DEC; 3 1920 o Division OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE PRESENCE THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST What Christian Science Means and What We Can Learn From It By JAMES M. CAMPBELL DEC IPi '-Ml THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1920, by JAMES M. CAMPBELL CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE A Foreword 7 I. A New Movement 9 11. A Timely Movement 11 III. A Serious Movement 16 IV. A Spiritual Movement 20 V. A Mystical Movement 23 VI. An Idealistic Movement 27 ' Vll. A Movement of Mystery 30 ' VIII. A Comprehensive Movement 33 IX. A Movement of Bodily Healing . . 36 X. Its Reactions 56 XI. Its One-Sidedness 60 XII. Its Repression of Natural In- stinct 64 XIII. Its Self-Centered Spirit 68 XIV. Its Spirit of Exclusiveness 73 XV. Its Closely Knit Organization ... 76) / XVI. Its Centralized Authority 82^ XVII. Its Finality 87 XVIII. Its Main Assumption 93 ' XIX. Its Philosophical Basis 98 XX. Its Abnormality 103 XXI. Its Passivity 109 XXII. Its Subjectivity 113 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAG-E XXIII. Its Serenity 117 XXIV. Its Revival of Interest in the Bible 122 XXV. Its Shadowy Christ 126 ' XXVI. Its Use OF Personal Testimony . . 131 XXVII. Its Theory of Prayer 137 XXVIII. Its Solution of the Problem of Suffering 142 XXIX. Its Serene Optimism 146 XXX. Its Ethical Implications 150 XXXI. Its Modifying Influence Upon the Older Faith 156 XXXII. Its Bearing Upon the Social and Relig ous Life of the Times . . 160 XXXIII. Its Short Cut to the Millennium 164 XXXIV. Mrs. Eddy Herself 167 XXXV. What of the Future ? 177 A FOREWORD Those who read this volume in the expec- tation of finding in it an attack upon Christian Science will be disappointed. To all that is good in Christian Science there is given ungrudging recognition. That there is much to be said in its favor is not dis- puted, but that it is fashioned after the New Testament type is more than ques- tioned. The attitude maintained toward it is that of one who, having carefully weighed the utmost it has to say in behalf of its lofty claims, turns alike to those who have found in it a resting-place, and to those who are looking wistfully towards it for physical and spiritual help, saying, "Yet show I unto you a more excellent way." CHAPTER I A NEW MOVEMENT In any endeavor to account for the remarkable success of Christian Science, and to understand the secret of its power, it must be looked at in all its various phases. And, first of all, due consideration has to be given to the fact that it is a new move- ment. It has all the interest of novelty. ♦^ It falls in with the Athenian spirit of the age which is on the outlook for some new excitement, and is eagerly seeking, in the sphere of religion, as everywhere else, for "something newer than the latest news." A vast multitude in the present day are running after "New Thought" — which they spell with capital letters. Very few are running after old thought. None but "old fogies" are assumed any longer to give heed to the divine injunction; "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6. 16). But to despise any of the well- beaten paths along which past generations have walked in safety is not wise. WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS And yet the craving for the new is legiti- mate and natural. Truth is ever renewing itself; it is ever old, yet ever new; and the Master himself has said, that "every scribe who is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an house- holder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old" (Matt. 13. 52). Christian teachers, as a rule, have failed to give suflficient emphasis to the new. They have contended stoutly for "the faith once delivered to the saints," but have not kept their minds open to the revelation of truth which the ever-speaking Spirit of God is now giving to the saints; and hence they have been unable to preach the gospel with fresh- ness and power. In a full-rounded evangel the new and the old will be equally balanced. The novelty of Christian Science is not, however, sufficient in itself to account for its wonderful success. Other claimants for popular favor have come into the field since it began its meteoric career, and have received but scant recognition. Other rea- sons for its growth will be brought to light as we proceed in our investigation. 10 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER II A TIMELY MOVEMENT One element of the timeliness of Christian Science consists in the way in which it has related itself to the general feminist move- ^ ment of the present day. It has been car- ried to its place of power on the tide of the movement for the enfranchisement and elevation of women. It is notable how many of its leaders are women, how very marked is its spirit of femininity, and how largely the men who attach themselves to it are brought in by their women friends. Within the past seventy years three new religions have been established by women — Spiritism, by the Fox sisters ; Theosophy , by Madam Blavatsky; and Christian Science, by Mrs. Eddy. The latter is far and away the greatest feminist religious movement, not only of recent time but of all time. It certainly has been born in due season; and has not only given needed emphasis to some neglected truths, but has connected itself, unconsciously perhaps, with one of the most 11 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IVIEANS important developments of our modern social life. The femininity of Christian Science is at once its strength and its weakness. It undoubtedly has drawn unto itself many strong men, but its distinguishing qualities are not those of virility and robustness. It is a religion of softness; and in this respect it fits into the mood of this ease- loving age. It seeks to cushion life's hard duties, and to provide an escape from pain and self-denial — and that is a palatable thing to unrenewed human nature. The martial spirit is utterly foreign to Christian Science. It sounds no bugle call to battle. When others hasten to the fray its followers remain in camp, staying by the stuff. They see nothing to fight about. Instead of resisting evil they deny it; instead of righting wrongs they ignore them. As the inevitable consequence of their failure to take their part in the great struggle against organized evil going on in the world, courage and heroism are not called into exer- cise, and what strength any of them may originally have possessed becomes atrophied. Christianity, as the New Testament de- 12 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT picts it, is a manly religion. There is in it something that answers to the war spirit. It provides a moral equivalent for war. The Christian is a fighter — a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He wrestles against alien forces in the spiritual realm and in society. He fights the good fight of faith. He does not live in a padded room where the bitter cry of suffering souls cannot reach him, but takes his place in the hurly-burly of life amid the clash of contending forces — a true knight errant fighting for the deliverance of the oppressed and the distressed. A womanly religion is all right for women, but a manly religion is demanded of men. "Quit ye like men, be strong," is a call that has ever been needed, and never more so than now. This strenuous age demands manliness in religion; it demands a religion that will lead in reforms, a religion that offers a man's job, a muscular religion that deals double blows against every form of social iniquity. Christianity combines the graces. It is an amalgam of tenderness and strength. In Christ these qualities were united — he had the tenderness of a woman and the strength of a man; and our 13 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS religion will approximate the divine ideal which His expressed just so far as it blends these qualities into a harmonious whole. Yet w^hen all has been said regarding the undue proportions of the feminine in Chris- tian Science, it must be admitted that it has made woman its debtor by according t to her a place of equality in the services of the church. It was a necessity at first that Christianity should be a man's movement. All of the twelve apostles were men. For Jesus to have included women in the apostolic group would have doomed the new movement to failure. Society in his day was not ready for such a radical innovation. What he did was to instill into the minds of his followers the doctrine of sex equality, with the result that when it was accepted sex discrimination vanished away. The wisdom of this method is seen in the fact that the historians of that day were struck with the place of leadership accorded to women in the early church. From that high ideal the church in succeeding ages sadly fell; and the feminist movement of to-day is very largely one of restoration to the original. One would have thought it 14 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT impossible for the church to have forgotten so entirely the words with which the new age were ushered in — *'It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2. 17). They were to prophesy, not in the sense of foretelling future events, but in the sense of forth-telling Christ's evangel. Thus far the sons have supplanted the daughters in that work, and have done about all of it. The recent world-war has broken down many of the barriers of sex exclusiveness, and has thrust women into man^^ places hitherto occupied entirely by '*mere man." When the flood tide subsides, and things come to their level, and the work of social reconstruction progresses, women will have a new place in the social order, and for the bringing about of that change Christian Science ought to be accorded its due meed of credit, not only because of the stout defense of women's rights on the part of its founder, but also because it has had the courage to put into practice certain ad- vanced ideas touching the sphere of woman, which were struggling for expression. 15 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER III A SERIOUS MOVEMENT Mark Twain wrote a book about Chris- tian Science, in his usual humorous vein ; but Mark Twain was not the man to write upon such a subject understandingly. He had "nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." Christian Science is not a thing to be laughed out of court. Its devotees take it seriously — too seriously perhaps; but to them it is more than a philosophy; it is a religion, and a religion is a serious matter. It would, however, relieve many a difficult situation if a little wholesome humor could be brought into play. It is notorious how deficient the rank and file of Christian Scientists are in that quality. They refuse to smile at things which affect the risibility of the normal man. The Christian Science devotee who excused her daughter from seeing a visitor on the ground that she was detained in her room by a belief in a boil no doubt kept a sober face, but she was a real humorist all the same. What a deli- cious volume might be written upon the 16 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT unconscious humor of Christian Scientists! Think of the kidicrous attitude of one who is "in Science," affirming that Christian Science heals disease, and with the same breath affirming that there is no disease to heal ! And think of the unconscious humor with which IMrs. Eddy jumbles the judg- ment in connection with her strange meta- physics; as, for instance, when she says "To lose your sin you must first destroy it" — which is tantamount to saying, "To lose the sensation of pain you must first cut off your head." Or when she says, "Science reveals man as a dream at all times, and never as the real being." A rather sub- stantial dream surely, when you look at him from his bodily or from his spiritual side! Or, take the following, the humor of which lies in its obvious sincerity: "If the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of mind are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the human limb would be replaced, as readily as the lobster's claw, not with an artificial limb, but with a genuine one." Suffer one more example from what some one has irreverently named "that divine 17 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS comedy, Science and Health." "The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural or necessary than would be the process of taking a fish out of the water every day and covering it with dirt, in order to make it thrive more vigorously thereafter in its native element. Water is not the natural habit of humanity." Is not this a delicious piece of humor? No need to wash the baby ! His body is an expression of mortal mind, and his native element is dirt. In the water he is as much out of his native element as a fish would be in the air. O for the saving grace of a sense of humor! But we have no disposition to dwell upon this weakness in Christian Science. Suffice it to say that the absence of humor, while a grave defect, may well be condoned in those who in a shallow and frivolous age have the courage to take their religion seriously; and who, if they are prone to fall into the mistake of making their religion something apart from their ordinary life, are not more guilty in this respect than some other types of religionists whose unconscious humor may take on a very different form. And such is the tendency of all of us to be 18 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT oblivious to our own little foibles and infirm- ities that there is reason for us to take to heart the words of the Scotch poet Robert Burns: "Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us. And foolish notion.'* 19 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER IV A SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT Christian Science starts from God, and seeks to magnify him in the thoughts of men. By emphasizing the things of the spirit it has rendered incalculable service to spiritual religion. It has brought sense- bound souls into touch with the Infinite; has widened their horizon by bringing into view . the things which are unseen and eternal; and has led to the cultivation of the upward look. Coming in as a move- ment of reaction and revolt, it has raised a much-needed protest against materialism in philosophy and life; and has certainly helped in the liberation of the spirit from the tyranny of the material. Coming at a time when the world was weary of religious ceremonies and doctrinal contentions, it has also supplied a needed antidote to formalism in religion. By directing the thought of many to the inner and invisible things of religion it has introduced them to a new world of spiritual values. But, like all movements of reaction and 20 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT revolt, it has swung to the opposite extreme. Frora the position of the materiahst that . matter is all, it has gone to the extreme that *'mind is all, and matter is naught"; and from the position of the religious for- malist that the body of truth is all, it has gone to the extreme that spirit is all, and form is naught; and so what might have been a wholesome soul-movement, practical as well as spiritual, has evaporated into thin air. Man is spirit, but he has a body which is very much in evidence and quite indispen- sable; and when either part of his dual nature is denied or ignored direful consequences follow. A man's religion also has a body - and a spirit, and consequences no less direful follow the denying or ignoring of either. Christian Science presents the strange spec- tacle of a professedly Christian Church setting aside the Christian ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper; and making no provision for ordination to the ministry, or the marriage ceremony. The Master,^ knowing that man needs outward forms as a vine needs a trellis, when instituting his phurch ordained these ceremonies, the use^ WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS of which has been abundantly justified by their usefulness, and to dispense with them implies an unwarranted assumption of lib- erty. They have their place and their use; for if the body without the spirit is dead, it is just as true that the spirit without the body is impotent to the attainment of certain practical ends. 22 AND WHAT WE CAN LE/VRN FROM IT CHAPTER V A MYSTICAL MOVEMENT By turning the eye of the mind from the outside to the inside of the things of rehgion ^ Christian Science has rendered an incalcu- lable service. But in doing this it has unfortunately ignored the mystical teaching of the New Testament as set forth espe- cially by John and Paul, and to its own great loss has developed a peculiar brand of its own. Nevertheless, it has stood for the essential thing in Christian mysticism, which is the immediacy of God, the direct contact of the soul with him— a truth which ortho- dox Christianity has often completely lost sight of. The recent revival of interest in mysti- cism is one of the things which have tended to bring reenforcement to Christian Science. There has been a great rebound from mere externahsm in religion, and from crass., literalism in the interpretation of the Scrip- tures. People have been seeking to get beneath the crust of things, and have been listening wistfully for some clearer note 23 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS touching the deep things of God. It is pathetic to see how eagerly they follow anyone who professes to be able to meet this demand, and how desperately they cling to anything that offers to them any measure of relief. They want to get through the ^ bone to the marrow, through the shell to the kernel, through the letter to the spirit; they want to find first-hand knowledge of spiritual things; they want to ascend from the stream to the fountain, and find their true life in union with the great Author of their being. But not all can walk in the mystic way. The bulk of people are non-mystical in their temperament. They follow the inductive rather than the deductive method in their search after spiritual reality. They cannot begin at the center of things at once, but must work their way gradually from the circumference to the center. Religion makes its appeal to them from the objective side. They need the objective revelation in which the great truths of the Christian religion are set forth. They get to God through the medium of symbols; but as they grow in the Christian life they de- 24 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT pend less and less upon external things; and from touching the hem of God's gar- ment they may come at length to look upon his face, and taste the joy of personal com- munion. By beginning at the heart of things rather than at the rim, and by overlooking the fact that a normal Christian life is marked by progress from the outward to the spirit- ual, Christian Science unfits itself for meet- ing the needs of a great multitude of people. In this present dual state of existence forms cannot be dispensed with. Truth must have ^ a body to clothe its soul. Unless it be crystallized into some concrete form re- ligious sentiment is apt to evaporate. Insti- "^ tutional Christianity is the complement of spiritual Christianity; in it the fruits of Christianity are conserved, and by it they are transmitted to the future. Yet insti- tutional Christianity is apt to become fossil- ized, and the use of set forms is apt to tend to formality. Hence the reaction of Chris-j tian Science from sterile externalism, ex- treme though it be, is not to be deplored. In the past the church has made altogether too much of outward forms and ceremonies, 25 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS and has too often made their faithful observ- ance the main test of piety. They have their use as the vessels which hold the wine of truth, but they may become empty vessels which have ceased to supply the nourish- ment which the soul of man needs. They may also become fetters of the soul, im- peding its progress. Deliverance from this grinding bondage to form is to be sought after by the Christians of to-day with as much eagerness as that displayed by the Jewish converts in the early days of Chris- tianity in their desire to be freed from bondage to the ceremonial law. To many individuals Christian Science has brought a sense of liberation; from others it has taken away a needed prop. What is de- manded is not a formless religion but a religion whose forms are elastic and instinct with life; a well-balanced religion in which the inward and the outward, the mystical and the practical elements are blended into l^one. A lop-sided religion may have a tem- porary success, but in course of time it will be weighed in the balance and found want- ing. 26 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER VI AN IDEALISTIC MOVEMENT Idealism is the outward expression of ^ mysticism. Mysticism is rooted in the con- viction that there is something more than what is seen; ideahsm is rooted in the con- viction that there is something more than has yet been attained. In the ideal whichj it holds out is found the lure of Christian Science, its ideal being nothing less than a complete life — a life which includes the re- demption of the body as well as the redemp- tion of the soul — and along with a perfect individual life a perfect world from which the last shadow of evil has vanished. But when we inquire into the means by which that ideal is to be realized, instead of finding something characterized by "the simplicity that is in Christ," we are offered a vague philosophy which is hard to be understood; and the path which we hoped might lead us into the palace of the King terminates in a blind alley. Many people, buoyed up with hope, approach Christian Science as a thirsty traveler in the desert might 27 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS approach a well; but they have no cord long enough to reach its bottom; and so they turn back to the old open fountain, full, and free, and overflowing, at which uncounted millions have slaked their thirst. In striking contrast with the idealism of Christian Science is that of the New Testa- ment. There we have not only the vision of something beyond glowingly set forth, but also a clear statement as to how that vision is to become a reality. The ideal of the perfect life and the perfect world is constantly held up as the object of human hope. All things are not right, but they are being put right; and the ideally perfect life and the ideally perfect world, as