well brought out by the following reply of a Christian Science healer to a prospective patient too poor to pay the required fee. Surely you do not expect to receive benefits like these for nothing. It is my experience that the most difficult cases to heal are those of people who can pay and do not want to. The eagerness to get something for nothing is a sin, and Christian Scientists would be helping to perpetuate the sin if they went to peo- ple and healed them gratuitously [Anne Harwood, Christian Science, p. 74]. Mrs. Eddy herself holds this same view. But perhaps it is hardly fair to lay all the responsibility for this novel feature of Christian Science upon Mrs. Eddy. For she has taken great pains to in- form us that God Himself, greatly against her wish, forced her to commercialize Divine Science, and instructed her as to the exact price she should charge. This interesting side light upon the char- NON-SENSE CHRISTIANITY 85 acter of the Christian Science god, is thus given in her own words : When God impelled me to set a price on my in- struction in Christian Science Mind-healing, I could think of no financial equivalent for the impartation of a knowledge of that divine power which heals; but I was led to name three hundred dollars as the price for each pupil in one course of lessons at my college — a startling sum for tuition lasting barely three weeks. This amount greatly troubled me, I shrank from asking it, but was finally led, by a strange providence, to accept this fee. God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, the wisdom of this decision ; and I beg disinterested people to ask my loyal students if they consider three hundred dollars any real equivalent for my instruction during twelve half days, or even in half as many lessons [R. and I., p. 71]. When it is realized that during seven years some four thousand students were taught by Mrs. Eddy, we begin to comprehend how highly she valued her instruction. For four thousand times three hundred is one million, two hundred thousand dol- lars ($1,200,000). And this amount was no " real equivalent " for her instruction, or for the " im- partation of a knowledge of that divine power which heals," that is, the holy ghost of Divine Science. Some years later this fact so grew upon Mrs. Eddy that she reduced the number of lessons from twelve to seven, but kept the price the same. In the Christian Science Journal for December, 1888, she explains this action thus; 86 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE As this number of lessons is of more value than twice this number in times past, no change is made in the price of tuition, three hundred dollars. Mary Baker G. Eddy [quoted by Peabody, Religio-Medical Masquerade, p, 129]. That " enlarged understanding of divine Sci- ence " — the Christian Science holy ghost — seems to have just missed Peter in its descent and fallen upon Simon the Sorcerer. For he seems to have been the only one in the apostolic age who sensed the idea which later Mrs. Eddy made the organiz- ing principle of her religion. 71ie Church of Non-Sense Christianity. A dif- ferent God, a different Christ, a different Holy Ghost, demand a different church. So we soon find Mrs. Eddy busy establishing a church to fit her new religion — a church whose edifices are erected " in loving memory of Mary Baker Eddy," whose universal and permanent pastor she has or- dained as the " Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures " (Church Manual, p. 58), a church whose text-book literature Is limited to her writings, and whose name is always Church of Christ, Scientist. The scrupulous care with which this title is always maintained is intended to indi- cate to the enlightened, that any church which is so labelled Is not a church of Jesus, the Christ, but a church of Christ, Scientist, a very different kind of church. One of the most widely advertised features of NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 87 this church is that it has no creed. In the His- torical Sketch which introduces its Church Manual this is set down as one of the main purposes for its organization. There we read: In the spring of 1879, ^ httle band of earnest seekers after Truth went into deliberations over forming a church without creeds, to be called the " Church of Christ, Scientist " [Church Manual, p. 17]. In Science and Health we find this question and answer : Question i. — Have Christian Scientists any relig- ious creed? Answer. — They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs [p. 496]. This bait seems somewhat attractive to certain types of mind, but those who do not wish to be caught had better not bite ; for this widely adver- tised " no creed " idea is simply a thinly disguised ruse to tempt those who have a constitutional prejudice against creeds. A little inside knowl- edge of the Christian Science ecclesiastical organi- zation reveals the existence of the most exacting and distinct doctrinal beliefs about God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, the world, man, sin, salvation. It also discloses the fact that Mrs. Eddy installed for safeguarding and protecting these doctrines the most complete and efficient ecclesiastical ma- chinery that exists. If this is a church without a creed and without 88 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE "doctrinal beliefs," most of those who are in search of relief at this point would find the aver- age historic denomination with a creed a much more congenial home. Let us now examine a few of these " doctrines of Christian Science." Perhaps we can do no bet- ter than to dig down, uncover, and take a look at the rock- foundation upon which this church is built. Mrs. Eddy helps us in our work of excava- tion as follows. She quotes the familiar words of Jesus, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church," and then she comments: In other words, Jesus purposed founding his so- ciety, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true Messiah. It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony [p. 138]. We are again back upon old familiar ground. The Christian Science Church is not founded upon the great truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, but rather upon Peter's confession that it was now evident to him that " Truth * * *, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick." Here again, as on the Day of Pentecost, Peter happens to be the one particular disciple who is chosen from all the rest to be favoured with the revelation of this " great fact " direct from " The Father in heaven." NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 89 Having now had vouchsafed to him these two unique manifestations of the fundamental truth of Divine Science, it is beginning to be time for Peter to show some evidence of the possession of this most important and revolutionary knowledge. It did not take Mrs. Eddy as long after the same revelation was vouchsafed to her in 1866 to show some signs of having received it. Perhaps we shall find it in the incident where he heals the lame man at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful. Surely here we find the most superb setting for a spectacular and convincing demon- stration of this truth. Notice the significant points : Peter has just healed a man lame from birth. He is called before the authorities, and asked " by what power or by what name, have ye done this ? " He is filled with the Holy Ghost, which Mrs. Eddy claims is Divine Science, so his mind cannot be clouded by the errors of material sense, and what he says must be true. With all these points in mind let us read his reply: If we this day are examined concerning a good deed done to an impotent man, by what means this man is made whole ; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him doth this man stand here before you whole. * * * And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there 90 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE other name under heaven, that is given among men, virherein we must be saved [Acts 4:9-12]. When these words are placed over against Mrs. Eddy's previous interpretations, this becomes the most amazing statement imaginable. Mrs. Eddy has just informed us " it is now^ evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a hu- man personality, was the healer of the sick." To make this meaning more unmistakable we will place by its side the statement of the same paragraph in the second edition of Science and Health; it reads: The fact that a Principle and not a person heals the sick in Science was evident to Peter [p. 64]. Yet having just healed a man, and being com- manded to tell *' by what power, or in what name," he has done it, he seems to go out of his way to identify the Christ in whose name the healing was done as Jesus of Nazareth. Is it possible to mis- understand these words : " Be it known unto you all * * * that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead '' — this would seem to be enough, but lest there should be any ground for misunder- standing, he adds — '' even in him doth this man stand before you whole." There is in this pas- sage no skillful shifting of pronouns from " him " and " who " to " what " and " it," as we found in Mrs. Eddy's interpretation. And having been NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 91 given two alternatives by the court, " by what power, or in what name," Peter deHberately chooses just the opposite alternative from the one Mrs. Eddy has informed us he has discerned as the result of a direct revelation from the Father in Heaven. He emphasizes a person, not a prin- ciple, as the one in whose name his healing was wrought. Then, not content with this, he sweeps the field clean of all rivals and competitors by announcing: "And in none other is there salva- tion: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." Is not this enough? What a sorry mess of things Peter has made as the star witness for Mrs. Eddy's non-sense interpretation of the Bible, and the Christian Science system of healing. Hav- ing been given two unparalleled opportunities to vindicate her, each time he has denied everything he should have affirmed, and affirmed everything he should have denied. The truth is, he seems to be absolutely impervious to the penetration of Christian Science revelations. This may help to account for the apparent blunder he made in deal- ing with the proposition of Simon the Sorcerer. It seems incredible that any mind still open to evidence, reason, and conviction, can be longer deceived by Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of the Bible. Some Cardinal Doctrines of Non-Sense Chris- 92 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE tianity. To round out our information for use in argument, we will hastily sketch the teaching of Christian Science upon a few of the more impor- tant Christian doctrines. The Incarnation. In its primary sense the word incarnate means to invest with flesh, or embody in human form. The simplest statement of the Christian doctrine is contained in these words: " The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us " (John 1: 14). Any one at all familiar with the fundamental teaching of Christian Science realizes instantly that these words contain the arch heresy of Christian Science. To guard against the very possibility of such an idea, Mrs. Eddy even elimi- nates the preposition " in " from non-sense language. In her Glossary she says of this word: In. A term obsolete in Science if used with refer- ence to Spirit, or Deity [p. 588]. Yet the very " in," obsolete in Christian Science, is the core of the Christian doctrine of the /w- carnation. Such ideas as, God manifest in the flesh, soul in the body, and mind in matter, are impossible in Christian Science. Upon this point it is not necessary to waste time, for it is so obvi- ous. One familiar quotation sums up the whole subject: Is Spirit, God, injected into dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter? Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature and omnipo- NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 93 tence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to become there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of God? [p. 524f.]. This question is answered in these words : Is it the truth, or is it a he concerning man and God? It must be a He [p. 524]. How then does Mrs. Eddy explain the coming of Christ, some one may ask? To her Christ is " The Messiah — the divine idea of God outside the flesh," instead of incarnate in the flesh. (See p. 482.) Such a statement speaks for itself. The Virgin Birth and Jesus. While this doc- trine has become the theological Waterloo for many budding theologues, Christian Science preens itself upon its unhesitating acceptance of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. This soimds so satis- factorily orthodox that it is often stretched to cover up a multitude of other statements which will not so satisfactorily qualify. The moment those who know Mrs. Eddy's campaign strategy find her mothering the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus they suspect that she is about to turn it to some practical use in her non-sense sci- ence. This suspicion is soon justified. The Vir- gin Birth of Jesus does not emphasize His unique- ness, but on the contrary it proves the Christian Science theory that " God is the Father of all." Introducing this idea, she says : Did God at first create one man unaided, — that is. 94 THE KON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Adam, — ^but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order to create the rest of the human fam- ily? No! God makes and governs ail [p. 53 if.]. In another place she says: Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, marriage will continue [p. 64]. It is evident that we have now come upon the hardest truth of all the strange non-sense medley for Christian Scientists to learn — " that God is the Father of all/* For marriage continues to persist with uncanny vitality in Christian Science. In fact this seems to have been one of the hardest lessons for Mrs. Eddy to learn, as her marriage record shows. The implication of these words is that as soon as this great truth has been learned, marriage will no longer be necessary, for all birth will be by immaculate conception, through mental generation. It is to bring out this important Christian Science truth that she inserts this amaz- ing passage in the closing portion of her chapter on Marriage: Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. * * * Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in propor- tion as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry or to be " given In marriage " neither closes man's continuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's infinite plan [p. 68f.]. ^1 NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 96 It is for this reason that children, born in wedlock, are defined by Mrs. Eddy as ** sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts" (p. 583). It is in order to back up this idea of mental generation that Mrs. Eddy is led to mother the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Concern- ing this she says: Those instructed in Christian Science have reached the glorious perception that God is the only author of man. The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is Joshua, or Saviour [p. 29]. It is clearly down into the moral miasma of this non-sense science theory of mental generation that Mrs. Eddy drags the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. When viewed in the light of this fact, her championing of it does not serve to rec- ommend Christian Science any more strongly. The Atonement of Non-Sense Christianity. The Atonement is such an important doctrine that Mrs. Eddy is compelled to devote a whole chapter to a desperate attempt to conceal the real status of Christian Science upon this subject. But in spite of this splendid effort the truth is out. It is all contained in this one sentence: The atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scientific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys [p. 23]. 96 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Just think that statement through, and it makes the suffering of Jesus, during His lif e, in Gethsem- ane, and upon Calvary, either unreal, or caused by His own "error of sinful sense." Taking either horn of the dilemma completely nullifies the truth underlying every existing historic theory of the Atonement. As to which of these horns Mrs. Eddy herself takes there is no doubt. She says: Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal belief, and with his stripes (the rejection of error) we are healed [p. 20. The italics are the writer's]. The Resurrection of Non-Sense Christianity. Without any death it would seem difficult to have much of a resurrection. Yet Mrs. Eddy spends much time about the tomb of Jesus. This is not because she believes that Jesus rose from the dead, but because His coming forth from the tomb is a final demonstration of the Christian Science theory that there is no death. Here is her ex- planation of this event: The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being. His three days* work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas- ter of hate. * * * jjis disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the nar- NONSENSE CHEISTIANITY 97 row tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense. * * * Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Science in his victory over death and the grave [p. 44f.]. It will be noticed that Mrs. Eddy continues her old practice. She does not hesitate to say that the disciples when they thought Jesus was dead in the tomb were wrong, while she is right in saying that He was alive. Her idea is perfectly good spirit- ism, which she repudiates in a chapter upon the subject, but it has nothing whatever to do with the belief of the historic church in the Resurrection of Jesus. This idea of the Resurrection helps to explain an otherwise very unusual by-law prohibition in the Church Manual of a so-called Christian de- nomination which is promulgating the " pure evangelic truth.'* It is found under Article XVII and reads: Easter Observances. Sect. 2. In the United States there shall be no special observances, festivi- ties, nor gifts at the Easter season by members of The Mother Church [p. 60]. The Sacraments of Non-Sense Christianity. The same presumption which has characterized Mrs. Eddy's treatment of all other sacred things continues to be in evidence when she deals with the sacraments. Baptism. Without any hesitation or compunc- 98 THE NON-SEKSB OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE tions she eliminates from the church that holds *' the pure evangelic truth " the historic rite of baptism. It happens to employ material water, and to have some reference to the idea of washing away sin, so it cannot be retained in Christian Science Church polity. To the Christian Scientist baptism is "purification by Spirit; submergence in Spirit" (p. 581). Or, as it is expressed in an- other place, " Our baptism is a purification from all error" (p. 35). The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. When we come upon her treatment of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we are furnished with an illus- tration of unparalleled audacity which fittingly caps the climax. Just because this holy sacra- ment, one of the most precious legacies of the church universal, happens to feature certain ideas which seriously conflict with Christian Science teaching, she forbids its celebration in the Chris- tian Science Church, and substitutes a communion of her own institution. In explaining this action upon her part, she informs us that the present method of celebration is all wrong. For Jesus never gave literal bread and wine to His disciples at the last supper. To believe that He did is foolish. In proof of this statement, after quoting the familiar words of institution, she says: The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is confined to the use of bread and wine. The dis- ciples had eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 99 bread. This would have been foolish in a literal sense; but in its spiritual significance, it was natural and beautiful. Jesus prayed ; he withdrew from the material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with spiritual views. * * * His followers, sor- rowful and silent, anticipating the hour of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna. * * * It was the great truth of spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error [p. 32f.]. We will now turn to the new sacrament, or com- munion service, which Mrs. Eddy institutes to take the place of the Lord's Supper. It is the breakfast which Jesus served to seven disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after His resurrec- tion. Is not this an original idea? The merits of this breakfast over the Lord's Supper are thus stated : What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom had passed into glory, and his disciples' grief into re- pentance. * * * This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists commemorate [p. 34f.]. The Lord of Non-Sense Christianity. This move of Mrs. Eddy in discarding the sacrament of the Lord*s Supper and substituting in its place a communion of her own institution, with all the tremendous consequences which naturally must 100 THE NONSENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE follow therefrom, does not seem to have pene- trated the religious consciousness of the church. What it foreshadows has not yet been sensed. Is it not the keystone completing the portal-arch of Christian Science truth, which ushers humanity into a new dispensation ? Does it not fittingly crown the finished work of the " second appearing in the flesh of Christ, Truth " ? Of course this idea has not as yet received complete expression in words, but in reality this new dispensaton has already been duly inaugurated in Christian Science, and its control is in full swing. The first dispensation was under Moses and the Law, the second under Jesus and the Gospel, the third is under Mrs. Eddy and Divine Science. As each new dispensation is inaugurated it displaces the older ceremonial forms with its more refined ones. So it is but natural that Christian Science, as it inaugurates its new dispensation, should displace the material ceremonies of the Gospel with the purely spiritual ceremonies of Divine Science. This is not all. The first two dispensations of necessity were limited and temporal; the last is destined to become permanent and universal. This idea is not the product of the writer^s prophetic imagination; it is all beautifully foretold by Mrs. Eddy for those who can read and understand. Let us pull aside the veil so that the apocalyptic vision of Christian Science may burst upon us. It is contained in the following passages: NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 101 The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master ; but " of his kingdom there shall be no end," for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples — imperatively, absolutely, finally — with divine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman, will bap- tize with fire [p. 565]. Developing this idea a little more clearly, Mrs. Eddy presents us with this interesting parallel: No person can compass or fulfill the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eter- nity. The second appearing of Jesus is unquestion- ably, the spiritual advent of the advancing idea, of God as in Christian Science [R. and I., p. 96]. We are now coming to another most important point. " This immaculate idea," or Christ, was " represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman." The man, who first represented it, was Jesus of Nazareth; and who was the woman who introduced the " advancing idea, of God as in Christian Science " ? None other than Mary Baker Eddy. Putting these two ideas together we learn that Jesus of Nazareth must be content to fulfill His own niche in time and eternity as the first appearing in the flesh of Christ, Truth. For this immaculate idea has now 102 THE NOK-SEKSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE come again, and this time it is represented by *' a woman." The world has been slow in recogniz- ing this fact because it was not expecting to have the returning Christ represented by a woman. The good tidings of this new dispensation are that the millennium has already dawned, ushered in by the second appearing of Christ, represented by Mrs. Eddy, and its full benefits and hopes will be realized when Divine Science eventually rules " all nations and peoples — imperatively, abso- lutely, finally." Quite a complete system of religion when its full theological structure is comprehended! Its skeleton has been ingeniously contrived to match that of historic Christianity. Every one of its members is labelled with the corresponding name, and its garb is minutely copied. It is not at all surprising that it is so often thought to be real Christianity. On the surface it looks so much like it. It is a shrewd imitation, but it does not contain a single one of the essential elements of the genuine article. This is not a hasty, preju- diced or unwarranted accusation. It is a conclu- sion irresistibly forced by a careful, exhaustive study of the fundamental teachings of Science and Health. This teaching, stripped of all the camouflage of non-sense language, has been placed before you. It carries its own evidence. Paul said there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all" (Eph. 4: 5-6). If NONSENSE CHEISTIANITY 103 Christian Science is to be included in the unity of that faith, this statement will have to be revised at every point. For it has a different faith, baptism, God and Father, Christ, Lord, — and Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy is its lord. If there still persists any lingering doubt as to the truth of this last assertion, it will be convinc- ingly confirmed by an intelligent study of the Christian Science Hymnal. When one is in search of the actual working theology of any sect, its hymnology must never be overlooked. Of course this hymnal is compiled with the same du- plicity and camouflaging art found in Science and Health. So that to the casual worshipper it gives the comfortable feeling of familiar religious at- mosphere. Many of the old hymns and tunes are incorporated in it. But the kind of hymns that have been selected are worth noting. Hymns on general religious themes, hymns that carry the name, Lord, Christ, Saviour, Master, — ^without the identifying name of Jesus — are given a place. For by proper men- tal reservations these can be interpreted to refer to their Lord, Christ, Saviour, Master. This is also true of hymns to God and the Holy Spirit. The list of approved hymns stops here. More significant than those which are selected, is the impressive list of those rejected. No hymns which give expression to the Messiahship of Je- sus, or which attach the name Christ to that of 104 THE NON-SEKSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Jesus, are admitted. In the same way no hymns which give expression to His Lordship or Deity are approved. Some of these great hymns are so singable and inspiring that Mrs. Eddy cannot make up her mind to do without them. So she does with them as she does with everything else, she takes the liberty of making them over to suit her purpose. By the simple trick of dropping out the name of Jesus and substituting for it some indefinite, gen- eral word, like God or Lord, she can use the whole hymn. Here are a couple of examples of the way this is done. Take Cowper's old hymn: Jesus, wherever Thy people meet. There they behold Thy mercy-seat, etc. Mrs. Eddy changes this to read: O Lord ! where'er Thy people meet. There they behold Thy mercy-seat, etc. (see No. 25). In the same way she takes Isaac Watts* famous hymn: Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run, etc. This she changes to read : Our God shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run, etc. (see No. 202). These changes are very slight, but why does Mrs. NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITY 106 Eddy make them? Why is the name of Jesus deliberately eliminated? There is only one rea- son. These hymns give expression to His Lord- ship and Deity, and this she will not sanction. Whether she believes in it or not, she has no right to ask permission of publishers to use these hymns and then, after having been graciously granted this, arbitrarily make alterations in their meaning and message until they deny the very faith which they were written to express. Yet this she does without even a note of explanation. Of course, the average person is so unobserving that the change makes no impression. But how any one can fail to notice the way other hymns are altered is more than we can un- derstand. Take Toplady's famous hymn, Rock of Ages. It is thus garbled: Rock of Ages, Truth Divine, Be Thy strength forever mine; Let me rest secure on Thee Safe above life's raging sea, (see No. i88). The "Divine Truth" of which it sings is the truth of Mrs. Eddy's non-sense science. This single verse shows very clearly that she Is borrow- ing the prestige of this great hymn and making it express a very different faith from the original. We wonder what Toplady would say if he could rise from his grave and see the kind of theology to which he is being made a party. 106 THE NONSENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE ''Abide With Me " is thus parodied: Abide with me! Fast breaks the morning Light, Our day-star rises, banishing all night; Thou art our strength, oh. Truth that maketh free! We would unfailingly abide in Thee. (See No. 185). It is not necessary to multiply illustrations of this conscienceless mutilation of noble hymns whose history entitles them to better treatment. But as in every other department of its literature, so in its hymnology, Christian Science thought is sterile. Error always lacks the divine spark of the creative genius which truth inspires. This is why from beginning to end it is forced to borrow and parody. It borrows and parodies the great words of the Christian religion, God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Lord, Saviour, Bible, Divine, Christian. It borrows and parodies every passage of Scripture it uses. It borrows and parodies the Twenty-third Psalm, and the Lord's Prayer. And as we shall soon see it borrows and parodies every idea to be found in its text-book Science and Health. So also it has to borrow and parody the great hymns of the Church in order to get a hymnology. But even after it has gone the limit along this line its hymnology is pitifully poverty stricken. The necessity of its non-sense Christianity has forced it to eliminate all hymns touching upon the Messianic mission of Jesus, His Lordship and Deity, ^ all those commemorating His Passion, NON-SENSE CHEISTIANITT 107 Crucifixion, Atonement, Birth, and Resurrection. This leaves pretty poor picking. To make a re- spectable hymnal out of what is left, hymns and tunes are printed in large type and then stretched to cover all the space possible. For extra pad- ding many hymns are inserted twice to different tunes. Mrs. Eddy has written five of these hymns. Their poetry and ideas are in keeping with her usual productions. To be sure they are not neg- lected, an official decree requires that they be sung every so often. Two of these are twice inserted, and one of them is found in three different places in the book. Each time set to a different tune. Having denied her followers the joy of singing the great Christmas anthems of the Church be- cause they do not jibe with her non-sense Christi- anity, she condescendingly writes a substitute Christmas hymn for their benefit. We will give a couple of sample verses: Dear Christ, forever here and near, No cradle song — No natal hour and mother's tear — To thee belong. Thou God-Idea, Life encrowned, The Bethlehem babe Beloved, replete, by flesh embound Was but thy shade. (See No. i86). No further study of this hymnal is necessary. 108 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAJ!^ SCIENCE It was not compiled by chance. Through its sys- tematic, consistent selection and rejection of great hymns from the hymnology of the historic Chris- tian Church it proves beyond cavil that Christian Science has a different faith, baptism, God and Father, Christ, and Lord. Let us be clearly understood. No one questions Mrs. Eddy's right to organize any kind of a relig- ious cult she may choose. This is a land of re- ligious liberty. But v^hen once she has freely exercised this right and formed a religion, every fundamental principle of which is in direct and irreconcilable conflict with the essential teaching of historic Christianity, she has no right to try to palm it off as the essential Christianity which Je- sus preached, practiced, and left us as our rich legacy. This is the point at which our protest is lodged. The ultimate consequences involved in the supplanting in the minds of many people of the historic Christian faith by such a non-sense Christianity are too serious to be disregarded. Jesus' warning to His disciples as He was about to leave them is most pertinent: If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders : insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before [Matt. 24: 23-24]. IV NON-SENSE HEALING WHEN the subject of healing is reached the main problem of Christian Science is confronted. All that precedes and all that follows center here. For Christian Science is essentially a system of healing. It was born out of Mrs. Eddy's search for health and her visits to Mr. P. P. Quimby. And its present life and growth can be traced to this same feature of the movement. The great majority of its con- verts are won by its confident and sweeping prom- ises of cures. So that Christian Science can never be successfully combated until this branch of the subject is thoroughly understood and ap- praised. At this juncture we are not going to discuss the question as to whether Christian Science actually does heal the sick. This is simply a question of fact, and must in each specific case be proved by evidence; and this evidence must be supported by those who know enough about disease to decide whether the patient originally had the disease of which the cure is predicated, and whether the con- dition after the alleged cure justifies this claim. Of course it is self-evident that Christian Scien- 109 110 THE NON-SENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE tists, by virtue of their fundamental opposition to all knowledge of physiology, disease, and diagno- sis, are voluntarily disqualified from furnishing any evidence upon these two most important points and their testimony is of necessity utterly worthless. The phase of the subject which directly con- cerns us is Mrs. Eddy's claim that her particular system of healing should be adopted, because it is divine and heals as Jesus did. If this is true it certainly does merit the support of all Christians. Over and over again, in Science and Health, she presses this point. It is well presented in this passage: There are various methods of treating disease, which are not included in the commonly accepted systems ; but there is only one which should be pre- sented to the whole world, and that is the Christian Science which Jesus preached and practiced and left us as his rich legacy [p. 344]. Is this non-sense system of healing the method of treating disease " which Jesus preached and practiced and left us as his rich legacy '' ? Upon the answer to this question hangs Mrs. Eddy's only remaining excuse for calling it " Christian." Before we can arrive at the correct answer to this important question it will be necessary to separate the two distinct features of this system of healing, the religious and the medical, so that each receives proper consideration. By a pretty bit of strategy KOK-SENSE HEALIKG 111 Mrs. Eddy plays these two over against each other in such a clever way that each gains a certain amount of immunity from criticism which it would not otherwise enjoy. It is done this way. When the subject of healing is under discussion its religious and spiritual character is particularly stressed, so that the physician who starts to handle the subject soon finds himself tangled up in the unfamiliar problems of theology. And when the theologian begins to discuss its Christianity, he finds himself drawn off into the unfamiliar field of medical science. This shrewd scheme of de- coying the specialists away from their own fields has protected the whole subject from competent investigation, and the exposure which would in- evitably follow. The Historic Church Healing the Sick, Let us return again to Mrs. Eddy's challenge to the his- toric church. This is pressed even more insist- ently in this charge: The Christian opponents of Christian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their Master's religion can heal the sick [p. 354]. This particular challenge historic Christianity IS pleased to accept. For healing the sick is a clear-cut proposition, and Christianity is not ashamed of its long ministry of healing. To the inspiration of its religious faith humanity owes its revolutionized attitude toward the sick and the 112 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTI AN SCIENCE suffering, so that now even the dumb animals re- ceive consideration and help which, when Jesus came, was denied to human beings. The intro- duction of the little word " can " for the word " does '' is the principal cause of most of the con- fusion in our thinking, which Mrs. Eddy intro- duces at this point. It is not a question of " can " but of " does." Christian Science is strong in talking about what it " can " do along the line of healing the sick. The historic church has been content quietly to carry on its great ministry of healing. That the sick have been healed all down through the Christian centuries in increasing num- bers no one can deny. The precise method by which this healing has been wrought is another question. Surely Mrs. Eddy would not have us believe that anywhere Jesus specifically com- manded His disciples to adopt the Christian Science method of healing. If any specific method is mentioned in the Gospels it is that of " laying on of hands," and using oil as medicine, and this particular method is diametrically opposed to Christian Science principles. It is most signifi- cant that when Mark reports the results of the mission upon which Jesus sent His newly chosen apostles he says: And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them [Mark 6: 12-13]. NON-SENSE HEALING 113 But it is the fact of healing, not the method, which Mrs. Eddy now challenges. No one can deny that since the time of Jesus Christ the science of healing has experienced its most marvellous development. That this devel- opment has been fostered and advanced through the agency of the historic Christian Church is clearly evident. All the advantages which the non-Christian world has come to enjoy along this line it owes to Christian missions. And all of the hospitals and humanitarian agencies at work in society to-day were bom of the church. The record of healing which belongs to the his- toric church in the twentieth century, when com- pared with that of the first Christian century, or any other preceding century, stands without an equal. Greater things have been done than were dreamed possible. The simple record of healing accomplished exclusively through the agencies of the historic church to-day, when placed side by side with the much advertised achievements of Christian Science healing, leave the world wonder- ing why this cult ever had the temerity to raise this issue. When it comes to giving proofs of ability to heal, the historic church is prepared to enter its method of healing, in any department of pathol- ogy, from chronic to acute diseases, and in sur- gery, in open competition with that of Christian Science, at any time and any place, and thus dem- 114 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE onstrate which of the two is best able to cope with disease. This challenge, which was made to Mrs. Eddy long years ago, has never been accepted by any generation of Christian Science practitioners. Until it is willing to meet in open competition, under fair test conditions, this challenge, it is in no position to accuse the historic church of giving or offering no proofs of its ability to heal. Its " proofs " are on call any minute. The time has come when this fact should be made plain to the public. Medical Science Healing the Sick, But the ac- cusations which Mrs. Eddy brings against the historic Christian Church are nothing compared with those which she directs against medical science. Not content to claim that her system is superior to all others, simply because it is divine, not human, and for that reason, independently of the results it is able to achieve, it ought to be adopted, she turns upon medical science with the charge that it is the greatest of all causes of sick- ness. This is the stock indictment against medical science brought by all spiritual systems of healing. Mrs. Eddy makes this charge over and over again in the pages of Science and Health. In one place she says: Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health has not checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, since man-made material theories took the place of spiritual truth [p. 165]. NON-SENSE HEALING 116 The chapter on Physiology, in Science and Health, opens with these words: Physiology is one of the apples from " the tree of knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit would open man's eyes and make him as a god. In- stead of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man's God-given dominion over the earth [p. 165]. In the third edition of Science and Health we are favoured with this choice observation: It is understood that the heathen nations are more exempt from contagion than Christian nations. Our missionaries introduce measles, smallpox, etc., to the heathen, but do they show them either by precept or example the Power of God, Truth, to prevent and destroy disease ? But the poor heathen, ignorant of what is termed hygienic laws, is healthier than the devotees of his supposed laws. What shall we think of " a law more honoured in the breach than in the observance " [vol. i, p. 250] ? We will pass over this point for a moment and look at the charge which she lays at the door of our missionaries. If every one were as ignorant as Mrs. Eddy of the health conditions which exist among the heathen before the arrival of mission- aries, her argument might run some chance of being accepted, but any one who is informed upon this subject will not be misled into believing that there is the slightest truth in her statement. The writer's brother happened to be the first medical missionary to Arabia, and the first white visitor 116 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE to the Behrein Islands. And he states that, upon his first appearance in this heathen land, he found smallpox, tuberculosis, lupus, and other forms of epidemic disease raging much more destructively among these people than he had ever seen them among Christian nations. Instead of individuals, whole villages were repeatedly swept out of ex- istence by a great epidemic. And the history of these particular diseases traces them all back from the more enlightened portions of the world into which they have come, to their sources in these heathen countries. Nor can we let her second accusation against medical science pass unchallenged. For, unless we have the truth in hand, we will get nowhere. This second charge is well summed up in these words : Sickness has been combated for centuries by doc- tors using material remedies ; but the question arises, Is there less sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous " No " is the response deducible from two connate facts, — the reputed longevity of the An- tediluvians, and the rapid multiplication and in- ceased violence of diseases since the flood [p. viii]. We will allow the antediluvians to rest in peace; they have already suffered enough at the hands of posterity. It Is not necessary to go back that far to prove that this statement by Mrs. Eddy is de- liberately so worded that it misrepresents the ac- tual facts in the case. There is only one way to NON-SENSE HEALING 117 get at the truth underlying this misrepresentation, and that is to put her question in the correct form to bring it out. Have the diseases upon which medical science has concentrated its study and work increased or diminished in their spread in human society as its knowledge of their origin, cause and cure has become known? In other words, has knowledge of specific diseases in- creased or retarded their development? This is the important point, for the fundamental conten- tion of Christian Science is that knowledge of dis- ease is the chief cause of its spread. When the question is put in this form one im- mediately begins to think of the various diseases whose destructive ravages have at last been checked. There is smallpox, which in Dickens' time scarred almost every other face, and to-day the malignant form of this disease has been so brought under control that one rarely ever sees a face pitted by it. One thinks of typhoid fever, which during the Spanish-American war killed more of our soldiers than bullets. Since that day medical science has so brought it under control by serum treatment that during the Mexican trouble it was a negligible factor, and when two million of our boys were sent over to France, where in that war-swept land polluted water and the most dangerous unsanitary conditions confronted them, not a single serious epidemic occurred. The prophylactic measures. 118 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE the careful sanitary safeguards thrown about the camps, the chemically purified water, the careful inspection of meat, and a thousand other precau- tions which medical science enabled those in com- mand to establish, saved thousands of lives, and proved beyond peradventure the effectiveness of these measures. One thinks of the ravages which tetanus would naturally have wrought with poisoned bullets and shrapnel wounds. The writer was with the am- bulance section of the Rainbow Division and watched the faithfulness with which every wounded man who came to the dressing stations was immediately injected with "A. T. S./* and so saved from that terrible disease. That record alone is a modern miracle. One thinks of yellow fever. When the Panama canal was first started the work upon it had to be temporarily abandoned, for Americans could not live under the extremely unsanitary conditions which then existed there. Now expert sanitary engineers have transformed it into an ideal spot so far as its sanitary conditions are concerned. And yellow fever has not only been driven from that locality, but the commission appointed to dis- cover Its cause has pursued It relentlessly until not only has the guilty stegomyia mosquito which transmits the Infection been discovered, but it has been driven from stronghold to stronghold until the very last pest spot in South America, where it NON-SENSE HEALING 119 was endemic, has been unearthed and cleaned up. So that within the last year the late Major-Gen- eral William C. Gorgas reported that he believed the last trace of the disease had been eradicated, and the yellow fever menace brought to a definite end. Surely such achievements cannot be ignored or denied. These are but a few samples from a long list of diseases which advancing medical science is rapidly banishing from civilized society. They must have escaped the notice of Mrs. Eddy. What humanity owes to-day to this increasing medical knowledge and skill, to proper sewerage, protected water supplies, clean milk dairies, and the thousand and one other safeguards which it has built around the health of our daily life will never be fully known. In the sense world in which we live the average of human life has been lengthened more than fif- teen years, and the world has been steadily grow- ing more healthful. Christian civilization under the control of medical science is ready to have its standard of health compared with any nation where medical science is unknown and the In- habitants have been protected from the ravages of its disastrous knowledge. Here again Christian Science is unable to produce the least evidence in support of Mrs. Eddy's fundamental statement. All of these facts must be kept clearly in mind as this study begins. For from the beginning to 120 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE the end of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy is forever endeavouring to obscure them by half- truths. We are now prepared to take up the previous question raised by the claim that Christian Science heals as Jesus did. The only way to obtain cor- rect information upon this point is to get clearly in mind both the Christian Science method of healing the sick and Jesus* method; then place these two side by side and see how they tally. There are two other systems of healing, quite different from each other, both of which are be- ing perpetually confused with Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy was just as anxious as we are to keep her system distinct from them. But still the mis- tmderstanding persists. It is not Faith Cure, Because it piously uses the words of religion, and talks about " God the only healer," and speaks of relying only upon Him for help instead of upon drugs, many are deluded into imagining that it is akin to ancient faith cure. But any such idea is decidedly wrong. For faith cure depends upon the exercise of mortal mind and mortal faith, and both of these are human agents whose help cannot avail. In faith cure one prays in definite petition to God for healing, and if one's faith is strong enough the healing is held to come in answer to prayer. But in Chris- tian Science petition in prayer to a personal God is not allowed, and it cannot possibly avail if in- NON-SENSE HEALING 121 dulged. Upon this point Mrs. Eddy leaves no chance for doubt. She says: " The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more pow- erfully on the body through a blind faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out another — a belief in the unknown casting out a belief in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through Wind belief. * * * Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its power from human faith and belief. * * ♦ The common custom of praying for the recovery of the sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come from the enlightened un- derstanding. * * * Does Deity interpose in be- half of one worshipper, and not help another who offers the same measure of prayer? If the sick re- cover because they pray or are prayed for audibly, only petitioners {per se or by proxy) should get well [p. 12]. This whole subject of praying for the recovery of the sick is summed up in this unmistakable passage: Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Prin-- ciple of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of 122 THE NON-SENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation [p. 3]. From the above passages it is clearly evident that Mrs. Eddy does not believe that " the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord will raise him up." For both prayer and faith are products of mortal mind, and *' affect the sick like a drug." " This, however, is one belief casting out another. * * * It is neither Science nor Truth." It would be hard to get a statement plainer than that. Yet many Christian Scientists do not seem to understand this point. It is not Mind Cure, Christian Science has a great variety of appeals. It deceives the pious into thinking that it is akin to faith cure, and then swings clear over to the other extreme and equally well deceives the practical rationalists into believ- ing that it is some sensible kind of mind cure. It is often remarked: "Well, I agree with Christian Science to the extent that the mind has a great in- fluence upon the body." The truth is that any one who makes such a remark does not agree with Christian Science at all. For mind, your mind, the human mind, is mortal mind, and one of the most dangerous of all healing agents. Again and again Mrs. Eddy tries to make this fact clear, but the general public do not seem to be able to grasp it. She says: Many imagine that the phenomena of physical NON-SENSE HEALING 123 healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the action of the human mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease. On the contrary, Christian Science rationally explains that all other pathological methods are the fruits of human faith in matter, — faith in the workings, not of Spirit, but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science [p. xi]. Again she says: Any attempt to heal mortals with erring mortal mind, instead of resting on the omnipotence of the divine Mind, must prove abortive. Committing the bare process of mental healing to frail mortals, un- taught and unrestrained by Christian Science, is like putting a sharp knife into the hands of a blind man or a raging maniac, and turning him loose in the crowded streets of a city [p. 459]. Another most explicit statement is the following: ^ The first edition of Science and Health was pub- lished in 1875. Various books on mental healing have since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory and filled with plagiarisms from Science and Health. They regard the human mind as a healing agent, whereas this mind is not a factor in the Prin- ciple of Christian Science [p. x]. We do not know how Mrs. Eddy could put that point any plainer than to say that the systems of healing which " regard the human mind as a heal- ing agent " are incorrect in theory. " This mind is not a factor in the Principle of Christian Science.'* Yet many Christian Scientists, and the 124 THE NON-SElirSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE public in general, speak of Christian Science heal- ing as though it were a system of healing which made intelligent and practical use of the influence of the mind upon the body. Mrs. Eddy herself tells us that, of the two, medical science is to be preferred before mind cure. Attempting to cure disease by the use of the human mind is not only as dangerous as placing a sharp knife in the hands of a raving maniac and turning him loose in the crowded streets of a city, it is positively wicked to indulge in such a practice. This remarkable ar- raignment of mind cure she gives in this passage: The distance from ordinary medical practice to Christian Science is full many a league in the line of light ; but to go in healing from the use of inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will-power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against the current running heavenward [p. io5f.]. It has been necessary to correct the general im- pression concerning the relation of Christian Science to faith cure and mind cure, for there exists an amazing amount of misunderstanding at these points. Neither human faith nor the human mind are factors in the principle of Christian Science healing. There are systems of healing in which each of these factors play important parts, but Christian Science does not recogrnize them. Is NON-SENSE HEALING 126 it not a strange thing that, notwithstanding this fact, people will persist in giving Christian Science credit for a belief which it repudiates, and will condemn orthodox medical science because it does not make more use of an idea which it has been sympathetically employing these many years? It has Nothing hi Common with Orthodox Medical Science, The same hostility which is held against faith cure and mind cure is main- tained against every department of orthodox med- ical science. As Mrs. Eddy has already in- formed us: Christian Science rationally explains that all other pathological methods are the fruits of human faith in matter, — faith in the workings, not of Spirit, but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science. To be sure that there may be no failure to ap- preciate how thoroughgoing this demand is, Mrs. Eddy takes up one by one the cherished depart- ments of medical science and specifically condemns each one as hostile to Christian Science. Physiology. We have already seen how physi- ology has been described as the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, of which we eat upon pain of death. In another place we have this accusa- tion: Treatises on anatomy, physiology, and health, sus- tained by what is termed material law, are the pro- moters of sickness and disease [p. 179]. 126 THE NON-SENSE OP CHKISTIAN SCIENCE Hygiene, The companion of physiology is hy- giene. Of this Mrs. Eddy says: The less we know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed to sickness [p. 389]. In another place she remarks: The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish out of water every day and covering it with dirt in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its own element. * * * Water is not the natural habitat of humanity [p. 413]. We will conclude this subject with this final summing up: A Christian Scientist never recommends material hygiene [p. 453]. Laws of Health. From what we have already learned concerning physiology and hygiene it naturally follows that laws of health fall under the same ban. The recklessness with which Mrs. Eddy advises people to disregard all the laws of health makes one wonder just what would be the consequences if Christian Scientists took her ad- vice seriously. We believe one of the most complete statements upon this point is found in an allegory which Mrs. Eddy has placed at the close of the chapter on Christian Science Prac- tice. It represents a man brought into the court of Health, charged with having committed liver complaint. We have space to give but a few m NON-SENSE HEALING 127 quotations. The Christian Science verdict runs as follows: If liver complaint was committed by trampling on Laws of Health, this was a good deed, for the agent of those laws is an outlaw, a destroyer of Mortal Man's liberty and rights. Laws of Health should be sentenced to die [p. 435]. According to our statute, Material Law is a liar who cannot bear witness against Mortal Man. * * * Our law refuses to recognize Man as sick and dying. * * * We further recommend that Materia Medica adopt Christian Science, and that Health-laws, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Oriental Witchcraft, and Esoteric Magic be publicly executed at the hands of our sheriff, Progress. * * * The plaintiff. Personal Sense, is recorded in our Book of Books as a liar. Our great teacher of mental juris- prudence speaks of him also as a ** murderer from the beginning." We have no trials for sickness be- fore the tribunal of divine Spirit. Man is adjudged innocent of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such laws [p. 441 f.]. Sanitation. Just one quotation will give the trend of Mrs. Eddy's consistent attitude toward the great defender of public health — sanitation. She says: When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is given to sanitary subjects, there will be better constitutions and less disease [p. 175]. Diagnosis. The attempt to ascertain, by knowledge of physiology and the symptoms mani- fested, the nature and cause of disease is heartily 128 THE NON-SENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE discouraged by Mrs. Eddy, because such a prac- tice, instead of facilitating the cure, tends to in- duce disease. Of this scientific procedure she says: A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease * * * The opposition to diagnosis is here so clearly ex- pressed that it is not necessary to spend more time upon it. Drugs and Almighty God. Christian Science derives one of its strongest arguments for the re- ligious and spiritual character of its healing from its rejection of drugs. Mrs. Eddy loses no op- portunity to turn this move to religious account. She is constantly emphasizing this point. She says: The schools have rendered faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity [p. 146]. In another place she puts the idea in these v^rords: If you do believe in God, why do you substitute drugs for the Almighty's power [p. 218] ? This appeal reaches down to the elemental re- ligious instincts and, to some, becomes quite im- pressive. But its effectiveness is wholly derived from the illegitimate practice of arraying God and drugs in a position of false opposition. For God and drugs do not become competitors or rivals until you have first accepted Mrs. Eddy's non- NON-SENSE HEALING 129 sense science theory that Spirit cannot and does not work through or with matter. Mrs. Eddy- never ventures to attack the use of drugs from an empirical standpoint. She always approaches this subject from the theoretical angle, that God can- not work through drugs because they are material. This categorical limitation of the power of God is imposed by the necessities of non-sense science. For, if it is for one moment conceded that Spirit can and does work through and with matter, God and drugs no longer continue to be rivals, but allies, for God can work through drugs to heal the sick. Studying Disease in the Non-Sense Science School. You ask: What is the nature and cause of disease? Mrs. Eddy boils it all down into this one sentence: A false belief is both * * * the disease and its cause [p. 393]. Let us take a couple of concrete cases and see how this false belief does the deed. Here is the whole story in a nutshell: You say you have not slept well or have overeaten. You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and be- lieving it, you will suffer in proportion to your belief and fear. Your sufferings are not the penalty for having broken a law of matter, for it is a law of mortal mind you have disobeyed [p. 385]. Let us get a little more light upon this subject of 130 THE NON-SENSE OF CHBISTIAN SCIENCE indigestion. For Mrs. Eddy deals with it quite thoroughly. We read in another place: If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, had tried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have been routed by their independence and industry [p. 175]. This point is carried one step further in this passage: We are told that the simple food our forefathers ate helped to make them healthy, but that is a mis- take. Their diet would not cure dyspepsia at this period. With rules of health in the head and the most digestible food in the stomach there would still be dyspeptics [p. 197]. There is no excuse for not understanding the philosophy of non-sense healing when the cause of disease is made so plain. Not indigestible food in the stomach, but rules of health in the head, are the cause of indigestion. How then shall it be cured? Mrs. Eddy says: In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at all, and eat what is set before you, " asking no question for conscience sake." We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in matter [p. 222f.]. It IS very apparent that from the standpoint of non-sense healing the important thing is to keep the " rules of health " out of the head, and then anything can be put into the stomach, and any m. NON-SENSE HEALING 131 amount. Mrs. Eddy goes to the very root of this whole problem of dyspepsia when she says: Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction — that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a de- ficiency or an excess, a quality or quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material health-theories [p. 388]. Mrs. Eddy is correct in making this point. There- fore non-sense science is forced to take the oppo- site position, which is done without the least hesi- tation. So Mrs. Eddy says: The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man [p. 388]. So that when Christian Science finally comes into its own, not only will marriage become unneces- sary, as we have seen, but also: In that perfect day of understanding, we shall neither eat to live, nor live to eat [p. 388]. Thirst. Like hunger, thirst also is the creature of thought. Concerning this Mrs. Eddy says: You say or think, because you have partaken of salt fish, that you must be thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly, while the opposite belief would produce the opposite result [p. 385]. In the sense world where one notes the series of chemical changes which salt produces in the mouth and its secretions, thus creating the sensa- 132 THE NON-SENSE OP-CHRISTIAK SCIENCE tion called thirst, it appears a happy coincidence that the human mind, when it arbitrarily chose to invest some chemical compound with the power to create thirst, hit upon salt rather than water. But if " the opposite belief would produce the opposite result,'* we wonder why a group of Christian Scientists do not go off somewhere by themselves and by a conspiracy of belief against this combination of salt and thirst demonstrate the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement by investing water with the power to create thirst and salt with the power to quench it. But as simple of demon- stration as Mrs. Eddy's statements are, her fol- lowers never seem to be ready to prove them true. Contagion. We have already given some study to epidemic diseases, and have shown what ortho- dox medical science regards as their cause and cure. The non-sense science idea is very differ- ent. It holds that thought alone is the cause of all contagion. Upon this point Mrs. Eddy says: We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection. When this mental contagion is understood, we shall be more careful of our men- tal conditions, and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime [p. 153]. Those who live in a sense world find it some* what difficult to accept this explanation, for dirt NON-SENSE HEALING 133 and germs, when removed, have wrought such wonderful miracles in eliminating so many con- tagious diseases. But granting that we do weep, yawn, and have smallpox because others do so, what puzzles us is this: Who first started this endless cycle of weeps and yawns and smallpox? What made the first man weep, yawn or have smallpox? But this is sense again trying to in- trude with its demands into a non-sense world. The Therapeutic of Non-Sense Science. Hav- ing now familiarized ourselves with the general outlines of the nature and cause of all disease, we are prepared to study the authoritative and cor- rect method of healing. Non-sense science is per- fectly consistent at this point. Since a " false belief is both the disease and its cause," the way to effect a cure is simply to get rid of the " false belief." Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: The efficient remedy is to destroy the patient's false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being — represent- ing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick [p. 376]. This one passage gives us the whole secret of non- sense healing. It would be hard to improve upon it. Let us take three concrete cases, and see how it works. As to boils and fevers: You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil 134 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE simply manifests, through inflammation and swell- ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high at- tenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil [p. 153]. Fevers are errors of various types. The quick- ened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the body by a mortal mind [p. 379]. Now for the remedy: Chills and heat are often the form in which fever manifests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and fever disappear [p. 375]. As to a sprain: If you sprain the muscle or wound the flesh, your remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the flesh shall be discoloured, painful, swollen, and in- flamed [p. 385]. To guard against the possibility of any misun- derstanding upon this important point, we will now allow Mrs. Eddy to give us a practical illus- tration of the exact procedure of the Christian Science method of treating disease. We will take the two well-known diseases, consumption and in- sanity. Here are her specific directions: If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take up the leading points included (according to be- lief) in this disease. Show that it Is not Inherited; that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and de- composition are beliefs, images of mortal thought superimposed upon the body; that they are not the NON-SENSE HEALING 135' truth of man; that they should be treated as error* and put out of thought. Then these ills will disap- pear [p. 425]. This method of treating tuberculosis is cer- tainly much simpler, quicker, and less expensive than the present fresh air, diet, and rest cure of orthodox medical science. The writer has for many years watched this treatment applied to tu- berculosis patients, and has discovered that it is more difficult to convince the obstinate mind of the patient of these errors of belief than to cure the patient of tuberculosis. For in every case which he has particularly watched, the patient, though pronounced cured by the Christian Science healer, has always, within a short time, died of the disease. Concerning insanity Mrs. Eddy says: The treatment of insanity is especially interesting. However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than do most diseases to the salutary action of truth, which counteracts error. The arguments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in other diseases : namely, the impossibility that matter, brain, can con- trol or derange mind, can suffer or cause suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is called dementia, hatred, or any other discord [p. 414]. This modus operandi is clear enough. The great trouble is, that in a sense world the experi- 136 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE ^nce of arguing with the insane does not produce very satisfactory results. The insane patient does not seem to take to sense reasoning. Per- chance this is the very reason why the most obsti- nate cases yield so readily to the arguments of non-sense science. They have this advantage in their favour, there exists such a natural affinity between non-sense and insane that they immedi- ately find themselves en rapport, and a valuable point of contact is thus established. The Less Mind the Less Disease. Every ad- vancing stage in our progress is bringing us nearer and nearer to the dangerous borderland of a non-sense world. From dementia to amentia is but a short distance. From the one to the other Mrs. Eddy now tries to lead us. The logic of this transition is irresistible. If mortal mind is the cause of disease, then naturally it follows that the less mind there is the less disease. If mortal mind could only be eliminated the world would then be a non-sense world and there would be no disease in it. This inevitable logic of her theory Mrs. Eddy frankly faces and accepts. She says: It is the general belief that the lower animals are less sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form. This would indicate that there is less disease in proportion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind [p. 554f.]. NON-SENSE HEALING 137 Next, we will give three typical illustrations of the way in which Mrs. Eddy develops this point. Concerning the snowbird and catarrh Mrs. Eddy says: Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even nature declares. * * * The snowbird sings and soars amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and procures a summer residence with more ease than a nabob. The atmosphere of earth, kinder than the atmosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter. Colds, coughs, and contagion are en- gendered solely by human theories [p. 220]. With respect to the horse and epizootic: You can educate a healthy horse so far in physiol- ogy that he will take cold without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his instincts, sniffs the wind wdth delight. The epizootic is a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might never have [p. 179]. One cannot help wondering how Mrs. Eddy knows so much about the health of wild horses. Naturalists tell us that the law of the survival of the fittest explains why the surviving wild horses " sniff the wind with delight." They also tell us that the bones of the weak bestrew their native haunts. From what is here said we fear Mrs. Eddy's knowledge of the health of wild horses IS not much better than her knowledge of the epi- zootic. At last Mrs. Eddy pomes out with the idea 138 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE which lies in the background of her non-sense science theory of healing. When put into plain English it is: The less mind there is manifested in matter the better [p. 489]. She ventures a comparison at this point which we would have hesitated to make when she says: When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows again. If the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of Mind are never lost and that matter has no sensa- tion. Then the human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's claw — not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine one [p. 489]. It is certainly to be regretted that this " Science of Life " was not better understood before the great war, for it would not only have saved medical science much labour, but would have greatly minimized the misfortunes of war cas- ualties. And to think that the only thing which has prevented this happy miracle is the pos- session of *' too much mind " ! Mrs. Eddy's argu- ment leads us to conclude that, if mind in human beings could only be reduced to the size of the mental capacity of the lobster, the ideal intel- lectual standard of attainment for the successful operation of the principle of non-sense science healing would be reached. This is the uncondi- tional intellectual requirement which non-sense science makes of all those who would obtain its NON-SENSE HEALING 139 benefits. It is not necessary to pursue this idea any further. The Prophylactic of Non-Sense Science, Even in a non-sense world " an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." So we find Mrs. Eddy diligently endeavouring to teach her disciples the way to avail themselves of the benefits of her spe- cial brand of prophylactic. The directions are thus given: When the first symptoms of disease appear, dis- pute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last farthing, the last penalty demanded by error. * * * "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, con- sumption, or smallpox [p. 390]. The same idea is again presented in this way: Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, con- tagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears [p. 392]. The prophylactic of non-sense science is one with its therapeutic. And so easy does it all 140 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE sound that we see no reason why the " porter " should have any difficulty in shutting out all " un- healthy thoughts and fears." We are a bit curious, however, to know just who this "porter" is. Who is it that is sum- moned to dispute the testimony of the material senses? And whence comes this ''higher sense of justice '' whose duty it is to " destroy the false process of mortal opinions " ? Can it be, after all is said and done, that non-sense science is at last found falling back upon the resources of the same old "mortal mind," and enlisting its services in its own interests? We suspect that a very strict psychological analysis of the mental processes of all healers, and of all Christian Scientists who sincerely attempt to follow these directions, would reveal nothing less than this very surprising thing, that it is mortal mind which stands as porter and is always used. This discovery creates a most embarrassing situation. For according to non- sense science. Spirit or " divine Mind " cannot work through " human thought," or mortal mind, any more than through matter. We do not see any possible way out of this unexpected dilemma, and Mrs. Eddy does not provide any. It begins to look as though we are caught at last. So our only protection is to stand porter at the door, shut out the annoying thought, and pass on to another subject. The Non-Sense Science System of Healing is a NONSENSE HEALING 141 Panacea. In this respect it differs from medical science, which modestly admits that its ability to bring relief and effect a cure is strictly dependent upon its knowledge. The natural and necessary limitation of its knowledge and nature's response carry a corresponding limitation in its ability to bring relief and effect a cure. It is easy to see that Christian Science is embarrassed by no such limitations. For nature or the material body does not exist in her world, and not knowledge, but ignorance of physiology, hygiene, and all other relevant matters, is one of its essential require- ments. And there being no limit to its ignorance upon all these subjects, there is naturally no limit set to its claims to cure. The whole elaborate sys- tem of pathology is instantly reduced to a unit. The proposition is simplicity itself. Since all disease comes from the same cause, it must of necessity have the same cure. Thus its method of healing can be standardized and easily, though not cheaply, placed upon the market. For from boils to broken bones the treatment is identical. This important factor Mrs. Eddy brings out in this passage: One disease is no more real than another. All dis- ease is the result of education, and disease can carry- its ill-effects no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. * * * Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic form of disease^ 142 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Truth handles the most malignant contagion with perfect assurance [p. 176]. No one would think of questioning the " assur- ance** with which non-sense science handles any subject. Its results alone concern us. We have already learned how to treat a boil. How does it work when brought face to face with the other extreme, a broken bone? Mrs. Eddy smiles pity- ingly upon the hopeless ignorance which inspires such a question. For a broken bone is no more than a broken cell and both are nothing but the products of thought. When will we get this non- sense science straight? This point Mrs. Eddy presents thus: Ossification or any abnormal condition or derange- ment of the body is as directly the action of mortal mind as is dementia, or insanity. Bones have only the substance of thought which forms them. They are only phenomena of the mind of mortals [p. 423]- This idea is developed a little more concretely in the following passage: In Science, no breakage nor dislocation can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and disease kill man, but this is not true. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin [p. 402]. This sounds all right in theory, but has it ever been able to demonstrate its truth in the actual healing of broken bones? In response to this query Mrs. Eddy says: NON-SENSE HEALING 143 It is but just to say that the author has already in her possession well-authenticated records of cure, by herself and her students through mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebrae [p. 402]. Perhaps some of the more skeptical are not satisfied with this general statement and refuse to believe in the power of thought to set and heal broken bones, unless some definite, concrete case with details is produced. Mrs. Eddy gives only one such case in Fruitage (p. 605f.). But this is so remarkable in all of its features that nothing more can be desired. The case is of a woman who fell from her bicycle and broke her arm half way between the shoulder and elbow. We will let this person tell her own story. She says: While the pain was intense, I lay still in the dust, declaring the truth and denying that there could be a break or accident in the realm of divine Love. * * * I was only two and a half blocks from home, so I mounted my wheel again and managed to reach it. On arriving there I lay down and asked my little boy to bring me our text-book. He im- mediately brought Science and Health, which I read for about ten minutes, when all pain left. I said nothing to my family of the accident, but attended to some duties and was about half an hour late in returning to the office, this being my only loss of time from work. This case of mental surgery speaks for itself. We do not wonder, now as we come to the end of 144 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTI AN SCIENCE our survey of this non-sense science system of healing and keep in mind its claims, that Mrs. Eddy should proudly insist that it is securely in- dependent of all other pathological systems, and reassures all those who accept it with this final word of confidence: It is anything but scientifically Christian to think of aiding the divine Principle of healing or of trying to sustain the human body until the divine Mind is ready to take the case. Divinity is always ready. Semper paratus is Truth's motto. Having seen so much suifering from quackery the author desires to keep it out of Christian Science [p. 458]. Nothing remains to be added to a system of healing such as we have just had outlined before us. It reduces all disease to one cause, and that " a false belief," and all remedies it reduces to one, "change the false belief into a true one." It finds one disease or ailment just as easy to heal as another, from boils to broken bones. It claims to be a panacea. And it is " always ready " to meet any emergency which may develop. ^'Sem- per paratus is Truth's motto." It must be frankly admitted that there is nothing within the annals of therapy that can match its claims. A Strange Lapse. After such a triumphant summing up of the merits of this non-sense system of healing, what enemy sowed the seeds of this strange suggestion in the chapter on Christian Science Practice? NONSENSE HEALING 146 Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scien- tists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of in- flammation [p. 401]. And right by its side this wise advice: If from an injury or from any cause, a Qiristian Scientist were seized with pain so violent that he could not treat himself mentally — and the Scientists had failed to relieve him — the sufferer could call a surgeon, who would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the belief in pain was lulled, he could handle his own case mentally. Thus it is that we "prove all things; (and) hold fast that which is good" [p. 464]. It is quite evident that among the " good " things to which the Christian Scientists are going to " hold fast " are numbered the surgeon and the hypodermic needle. Nor do they show any dis- position to release their grip upon hygiene, sani- tation, health laws, fresh air, diet, exercise, dentists, and, when the tyranny of mortal mind gets the upper hand, the much maligned physi- cians. Is NonSense Healing the Method Jesus Used? Let us see. The Gospel of Matthew records four- teen specific cases of healing by Jesus. Of these, six were performed by the use of hands, six by 146 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE command, and two do not describe the method used. Mark records thirteen cases. Six were performed by the use of hands, six by command, and one does not describe the method. Luke records sixteen cases. Seven were performed by the use of hands, seven by command, and two do not describe the method. In each Gospel the cases of heaHng where the hands were used, ex- actly to the number, balance those by command. In the Gospel of John, there are three cases of healing, two by command and one by the use of means, but this one case where means were used goes into such minute details that the use of means cannot be denied. The significance of all this comes to light when we recall Mrs. Eddy's carefully raised point that if " hands " were actually, literally, used, then the healing was not " spiritually done," and was not according to the Christian Science principle. So important and fundamental is this point that, when Mrs. Eddy writes her little book of guid- ance, she takes particular pains to insert this state- ment: The lecturer, teacher, or healer who is indeed a Christian Scientist * * * never lays his hands on the patient [Rudimental Divine Science, p. iif.]. So that, according to Mrs. Eddy's own con- fession, in at least half of His cases of healing Jesus did not use the Christian Science method. NON-SENSE HEALING 147 In the other half He healed by word of command. Christian Science never heals by command; it heals purely through thought, and there is a radical psychological difference between these two methods. The power of thought bottoms in mind, and the power of command bottoms in per- sonality and will. As we have already seen, both personality and will are the two factors through which, Mrs. Eddy is careful to inform us, Chris- tian Science does not heal. So that, when these two systems of healing are actually placed side by side and compared, they have no points in com- mon. This is indeed a surprising discovery, but the more closely the two systems are studied and compared, the more striking the fact appears. There are, however, certain contrasts which bring this point out very distinctly. Let us set down a few. First. Jesus manifested no conscious antago- nism toward the medical science of His day. He did not, like Mrs. Eddy, represent Himself as a young Goliath going out single-handed to combat this great giant. He used the word " physician " twice. Once when He remarked : " Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician heal thyself " (Luke 4: 23) ; and a second time when He said: " They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick'* (Luke 5:31). Both these instances seem to assume that the physician is supposed to be able to heal. And the second 148 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE presents with approval the idea that "they that are sick " need a physician. Second. Jesus never taught any science of mental healing. To fulfill His '' Giod ordained mission," He did not find it necessary to establish a metaphysical college in Jerusalem ; and for some reason God did not " impel '' Him to " set a price ''of $300 to each disciple for twelve lessons in His art of healing. In all of His recorded say- ings He never uttered a word of instruction on healing which can be quoted as sanctioning Mrs. Eddy's non-sense science system. Third. Jesus never *' treated " patients. He never sat down and argued ** both silently and audibly " against their " false beliefs." His heal- ing was always instantaneous. Fourth. Jesus never charged " so much per " for healing the sick. The proper " financial equivalent for an impartation of a knowledge of that divine power which heals " never caused Him as much concern as it did Mrs. Eddy. With Him healing was not a business or a profession, It was an incidental compassionate ministry. Fifth. Jesus Himself healed the sick. He did not have to turn over to His disciples this impor- tant work. It is a little advertised fact, but Mrs. Eddy herself did not heal. This did not seem to be her forte. After a few unsuccessful experi- ments at the very outset of her career, she aban- doned all attempts to heal, and confined her efforts NON-SENSE HEALING 149 to teaching others, for a price, how they should do it. As early as 1870, when she first went to Lynn, Massachusetts, with Richard Kennedy, and together they opened up the first mental healing institute, Kennedy did all of the healing. Mrs. Eddy simply took half of the proceeds for having taught him how to do it, and organized classes instructing others, in a few lessons, how they might obtain the right to put " Doctor " before their names and open offices and start out in busi- ness for themselves. This short cut to a profes- sional career soon became so attractive that the State of Massachusetts was compelled to forbid this indiscriminate use of the title " doctor." From this time on Christian Science practitioners have had to be content with the title " healer." But Mrs. Eddy herself was not a healer. In every edition of Science and Health, from the first until her death, this significant note is to be found at the end of the preface: "The authoress takes no patients, and has no time for medical consultations." Lack of time seems a poor ex- cuse for allowing the one person in the world divinely empowered to heal to be excluded from exercising this power. It does seem that even in her busy life she might have found a little time now and then to help out her failing disciples or to save the lives of her loved ones. Jesus did. But this was not done. Of course it is easy to realize that failure by the " divine one " would have been 150 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE a serious blow to the faith of trusting disciples. Did not the death of her husband, Mr. Eddy, from heart disease, almost disrupt her business? If to this unfortunate incident had been added a long series of other failures her followers might have had their confidence in her and her system sadly shaken. So Mrs. Eddy took no chances. She never tried to heal. She confined her efforts to teaching others how, and then attributed their failures to their imperfect understanding of her system. Jesus, however, was not under the ne- cessity of taking so many precautions against failure. Without an exception " he healed them all." But why carry this comparison further? For if it is not now, it never will, be evident to the reader that there is not a single point in common between this non-sense science system of healing and that of Jesus. If Science and Health cor- rectly presents to us the Christian Science system of healing — and it is the only approved authority upon the subject — then it can be safely affirmed that Jesus never preached, practiced or " left us as his rich legacy " non-sense science healing, any more than He did non-sense Christianity. Non-Sense Science Simply Another System of Healing. When all of its various disguises have been stripped oflF, Christian Science stands forth as nothing more or less than another system of healing, no more Christian, no more divine, no NON-SENSE HEALING 151 more Scriptural, no more religious, than the med- ical science which it seeks to displace. As a system of healing it must hereafter be made to stand solely upon the intrinsic merits of its fundamental principles. If Mrs. Eddy is right when she asserts that ** a false belief is both the disease and its cause," then and then only, is Christian Science right when it claims that " the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient's false belief." If, on the contrary, medical science is correct when it main- tains that both physical, chemical and material factors contribute toward causing disease, then by no possible stretch of reason can changing the " belief '* of the patient remove the cause of such disease and thereby effect a cure. The problem at this point becomes simply a question of fact as to the nature and cause of disease. This is the real issue which separates Christian Science from orthodox medical science. And facts are abun- dant to prove which of the two positions is cor- rect. A system of healing based upon such an unsup- ported theory would never have outlived its early birth struggles had not Mrs. Eddy, driven almost to distraction by failure, at last hit upon the idea of making a religion out of it. This was the magic trick which turned failure into success. The moment she proclaimed it the "true evangelic faith " and herself its divinely inspired revealer, the germ of the Christian Science cult was created. NON-SENSE REVELATIONS HAVING learned the nature of the non- sense science contained in Science and Health, it would almost seem that this whole subject might be dismissed at this point. For any one knowing its real character cannot claim that it is entitled to serious study. But Mrs. Eddy forces us to investigate the question of its source. If like other mortals she had been willing to acknowledge her honest indebtedness for its origi- nal ideas there would be little interest in tracing them to their sources. But the instant she makes this announcement: No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, Science and Health; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it [p. no], she challenges rational credulity beyond its power of acceptance. In fact the undue anxiety which she continually manifests to decoy all thought away from human sources arouses our suspicion that there must be some good reason back of this concern. At any rate there is now no possible 152 NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 153 escape from the issue which she has raised. Her sincerity, her veracity, her character, all hang upon the slender thread of the absolute truthfulness of this statement. And in the case of one who claims to be divine, and who seeks to displace Jesus Christ as the Lord, these moral attributes are of paramount importance. If this statement is false, no reliance can reasonably be placed upon any other similar statements, and all of her super- natural pretensions fall to the ground with her veracity and sincerity. It is as clear as crystal that, unless she is able to sustain this claim, she has seriously jeopardized her whole case. If no human pen or tongue taught her this sci- ence, where did she get it? Her answer to this question is very explicit. She tells us that God Himself revealed it to her in two separate install- ments. First, He revealed to her its principle of healing, which, when she was at death's door, she put to the test, and through which she was instan- taneously restored to health. Second, He dictated to her, His " scribe," the scientific explanation of this new principle of healing, which revelation she has given to the world in the Christian Science text-book. Science and Health. Our attention in this chapter will be devoted to a careful investiga- tion of these two so-called revelations. We will begin with the first Installment. The mind is gradually prepared for the full 154 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE blaze of the truth of this miraculous revelation by these preliminary statements: In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing [p. 107]. Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, — a conviction antagonistic to the testimony of the phys- ical senses? According to St. Paul, it was *' the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power " [p. 108]. Of course the reader is entitled to know that in the early editions of Science and Health her dis- covery is made at another time, and in an entirely different way. But conditions arose which made this kind of revelation at this particular time im- perative. So, as necessity is the mother of in- vention, this kind of discovery was Invented. We have not space to give any of these earlier explana- tions, but will content ourselves with the one story which has survived all others, and which to-day, without a rival, has become the accepted theory of orthodox Christian Science. The most complete account is the chapter entitled, The Discovery of the Principle of Christian Science, in the au- thorized Life of Mrs. Eddy, by Sibyl Wilbur. There Is nothing Intrinsically new In this version; its chief merit lies in the skillful manner in which NON-SENSE EEYELATIONS 155 it gathers up all the essential details of the various earlier accounts given by Mrs. Eddy and blends them together into one consistent, dramatic, mi- raculous event. Its principal features are con- tained in these selected paragraphs: When this fall occurred Mrs. Patterson was re- turning to her home from some meeting of the organ- ization of Good Templars. ♦ * * j^ ^-j^g midst of apparent light-hearted social gaiety she slipped on the ice and was thrown violently. The party stood aghast, but soon lifted her and carried her into a house, where it was seen that she was seriously in- jured [p. 128]. After the doctor's departure on Friday, however, she refused to take the medicine he had left, and as she expressed it, lifted her heart to God. On the third day, which was Sunday, she sent those who were in her room away, and taking her Bible, opened it. Her eyes fell upon the account of the healing of the palsied man by Jesus. " It was to me a revelation of Truth," she has written. " The lost chord of Truth, healing as of old. I caught this consciously from the Divine Harmony. The miracles recorded in the Bible which had before seemed to me supernatural, grew divinely natural and apprehensible." * * * A spiritual experience so deep was granted her that she realized eternity in a moment, infinitude in limitation, life in the presence of death. She could not utter words of prayer; her spirit realized. She knew God face to face ; she " touched and handled things unseen." In that moment all pain evanesced into bliss, all discord in her physical body melted into 166 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE harmony, all sorrow was translated into rapture. * * * God said to her, " Daughter arise ! " Mrs. Patterson arose from her bed, dressed and walked into the parlour where a clergyman and a few friends had gathered, thinking it might be for the last words on earth with the sufferer who, they believed, was dying. They arose in consternation at her appearance, almost believing they beheld an apparition. She quietly reassured them and ex- plained the manner of her recovery, calling upon them to witness it. * * * Mary Baker did more than experience a cure. She in that hour received a revelation for which she had been preparing her heart in every event of her life [p. i3of.]