LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 Chap. Copyright No 
 
 Shell! 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
Christian Science, 
 
 THE FALSE CHRIST OF 1866: 
 
 AN EXAMINATION OF THE ORIGIN, ANIMUS, CLAIMS, 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL ABSURDITIES, MEDICAL FALLACIES 
 
 AND DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE NEW GOSPEL 
 
 OF MENTAL HEALING. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM P. McCORKLE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, GRAHAM, N. C. 
 
 "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe 
 it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show- 
 great signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive 
 the very elect." — Matt. xxiv. 23, 24. 
 
 "... Profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so- 
 called : which some professing have erred concerning the faith." — 1 Timothy 
 vi. 20, 21. 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.: 
 The Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 
 
TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 
 
 Library of Congress^ 
 Office o f the 
 
 DE0 16 1. 
 
 Register of CopyrlgJ^ 
 
 49895 
 
 
 Copyright, 1899, 
 
 BY 
 
 J AS. K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication. 
 
 S£COND COPY, 
 
 Printed by 
 
 Whittet & Shepperson, 
 
 Richmond, Ya. 
 
 
TO MY WIFE, 
 LUTIE ANDREWS McCORKLE, 
 
 A CHRISTIAN WHO BELIEVES THE "TESTIMONY OF JESUS," 
 
 AND HAS FOUND GOD'S WORD A LAMP UNTO HER FEET 
 
 AND A LIGHT UNTO HER PATH, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Quarterly of July and October, 
 1898, and April, 1899, I published a series of papers 
 on Christian Science, covering most of the points 
 discussed in the following pages. The favorable re- 
 ception accorded to these papers, together with the 
 advice of many friends, encouraged me to rearrange 
 and revise them for publication in permanent form. 
 In doing this, I have added such matter as was neces- 
 sary to give the reader a complete view of the doctri- 
 nal and other contents of the system. 
 
 A special reason for a complete refutation of the 
 errors of Christian Science lies in the incoherent and 
 unattractive style of Mrs. Eddy's works. The culti- 
 vated reader is apt to turn away from them in sheer 
 weariness and disgust, unless actuated by some speci- 
 ally strong motive in his efforts to wade through her 
 jumbled arguments. Few books have ever been 
 issued from the press that are so hard to comprehend 
 in their statements, so puzzling in their inconsisten- 
 cies, so illogical in their style, so botched in literary 
 dress, and so brain-addling in their general contents, 
 as are Science and Health and Unity of Good, Mrs. 
 Eddy's principal works. Most of those who have, to 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 my knowledge, attempted to read the former have 
 given up the task in despair, bewildered and confused 
 by the author's disconnected style and misty specula- 
 tions. Ministers are sorely tempted to toss the book 
 aside as being unworthy the attention of intelligent 
 people, and as likely to exert small influence over the 
 public mind. And yet, strange as it may seem, this 
 book, Science and Health, is the chief oracle of God 
 in the estimation of a quarter of a million of "Scient- 
 ists," and is rushing through multiplied editions. 
 
 I have written for the pew, rather than for the pul- 
 pit. While wishing to give to busy pastors a satis- 
 factory account of this dangerous enemy to revealed 
 truth, I have desired especially to put the matter here 
 given in such shape as to make it readily accessible 
 to the man of business, the house-keeper, and even 
 the school-girl, as well as to the whole multitude who 
 have little taste for theological discussions. Avoid- 
 ing, as far as possible, all technical terms, and seeking 
 to present the subject in popular style, I have, in my 
 discussion of the doctrinal bearings of the new gospel 
 of healing, endeavored to let the Scriptures speak for 
 themselves, rather than attempt argument on rational 
 and philosophical grounds. I trust that I have suc- 
 ceeded in showing that the system is anti-scriptural 
 in every particular. 
 
 Some topics, related to the philosophy of Christian 
 Science, which have been touched upon incidentally 
 in this discussion, deserve much fuller treatment just 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 at this time, because of their frequent presentation in 
 popular literature. Pantheism, always an intoxi- 
 cating error, has been widely disseminated in our 
 day. It was the most dangerous element in the relig- 
 ious philosophy of Emerson, and, largely popularized 
 by his essays, now saturates very much of what is 
 supposed to be evangelical preaching. The preexis- 
 tence of the human soul, reincarnation, and the final 
 absorption of the human individuality into the Divine 
 essence, are being affirmed, both directly and indi- 
 rectly, in current poetry and fiction. I trust that some 
 abler pen than mine will give to the church and to the 
 world a refutation of this congeries of errors, which 
 constitutes the back-bone and the digestive system, 
 both of Christian Science and Theosophy. 
 
 I would be ungrateful did I not acknowledge my 
 indebtedness to many friends for timely aid and 
 cheering words of encouragement while I was inves- 
 tigating the subject of Christian Science. Their ap- 
 preciation and approval have inspired me to continue 
 my work in the hope of serving the cause of truth. 
 To Rev. Dr. George Summey, of the Southwestern 
 Presbyterian University, to Mrs. L. J. Moore, of 
 Moulton, Texas, and to Miss Mary L. Atherton, of 
 Boston, I am specially indebted for Christian Science 
 literature, by means of which I have been rendered 
 independent of other writers in my search into the 
 mysteries of the new religion, and enabled to draw my 
 information from original sources. To Rev. G. B. 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 Strickler, D. D., of Union Seminary, I am under last- 
 ing obligations for his kindness in examining the 
 MS. of this volume. His warm approval encour- 
 aged me to write, and now encourages me to publish, 
 this defense of the faith. 
 
 The volume of Rev. J. M. Buckley, D. D., on 
 Faith Healing, Christian Science and Kindred Phe- 
 nomena is the chief source from which I have drawn 
 my material in discussing the mental healing features 
 of the new gospel, and I count myself very much his 
 debtor. Had he undertaken to present a refutation 
 of Mrs. Eddy's theological vagaries as complete and 
 overwhelming as is his refutation of her mental heal- 
 ing philosophy, my task would have been rendered 
 superfluous. None of the treatises on the subject of 
 Mrs. Eddy's errors have, so far as I am aware, dis- 
 cussed, save in a very fragmentary fashion, her radi- 
 cal departures from evangelical truth, except the little 
 volume of Mr. J. H. Bates on Christian Science and 
 Its Problems. This, while it is an admirable discus- 
 sion of the subject in some of its important bearings, 
 is fatally vitiated by its evolutionary philosophy, by 
 its tacit concessions to the destructive criticism now 
 so popular in some quarters, and, most of all, by its 
 practical abandonment of fundamental truths, such 
 as the doctrines of salvation by grace, the vicarious 
 nature of the atonement, and the necessity of regen- 
 eration by the Spirit of God. 
 