they now exist in the divine mind, are on the way to realization. At present there is a duality, a clash of contending forces, which Chris- tian Science ignores; but at the end there is complete victory for the right, and the harmonization of all things to the will and purpose of God. To the realization of the divine ideal the church is giving herself, undeterred by the difficulties in the way, being well assured that what God has willed must ultimately come to pass. 28 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT No less clear is the New Testament way in which the divine ideal is to be actualized. The way is Christ. The power by which humanity is to be made every whit whole is from him. By him all things are to be made new. By him all things are to be restored to the divine order. His gospel is the dynamic of God unto salvation. In it is lodged the power of moral omnipotence. To bring about the results desired the gospel must be brought into vital contact with the soul of man. Here certainly is nothing hazy, but a well-defined program; no shutting of the eyes to the ugly facts of the present, but an unshaken confidence in the adequacy of the gospel to regenerate humanity, and by creating a perfect individual and a perfect society bring about the final goal for which God and all good men are working. WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER VII A MOVEMENT OF MYSTERY Christian Science appeals to the ele- ment of mystery in human nature, and flatters the intellectual vanity of its votaries by leading them to believe that they are in possession of some occult knowledge which is hid from ordinary mortals. Many go into it blindly, frankly confessing that they cannot sound its depths profound, and hold to it not because they understand it, but because of the help they have derived from it. And so far as anyone who is not "in Science" is concerned, he is at once told that his most thorough knowledge of ordi- nary thought-forms will avail him nothing in seeking to solve the mysteries of Science and Health and other writings of the founder of Christian Science. Evidently Mrs. Eddy did not try to bring her system of thought down to the level of the simple and unlearned. If she did, she has woefully failed. She uses words in a new fantastic sense which only the 30 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT initiated are assumed to understand. You try to keep her thought in sight, when all at once, after the manner of the cuttlefish eluding its pursuer, she leaves you staring into a cloud of verbiage. But take her high-sounding phrases, strip them of their mystery, and let their meaning stand out in all their unadorned nakedness, their spell is broken, and they fail to win assent. How different from this cloud-bank of mystery are the divine simplicities of the gospel of Christ! So plain has the path of faith and duty been made that "the way- faring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Christianity has not a shred of the esoteric and the occult. All its followers are initiates, and all its mysteries are open. "Behold I show you a mystery," said Paul when referring to the resurrection; and it is the same with other mysteries. They are revealed mysteries. The veil was left on the face of Isis; every veil is done away in Christ. There is nothing given to one that is withheld from another. There is no monopoly in the possession of truth. There are no esoteric saints. There are none who possess light which is not equally available 31 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS to all. Of Christ's true followers it is said: *'Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day : we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (1 Thess. 5. 5). The attitude of the leaders of Christian Science toward truth reminds one of the philosopher Hegel, who is reported to have said, "Only one man understood me; and he didn't." When a philosophical substi- tute is offered for the simple gospel, nothing but haziness is to be expected. We are not all philosophers and metaphysicians. Some of us are little children, to whom the bread of truth has to be broken small. We are to begin with ''the first principles of Christ," and from there go on unto perfection. And above all we need the child's meekness and docility. Stripped of all pride of intellect, as well as of all sense of personal merit, we are to pass into the temple of truth by the lowly gate of humility; rejoicing that the Master has said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- cause thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes; yea. Father, for it was well pleasing in thy sight" (Matt. 11. 25, 26). 32 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER VIII A COMPREHENSIVE MOVEMENT It proclaims a whole gospel for the whole ^ man. To do this it has widened its concep- tion of religion, so as to make it include "the redemption of the body." In that it is in harmony with the modern trend of thought. Utterly perverting the Christian ideal, the church has often shown but scant respect for the body— the temple of God's indwell- ing. It has not only sacrificed its interests, but has subjected it to the greatest indig- nity and abuse. That false attitude, which reached its height in the Middle Ages, hap- pily has passed almost entirely away; and now instead of subjecting the body to cruel austerities we are in danger of pampering it, and giving to its care and culture more than its due share of attention. Caught in the current of this modern tendency Christian Science has been carried far. It has given special emphasis to man's physical needs and comfort. It has sought to keep the spirit on the top without keeping 33 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS the body under; it has sought to gain the whole world without losing its soul; it has given the primacy to physical interests in its quest after the highest good. As a rule those who turn to Christian Science seek ^ first the welfare of the body, and after that the welfare of the soul; they seek bodily health, and after that soul-health; and when they evoke spiritual power it is generally that it may minister to their physical wel- fare. In a word, they reverse the divine order laid down in the Master's words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." It is sometimes affirmed that Christian Science is a return to primitive Christianity in that it has restored the practice of the healing of disease to the place which it occupies in the New Testament. But the New Testament Christians were no health faddists. They did not make health of the body the summum honum of human quest. V They looked upon the physical as existing for the spiritual and not the spiritual for the physical. They did not slight physical well-being, but they gave to it a secondary 34 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT place. The welfare of the soul was their supreme concern. While proclaiming a gos- pel for the whole man, they put the em- phasis where the Master put it. Like him, they fed the hungry and healed the sick; but their main mission was to feed those who were hungry of heart with the bread of truth, and heal those who were sick of soul by invoking the power of Christ. Like him too, they made the healing of the body a means to an end. 35 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER IX A MOVEMENT OF BODILY HEALING This is the chief ground of its popularity. It began as a healing movement; it has grown as a healing movement. By the door of bodily healing most of its votaries enter. It is asserted that practically all of its adherents have been cured of some malady, and that frequently after other methods of cure had proved futile. But that is perhaps too sweeping. In many instances some member of a family is healed by the agency of Christian Science, and the whole household is won over. In either case a definite, substantial benefit, which cannot be reasoned away, has been received; and so the beneficiaries "go into Science" to find out all about it, and to receive further benefits. Take away from Christian Science its healing ministry, and reduce it to a mere metaphysical system, and it would melt away like a snow bank in spring. 36 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT That Christian Science performs many well-authenticated cures is not to be gain- said. Dr. Richard C. Cabot, who has given the matter careful investigation, while admitting that many reputed Christian Science cures "are probably genuine," affirms that they are not cures of organic disease, such as cancer or consumption. On the other hand, Christian Scientists claim that they have a volume of testimony to show that by their agency all sorts of physi- cal maladies have been cured. In the present stage of inquiry nothing is more imperatively demanded than a thoroughly scientific investigation of alleged cures, by competent and representative experts, who shall carefully winnow the chaff from the wheat, and without fear or favor set down the facts as they find them. Meanwhile, after every deduction has been made on the ground of faulty diagnosis, the self-limitation of certain diseases, and the imaginary nature of others, thereby, according to some authorities, reducing the cures fifty per cent, there still remains a vast multitude of cases upon whose validity there rests not the shadow of a doubt. But 37 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS while we hear much of its successes, its fail- ures are carefully concealed. If there were no failures, there would be no deaths; but all Christian Scientists sooner or later have diseases which cannot be removed, and they die just like other people. Christian Science claims not only to heal the sick without the use of drugs but without the use of means of any kind, depending for its results solely upon "the operation of divine Principle." The facetious descrip- tion of it as ''a way of getting cured of things by believing something that isn't true," is correct, but that does not alto- gether explain it. Its real power lies in a belief in a direct, spiritual Principle operat- ing for health, to which every man can ally himself, and have it work for his benefit. We smile when reading the naive testimony, in a current number of the Christian Science Journal, of a young woman who declares, "I was cured of a cold through the realiza- tion of the omnipotence of love." Probably she was; but she could have been cured just as effectively by the use of some simple material remedy. And this is the trouble with Chi'istian Science. It plays upon one 38 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT string. It does not take the complex nature of disease into account, and hence does not make a study of each particular case and select the means best fitted to effect a cure. In this it is utterly unscientific. A comprehensive view of the matter shows that disease can be traced to three distinct sources. 1. Physical. This class of diseases Christian Science repudiates, but they exist all the same. Disease often comes from the violation of a physical law; from unsanitary conditions, from excess in eating and drink- ing, from lack of exercise, from faulty breathing, from sexual indulgence, from accident or contagion. When it is physical it can be cured by physical means. There is a power in nature working for health which will always respond to any treatment that deals with the causes of the disease. Nature has provided a remedy for every ailment, and to slight her kindly aid is to court disaster. What tragedies have taken place because of the discarding by Christian Science of well accredited remedies, or by the refusal to submit to a needed surgical operation! Many a precious life has been 39 WIL\T CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS snuffed out that might have been saved if the service of a competent physician had been called for in time. The healing art always has been practiced. Like every practical science, it has been largely experi- mental; but it has been progressive also. y It never could have existed through the centuries if its benefits had not greatly out- weighed its mistakes and failures. The faith of the world in the value of materia medica is not without foundation; and we may be sure that while other systems of cure come and go, nature's own remedies never will be altogether discarded. With regard to one thing at least Mrs. Eddy is wisely inconsistent with her let- alone-policy. In the case of an accident she advises, "It is better to leave the adjust- ment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon." This is sensible advice, for when a limb is broken it does not matter what healing forces are at work, they count for nothing without the aid of a bone-setter. God waits for our cooper- eration, and when we do our part he does the rest. *T closed the wound, and God healed it," said a celebrated physician. In 40 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT this, as in everything else pertaining to human betterment, God and man must work together. That disease is not merely "an error of the mortal mind," but that it often has its roots in a physical cause is too evident to be reasonably denied. A Christian Science teacher said to a friend who was suffering from an attack of la grippe, at a time when that disease was sweeping over the com- munity in a wave of contagion, "You have something that does not belong to you; refuse to accept it; what you are looking upon as a microbe is only a microbe of error in the mind." Shortly afterwards, when she herself was laid hors de combat by the same disease, her friend reminded her of the advice she had given. Fortunately her sense of humor came to the rescue, and she replied, "Yes, I have something that does not belong to me, and I am trying my best to get rid of it." Anyone who does not make use of the remedies placed within his reach is casting a slight upon the means which the heavenly Father has provided for the help and comfort of his children. Anyone not "in Science" will not fail to 41 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS admire the great good sense of the Christian Science girl, who, when her mother said, "Don't you know, dear, that there is no such thing as a headache? You haven't any headache; it is merely a delusion." She replied, "I know it, but the delusion is so strong upon me that I've just got to take something for its removal." 2. Mental. The popular conception of Christian Science is that it is founded upon the universally recognized principle of the influence of the mind over the body. What Christian Scientists themselves would say is that it derives its healing power from the direct action of God upon the soul, and through the soul upon the body. What we contend for is that the secret of its power is found in its unconscious dependence upon the working of the law of suggestion. Perhaps nowhere is its fundamental prin- ciple set forth with greater clearness than in the following words of its founder: *'Evil is not; sin, sickness, and death are nothing but a belief in an illusion. Dispel the belief in sickness and cast out the illusion of mat- ter, and you heal the disease." Here you have Christian Science in a nutshell. No- 42 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT tice how everything is staked upon the suggestion that what is denied will dis- appear; that, in other words, the sickness which was in itself a myth, when called a myth, will become a myth to you. That ^ certainly is plain enough. The only trouble lies in getting the mortal mind to accept a suggestion that runs counter to experience. The part which suggestion plays in the curing of disease will become more apparent when we compare the modus operandi of a mental healer with that of a Christian Science healer. What takes place when a mental healer gives a treatment is well set forth in the following description given in The New Philosophy of Health, by H. B. Bradbury: "The healer simply holds in his mind with great tenacity, for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, an image of the patient as he should be. This image, by the power known as 'thought transference,' is im- pressed upon the sick man's mind as a possibility, when, his own strong desire seizing it, it is able to reproduce it as an actuality. He may be quite unconscious that he has done anything for himself, and when he finds himself well, give all the 43 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS credit to the man who he thinks healed him. Yet the change is wrought by no man, but by the quiet Hfe-giving force, which two wills working in harmony have brought into action." That explanation would, however, hardly satisfy Christian Scientists. For the interplay of two human minds it would substitute the direct action of the Divine Mind as the power by which the cure was wrought. As a description of the Christian Science method of treatment take the following: *'Let us suppose ourselves seekers for health. We go with a cold in the head to a Christian Science practitioner. She may at first deny that matter can be afflicted and be in need of a handkerchief, since it has no existence. The metaphysics on which this statement is based may offend us, but the strong posi- tive assurance given with all the force of an enthusiast, or a political stump speaker, has an effect, the extent of which depends upon our receptivity. At any rate, it is a more wholesome suggestion than that of our friends — 'What a cold you have!' *How long have you had it.^' 'Everybody is having them now — our doctor says,' etc. 44 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Our cold will not be the better for such condolence as this. After having heard that we have neither a cold, nor a head to have it in, we are told by the Christian Science healer that we are in glorious per- fect health; that God cannot make any- thing that is not perfect, etc.; and unless we resist the metaphysical implications back of these statements they may do us much good" (Edith Armstrong Talbot). What is this but suggestion pure and simple? And even if its metaphysical implications cannot be accepted, it must be admitted that it is suggestion pointing in the right direction. It puts the emphasis upon health rather than disease; and in this lies^ the main source of its power. Finley P. Dunne makes Mr. Dooley say, "If the doc- tors knew less about pisen, and more about gruel, and opened fewer patients and more windows, there would not be so many Christian Scientists," and he adds, "The difference between Christian Scientists and doctors is that Christian Scientists think there's no such thing as disease, and the doctors think there ain't anything else."j In turning away the thought of the sick 45 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS from their little aches and ailments, and fixing it upon health, Christian Science is doing more than words can tell to confer physical benefit upon its followers. As we pursue our study of the comparison between Christian Science and similar healing cults, we find that they all have the same well-authenticated evidence of power to heal; and what is more, they have the greatest success in the same class of cases. Similarity of results indicates similarity in the kind of power that is exercised. Other cults frankly trace their healing power to the operation of the law of suggestion. Not so Christian Science; and that is certainly its point of greatest weakness. If Christian Science could only see it, suggestion is one of the great laws by which God works. Instead of ruling him out, it merely explains the mode of his action. The re-creative power of suggestion is well- nigh measureless. A new suggestion ac- cepted and acted upon may revolutionize •^ a life. "Every thought," says Emerson, *' thrown into the world alters the world"; and every thought thrown into the soul alters the soul; and whatever alters the 46 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT soul alters the whole man. "Change your thoughts" is a favorite formula with Chris- tian Scientists, and it is a sensible one. Upon it the whole system of psychotherapy is based. When the body is sick the trouble is often in the mind. So much is this the case that it is affirmed by medical experts that two fifths of the diseases of the present generation are caused by morbid mental and spiritual conditions. What is needed in theses cases is the services of a mental healer who can "minister to a mind dis- eased," by turning the thought away from things that poison to things that make for health. So powerful is the law of suggestion that a patient may be relieved of pain by an injection of warm water into the arm with a hypodermic syringe, under the belief that he is taking morphine. In such a case it is the suggestion lodged in the mind that does the trick. The brazen serpent which Moses erected in the camp in the wilderness, when the people were bitten by the fiery flying ser- pents, affords a striking illustration of the working of the law of suggestion. In itself that piece of brass gleaming upon a pole 47 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANB possessed no healing virtue whatsoever. It was the suggestion that it was the divinely appointed means of conveying healing power that made it effective. It worked precisely in the same way as a talisman or charm which derives its power solely from the suggestion which it creates in the mind of its possessor. In after years when Hezekiah came to the throne one of his first acts as a reformer was to ''break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of [Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan" — "a piece of brass" (2 Kings 18. 