- In the quiet retrospect of later years, looking down from the eminence to which she had climbed, and back through the haze of the halo in which she and her followers had enveloped her, no doubt this did seem something like the way in which her momentous "final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing" ought to have been vouchsafed. And if students of this subject are content to let the matter rest with this explanation, as all loyal Christian Sci- entists must do, no serious complications arise. But just as soon as one presses back to the year 1866, and the actual history of this "fall in Lynn " and her recovery from it, some most dis- concerting facts come to light. For the full his- tory of this now epochal " fall " has been Provi- NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 157 dentially preserved. As we shall see before we have completed our study, the guardian angel of truth has a quiet v^ay of standing always some- where within the shadow keeping watch about his own. The first evidence we shall introduce to disprove this story is that presented by the physician who attended Mrs. Eddy at the time of her accident We will take this, and another account of the affair as given by Mrs. Eddy, from the Brief of the " Exceptions of Next Friends " in the trial in- stituted for a trusteeship over her property in the Superior Court of New Hampshire, April Term, 1907. As evidence of her mental condition the lawyer pointed out that she was subject to strange delusions. Among many others is submitted a persisting delusion that she experienced a mirac- ulous recovery from a fall in Lynn in the year 1866. Her story is then told and followed by the facts in the case. We will now give the extract exactly as it appears in the records: In another statement she gives the narration as follows : " It was in Mass. that I met with an acci- dent, falling from the grade of a sidewalk. Then it was In Mass. that I first recovered from that point of death where doctors left me, and when they left me they said it was as impossible for me to live as if my head was cut off. The clergyman also left me, telling me that there was no hope and that I must surely die, and he asked me if I was prepared and ready to die. I said that it did not seem like death 158 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE to me. Then he spoke to me very solemnly because he was impressed with my statement to him, and spoke beautifully on the subject of life. He then left me. He called again at four o'clock in the afternoon, and I met him below stairs, ran down the stairs to meet him, and he was very much overcome. He said ' let me take your arm,' but I said, * I am well/ Now I commenced in Mass. the effort of the introduction of that which I discovered at that moment " [p. 6]. As this account is read one cannot help feeling that the doctors and the clergyman were just a little hard-hearted in the brusque way in which they informed her of tTie hopelessness of her con- dition. Unfortunately no one has come to the rescue of the reputation of the unnamed tactless clergyman, but the doctor who attended her has come forward and spoken for himself. In a sworn statement he has given a full detailed ac- count of the actual history of the case. We have not space for this complete statement, so we will give it as it is summed up and contained in the court records. Continuing where the above nar- ration ended it reads: The facts upon which the foregoing miracle was based are these: On February ist, 1866, at Lynn, Mass., Mrs. Eddy fell on an icy sidewalk and injured her head so that she complained of pains in her head and neck, and became partly unconscious and hysterical. A physician gave her quieting medicine, but she was suffering the next morning, although she NON-SENSE REVELATIONS 159 determined to go home to Swampscott. To lessen the pain on removal the physician gave her one- eighth of a grain of morphine and she fell asleep and was easily moved in that condition. The physician visited her twice on February 2nd, and once on the 3rd and once on the 5th, and again on the 13th, when she seemed to have recovered and his bill was paid. On August loth he was called to a house in Lynn to prescribe for her for a bad cough, and he made three calls during that month. The physician's record book shows each visit, the symptoms and the progress of the case. \ The affidavit of the physician. Dr. Alvin M. Cush- « ing, who attended Mrs. Eddy, contains the follow- ing: " There was, to my knowledge, no other physician in attendance upon Mrs. Patterson during this illness from the day of the accident, February ist, 1866, to my final visit on February 13th. * * * I did not at any time say, or believe, that there was no hope for Mrs. Patterson's recovery, or that she was in a critical condition, and did not at any time say, or believe, that she had but three or any other limited number of days to live. Mrs. Patterson did not suggest, or say, or pretend, or in any way whatever intimate, that on the third day, or any other day, of her said illness, she had miraculously recovered or been healed, or that, discovering or perceiving the truth of the power employed by Christ to heal the isick she had, by it, been restored to health " [p. 6f.]. These " facts in the case," from the sworn state- ment of as eminent a physician as Dr. Gushing, certainly work havoc with Mrs. Eddy's miracu- lous-recovery-on-the-third-day story. Any one 160 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE familiar with Mrs. Eddy's natural prudence can- not imagine her paying a physician for two or three professional visits, after they were made unnecessary by her previous discovery and conse- quent complete recovery. Yet she certainly did pay Dr. Gushing for visits after February 3. Another bit of splendid work by the guardian angel of truth was the 'preservation of a letter which Mrs. Patterson wrote Mr. Julius A. Dres- ser, a fellow pupil and at one time the assistant of Dr. Ouimby. This letter was written February 15, twelve days after the alleged miraculous re- covery. This passage interests us: Two weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk and struck my back on the ice and was taken up for dead, came to consciousness amid a storm of vapours from cologne, chloroform, ether, camphor, etc., but to find myself the helpless cripple I was before I saw Dr. Qumby. * * * Now can't you help me? I believe you can. I write this with this feeling: I think I could help another in my condition, if they had not placed their intelligence in matter. This I have not done and yet / am slowly failing. Won't you write me if you will undertake for me if I can get to you? Respect- fully, Mary M. Patterson. [See Peabody, The Religio-Medical Masquerade, p. 8i. Also, The True History of Mental Healing, by Julius A. Dresser.] As evidence against a miraculous recovery from her fall in Lynn on the third day, the testimony of the physician who attended her at the time of the KON-SENSE REVELATIONS 161 accident and the records of his own case book, supported by the independent evidence of this let- ter by Mrs. Patterson twelve days after the date of this alleged miraculous recovery, hold pre- eminence over any statements made eighteen or twenty years after date and under the influence of other motives. Nor is this all. Even as late as 1875 Mrs. Eddy has not yet discovered that she made this phenomenal discovery at the time of this fall in 1866. For in that most precious of all editions, the one which alone can claim infalli- bility as having been dictated by God, the first edi- tion of Science and Health, in which there is " no place or opportunity for error," Mrs. Eddy says: We made our first discovery that Science mentally applied would heal the sick in 1864 [p. 6]. Not in 1866, but in 1864, two years before this memorable " fall in Lynn," it is distinctly stated that this very same discovery was made. And, lest any one may suspect that this date is but the slip of tlie printer, we would call attention to the fact that this edition was revised, corrected as to all errata, revised and corrected again, revised and corrected down to 1883, and. this same date always given as that on which this discovery was made. This early date has much to recommend it. For this was the very year, 1864, in which Mrs. Eddy returned to Dr. Quimby to study with him his science of mental healing. And, as we 162 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE shall soon see, Mrs. Eddy explicitly states in her own handwriting that it was at this time she first made this discovery. We suspect that this year 1864 would have enjoyed permanently this distinction, and the *' fall in Lynn" remained in the obscurity of its com- monplaceness, had the memory of Dr. Quimby's science of mental healing stayed buried with his body, which Mrs. Eddy had every right to presume it would do. Dr. Quimby died January 16, 1866. A few weeks after his death Mrs. Eddy wrote the letter, from which we have already quoted, to Mr. Julius Dresser. One of her objects in writing was to ask him, as Quimby's former assistant, to take up and carry on the work of his master. This part of her letter ran as follows: Mr. Dresser, — Sir: I enclose some lines of mine in memory of our much-loved Friend, which perhaps you will not think over- wrought in meaning, others must of course. I am constantly wishing that you would step for- ward into the place he has vacated. I believe you would do a vast amount of good, and are more capable of occupying his place than any other I know of [Peabody, p. 8 if.]. In reply to this suggestion Mr. Dresser said he did not feel competent to undertake the responsi- bility of such a work. A short time after this he went West, leaving Mrs. Eddy, as she thought, in undisputed possession of the field. This oppor- NON-SENSE EEVELATI0N8 163 tunity kindled all of her active and latent energies with a renewed determination to save Quimby's science of mental healing to the world by cham- pioning it herself. From this time on she seemed to feel that she possessed a proprietary right in it, which in due course of time developed into exclusive ownership. Finally she took the last step and claimed to be its discoverer and origina- tor. It was this last step that brought down so much trouble upon her head. For in 1882 Mr, Dresser returned to Boston and began to practice the Quimby science of mental healing. It was not long before he came in contact with Mrs. Eddy and her mental healing cult. To his astonishment he learned that his former Quimby fellow pupil had branched out considerably since he last heard of her. She had written a book on mental heal- ing, founded a church upon it, and established the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, of which she was the president and whole faculty. To cap the climax, she had gone so far as to claim that she, and not Mr. Quimby, was the real discoverer and originator of the system. This was a little more than Mr. Dresser could stand. His sense of honour and honesty would not allow him to remain silent and see his dead master robbed of the just recognition of twenty- five years of research, writing, and practice, which had brought into existence this very system of mental healing which Mrs. Eddy was claiming as 164 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE her own. So in the Boston Post of February 24, 1883, he pubHshed an article in which he presented Quimby's science of mental heaUng, and accom- panied this with articles and letters by Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, showing that in those days she had given Mr. Quimby unquestioned credit for teaching her this very system of mental heal- ing. This unexpected disclosure, accompanied by Mrs. Eddy's own writings, was a staggering blow to her struggling enterprise. By a curious coincidence at the very time that Mr. Dresser exploded this bomb of the Quimby origin of her system of healing, Mrs. Eddy was engaged in prosecuting one of her former lieu- tenants, Mr. A. J. Arens, for plagiarizing some material from her class-room manuscript and pub- lishing it as his own in his book. Naturally Mr. Arens retaliated in his defense that he was doing nothing more than Mrs. Eddy herself had done. For Mr. Dresser had convincingly proven that she had taken from her teacher, Mr. Quimby, manu- scripts and material and published them as her own. As a result of this double fire, which gained wide-spread publicity, the situation became so acute that something had to be done at once to drive back this Quimby specter, which was haunt- ing her, into his grave. It was this tragic crisis that forced Mrs. Eddy to change completely her attitude toward, and her representation of, Mr. Quimby. NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 165 In a friendly letter written to him she one time flatteringly asked: "Who is wise but you?" In the early days she precipitated quite a controversy in the press by likening him to Christ. The last two lines of the poem which she enclosed to Mr. Dresser, to which reference has just been made, read: Rest should reward him who hath made us whole, Seeking, tho' tremblers, where his footsteps trod* [See Peabody, p. 76.] At the time of his death it is quite plain that Mrs. Eddy revered him. But time has wrought great changes since that day of humility when she was but a trembling seeker where his footsteps trod. Seventeen years have passed away, and this former pupil, sitting at Mr. Quimby's feet to learn of him, has now become the acknowledged discoverer of the science of mental healing, with a Metaphysical College, Church, and cult, all built up in her name out of it. She has altogether too much at stake to allow this Quimby specter to rise out of his grave and stalk about haunting her ruin. She has nothing against Mr. Quimby, but he is dead and so has nothing to lose, while she has everything. So she decides that he will have to be sacrificed for her sake. Ignoring the fact that in the first edition of Science and Health she has committed herself to the year 1864 as the one in which she made the " first discovery that Science 166 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE mentally applied would heal the sick," she now begins to claim that long before she ever heard of Mr. Quimby she was a pioneer worker in the field of mental healing. In one place she tells us that way back in 1844 she made this discovery. In other places she gives other dates. In her reply to Mr. Dresser in the Boston Post of March 7th, 1883, she says: We never were a student of Dr. Quimby, * * * Dr. Quimby never had students to our knowl- edge. * * * We made our first experiments in mental healing about 1853, when we were convinced that mind had a science which, if understood, would heal all disease. [Quoted from Milmine's Life of Mrs. Eddy, Mc- Clure's Magazine, March, 1907.] By thus making her discovery antedate her visit to Mr. Quimby she tries to establish her priority right. But this does not explain the telltale iden- tity between these two systems of healing and the manuscripts. Mrs. Eddy's audacity at this point surprises friends and foes alike. There being no way to deny this, she claims that she, and not Mr. Quimby, is the virtual author of them. A pioneer specialist in the field of mental healing with years of experience behind her, she found Mr. Quimby a poor, ignorant man floundering helplessly be- yond his depth in the metaphysical waters of men- tal healing, and taking pity upon him, helped him out. Her ideas were far in advance of his, so she NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 167 became his teacher and he her pupil. In the same article in the Boston Post of March 7th, she says: We knew him about twenty years ago, and aimed to help him. We saw he was looking in our direc- tion, and asked him to write his thoughts out. He did so, and then we would take that copy to correct, and sometimes so transform it that he would say it was our composition, which it virtually was; but we always gave him back the copy and sometimes wrote his name on the back of it. [Quoted from Milmine, ibid.] In several subsequent editions of Science and Health she says: I healed some of his patients, and also corrected some of his desultory paragraphs which he com- mitted to paper, besides leaving with him some of my own writings which are now claimed as his [20th ed., p. 7]. The humour of the idea of the Mrs. Patterson of 1864 posing as the corrector of any one's desul- tory paragraphs is refreshing to those who are at all familiar with her own unrevised writings of this and following years. But having once opened up this line of defense she did her best toehold her position. One of her most pressing needs now was a wit- ness or two to assist her in her trial against Mr. Arens. So among the former friends of Mr. Quimby and herself she searched for some one who would sustain this representation of her in- 168 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE valuable contributions to Mr. Quimby's literature on mental healing. In order that the reader may get some idea of the manoeuvers she executed to gain such witnesses we will give one instance. Mrs. Sarah G. Crosby was at Mr. Quimby's in 1864 when Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, re- turned to study with him. She and Mrs. Patter- son became fast friends. When they left Port- land, Mrs. Patterson accompanied her to her home and remained with her several months. It was during this visit that she, acting as a medium, received several " spirit " letters from her dead brother Albert. This accounts for the mention of his name in the following letter. It is an at- tempt to revive fond remembrances of those dear old days. Mrs. Crosby was an expert court sten- ographer, and in 1877 Mrs. Eddy called her to Lynn to take down a series of lectures which she was then delivering, extemporaneously, to her stu- dents. Naturally in her " trying hour " when she needed the assistance of a trusted and tried friend of former days, the spirit of her brother Albert visited her in the night and reminded her of Mrs. Crosby. Though Mrs. Crosby was still friendly toward Mrs. Eddy and would have been glad to help her if possible, this time she asked something that she was not willing to do. The account of Mrs. Eddy's appeal and Mrs. Crosby's reply is contained in an affidavit which Mrs. Crosby made. We will give part of this sworn statement: KOK-SENSE EEVELATI0N9 169 In June, 1883, an attorney representing said Mrs. Patterson came to see me at Waterville, my present home, and interviewed me regarding her work with Dr. Quimby in Portland in 1864. I refused to an- swer his questions and he left, but returned the next day bearing an affectionate letter from said Mrs. Patterson. The following is a copy thereof: " My dear Sister, Sarah, — " I wanted to see you myself but it was im- possible for me to leave my home and so have sent the bearer of this note to see you for me. " Two nights ago I had a sweet dream of Albert and the dear face w^as so familiar, oh how I loved him! and in the morning a thought popped into my head to ask Sarah to help me in this very trying hour. " These are the circumstances. A student of my husband's took the class-book of mine that he studied, put his name to most of it, and published it as his own after he was through with the class. * * * " So I noticed in my next edition of * Science and Health' his infringement with a sharp reprimand thinking that would stop him, but this winter he issued another copy of my work as the author, and then I sued him. The next thing he did was to publish the falsehood that I stole my works from the late Dr. Quimby. When everything I ever had pub- lished has been written or edited by me as spontane- ously as I teach or lecture. *' Now dear one, I want you to tell this man, the bearer of this note, that you know that Dr. Quimby and I were friends and that I used to take his scrib- blings and fix them over for him and give him my 170 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE thoughts and language which, as I understood it, were far in advance of his. " Will you do this and give an affidavit to this effect and greatly oblige your Affectionate Sister Mary." I read the foregoing appeal for help from said Mrs. Patterson, then Eddy, and as it was clearly a request that I should make oath to what was not true, I informed the attorney that I should not make the affidavit asked by his client, as it would not be a true statement. He then threatened to summon me to the trial, but I think I made him understand that I would not be a desirable witness on his side of the case. He thereupon departed, and I was not sum- moned to testify. And since that interview, I have only a public knowledge of said Mrs. Patterson- Eddy. [Quoted from Milmine, ibid.] This statement shows the kind of person with whom we are now dealing. But her manoeuvers did not succeed. Like Mrs. Crosby, every one of Mr. Quimby's friends remained loyal to him, and not one of them w^ould consent to become a party to any such outrageous misrepresentation of Mrs. Patterson*s relation to him. This whole line of defense turned out to be very poor strategy, for it needlessly exposed Mrs. Eddy to the merciless fire of the enemy. Many persons who had known both Mr. Quimby and Mrs. Pat- terson came forward and volunteered information to prove that Mrs. Patterson when she first came to Mr. Quimby to be cured knew nothing what- ever of this Science of Mental Healing. And Mr. NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 171 Dresser and Mr. Quimby's son were easily able to prove that Mrs. Eddy had never seen or touched one of the original Quimby manuscripts, all of which had been composed, transcribed, and filed away months before Mrs. Patterson's first visit in 1862, let alone her return visit in 1864. And they were also able to prove that these original manu- scripts, which Mrs. Eddy had never seen, con- tained the very same statements, word for word, that the copies which Mrs. Eddy had seen con- tained. Mr. George A. Quimby, in a letter to Mr. A. J. Swartz, dated February 23, 1888, says: I have my father's manuscripts in my possession, but will not allow them to be copied nor go out of my hands. Answering your further inquiries, I have no written article of Mrs. Eddy's in my possession, have never had, nor did my father ever have, nor did she ever leave any with either of us. * * * Yours truly, George A. Quimby. [Quoted from Milmine, ibid.] As a result of these counter-attacks Mrs. Eddy was utterly routed upon this defensive front and forced to beat a hasty retreat from such an unten- able position. It is interesting to note, however, that to-day loyal Christian Scientists are led back to this exploded theory for their explanation of the undeniable identity of the two systems of men- tal healing. In the authorized Life of Mrs. Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur there is a chapter entitled The 172 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Mystery of the Quimby Manuscripts in which the author goes to great length to support this theory. Its first paragraph is typical: Through the writings of Mary Baker on what she thought Quimby believed, " Quimbyism " and Quimby manuscripts came to have a factitious ex- istence. Her writings were given into Quimby's keeping and were doubtless copied by other patients ; her explanations of his cures were often accepted instead of Quimby's, even Quimby himself accepting them in part, flattered at the interpretation put upon him and his work [p. 97]. Christian Scientists do not like the associations of the name Mrs. Patterson, so it is dropped and Mary Baker substituted. This passage shows how ably this authorized Life supports all of Mrs. Eddy's theories. But whatever present-day Christian Scientists may believe concerning this theory, there is no doubt about the fact that Mrs. Eddy and her ad- visers of that period realized that it was time to abandon that line of defense. For after having conducted the retreat before mentioned they next open up their defense upon an entirely different front. Quimby and Quimbyism are deserted. There is no true identity between the two sys- tems of healing. Quimby is now declared to have been a mesmerist, the arch enemy of true mental healing. And Mrs. Eddy the founder of a brand new system of mental healing which she discov- NONSENSE EEVELATIONS 173 ered after his death. At first it looked as if this new defense could not hope to fare any better than its predecessor, for in the writings of Mrs. Patter- son there was so much which went to great length to prove that the Mr. Quimby who cured her was not a mesmerist, but that he had outgrown this theory long before she knew him and was at that time practicing the true science of mental healing, Then there were those statements in which she had repeatedly affirmed that she had made her " first experiments " in mental healing long before her first visit to Mr. Quimby. But she had come to her last trench; there was nothing else left to do. If she could not in this way prove herself the original discoverer of this science of mental heal- ing, her cause was lost. The situation was dark enough, but you can never tell what sort of a thing you can get away with until you try. Life has furnished many amazing surprises along this line. And it has another in store. We have now before us the historical causes which forced Mrs. Eddy to shift her position upon the manner and date of her discovery to the year 1866, after Mr. Quimby's death. The logic of this move was irresistible. Any one can see that if Mrs. Eddy did not. know any- thing about this idea of mental healing until after Quimby was dead and buried, she could not have obtained it from him. So in sheer desperation this plan of campaign was adopted. 174 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE This new idea necessitated a complete, abrupt break with the past, and a sudden, spectacular dis- covery of the new system of mental healing which was to be installed. It was to meet this extreme I emergency that the almost forgotten ** fall in Lynn " was dug up, resuscitated, fixed over, dressed in becoming religious garb, and thus mag- ically transformed into a ** miraculous recovery," on Sunday, the third day, through which God re- vealed to Mrs. Eddy this brand new principle of scientific mental healing. It seemed like hoping against hope to expect to succeed with this, but, marvellous to relate, with the history of her whole previous career in mental healing disproving it, with all her early letters and articles contradicting her later statements, with every preceding edition of Science and Health plainly giving another time and manner of discovery, it worked. The cus- todians of truth certainly must have been asleep on guard ! To bring back to life that " fall in Lynn" after it had been dead and buried eight years, and to make it the miraculous source of the discovery of Christian Science, is the greatest of all of Mrs. Eddy's miracles. No wonder that she should claim that Christian Science can " raise the dead"! By the time the next edition of Science and Health appears, in 1884, the new method of dis- covery and the new date are given just as though there had never been any other. How quickly NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 175 people forget, and how soon generations die ! The new story is told in this fashion: After about the year 1862, having heard of a mes- merist in Portland who was healing the sick by manipulation, we visited him ; he helped us for a time, then we had a relapse. Somewhat after his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skillful physi- cians, we discovered that the principle of all healing and the law that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and by a spiritual, not a material law, we regained health. He died in 1865. We helped him to the esteem of the public, but never knew of his stating orally or in writing that he treated his patients mentally [p. 3f.]. Science and Health Becomes a Divinely Inspired Book. When Science and Health first made its ap- pearance it was just an ordinary book on mental healing. Mrs. Eddy did not claim anything else for it. So it was compelled to fight for its life upon its intrinsic merits. The result was that it fell flat. Mr. Spofford, who had entire charge of the publication and sale of this first edition, went over Its whole history with the writer. After he had done his utmost to obtain for it favourable pub- licity by sending a copy to Carlyle and other dis- tinguished writers, to Oxford and Harvard Uni- versities, and other libraries, it had cost its pub- lishers $1,500. But Mrs. Eddy would not share with her friends a penny of this loss. For a num- ber of editions it had a similar fate. It was not until It was transformed Into a " divine revela- 176 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE tion " that its fortunes changed. As soon as it assumed the character of *' God's Book," it took on a new lease of life. The reader need not be told that this change took place simultaneously with that of the change in the date and nature of the discovery of Christian Science, which fol- lowed upon Mr. Dresser's expose in the Boston Post, February 24, 1883. So it is in the same edition, published in 1884, that we not only find the date of its discovery changed to 1866, but we find this statement: Since our discovery in i866, not one of our printed works was ever copied or abstracted from the pub- lished or from the unpublished writings of any one [p. 3]. In this edition for the first time the " Key to the Scriptures " makes its appearance. The new idea is getting into shape. Soon Mrs. Eddy says: No human pen nor tongue taught me the science contained in Science and Health [p. no]. By January, 1901, we have a "divinely in- spired " book on our hands. Of it Mrs. Eddy says: I should blush to write of "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures " as I have, were it of human origin and I apart from God, its author, but as I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of Heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be super- modest of the Christian Science Text-book. [Quoted from Peabody, p. 57.] NON^-SENSE REVELATIONS 177 The Undeniable Source of Her Science of Men- tal Healing. As mental healing is the funda- mental idea which gives to Science and Health all the unity the book possesses, we will begin by tracing it to its source. Even Mrs. Eddy and Sibyl Wilbur, her authorized biographer, do not presume to deny that, prior to 1866, Mrs. Eddy believed in and taught Quimby's science of mental healing. They content themselves by pointing out that it was her miraculous recovery, in 1866, which caused her final and complete break with Quimby's false science of mental healing, and the discovery of the " true science." Mrs. Eddy sta- tions the impassable gulf which separates the two sciences after her triumphant demonstration on February 3. Sibyl Wilbur, however, finds this a little too early. That damaging letter to Mr. Dresser on February 15 must first be explained and disposed of. Even she ignores those three professional visits for which Mrs. Eddy paid Dr. Gushing in August, 1866. The Dresser letter she styles a temporary relapse, "a last backward glance to Quimby and Quimbyism." With that appeal to Quimbyism and Mr. Dresser's refusal to come to her help, the break becomes final and the impassable gulf is put In its proper position. Sibyl Wilbur brings this out thus: Quimby was dead; Quimbyism had perished with him. No one remained of those who had gathered round him in life to pei*petuate his peculiar influence. 