 In all my quotations from authorities, I have been 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 careful to give the author's ipsissima verba. Refer- 
 ences have been verified and pains taken to avoid even 
 such inadvertent alterations as are liable to occur in 
 copying. I have also corrected all errors discovered 
 in the papers published in the Presbyterian Quarterly. 
 One of these was the statement that, according to 
 Mrs. Eddy, Adam was the man Jesus in a previous 
 incarnation. Further study of her rather Delphic 
 oracle on that point convinces me that what she 
 means to assert is, not that Jesus was Adam, but that 
 he was, in his first incarnation, the first spiritual man, 
 and the first Science healer. The statement in ques- 
 tion occurs in one of Mrs. Eddy's tracts, and I have 
 not found it repeated in any of her larger works. 
 
 I have been careful to give, in all my principal quo- 
 tations from Science and Health, the wording of the 
 154th edition of that work. It is possible that some 
 of the choice phrases copied from an older edition, 
 which was my authority for the citations given in my 
 first and second Review papers, may be found altered 
 or missing in the later editions of the book. It is one 
 among many peculiarities of Mrs. Eddy's distinctively 
 feminine inspiration that it always leaves her the 
 womanly prerogative of changing her mind. Com- 
 paring the verbiage of the 154th edition with that of 
 the citations referred to, I find that her later inspira- 
 tion has made her introduce sundry mathematical 
 changes in the way of additions and subtractions, 
 some rhetorical ones in the shape of paraphrases, and 
 
io Preface. 
 
 some geographical ones in transposing numerous 
 passages backward or forward to other parts of her 
 book, as suited her sacred whim. These changes 
 made it impossible, in a few instances, to find in 
 the later edition the words quoted from the former. 
 None of the changes which Mrs. Eddy has made in 
 the expression of her doctrines, however, have made 
 any change in the doctrines themselves, which are 
 always more or less indefinite in statement, and 
 always pantheistic in proportion to their clearness. 
 Nor have Mrs. Eddy's frequent revisions added to 
 the literary attractiveness of her great work. They 
 have only served to illustrate the childish ignorance, 
 the feeble reason, and the total lack of literary skill 
 and acumen, which distinguish her above all the pop- 
 ular authors of the day. 
 
 This volume was undertaken with a sincere con- 
 viction that such an exhibition of the anti-Christian 
 spirit and unscriptural doctrines of Christian Science 
 was needed just at this time, and is now sent forth 
 with an earnest prayer that God may use it for the 
 furtherance of his gospel. 
 The Manse, Graham, N. C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introductory — Discussion Necessary, ... 13 
 
 PART I. 
 General View. 
 
 I. A New Gospel and a Growing Church. . 31 
 
 II. A Bad Beginning, 42 
 
 III. A Miraculous Book, 48 
 
 IV. A New Mariolatry, 59 
 
 V. Obstacles Removed — The Bible Set Aside 
 
 and Orthodoxy Repudiated, . . 73 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Christian Science as a System of Mental 
 Healing. 
 
 VI. A Foolish Philosophy and its Absurd Con- 
 sequences, 85 
 
 VII. Christian Science and Faith Healing, . 102 
 
 VIII. Christian Science vs. Mental Healing by 
 
 the Medical Faculty, . . . . 114 
 
 IX. Christian Science and Hypnotism, . . 126 
 
T2 Contents. 
 
 Page. 
 X. The Miracles of Christian Science, . . 139 
 
 XL Christian Science Practice, 153 
 
 XII. Christian Science Failures, ... 163 
 
 XIII. The Influence of the Body on the Mind, . 169 
 
 PART III. 
 The Doctrinal Contents of Christian 
 Science. 
 XIV. An Old Theology in New Shape, . . 1S1 
 
 XV. The Gospel of No Gospel, .... 212 
 
 XVI. Christian Science, Theosophy and Gnosti- 
 cism, 245 
 
 XVII. Christian Science Worship and Sacraments, 267 
 
 XVIII. Mrs. Eddy as an Expositor, . . . 2S6 
 
 XIX. Summary and Conclusion, .... 303 
 
Christian Science. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY.— DISCUSSION NECESSARY. 
 
 That a pseudo-science and a false Christianity, 
 such as those combined in the system exposed in this 
 volume, should gain large credence among intelligent 
 people in this enlightened age, may seem to many a 
 thing incredible. But we cannot forget that ours has 
 been an age of successful imposture, and of contag- 
 ious delusions. The Millerite craze carried away fifty 
 thousand in its day, and even when the predictions of 
 Miller as to the advent of Christ in 1843 were disap- 
 pointed — when thousands who had assembled on the 
 hill-tops to meet their Lord as he came, found them- 
 selves compelled to doff their ascension robes and re- 
 turn to their homes sadder and wiser men — not even 
 then did the movement cease; it survives to-day in 
 the Seventh Day Adventist Church — a vigorous, ag- 
 gressive and growing body. That Joseph Smith 
 plagiarized the Book of Mormon from the unpub- 
 lished manuscript of Rev. Solomon Spaulding, is well 
 known to every well-informed person outside the 
 ranks of Mormonism ; and yet that apostate church, 
 thriving on immorality and presenting a bastard 
 Christianity — a church heathenish both in its doc- 
 trines and in its practices — now numbers three hun- 
 dred thousand adherents. It controls the political 
 destinies of three States, is planting its colonies, both 
 