4). That is what it was before and after the purpose of Jehovah had been served by it, and his life-giving power had worked through it. So it is with the miracles of healing effected by the relics of saints. Many of them are undoubtedly genuine. But they prove noth- ing as to the inherent virtue of the moldy bones of dead saints; nor did the healing of king's evil, or scrofula, by the king's touch prove 'that kings possessed divine preroga- tives. It was simply an evidence of the power of an egregious fake then sincerely believed 48 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT in. *'The problem of suggestive therapeutics, and the element of cure, is not," as Dr. Sadler has said, *'the correctness of either their physiological or theological teaching, but rather the intensity and sincerity of the faith which the sick one exercises respecting the idea upon which he depends for healing." Hence the folly of positing the truth of Christian Science upon the validity of its cures. All other philoso- phies and theologies that appeal to thera- peutic suggestion can do the same. The principle which all alike illustrate is that contained in the Master's words, "Accord- ing to your faith be it unto you," the inten- sity and tenacity of our faith being the measure of its healing power. It is the sine qua non in the healing of the body, as well as in the saving of the soul. When we come to consider the everyday contact of man with man we see the working of the same law. A war correspondent, in a current newspaper, speaking of a visit of General Pershing to the wounded soldiers in the hospitals remarked: "A handclasp, a word of commendation may cause many severe wounds to heal rapidly," That any- 49 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS one can understand who believes in the influence of the mind over the body. A striking illustration of this is furnished by the report of Surgeon General Ireland, to the effect that out of the six thousand shell- shocked military patients in hospitals, five thousand seven hundred immediately recov- ered on hearing the news of the signing of ^^ the armistice. In regard to the curative power of sug- gestion much depends upon the way in which it is given. It should be given with confidence, and with pressure; the truth should be borne in, and steadily pushed home until it finds a lodgment in the mind and begins to act. It is here that the Christian healer gets in his fine work. He begins by carefully eliminating counter suggestions, using the reiteration of certain formulas to intensify the power of suggestion by sending a stream of nervous energy in the direction required. He not only denies sickness; he demonstrates for health, affirms it, and seeks to make the one who is sick enter into its realization. To suggestion he adds determinative power. In this he is simply following the ordinary law of 50 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT personal influence; which is, as the word itself indicates, the inflowing of personality into personality. And if Christian Science practitioners can gain such good results from the vague philosophic suggestions which they press home with such strong insistence, how much more ought the Christian practitioner accomplish by his persuasive presentation of the blessed truth concerning the Christ of the Gospels, who has not lost his ancient power to heal, and who is in the world to-day amid the sick and the suffering to bring them deliv- erance. 3. Spiritual. Christian Scientists do not employ the word "spiritual" in its ordinary acceptation. With them spiritual and men- tal are one and the same. In the New Testament the term "spiritual" always has a moral quality attached to it; and it is in that sense that we now use it. To the moral nature, as distinguished from the physical or mental nature, disease is often to be traced; and just as disease that has a mental origin calls for a mental remedy, so disease that has a physical origin calls for a physical remedy, and disease 51 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS that has a moral origin calls for a moral remedy. There are cases in which neither physical nor mental medicine avails. They do not go deep enough, because they do not reach the moral nature. In the Old Testa- ment sin and sickness are frequently con- joined; and God is represented as effecting the double cure of ''healing all our diseases and forgiving all our iniquities." In the New Testament we have a recurrence of the same thought; as when Jesus, dismissing a paralytic whom he had healed, said: "Sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee"; his words evidently implying that his dis- ease had been the result of a sinful life. That sickness, suffering, and death often come from sinful living cannot be gainsaid. Intemperance, sexual indulgence, anger, hatred, revenge are the fruitful sources of much of our physical disability; and no system of healing is complete that does not include this class of cases, and provide their proper antidote. Our bodies are often sick because our souls are sick. Christian Science seeks to get rid of sin and sickness by denying their existence; but, as Professor James has said, 52 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT ''they constitute the most terrible and tragic facts of Hfe." Waiving the question as to how Christian Science can cure sin and sickness if they do not exist, we point to the Bible way of dealing with them; which is that of destroying them by the operation of divine power, whether exercised through the medium of human agencies, or by direct action. Whatever be the method employed it is God who heals. And God is no respect- er of persons or of theories. He does good for good's sake. So anxious is he to impart his healing power that he overlooks our ignorance, error, and superstition, and ever stands ready to accommodate himself to any method by which the heart of man is opened toward him. He will bless all wisely se- lected physical means ; he will work through suggestion, whether it come up from the depths of the subconscious mind, or by the transmission of thought from one mind to another, or by divine suggestion, whether mediated by human agency or given by the direct whispering of the divine voice in the heart; or he will work through a moral nature made plastic by repentance, and whose changed purpose gives to life a new 53 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS survival value, making it worth while for him to keep it going. Nor has any church or cult any right whatever to claim a monop- oly upon God's healing power. To all alike the fountain of divine life is open; and whosoever will may come and drink of its waters, freely. Upon all alike the recreat- ing Spirit of God is poured out, and who- soever receives him will be renewed in body and spirit, as the face of nature is renewed by the summer rain and the summer sun. (See Rom. 9. 11.) The modern physician of the broader type recognizes the working of the Divine Spirit upon the spirit of man in those various ways, and adapts his treatment to what- ever mode of divine operation may be indicated. He uses remedies whose effi- ciency has been certified by experience; he recognizes the therapeutic value of right thoughts; and, if a Christian, gives the foremost place to the healing power of the prayer of faith. As illustrative of this take the wide healing ministry that is going on to-day in the foreign mission fields, with all the "signs following" which were found in the early church; or take the con- 54 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Crete case of Dr. Trudeau, who established in the Adirondacks a sanitarium for con- sumptives, ministering to their bodies, minds, and spirits, in the name of Christ, bringing them "to look more hopefully on each successive rising sun," and in many instances effecting cures that bordered on the miraculous. He himself was wont to speak of his ministry to the afflicted as "a science and philosophy of Christ, a sort of Christian Science without intellectual sacrifice'' Let this sane, comprehensive, and Christian method of the treatment of disease be followed and there will be no room for Christian Science. 55 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER X ITS REACTIONS A NOTABLE feature of Christian Science consists of its reactions. First, there are its physical reactions. For a time it acts as a nervous and physical stimulant, buoy- ing the spirits up, and making the sufferer forget his weakness and pains; with the result that instead of conserving his ener- gies he is in danger of expending them lavishly, thereby overtaxing his strength and coming down with a thud. His meta- physics is like a whip to a jaded horse, urging him beyond his normal strength, carrying him uphill with his heav;^^ load at the expense of complete depletion of power; or it may be compared to a draught of alcohol, under the influence of which feats of strength are performed which use up the latent forces of the body and bring on complete exhaustion. Again and again have I seen this expe- rience repeated, especially with nervous and tubercular patients. There would be a great exhilaration of spirits, a sense of 5Q AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT complete renewal, a prodigal expenditure of energy, followed by total bankruptcy and death. Seven cases of this kind came under my notice within a short time. Let me refer to three of them. The first was that of a young man stricken down with the white plague at the beginning of a brilliant career. His case was proceeding in the usual way when he got ''into Science." Then everything changed, and he testified: "I am not sick; I am part of the Eternal, and the Eternal cannot be sick. I want it known that I am well." The day after this testimony was given, while packing his trunk to go back to his native Denmark to tell his friends what Christian Science had done for him, he dropped down dead. A neighbor whom I saw passing my win- dow every few days to visit his healer, and whose life was gradually ebbing away, called me in after his return from his last visit and said, "They have been telling me that I am not sick; that all I have is an error of belief; and I have been trying to believe it. But I know better. I am a dying man, and there are not many grains 57 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS of sand left to trickle through life's hour glass. I have been following a will o' the wisp long enough, and now I mean to creep back to the faith of my mother, and die sane at least" — which he did. The other case was that of a sick man who went to see his healer in the heat of a midsummer day, when he ought to have been resting in the shade. He had been assured that all his sickness was in his mortal mind, and accepting this statement as true, over-exerted himself. On the way home, when leaving the car, he called for a hack, which he no sooner entered than he burst a blood vessel and expired. Often have I seen a sick friend, who had taken hold of Christian Science as a drown- ing man might clutch at a straw, engage in violent exercise, perhaps taking a long mountain hike, when he ought to have been husbanding his energies, and while showing unmistakable signs that his reserved forces were being too largely drawn upon, declaring that he felt as fit as ever. Nothing could be more certain than that, unless something intervened to change his course, his false strength would one day give way under this 58 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT unwise overstrain, and there would come an inevitable and fatal collapse. Second, there are reactions in Christian activities. Just as a train of cars, which has been detached from the engine, will keep in motion for a time by the past momentum, so Christian Science converts will continue for a time in the old way of social service, not knowing how to give it up. But by and by the pace will slacken, and at length the wheels will cease to move. To keep working along the line of social ministrations we need the urge which comes from the vision of the world's great needs, and the motive which comes from a vision of the great love of the Christ of Calvary. Third, there are also spiritual reactions, the same kind of reactions that follow the highly wrought emotional experiences, con- nected with an old-fashioned revival, and which go by the name of "backslidings." These are simple instances of spiritual atrophy; of a gradual slipping from the heights to a dull, dead level; of the absence of all aspiration or desire to climb; and, worst of all, they register a state of smug self-complacency and contentment. 59 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XI ITS ONE-SIDEDNESS / r Truth has two sides. It resembles the shield over which a brace of brave knights fiercely fought, the one maintaining that it was silver, the other that it was gold. Both were right. It was silver on the one side, and gold on the other. This explains the cause of many of our controversies. They arise from our inability to look at both ksides of a question. This defect is strikingly conspicuous in Christian Science. Take, for example, its dictum, "The cause of all disease is mental." A clearer case of substituting a half truth for the whole truth can nowhere be found. All that ought to be affirmed is that the cause of some diseases is mental; and with that common-sense assertion all common- sense people would agree. During a recent epidemic of Spanish influenza this one-si dedness was clearly shown. The Christian Science Monitor had some wise and pertinent things to say anent the necessity of exorcising the demon 60 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT of fear, which is producing so much havoc in the world. It spoke of fear as a mental microbe, and as the sole cause of that dread- ful scourge. This was a clear case of overstatement. That fear is a prolific source of disease goes without the saying, but to say that to it all disease is traceable is to put a half truth for a whole truth. Besides the mental microbe of fear there is a physical microbe, which may be seen under the microscope. There it is patent to all beholders, ready for work, and only waiting for congenial soil in which to begin its operations. If we live hygienically, when it comes it will find in us nothing upon which to work. Instead of producing havoc like a spark of fire falling upon gunpowder, it will sputter out like a spark of fire falling upon ice. As a matter of fact, the absence of fear does not render one absolutely immune from the contagion of disease. Witness this in the cases of the doctors and nurses, who although void of fear often succumb to disease because their physical and nervous overstrain has made them peculiarly suscep- tible to its attacks. 61 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Nature is our friend, not our foe; and greater are the forces that work for health than those that work for disease. In assert- ing this Christian Science is right. If we trust Mother Nature, she will respond to our confidence. If we launch our little bark in faith upon the mighty stream of being, we shall be borne along by benign forces which make for health and happiness. But let us be sensible; and instead of saying, "I cannot be sick," say, *'I am going to be well." Anticipate good, not evil. Look upon health, and not sickness, as your normal condition. According to your faith will it be unto you. The Lord of Life is able to do wondrous things for those who trust in him; but he is as often unable to do mighty works for his own, "because of their unbe- lief." It is doubtless true that the scientific world has not recognized sufficiently the action of spiritual forces in causing and curing physical disorders; and it is equally true that Christian Science is not recog- nizing sufficiently the action of physical forces in the same direction. In working for health God uses both. Faith and medi- m AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT cine are alike his agents; the one being destructive of the microbe of fear, the other of the physical microbes that float in the air, and are taken in by mouth or nostrils. He quickens our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us, and by the material remedies which he has provided. A one-sided view of the matter, which ex- cludes him from part of his world, robs the one who holds it of part of his blessing. 63 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XII ITS REPRESSION OF NATURAL INSTINCT When you see one in danger or distress you have an instinctive desire to render him help. This instinct, which is one of the noblest that man possesses, Christian Science checks and crushes. It comes to one who is suffering and says, ''Yon — ^your real self — are not suffering, and cannot suffer; what you call suffering is simply an error of the mortal mind; deny it, and it will pass away." But often the suffering refuses to be exorcised; the patient grows steadily worse; his long struggle ends in the peace of death; and he passes out uncom- forted by the touch of human sympathy for which he yearns. The writer had a friend who went over into Christian Science. When her husband was taken seriously ill she believed that she could destroy his disease by denying it; and whenever he complained of pain she would answer, ''You are not really suffering pain, but are merely possessed 64 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT with the error of suffering." To which he would reply, "But I am suffering, my dear; and I greatly need your wifely sympathy." Wrapping herself up in a blanket she would sit in an adjoining room all night, putting all her effort of will into denying his sickness, firmly believing that she could roll back the tide of disease that was threatening to overwhelm him. But in spite of all her efforts he gradually sank into death's embrace, suffering to the last. When she saw that the great change had really come she was confounded; and awaking from her delusion she threw Christian Science meta- physics away as a thing accursed, saying: "What an unwifely wife I have been, withholding from my dear husband the touch of sympathy which would have com- forted him in his hour of agony. I could creep on my hands and knees across the fields of paradise, and prostrate myself at his feet, asking his forgiveness, while pour- ing out my soul in the agony of a vain regret." That there are not more who experience this reaction is to be accounted for on the ground that their blindness continues in spite of fatal facts. Were 65 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS their eyes opened, they would be iBlled with the bitterest remorse. Another pathetic Instance is recalled. A little neighbor girl was seen by the writer sitting under a tree on the lawn sobbing out the sorrow of her heart. When asked what the matter was she said, "Mother says I am not sick, but I am; my head aches, my back aches, and I am sick all over." It happened that she was coming down with a severe attack of scarlet fever, which brought her to death's door; and what she needed was a little mothering, which her Christian Science mother, suppressing her natural instincts, denied her. Christian Science makes mothers unmotherly. But instinct is stronger than philosophy. Thrust human nature out by the door, and it will return by the window. Calvinistic theo- logians taught the doctrine of damnation of non-elect infants ; but the mothers' hearts protested and that horrible doctrine had to go. And we may be sure tliat when the mother-nature asserts itself within the Christian Science circle, a philosophy which / has called for the crucifixion of the tenderest maternal instincts will be doomed. 66 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Sympathy is a Christian grace, a stoical callous nature is not a Christian product. We are attracted to the Man of Nazareth because he "was touched with the feeling of our infirmities." In the hour of trouble we say, "Commend me to a bruised brother, for he will know how to feel for me in my sor- rows and misfortunes." Homer is the^ mouthpiece of humanity when he sings, "Yet taught by time my heart has learned to glow For other's good, and melt for other's woe." The craving for sympathy is universal. When, therefore. Christian Science says, "Sympathy kills," it bears false witness. True sympathy makes alive; it comforts, refreshes, and strengthens weary and faint- ing hearts. And any religion that dries up the fountain of sympathy within the human breast is utterly unchristian in spirit, what- ever it may be in name, and is foe to the race. 67 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XIII ITS SELF-CENTERED SPIRIT One searches in vain for the working of the altruistic spirit among Christian Scien- tists. It is observable that whenever any- • one becomes a full-fledged Christian Sci- entist he gives up all the missionary and philanthropic activities with which his hands were filled. He at once draws into himself and becomes absorbed in petty personal interests. He works, of course, within Christian Science circles, but he is hereafter out of vital contact with the world around him, out of touch with its throbbing life, and out of helpful relation with its crying needs. He lives on a remote mountain top, where he is not sickened by the sights of human wretchedness and crime, and where he is not disturbed by the sighs and moans of suffer- ing humanity. His life is one of refined self- ishness. Like the elder brother in the parable, he may live a proper life, be emi- nently respectable, and free from bad habits. All he lacks is a heart. 68 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Religion has its beginning in the soul, but it finds its fulfillment in the social life. It is like leaven, which does not exist as a thing apart, but works within the meal. From the center of being it works out to the circumference of life. The trouble with Christian Science is that it does not bring the leaven into contact with the meal; that it fails to make religion a power for right- v eousness. Prodded by public opinion and by the urgent demand of the times, it has taken part in a half-hearted way in the "comfort work" of the Red Cross Society; but it is not in accordance with its princi- ples to administer relief to suffering; for to do that would be to treat suffering as a fact rather than as an error of the mortal mind. It was reported widely in the public news- papers that when an epidemic of smallpox broke out at Jacksonville, Florida; and when yellow fever was raging in Memphis, Ten- nessee, and nurses and physicians were vol- unteering their aid, not a single ''Scientist" was willing to lend a helping hand, and to face the deadly peril of contagion. Rumor has it that Christian Science, in order to wipe out the reproach of being WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS a self-centered organization, is at length contemplating the establishing of a sanita- rium, which, according to Mrs. Eddy's sug- gestion, is to be "a resort for the so-called sick." The public will be disposed to over- look the implied inconsistency of providing for the cure of what does not actually exist if it can see even this small budding of the philanthropic spirit. But it will be a long day before Christian Science comes up with the churches which it despises, in the blessed work of ministry to the needs of the miser- able, and righting the wrongs of the disin- herited. A fundamental defect in Christian Science is that it directs its efforts to the healing of the body, and overlooks the healing of the soul from the sin of selfishness — which is the essence of all sin. It produces no change in the moral center of man's being from selfishness to love. It makes no demands for the exercise of self-denial, or for tlie sacrificing of one's ease and comfort for the good of others. This, of course, makes it palatable to the natural man; who is always eager to accept a religion when it is made easy. 70 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT That Christian Science is a transplanta- tion from heathen soil is borne out in the testimony of the Pundita Ramabai, who when she came to this country in 1898, remarked: "On my arrival in New York I was told that a new philosophy was being taught in the United States and had already many disciples. The philosophy was called Christian Science; and when I asked what the teaching was, I recognized it as being the same philosophy that had been taught among my people for four thousand years. It has ruined millions of lives and caused immeasurable suffering and sorrow in my land, for it is based on selfishness, and shows no sympathy or compassion. In our late famine our philosophers felt no com- passion for sufferers, and did not help the needy. For why should they help, when they claim that the suffering was not real; neither were the dying children real." Yes, why should they.