178 THE NOK-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Her fall had destroyed the very work she had so long credited him with. Everything must begin anew for her; life must be made completely over. She was forced to turn to God [p. 135]- Let us take them at their own word and meet them upon their own ground. Until February, 1866, it is agreed that Quimby's science of mental healing was Mrs. Eddy's obsession. Then comes the break, and the impassable gulf is located here. If any fact is capable of being sustained by in- disputable evidence, no honest student of this sub- ject can doubt that for years after 1866 Mrs. Eddy was still frankly and ardently teaching Quimby's science of mental healing. It is impos- sible to read The True History of Mental Science, by Mr. Julius A. Dresser; The Philosophy of Mental Healing, by Annette Dresser; The History of the New Thought Movement, by Horatio W. Dresser; The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Georgine Milmine ; The Religio-Medical Masquer- ade, by Frederick W. Peabody ; and the Court Records of the " Next Friends " Brief in the Su- perior Court of New Hampshire, April Term, 1907, without being forced to this unavoidable conclusion. As this mass of evidence is all avail- able to the student it need not be reproduced at this time. We shall endeavour to prove that the science of mental healing contained in Science and Health is the Ouimby science which was Mrs. Eddy's obsession prior to February, 1866. NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 179 Article 27, Section 3, of her '* inspired '* By- laws reads: The teachers of the Normal class shall teach from the chapter *' Recapitulation " in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and from the Christian Science Platform, * * * and they shall teach nothing contrary thereto. The teachers of the Pri- mary class shall instruct their pupils from the said chapter on " Recapitulation " only [p. 86]. This by-law, restricting all instruction to one chapter, clearly indicates that to Mrs. Eddy this one chapter contains the heart of the whole thing, the very best, clearest, and most unadulterated ex- pression of her science of mental healing. Every other chapter in Science and Health is supplemen- tal and explanatory ; its material cannot be trusted. It might lead teachers and pupils astray. But the chapter on Recapitulation can be depended upon. This reduces our problem to the question: Where did she get this chapter, " Recapitulation ** ? We are helped along on our quest by this introductory paragraph : This chapter is from the first edition of the author's class-book, copyrighted in 1870. * * * Absolute Christian Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific metaphysics [p. 465]. So far so good. Within this present year the writer spent a whole day with Mr. Daniel Harri- son Spofford of Haverhill, Massachusetts. As all who are familiar with the early history of 180 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Christian Science know, Mr. Spofford was at one time Mrs. Eddy's business manager and her most esteemed follower. She led him and others to believe that he was the one who would become her successor. As a token of this regard she gave him the gold pen with which she wrote the first edition of Science and Health, which with its ac- companying note of appreciation in her own hand- writing, the writer had the pleasure of examining. During the visit at Haverhill he was also allowed to examine three manuscripts which, with his own hand, Mr. Spofford copied in 1870 from the ones Mrs. Eddy was at that time using in her class- room instruction. At that time, Mr. Spofford says, and for years afterward, she frankly admit- ted that they were Quimby manuscripts. The identity which Mrs. Eddy points out between her chapter on Recapitulation and her class-room manuscript of 1870 cannot be questioned, for it is unmistakable. Mr. Spofford placed this manu- script in our hands first, and then he explained when and how the other two were used. Now the guardian angel of truth has providen- tially preserved another one of the manuscripts from which Mrs. Eddy taught in 1867-1869. This manuscript, which was copied from Mrs. Eddy's original by Mrs. Sally Wentworth of Stoughton, Massachusetts, with whom she lived during those years, came into the possession of Mrs. Went worth's son, Horace T. Wentworth. NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 181 That these two manuscripts are identical so far as their teaching is concerned is beyond dispute for any one who has compared them. The writer has carefully gone over corresponding passages in the two manuscripts and found them word for word the same. The interesting feature of this Went- worth manuscript is, that it bears the title: *' Ex- tracts from Doctor P. P. Quimby's Writings." This Wentworth manuscript has been compared with Quimby's original class-room manuscript and, with the exception of the introduction, which is Mrs. Eddy's, is a precise copy. Thus the ** ab- solute statements " of Christian Science contained in the chapter of Science and Health entitled '' Re- capitulation " have been traced back to the 1870 class-book manuscript, and from there to Dr. P. P. Quimby's class-room manuscript, entitled " Questions and Answers." And this Quimby manuscript was written in February, 1862, nine months before Mrs. Eddy visited him the first time".^ No honest student who has examined these manuscripts can doubt their identity. The evi- dence is indubitable. There is one marked difference. Quimby did not take the trouble or precaution to have his writ- ings copyrighted. But when Mrs. Eddy began to teach she realized what might happen to her class- room copies if they were not copyrighted, so she took the precaution to send this manuscript down to Washington and have it properly copyrighted 182 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE in her own name. So that when J. A. Arens, one of her former pupils, attempted to take some of the material from this manuscript and incor- porate it in a book he was publishing, Mrs. Eddy promptly had him arrested for plagiarism and his > book suppressed. From the time it was copy- righted in her own name, it ceased to bear the title "Extracts from Doctor P. P. Quimby's Writ- ings." In all other respects the Spofford, Went- worth, and Ouimby manuscripts are the same. One cannot help being deeply impressed by the uncanny way in which the guardian angel of truth has been keeping tabs on Mrs. Eddy's case. Here is another most interesting illustration of the way she has unwittingly tied up her system of mental healing with that of Dr. P. P. Quimby. Mr. W. W. Wright of Lynn, the son of a Universalist clergyman, became interested in Mrs. Eddy's sys- tem of mental healing. Before he joined her class he wrote her a letter in which he propounded a number of questions. This letter was written March 7, 1871. Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Glover, promptly answered all of his questions. Among them, all of which were leading and interesting, is this one: 6th: Has this theory ever been advertised or practiced before you introduced it, or by any other individual ? This is Mrs. Eddy's reply: NON-SENSE BEVELATIONS 183 6th: Never advertised, and practiced by only one individual who healed me, Dr. Quimby of Portland, Me., an old gentleman who had made it a research for twenty-five years, starting from the standpoint of magnetism, thence going forward and leaving that behind. I discovered the art in a moment's time, and he acknowledged it to me ; he died shortly after and since then, eight years, I have been founding and demonstrating the science. . . . Please preserve this, and if you become my student call me to ac- count for the truth of what I have written. Respectfully, M. M. B. Glover. [Quoted from The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Georgine Milmine, McClure's Magazine, March, 1907, where a photographic cut reproduces this statement in Mrs. Eddy's own handwriting.] This letter is written five years after that al- leged complete break with the Quimby science. And in 1871, as in 1870, Mrs. Eddy is still frankly and ardently teaching Quimby's science of mental healing, the art of which she discovered in a '' mo- ment's time " while studying with Dr. Quimby, and he acknowledged to her that she had caught his idea. We accept her challenge and hold her to account for the truth of what she has here writ- ten. Any human mind not utterly impervious to facts and the value of evidence must now see where Mrs. Eddy got her system of mental heal- ing. Let it be remembered that the whole issue at stake is hanging upon the slender thread of the truthfulness of Mrs. Eddy's statement that " No human pen nor tongue " taught her this science. 184 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE When this clear-cut issue is relentlessly pressed, Christian Scientists conduct a retreat and begin to open up a counter-attack upon another front. They say the Quimby manuscripts are inconse- quential. There is Science and Health ; it is a big volume, and undeniably Mrs. Eddy wrote it. It is this book they claim to be divinely inspired. What about all the chapters besides the one en- titled Recapitulation? Well, let us make a good job of it and clean up the whole subject of Science and Health while we are about it. There were two other manuscripts which Mr. Spofford showed the writer, and both were called " Quimby '' manuscripts. That they are amplifi- cations of the ideas contained in the above men- tioned chapter cannot be doubted. But they can- not be identified so directly with any particular Quimby manuscript. One is the embryo of the chapters on Natural Science, and on Spirit and Matter, contained in the first edition. The third, which is entitled Soul's Inquiries of Man, is a homily upon the moral and spiritual requirements of successful mental science healers. Of this Mrs. Eddy never made much use. There is one point which Quimby keeps constantly reiterating in these two manuscripts, and that is his claim that he has discovered the method by which Jesus healed the sick and performed His miracles. Over and over again he says he is simply healing the sick as Jesus did. This is one of Quimby's most NON-SENSE REVELATIONS 186 telling arguments. From another source we pre- sent a typical passage upon this point; it is from Mr. Horatio W. Dresser's book, The History of the New Thought Movement. He gathers up Quimby's idea in these words: Return to the Bible to see if it be true that it con- tains an inner or spiritual meaning, to see if indeed there be a neglected science of the Christ in the New Testament, implying principles of universal applica- tion through spiritual healing. If so, this inner or spiritual truth may be the great truth of the new age, it may imply the second coming of the Lord in deepest reality [p. 69]. It would be difficult to express Quimby's posi- tion more accurately. But it is not necessary to spend more time in showing that this is a familiar Quimby idea. For Mrs. Eddy herself, again thanks to the guardian angel of truth, furnishes us with the best evidence in her own handwriting. There is in existence to-day a poem which she wrote in memory of Quimby about a week after his death. It bears this heading: Lines on the Death of Dr. P. P. Quimby who healed the sick as did Jesus in contradistinction to all Isms. [Quoted from Georgine Milmine's Life of Mrs. Eddy, McClure's Magazine, February, 1907. In this issue this poem is presented in a photographic cut in Mrs. Eddy's own handwriting.] It is because of this claim by Quimby, that he healed the sick as Jesus did, that he sometimes called his science of mental healing " The Science 186 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE of Christ," and " Christian Science." Quimby had ten volumes of manuscripts upon all phases of the science of mental healing, and copies of these were accessible to all his students. We shall touch upon one of these later. Andrew Jackson Davis and His System of Spir- itual Healing. In addition to the Quimby source there are several others which bear a striking rela- tion to Science and Health. In 1856 Andrew Jackson Davis, the great spiritualist, published his book entitled The Physician. Though based upon an entirely different fundamental principle, it has many features in common with Science and Health. Davis v/as a brilliant paragrapher, and his attacks upon physicians, clergymen, drugs, medicines, physiology, and anatomy, as well as his emphasis upon the superiority of spirit over mat- ter, fill this book with stimulating suggestions, ideas, and illustrations. Mrs. Eddy lived among spiritualists and had been one herself, and it is hardly possible that such a popular book upon her pet hobby could have been published in Boston and she have been ignorant of its existence. We have space for only a few parallels. Davis calls his system of healing " The Science of Life." Here are a few quotations from The Physician: The primary source of all life and power is the Divine Mind [p. 46]. Health and Harmony are identical [p. 50]. How unprofitable and unsatisfactory are those NON-SENSE EEYELATIONS 187 sciences of anatomy and physiology, now in the world, which have for their foundation the mere form and function which Man's organization presents to the senses [p. 14] ! It is not your body, but it is you — ^your internal self — that feels, sees, hears, tastes, and makes the body what it appears to be [p. 124]. Esculapius, the god of Physic, and Hygeia, the goddess of Health, have nothing to do with the duties of the true Physician [p. 223]. Physicians strive to cure dyspepsia, gout, nervous- ness and constipation, without ever once imagining that the Internal thinking Principle is the primary disturbing cause [p. 224]. One cannot read over even these few quotations from a book of 454 pages without perceiving what a gold mine it contains. And how close its ideas run to those found in Science and Health. This, with medical works from which Mrs. Eddy freely quotes, adequately supplement the Quimby manu- scripts and furnish enough material for the medical portion of her work. The Key to the Scriptures. It is not Mrs. Eddy or Andrew Jackson Davis, but Swedenborg who has given us the first " Key to the Scrip- tures/' And Mrs. Eddy does not surpass him in his insistence that he, and not " woman,** is the first to know how to interpret the Scriptures cor- rectly. His Science of Correspondences furnishes the true key, and without it none can unlock the door. The writer has a book of Swedenborgian lectures given in 1847, which bears this significant 188 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE title: "The Science of Correspondences — The Key to the Heavenly and True Meaning of the Sacred Scriptures," by Edward Madeley. Mrs. Eddy used his word " science," she uses the phrase " The Key to the Scriptures," but she shies at the word "correspondence;" this is the trade mark of Swedenborgianism. For this word she substi- tutes "metaphor" or "spiritual meaning." By this sagacious precaution she seems to have thrown readers off the trail and saved her book from additional suspicion. To get the close rela- tion between Swedenborg's method of interpret- ing the Scriptures and that contained in Science and Health one has only to read the passage be- low, taken from the 1919 advertisement of Swe- denborg's works by the American Swedenborg Publication Society. It says: Swedenborg's claim to distinction lies in the fact that he was a divinely chosen and prepared instru- ment through which the inner or heavenly meaning of the Word of the Lord was revealed. His mission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, showing it to be in a very real and true sense the actual in- spired Word of God, and explaining with all neces- sary detail that its essential holiness is due to the fact that it has, in every sentence, word, and syllable, a holy, internal sense, treating not of the creation of the material world or of the history of any chosen people, but solely of God, man, their relation to each other, man's regeneration, and the life after death [p. 4f.]. NONSENSE EEVELATIONS 189 A careful analysis of the above passage makes its claims very familiar. Mrs. Eddy claims that she is a " divinely chosen and prepared instrument through which the inner or heavenly meaning of the word " is revealed. And, what is still more significant, when that inner meaning is given it turns out to be the same style of interpretation. I The form of Swedenborg's '' key " is just that which appears in Science and Health. The Bible verse is first given in small type, followed by his comment in larger print. But these external simi- larities are the least impressive. Let us compare his actual interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis. He introduces us to his idea with this explanation : From the literal sense alone, when the mind is fixed in it, no one can ever see that such things are contained therein. Thus in these first chapters of Genesis, nothing else is learned from the sense of the letter than that the creation of the world is treated of, and the garden of Eden, which is called Paradise, and Adam as the first created man. Who supposes any- thing else? But it will be sufficiently established in the following pages that these things contain arcana which have never yet been revealed ; and indeed that the first chapter of Genesis in the internal sense treats in general of the new creation of man [Heavenly Arcana, p. 4]. With this introduction let us plunge into his in- terpretation, as found in The Heavenly Arcana: The worldly and corporeal man says in his heart — 190 THE NONSENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE If I cannot be informed concerning faith and matters of faith by the senses, that I may see them, or by out- ward knowledge, that I may understand them, I will not believe. And he confirms himself by the con- sideration that natural things cannot be contrary to spiritual. He would therefore be informed by the senses on subjects that are heavenly and Divine — which yet is as impossible as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The more he would be wise by such means the more he blinds himself. * * * And this is to eat of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, whereof the more one eats the more dead he becomes [p. 6yi.], It is because of the disastrous consequences of eating of the " tree of knowledge " that Sweden- borg constantly warns his readers against the " fallacies of the senses." Like Mrs. Eddy he maintains : All evils and their falsities both engendered and acquired have their seat in the natural mind [Divine Love and Wisdom, p. 2yy]. Let us now borrow Swedenborg*s " key *' and run in and take a look at the animals in his zoo. As we are entering we are informed that the only reason corporeal man imagines that he sees birds, animals, and creeping things is because he persists in accepting the testimony of his physical senses. Thus his " menagerie *' is made. This truth is thus brought out: As the sensual and corporeal man is merely nat- ural, and viewed in himself is wholly animal, and differs from a brute animal only in being able to talk NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 191 and reason, so he is like one living in a menagerie, where there are all kinds of wild beasts [The True Christian Religion, p. 384]. As a result of this explanation, just as we are starting to look at the animals we are told there are none. He says: That the wild animal does not signify a wild animal nor the fowl a bird, may be evident to every one [P-27]. The creeping things which the waters bring forth signify faculties of knowing which pertain to the external man; birds in general signify rational and intellectual powers [p. 25 f.]. Sea monsters, or whales signify the most general of the faculties of knowing [p. 2^]. When we come to man, Adam, and Abraham, we find the same general ideas. It is the Most Ancient Church that is treated of and called man. And when he is called Adam it signifies that man was from the ground. * * * This is the origin of the name [p. 144]. Abraham, not him at all which lived, but saving faith [p. 41]. I Thus all the Old Testament worthies are re- ? duced to ideas. A glance at Mrs. Eddy's Glos- ' sary shows the same scheme. Rev. Warren F. Evans, Father of the New Thought Movement. Now, where did she get the idea of combining Swedenborg's spiritual philos- ophy with Quimby's science of mental healing? We would like to give her credit for something 192 THE NON-SENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE original in her " divine revelation," but not for this. For both Andrew Jackson Davis and Quimby had made that combination long before she thought of it. Quimby had a manuscript vol- ume on the subject, " Scientific Interpretations of Various Parts of the Scriptures," and in this vol- ume he had worked out the " inner or spiritual meaning of the Bible." Davis had written a large book on The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and A Voice to Mankind. This con- tained its Key to the Scriptures. Mrs. Eddy had free access to these books. Then there was Rev. Warren Evans, a Swedenborgian clergyman, now the acknowledged father of the New Thought Movement, who came to Quimby in 1863 as a pa- tient, and soon became interested in blending the two systems together. Concerning tliis attempt Mr. Horatio W. Dresser in his History of the New Thought Movement says: He had all the essentials, so far as spiritual prin- ciples were concerned; for the devotee of Sweden- borg has a direct clue to the application of spiritual philosophy to life. What Mr. Evans lacked was the new impetus, to put two and two together. He lacked the method by which to apply his ideal and his the- ology to health. Mr. Quimby gave him this im- petus. He possessed the method. Mr. Evans with ready perception saw the connection and was quick in. his discernment of the values of the new practice [P- 72]. Mr. Evans soon opened a mental healing sani- NON-SENSE REVELATIONS 193 torium, and practiced successfully for many years. He wrote a book on mental healing, in 1869, en- titled, The Mental Cure; another, in 1873, en- titled. Mental Medicine. In this latter book we find this significant interpretation of Quimby's principle of healing: Disease being in its root a wrong belief, change that belief and we cure the disease. * * * The late Dr. Quimby, one of the most successful healers of this or any age, embraced this view of the nature of disease, and by a long succession of the most re- markable cures proved the truth of the theory and the efficiency of that mode of treatment. * * * He seemed to reproduce the wonders of the Gospel history [p. 210]. This second book, as has been stated, was pub- lished in 1872, three years before Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy had heard much of this Rev. Warren Evans, a Dartmouth College graduate, a clergyman, and an M. D., who had lately come into the ranks of Quimby's followers, and who, at the time of her second visit to Quimby, was prac- ticing mental healing. In later years many of her most intelligent followers joined his cult. Against him she drew up her by-law forbidding her fol- lowers to read any other books on mental healing. To him she is indebted for that priceless word "metaphysical," which she for so many years rolled as a sweet morsel under her tongue, and which provided her with the idea of a "meta- 194 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE physical '* college. Mrs. Eddy was a ravenous reader of every book that promised help in her line, and the valuable work of this educated man in this particular field had not escaped her watch- ful eye. Mother Ann Lee and the Shakers, Having dis- covered that the credulity of some is unlimited, and having attained every goal to which ordinary mor- tals are heir — wealth, power, fame, religious pre- eminence — she decides to put human credulity to the supreme test. And, not without an underlying vein of humour, she decides to become divine. It is asking too much to allow her name longer to be associated promiscuously with common mortals, ordinary Bible prophets, religious leaders, found- ers of other religious cults ; she does not belong in their class. No less personages than the Virgin Mary, who is worshipped and to whom prayers are made, and Jesus Christ, who is called God, shall hereafter be honoured as her compeers. So she begins to design a halo for her head and to de- mand that a starry crown be placed upon her brow. She classifies herself in this manner: No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person can compass or fulfill the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity. The second appearing of Jesus is, unquestionably, NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 195 the spiritual advent of the advancing idea of God as in Christian Science [Retrospection and Introspec- tion, p. 96]. What this final pretension to divinity involves has already been fully shown in the chapter on Non-Sense Christianity. The novelty of a v/oman claiming to be the second coming of Christ to this world seems, at first, to entitle Mrs. Eddy at last to one original idea. But even here she is a bor- rower. Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker re- ligion, anticipated Mrs. Eddy at this point by about a century. And there were many Shaker colonies busy with their propaganda in the New England of Mrs. Eddy's prime. The writer has visited some of these Shaker colonies, and was personally acquainted with some of their former I leaders. Georgine Milmine has clearly pointed J out many striking resemblances between some of ' Mrs. Eddy*s ideas and those of the Shakers. And in this she has made no mistake. When Mrs. Eddy arrived at the stage of her career where she decided to become divine, she felt the aflfinity of her idea to that of Mother Ann Lee. The " Mother Church," the feminine idea in Deity, celibacy, and a number of other ideas are fundamental to the Shakers. Take the idea of Christ coming the second time as a woman; this is carefully worked out by them. Henry Blinn has a pamphlet en- titled. The Advent of Christ in Man and Woman. In it he says: 196 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE We are quite as well prepared to show as plainly by reason as by Scripture that the Second Appearing of Christ would be manifested in a woman, as that the first Appearing would be manifested in a man. It is evident that a masculine and a feminine element are equally apparent. A Heavenly Father, Mother, Son, should seem more rational [p. i]. The reader will recall that this is the exact trin- ity which Mrs. Eddy, in later years, gives in Science and Health. Only she switches the order around so that it is "Father, Son, Mother/' With this introduction Mr. Blinn continues: We think that the manifestation of the Mother in Deity is as clearly represented in Scriptures as is the Father in Deity. Jesus was the first spiritual teacher who fully represented God as Father, ** Our Father who art in Heaven." So soon as this term was ex- pressed it implied the other, and we now pray: **Our Father, Mother, who art in Heaven" [p. 3]. In the later editions of Science and Health, after Mrs. Eddy has set her heart upon being pro- claimed " divine," she has revised her previous versions of the Lord's prayer, and made its open- ing sentence read : " Our Father-Mother, God." Added to this Shaker idea of the feminine in Deity, there is to be seen the " Mother " idea, in which Mrs. Eddy becomes the " Mother," in place of Ann Lee. She also becomes the Second Ap- pearing of Christ in the world, Instead of Ann Lee. She also becomes the woman clothed with NON-SENSE EEVELATIONS 197 the sun, whose coming is foretold in Revelation 12, instead of Ann Lee, as the Shakers had so carefully worked out the idea. Every one of the feminine ideas from the Shaker religion is repro- duced in the Eddyology of Christian Science, and has been made to do valiant service in the cause of her deification. In the "Mother Church," Boston, there is a stained glass window appropriately representing the Apocalytic woman clothed with the sun ; upon her brow rests a crown studded with twelve stars. The inscription reads: "The Woman God Crowned." And this woman is none other than The Reverend Mary Baker, Glover, Patterson, Eddy, . And her last goal has been attained. A halo now always hovers about her head, a starry crown rests upon her saintly brow, her followers proclaim her " divine " and worship her as their Lord. This final achievement stands as an im- pressive monument to the limitless capacity for religious credulity resident in human nature. To fill in the vacant spaces in the religious fore- ground of the picture, a few incidental ideas are thrown into Science and Health. Swedenborg's concept of God as " Love " is stretched into Uni- versalism. Baptism as purification by spirit, si- lent prayer, and a spiritual communion service without material elements are borrowed from the Quakers. Opposition to a personal Trinity, and a creedless church with only religious tenets, are 198 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE plainly Unitarian in their source. For this is the very distinction adopted by the first General Uni- tarian Convocation held in 1865. Even Darwin and Agassiz are made to contribute to her collec- tion. Thus every important idea in Science and Health can be traced back to some earlier existing human source. The only exception being her pet hobby, — malicious animal magnetism. At the start this seemed to be a strictly original idea, but she soon pushed it back into demonology and thereby revealed its origin. It seems hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that in tracing the ideas contained in Science and Health to their original sources the writer is not passing criticism upon any of the faiths mentioned. He is simply trying to show how unnecessary a direct revelation of such ideas was when every one of them in some form or other had already found adequate expression by human pen and tongue. And that they were all within the range of Mrs. Eddy's knowledge. The reader who is interested in pursuing this subject of supplemental sources farther, will find it worked out in much greater detail in the Biblical Review, April, 1931. VI WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES AND SENSE BEGINS MRS. EDDY'S God-ordained mission did not end when her two alleged di- vine revelations were at last faithfully transmitted to humanity. Another equally im- portant task awaited her inspired genius. The ad- ditional work which God summoned her to per- form she describes as follows: When God called the author to proclaim His Gos- pel to this a§:e, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard [xi]. Having learned something about the way she was "called" and the nature of the Gospel she proclaims to this age, we are a little curious to visit the vineyard she planted and watered to see how closely it resembles " His Vineyard." In the discharge of this second commission, which is ex- ecuted with such exceptional ability, she leads us out of the thought-world of Christian Science over into the practical workaday world where the actual planting and watering of her vineyard is carried on. On our journey from one of these worlds to the other we cross the great divide 199 SOO THE NONSENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE "where non-sense ceases and sense begins. The Mrs. Eddy at work planting and watering her vineyard shows herself to possess so much sound sense that we cannot help suspecting the genuine- ness of her sincere belief in many features of her non-sense science. This discovery confirms a con- viction which has been gradually crystallizing for [some time, that back of most of these non-sense ideas is intel ligent design. And it warns us that I we must not be misled into forming too hastily our opinion of the mental caliber and intelligence of Mrs. Eddy from the things she taught her fol- lowers to believe. It is justifiable to judge them by what they believe, and in the same way Mrs. Eddy should be judged. For she did not believe all the things she taught her followers. She did not believe that she was miraculously healed from the injury of her fall in Lynn on the third day by the discovery of the principle of mental healing. She knew she was not. Neither did she believe her oft repeated claim that " No human pen nor tongue taught" her "the Science contained in . . . Science and Health." She knew per- fectly well the exact human sources from which she had obtained it. As we shall soon see, she did not implicitly believe in many of the extrava- gant things which she teaches about medical science. We have already learned that her de- nial of the existence of the material universe, sin, sickness, and death, was not a result of her WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 201 science of mental healing, or sincere and consist- ent metaphysical thinking, but of stern, practical necessity. Most of these non-sense ideas have shrewd, intelligent design back of their creation. And be it said to the credit of her knowledge of the type of people to whom she expected her science to appeal, every one of them has worked admirably. We regret that space does not permit us to illustrate this interesting feature of her scheme by a detailed study of some of these im- portant ideas. Perhaps just a glance at the most irrational of them all— and one in which she seems to have sincerely believed — malicious animal mag- netism — will serve our purpose. The creation of this thought-demon to prowl around at liberty, en- abled her to lay upon its head the blame for all of the evil, sin, sickness, and death disturbing a world where none of these things are supposed to be present. To be sure this Frankenstein monster which she created to prey upon her enemies, in the end turned upon her and like an avenging fury re- lentlessly pursued her until her dying day. This, however, was a most unexpected reprisal upon which she had not figured, and had to be accepted as one of the unavoidable casualties of her adven- ture. She realized that this handy thought-demon was indispensable to her science. She could not have established her mental healing cult without malicious animal magnetism as her scapegoat. As the utilitarian value of one after another of these 202 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE strange ideas dawns upon one their presence in Science and Health is attributed to a new cause. Keeping the Waters Roily. We now begin to understand why there are so many illogical, be- wildering, and contradictory statements in Science and Health. Too much clarity would have be- trayed its purpose and given the whole secret away. Its ambiguity is not the product of Mrs. I Eddy's disordered mind, and so accidental and un- ' intentional. It is a work of camouflaging art. From Mr. Wiggings immediate family we have re- ceived this hitherto unpublished story which will help to bring out this point. After he had waded through the tangled mass of manuscript which Mrs. Eddy left with him to revise for the six- teenth edition of Science and Health, he said to her: I can translate your sentences into good English, but not into good sense, as there is no sense in them. This offer suited her exactly, and she engaged him on the spot. After he had been working as her literary adviser and reviser, he discovered that what he had ignorantly assumed to be an irreme- diable defect in her book was in reality one of its distinctive merits. Good English she wanted, but " good sense *' would not have served her purpose. Some years later in a letter to an old college chum, commenting upon this peculiarity, Mr. Wiggin makes this statement: WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 203 As for clearness * * * the truth is, she does not care to have her paragraphs clear, and delights in so expressing herself that her words may have various readings and meanings. Really, that is one of the tricks of the trade. You know sibyls have always been thus oracular, to " keep the word of promise to the ear, and break it to the hope " [Mil- mine's Life of Mrs. Eddy, McClure's Magazine, October, 1907]. This assertion that with Mrs. Eddy ambiguity was " one o f the tricks of the trade " when it comes from her personal literary reviser is of the highest value. But this information is not neces- sary. Any close student of Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy soon makes this discovery. She did not fool Mark Twain's keen literary sense. He soon detected her little trick. In one place after quoting a particularly fine specimen of this type of expression, he remarks: " Quite Christian Scientifically foggy in its phrasing" (p. 77). He saw that " foggy phrasing " was an essential part of Mrs. Eddy's non-sense science. By inventing her non-sense language by which she arbitrarily reads into perfectly familiar English words any meaning which may suit her fancy, she reduced " foggy phrasing " to a science. This enabled her to write in riddles which only those who have made a careful study of this confusing language can decipher. The river of water of truth which proceedeth out of the throne of Christian Science, its queen designed to filter through obscurity so 204 THE NONSENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE that its waters would always remain roily, and thus conceal how shallow it is. And here again this scheme has worked. The most common thing is to hear uneducated persons who have tried to read Science and Health say: " It is too deep for me." Its teaching is not deep, it is the shallowest kind of pretense. But when the waters are kept roily, it is hard to tell how deep those waters are. It is ask- ing the skeptical reader a great deal to believe there is so much duplicity back of all this non- sense science. But after we have become better ac- quainted with the way Mrs. Eddy planted and watered her vineyard, this attitude will adjust it- self. The Real Mrs. Eddy, The greatest surprise of our study now awaits the reader. It is the real Mrs. Eddy. One cannot contemplate her career, the success which crowned her efforts, and the eminence to which she climbed, without realizing that back of this unusual achievement there must have been something beside a disordered mind. From such a source a fanatical religit!