14 Christian Science. 
 
 for political and religious ends, wherever the craft of 
 its leaders sees a favorable opening, and is pushing 
 its proselyting missions to the remotest bounds of 
 Christendom. "It is growing in the full light of our 
 civilization, thrusting itself into positions of promi- 
 nence, claiming recognition in our halls of national 
 legislation, and staking its future, with bold confi- 
 dence and with good reason, on the limitless credulity 
 of nineteenth century humanity/' x In a later decade 
 the Fox sisters, having discovered that by means of 
 a simple trick they could produce certain rappings, 
 which were accounted mysterious by their mother and 
 neighbors, were encouraged to elaborate a system of 
 deception from which sprung at last the whole fabric 
 of Spiritualism. In 1888 one of the sisters appeared 
 before a New York audience, confessed the imposture, 
 and gave to all who were present a lucid and per- 
 fectly satisfactory explanation of the method by which 
 these "spirit-rappings" were produced; but the ex- 
 posure came too late. Those who had been duped 
 refused to be undeceived, and we are now told that 
 there are a million and a half of Spiritualists in the 
 United States. The still more recent impostures 
 practiced by Madame Blavatsky are notorious; her 
 own confessions are in evidence ; and yet the societv 
 of which she became the founder, and which began 
 with only fifteen members, now has its hundreds' of 
 branches scattered through Christian and through 
 heathen lands, and counts its members by thousands 
 Far beyond the circle of its immediate influence it is 
 now seeking, through the writings of such gifted vis- 
 ionaries as Marie Corelli and others, to color the liter- 
 ature and shape the thought of this generation. 
 
 1 Rev. R. C. Reed, D. D., in Presbyterian Quarterly. 
 
Christian Science. 15 
 
 But more shameless than any of these impositions is 
 that practiced by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, who claims 
 that in 1866 she receded a final revelation from God, 
 to which, after long delay and deep thought — feeling, 
 we presume, that she had both parental and Adamic 
 privileges in being permitted to name the thing — she 
 gave the title of " Christian Science." This new 
 "Science" has in it elements of danger even more pro- 
 nounced than any of the other impostures mentioned. 
 
 It was my intention, when I began to write the 
 papers contained in this volume, to prepare one on 
 "Christian Science" in its relation to the laws of our 
 land, and its status as determined by our courts. 
 Along with Mormonism and certain faith-healing 
 movements, it enjoys the coveted distinction of being 
 liable to be arraigned at any time before our courts 
 in the persons of its followers for violation of the laws 
 of our land. Every State has its health laws, and no 
 "Christian Scientist," unless for reasons of temporary 
 expediency, counts himself under obligation to ob- 
 serve these laws of the Commonwealth in which he 
 lives. The chief purpose of the organization is to 
 heal the sick ; and when Judge Pennypacker, of Phila- 
 delphia, refused to grant a charter to a "Christian 
 Scientist" Church, that it might be able to hold its 
 property, he based his decision upon the act of the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature prescribing the qualifica- 
 tions of medical practitioners, saying that the grant- 
 ing of a charter would be an infringement of the pro- 
 visions of that act. The Supreme Court of Rhode 
 Island, following decisions rendered by other courts, 
 decided that "Christian Scientists" were not medical 
 practitioners in the legal sense of the word, and that 
 persons who neglect to send for physicians are liable, 
 
16 Christian Science. 
 
 in case of the patient's death, to the penalty pre- 
 scribed by the law for neglect, no matter how many 
 "Christian Scientists" have been summoned. The 
 issue is thus being squarely drawn. Cases like that of 
 Mrs. Baird, a "Science" healer arrested in Kansas 
 City for failure to report a case of malignant diph- 
 theria which she had treated, are multiplying in every 
 direction. Referring to a "Christian Science" family 
 which refused to comply with the city ordinance re- 
 quiring houses to be placarded in which there are 
 malignant and contagious diseases, the Kansas City 
 Star of January 5, 1897, observed : 
 
 The issue to be decided is whether the ordinances of the 
 city are to prevail in such cases or the peculiar notions of the 
 people who regard the ordinances as an infringement upon 
 their religious liberty. While the institutions of this Repub- 
 lic vouchsafe, in general terms, the privilege to all of wor- 
 shipping God according to the dictates of their own con- 
 sciences, there are religions which would not be tolerated in 
 this country. The pagan, who believes with his whole soul 
 in the righteousness and efficacy of human sacrifices, would 
 not be permitted to pursue his barbarous and bloody rites 
 under the American scheme, and the government has de- 
 clared that polygamy shall not be practiced and perpetuated, 
 even though the followers of Brigham Young may gauge 
 their love for God by the number of their wives. 
 
 No religious, idea or belief can or will be countenanced in 
 this country which conflicts with the authority of the State 
 or sets out to defy its laws. Our system of government, in 
 all of its details, allows the largest measure of liberty to the 
 citizen which is consistent with the safety of his neighbor, 
 but beyond that it cannot go. While the right of Christian 
 Scientists to withhold medical treatment from members of 
 their own faith may be open to debate, there can be no reason- 
 able difference of opinion as to their responsibility to those 
 regulations which provide in wisdom for the preservation 
 of the public health and the prevention of pestilence. 
 
Christian Science. 17 
 
 Stephens, in his Digest of the Criminal Law, de- 
 clares that "a person is deemed to have committed 
 homicide, although his act is not the sole cause of 
 death, ... if by any act he hastens the death of a 
 person suffering from any disease or injury which, 
 apart from such act, would have caused death." It 
 was, doubtless, under this law that the coroner's jury 
 in London held Mrs. Athalie Mills and Miss Kate 
 Lyons, two "Scientist" healers, for manslaughter, 
 because of the death, under their treatment, of Harold 
 Frederick, the well-known novelist and newspaper 
 correspondent. According to the testimony, Mr. 
 Frederick died from a malady which would not have 
 resulted seriously if he had been given proper medi- 
 cal attention. Referring to this case, the editor of 
 Lazv Notes remarks : 
 
 Christian Scientists, if their methods are interfered with in 
 this country, will doubtless urge that they are not amenable 
 for their acts, because they are merely engaged in a proper 
 exercise of their religious liberty; but we advise them not 
 to lay this flattering unction to their souls. The Supreme 
 Court of the United States has passed upon the identical 
 question in determining the alleged rights of Mormons to 
 practice polygamy in accordance with the tenets of their re- 
 ligion. . . Construing the first amendment to the Consti- 
 tution, the Supreme Court has declared that it was intended 
 to allow every one to . . . exhibit his sentiments in such 
 forms of worship as he may think proper, "not injurious to 
 others." But the court has emphatically declared : "With 
 man's relations to his Maker, and the obligations he may 
 think they impose, and the manner in which an expression 
 shall be made by him of his belief on these subjects, no inter- 
 ference can be permitted, provided, always, the laws of 
 society, designed to secure its peace and prosperity, and the 
 morals of its people, are not interfered with. However free 
 the exercise of religion may be, it must be subordinate to 
 
i8 Christian Science. 
 
 the criminal laws of the country passed with reference to 
 actions regarded by general consent as properly the subjects 
 of punitive legislation." In view of these expressions we 
 fail to see how Christian Scientists can hope for any im- 
 munity from punishment because of the fact that their so- 
 called scientific operations are sanctioned by and constitute 
 a part of their religion. 
 