^ Can anyone tell.? There was a French philosopher who when told of a new religion which was becoming immensely popular, ventured the conjecture that it was an easy one. And it was. It issued to its followers no oppressive 71 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS commands; it smothered the cross with flowers; it blasted out of the steep hillside a path of easy grade to the mountain top. How different from that is the uncompro- mising demand of Jesus, that men take up their cross and follow him, that they deny self, and give themselves up to self- forgetting service for others! From the way of the bleeding feet who does not shrink? But that is the way the Master went, and it is the way by which we reach the highest things, the way by which we enter into His glory. 7« AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XIV ITS SPIRIT OF EXCLUSIVENESS Christian Science is a separatist move- ment. Instead of seeking to reform the church from within, it has renounced all connection with it and has gone out to set up its own standard as a separate organiza- tion. Its attitude toward the church which it has forsaken is not friendly. The moment anyone gets into touch with Chris- tian Science he gets out of touch with the church. Everything possible is done to destroy his faith in orthodox Christianity, and to break his connection with old reli- gious associations. He becomes imbued with the clan spirit, and lives in "a little garden walled around," and is not encour- aged to stretch out his hand to those who are on the other side of the dividing fence. The Christian Science Church is perhaps the most sectarian of all churches — the closest of all close religious corporations. The movement of the Spirit of God in the present day is toward union. In the great war for righteousness the federation 73 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS of forces is demanded in order to meet and overmatch the aggressive, united forces of evil. For the union of his people Jesus prayed. Only by securing this could he hope for the establishment of his kingdom. Hence any movement that tends to the dividing of the forces that make for right- eousness is standing in the way of the fulfill- ment of Christ's program — which is the com- plete subjugation of the world to himself. As a separatist movement Christian Science has developed a distinct religious type. Christian Scientists think alike, speak alike, act alike. They exhibit the same hall-marks. They are cast in the same mold, and resemble each' other like peas in a pod. All individuality seems to be rubbed out of them. Time was when members of different denominations were distinguished from one another, but that time is well-nigh passed. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty," and liberty tends to variety. The more free and natural religion is the more diverse will be its forms of expression. From this outward unity Christian Science derives much of its power of impression. Its harmony may be outward and mechani- 74 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT cal, but what it lacks in individuality it gains in concentration. Under the impact *^ of blow after blow directed to the same spot something is bound to give way. The unity of Christian Science is, how- ever, only a unity among themselves. By adopting a new brand of religion they break the continuity of Christian experience, surrender the inheritance of the past, and put themselves out of the line of true, spiritual, apostolic succession. In doing this they fail to distinguish between *'the old-time religion," which was good enough for mother, and is good enough for us, and the old-time theology, which may have been good enough for mother, but will not suit her children. Opinions differ, but faith is ever the same. Upon our mother's theology we may improve, but not upon her religion — that is forever the highest model for our imitation. Wise then will we be if, while adapting the formal expression of our beliefs to the growing thought of the times, we hold firmly to our ancestral spiritual inheritance, saying: "Faith of our fathers! holy faith. We will be true to thee till death." 75 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XV ITS CLOSELY KNIT ORGANIZATION The Christian Science movement, not content with remaining a mere influence pervading the churches, has built itself into an institution, thus perpetuating its life; for institutions last long after the spirit that created them is dead. But for the fact that it has crystallized into an organization, it would have been as a voice crying in the wilderness, dying away and lost. Organ- ization has given to it a body in which it can live and move and make itself felt in a visible world. We find a similar case in the Christian Endeavor movement. A young minister in Portland, Maine, organized a class of young people, to which he gave that name; the idea caught, because it seemed to provide a missing link between the church and the Sunday school; and as a result we have a world-wide organization by which the name of Dr. Francis E. Clark will be carried down to posterity. So will it be with Mrs. Eddy with reference to Christian Science. 76 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT The name itself was well chosen. It has been called "catchy"; and so it is; for "Christian" and "Science" are words to conjure with. Nor would the name have had any less acceptability if the founder of Christian Science had only had the grace to give to Dr. Quimby the credit for being the originator of the phrase. One thing that renders the organization compact and strong is the commercial spirit which pervades it; a spirit to which this commercial age is peculiarly respon- sive. Its leaders, readers, and practitioners constitute an inner circle or guild bound together by a common interest in supporting a system which gives them good financial returns. One is perfectly amazed to dis- cover how many Christian Scientists de- rive large incomes from the practice of heal- ing. Just as the trading spirit of Father Abraham characterizes the Jewish race, the pecuniary shrewdness of Mrs. Eddy characterizes the leaders of Christian Science. The people "demonstrate" for wealth, and generally get it, on the prin- ciple that one gets w^hat he goes after. Mrs. 77 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Eddy herself acquired great possessions, lived in affluence, and died a millionaire. In this she was unlike the Man of Nazareth, who often had nowhere to lay his head; but was in the unapostolic succession of those ecclesiastical dignitaries, who, decked in all the trappings of wealth, cut sorry figures in the church of the Carpenter. When in her growing prosperity she advanced her fees for class instruction from one hundred to three hundred dollars, she naively remarked: "When God impelled me to set a price upon my instruction in Chris- tian Science mind healing I could think of no financial equivalent for an interpretation of 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 in my college — a startling sum for tuition lasting hardly 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 shown me since in multitudinous ways the wisdom of this decision" (Retro- spection and Introspection, p. 7). In spite of the fact that only partial payment was 78 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT often exacted from the poorer pupils; and that ''indigent charity scholars" had their fees remitted, the income derived from this source must have been enormous — sufficiently so to gratify the financial dreams of an entire faculty of college professors. The governing power of this remarkable organization is vested in a syndicate at Boston, originally appointed by Mrs. Eddy, and self-perpetuating. By them all its affairs are controlled. Their rule is abso- lute. They blue-pencil the work of every Christian Science lecturer before it is given to the public. The mother church which they represent gives them power to dismiss any reader or church member, without any reason being given. The by-laws of the mother church cannot be changed without the consent of Mother Eddy, and, unfor- tunately, she is out of reach. In a recent contest in the courts between the mother church and the publishing so- ciety, as to which should have controlling power in business matters, the mother church came out on the top; but the han- dling of such immense revenues will always be an occasion of possible strife, *'for where- 79 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS soever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." From this it will be seen that as an organ- ization the Christian Science Church is thor- oughly undemocratic. In the government of its affairs the rank and file have no voice or vote whatsoever. It is hardly possible to conceive of an institution so completely out of harmony with the growing democratic spirit of the times, or Avith the genius of our free government. And at a time when the American people are seeking to make this old world safe for democracy, the presence in our midst of a native-born movement so absolutely undemocratic in its character presents a striking anomaly. Now that the great world-war for democracy is over, it will suffer death from strangulation if the bonds of repression are not unloosed. Has not the Master himself warned us how dire the result will be, if for the new wine of free thought we fail to provide for it new wine- skins? A mighty tidal wave of democratic senti- ment is sweeping over the entire world. It has invaded the political sphere, over- throwing ancient dynasties: It has reached 80 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT the industrial sphere where it is being temporarily checked in the vain endeavor to substitute one form of class rule for another; in due time it will reach the reli- gious sphere, making an end of every form of autocratic rule. When that time comes those churches will suffer most that are most undemocratic — and none will suffer more than the Christian Science Church. 81 WHAT ClffilSTLVN SCIENCE JVIEANS CHAPTER XVI ITS CENTRALIZED AUTHORITY Christian Science centers in one woman, who is regarded with something of the reverence which Roman CathoKcs ac- cord to the Virgin Mary, and who has the authority of a hundred popes. Never was there such extreme loyalty given to a leader as that which is freely accorded by Christian Scientists to Mother Eddy. To her decree her followers unquestioningly bow. Her word is the measure of truth; and her dead hand continues to wield the scepter of authority over every department of the fellowship which she founded. For pure, unadulterated absolutism there has been nothing like it in all history. Preaching was for a time permitted "in Science," but Mrs. Eddy was displeased with some of the ideas advanced; and so in 1885 she issued the following edict: "Humbly, and I believe divinely directed, I hereby order that the Bible with Science and Health and Key to the Scriptures shall hereafter be the only pastor for Christian 82 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Science throughout the land, or in other lands." In issuing this irrevocable mandate she took counsel with no one but herself. Her followers had not a word to say in the matter. Such an assumption of authority ill becomes any frail and fallible mortal. No one is wise enough or good enough to hold unrestricted sway over others. Abso- lute authority belongs alone to the All- Wise and the All-Good. With backward natures, as with back- ward nations, some form of centralized authority may at the first be almost a necessity — on the principle that all weak things need something on which to lean; but when that need has been outgrown, and any degree of virility has been attained, they will throw away their crutches and assert their independence and freedom. The present writer asked an intelligent, forceful lady who had been connected with the Christian Science movement in its earlier years why she had parted company with Mrs. Eddy, and she replied, "Because I wanted to do a little of my own thinking." A good reason surely! For if there is anything which ought never to be surren- 83 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS dered, it is the inalienable right to think for oneself — the right of private judgment, for the maintenance of which oceans of blood have been shed. This right Christian- ity respects. It makes its appeal to reason. It represents the divine mode of approach as being, "Come now, let us reason together" (Isa. 1. 18). It represents the messengers of Christ as prefacing their utterances with the words: ''I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say" (1 Cor. 10. 15). It repre- sents Christian believers as in duty bound to be "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you" (1 Pet. 3. 15). x\s a reaction against pure intellectualism in religion Christian Science has served a good purpose. It has called man back to belief in the direct action of God upon the soul, and his direct guidance of it into the light. But in denying to men the right to think for themselves, and to follow reason as far as it goes, it has become a mental soporific. Contrast the attitude of Paul, "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say," with that of Mrs. Eddy, "I speak as unto children, accept what I tell you." 84 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT To follow Mrs. Eddy's way is to remain bound in the swaddling clothes of intellec- tual and spiritual childhood. Along w ith the right of free thought goes the right of free government, or self-deter- mination. This, of course, may be exer- cised by the choice of representatives, to whom has been delegated governing powder, which may at any time be recalled. Therein lies the difference between the rule of the American President and that of the ex- German Kaiser; the one is from the people, the other was claimed to be from God alone. In its form of government the early church was purely democratic. It chose its own officers, ordained them, and held them responsible for the proper use of the power which was temporarily com- mitted to them. They were servants of the church, and not "lords over God's heritage." Their authority was accepted only in so far as it was subordinated to that of the Divine Master, who has said, "All authority has been given unto me." For arbitrary, self-assumed authority there is no place in the Christian brotherhood. All crown rights are there ascribed to 85 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Christ. The church is a true repubUc whose governing principle is, ''One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are breth- ren." 86 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XVII ITS FINALITY Christian Science is a finished religion. ^ The copestone of its edifice has been laid; the last words of its sacred books have been written, and nothing is to be added to them or taken away from them. The claim to finality Mrs. Eddy unhesitatingly makes. She says: "In the year 1866 I discovered the Christ Science of divine laws of life, and named it Christian Science. God had been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the acceptance of a final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of Scientific being and healing" (Science and Health, p. 107). Mark the words, "a final revelation." ^ These words leave no room for change or growth. They assume that the revelation of God to man has reached its climax in Christian Science, and that there is no further light from the Word of God; that in Christian Science we have "truth uncontam- inated by human hypotheses"; and that "outside of this Science all is unstable 87 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS error" (Science and Health, p. 302). *'Even the Scriptures gave no direct basis for de- monstrating the spiritual principle of heal- ing until our heavenly Father saw fit to furnish a key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health, to unlock the mysteries of goodness" (Retrospection and Introspec- tion, pp. 35, 36). This claim to final revelation of absolute principle is, however, discounted by its revision more than once in later years, for it is a contradiction in terms to speak of a final revelation as needing revision. But the most startling claim of all is that given in one of her later pronouncements, when she declares that "Science and Health makes it plain to all Christian Scientists that the manhood and womanhood of God have already been revealed in a degree through Jesus Christ and Christian Science, his two witnesses. What remains to lead on the centuries and reveal my successor is man, in the full image of the Father- Mother God, man the general term for mankind." No language could more ex- pressly teach that Jesus Christ and Mrs. Eddy are upon a level as joint witnesses of 8S AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT God, that both reveal God as Father and Mother, and that for neither no individual successor can be found; the only thing remaining being for mankind to realize the fullness of this twofold revelation. Beyond this claim of equality of authority with Christ one would think that it would be impossible for human presumption to go. But she goes further and declares: "Our Master healed the sick, practiced Christian healing, and taught the generalities of its divine principles to his students; but he left no definite rule for demonstrating this principle of healing and preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered in Christian Science." And yet it is these daring claims that give to Christian Science much of its strength of appeal. Its sublime dogmatism makes converts; inasmuch as it offers a final resting place to thought and relieves people from the trouble of thinking for themselves. To those who are weary and perplexed, its seek-no -further argument is specially alluring, offering, as it does, an end to all the toilsome search after truth. But to this attitude, which attempts to S9 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS prevent the fermentation of thought by a process of mental sterilization, everything is at variance. The physical world is in a state of continual flux; creation is unfinished; changes are going on throughout the whole realm of nature. It is the same within the sphere of religion. On the divine side alone is there finality. Everything that pertains to the outward form of things is subject to change. Truth in its essence is forever the same, but its outward forms are continually changing. Christianity is not static, but vital and growing. It develops along the lines of the advancing thought of the world; and because it develops it changes. A reli- gion that is fixed and changeless is sure to become fossilized and sterile. Everything that continues to live must be reborn. By seeking to put religion into final form Christian Science has set itself in the way of becoming in time **an outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." The future belongs alone to the religion that can change its forms and adapt them to the growing life of the times. The acceptance of Christian Science as a final religion leads also to the stultification 90 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT of the intellect. It brings one into an eddy in the stream of life. When the mind is closed to all sources of knowledge save one — when, as in this instance, it is open to the author of Science and Health, and all that she says is taken without qualification or reservation as the final revelation of truth, progress is impossible. Two things are indispensable to mental development, name- ly, an independent mind that does its own thinking and an open mind that welcomes light from whatever quarter it may come. Christianity, instead of dispensing with the necessity of thinking, makes its direct appeal to human reason, saying, 'Trove all things; hold fast that which is good." It invites every earnest truth-seeker to "Seize upon the truth where'er 'tis found — Amidst its friends; amidst its foes, On Christian or on heathen ground; The flower's divine where'er it grows." The attempt of Mrs. Eddy to express religious truth in final and imperishable forms will prove as futile as all similar attempts have been; and if the Christian Science of the future sets itself in defiance of the law of progress, upon which the 91 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS kingdom of the spirit is structured, it will in time become a mere religious fossil, unrelated to the living world around it; or; to change the figure, it will become side-tracked while the express train of human progress goes thundering past. Division is better than death. Those who lie together in a religious graveyard have ceased from strife, because they have ceased from every other form of activity. They may be spoken of as a united body, but they are united because frozen solid in death's cold embrace. 