>«s"^ect might have been developed. But no such compact, adjustable, perfectly functioning material organ- ization as The Mother Church, systematically turning in millions of dollars to its Lord. This phenomenal creation forces us to disentangle Mrs. Eddy from her non-sense science. Though she did not believe in many of the ideas she teaches, there are two propositions in which she did believe WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 205 with all her heart; and these furnish the founda- tion for all of her superstructure. First, she be- lieved in Mr. Quimby's science of mental healing: second, she believed that she could make money .,0^ out of it. Both of these beliefs fall well within the range of the rational mind. And the second one, at least, needs no justification. Those who worked with her, friends and foes alike, are unanimous in their testimony that she was a woman of far more than ordinary ability along certain lines. And not being hampered with re- straining conscientious scruples she had full chance to make the ability she possessed count. Her edu- cational shortcomings, her pitiful ignorance within the intellectual realm of scholarship, where she persisted in posing as an expert, her non-sense science, all combined to obscure her real native ability. Mr. Quimby is reported to have said of her: '' She is a devilish smart woman, but she has no identity in honesty." In the letter from which we have already quoted, Mr. Wiggin speaks thus of her: As for the HIgh-Priestess of it . . . she is — well, I could tell you but not write. An awfully (I use the word advisedly) smart woman, acute, shrewd, but not well read, nor in any way learned. What she has, as documents clearly prove, she got from P. P. Quimby of Portland, Maine, whom she eulo- gized after death as the great leader and her special teacher. 206 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE A little further along he again repeats his state- ment about her not being learned; and pronounc- ing the works of the great thinkers " all closed books to her," he adds: "But dollars and cents she understands perfectly." After several illus- trations in point, he concludes: "You see Mrs. Eddy is nobody's fool." Has the reader ever distinguished between the advice she gives to her healers and her statements to their patients and prospects? This is worth noting. We know what Mrs. Eddy thinks of physiology and medical science. She has told us very plainly that these are diametrically opposed to her science of mental healing. There is no possibility of mixing together the two theories for " The one absolutely destroys the other." At the close of chapter IV on Non-Sense Healing, we called attention to a " strange lapse," where she recommends that surgical cases be turned over to surgeons, obstetrics to regular physicians, and the hypodermic needle used, if necessary. These pre- cautions were suggested to her healers. She also provides for nurses to take charge of those who need constant attention. These approved Chris- tian Science nurses have to qualify by being either graduate nurses whose conversion to Christian Science did not take place until after their courses of training were completed, or persons "who thoroughly understand the practical wisdom necessary in a sick room, and who can take proper WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 207 care of the sick." This " practical wisdom neces- sary in a sick room " suppHes the natural defects of her non-sense science. But the most interesting concession to medical science is now to be mentioned. Christian Science healers are granted the liberty of attending ortho- dox medical colleges and taking their regular medical courses. In this deftly worded para- graph this permission is granted : When the discoverer of Christian Science is con- sulted by her followers as to the propriety, advantage, and consistency of systematic medical study, she tries to show them that under ordinary circumstances a resort to corporeal means tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing all power. While a course of medical study is at times severely condemned by some Scientists, she feels, as she al- ways has felt, that all are privileged to work out their own salvation according to their light, and that our motto should be the Master's counsel, "Judge not, that ye be not judged " [p. 443]. Imagine the person who has so outrageously vilified medical science as the fruit of the "tree of knowledge '' of which we are forbidden to eat upon pain of death, complacently granting her prospective healers the privilege of studying it! The truth is, any genuine medical knowledge that can be surreptitiously smuggled in by healers will come in handy. And do not be deceived, every 208 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE successful healer has plucked all of this " forbid- den fruit " from the tree of knowledge of medical science within his or her reach. And they use all they have. But we are not interested in healers. We are studying Mrs. Eddy. She never took any chances. When she wanted a doctor she made no bones about calling one. Generally she was shrewd enough to have an ex-physician or two among her working force. They came in handy. When she finally adopted a son to be with her in her home, by a curious coincidence he happened to be a full-fledged physician. As Mr. Wiggin remarked: " You see, Mrs. Eddy is nobody's fool." Having somewhat prepared the mind of the reader for the surprise which is to be experienced when one crosses over from the non-sense world of Christian Science to the practical world where non-sense ceases and sense assumes control, let us enter her vineyard. The Second Divinely Inspired Book of Chris- tian Science. This change in worlds removes us from the jurisdiction of Science and Health, and conducts us into the territory where the second official book of Christian Science — The Mother Church Manual — ^holds sway. This book differs radically from its companion volume, save in one respect, it also is divinely inspired. Though a product of a very different kind of inspiration, it proves to be just as effective. Of it Mrs. Eddy says: WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 209 The Rules and By-Laws in the Manual * * * originated not in solemn conclave as in ancient San- hedrim. They were not arbitrary opinions nor dic- tatorial demands, such as one person might impose on another. They were impelled by a power not one's own [Title Page]. Mrs. Eddy was the person " impelled by a power not one's own" to write these by-laws. The certainty of her authorship of this book is assured. Even Mark Twain who insists she did not write Science and Health, says that every by- law and sentence bears the indisputable mark of her personality, mind, and pen. This second di- vinely inspired book of Christian Science reveals to us the real working mind of Mrs. Eddy. Here we find it undisguised. While it is quite possible to imagine that a disordered mind wrote Science and Health, no one who knows The Mother Church Manual would think of pronouncing it the product of a disordered mind. The mind of its author was functioning superbly at its task. Following out Mrs. Eddy's analogy of the vineyard, we identify The Mother Church Manual as the hedge about the vineyard. The Mother Church as the winepress built in it, and her home at Pleasant View as its tower. Unlike the house- holder in the parable, after she had planted her vineyard, put a hedge about it, built a winepress and tower in it, she did not let it out to hus- bandmen, and go into a far country. Quite the 210 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE contrary, she took up her abode in the tower, and kept a watchful eye upon everything that tran- spired in her vineyard. The Winepress — The Mother Church. Let us examine this novel winepress and see if it is pos- sible to discover why it is so unusual in its con- struction, and why the wine which it presses out is of such a golden glow. Mrs. Eddy established her first Christian Science church principally for religious and humanitarian purposes. Its charter was like those granted to similar religious organ- izations, and gave its members full control in the management of its affairs. After Mrs. Patterson the mental healing fanatic developed into Mrs. Eddy the financier, she soon realized that such an organization was ill-adapted to her purpose. She had arrived at the stage where her primary inter- est in this science had shifted to a pecuniary one. She wanted to make money out of her cult; and her church instead of furthering her designs was continually hindering them. Her converts were forever taking it too seriously as a simon-pure re- ligious and humanitarian institution. It was in- evitable that friction should develop from the rub of these two diametrically opposed sets of inter- est By 1881 the first open rupture made Its ap- pearance. A number of her most conscientious early followers had become thoroughly disillu- sioned. The resolution which they drew up and .signed as their resignation speaks for itself: WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 211 We, the undersigned, while we acknowledge and appreciate the understanding of Truth imparted to us by our Teacher, Mrs. Mary B. G. Eddy, led by Divine Intelligence to perceive with sorrow that de- parture from the straight and narrow road (which alone leads to growth of Christ-like virtues) made manifest by frequent ebullitions of temper, love of money, and the appearance of hypocrisy cannot longer submit to such leadership; therefore, without aught of hatred, revenge or petty spite in our hearts, from a sense of duty alone, to her, the Cause, and ourselves, do most respectfully withdraw our names from the Christian Science Association and Church of Christ (Scientist). [Quoted from Milmine, ibid., August, 1907,] The significant thing about this resolution is that the three sins of which her early followers found her guilty, are the very ones which her whole career emphasizes. Though some time later she did succeed in getting her remaining followers to issue a reassuring statement exoner- ating her from all these charges, and condemning as traitors to the cause those who withdrew, the names of the eight persons who signed this reso- lution carried too much weight in Lynn to be dis- credited. Others soon followed their example, and it was not long before her forces in Lynn be- came so depleted and demoralized that she was compelled to evacuate the city and retreat to Bos- ton where she was not so well known, and where personal contacts were not so close. But moving did not remove the cause of the 212 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE trouble. After about seven years of activity in Boston a similar revolt again broke out in her church. In a stormy session of her organization over thirty of her most prominent members in- cluding some of her officers, giving essentially the same three reasons, resigned. This second split came very near wrecking her Boston church. These disastrous revolts made two things plain: First, she began to realize that with her disposi- tion, temper, and love of money, she could not associate too intimately with her followers with- out sooner or later becoming pretty well known to them. Second, she realized that a democratic church organization was not at all suited to her purposes. Its members from conscientious prin- ciples were continually calling her to account, and blocking her plans. They might under severe provocation decide that the best way to save the cause would be to depose her as pastor, or even excommunicate her from her own church. After this second revolt, Mrs. Eddy began to lay plans for making future repetition of these humiliating and annoying experiences impossible. She pur- chased a home in Concord, New Hampshire, called Pleasant View, and to this she withdrew, thus separating herself forever from plebeian as- sociation with the many. From this time on, only the trusted and chosen few were to know inti- mately their Lord's weaknesses and frailties. This was one of the most strategic moves Mrs. WHEEE NOK-SENSE CEASES 213 Eddy ever made. It marks a turning point in the progress of her Boston church. After she had walled herself in from personal contacts, mystery, imagination, and messages did the rest. The second momentous change which grew out of these revolts was the reorganization of her church. We have called attention to her growing dissatisfaction with her democratic church or- ganization. Her business interests and the re- ligious principles of her members were forever getting entangled. Mrs. Eddy read the handwrit- ing on the wall. She knew that in time either she or her church would have to go. And she lost no time in deciding which should be sacrificed. Be- coming deeply imbued with the conviction that all material organizations, even churches, were unfit to represent her purely spiritual system of truth, she decrees her material church instantly to dis- band. Thus officers, members, power to hold moneys, all are wiped out of existence, and its charter abandoned. After having effectually an- nihilated this old democratic organization, her solicitude for a purely spiritual church and her op- position to a material one seem to have waned. For in a short time a new material church is or- ganized. This new organization is the now famous " Mother Church." It contrasts strik- ingly in every essential feature with the organiza- tion which it has displaced. Everything down to the smallest detail is under the personal control 214 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE of Mrs. Eddy. The members of the church have not the sHghtest voice in the conduct of its affairs, except when Mrs. Eddy temporarily delegates it to them. All the disaffected members of the old church are dropped, and only those whom she per- sonally approves can get back into this new church. Every member is elected by the Board of Directors with her approval. This new organ- ization ended forever the repetition of such hu- miliating experiences as those to which she was subjected in 1881, and 1888. She was no longer subject to the authority of the members of her church. They were subject to her authority. Her winepress is now ready to do business. The Tower and the Pastor Emeritus. By a strange contradiction in terms, the Pastor Emeri- tus becomes the supreme head of this new church. Upon her retirement to Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy not only resigned as pastor of the Boston church, but she took the additional precaution to see that none of her dangerous women rivals got a chance to step in and take her place. She abolished the office of a personal, local pastor in all Christian Science churches, and ordained the Bible and Science and Health as the pastor of every church. This decree came as a terrible blow to many of her prominent women pastors, but her word was law, and quietly they all stepped down and out. Mrs. Eddy had herself appointed as pastor WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 215 emeritus. In common usage pastor emeritus is an honorary title conferred upon a pastor who by reason of age or infirmity is no longer able to carry on the work of the active ministry. But the pastor emeritus of The Mother Church was no honorary personage. She was relinquishing none of her prerogatives, active interest, and control. She simply retired from the pastorate of one church to become bishop and pastor of all. Seated upon her throne in her tower, she was a real episcopus. No bishop ever exercised such oversight, control, and authority as did she. The distinctive contribution which Mark Twain makes to the understanding of Christian Science is contained in his keen analysis of the autocratic nature of the government of the Christian Science church. This form of government is built up and hedged about by the by-laws contained in The Mother Church Manual. A detailed study of this book will reveal that every by-law is drawn up with consummate skill, and contributes some indis- pensable part to its business machinery. Boards and officers abound, but while Mrs. Eddy was alive they were the machinery through which she worked her will. All were subject to her com- plete domination. Mark Twain jotted down the many powers which, through The Mother Church Manual, she lodged in her own hands. In enu- merating them, he says: We may now make a final footing-up of Mrs. 216 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Eddy, and see what she is, in the fukiess of her powers. She is, The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus; President ; Board of Directors; Board of Education ; Board of Lectureships; Future Board of Trustees ; Proprietor of the Publishing-House and Peri- odicals ; Treasurer ; Clerk; Proprietor of the Teachers ; Proprietor of the Lecturers ; Proprietor of the Missionaries; Proprietor of the Readers ; Dictator of the Services; sole Voice of the Pulpit; Proprietor of the Sanhedrin ; Sole Proprietor of the Creed. (Copyrighted.) Indisputable Autocrat of the Branch Churches, with their life and death in her hands ; Sole Thinker for The First Church (and the others) ; Sole and infallible Expounder of Doctrine, in life and in death ; Sole permissible Discoverer, Denouncer, Judge, and Executioner of Ostensible Hypnotists ; Fifty-handed God of Excommunication — with a thunderbolt in every hand; Appointer and Installer of the Pastor of all the Churches — The Perpetual Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, "the Comforter." There she stands — painted by herself. No witness but herself has been allowed to testify. She stands WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 217 there painted by her acts and decorated by her words [Christian Science, p. 2^gi.]. The prophetic little verse which is printed upon the title page of every edition of Science and Health until this dream was realized, is now un- derstood. It reads: I, I, I, I itself, I, The inside the outside, the what and the why, The when and the where, the low and the high, All is I, I, I, I itself, I. Of her newly perfected Mother Church she could truthfully say: All is I, I, I, I itself, I. Obedience to Mrs. Eddy Required. Most Christian Churches make obedience to God and Jesus Christ a fundamental requirement. The Mother Church Manual makes obedience to Mrs. Eddy the fundamental requirement. Seven pages are devoted to this Important subject under the title: " Relation and Duties of Members to Pastor Emeritus.*' In our study of Non-Sense Chris- tianity we learned that theoretically Mrs. Eddy is the Lord of the Christian Science religion. After one has studied In Its concrete details the relation and duties which members of this church owe her, her actual Lordship no longer remains in doubt. We have no time to go Into these points, they can be easily read, but the principle underlying them is given In these words: "Obedience Required." There In a nutshell, you have the secret of the way Mrs. Eddy built up her religious cult. This 218 THE NONSENSE OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE obedience was required from every one from the highest official to the lowest member. Her ulti- matum to her officials is given in this by-law: It shall be the duty of the officers of this Church, of the editors of the Christian Science Journal, Sen- tinel, and Der Herold, of the members of the Com- mittees on PubUcation, of the Trustees of The Chris- tian Science Publication Society, and of the Board of Education promptly to comply with any written order, signed by Mary Baker Eddy, which applies to their official functions. Disobedience to this By- Law shall be sufficient cause for the removal of the offending member from office [p. 65].* At the time this by-law was written it included every official in the organization. And of all she required obedience. Disobedience was sufficient cause for removal from office. And Mrs. Eddy was a wonderful disciplinarian. Neither fear nor favour influenced her decrees. She meted out the reward of disobedience so many times that every one knew what to expect. Obedience was the corner-stone upon which she erected her Christian Science edifice, and serving her she made its keystone. We have time to give but two typical examples of the way she let it be known that service rendered to her was a high religious duty. Under a tactfully worded by-law entitled : " Opportunity for Serving the Leader " she introduces this feature. It reads: *A11 references to by-laws are to The Mother Church Manual. WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 219 At the written request of the Pastor Emeritus, Mrs. Eddy, the Board of Directors shall immediately notify a person who has been a member of this Church at least three years to go in ten days to her, and it shall be the duty of the member thus notified to remain with Mrs. Eddy three years consecutively. A member who leaves her in less time without the Directors' consent or who declines to obey this call to duty, upon Mrs. Eddy's complaint thereof shall be excommunicated from The Mother Church, Mem- bers thus serving the Leader shall be paid semi- annually at the rate of one thousand dollars yearly in addition to rent and board [p. 6yi.], In this way she arrives at a happy solution of the employment problem. It works so well in her business that she also adopts it for her domestic needs. Here is the by-law which covers these: If the author of the Christian Science text-book call on this Board for household help or a handmaid, the Board shall immediately appoint a proper mem- ber of this Church therefor, and the appointee shall go immediately in obedience to the call. " He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37) [p. 69]. Without the slightest hesitation or compunction Mrs. Eddy invaded the personal rights of her fol- lowers; she assumed a primary proprietary right in their life and service, and her claim upon their time and talents was paramount. She goes so far as to quote the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples as exactly typifying the correct relation which should exist between her followers and her- 220 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE self. If this does not express in tangible and con- crete form her actual Lordship over her followers, it cannot be done. The interesting feature of this Lordship in operation is that back of all her high-sounding appeals to religious duty she menacingly held the big stick of force. Fear of removal from office and excommunication from The Mother Church were two weapons of force which she forged and relentlessly used. Friends and foes alike felt their blows. From Mr. Spofford to Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson she demonstrated that no friendship, however close, could presume upon her leniency. The record of her arbitrary removals from office and excommunications makes interesting reading. By her impartial use of her instruments of force she inspired a holy terror in her followers and officials. Mark Twain graphically describes her as " a Fifty-handed God of Excommunication — with a thunderbolt in every hand." This is not the picture most people have formed of the founder of the church of "Universal Love," but it correctly portrays Mrs. Eddy in action as the Pastor Emeri- tus of The Mother Church, In this way she built up the most remarkable religious autocracy that has ever been established. Ex-Emperor William II tried to copy the idea when he trained up a gene- ration of Germans to believe that he was their " Gott." Mrs. Eddy succeeded in her scheme be- cause she was wise enough to know that only a WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 221 certain class of people will stand for that sort of thing ; and she was content to confine her domina- tion to them. Whatever may have been the original motives which inspired Mrs. Eddy, in 1879, to organize her first Christian Science Church, there is no doubt as to what led her to disband it and estab- lish in its place the unique autocratic religious or- ganization known as The Mother Church. Re- ligious and humanitarian objects would have been much better conserved by her original organiza- tion; this she discarded. The Mother Church gave her a wonderful organization through which to carry on her business of dispensing mental healing, and made all of its members her paid and unpaid employees. The unembellished history of her management of it, and the millions which she made through it, tell most eloquently the effi- ciency of the organization and the genius of its manager. Had she, like some sincere religious fanatics, laboured under any delusions concerning her di- vine inspiration, her sacrilegious act of laying un- holy hands upon the Christian Church and ap- propriating it for her personal aggrandizement might have been pardoned. But no such extenu- ating circumstances mitigate her sin. She was not a religious fanatic; religion as such had never profoundly interested her. It was her lack of genuine religious emotional interest which drove 222 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE her to curious cults. By the time she organized The Mother Church she was working out a de- liberate, cold-blooded, mercenary scheme. What- ever the pastor of the first Christian Science church may have been, the Pastor Emeritus of The Mother Church was a shrewd, keen, none too scrupulous, business woman. Standardizing Her Product and Perfecting Her Model. Because Science and Health was a com- pilation, and not the product of a mind under the creative spell of a new discovery, it was beyond Mrs. Eddy's power to breathe into its pages the breath of literary soul-life. After the failure of the first edition, she set to work to remedy its most glaring defects. But the harder she worked upon it the worse it became. It is a patent fact that every edition from the second to the fifteenth is decidedly inferior to the first. It seems almost a literary impossibility for the per- son who wrote the first edition to drop down in the scale of composition and expression to the low level found in these succeeding volumes. This is a most unusual feature in the evolution of edi- tions. We will illustrate it by one comparison. We will compare the first and the third editions. In Vol. I, p. 230, of the third edition, we read: A patient thoroughly booked in the jargon of the schools is more difficult to heal through Mind than an aboriginal North American Indian who has never bowed the knee to Baal. WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 223 In the first edition this passage is thus refined: A patient thoroughly booked in physiology, ma- teria medica, etc., is more difficult to heal with science than one having never bowed the knee so methodic- ally to matter [p. 426]. This paralleling of passages can be carried through these two books from beginning to end, and in every instance the grammar, expression, refinement, and moderation of the first edition is strikingly superior to the second, third, and fol- lowing editions down to the sixteenth. We asked Mr. Spofford how he explained this freak phenomenon in the evolution of the editions of Science and Health, and he replied: Have you noticed that? You see in the first edi- tion she stuck close to Quimby, but when she broke away from him and tried to go it alone she spoiled it. It is very easy for those familiar with the Quimby manuscripts to accept this explanation. For in spite of the reflections cast upon them by Mrs. Eddy and her authorized biographer, Sibyl Wilbur, the Quimby manuscripts are well written, and Immeasurably superior to any of Mrs. Eddy's productions of that period. As we were reading them over with Mr. Spoflford, every little while he would stop and exclaim:. "Pretty well put for such an ignorant man, don't you think ? " We suspect that Mrs. Eddy thought that she might popularize Science and Health if she could change 224 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE its style into that of her extemporaneous dis- course. For Mrs. Eddy was a vivacious lecturer, and had no difficulty in interesting her students when she talked upon this subject. It was writ- ing that was difficult. So in 1877 she hired Mrs. Sarah Crosby to take down her series of lectures verbatim. From these notes she seems to have recast the editions in question. And while some of her students liked these better, because they said: "They sound more like Mrs. Eddy," yet the deterioration was so marked that by 1884 she abandoned this scheme, went back to the first edi- tion for a foundation, and worked out a new man- uscript. After she had done her best