 These opinions are, I conceive, unquestionably cor- 
 rect. But there is need of active and determined 
 effort everywhere on the part of those who are 
 charged with the preservation of the public health to 
 see that the law is executed. When Mrs. Baird was 
 arrested it was stated in the press dispatches that fif- 
 teen hundred Christian Scientists in Kansas City 
 would sustain her. When grown strong, this body 
 of deluded people may plunge whole communities 
 into plagues of cholera, of yellow fever, of diphtheria, 
 small-pox, or any other malignant contagion. 
 ^ But this is the least of the evils in the practice of 
 Christian Science. It has in it untold possibilities of 
 mischief, morally, socially, and religiously. Morallv, 
 it cannot hope to restrain men from sin by telling 
 them they are gods. Socially, it must inevitably pro- 
 duce domestic alienation, divorce and immorality, 
 wherever the contagion of its creed becomes epidemic! 
 Religiously, it is animated by the bitterest hatred 
 toward the whole system of revealed truth, and the 
 whole fabric of Evangelical Christianity. 
 
 And yet its first introduction into any community 
 is as the appearance of an angel of light. It comes as 
 a new advent of Christ, the "Sun of Righteousness 
 with healing in his wings." It claims to be primitive 
 Christianity in all and more than its original purity 
 and power,— the true doctrine, purified by revelations 
 
Christian Science. 19 
 
 fresh from heaven. It is full of love. It opposes no 
 church, suggests no separation from orthodox bodies. 
 It appeals blandly to the Scriptures to substantiate 
 both its doctrines and its claims. But it bears in its 
 right hand the pruning shears of a Biblical criticism 
 which surpasses the pen-knife methods of all other 
 destructive critics in its ability to reduce the Holy 
 Book to a contemptible fragment of doubtful mean- 
 ing, while in its left hand it bears the terminology, 
 the cultus and the doctrines of an anti-Christian creed, 
 which strikes viciously at every distinctive Christian 
 doctrine, and makes of the suffering Divine Christ 
 the amiable, but mortal, victim of hypnotic illu- 
 sions. 
 
 This new enemy of the Church of Christ must be 
 met and conquered. This is no time for prophesying 
 smooth things, and for speaking pleasantly of "our 
 Scientist friends," as if we considered them all fellow- 
 Christians, entitled to our confidence, our goodwill, 
 and our Godspeed. Many of them are not Christians ; 
 and we should, if possible, open their eyes to the 
 dreadful delusion into which they have fallen, and 
 show them the heathenish origin and the anti-Chris- 
 tian tendency of the doctrines which they have em- 
 braced. Away with such sentimental charity as that 
 of the New England pastor who lectured to his con- 
 gregation on the "Beauties of Christian Science !" 
 As well might he have praised the beauties of Bud- 
 dhism. There is in this false Christ, who came in 
 1866, not in the clouds, but out of the befogged brain 
 of a half-crazy woman, no beauty that we should 
 admire him; nor does any voice from heaven say, 
 "Hear ye him." Though men may say, "Lo ! here !" 
 or "Lo! there!" we will not heed them. We still 
 
20 Christian Science. 
 
 wait for the sign of our Lord's coming, and we will 
 not be disappointed. 
 
 Says the Rev. P. P. Flournoy, D. D., the accom- 
 plished author of The Search-Light of St. Hippoly- 
 tiiS; in a letter to the writer, "What I have heard . . . 
 has convinced me that this heresy is a menace, especi- 
 ally to bright and earnest Christian women, such as 
 scarcely any other has ever been. . . I think that 
 you could perform a great service for Christ our Lord 
 and for some of the choicest of his flock by publish- 
 ing your proposed book." This was encouraging, 
 but it was not echoed on every hand. Many will agree 
 with the venerable ex-professor of one of our Semi- 
 naries, who wrote to the son of his old friend, "Chris- 
 tian Science is not founded on reason, and cannot be 
 met by reason/' With all deference to my revered 
 and learned friend, I must beg to dissent from his 
 second proposition, though fully agreeing with his 
 first. It is not founded on reason, and therefore it 
 can be met by reason. If it were founded on reason, 
 it would be folly to assail it. But inasmuch as it is 
 founded on fallacious reasoning rather than on true 
 reason, this fact encourages me to attempt its refuta- 
 tion. I have confidence in the reason of the average 
 man or woman. I do not believe it will ever be use- 
 less to show the fallacies of false systems. The light 
 is its own evidence, even though it shine in the dark- 
 ness and the darkness comprehend it not. Some will 
 come to the light, that their "deeds may be manifest 
 that they are wrought in God." Reason can confound 
 unreason. Facts which do prove one doctrine will be 
 stronger to convince rational minds than facts which 
 are only supposed to prove another, and which are 
 shown to be inconclusive. Since, then, a new assault 
 
Christian Science. 21 
 
 is now being made upon the "faith once delivered to 
 the saints/'' and we are bidden to "contend earnestly" 
 for our precious heritage, we should be at this time, 
 as always, ready to give a reason for the hope that is 
 in us. Falsely accused of mutilating the gospel, and 
 charged with hypocrisy, we may at least show our 
 good conscience by exhibiting the grounds upon 
 which we reject and contemn this alleged revelation 
 recommended to us by one whose claim to plenary 
 inspiration is refuted by the ever-changing character 
 of her oracles, which shift as we look upon them, like 
 the phantasmagoria of dreams. 
 