92 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XVIII ITS MAIN ASSUMPTION The main assumption upon which Chris- tian Science is built up is that nothing exists but spirit; and the attempt which it has made to defend that assumption has led to innumerable contradictions and absurdities. Harmful to a degree is the way in which it plays fast and loose with reality. If its teaching is true, we live in a world of illusion. Things are not what they seem/ Everything outward is unreal, and is only the shadow of which some spiritual fact is the substance. ''Electricity and life," says Mrs. Eddy, "the offspring of finite mind, are unreal." And so are all the great forces which we have been wont to regard as primal and permanent. What ordinary people have believed, and always will be- lieve, is that the outward world is just as real as the spiritual world; but being essen- ./ tially different in its qualities, it demands a different kind of evidence for its existence. A stone is as real as a soul, but they do not belong to the same category; they do not 93 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS occupy the same zone. The one belongs to the mineral kingdom, the other to the spiritual kingdom. Christian Scientists deny the existence of the one, materialists deny the existence of the other. Both are wrong. For the one there is quite as valid evidence as for the other. And in spite of the asseveration of Mrs. Eddy that "miner- als and vegetables are found, according to divine science, to be the creation of erring thought" (Science and Health, p. 543), the well-nigh universal verdict of mankind will continue to be that reality belongs to the material equally with the spiritual. The only avenues connecting us with the outward world are our five senses. It is through them alone that we gain any particle of knowledge concerning the mate- rial world. They are the only means which God has afforded us of becoming acquainted with our house of life. That they occa- sionally trick us cannot be denied; but to say, as Christian Science does, that our five senses are five liars, who "break all the Mosaic Decalogue to meet their own de- mands," is a libel. Taken on the whole, they are to be trusted.yTo deny their 94 ^ AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT testimony is to impugn Divine Wisdom in giving them to us. It would be tantamount to affirming that something which God has given to us has failed to serve its purpose. Just as the testimony concerning the spirit- ual world is in the spirit, so the testimony of the outward world is in the senses; and to deny the testimony of the senses is to close up the windows of the soul and live in darkness. You hold in your hand a watch. All that you know of it, all that it is to you, is simply a group of sensations. It is circular, it is hard, it is cold; it is heavy, but does it exist merely as an idea.? Does not common sense dictate that there is something of which these qualities are predicated, something which the common speech of mankind calls "substance" — literally that which stands under our ideas and impressions — the object- ive reality of which our ideas and impres- sions are the fleeting and intangible quali- ties .^^ Mind and matter, body and soul are different in kind. They possess different attributes; they belong to different king- doms. Human language has always recog- 95 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS nized their essential difference. A lady once asked the poet Hood, "What is mind?" His answer was, "No matter." "What is matter.^" "Never mind." "What is soul?" "It is immaterial." And that is just about all that can be said on the subject. The common speech of man would be required to be reconstructed before we could apply the qualities of matter to mind. A sufficient answer to the assertion that nothing exists but spirit is found in the witty lines of Lord Byron: "When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter, And proved it, 'twas no matter what he said." David Hume, the Scotch philosopher, contended stoutly for the ideality of matter. When he died, a wit who sought to make his theory ridiculous, suggested for his epitaph the lines: "Beneath this circular stone, Vulgarly called a tomb, Lie those ideas and impressions That made up David Hume." 9G AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT People, of course, smiled, because they knew that beneath that circular stone lay a hand- ful of dust that made up the actual body of the eccentric philosopher who had been wont to walk their streets. But while Christian Science holds that nothing exists but spirit, it has evolved the theory that that which the mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and smells does exist in belief, and in belief only. In such a case sin and suffering are looked upon as false beliefs, which are to be gotten rid of. It is not fair, therefore, to say that while Christian Science denies the real objective existence of sin and suffering, it denies their existence altogether, for it does admit their existence as errors of the mortal mind, and admits also that as such they may have all the experience of reality which they would possess if they actually existed. But this is verbal camouflage; for the thing that exists only in belief can be real only to the individual. It may have no actual reality; whereas underlying every well-founded belief is a substantial entity which is ever the same, however we may be related to it, or affected by it. 97 / WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XIX ITS PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS If the old Berkeleian theory of the ideaUty of matter is the main assumption of Chris- tian Science, the old pantheistic theory of the allness of God is its philosophical basis. Alexander McLellan, editor of the Christian Science Journal, in defining Christian Science, says, 'Tts fundamental truths are the reality and allness of God, the unreality and nothingness of matter, the spirituality of man and the universe, the omnipotence of God, and the impotence of evil." It will be noticed that in this definition the allness of God is put first. Christian Scientists are constantly ringing changes upon the twin expressions: "Mind is all," and "God is all." Outside of mind and God there is nothing that is real and sub- stantial. If language has any meaning, mind and God are regarded as identical, as in the declaration, "There is a power within the heart of man which may be called Mind or God, which is omnipotent in life, our task 98 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT being to get in touch with it, and make it work for us." The expression "Mind or God" blots out completely the idea of divine personality, and makes the Creator one with the thing which he has created. This Mrs. Eddy definitely affirms, in her oft- quoted pronouncement: "God is Love and Law, is Principle not Person" (Science and Health, p. 28). This is to reduce God to a mere abstraction, to rob us of the living, loving, personal Friend whom we have known as our heavenly Father. Instead of saying that "God is all," we ought to say that God is in all — the pervad- ing Life of the universe; instead of saying that God and love are one, what ought to be said is that love is a quality of divine personality; instead of saying that "all is good," what we ought to say is that there is goodness in all; instead of saying that good- ness fills the world, and hence there is no room in it for suffering or for sin, what we ought to say is that although goodness is not the only reality it is the only permanent reality. So long as evil lasts it is as real as goodness; but nothing that is evil will last forever. ty WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS The declaration that "God is all," that he is "the only Ego," that he fills all space and leaves no room for anything else, does away also with human personality. Man becomes an infinitesimal part of an indefinite whole; freedom, he has none; self-action, he has none. In all things he is moved and controlled by the power into which he has been absorbed. The acceptance of the doctrine of the allness of God leads to strange results. If God is all, if he is the sole reality in the universe, man must be part of God. From this conclusion Christian Science does not shrink. In a California town in which the religious census was taken recently, at the bottom of the list of denominations repre- sented, was the following entry: "Divine Fragment, one." In all likelihood that "divine fragment" as he appeared to his neighbors had all the marks of a bit of common clay, subject to "the thousand shocks that flesh is heir to." Man is not a bit of God, but he is a child of God; made in God's image, constitutionally like him, as a child is like his father; and meant to be like him morally as he is like him in all the 100 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT essential elements of his nature. And it is this kinship and oneness of nature of man with God that supplies the alliance con- dition that makes it possible for God to communicate to him all that he needs for the realization of a perfect life. However it may be with some of her followers, Mrs. Eddy herself does not hesitate to carry the doctrine of the divine allness to its legitimate and inevitable con- clusion in the wiping out of every vestige of human personality. She says, "We must put away the idea that God and man are separate intelligences." Again she affirms: ''There is neither a personal Deity, and personal devil, nor a personal man." And once more: "The belief that man has a separate life or soul from God is the error that Jesus came to destroy." It is easy to see how this doctrine cuts at the root of all human responsibility; for if man is simply part of the Divine, he has no independent life. He and God are one, and what he does is what God does through him. It is fundamental to faith that we not only hold to the thought of God as a 101 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS present reality, but also as a personal reality, with whom we are personally re- lated, with whom we are one in nature, yet from whom we are distinct in person- ality. To speak of him as a "principle" simply confuses the issue; for a principle must have a vital center from which to work. Only in the recognition of person- ality divine and human can we find a mental or spiritual resting place. Personality is of the essence of being, just as individuality is of the essence of character; and man lives his true life in the external, in the internal, and in the Eternal as a finite being whose springs are in God, and as a free being whose life is all his own. 102 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XX ITS ABNORMALITY Christian Scientists live a double life; a life whose two parts are in nowise vitally related. In the outward sphere of human activity they live normally; they deal with things they see and touch and use in a normal way; but within the sphere of the inner life they act abnormally. They follow like other folks some reasonable system of dietetics; they appreciate the value of exercise and fresh air; they are not defective in their sense of the value of money; but when they are brought to accept the dictum of Mrs. Eddy that a poison such as prussic acid would be harmless as milk if one could only have a firm belief in its harm- lessness, they have passed into an abnormal condition of mind; for a normal building up of life can take place only when one relates himself to the common experience of humanity. To go contrary to that is to turn everything topsy-turvy. The first step which the initiate in Chris- tian Science has to take is to come into the 103 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS abnormal situation of denying the existence of sin, of sickness, and of death — things that the rest of the world regard as realities. To bring people into that abnormal condi- tion, in which belief in these things is de- stroyed, is the prime effort of every Christian Science practitioner. To the denial of these things the initiate is urged to hold himself; nothing that would shake him in this con- viction must be introduced; no books save those of Mrs. Eddy and the Bible must be read ; everything that is disquieting must be rigorously excluded; there must be no discussion or resistance; into the objective consciousness the denial of everything within the realm of sense perception must be allowed to sink unhindered; and when once planted there it can be depended upon to do its deadly work. This invasion of one soul by another has been called an instance of "spiritual mal- practice." But such an invasion would not be objectionable if its end were legitimate; for all personal influence is measurably of this kind. The paid body of Christian Scientist missionaries give themselves night and day to the spread of their cult by this method. 104 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT They profess not to make any direct appeal to the people to join their church, but they are tireless in their efforts to control any- one who shows the slightest susceptibility to their teachings. Consciously or uncon- sciously, they hypnotize the soul, just as the professed hypnotist hypnotizes the senses. The senses are not in abeyance as in hyp- notism, but the subconscious mind is. Reason is made to abdicate its throne; erroneous thought is transferred from one benighted mind to another; and a blind assent is secured to a belief in the nothing- ness of what was hitherto regarded as substantial. So unreal and dreamlike does everything pertaining to the outer life frequently become, that one who plunged deeply into Christian Science — studying it under Mrs. Eddy herself — when he after- ward came to the surface and gained full consciousness, said that so hazy and indis- tinct had the material cosmos become that he often found himself reaching out his hand to find if the chair that he was sitting on, or the table he saw before him, was really there. An abnormal and unhealthy condition of mind, surely ! 105 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Yet this crumbling away of the outward has often one great compensation: it neces- sitates the throwing of the soul upon God as the ultimate reality, and from this comes a strange elation and uplift that has much of the value of an old-fashioned conversion. But within circles of ordinary Christian enlightenment this change comes in a better way, through the exercise of a simple faith, and without the surrender of mental integ- rity or without going back on the common, generic experiences of the race. That the denials of Christian Science run counter to experience is shown from the fact that to get rid of the notions of matter, disease, and sin is not to get rid of the things themselves, for they are still with us; that they are direct denials of Scripture teaching is just as easily shown. To take a few examples: Over against the assertion that there is no matter, we put the words, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground" (Gen. 2. 7). Over against the assertion that there is no sickness we put the words written of Jesus, "They brought unto him all sick people, . . . and he healed them" (Matt. 4. 24). Over against the 106 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT assertion that there is no sin we put the words, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3. 23). Over against the assertion that there is no death we put the words, "It is appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. 9. 27). Evidently, the Bible looks at these things as realities and not as "mortal errors." Mrs. Eddy is strangely inconsistent with her declaration that "disease is an illusion," for she also declares over and over again, "I have cured disease." How could she cure that which does not exist .^ With her further declaration that "sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disap- pearance of sin," there will be general concurrence; but when she speaks of death as "a mortal error," she puts herself out- side normal human experience, to which death is very real, and tempts one to remark that if a mortal error, it was one by which she herself was overcome at last. In contrast with this abnormal view of things is the wholesome, virile. Christian view which represents Christian faith as above reason, but in harmony with it; that represents religion as part of life, as some- 107 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS thing which blends into our common human experiences, purifying and glorifying them. Instead of denying sickness and sin and death, it looks upon health as battling against sickness; righteousness against sin; life against death; and it sees the final van- quishment of every foe of man through the healing, restoring power which Christ has lodged in the world's heart. 108 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXI ITS PASSIVITY Christian Science is a religion of pas- sivity. It leads to physical and nervous relaxation, which is well; and to mental and spiritual relaxation, which is not well. It keeps one waiting for the tide to flow in, instead of keeping him digging channels for its inflow. It demands at the start that all self-originated mental activity be held in abeyance; and that a certain ready- made system of thought be accepted with- out questioning. One sometimes wonders what would happen within Christian Sci- ence circles were the padlock of restraint removed from the minds and lips of its people. The prohibition of preaching was certainly a master stroke, being a practical necessity if the new movement was to be saved from ridicule and division. Under any despotic government it is always a dangerous thing when people are allowed to think and speak for themselves. Some- thing is sure to happen, as in the case of Russia to-day. 109 x/ WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS But repression has its penalty; and in the long run any human organization from which the friction of free thought and the friendly interchange of opinion is absent must become vapid and profitless. When a lady friend remarked to Archbishop Whately that during thirty years of wedded life she and her husband never had a difference of opinion about anything, he replied: "It must have been mighty stale, madam." And any fellowship in which all agree beforehand to think the same things, and to repeat forevermore the same shib- boleths, must become in time like a stagnant pool that sends forth pestilential odors until the sun in mercy drinks it up and leaves nothing but the dry and cracking mud. In a well-balanced government there are always two wings or parties more or less clearly defined, namely, one liberal, the other conservative, the one acting as a check upon the other. Christian Science is an organization with one wing. Within it there is a dull, leaden uniformity. What- ever else the reformation movement in Germany, and the Nonconformist move- 110 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT ment in England meant, they meant the quickening of thought and the saving of the church from stagnation. Christian Science can be saved in no other way. Along with mental passivity always goes spiritual passivity. And this is a remark- able feature of Christian Science. It knows nothing of the war of the spirit against the flesh which Paul depicts. It knows nothing of vigils, and fastings, and wrestlings of the soul. It floats rather than swims. Its influence is decidedly benumbing and ener- vating. Like all religions that are predom- inantly negative, and that emphasize the passive virtues, it develops softness of fiber, and takes from man the sturdier qualities that make him a hero in the strife. It seeks to get rid of sin as one might get rid of a cancer under the use of an anaes- thetic. It magnifies the doctrine of self- surrender, until God is represented as doing it all and as leaving nothing for man to do. In all this it is misleading, for nothing is clearer than that while God is doing his utmost for us, there are many things which he calls upon us to do for ourselves; things in which we are to co- lli WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS operate with him; things for whose effective accomphshment he seeks to give us enabhng power. He gives us brains, and he expects us to use them; he gives us truth, and he expects us to search for it; he gives us ideals, and he expects us to reahze them. Nor have we any reason to expect him to do for us what with his help we can do for ourselves. It may be that overemphasizing of the divine side of things was needed for a time to correct the prevailing error that repre- sented man as doing all and as leaving nothing for God to do. But either view, taken by itself, is only a hemisphere of truth. The complete circle includes them both. In a full-orbed Christian experience pas- sivity and activity, surrender to God and consecration to his service must be united harmoniously and in right proportions. 112 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXII ITS SUBJECTIVITY Christian Science is an inward-looking religion. In this it resembles New Thought — from which it differs, however, in that while New Thought concerns itself with the operations of the mind. Christian Science concerns itself with the operation of God in and through the mind. But on its own particular ground it is far behind the ortho- dox faith, which sets forth the truth of the God within in a concrete and practical form, at the same time balancing it with the presentation of truth in its outward and objective forms. In the God within, working for health and happiness and holiness, which Christian Science recognizes, the orthodox faith sees Christ in man the hope of glory. By baptizing divine immanence into the name of Christ it gives to it a new redemptive significance. It also sees more distinctly the God at work as the ''one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 113 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS all, and in all" (Eph. 4. 