with this, she took it to Mr. James Henry Wiggin, and hired him to fix it up for publication. This is why the sixteenth edition is more like the first, and is also a decided improvement upon that. Science and Health as it appears to-day has passed through the hands of so many revisers that many students, familiar with Mrs. Eddy's natural literary style, insist that she did not write it. This accusation strikes at the heart of its divine inspira- tion, and for this reason Christian Scientists bit- terly resent It. Sibyl Wilbur speaks of Mark Twain's assertion that Mrs. Eddy did not write Science and Health, as " supreme audacity and unscrupulous wickedness." Then she comes to the defense of Mrs. Eddy's authorship in this he- roic manner: WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 225 The real author of every word of the first edition, and every v^ord, phrase, paragraph, and chapter of the very last edition is the one who wrote the limp- ing verses of girlhood, the so-called " Quimby " manuscripts with their confusion of ideas, the state- ment of the Science of Man, Genesis, and Apoca- lypse, and finally " Science and Health" [p. 218]. We do not question that Mrs. Eddy compiled Science and Health, but we think it would be a very easy matter to prove that Mrs. Eddy's au- thorized biographer is unpardonably ignorant upon the material contained in the various edi- tions of Science and Health. " Every word, phrase, paragraph, and chapter " is a sv^eeping claim. If space permitted we would like to sepa- rate what strike us as the " I " and " the author '* passages from each other. But we will content ourselves with the story of the chapter entitled, Wayside Hints. After the sixteenth edition was already cast into plates, Mrs. Eddy^s advisers became so appre- hensive over the libelous character of her chapter on Demonology, that they persuaded her to cut it out. This removal left a number of blank pages to be filled in before the book could be issued. About this time Mr. Wiggin wrote for Mrs. Eddy a sermon on The City that Lieth Four-square, which she preached as her own before her Boston congregation- Mr. Wiggin enjoyed telling of the exquisite humour of the situation as he sat in that 226 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE church audience and heard Mrs. Eddy preach his sermon. He tells how when the service was ended he made his way up to the platform where the faithful were crowding about her congratulating her on her inspired utterance. When she saw him she edged over to where he was standing and with a twinkle in her eyes asked in a stage whisper: "How did it go?" Mrs. Eddy's sense of hu- mour was not as lacking as some imagine. This sermon came in the nick of time. Cut down to the proper length it would fill in those blank pages, and the book could be published! So at Mrs. Eddy's request, Mr. Wiggin cut down this sermon and under the title, Wayside Hints, inserted it into the sacred volume. To allay suspicion of its source in the minds of any who might detect its marked difference in style, Mrs. Eddy injected into its midst three irrelevant paragraphs, plainly written by herself, on her late husband and Mr. Quimby. But these are so apparently out of place, and so different in style, that they can easily be separated from their context, which is a con- nected symbolic working out of the idea that Christian Science is the Holy City which came down from God out of heaven. Mr. Wiggin was at his best in developing his theme. A single para- graph will give some idea of the flowery way in which he treated it. He writes: The City of Christian Science is indeed a city of the spirit, fair, royal, and square. Northward, its WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 227 gates open to the North Star of the Bible, the Polar magnet of revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wise Men of the Orient, who followed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, — the Cross of Calvar}^, which binds human society into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Har- mony [20th ed., p. 232]. It is easy to understand why this literary gem on Christian Science should be enthusiastically re- ceived. The extravagant ecstasies into which the faithful went over this production were too much for Mr. Wiggin's abounding sense of humour. So one day he confided his secret to a few inti- mate friends. This was too good a story on Mrs. Eddy's way of doing things to be kept, and soon it became public property. The knowledge that there was a whole chapter in the heart of that in- spired volume, written by Mr. Wiggin, wrought such havoc with its infallibility that after a few editions this precious literary gem had to be dis- carded. The mere fact that under attack this chapter was dropped, is clear proof of the truth of its origin. There is not the slightest doubt about the trust- worthiness of this incident. While living Mr. Wiggin confirmed it many times to friends who are still living and vouch for it. To bring it down to date we communicated with his immediate fam- ily about it and received this reply: " Mr. Wiggin 228 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE did write the chapter on Wayside Hints, but it was expurgated after one or two editions." This may seem Hke ancient history, but it has an impor- tant bearing upon the statement made by Sibyl Wilbur. Any one knowing Mrs. Eddy well could safely hazard the guess that she would never throw away such a precious literary gem on Chris- tian Science as Mr. Wiggin had worked out. So if the reader will search hard enough, all that is worth while in this once expurgated chapter will be found safely ensconced, under a new name, in a new setting, in the chapter on the Apocalypse. To be sure that no mistake has been made, turn to page 575, 1918 edi- tion, and there the very paragraph which we quoted from the original chapter will be found word for word. To Mr. Wiggin, therefore, and not to Mrs. Eddy, Christian Scientists are in- debted for the now popular symbolism of The City that Lieth Four-square, so dear to them in lecture and song. After Mrs. Eddy turned over her book to others to revise, it began to improve. By the time of her death it had been perfected just as much as was possible. The reader may wonder why some of her intelligent revisers did not reduce its contra- dictions and vagueness to consistency and clarity. Mrs. Eddy would not permit it. By thus stand- ardizing her output, and perfecting her model, she made Science and Health the " only authorized WHEBE NON-SENSE CEASES 229 text-book on Christian Science." From the stand- point of business efficiency this was valuable. It reduced the cost of production and increased many hundred per cent, the profits. Selling Her Product. Science and Health is the heart in the system of Christian Science. It is the vital organ that pumps the blood through every artery, and makes its life and growth pos- sible. It is the pastor of every church, it is the teacher of every teacher, it is the healer of every healer, it disseminates the only authorized and in- fallible revelation of the divine truth of mental healing: and it does all this at a profit of many hundred per cent. In its interest every shaft, wheel, and cog in the mighty machinery of The Mother Church revolves. One cannot be a Chris- tian Scientist without its help. Not only did Mrs. Eddy require every one to own a volume, but she also made it necessary for every one to become automatically an unpaid agent for its sale. The Christian Science Journal for March 13, 1897, contains this order: It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and sell as many of these books as possible. While Mrs. Eddy was living she required every follower to possess the very latest revelation of " Divine Truth,*' So that as soon as a new edi- tion made its appearance the old had to be imme- diately discarded. By this simple device, when 230 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE the sale of an edition had stalled because all of the faithful were supplied, a new edition with a few incidental changes incorporated in it could be is- sued, and business revived. And Science and Health was very frequently revised in Mrs. Eddy's time. By making her converts first customers, then agents, and Science and Health the indispensable possession of every Christian Scientist, she built up, not only a great demand for her product, but also the most wonderful advertising and selling system known. And every penny of profit from handling this book went to the organization. And when Mrs. Eddy was alive, she was the organiza- tion. Holding Her Business. When one's customers are converts, holding business is reduced to the problem of holding old converts, and gaining new. Mrs. Eddy took more pains to hedge in her con- verts than any known religious sect. First she herded them off in a church by themselves, and compelled them to listen to no voice but her own, as Science and Health alone was allowed to preach to them. Next she forbids them to join any or- ganizations that "might impede their progress in Christian Science." It soon develops that all re- ligious and humanitarian organizations come un- der this ban. For the truth is: God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church duti- WHEEB NON-SENSE CEASES 231 ful and sufficient occupation for all its members [Manual, p. 44f.]. She frankly informs her followers that her " Church organizations " are " ample " for their outside interests. Then she follows this by-law by another in which she forbids them to join any other societies than those specified in The Mother Church Manual. They shall ** strive to promote the welfare of all mankind" through Christian Science organizations. The only exception to this prohibition is the Masonic Order. Christian Scientists may join the Masons. Mrs. Eddy seems to have cherished a warm spot in her heart for the Masons because they befriended her when she was stranded in the South after the death of her first husband, Mr. Glover. But we suspect that even the Masonic Order would not have es- caped her interdict were it not for the fact that it is a man's organization. Mrs. Eddy had experienced considerable trou- ble through recalcitrant members who resented her curbing of their natural liberties. So she plans that there shall be no rebels in her ranks. Loyalty to her in thought and deed she makes the supreme virtue, and disloyalty the unforgivable sin. The reference to the " interests of another ** is thrown in to soften the shock of the real pur- pose of the following by-law: If a member of this Church shall, mentally or 232 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE otherwise, persist in working against the interests of another member, or the interests of our Pastor Emeritus and the accomphshment of what she under- stands is advantageous to this Church and to the Cause of Christian Science, or shall influence others thus to act, upon her complaint or the complaint of a member for her or for himself, it shall be the duty of the Board of Directors immediately to call a meeting, and drop forever the name of the member guilty of this offense from the roll of Church mem- bership [p. 52f.]. '* Drop forever the name of the member guilty " is the doom of a lost soul. The unforgivable sin which seals this doom is to work against Mrs. Eddy in " thought or deed.'* Having hedged in her members from all contact with other religious and humanitarian organiza- tions and made sure of their loyalty to her in "thought and deed," she turns her attention to another avenue of possible danger — their reading. Historic denominations have grown very lax upon the literature their adherents read. Mrs. Eddy realized that this was one of the mightiest influ- ences in their lives. And she hedges about their reading at the danger points. They are not al- lowed to read the Bible without the '* Key to the Scriptures '* at hand to give to each passage its " true spiritual meaning." And all works on men- tal healing, but her own, are forbidden. At this point Mrs. Eddy goes a little farther. She for- bids her followers to patronize bookstores where WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 233 literature against Christian Science is sold. Her boycott by-law is thus worded: A member of this Church shall not patronize a publishing house or bookstore that has for sale obnoxious books [p. 44]. Those who live in the vineyard Mrs. Eddy has planted and watered are securely hedged in by the by-laws of The Mother Church Manual. Such aloofness would once have been pronounced the height of bigotry. Yet Christian Science has a reputation for being broad-minded and liberal. Mrs. Eddy was too bright to stop with mere prohibitions. Idle brains are sure to get into mis- chief. So she provides her followers with an abundance of good literature. Science and Health must be daily read. This takes up some time, and gives a Christian Science thought a day to ponder. Then she provides an authorized Life of herself, so that she knows what they are reading about her past. She also provides a hymnal so that she knows what they sing. Then she provides The Mother Church Manual so that they will have proper Rules and By-Laws. In addition to these standard volumes, she provides a daily paper, a weekly paper, a monthly magazine, and a quar- terly review. And from time to time she put out other literature, such as Miscellanies. In no place does her good business sense shine more brilliantly than in her appreciation of the 234 THE NON-SENBE OF CHEISTI AN SCIENCE value of the press. She realized the strategic po- sition which it occupies. It reaches those who go to church and those who stay at home, those who believe and those who do not believe. It has a constituency that no local church can cover. So Mrs. Eddy reversed the common practice. She made this agency of her church the most impor- tant. Her ablest men and her highest salaries she turned to this department. And then she fur- nished them with sufficient money to put out high- grade periodicals. This wisdom contrasts strik- ingly with the foolish neglect of most religious denominations. They generally allow their de- nominational publications to struggle along inde- pendently, or on the verge of bankruptcy, handi- capped at every turn by lack of funds. Editors and managers for the most part are devoted men who stick to their work at great personal cost, ren- dering a disproportionate sacrificial service for the sake of the cause. Mrs. Eddy was too keen a business woman to blunder at this strategic point. Upon her press she lavished the best she had. Getting Her Propaganda to the People. Real- izing that people are going to read something, and being determined that they should not read dan- gerous literature, and having spent much money to put out properly censored literature, she saw to it that it reached the people. Not only is every member required to own Science and Health and her Authorized Life by Sibyl Wilbur, but they WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 235 must also take the periodicals. A divinely in- spired by-law lays upon each this obligation : It shall be the privilege and duty of every member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this Church [p. 44]. This by-law is not like the formal resolution of approval passed by the conventional ecclesiastical body, which dies as soon as it is born. It incul- cates a duty and exacts obedience. Until the rup- ture between the Board of Directors and the Trustees of the Publication Society developed, one could not enter a Christian Science home without finding one or more of these publications. And they were read. By thus keeping in daily and weekly contact with every Christian Science home. The Mother Church maintained a strong, vital hold upon all the followers of this cult. The religious denomination that has no official periodicals, or whose periodicals do not find their way each week into every home, has short-cir- cuited its high-powered line of communication, and lost one of the mightiest agencies of the de- nomination. Nothing can take its place. Having taken such superb care of her own, she now turns her attention to the outsider. In each church there is a literature committee, whose duty it is to see that the authorized books on Christian Science are placed upon the shelves of every pub- lic library. If there is a reading-room, the Chris- 236 THE NON-SENSE OF-CHRISTIAN SCIENCE tian Science periodicals are also provided for its files. Every Christian Science church is required to provide a reading-room where the public can come and rest, and read Christian Science litera- ture. Mrs. Eddy did not waste any money on nondescript activities and literature that have no direct bearing upon Christian Science. Having exhausted all the established channels of publicity, this indefatigable committee goes out into the byways and searches for stray public places where its literature may be placed. Public waiting-rooms, railway stations, where there are no news stands, and where the weary traveller welcomes something to read, here this literature is thoughtfully placed. County fairs, and general public gatherings where people are found in num- bers are not forgotten. It is amazing how faith- fully these channels of publicity are watched and used. Keeping the Enemy in His Trenches. Having done everything possible along a constructive line for her converts and the disinterested community, she next turns her attention to her antagonists. They need watching. Mrs. Eddy was militant enough to realize that the best defense is an of- fensive move. So in every corner of her vineyard she stationed guards whose duty it is to keep a watchful eye upon the enemy, and at the first sign of a suspicious move start a counter-attack. These guards are organized under the name of WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 237 the Christian Science Committee of Publication. The name, like most others in the cult, is some- what misleading. For this committee devotes its attention exclusively to literature that is published against Christian Science. The head committee is located at Boston, and various state committees take care of the outposts. These committees are composed of able men, well paid, and expert in tactful, diplomatic dealing. Their prescribed course of procedure is as follows: As soon as an article or book appears which merits attention, the committee under whose jurisdiction it comes sends some one in person to talk the matter over with the writer or publisher. This representative, in a very kindly and tactful way, makes a protest against the unfairness or incorrectness of the ar- ticle or book, and upon this ground endeavours to have it suppressed. If it is an article, the privi- lege of replying to it through the columns of the same periodical is requested. Failing in this, some other means must be devised to counteract its effect. It is surprising how effective such a committee can be made. The very knowledge of its existence has a deterring effect. Some writers and publishers will not venture to put out any- thing against Christian Science because they know the activity and power of this committee, and the boycott by-law which it can wield against them. For there are many wealthy Christian Scientists whose patronage publishers do not wish to lose. 238 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Those living in the vicinity of New York City have just been impressed with the effective way in which this Committee of Publication works. The New York Times for April 19, 1921, contained this interesting news item: Because Albert F. Gilmore, in charge of the Chris- tian Science Committee on Publication for the State of New York, objected to an article, " Science and Health," in the fourth and last volume of "The Cambridge History of American Literature," G. P. Putnam's Sons have stopped the sale of the volume, discontinued the publication of any more copies, and will recall all the volumes so far on the market. * * * The offending chapter is No. XXVHI, entitled *' Popular Bibles." These are " The Book of Mor- mon " and " Science and Health." Mr. Putnam said that the article on " The Book of Mormon " would remain in the book, as there had been no complaint. We mention this incident simply to show how effective such a committee is. The Mormon Church and all others ought to note that the com- plaint is the thing that brings results. Sanitation and Salvage. The sanitation of the salvage of her past is one of the most effective pieces of engineering which Mrs. Eddy ever did. From her son George Glover, from Mr. Spofford, and from many others, she tried by every means in her power to get back into her own hands the letters which she had once written. She did per- suade Mr. Hiram Crafts to journey to Pleasant WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 239 View to turn over to her in person the Quimby manuscript which she let him copy in the late sixties. If one wishes to know the limits to which this sanitation of salvage was carried all one has to do is to go to some of those public libraries where the files of the papers which con- tained damaging material are kept, and take a look at their sadly mutilated condition. The ar- ticles that are missing are those that related to Mrs. Eddy. We do not know who is responsible for this work, but it has been done by some one. This committee on the sanitation of the salvage of the past sees to it that as far as possible all dangerous books are gotten out of the reach of the public. It is very difficult to find in any sec- ond-hand bookstore old books of any merit against Christian Science. Though the seeker for information upon Mrs. Eddy can always find copies of Sibyl Wilbur's Life of Mrs. Eddy avail- able. This is a most effective piece of work, for it destroys much valuable first-hand material. An Authorized Life of Mrs. Eddy. Having been robbed of her real past by the efficient com- mittee on sanitation and salvage, it became neces- sary to furnish Mrs. Eddy with a past befitting her divinity and greatness. The little autobiog- raphy. Retrospection and Introspection, which she wrote for this purpose in 1891, was such a crude and childish affair, and so full of obvious mis- statements, that it did more harm than good. 240 THE NON-SENSE OF CHKISTIAN SCIENCE Such a difficult and delicate task awaited the genius of some gifted writer. Sibyl Wilbur has proven herself to be this person. And her Life of Mrs. Eddy is the authorized source for infor- mation upon this subject. With characteristic camouflage, Mrs. Eddy writes a note in The Chris- tian Science Sentinel of March 12, 1910, re- printed upon the front page of the book, which endeavours to create the impression that this story of her life was written and published by disinter- ested parties. But it is impossible to read this version of her early life, and its explanation of those many incidents which cannot be ignored, without suspecting that Mrs. Eddy's sagacity is responsible for the whole book. This work com- pletes the trio of important Christian Science of- ficial books. It deserves study as well as Science and Health and The Mother Church Manual. And it rewards study in exactly the same surpris- ing way. We regret that space does not permit a little time spent upon it. This, however, must be said: Its author is no ordinary, matter-of-fact, mechanical, historical photographer of the actual events of Mrs. Eddy's life. She is a creative art- ist of no mean ability. Every incident and event, after it leaves her magic touch, takes on a new as- pect. Those familiar with the originals of these events hardly recognize them after this artist has touched them up. The Mrs. Eddy pictured in this book is as different from the historical Mrs. WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 241 Eddy as the real Mrs. Eddy is from the idealized Mrs. Eddy whom Christian Scientists worship. The publication of tliis made-to-order life of Mrs. Eddy with the requirement that it alone shall be the authoritative source from which all Christian Scientists shall derive their knowledge of her, and its ubiquitous presence in every public library and second-hand bookstore are gradually building up in the public mind an entirely new and unhistor- ical Mrs. Eddy. And there is no work now avail- able, The Life of Mrs. Eddy by Georgine Milmine having been allowed to go out of print, to give the historical facts to those who desire to know the truth. The Present-Day Organisation. Inasmuch as Mrs. Eddy's God-ordained mission included both the proclaiming of " His Gospel to this age," and also the planting and watering of " His vineyard," it naturally follows that no human being must ever presume to tamper with either. While she was living, removal from office and excommuni- cation from The Mother Church were the instru- ments of force by which she endeavoured to pre- vent any such sacrilegious acts, but she did not rely upon these alone. In the original Deed of Trust by which she generously conveys to the Board of Directors of The Mother Church the property for which the members of her disbanded church paid, she thoughtfully incorporates these items: 242 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE In addition to the trusts contained in said deed of September i, 1892, from Mary Baker G. Eddy, this property is conveyed on the further trusts that no new Tenet or By-Law shall be adopted, nor any Tenet or By-Law amended or annulled by the grantees unless the written consent of said Mary Baker G. Eddy, the author of the text-book " Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," be given therefor, or unless at the written request of Mrs. Eddy the Executive Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (foi-merly called the "First Members"), by a two-thirds vote of all their num- ber, decide so to do [Manual, p. 137]. By taking this precaution to protect her revela- tions and by-laws through the medium of the orig- inal Deed of Trust to the property, she made for- feiture of all rights in this property to follow any presumptuous tampering with her work. This provision left everything in her hands while she lived, and when she died made all change forever impossible. If Mrs. Eddy was God's divinely chosen representative upon this earth, this require- ment is natural and necessary. And it was the only way she could hope to realize the fulfillment of her prophetic vision of the day when her church "will eventually rule all nations, and peo- ples — imperatively, absolutely, finally, with divine Science.'* There is a finality about this decree, which, while it is absolutely essential to the life of the cult, at the same time spells out its death war- rant. WHEEE NON-SENSE CEASES 243 On December 3, 1910, Mrs. Eddy's earthly life came to an end, and her earthly Lordship ceased. Her followers tell us that her ''spiritual pres- ence " is still with them, and is just as real and controlling as was her former bodily presence. But the facts do not seem satisfactorily to sustain this claim. Discord and rivalry such as never manifested themselves, while she was in her tower as Pastor Emeritus, now disturb the realm of har- mony. The differences between the Board of Di- rectors and the Trustees of the Publication Soci- ety have become so acute that they have been brought out of the secret chamber of the cult and aired in the courts. These differences have sent a split down through every branch church and into every Christian Science home. To increase this disordered condition of affairs, Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson, the excommunicated founder of the Ninety-sixth Street Church, New York City, after eleven years of patient biding her time, has seized upon this turbulent period as the psychological moment to come back. For she has recently been spending considerable money in issu- ing full-paged statements of propaganda to prove that the whole material organization of the pres- ent Christian Science Church has fallen so far away from the teaching and spirit of Mrs. Eddy that it has forfeited its right to be entrusted with her " Truth.'* Her indictment of this organiza- tion runs as follows: 244 THE NON-SEKSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE Gradually it became apparent that materiality and reversal of divine metaphysics were creeping into the ranks of Christian Science. Love of ease, in per- sonal sense, pride of place and power, and an un- willingness to handle the claims of malicious animal magnetism, manifested, in self-love, self-will, self- justification, the lust of the fleshly mind, and the pride of material existence, with their earthward gravitation, were evident, and Christian Science Mind- healing, with many, dropped to the level of so-called mental healing on a human will basis [New York Tribune, December 19, 1920]. This is a scathing arraignment of the Christian Science Church. For this reason Mrs. Stetson calls upon all of those who sincerely believe in Mrs. Eddy's divinity and teaching to come out from among these betrayers of her cause and join the purely spiritual church which she is striving to establish to save Christian Science. Mrs. Stet- son has a strong following, and this bomb thrown into the midst of the already demoralized forces of the cult has created pandemonium within the realm of harmony. It is sadly evident that the serpent, personal sense, has at last wriggled itself into this new Eden ; and we know what to expect. But we have no direct interest in the internal troubles of the Christian Science cult. We do not care to pass any criticism upon the present-day organization, its churches, healers, members, their fancies or follies. Just so long as Christian Scien- tists sincerely believe In the divinity of Mrs. Eddy WHERE NON-SENSE CEASES 245 and her teaching, their sincerity, devotion, and loyalty are entitled to respect. This should not, however, obscure the fact that they are unques- tionably the innocent victims of a colossal impos- ture carrying with it its concomitant array of fal- lacious and dangerous teaching. There are two vulnerable spots in Christian Science; they are: Mrs. Eddy, and the truth of her non-sense science. When the public is in pos- session of the truth concerning both of these, its doom will be sealed. But this knowledge cannot be generally disseminated until those who teach in theological seminaries, college class-rooms. Chris- tian pulpits, Sunday School groups, and Christian homes, take the trouble to inform themselves in- telligently upon this subject. Unfair, inaccurate criticism and ridicule can never do the work of sincere, conscientious, intelligent mastery of this subject. This hasty sketch of the way Mrs. Eddy planted and watered her vineyard lets us into the secret of her success. One feature remains to be added. VII THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL ALL of Mrs. Eddy's divinity, revelations, non-sense science, and peerless organiza- tion would have come to nought had there not been in the world a certain class of people to whom this sort of thing makes a fascinating ap- peal. This introduces the last important factor which has contributed to the success of Christian Science. In the midst of the bewildering diversity of types found among its adherents, there are cer- tain clearly marked characteristics which they pos- sess in common, and which make it possible for them to become Christian Scientists. We will mention a few of the most important. The writer has often been asked: " Will you explain how in- telligent people can believe in Christian Science? " The word " intelligent " throws us off the track. General intelligence does not supply any one with a personal knowledge of Mrs. Eddy. The aver- age person knows nothing whatever about her. This is equally true concerning the specific sub- jects which underlie this cult. None of them fall within the range of general intelligence. They are all specialties which require lifelong study to master. Only trained metaphysicians, Biblical 246 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 247 scholars, systematic theologians, anatomists, phy- siologists, chemists, and psychologists are suffi- ciently informed upon these subjects to pass intel- ligent judgment upon the correctness of Mrs. Eddy's fundamental principles. Christian Scien- tists do not profess to be learned in these branches of modem knowledge. Does not Mrs. Eddy say: " No intellectual proficiency is requisite in the learner" (p. x) ? And is she not very particular to point out that " this understanding is not intel- lectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments " (p. 605). Why, then, should one regard the general intelligence of a Christian Scientist as any safeguard against being deceived along these lines? Knowledge and reason are the only pos- sible safeguards which any human being possesses in this realm, and, as we have seen, both of these Mrs. Eddy takes away from every applicant be- fore she grants admission to her non-sense world. " Relinquish all theories based upon sense percep- tion," is the first demand. Intelligence is barred out. But Mrs. Eddy's concern at this point is superfluous, for there is not the slightest danger of any one who is informed upon the subjects in question ever becoming a Christian Scientist. It is an intellectual impossibility. Occasionally some such persons do enter the employ of the cult, and prostitute their knowledge for money, but they never become sincere converts, and do not remain in it long. 248 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE The typical Christian Scientist then is one who possesses the same general background of igno- rance which Mrs. Eddy herself possessed. This prerequisite of ignorance is present in abundance, and Christian Scientists are not at all peculiar in its possession. The feature which distinguishes them from the great mass of other people, equally ignorant, is that they are willing to accept Mrs. Eddy as their authority upon these subjects even though her teaching runs directly counter to the universally assured findings of all the experts in these various departments of learning. They do this simply because she claims to have received her revolutionary ideas as a divine revelation direct from God. Now it is simply an intellectual im- possibility for the great majority of people to ac- cept as their authority a woman imquestionably ignorant in all the branches of learning in which she poses as an expert, especially when her con- clusions are diametrically opposed to those of all recognized authorities. This becomes increas- ingly so, when upon honest and thorough investi- gation her claims to divine revelations are found to be fraudulent. The psychologist discovers something distinctly abnormal in the mental make-up of the person who can believe this sort of thing. We do not like to use the word abnormal in this connection, but we are sure the reader will understand that its use is technical. There is no question about the THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 249 matter; this is not the natural reaction of the per- fectly functioning normal mind in the presence of such non-sense ideas and such claims. This dis- covery throws a new light upon the possibility of the spread of Christian Science. By its very na- ture it is restricted to that small group in society who are capable of reacting to its teaching in this abnormal way. A clear realization of this impor- tant fact will do much to overcome any panicky fear of its universal triumph. Had Mark Twain been a little more of a psychologist he would not have fallen into such a serious mistake when he tried to state the nature of its appeal. In answer- ing the question, " Who are attracted by Christian Science? " he replies: There is no limit; its field is horizonless; its ap- peal is as universal as is the appeal of Christianity itself. It appeals to the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest, the vain, the wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the coward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the freeman, the slave, the adult, the child ; they who are ailing in body or mind, they who have friends that are ailing in body or mind. To mass it in a phrase, its clientage is the Human Race [p. 52f.]