 There is, in our time, especially in Christian 
 churches, an intense opposition to controversy ; and I 
 have been led to suspect that it is rather an opposition 
 to polemics in defense of the faith than to those which 
 assail the most venerable articles of our religion. It 
 is not infrequently said that controversy is always 
 hurtful. Those who take this ground forget the 
 plainest lessons taught by the history of the church. 
 Christianity was nurtured, not only by the fires of 
 persecution, but by the heat of controversy. All that 
 its first believers desired was a hearing, and they 
 "declared the word with all boldness," alike in the 
 audience of the people, and before the judgment seats 
 of kings. Peter's sermon at Pentecost was controver- 
 sial, and while it won a multitude of converts to the 
 faith, it also threw down the gauntlet to priest and 
 Pharisee, and helped him to a prison. A little later 
 we see this bold defender of the faith facing the 
 Sanhedrim, and taking advantage of a prisoner's op- 
 portunity of defense in order to urge the claims of 
 Christ upon rulers and elders. The deacon Stephen 
 declared the gospel to a howling mob, though he died 
 
22 Christian Science. 
 
 a martyr for his pains. Paul, we read, "disputed in 
 the synagogue'' at Athens with the Jews and devout 
 persons, and when challenged by Epicureans and 
 Stoics was ready to stand on Mars' Hill and defend 
 the blessed gospel of the resurrection. We are told 
 of at least one philosopher who was converted by that 
 sermon, who afterwards, if Eusebius is correct, be- 
 came pastor of the Athenian church. Again, at 
 Ephesus, Paul is found "disputing daily in the school 
 of one Tyrannus." Thus did this great apostle every- 
 where. Whether opposed by priest or philosopher, 
 by Jew or Greek, whether arraigned before the Jeru- 
 salem Sanhedrim or Roman governors, he embraced 
 every opportunity to defend the truth, and to urge 
 .the claims of the gospel of redemption. He was but 
 one of many ; and while his epistles have been said to 
 bear, more than any other Scriptures, the marks of the 
 many controversies in which their author was en- 
 gaged, the epistles of Peter, of John, of James and of 
 Jude, all show the same peculiarity. John is said to 
 have written his story, the most precious of the gospel 
 narratives, for the purpose 'of refuting the heresy of 
 Cerinthus. His first epistle reveals the same object, 
 and he rebukes another Gnostic sect in the second 
 chapter of the Apocalypse. True gospel preaching, if 
 I catch the meaning of these facts, ought to take" ac- 
 count of every form of error as it rises, and show its 
 opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus. Thus only 
 can we keep that which has been* committed to us, 
 and prevent the "oppositions" of false systems from 
 working serious injury to the church. When it comes 
 to pass that the ministry cannot defend the truth and 
 attack error in its strongholds without injuring the 
 church, it will be high time for the ministry to have 
 
Christian Science. 23 
 
 a new gospel to preach, or else for the church to have 
 new men to preach the old gospel. 
 
 Not only did primitive Christianity gain its tri- 
 umphs largely through controversy, but in every age 
 evangelical truth has been the gainer by its fearless 
 attacks upon error. If the life of Protestantism in 
 Germany was saved by the swords of the Protestant 
 princes during the thirty years' war, that life was 
 born of gospel seed sown in the controversial sermons 
 and anti-papal tracts of Luther and his coadjutors. 
 The age of the Reformation w r as preeminently an 
 age of polemic pamphlets and of public discussion. 
 The confessions of the Reformed churches were 
 forged in the fires of heated controversy. The pro- 
 ceedings of the Westminster Assembly may be de- 
 scribed as a battle of giants day after day and month 
 after month. Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, Tyn- 
 dale and Knox spent their lives in controversy. 
 
 Truth wins its victories in the light of day, w r hile 
 error runs its errands in the dark. False systems 
 thrive on the drowsy indifference, the somnolent 
 peace, and the time-serving caution of those whom 
 God has appointed guardians of His truth. Had 
 those who knew the facts been able to meet Mormon- 
 ism face to face in its early days, and show the evi- 
 dence of Smith's fraud, that foul heresy would have 
 been crippled, if not destroyed, for all time. While 
 persecution popularizes, and the blood of martyrs 
 may become the seed even of an apostate church, the 
 public refutation of error drives it into hiding. Ro- 
 manism has long ago learned to avoid discussion with 
 Protestants, and with caution born of sad experience 
 now adopts the easier arts of smiling peace and pri- 
 vate deception. Mormon missionaries and Advent- 
 
24 Christian Science. 
 
 ists forsake a neighborhood in which their tenets 
 have been exposed and refuted. Spiritualism shuns 
 the light of day, and Theosophy must needs depend 
 upon the tricks of oriental jugglers and letters from 
 Thibet. And what has been found to be true of other 
 classes of errorists will be true also of Christian 
 Scientists. They will not come out boldly into the 
 light. They will not risk all upon the judgment of an 
 enlightened people. Their protests against the re- 
 plies which they themselves have challenged, their 
 carefully indefinite references to certain cases of 
 healing, their reiterated pleas for Christian charity, 
 their loud professions of love for humanity, and their 
 cant about religious freedom, all show their unwill- 
 ingness to meet the issue squarely and fairly. Since 
 the writer began to publish the results of his investi- 
 gations into the origin and character of Mrs. Eddy's 
 new gospel, he has received letters protesting against 
 his "attacks" upon Christian Science, and pleading 
 for the recognition of that church as a Christian or- 
 ganization, working for the good of humanity. He 
 has also received sundry papers from anonymous 
 sources, sent by pious Scientists for his enlight- 
 enment, but, greatly to his satisfaction, furnishing 
 him with valuable weapons for his arsenal. The 
 galled jade winces, and the scourge of small cords 
 which we are able to draw from our unmutilated 
 Bibles is found to have a longer reach and a sharper 
 lash than the scourge of Science with which Mrs. 
 Eddy proposes to whip us all out of the Temple of 
 God. 
 