6) — a God who is transcendent and immanent, a God who is a Father, and at the same time the per- vading life of the universe, and the in- dwelling life in the soul of man. By over-emphasizing the subjective side of religion Christian Science has narrowed the scope of its influence, and has become shorn of missionary power. It makes its appeal to philosophers rather than to com- mon people, and is to a large extent re- cruited from those within the churches who have been prepared to receive its teachings. Its temple is built with stones which other hands have quarried and hewn. Prosely- tizing power it has; but self -propagating power it has not; missionary passion it has not. It does not go out into the highways and hedges after the outcasts. It erects no mission halls; it has no missionary prop- aganda. It is true that it distributes its literature with a lavish hand; but it makes no effort to bring its message down to the comprehension of those who are ignorant of philosophical terminology. Simple-minded people need to have truth presented to them in a more concrete form 114 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT than that which Christian Science employs. They need to have it taken out of the abstract and set before them in symbols, in pictures, in living examples. That is what is meant by feeding those who are babes in knowledge with the milk of the word. The strong meat of metaphysics they cannot assimilate; that is for those who are full grown. If we study the preaching of the apostles we will see that invariably they began by presenting their message objectively. They told the story of the Christ in the simplest way, and by it won the heart of the world. And when they came to proclaim the truth which consti- tutes the heart of the gospel — the truth concerning the atoning life and death of Christ — they did not elaborate some fine- spun theory of the atonement, but dwelt upon the simple fact of it, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." Christianity is a historical religion. Its roots are not in the air, but in the soil of historical fact. It is this that brings it down to the ordinary level and makes it a religion for all people. But it is also a 115 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS spiritual religion, something inwrought in the souls of men, something that Is realized and perpetuated in human experience. And this is the side of it to which Christian Science has given a much-needed emphasis. It has met those within the churches who have become dissatisfied with the husks of re- ligion, those who when they asked for bread were given a stone, those whose hunger for the spiritual has been unappeased, and has offered them the priceless and satisfying things of the spirit. No wonder it has found a large response! What the churches have to learn is that man as a spiritual being never can have his true life in the outward; that he yearns to be ministered unto in the deepest depths of his soul; that the objective facts which form the foundation of faith must one by one be transmuted into sub- jective experience; that, in a word, religion must become life. 116 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXIII ITS SERENITY This is perhaps its most attractive feature. Onlookers see fussy, fretful people go ''into Science" and become transformed at once. They see them develop poise of body and composure of spirit, and become seemingly undisturbed by anything hap- pening in the restless world around them. And not unf requently the wish is expressed for a Christian friend that he might get a dash of Christian Science thrown into his religion. In many cases, however, placidity would be a more correct word to express the change than serenity. Life has no longer its ups and downs, its heights of exaltation and its depths of depression. It is one dead level. The raging torrent has changed into a stagnant ditch. The music of life is all played upon the soft pedal. Some- thing has gone out of life; and the measure of smug satisfaction felt is often in pro- portion to the shallowness of the peace experienced. 117 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Christian Science Is the modern equiva- lent for monastlcism; which It reproduces In an Improved and pleasanter form. It offers rest and gives It. It provides an asylum from life's carking cares and endless worries, a quiet harbor where tempest-tossed souls may ride at ease, with the roar of life's stormy sea heard only In the distance. Yet it demands no outward separation from the world; and while looking upon the world as ''a passing show, for man's illusion given," Instead of renouncing it. It seeks to extract from it all the enjoyment it can; stopping Its ears to all disquieting sounds; and making out of a world of illusion as comfortable a place as possible In which to live. The writer has a friend who was a leader in every form of church work, and who frankly went into Christian Science because It gave her a relief from frayed nerves, and took her beyond the reach of all vexing religious and social problems. She had been overdriven. Her pastor, who was known as "a regular hustler," had whipped her to duty with a whip of scorpions, until she was ready to fall down in her tracks. 118 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT She has found rest of a sort; rest from toil, rather than rest in toil, and has drifted into a spiritual Nirvana, where she is as religiously inert as if held in the embrace of death's own sleep. Rest may be obtained at too great a price. It is so obtained when it means mental stagnation or the cessation of helpful activities. When Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," what he promised was rest of spirit while bearing life's burdens and performing life's duties- rest under his yoke. Exemption from trou- ble he never promised, but he did promise exemption from worry and disquietude. "In the world," he said, "ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." As there Is a point of rest In the center of the cyclone, so there Is for anyone who comes to Christ and puts his life In his hands a place of rest in the heart of every trouble. But where Christian Science falls Is that It does not go deep enough. The rest which It gives Is negative rather than positive; It consists in the absence of fear 119 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS rather than in the complete adjustment of the soul to God. Many of those who go into Science have suffered greatly from an ingrowing conscience, and have sought relief by having the troublesome thing removed at a stroke by an act of spiritual surgery. But the roots of bitterness are still there, ready to spring up at some unexpected time. It is a delusion to think that we ever can reach a condition in which, when the Holy Spirit comes to do his convicting work, he will find nothing in us. Saint John has said, "If we say ^ that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1. 8). Conscience is to be cleansed, not amputated. The way to reach the ''peace that passeth understanding" is to face the fact of sin, and to get right with God about it by having it forgiven; and get right w^ith ourselves about it by confessing and for- saking it. Until this is done all outward serenity is mere veneer, covering the cracks in the great beams which support our house of life. Paul goes down to the bottom of the matter when he says: ''Being justi- fied by faith, we have peace with God 1^0 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5. 1). It is in our adjustment in all our Godward and manward relations, through Jesus Christ, that we alone can find that true and abiding peace which goes to the root of our need, and which nothing m the outward life ever can disturb or destroy. ni WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXIV ITS REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN THE BIBLE Multitudes of people to whom the Bible was a closed book have been sent by Christian Science to pursue its pages. And that surely is a great gain. The Bible is its own witness; its "entrance giveth light," and no one can dwell upon its teachings without being helped thereby. But what the Bible will do for us depends upon the spirit in which we approach it and the attitude which we maintain with regard to its teachings. It makes all the difference in the world whether we come to it with an open mind to find out whether our beliefs are well founded, or with a mind closed to everything except a handful of mental prepossessions, and a desire to find something that will establish them. Paul commended the Bereans because they were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readi- ness of mind, examining "the scriptures 122 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17. 11). Their attitude was that of honest truth-seekers who were more anxious to know God's truth than to have their own preconceived ideas confirmed. The unfortunate thing about Christian Science is that the things which it rules out before coming to the study of the Word of God are not incidental and nonessential, but concern the very essence of Christianity. These things include the fundamental doc- trines of sin and atonement, which form the very core of the gospel. What kind of a Bible have you left when you deny before- hand its most vital truths? Altogether too much value has been attached to the mere reading of the Bible by Christian Scientists. They are great Bible readers, but they are not great Bible students. They do not cultivate the open mind which welcomes truth from every quarter. They read their Bibles through a pair of colored glasses furnished by Mrs. Eddy; and having accepted beforehand her interpretation of its teachings their sub- sequent brooding over its words simply confirms them in her opinions. 123 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS It is not the amount of Bible reading that one does, but the kind of it, that counts. The Mormons are a Bible-reading people, but they do not seem to get much out of the practice. The adherents of many narrow sectarian churches are great Bible readers, but they read onty along their own special lines, using the Bible as an armory of proof texts for the defense of their peculiar tenets. An ordinary Mohammedan reads the Koran more diligently than an ordinary Christian reads the Bible, and prays more frequently; but the fact that he can rise from his devo- tions and plunge a dagger into the heart of an "infidel" shows that his devotions have had no practical value. The Bible to be read profitably must be read intelligently and with spiritual intent. Its great truths must be inwardly digested and outwardly applied. There must be no veil of prejudice drawn over the heart, as Paul declares to have been the case with the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ; nor must a foreclosure be put upon any part of the revelation which God has given to the children of men. All the rich treasures of truth con- 124 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT tained in the good old Book have not been discovered. As Pastor Robinson, ad- dressing the Pilgrim Fathers, said, "God has yet more light to break forth from his Holy Word"; and those honor God most who welcome it when it comes, by what- ever agency it may be brought. In the present day in all the churches there is a revival of interest in the Bible which more than parallels that within Christian Science circles. Never was the Bible read more reverently or more under- standingly, and never did it convey to more of its readers that first-hand message which God, through its words, seeks to bring to every individual soul. 125 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXV ITS SHADOWY CHRIST A SPIRITUALLY minded young woman who had gone into Christian Science, and after- ward returned to the church of her earUer faith, when asked what she had missed in Christian Science that brought her back, answered, ''Christ." She had missed the hving, loving, personal Christ, who had been her unseen Companion and Helper, and had been oflFered in his place a philo- sophical teacher who was the creation of Mrs. Eddy; and she found him to be a poor, pale substitute for the Christ she had known. In the teaching of Christian Science Christ is made central, but not the Christ whom ordinary Christians know. Mrs. Eddy does, indeed, speak of Jesus as con- ; ceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of a virgin, but she at the same time represents him as only "wearing in part a human form." She even refers to "his supposed life in matter" — his appearance in the flesh 126 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT being a mere hallucination, inasmuch as "science decides matter in the mortal body to be nothing but a behef in an illusion." She distinguishes between "the dual per- sonality of the seen and the unseen, the Jesus and the Christ," looking upon the Jesus of history as one in whom the eternal Christ was manifested, but not looking upon the two as one. She admits that Jesus was crucified, but does not add Paul's explanatory phrase, "for our sins." The cause of his agony was not the burden of man's transgression, but "the desire to alter error of a belief of life in matter"; and when upon the cross he was not taking away the sins of the world, but giving "an example and proof of divine science." There is something almost pathetic in the anxiety of Mrs. Eddy's followers to make it appear that their system of thought does not destroy the doctrine of the atone- ment. As illustrative of the dire straits to which they are put to defend their posi- tion, take the following from a current number of the Christian Science Journal, where the writer explains the shedding of blood upon Jewish altars to mean "the 127 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS symbol of the replacement in human con- sciousness of the mental concept for the spiritual idea; the giving up of the belief that matter has power for a complete reliance upon God as the only power." How it would have astonished the Jewish worshipers to have had such a recondite explanation of a symbol which to their unsophisticated souls simply meant the giving of life for life ; the same thing that in principle was recently witnessed on the blood-soaked battlefields of Europe. In repudiating, as many orthodox Christians do, the quid pro quo view of the atonement, and declaring that *'one sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin," Mrs. Eddy unfortunately repudiates the atonement itself, thus throwing out the baby with the water of the bath. The connection between the death of Christ and the repentance which it produces is also ignored for the reason that "sin is not forgiven; we cannot escape its penalty." In Christian Science the doctrine of the divine forgiving, restoring grace, which has been throughout the Christian ages the very heart of the gospel, has no place. For the 128 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT bruised conscience it has no remedy; for the sin-burdened soul it has no reUef . Mrs. Eddy makes frequent reference to the resurrection of Christ, but she has nothing to say of the hving Christ. The Christ who rose from the dead; who ascend- ed to the heavens from which he came, and returned to dwell forever with his people; the Christ who is ever with us, the Friend above all others; the Christ with whom we can at all times enjoy the closest intercourse; the Christ who will welcome us as we pass out of the earth-life, and with whom we shall dwell forever in the eternal glory— this Christ we fail to find in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, or in those of her followers. Of this Mrs. Eddy herself must have been conscious, for in writing to Judge Hanna, one of her most distinguished disciples, she said, "I have marveled at the press and pulpit's patience with me when I have taken away their Lord." To those w^ho have never known any other Christ than the one Christian Science has to offer there is, of course, no such sense of loss, but for those who have once known the Jesus of Nazareth and of Calvary as the 129 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Christ of experience, it is different. By suggesting that Jesus was less than divine; that he was subject to the Hmitations and imperfections of other men; that "had wisdom characterized his own sayings, he would not have prophesied his own death, and therefore hastened it" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 84), Mrs. Eddy takes the feet that were resting upon the Rock of Ages and sets them on the sinking sand. It is only to a divine Christ — a flawless Christ — that the heart goes out in utter confidence, exclaiming, "Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in thee I find." It is a significant fact that in the testimonies as to the benefits received by Christian Scientists very little is said in laudation of Christ, who in all things ought to have the preeminence, the chief credit being given to Mrs. Eddy, ''the discoverer and founder of Christian Science." Many no doubt feel differently, but that is the painful impres- sion which their testimony too frequently makes. 130 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXVI ITS USE OF PERSONAL TESTIMONY This is the main factor in its propa- gating power. Its popularity, like that of a successful physician, is spread by its grateful patients. Its midweek service, which is the power-house of the movement, is called "a testimonial meeting," and is usually crowded; while the church prayer meeting across the street may be attended by only a corporal's guard. Take up any current number of the Christian Science Journal and you will find a department devoted to the record of testimonials from those who have benefited by Christian Science. Their benefits are mainly physical, but not entirely so. Most of them refer to the healing of the body, and change the old time testimony, "Come all ye that fear God and I will tell what he hath done for my soul,'' into, "Come all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my body.'' But they do not all end there. Many go on to witness to 131 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS the sweet sense of divine immediacy, deliv- erance from fear, the acquisition of inward repose, the breaking of the chains of evil habits, and the casting out of the evil spirits of envy, jealousy, and hate. And these are good things to testify about. The prime reason for the large attendance at the testimonial meetings is found in the pressure put upon those who are healed, or under treatment, to come into the open and testify to what Christian Science has done for them. And apart from its effect upon others this personal testimony has a psychological effect upon the individual giving the testimony, the overt act strength- ening the new-born faith, putting an end to all wavering of confidence, and driving home the assurance of the healer that all is well. Christian Science has had the courage to apply to its teaching the test of expe- rience; and in that it is wise, for experience is the ultimate test of truth. At first sight it seems to meet the test; but in reality experience is its weakest and most vulner- able point. When compared with those within the church who have had no religious 132 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT experience whatever Christian Scientists have the advantage; but when compared with spiritually minded Christians they come far short. The present writer has, through the years, asked quite a number of Christian Science friends to tell him what they have got of value out of their religion. Their general testimony has been that they have got deliverance from some phys- ical ailment, freedom from fret, serenity of soul, and a new sense of God, but they were sadly lacking in what constitutes essential Christian experience. The thing which was most conspicuously absent was the happy consciousness of personal com- munion with the personal God and Father revealed in Christ. At their lowest estate they seemed to walk in a cloud; and at their highest in a golden haze. Into the clear sense of divine sonship, which con- stitutes the witness of the Spirit, they do not appear to have come. When I have in turn spoken to them of my own religious experience, testifying what Christ had been to me — not only the healer of the body, but the Saviour of the soul; not only a pervading Spirit, but an abiding 133 y WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Companion; testifying also to the value of prayer, as conscious fellowship with the Eternal Father, in whose bosom I could bury my head in the hour of desolation, and in whose upholding power and pro- tecting care I could continually rejoice, and have asked what I could gain by becom- ing a Christian Scientist, either there has been silence, or a frank avowal that if they had been able to get all of that out of orthodox Christianity they never would have become Christian Scientists. It is a significant fact that the majority of those who go over to Christian Science from the churches never have enjoyed a real spiritual experience of Christ; or if it once were theirs, they have lost it. What we need to do in our churches is to overmatch Christian Scientists in the matter of testimony. We have a better thing to offer, but we are not working it as they are doing theirs. In giving testimony it is necessary, in the first place, that we have something to testify about; for a witness does not give his opinion, he states facts. To give improved testimony it is necessary that we have an improved 134 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT experience, for testimony always will rise or fall with experience. "Johnnie why don't you sing louder?" said a mother to her boy. "I am singing as loud as I feel," was the unexpected reply. It is so with our witnessing. The witness of testimony will rise as high as its source in experience, and no higher. For the church to increase her power she must improve her testimony. She must have more to tell of blessings actually received from Christ. People will flock to the house of God to hear of the new triumphs of the Christ in the miracles of healing and saving power wrought by him to-day rather than those wrought by him in the days of his flesh. A colored preacher stood by the door of his little church during the progress of a revival, inviting passers by to enter; saying to them, "Come in here; there's honey in this hive." Chris- tian Scientists have found honey in their hive and it is sweet to their taste. In Christianity itself there is an abundant store of it, but in our churches there are often only the empty combs of form and 135 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS ceremony, from which the honey has long ago been extracted. A witnessing church always will win the world's attention. In the day of their mightiest spiritual triumph the Methodists were a witnessing people. When testi- mony declines evangelistic power declines. What is needed to-day is a recovery of testimony; and in order to make that there must be a new experience of Christ. When formal Christians get converted, testimony will break out; when worldly Christians get renewed, testimony will be recovered. When people make trial of Christ, they will be anxious to tell what great things he has done for them, in changing their night into day, their winter into summer. 