. To the superficial observer this seems to be about the truth. But nothing could be farther from it. The appeal of Christian Science is not anything like as wide-spread as he represents. It is not as universal as Christianity, its clientage is 250 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE not the Human Race. Not even all of tliose who are ailing in body or mind, or all of the desperate friends of such, are attracted to it. Only a very small number of such give it a serious thought. There is no possible way that it can ever overcome the fatal handicap with which its non-sense science fetters it. Every one of its fundamental principles is abnormally twisted or exaggerated out of all semblance to reality. Though each con- tains just enough of the truth to make a specious appeal to a certain type of mind. Its denial of the existence of the material universe, its alle- gorical interpretation of the Bible, its dethroning of the human mind, its charge that medical knowl- edge is the prolific cause of disease, its claim that a false belief is the cause of all sickness, and the right belief is its cure; these are all gross mis- statements which the normal human mind is not disposed to accept. There exists a natural affin- ity between the reasonable and the true which the normal mind recognizes. This priceless stabilizer helps to maintain the intellectual equilibrium of humanity, so that the balance between the reason- able and the true can never be completely upset and the race toppled over headlong into the irra- tional and untrue. Lincoln sensed this funda- mental psychological principle and gave expres- sion to it in these familiar words: You can fool all of the people some of the time, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 251 and some of the people all of the time, but you can- not fool all of the people all of the time. Christian Science in its fundamental principles is so abnormal that it does not stand any chance of fooling all of the people even some of the time. It may fool some of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. But be- yond the narrow limit of "some" it will never spread. After Mark Twain had come to the conclusion that its appeal was " universal," " its field hori- zonless," "its clientage the Human Race," its autocratic government flawless, and its financial resources exhaustless, the situation looked utterly hopeless. He could not see how its speedy and certain conquest of the world could be stopped. Here is his prophecy, made in 1899: It is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will be ten million Christian Scientists, and three millions in Great Britain ; that these figures will be trebled in 1930 ; that in America in 1920 the Christian Scientists will be a political force, in 1930 politically formidable, and in 1940 the governing power in the Republic-r-to remain that, permanently [p. 72]. Those of us who live in the year 1921 find his predictions have fallen far short of fulfillment. Christian Science has not grown with anything like the rapidity which he anticipated. In the 252 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE year 1920, not only did it not reach his mark of ten million adherents; it did not number one mil- lion. On January 12, 1911, twelve years after his prophecy was made, and with only nine years more to go, George W. Glover, Mrs. Eddy's son, filed a bill in equity against Henry M. Baker, the executor of her estate. In this legal document we find this statement of the membership of The Mother Church at that time: The whole number of members of The Mother Church, widely distributed, is about 50,000, including about 100 executives and six honorary [p. 6]. At a time when this membership was incor- rectly estimated up in the hundreds of thousands, it was only fifty thousand. It is true that all Christian Scientists are not members of The Mother Church. But all good Christian Scien- tists aspire to that great honour and distinction, and rarely rest until it has been attained. As has been pointed out, every ambitious member of the cult has to join The Mother Church for advance- ment in Christian Science. So that it is a most reliable indicator of the relative growth and size of the cult. Early in its history Mrs. Eddy dis- covered that the general public were prone to ex- aggerate its numbers. And when statistics began to lag so woefully behind the imagination of the people, she thought it would be wise to suppress these depressing statistics. At any rate we sus- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 253 pect this was the real cause for the following by- law: Christian Scientists shall not report for publication the number of the members of The Mother Church, nor that of the branch churches. According to the Scripture they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people [p. 48]. From that day to the present time it has been im- possible, except in court, to obtain the correct membership of this cult. But unless the methods of the organization have changed since Mrs. Eddy's death, when this membership gets where it can be advertised as an asset, some way will be found to let the public know its real strength. But just so long as its actual membership lags so far behind its imagined size, this by-law will re- main in force. A Reversion to the PreScientific Way of Thinking. Another reason why Christian Science need not be seriously feared is because it is going backward while the race is going forward. Psy- chologically it represents an abnormal reaction, in- tellectually it is a clear reversion of the pre- scientific way of thinking. No psychologist can mistake its allegorical interpretation of the crea- tion story, Bible characters, events, sayings, the material universe; its capitalization and personifi- cation of Mind, Spirit, Truth, Principle. These are all the familiar phenomena of the pre-scien- tific, phantasy way of thinking which gave us 264 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE mythology. They are the natural products of the childlike mind, which does not clearly distinguish between fact and fancy, dream experiences and those of waking consciousness, the material and the spiritual. The analogy parallels at every point. There is a direct relationship between the psy- chological and intellectual characteristics of Chris- tian Science. Those who have not kept pace with the intellectual progress of the race find phantasy thinking a most satisfactory way of explaining the intellectual problems of the universe. It is the way the race once thought. But it leads directly back to the Egyptian bondage of superstition and ignorance from which the race has emerged. In every progressive age where the intellectual up- heavals have been great, it is inevitable that there should be found many such laggards. It so happened that the nineteenth century wit- nessed one of the mightiest revolutions within the world of thought that has ever been experienced. Concerning it John Fisk says: This century, which some have called an age of iron, has been also an age of ideas, an era of seeking and finding the like of which was never known be- fore. It is an epoch, the grandeur of which dwarfs all others that can be named since the beginning of the historic period, if not since Man first became dis- tinctively human. In their mental habits, in their methods of inquiry, and in the data at their com- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 255 mand, " the men of the present day who have fully kept pace with the scientific movement are separated from the men whose education ended in 1830 by an immeasurably wider gulf than has ever before di- vided one progressive generation of men from their predecessors " [Idea of God, p. 56f.]. Mrs. Eddy was born in 1821 and came to her maturity just as this intellectual upheaval was at its height. And her home, New England, was the one place where its effect was more powerfully felt than anywhere else in America. So we have both the psychological place and time for some one to volunteer to become a captain and lead those who were homesick for the quiet monotony of Egypt, and Its melons, leeks, onions, and gar- lic, back to that land of bondage. Mrs. Eddy saw her chance, so she volunteered to become their captain, and rallying the laggards around the standard of her non-sense science led them back to superstition and ignorance. Her metaphysics gives perfect expression to this Intellectual revolt against the modern scien- tific Interpretation of the universe. She pictures herself as engaged In mortal combat against the whole conception. She disqualifies the human mind, reason, and the physical senses, from bear- ing any testimony concerning metaphysical truth. And in their places she substitutes what she styles " spiritual senses." She explains the acquisition of truth thus: 266 THE NON-SENSE OP CHEISTIAN SCIENCE According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man [p. 284]. This explanation may be satisfactory to those who know nothing about the psychological process involved. But the psychologist knows that even an " emanation from divine Mind " finds its way into consciousness through the regularly estab- lished channels of human personality. God Him- self never tries to communicate with man in any other way. There are only two possible realms through which communication can be made. They are the realm of consciousness, and the sub- conscious realm. In a series of articles, published in the Bible Magazine, in 1915, in dealing with another subject, the writer has shown at some length how both of these realms are so guarded by the laws of mind and body that no private rights of way for direct communication, inde- pendent of all material and psychological media, are possible. But at the present time we do not need to go into that study, for it is easy enough to show that Christian Scientists in the act of gaining their "understanding of divine Truth," and in the act of healing or being healed by it, do not use " spiritual senses " or enjoy any direct intercommimlcation of thought independent of THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 257 sensation and the material body and the human mind. Their faculties function just exactly the same as those of all other mortals engaged in the same practices. The psychologist is ready to an- alyze their processes any time they are ready to submit to the test. Only a certain type of person turns traitor to the intellectual inheritance of his age. The per- fectly normal, healthy, successful person is a great grumbler and faultfinder, but never a quitter. He is always ready to go forward no matter what difficulties and dangers confront him. For him the best is yet to be. Those who turn back do so because they are sick, either in mind, spirit, or body, and consequently do not feel quite equal to the hardships of the quest. Christian Science makes no appeal whatever to the normal, well- rounded, healthy person. It appeals only to the sick, or subnormal. For sickness is only another term for a subnormal condition. Now Christian Science is calculated to appeal to any one of the three possible types of subnormals, the intellec- tual, the spiritual, the physical. If it finds one under the weather in any one of these particulars it has something handsome to offer. A Get-Trufh-HappinesS'Health-Quick Scheme. In an organization as large as Christian Science, naturally there are many people who do not con- form to type. They have come in for all sorts of reasons, and by all sorts of ways. These are the 258 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE exceptions, or, biologically speaking, the freaks of the species. They call for individual study. At present we are dealing only with those who run true to type and constitute the species. They naturally divide themselves into the three groups of subnormals to which a Get-Truth-Happiness- Health-Quick Scheme appeals. The Get-Truth-Quick Scheme does not appeal to the perfectly normal human mind functioning naturally and reliably in the midst of the intellec- tual problems of life. It responds to the call of the quest of truth with eagerness. It accepts the long, slow, hard, educational process of acquiring knowledge and gaining truth, as the only reason- able way. The pursuit of truth, even though it be not overtaken, is of itself well worth while. Only the mind that is bewildered, that has not su- preme confidence In its own processes and conclu- sions, covets the acquisition of knowledge and truth by a patent Get-Truth-Ouick Scheme, such as Mrs. Eddy offers. Christian Science opens up a private line of communication by which " Divine Truth " can be easily obtained direct from God, without the laborious necessity of acquiring spe- cial knowledge. This Is the way Mrs. Eddy pro- fesses to have obtained the revelations of truth contained in Science and Health. Of her system she says: Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 259 foresee and foretell events which concern the uni- versal welfare, to be divinely inspired, — ^yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind [p. 84]. Christian Scientists get " understanding " by direct contact with the " divine Mind." This Get- Truth-Quick Scheme furnishes a complete substi- tute for special education. After twelve half days, or seven, spent in the Massachusetts Meta- physical College, its graduates come forth, trained metaphysicians, Biblical scholars, theologians, physicians. The term of this college to-day lasts "not over one week" (see Manual, p. 90). If that is not a Get-Truth-Quick Scheme, we do not know how to characterize it. The Get-Happiness-Quick Scheme is of the same kind. The soul that has been thoughtlessly denied the help of religious faith, religious activi- ties, religious devotions, is always spiritually out of health, or subnormal. Its ill-health is not dis- covered generally until some acute crisis reveals its condition. But every starved soul hungers for some religious nurture. The neglectful, the in- different, the disaffected, those who have starved their soul life by ultra-rationalist thinking, are the ideal prospects for a Get-Happiness-Quick Scheme such as Mrs. Eddy offers. And from these groups Christian Science draws most of its religious recruits. They do not come from those whose religious life in their own churches is vital. The prodigal who has journeyed into the far 260 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE country and is in want will feed on husks. They are better than nothing. The peculiar feature about this Get-Happiness- Quick Scheme which appeals to the subnormal spirit is that Christian Science exacts no toll from the past life. It does not rebuke, condemn, or de- mand confession. It refuses to recognize the ex- istence of sin, evil, or wrong. It does not want to punish or discipline. It features the agreeable, and pleasant, it knows of nothing but the Love and Goodness of God. This scheme for obtain- ing happiness simply by closing the eyes upon everything that produces unhappiness, appeals to the psychologically subnormal. Here again the perfectly healthy human spirit is not attracted by such an offer. It is too un- natural. It expects to be punished for breaking God's laws, and wrong doing. A God Who does not discipline His children cannot win its respect. It palls in the artificial atmosphere of the unreal and eternal smile, and pines away in a conflictless world. The Get-Health-Quick Scheme is the real at- tractive offer of Christian Science. The two pre- ceding ideas are by-products of this original fea- ture. This offer naturally makes its strongest appeal to chronic invalids. They have tried ever)rthing else that seemed to hold out any hope of recovery, but have not been cured. Just as they are about to give up in despair some one THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 261 comes along and suggests: " Why do you not try Christian Science ? " To the bankrupt in health, this suggestion makes a most unexpected appeal. The person himself does not know why, but for some reason the proposition interests him. This brings us to the heart of this Get-Health-Quick Scheme. The Gawhle, Christian Science is different from orthodox medical science; it offers some- thing for nothing, much for little. If one will just take stock in it, it will cure the patient no matter what ails him. It does not require the de- posit of any securities of bodily health upon which to build. It offers nothing less than to stage a miracle for the benefit of the invalid. Of course the particular miracle Mrs. Eddy offers to work cannot take place in this rational universe, gov- erned by law. But she does not let a little thing like a universe stand in her way; she simply ar- gues it out of existence, with all its hampering laws, and having thus cleared the field, is pre- pared to work her miracle in her non-sense w^orld. Though not a particularly religious woman, she appreciated the fact that she needed the assistance of the great miracle worker — God — ^to establish proper confidence in her proposition. So she forms an exclusive partnership with God whereby she alone is to "voice His Truth to this age." Having now God, and His omnipresence, om- niscience, and omnipotence as collateral security, 262 THE NONSENSE OF CHBISTIAN SCIENCE she starts out to sell stock in her Get-Truth-Hap- piness-Health-Quick Scheme. The physical bank- rupt, who sees no other way to recoup his lost fortune in health, finds his latent gambling in- stinct stirred by the proposition. He has nothing to lose anyway, and there is a possible chance of winning out in the gamble, so he takes stock in it, and becomes a Christian Scientist. TPie Cure, We are now in a position to under- stand something of the nature of Christian Science cures. The psychology is simple and in- teresting. The despondent bankrupt is instantly transformed into a hopeful speculator. He is a millionaire long before his ship comes in, and for a time, whether it comes in or not. His cure be- gins the instant he takes stock in the proposition. For it is expectation, not realization that performs the miracle. A new adventure has been under- taken for the chronic invalid, the first perhaps for a long time. The jaded nature of the bank- rupt begins to thrill with the genuine emotion of hope. His slumbering energies are awakened, the ignition of interest begins to spark, the engine of personality to fire, the will to recover throws the machinery of self, which has been idling, into gear, and the psychological machinery of person- ality is set running once again. The personality of the patient is reorganized about a new, live in- terest. In those cases where Christian Science works its miracles of healing this is what takes THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 263 place. The trouble, as in Mrs. Eddy's own case, is psycho-physical. There is no real organic dis- ease, nothing in the physical system has broken down or is worn out. The ignition of interest has ceased to spark, the emotional engine to fire, and the psychological machinery is out of gear. If the emotional interest of expectation can be stimulated long enough, the machinery of person- ality may get back into normal running order, and a real, permanent cure be effected. The enlistment of the cooperation of the pa- tient's own self is one of the principal factors in effecting this cure. The proposition being a gam- ble with a long chance involved, listless indiffer- ence is gone, the patient is interested in the ex- periment. Then Mrs. Eddy gives the patient something to do. Science and Health must be read every day. Private devotions resumed, church services, if possible, attended, a hopeful attitude of mind and conversation cultivated. In dealing with this type of patient, the value of re- ligious faith, devotion, activities, cannot be over- estimated. To these stimulants to the spirit, she adds the practice of diverting the mind from its own troubles by setting it at the task of trying to understand Science and Health. Of course it cannot do this. And It keeps on trying. This is a most effective mental counter irritant. Even incurables are for a time transformed Into hopefuls. For Christian Science freely promises 264 THE NOJJf -SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE to cure them as well as others. While they are sincerely expectant, and struggling to maintain a hopeful attitude, a noticeable improvement is seen in their condition. It is always during this period of temporary improvement that the cure of the in- curable is widely advertised. When the inevitable relapse comes, and the incurable again sinks back into the old condition, or dies of the disease of which the alleged cure was predicated, no pub- licity is given to this unfortunate termination of the case. There is another class of patients to whom these psychological factors bring real help. When a normally healthy person is stricken with an acute attack of disease, nature, the great healer, immediately starts her work of restoration. And nature is no respecter of systems of healing, she works just as hard to cure the sick treated by a Christian Science healer as those under the care of any other practitioner. Now it often happens that the spirit of a patient is greatly helped, and the will to recover strengthened, by religious and mental stimulants. It is just as much an error to neglect to use these psychological remedies as natural ones when dealing with human beings. Both are ordained by God to render an important service in cooperation with nature. Christian Science makes a fatal blunder In refusing to avail herself of the service of the knowledge of anat- omy, physiology, chemistry, and the natural reme- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 265 dies and medicines supplied by nature. Medical science makes an equally great blunder in not availing itself more intelligently of the spiritual and mental help at its command. Only when na- ture has the intelligent and sympathetic coopera- tion of the material, mental^ and spiritual re- sources available, is she in a position to do her best virork. Until these three healing agents are allowed to work together more sympathetically, religious and mental healing systems will continue to thrive side by side with medical systems. Another constructive gain which must be cred- ited to the same causes is the spiritual and moral improvement to be noticed in the lives of some sincere Christian Scientists. For there can be no denying that this improvement is evident. Its ex- planation is simple. The resumption of regular religious habits accounts for this. The daily reading of the Bible, even though it be under the guidance of the " Key to the Scriptures," the study of Science and Health In the sincere search for light and truth, regular and interested attend- ance upon religious worship, the consistent effort to be kindly, helpful, hopeful, these and many other unmentloned little practices. Introduce into many previously barren spiritual natures whole- some moral benefits, which are quite Independent of the non-sense science and theology which un- derlies Mrs. Eddy's teaching. The God who can bring good out of evil and make even the wrath 266 THE NON-SENSE OF CHEISTIAN SCIENCE of man to praise Him, does not allow Christian Science to draw so heavily upon His name with- out collecting some tribute in return. It is sometimes suggested that the greatest bene- fit derived from Christian Science is the interest which it has stimulated in psycho-therapy and in the value of religious faith as a therapeutic agent. It is true that both of these features of therapy have gained much from the interest quickened through the publicity of Christian Science. But it must be remembered that these results were the very ones which Mrs. Eddy was striving to pre- vent. She tried her best to discredit both the in- fluence of the human mind and religious faith as healing agents. So that these benefits can be credited to reactions against the Christian Science system of healing. Does tJie Gamble Pay? We come now to the final balancing of accounts. The net gain to be derived from taking stock in this Get-Truth-Hap- piness-Health-Quick Scheme is obtained by sub- tracting the cost price from what has been gained, and then finding out what is left. For in any bar- gain you first have to deduct the cost. Mrs. Eddy has set down the price. One has to pay for everything obtained from her non-sense science; and there are no discounts. We are already fa- miliar with this cost item. The material universe has to be argued out of existence, reason de- throned, the human mind discarded as " nothing THE PSYCHOLOGY OP ITS APPEAL 267 claiming to be something," the physical senses have to be denied their right to give any testi- mony as to what is true, God has to be changed from a Person into a Principle with all the loss of theistic faith that this change entails, the Christ of Christian Science ceases to be Jesus of Nazareth and become the truth of mental healing, the Holy Spirit, divine Science, the messages of the Bible writers, even those of Jesus Himself, have to be lost and Mrs. Eddy's non-sense ideas adopted in their place, all human knowledge has to be scrapped as useless, and medical science destroyed as the prolific cause of disease. Why continue this item further? The price already demanded is prohibitive for any rational human being. But do we not get enough out of the transaction to make the bargain worth while after all ? Many Christian Scientists think they have. Here again they are deceived. For the truth is they do not get a single one of these benefits from the opera- tion of Mrs. Eddy's non-sense science. She has given us specific and authoritative information upon this subject. And there are two sets of psy- chological facts from which there is no escape: First, there are no such " spiritual senses " as she describes, and direct intercommunication between divine Mind and the soul of man, independent of the physical and psychological media of human personality does not and cannot take place. Of itself this is enough to settle the case, but we do 268 THE NON-SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE not stop with this. Second, the actual benefits generally credited to the influence of Christian Science are all the direct product of the operation of the forces and agents which Mrs. Eddy specifi- cally repudiates. If the reader will observe closely our description of the psychological fac- tors involved in the reorganization of a person- ality, the strengthening of the spirit and will in illness, and moral improvement, it will be noticed that in every instance these results are obtained through the natural functioning of the human mind and spirit in cooperation with nature, under the stimulus of old-fashioned religious faith in a personal God, prayer to a Heavenly Father, Bible study, worship, the search for light and truth, the cooperation of the patient's self, and hope. This is not theory; a detailed psychological analysis of the functioning of the personality of any Chris- tian Science patient makes this indisputable. Now these factors are the very ones which Mrs. Eddy frankly tells us are not agents in her science. They are, however, the real agents which produce the results under consideration. So there you have the answer. Even the benefits which we thoughtlessly credit to Christian Science are in reality gained by smuggling in the help of the very agents against which she has waged her war, and whose very existence she denies. We do not mean to imply that either Mrs. Eddy or her followers are aware THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ITS APPEAL 269 of this interesting discovery. They have not taken the trouble to analyze the process, or they would not have made such a blunder. Christian Science could not do business if it v^ere not for the presence of these real agents for it surreptitiously to use in its name. For there is no such thing possible, in God's world governed by law, as a Get-Truth-Happiness-Health-Quick Scheme oper- ating beyond the jurisdiction of the laws of na- ture, and the laws of the mind, body, and spirit. This is but the natural climax to which such a science inevitably leads. From a series of fraud- ulent revelations of truth, based upon a fallacious metaphysics, and an incorrect conception of God, man, and nature, nothing else could be expected. From nothing, nothing comes. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "A wrong sense of God, man and creation is non-sense'' (p. 489), If she is right, and we are Inclined to believe her this time, then Christian Science has won its indis- putable right to the title of a " non-sense Science." Printed in i?u United States of America THE NEW WORLD ORDER JOSEPH FORT NEIVTON, P.P. Pastor of The Church of the Divine Paternity, New York The Religious Basis of a Better World Order By the Author of "An Ambassador," etc. i2mo, net $1.25. "These sermons speak especially to cultivated minds, yet through their simplicity and naturalness and human- ness, they make the universal appeal. Here is their real power. They do not speak the language of the church, but the language of humanity. 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WILSON BP955 .W97 The non-sense of Christian science, Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00010 5256 DATE DUE ^^^^^ Printed In USA HIGHSMITH #45230