 I have been led to surmise that in this last revival 
 of ancient heresy the Church of Christ may be suffer- 
 ing chastisement for its efforts to compromise with 
 
Christian Science. 25 
 
 the enemies of the truth. Christian Science had its 
 birth not far from a city in which some twenty years 
 ago a popular preacher — since sunk to the more fitting 
 station of a horse jockey — declared that he could not 
 preach the doctrine of eternal punishment, because 
 the people had laughed it to scorn. It is unquestion- 
 ably true that for more than forty years the effort to 
 convert souls and train Christians by the preaching 
 of the gospel has been largely abandoned in favor of 
 humanitarian schemes and sociological discussions. 
 Unitarianism and Universalism have grown strong 
 side by side, and in brotherly fellowship, with an 
 evangelical pulpit which for five decades has de- 
 voted much of its time to political propagandism. It 
 is significant of the trend of ministerial opinion that 
 the Homiletic Review for this month of June, 1899, 
 recommends that ministers adopt the advice of Pro- 
 fessor Commons, and devote the Sunday evening ser- 
 vice to "a course of sermons on Sociology." In the 
 judgment of such writers, "Christ and Him crucified" 
 is not a sufficient theme for the evening service, and 
 something better must be found. 
 
 It is believed that the discussion of this new form 
 of error in our pulpits and in the columns of the re- 
 ligious and secular press will give a grand opportu- 
 nity to present, to a thoroughly interested reading 
 public, a restatement of the fundamental doctrines of 
 the gospel, and an exhibition of the character and 
 proofs of Scriptural inspiration. The vantage ground 
 of every form of error is discovered in the crude and 
 childish notions of evangelical teaching which are 
 often cherished even by cultivated men and women. 
 The old catechetical system has passed away, and a 
 generation has grown up which knows not the doc- 
 
26 Christian Science. 
 
 trines of grace as they were known to our fathers. 
 The exact definitions of the Westminster Confession 
 are to-day in an unknown tongue to many who have 
 grown up in our Presbyterian congregations, and our 
 home mission work is bringing in multitudes who 
 need to be instructed in the "form of sound words." 
 
 The labor expended in honest and prayerful de- 
 fense of the truth will not be spent in vain. If the 
 light of Scripture and of reason were everywhere 
 turned upon the dangerous errors of this most un- 
 christian creed of the century, such an exposure 
 would be sufficient to turn back into the way of truth 
 many who have been led astray by the vaunted mir- 
 acles and specious claims of Christian Science healers ; 
 while others, being forewarned, would be forearmed 
 against assaults upon their faith. 
 
 And, far beyond the recovery of those who are be- 
 ing led into the barren mountains of Pantheistic spec- 
 ulation, and into the hopeless quagmires of the mental 
 healing lunacy, is the good that may be accomplished 
 in the revival of interest in the pure gospel, and the 
 awakening of the church to a sounder and stronger 
 life. We have passed through whole decades of re- 
 vivalism, in which emotional stories and shallow ex- 
 hortations have taken the place of old-fashioned gos- 
 pel preaching, with its pictures of the majesty of 
 Sinai and the heinousness of sin, its terrible appeal to 
 the conscience and the reason, and its tender plead- 
 ings with the unrenewed heart. "Men now repent " 
 said an old Methodist preacher in the writer's hear- 
 ing many years ago, "who have not felt that they are 
 sinners ; they are converted without being born again 
 and they exercise faith without really trusting in 
 Christ. There is truth in this lamentable confes- 
 
Christian Science. 27 
 
 sion. A higher type of religious experience is needed, 
 which will cut off the demand for such efforts as the 
 Keswick movement. Higher life comes from assimi- 
 lation of the truth. And truth is never so command- 
 ing as when shown in contrast with error. The Bible 
 is never so majestic as when it is brought to the stand 
 to testify in its own behalf against the hoary false- 
 hoods of ages. Nor can we, who believe in our Lord's 
 ever-presence with His church, doubt that He will 
 shed forth the Spirit of His grace, and add His om- 
 nipotent testimony to the preaching of the Word, and 
 His infallible demonstrations to the witness of His 
 servants. 
 
PART I. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW. 
 
A NEW GOSPEL AND A GROWING CHURCH 
 
 "A higher and more practical Christianity stands 
 at the door of this age knocking for admission." 
 "Above Arcturus and his sons, broader than the uni- 
 verse and higher than the heavens of your astronomy, 
 stands the Science of mental healing." Mortals 
 cabined, cribbed, and confined by all orthodox doc- 
 trines as to man's nature and destiny, are like un- 
 hatched chickens, and are now exhorted to "peck 
 their shells open with Christian Science and look up- 
 ward." In these and like swelling words Mrs. Mary 
 Baker Glover Eddy challenges the attention of the 
 Christian world to the "sacred discovery" which she 
 claims to have made. 1 
 
 Nor is her challenge unheeded. Already the sect 
 of which she has become the head and oracle has a 
 very considerable following. The "Mother Church" 
 in Boston, of which she was the founder and first 
 pastor, otherwise called the "First Church of Christ, 
 Scientist," is one of the most flourishing churches in 
 the city. It now numbers more than thirteen hun- 
 dred resident members, with a total membership, in- 
 cluding non-residents, of some 12,000. According to 
 The Independent, at the beginning of the year 1898 
 the whole enrolled membership of the sect was "con- 
 servatively placed at from 40,000 to 50,000," while the 
 
 1 Science and Health, pp. 120 and 544, and Christian Science 
 Series, No. 5, p. 10. 
 
32 Christian Science. 
 
 actual number of avowed adherents and church at- 
 tendants was much larger, being not less than 250,000 
 in the United States and Canada. A recent writer 
 estimates the number of adherents in the world at 
 300,000! The official report of the body in 1896 
 claimed that near 20,000 converts had been made in 
 the United States alone within the previous five years. 
 Its active ministry, classed as "official church readers, 
 missionaries and healers/' all of whom devote their 
 whole time to the healing and reformatory work of 
 the new church, was set down at the close of 1896 at 
 more than 6,000. A year later it was reported at 
 over 7,500. This relatively enormous number of 
 propagandists is being, we are told, "rapidly increased 
 by the acquisition of many trained nurses, surgeons 
 and physicians from both schools of medicine, as well 
 as many consecrated men and women from the ranks 
 of mercantile, social, religious and literary life." It 
 was claimed that the attendance upon Christian 
 Science services doubled during the year 1897, and 
 large growth was reported likewise for the year 1898. 
 Its "chartered churches" and "Christian Science In- 
 stitutes" are multiplying rapidly, and there is hardly 
 a city of importance in our land where this new sect 
 has not a band of zealous workers. It is a well- 
 organized body, with national, State and local soci- 
 eties, all compacted by the cementing power of a spu- 
 rious sense of Christian brotherhood, and propelled 
 by the energy of a novel and intense enthusiasm. It 
 has already an influential periodical press, edited by 
 men and women of some scholarship, of ability by no 
 means contemptible, and of unflagging industry and 
 zeal. It is prolific of books, booklets and tracts, a 
 tew of them written in pleasing literary style, and all 
 
Christian Science. 33 
 
 urging the claims of the new doctrines with some 
 show of learning, much apparent sincerity, and with 
 vast plausibility of statement ; while under the auspices 
 of its "Board of Lectureship" a number of talented 
 men and women are engaged in canvassing our whole 
 country, proclaiming the new gospel everywhere. 
 