136 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXVII ITS THEORY OF PRAYER Mrs. Eddy has much that is beautiful and inspiring to say touching the value of prayer, but what she means by prayer is not what Christian people in general mean by it. A Christian Science leader remarks: "Healing in Christian Science is always by means of prayer. The word generally used is 'treatment,' but it is always to be under- stood that a Christian Science treatment is a prayer; and just in proportion as it is a righteous prayer does it heal the sick and reform the sinner. It is not a prayer of supplication, but of realization; it is not merely asking God to do something for us, but showing that he has already done the good thing desired." In this statement there is much to commend. The emphasis which it puts upon the prayer of realiza- tion is greatly needed. Christian believers have been too slow in appropriating to themselves the blessings which God has put within their reach. Some one has said 137 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS that they carry with them a blank check on the bank of Heaven, countersigned by Christ, which they can fill as they will; but they often hold it a whole lifetime without cashing it. We have to thank Christian Science for reminding us to cash our check, and take to ourselves all the wealth of blessing that God has promised to his children. The one objection to this definition of prayer is that it repudiates "the prayer of supplication," that being, as a matter of course, ruled out by denial of personality to God. The prayer of petition is some- thing that can take place only when there are two closely related and independent personalities, who can meet face to face, and between whom there can be the give- and-take of real spiritual commerce. Very naturally the prayer of petition passes over into the prayer of realization w^hen what has been asked for is claimed and received. This is the order followed in the rule laid down bv the Master: '*x\sk, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Upon still another ground petitional 138 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT prayer is ruled out by Christian Science. While rightly regarding prayer as under the operation of law, it leaves no room for special providences in human life, and special providences are the very warp and woof of petitional prayer. The God whom we ask to do certain specific things for us must be free. He cannot be fettered by his laws — which are simply the ascertained methods by which he usually works. He must be free to do new and strange things if the interests of his children demand them — in a word, he must be free to do miracles. If the Christian Scientist does not ask certain things from God when he prays, what does he do? He declares, he affirms, he ''demonstrates." His attitude is not one of expectancy but of realization. He does not wait upon God, he annexes him. He does not receive what he asks for, he takes what he wants. He stands before the Infinite Reality, opening his heart to him, and claiming all things as his; but anything of the nature of that close and tender reciprocity implied in asking and receiving is entirely outside the range of his experience. 139 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS How much more simple is the way that Jesus taught! When giving to his disciples their first lesson in prayer he said, "When ye pray, say. Our Father" — the very idea of divine Fatherhood being regarded by him as creative of prayer. Prayer with Jesus is the act of coming into clear and intimate fellowship with God as a living, loving, personal Being; talking with him as a child with his father; asking certain things from him and receiving them consciously from his hand. It is a simple and rational act, founded upon the principle that while our heavenly Father gives us many things without our asking, special and super- abundant blessings come in that way. ''Ye have not, because ye ask not." ''Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." y/ "God is not influenced by man," declares Mrs. Eddy. Hence she reasons: "Asking God to heal the sick has no effect to gain the ear of love, beyond its ever presence. The only beneficial effect it has is mind acting on the body through a stronger faith to heal it; but this is one belief casting out another." If this is all that is in prayer to Christian 140 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Scientists, how can they ever become a praying people? That which has led men to pray the world over has been the belief in the power of prayer; the conviction that it is the divine response to the human appeal, that it actually brings things to pass, that it releases divine power, that it moves the arm that moves the universe. Take this conviction away and the voice of prayer would instantly cease. For audible prayer Mrs. Eddy has scant use, and would substitute for it the prayer of silence. An exception, however, is made in favor of the Lord's Prayer, which is the only spoken prayer allowed in the regular church services. But that model prayer, which teaches us how to pray, instead of being left in its sublime simplicity, has been interlarded with running comments, which obscure its meaning and mar its devotional effect. The attempt to improve the per- fect is never satisfying in its results. 141 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXVIII ITS SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING The problem of human suffering is the mind-racking, heart-aching problem of the ages. Christian Science disposes of it in a summary fashion. Instead of interrogating it to find out what it has to say for itself, it simply rules it out of court. While others are patiently endeavoring to untie the Gordian knot, it cuts it in two at a single stroke. Its treatment of the subject reminds one of the schoolboy's famous essay on "Snakes in Ireland," which con- sisted of the single sentence, ''There are no snakes in Ireland." But suffering is here, and the wisest course to pursue is to seek to discover not only its cause and its cure, but also the very reason for its existence. Owen Meredith is un- doubtedly justified in saying: "There's purpose in pain; Otherwise it were devihsh." Suffering is an evil, but it is not absolute evil; relatively it may be good. 'Tt was 142 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT good for me," says one of old, '*that I was afflicted." "There is a soul of goodness in things evil Would man observingly distil it out." All things are not good in themselves; but to those who love God and live in oneness with his will "all things work together for good." Being an evil, suffering is to be gotten rid of as soon as possible; and every effort to banish it from the world, or to mitigate its severity, is to be welcomed and encour- aged. All hail to the friends of humanity who are working untiringly to destroy or lessen it. But there are worse things than suffering, and in a sinful world its ministry is needed. It is nature's method of warning us that something has gone wrong which requires to be righted; it is also nature's method to throw off the thing that is causing disturbance; and above it all it is the means which God employs in developing the character of his children. When God does not inflict suffering he permits it, and he permits it for some good end. Indifferent to our comfort he cannot be, but he values our character more; and while he will soothe 143 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS the suffering, which for the time must needs be borne, he will take it away just as soon as he wisely and profitably can. When the silver is refined it is taken from the fire. V In the school of suffering some of life's best lessons are learned. ''Knowledge by suffering entereth." "By the thorn road, and no other, Is the mount of vision won." And by the path of suffering, and none other, is perfection of character reached. Jesus, our great example, was "made perfect through suffering" — perfect alike in his manhood and Saviourhood — and we can reach perfection in personal character, and in service to mankind, in no other way. Poets * 'learn in suffering what they teach in song"; their sweetest songs are often the wine from a crushed heart, and the finest ministries of life often come from those who have learned in suffering to sympa- thize with others in sorrow and distress. Suffering is never to be rejoiced in for its own sake, but for its moral effect. "We glory in tribulations also," says Paul, "knowing that tribulation worketh patience, 144 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; be- cause the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us" (Rom. 5. 3-5). Again he says, '*Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceed- ing and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4. 16). Apart from life's trials many of the fairest graces could not exist, and many of the sweetest, highest ministries of life could have no field for exercise. And if suffering leads to saintliness, and to practical use- fulness, who will say that it is evil only.^^ 145 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXIX ITS SERENE OPTIMISM Christian Scientists live in a world in which they see nothing to worry about. Better instructed, they would find in this world nothing worth worrying about. Everybody is agreed as to the wrongfulness of worry, and as to the desirability of getting rid of it; what people differ about is how it is to be banished from their lives. The Christian Scientist says, "Deny it"; the ordinary Christian says, ''Overcome it." Both may reach the same end; but the one reaches it with power diminished because of the absence of effort, the other with power increased by means of effort. There is no doubt that with people generally the most conspicuous thing about Christian Science, and that which forms its chief attraction, is that it takes all fret and fuss out of life. People are not always logical, and when they see any one lifted out of gloom into the sunshine, they are very little concerned as to how the thing 146 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT was brought about. All they are interested in is the result itself. The metaphysics of Christian Science may be puzzling, or even absurd, but when people see it put to work and made to secure practical ends that is enough. They may then even endeavor to get to the heart of it, as a thirsty traveler in the desert would try to work his way through the hard shell of a coconut in order to reach the milk which it contains. The common conception of a Christian Science Church is that it is a club or coterie of agreeable, respectable, well-groomed people, who agree together to taboo un- pleasant things, and who walk through the world with their heads in the clouds, unvexed by tlie petty cares which buzz around the heads of ordinary mortals. But there is ground for the suspicion that much of this cheerfulness may be affected; and that the smile that does not wear off may be a sign of bovine content- ment rather than that of soul-satisfaction. In a world like this there are many things at which we have no right to smile, and only by shutting his eyes to them can any one get rid of the pain and disturbance which 147 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS they bring. To hide oneself from the unpleasant facts of life, after the manner of the ostrich that buries its head in the sand that it may not see its pursuer, and to keep crying, "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace, is neither wise nor safe. To cultivate the grace of cheerfulness it is not necessary to deny the unpleasant things in life; all that is necessary is to live above them. A better way than seeing only what we want to see, and believing only what we want to believe, is to look at things straight, and see them whole; and then give prominence in our thought to those that are bright and hopeful. To allow the mind to become fixed upon disquieting things; to look at life on its dark side, seeing only the clouds and overlooking their silver lining, is to rob the heart of strength and peace and joy. Thoughts are creative forces. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Mrs. Eddy has well said: "The act of describing disease makes the disease. Warning people against disease frightens them into it. This obnoxious habit ought to cease." And so ought the obnoxious habit of looking at the dark side of things in 148 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT general. Faith should banish fear. When happiness cannot be found in things it can be found in God. No one can rejoice in himself or in his circumstances always, but he can ^'rejoice in the Lord always," and hence he can be cheerful under every pos- sible condition, and walk through this dark world along a shining way that brightens more and more until it is lost in the light of the eternal glory. 149 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXX ITS ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS Christian Science has its excellences; and many of its failings lean to virtue's side, but it has certain serious ethical defects. It draws out of character some of the strong supports of moral principle, as the fabled magnetic mountain is said to have drawn the iron bolts from passing ships. Some of the seeds of error which it is sowing can- not fail to yield a harvest of moral weakness by and by. In denying the existence of evil it virtually wipes out all distinction between right and wrong, makes an appeal to conscience impossible, and thus takes the very underpinning out of the moral order of the world; for it stands to reason that if there be no such thing as evil, the sense of guilt is forever taken away, and any appeal to moral standards human or divine is out of the question. No one can juggle with the basic facts of human experience without being hurt thereby. For anyone to affirm a thing to 150 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT be what he knows it is not is to have his vision of truth blurred. There is, therefore, a serious side to the following amusing story: A carpenter was fitting a door for a Christian Science lady, who stood chatting with him, with her hand resting upon the jamb. One of her fingers was caught and badly bruised. Without thinking, she did the natural thing in the circumstances- she stuck her finger in her mouth and began to groan. The carpenter looked at her amazed, and said, 'T thought you as a Christian Scientist did not believe in pain." Recovering herself, she answered— her face the while white and drawn with suffering— "I do not feel any pain." To which our witty carpenter replied, "Look at this finger of mine; it was caught in a door a week ago, just as yours was a minute ago, and the nail was torn off, and I felt no pain— but I am lying, and so are you." How much stronger would the case of the Christian Scientist be, and how much less hurtful to morals, if instead of lying about such an experience he was content to claim the power of his religion to mitigate the 151 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS severity of a pain which it could not altogether remove — a claim which no one would call in question. Another illustration along this line comes to hand. A little Boston girl of five, who is a Christian Scientist to the marrow, fell one day and barked her shin. Rubbing the hurt with her hand, she began to cry. Her aunt, an unbeliever, happened along at the moment, and mindful of Mary's faith and those contradictory tears, said with a mocking smile, "Why, Mary, are you hurt?" "No, I ain't hurt," answered the little girl, restraining her sobs as best she could. "But if you are not hurt why are you crying?" "I am crying," said Mary, "because I am mad." "And what are you mad about?" "I am mad — boo, hoo — " wept the little girl — "because I can't feel that I ain't hurt." Who can doubt that the ethical influence of a system that teaches children to say what they know is not true is hurtful in the extreme? It can hardly fail to breed a race of prevaricators. 152 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Another weak line in the ethical chain of Christian Science is that which connects it with the delicate question of sex-relation- ship. By repudiating the physical basis of life Christian Science lands itself in a strange predicament. Afraid lest her divine philosophy might be made ''procuress for the lords of hell," Mrs. Eddy hesitated to carry it to its logical conclusion, and said: "Until it is learned that generation rests on no sexual basis let marriage continue. Spirit will ultimately claim its own; and the voice of physical sense be forever hushed"— a condition being ultimately brought about which would produce ''children of the soul." To disregard the fundamental laws which govern the genesis of life, and to affirm that "human procreation, birth, life, and death are subjective states of the erring human mind" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 286), is to play with fire. Safety hes in recog- nizing our dual nature, and in keeping up a constant fight with "the fleshly lusts which war against the soul." One may sin on the physical side of his nature as well as on the spiritual side and to ignore the need of constant vigilance and restraint, is to walk 153 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS on thin ice. Once regard the body as a phantom or shadow and the sins of the flesh become ''the shadow of a shadow." One hardly dares to contemplate what will happen when this false philosophy has been taught to a generation of young people. The strongest barriers against sexual impu- rity are found in the conviction that flesh ought to be holy as spirit; and that against every unholy appeal to the passions ought to be raised the religious protest, ''How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.^" (Gen. 39. 9). Mrs. Eddy enjoins faithfulness to the marriage vow; deplores the tendency to divorce, and has many wise and beautiful things to say in defense of the integrity of the home and in exaltation of a life of chastity; her followers also measure up to the best in purity of life; and yet the prin- ciples which Mrs. Eddy has inculcated, and which her followers have accepted, would, if carried out, lead to results from which, if their drift were once apprehended, the en- tire fellowship would shudderingly recoil. Fortunately, the mass of the people are not logical, and are governed by sentiment 154 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT rather than by argument; yet in the long run the ethical implications involved in any theory of religion or of life which people accept, are sure to come to their natural fruitage.^ 1 For evidence on this entire subject see (1) Article in McClure's Maga- zine, April, 1906, pp. 707-712; (2) Fundamental Teachings of Christian Science, by Charles W. McCaskill, pp. 133-140; (3) Article in Biblical Review, by Albert Clark Wycoff, July, 1920, pp. 395-398. 155 mam WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXXI ITS MODIFYING INFLUENCE UPON THE OLDER FAITH An important service which Christian Science has rendered to the orthodox faith, and one not to be hghtly esteemed, is that of helping to modify certain extreme ideas. Take, for example, the prevailing con- ception of God. The devil, and not God, was often made to appear to be the actual ruler of the world. Christian Science, guilty of as great an overstatement, came in and, speaking of spiritual things in a material sense, declared: ''God is all. He fills all space; hence there is no room any- where in the universe for a devil, or for anything else that is alien to him." "What ought to be said is, that God is supreme, and supremely good, that he is on the throne; and hence in the struggle of life, ''Greater is he that is for us than all that can be against us." Within orthodox circles religion was made too hard; sin was made to appear well-nigh 156 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT unconquerable, and righteousness well-nigh unattainable. Conditions of discipleship also were imposed which the Master never sanctioned. Christian Science makes every- thing easy. It calls for no struggle, for no humbling of self, for no confession of sin. It casts aside the hair-shirt of self accusation with a sense of infinite relief. It chloro- forms the moral nature, causing it to sink into a profound sleep, from which it awakens to live supremely happy in a fool's paradise. Both extremes are false. Goodness is not as hard as it was pictured to be, but it is no primrose path. It is an achievement, and not something into which we can float; and there is still as much need as ever to give heed to the Master's words, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able" (Luke 13. 24). The old faith made too much of suffering; it magnified it out of proportion; it dwelt too much upon it, often making a passing cloud shut out the great expanse of blue. At its best it rose to the heights of moral sublimity, as in the case of the early Chris- tians who spoke of "our light afflictions, 157 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS which are just for a moment"; at its worst it sank to the depths of moral weakness, becoming morbid and polluting the air with unseemly complaints. Instead of de- nying it, as Christian Science does, a more excellent way is to triumph over it; and by becoming absorbed in some great task forget all about it, as the soldier forgets his wounds in the heat of the battle. The older faith indulged in gloomy thoughts of death, speaking of it as ''the king of terrors." Christian Science will have nothing to do with it — will not even acknowledge it as a fact, but insists upon treating it as an error of the mortal mind, from which man will yet be free. But death exists. "It is appointed unto all men once to die," and from ''the law of death" which reigns through sin no one yet has escaped. But with the Christian, life, not death, is victor; life is not swallowed up in death, but "death is swallowed up of life." Death is a vanquished foe, and may through faith be met with the challenge, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which 158 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15. 55-57). And so with all the doctrines. By its startling statements regarding them it has led to their reexamination, with the result that while nothing essential has been given up, many modifications of statement have taken place. 159 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXXII ITS BEARING UPON THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE TIMES How long Christian Science has come to stay we know not. The important fact is that it is here, that it is part of the commmiity life, and that it is making its own particular contribution to the thought and life of the times. That contribution thus far has been a very mixed one, and has been both for better and worse. As a movement of moral reform its value to the community ought to be frankly recognized. It has transformed many lives; it has broken the chains of evil habit from many enslaved souls; it has brought into harmony many discordant characters; it has restored to honored use- fulness many moral derelicts, thus doing its share to make the world a better place in which to live. It also has added an important element of conservation to the community life, and 160 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT always can be depended upon to stand, in a negative sort of a way, for social righteousness. But it is not in the least degree aggressive; and when the battle against social iniquity is on it furnishes no reenforcements. It sends out no army of invasion into the city slums, nor into the dark places of heathendom; it takes no active part in the purification of politics; it lags far behind in every philanthropic movement and in every movement per- taining to social betterment. In all these things it is very much below the orthodox church, which, with all its shortcomings, is still the mightiest force in any com- munity for social righteousness, the sworn foe of every evil work, the friend and ally of every cause devoted to the wel- fare of humanity. From a social point of view its parasitic spirit is perhaps its most undesirable qual- ity. It feeds and fattens upon an estab- lished order which it did not produce and which it seeks to destroy, taking to itself all the benefits of the improved social order in which it finds itself, not only without giving anything in return but also 161 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS without caring to keep alive the tree upon which such precious fruits are grown. For instance, it accepts and enjoys all the advantages that have come from advance- ment in science, such as improved sanita- tion, protection from infectious diseases, and from the adulteration of food, while at the same time by denying the need of these things it is breaking down the pro- tection which society has laboriously built up to save itself from ruin. It is a parasite also in that it draws its strength mainly from the churches, appropriating, without acknowledgment, the treasures which its converts carry over with them, thus robbing Peter to pay Paul, and foolishly imagining that it is increasing the general stock of religious wealth in the community by putting into one pocket what it takes from another. The bearing of things like these upon the social and religious life of the times is not to be overlooked. We all sail in the same ship. No man liveth unto himself, and no organization liveth unto itself. The qualities which any organization de- velops, the men whom it breeds, become 162 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT part of our comnion civic life. Hence the decisive thing in estimating the worth of any rehgious association is its contribution to society. Part of that we may estimate, but its sum total only omniscience can tell. 168 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS CHAPTER XXXIII ITS SHORT CUT TO THE MILLENNIUM It is nowise uncommon to find those who have grown impatient of God's slow and painful method of working out the redemption of humanity trying to find a short way to the millennium. But of all the ways yet suggested that of Christian Science is certainly the shortest; and what makes it doubly attractive to many is its apparent simplicity. On one condition it promises to bring men at once into the possession of their divine inheritance. No weary journey is required; no long struggle is called for. We have simply to believe that evil things are not, and so they pass away like an unpleasant dream. But, unfortunately, saying that '*man is incapable of sin" does not do away with the fact that he does sin; saying that he cannot be sick does not do away with the fact that he does get sick; saying that he cannot die does 164 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT not do away with the fact that in some way or other he does suffer mortal dis- solution. Facts are stubborn things, and have a way of persisting in spite of our denials. Not by the waving of a magic wand can evil be exorcised and the condition of the world be changed. Up to date all advancement has been made by struggle. It often has taken the Lord a long time to teach the human race a single truth. Think of the trouble he has had in getting drilled into the hearts of men the single truth of human brotherhood. And the only way in which he has been able to teach it has been in the school of suffering. "Let some great crucial hour of pain Sound from the tower of time, The consciousness of brotherhood Wakes in each heart the latent good, And men become sublime." Progress has been slow and painful, and has come out of a long succession of strug- gles. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now"; but from its pains comes the birth of the new age. Hard and toilsome may be 165 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS the way, but the final victory is assured. Countless may be the sacrifices called for, but the goal is not uncertain. Redemption costs us our Calvarys as it cost Christ His. 166 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXXIV MRS. EDDY HERSELF In this investigation of Christian Science direct reference to Mrs. Eddy has been avoided as much as possible for the reason that the personal equation is one to which an outsider is most apt to do injustice. But Christian Science is bound up with Mrs. Eddy, and its future will be deter- mined by the measure in which her per- sonal influence, now paramount, will continue to operate. Already one sees ground for distinguishing between Eddyism and Christian Science. The leaders of the movement are evidently trying to make adjustments to modern demands, while holding to the fundamental principles held by their honored founder. Points of em- phasis have been changed. Some things have been suppressed. Scarcely anything is heard, for instance, of "malign animal magnetism," which was such a nightmare with Mrs. Eddy. And there is no doubt whatever that while Christian Scientists of to-day repudiate the principle of sugges- 167 m^^s^s WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS tion, Mrs. Eddy believed in it. She spoke of Dr. Eddy, her fourth husband, in his final sickness as "suffering from the sug- gestion of arsenical poisoning," and he himself, echoing her sentiment, said, *'Only rid me of the suggestion of poison and I will recover." That Mrs. Eddy was unable to do, as was shown by the fatal termination of the disease. Touching the life and character of the founder of Christian Science it is not our province at present to speak at length. Suffice it to say that even in such a memoir as The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Sibyl Wilbur, which is wholly sympathetic and appreciative, the character presented is void of moral grandeur, and is in no- wise comparable with the great saints whom the church has produced. Much of Mrs. Eddy's life was filled with petty, tawdry details, unillumined by lofty mo- tives and unglorified by noble aims. And yet in many respects it was a remarkable life — the life of one of the most remarkable women of this or any age. And, like most remarkable lives, it began in a remarkable childhood. 168 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT Mary Baker was a thoughtful, pensive child — evidently a bundle of contradictions. Her mother characterized her as '^gentle, and sweet-tempered as an angel," whereas her father is reported to have said, "If Mary Magdalene had seven devils, our Mary had ten." No doubt both character- izations were correct. But, as in many strong natures, this duality was reduced to unity; and the impetuous stream of her life became calm and placid at the end of its course. Mary Baker came from good Congrega- tional stock; went through the usual technical experience of a dramatic conver- sion, and made a profession of religion at the age of twelve years. It belonged to the fitness of things that, like Samuel of old, she should hear voices. That period lasted for several years, and after it ceased the mystical temperament which it be- tokened showed itself in other ways. Like many inquiring minds of her day, Mrs. Eddy for a time dabbled in mes- merism and clairvoyance. When in this stage of development she fell in with Dr. P. P. Quimby, a remarkable man in his 169 WBB WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS way, uncultured but forceful, a kind of forerunner of the whole school of mental healers. She became his patient and pupil, and was without doubt indebted to him for planting in her mind the seed from which her future harvesting was to come. She was cured by him of a disease of seven years' standing, and at the time of his death poured out the gratitude of her heart in somewhat turgid verse, in which occurs the wish, "Rest reward him, who hath made us whole." Nor can she say too much in praise of his method of healing, hailing him as "the first person of the age who penetrated the depths of truth, so as to discover and bring forth the science of life, and openly to apply it to the healing of the sick." She spoke of him as one who "rolls away the stone from the sepulcher of error, and health is the resur- rection"; and her eulogistic verse she prefaces with the statement that he "healed with the truth that Christ taught, in contradiction to all isms." Yet afterward, when she set up for a leader, she appears to have repudiated her debt to Dr. Quimby, speaking of him as a mere mesmerist, in 170 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT spite of her own declarations to the contrary, and in spite of his clear pro- nouncement that * 'Disease is an error in belief. Truth is the cure." Thus she kicked away the ladder by which she had climbed. It is a case similar to that ex- pressed in the saying, **Erasmus laid the egg of the Reformation and Luther hatched it." From this time her public career began, first as preacher in the Baptist Tabernacle Church of Boston, then in the Congrega- tional Church of Lynn, Massachusetts; and finally in the church of her own founding. She also entered the field of authorship in a tentative way, by contributing a series of love stories to Peterson's Mag- azine. Other productions from her prolific pen followed in quick succession. But the distinctive part of her work was that of healing the sick, and from the first her healing power began to manifest itself. She herself testifies that many people were cured of disease while listening to her sermons. In 1875 she published her magnum opus — Science and Health, with Key to the 171 IHI l lJLlHWlrBltJi*4H WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS Scriptures — in an edition of a thousand copies. The critics did not know what to make of it and prophesied that it would never be read. But they were mistaken. Gradually it worked its way into notice and favor, passing through many editions, and finding for itself a place on the shelves of public libraries, from which all other divisive and sectarian books are barred. It is a baffling book. To some it is a deep well of wisdom, to others a wilder- ness of verbiage. It professes to be ''wholly original," but it is not. Traces are to be found in it of Berkeleian idealism, Platonic philosophy, Hindoo theosophy, and various odds and ends of mysticism and occultism — a veritable witch's caldron of ideas. Its style is even more illusive than that of Emerson, who when his critics berated him for sticking his head in a cloud, replied, "I hope I have said nothing that needed to be proved." Mrs. Eddy does not reason; she declares, speaking with the authority of one to whom direct revelation has been given. By her followers. Science and Health is regarded as fetish; many of them go to sleep with it under their pillows, 172 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT and people are said to be healed simply by reading it. It is a literary phenomenon which may be discredited, but which cannot be ignored. For good or evil, or for both, it is one of the most potent forces cast into the fermenting thought of the world, and has to be reckoned with. It is in perfect keeping with the spirit of Christian Science that this precious volume, instead of being scattered broad- cast in the cheapest possible form, has been made a thing of gainful merchandise. While the Bible itself is the cheapest book in the world, and is put within the reach of everybody through the agency of Bible Societies, the Key to the Scriptures which Mrs. Eddy furnished, and which pre- sumably the world needs, is beyond the reach of many, inasmuch as the opening of its treasures can be obtained only by the payment of from $3.10 to $6.00. This prohibitive price must of necessity keep many benighted souls from crossing the threshold of the temple of knowledge. It was this commercializing of her divine message that led some one facetiously to remark that while Mrs. Eddy did not 173 IBHIU-J L I I I I I I I ■ WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS believe in matter she certainly did believe in money. The zenith of Mrs. Eddy's power was reached about the year 1876, when the first Christian Science Association was or- ganized; out of which, three years later, grew "The First Christian Church Scien- tist," of which she became the pastor. In 1881 'The Massachusetts Metaphysical College" was founded, and continued in existence eight years, during which time it enrolled five thousand students. It was closed because of legal difficulties in the way of its granting degrees, at the time when three hundred applicants were on the waiting list. Then followed a period of marvelous growth and prosperity, culminating in tlie formation of the Mother Church of Boston, and the erection of the imposing temple of granite and marble which has become the Mecca of Christian Scientists the world over. Mrs. Eddy was a much-married woman. The name of her first husband was Col. G. W. Glover. By him she had a son, whom, as she herself confesses in one of 174 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT her books, she allowed to be taken from her, and brought up by others at a distance. And yet it was this woman, who could live in separation from her only child, that claimed it to have been her peculiar mission to reveal to men "the Father-Mother God." A precious type of motherhood surely to be chosen for such a task! Her second matrimonial venture, which changed her name to Patterson, was an unfortunate one. Mr. Patterson having eloped with a married woman, she secured a bill of di- vorce, and a few years afterward married, when nearly sixty years old. Dr. Asa Gilbert Eddy. "This," she said, "was a blessed and spiritual union." Her full name including all her matrimonial alliances would read, Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy. From the time of her marriage to Dr. Eddy she began to make history. The voice which she heard in childhood ad- dressing her by name "three times on an ascending scale," she now, fifty years after, set about obeying as never before, Her mission lay distinctly before her, and she bent her energies to the fulfilling of 175 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS it. That she has left a large mark upon the world's life goes without the saying. Mrs. Eddy's life resembles a day of clouds and storms which toward evening brightened up. Its earlier years were decidedly drab in color, and were filled with carking cares, petty bickerings and jealousies, domestic infelicities; besides the bitterness of heart which comes from being misunderstood and unappreciated. Like almost every one who has succeeded in climbing the ladder of fame, she entered her kingdom of power through much tribu- lation. The world will be inclined to forget much that lies in the past, and think of her as her later followers knew, and saw, and loved her, as a benign old lady about whose name had begun to gather something of the odor of sanctity, and around whose head had begun to appear a halo of glory. Peace be to her ashes! 176 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT CHAPTER XXXV WHAT OF ITS FUTURE? It is a hazardous thing to prophesy; and there are many things in connection with Christian Science which make any forecast regarding it pecuUarly diflacult. Two courses are possible — the one is for it to remain stationary, dwindle, and die; the other is for it to free itself from the limitations imposed upon it by its founder, come out into the stimulating air of modern thought, and continue to grow. In tak- ing the latter course it will be doing no more than its founder did when she broke with the past. The right of any or- ganization to live and its power to live will be determined by the measure in which it is able to adapt itself to the ever- changing life of the times. Only by keeping in vital relation with the expanding life of its environment does it hold the future in its hand. Take, for instance, our political parties. When they cease to keep pace with the 177 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS growing life of the present and attempt to live upon the past, they drop out of the race. To have anything to say to the present, and to have any claim upon to-morrow they must be making continual advancement; breaking away from their old anchorage and venturing out upon unknown seas to discover unknown con- tinents. So it is with the churches. The moment they cease to make progress their power begins to decline. They live by renewal; and no amount of industry in building the tombs of the dead prophets will avail anything if they have among them no new prophetic voices uttering the living messages which the Spirit of God is ever seeking to convey to the churches. Equally necessary is the proper adjust- ment of the church to social life in the midst of which it is planted. The church is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The end for which it exists is the new social order which is spoken of in the Scriptures as the kingdom of God — the rule on earth of righteousness and love. The church that does not subserve that 178 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT end will die of dry rot. On the other hand, the church that has most of the social passion, and that excels in social ministry, holds the future in its hands. The future of Christian Science will therefore depend quite as much, if not more, upon how the churches from which it has come out of will develop, as upon itself. If the churches are wise to learn the lessons which this great defection teaches, and put them into practice, the tide will be turned, otherwise not. Not to admit failure and profit by it will be to court further disaster. There are things which the church may not have repudiated which she has sadly neglected. Prominent among these is the power of Christ to heal disease. The church must exercise the ministry of healing, as in the beginning, and must make it one of the prime means of spreading the gospel, as in these early days of conquering power. The therapeutic value of Christian faith she must emphasize as she never has done. She must proclaim as part of her mission "the redemption of tlie body," applying the teaching of Christ jto bodily healing with all the faithful- 179 • WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS ness and thoroughness that Christian Scien- tists apply the principles of Mrs. Eddy. With no diminished application of the rewards of the life to come she must seek to restore the lost balance by magnifying the rewards of the life that now is. Claim- ing her right to all the rich heritage which belongs to the children of God, she must look to the whole universe as open to her, to possess, to use, and to enjoy. She must dwell more than she ever has done upon the sunny side of life and of religion, putting into the background as much as possible painful and depressing things, and following the admonition of Saint Paul: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso- ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4. 8). She must also in this material age maintain more stoutly the supremacy of spiritual interests, not luring men to follow Christ for the loaves and the fishes, but for the less tangible but more important things of the spirit, and 180 AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT being as ready to use physical forces for spiritual ends as Christian Scientists are to use spiritual forces for physical ends. Above all, she must make more prominent the thought of the present activity of Christ as the Saviour from sin, as well as from sickness, and all the ills that spirit and flesh are heir to. Sin is man's great- est burden, deliverance from it his greatest need; and the church that does most to exalt Christ's present power to bring deliv- erance will do most to meet the deepest demands of the future. Let the church attend to her supreme task and she need not worry about the future of Christian Science. ''If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God" (Acts 5. 38, 39). Time is the great arbiter. Many defections from the faith have taken place, many sects have arisen, and have passed away, and have been forgotten; but the Church of Christ, founded upon confession of his name, forever remains. It is his body, the organ in which he is expressed, the agency 181 WHAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MEANS by which he works. Recreant to its duty it has often been, but it has a way of emerg- ing out of every cloud, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners" (Cant. 6. 10). 18^ ^^^I^MouuiiiiLiLilMIlLl^ 1 Date Due W: ■ - W ■ * . fv i' . _, l-.'v •:'■: U^5' AP9;^'5fT ' i*^!!fll^ '^ ' ,..«*^-^ *****'***^ ft^ 4iiii*¥T^ !ffHB9l ■k HPew<^*^ - Its'. Jiy iy>' T5SP m BP943 .C18 What Christian science means and what we Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 1 1012 00010 4960