 "Christian Science," so-called, professes exceed- 
 ing reverence for the name of Jesus, and proclaims 
 as its mission the restoration of primitive Christianity 
 through the "healing of the sick and the reformation 
 of the depraved." Its one method, by which all its 
 marvels, both of spiritual and physical healing, are 
 wrought, is declared to be the same by which our 
 Lord wrought all his "so-called miracles." 
 
 A more complete misnomer than the name chosen 
 for this new religion could hardly be conceived. 
 It is, in fact, a new heathenism, and has in it no 
 single shred of science, and hardly so much as a scrap 
 of genuine Christianity. As our examination will 
 show, it violates every principle of scientific investiga- 
 tion and of logical thought, and contradicts the plain 
 testimony of the Scriptures touching every cardinal 
 doctrine of the Christian system. It is, however, one 
 of the most curious of the many peculiar religious 
 phenomena of this progressive and scientific age. It 
 is well adapted to the wants of that large class of in- 
 dependent and extraordinary people whose highest 
 ambition is to keep "abreast of the times." Just now 
 the whole world is worshipping Science. The leader 
 of this new movement, wiser in her generation than 
 the children of light, has adopted in her system a 
 terminology than which nothing better for her pur- 
 pose could have been devised. It splits the ears of 
 groundlings with its show of learning and its pre- 
 
34 Christian Science. 
 
 tense of science, while its novelty rivets the attention 
 and compels the faith of that Athenian multitude 
 which is ever desirous to "hear or to tell something 
 new." Indeed, birdlime is scarcely so good a device 
 for trapping the unwary bird as is this new scheme 
 for capturing those who know little of religion and 
 less of science. 
 
 It makes its bland appeal to the "scientific" mind. 
 Everything in it is "scientific," seeming to the un- 
 learned and the credulous to savor of patient study, 
 of unwearied research, and of exact methods. It 
 proffers to those who have been vexed with the 
 long talked-of contradictions between Genesis and 
 Geology, the latest and the most "scientific" expo- 
 sitions of Bible history and doctrine. Its cures and 
 conversions, its spiritual victories over sin and tempta- 
 tion, and its manifold wonders which challenge com- 
 parison with the miracles of Christ and his apostles, 
 are "demonstrations." Its new Bible, for which 
 plenary inspiration and Divine authority are claimed, 
 is "our text-book." Its basic ideas are presented as 
 "Rudiments and Rules." Its theology is "Metaphys- 
 ics," and the schools of its prophets are "Metaphysi- 
 cal" or "Christian Science" Academies, Institutes, 
 Colleges, etc. Its theological graduates are gradu- 
 ated, not in theology — possibly because there is a 
 prejudice against theology in this day— but in 
 "Science," and receive the academic degree's of "Doc- 
 tor of Christian Science," "Bachelor of Divine 
 Science," or the more modest "Christian Scientist," 
 these degrees answering to those of Master and 
 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Philosophy in our 
 colleges. Thus are all its authoritative expounders 
 vested with badges certifying their proficiency in all 
 
Christian Science. 35 
 
 the supposedly abstruse branches of this new "scien- 
 tific" education. 
 
 Its new Divine revelation, and its perennial foun- 
 tain of living truth and of saving grace, is a book 
 with a prodigiously seductive title. Who could con- 
 ceive of anything more taking in this practical age, 
 in which health-seeking is the principal occupation of 
 many women and not a few men, than "Science and 
 Health"? "Christian Science" professes to be prac- 
 tical, and proposes to meet the wants of all who de- 
 sire a practical religion. It comes laden with present 
 blessings for all men and women who are weary and 
 heavy laden with mortal infirmities and desire to 
 enter into "freedom through the truth." Where, 
 indeed, is the "mortal mind" that would not like to 
 be informed of the latest revelations of science, and 
 to learn the secret of unfailing health? Here at 
 last is found the "El Dorado, the Golden Land of 
 Promise, upon whose mountain peaks" of inspired 
 doctrine mortals have "only to gaze in order to be 
 healed." 
 
 This, too, is an age of doubt. This new creed offers 
 a satisfactory solution of all the vexing questions 
 started by the materialistic science of the age, and 
 professes to vindicate grandly the spiritual origin and 
 nature of man. 
 
 In short, Christian Science is the very latest phase 
 of "advanced thought," the newest fad in rationalistic 
 religion. It comes heralded as an authoritative and 
 final settlement of all questions related to life, duty 
 and destiny, introducing itself as Christian, and, even 
 more than that — lest we should fail to give it all the 
 
 1 Mrs. Woodbury, War in Heaven, p. 14. 
 
36 Christian Science. 
 
 honor which it demands — as DIVINE Science. It 
 is a brand-new, up-to-date system of religion, de- 
 signed to meet the wants of all that large class of as- 
 piring souls who have grown weary of "traditional 
 theology," and are just now waiting for some pilot 
 prepared to help them launch out into the deep, and 
 to steer them in their voyage of intellectual and 
 spiritual discovery. 
 
 In one important particular, however, the apostles 
 of this new healing and reformatory gospel differ 
 from the apostles of Christ, and from the Master him- 
 self. It is not recorded that Jesus or any of His apos- 
 tles charged any specific fee for instruction in the 
 facts and doctrines of religion, or for miracles of 
 healing. But in this new scientific religion one is, 
 while exempt from any obligation to pray, compelled 
 nevertheless to pay as he goes. 
 
 The first duty of the Christian Scientist, or even of 
 one desirous of studying the new religion, is to pro- 
 vide himself with a copy of Science and Health. 
 Here is the law from the book itself : 
 
 A Christian Scientist requires my work on Science and 
 Health for his text-book, and so do all his students and pa- 
 tients. Why? First, Because it is the voice of Truth to this 
 age, and contains the whole of Christian Science, or the 
 science of healing through Mind. Second, Because it was 
 the first published book containing a statement of Christian 
 Science, gave the first rules for demonstrating this science, 
 and registered this revealed Truth uncontaminated by human 
 hypotheses. Other works, which have borrowed from this 
 book without giving it credit, have adulterated the science. 
 Third, Because this work has done more for teacher and 
 student, for healer and patient, than has been accomplished 
 by other works. — Science and Health, p. 453. 
 
Christian Science. 37 
 
 This is authoritative, and accounts for the fact that 
 such a book as Science and Health has been able to 
 reach its hundred and fifty-fourth edition. It is said 
 that a new edition is published every six months, 
 and that every loyal "Scientist" considers himself 
 in duty bound to purchase a copy of the latest edi- 
 tion at the earliest possible moment after it is pub- 
 lished. As the book, even in its cheapest form, costs 
 $3.18, postpaid, and is very inexpensively made, it 
 is obvious that Mrs. Eddy's royalties must be consid- 
 erable. Her other publications — all of which are 
 much used as means of introducing the new creed, as 
 well as of healing the sick — are published at higher 
 prices relatively. The literary ventures of Mrs. Eddy 
 cannot be said to have been failures from a financial 
 standpoint. 
 
 Mental healers, not being required to devote any 
 time to the study of such "materialistic" branches as 
 Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, and Materia Med- 
 ica, can qualify themselves for the practice of their 
 profession in a very short time. Fees for tuition, 
 however, are not proportionally less than those 
 charged by medical colleges, but, on the contrary, are 
 very much higher. While Mrs. Eddy was conducting 
 the "Massachusetts Metaphysical College,'' of which 
 she was the only teacher, save as her labors for a time 
 were shared to a limited extent by her husband, since 
 deceased, her charge for a primary course of twelve 
 lessons, continuing through three weeks, was $300; 
 for the normal course, $200 ; and for special instruc- 
 tion in Metaphysical Obstetrics, $100; while attend- 
 ance upon her lectures on Theology and the Bible 
 necessitated the expenditure of $200 additional. Hus- 
 bands and wives entering the primary class at the 
 
38 Christian Science. 
 
 same time were required to pay but half tuition. If 
 they entered at different times, or desired to pursue 
 any of the advanced courses of study, they were re- 
 quired to pay full fees. The highest discount to an 
 indigent student was $100, and this applied only to 
 the first course. It seems to have been presumed that 
 as soon as students completed the primary course they 
 could begin the practice of their profession, and that 
 their success would soon enable them to earn money 
 enough to finish their course and take their degrees. 
 They were instructed to charge their patients, Mrs. 
 Eddy holding, it would seem, that people would value 
 their health and their healers more if required to pay 
 for "treatment." Thus it required at least $800 to 
 enable one to master the abstruse branches of this 
 "scientific" education, exclusive of the trifling matter 
 of board. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy conducted her college for eight years, 
 closing it at last, when it was "in the height of its 
 prosperity," and one hundred and sixty applications 
 for admission lay on her desk, in order to devote her- 
 self to the task of revising her book. 1 During the first 
 years of her career as a teacher she also did much 
 
 'A writer in the Arena of May, 1899, intimates that pos- 
 sibly Mrs. Eddy may have been influenced by other consid- 
 erations in closing her college. "In 1889 Mrs. Eddy osten- 
 sibly gave up her college and retired to Concord, N. H., at 
 the very period when a Massachusetts district attorney was 
 looking for evidence of that institution's illegally conferred 
 degrees, of which there were thousands, punishable with a 
 fine of five hundred dollars for each offense. Is this the 
 reason that for ten years Mrs. Eddy has not visited Boston 
 on a week day, when she would be subject to arrest?" This 
 seems to be a very natural inquiry. 
 
Christian Science. 39 
 
 lealing, if we may credit her statements ; and so, from 
 ;he several sources indicated, together with the free- 
 will offerings of patients and students, and a thriving 
 trade in her photographs and souvenir spoons, etc., 
 she has managed to amass a respectable competency. 
 She has built herself a fine residence in Concord, 
 New Hampshire, and having retired from active 
 work, save as the peculiar type of inspiration which 
 possesses her requires frequent revisions of her 
 infallible book, and her unique position as the oracle 
 of a growing sect demands frequent communica- 
 tions, is spending her declining years in comfort. 
 She says much in her works about cross-bearing, 
 crucifixion, and the like, as incidents in the exalted 
 and unselfish life to which she invites her follow- 
 ers; but it is not known that she has ever endured 
 any very great persecutions. She has not, indeed, 
 been warmly welcomed as an ally by the Christian 
 churches and ministry ; but she has not been mobbed, 
 nor even hooted by the street gamins at any time, so 
 far as I can learn. It is quite probable that she will 
 at last "die amidst her worshippers/' like the error 
 she would fain revive. Her life seems a singular 
 commentary upon the apostle's statement, "All that 
 will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecu- 
 tion." It is singular also that this lady of means and 
 leisure, whose inspiration is asserted to surpass that of 
 all the prophets who have preceded her, has retired 
 from the practice of her sublime healing art. The fol- 
 lowing note appears at the end of the preface to her 
 great work: "The author takes no patients, and de- 
 clines medical consultation." Formerly the notice 
 was, "The authoress takes no patients, and has no 
 
40 Christian Science. 
 
 time for medical consultation/' She has the time 
 now, we may assume, but chooses to let men suffer 
 and die without any longer sending forth the healing 
 aroma of her thought, save as that is dispensed in her 
 various works. There is considerable contrast be- 
 tween this wealthy and much idolized widow and 
 those great men of the past who, in poverty and in 
 obscurity, became founders of great religious and 
 philosophical systems, and, most of all, between her 
 and One who "had not where to lay His head." 
 
 Many Christian Science institutes have sprung up 
 in various parts of our land, and their charges, while 
 never as large as those of the Founder of their 
 Science, are sufficient to astonish the professors of 
 our medical colleges when the brevity of the course 
 is considered. At one time there were certain teach- 
 ers who offered to communicate all they knew, with 
 the privilege of conversation once a month for a 
 year, on payment of $100. Rivalries among the vari- 
 ous Mental Healing schools have led to the practice of 
 denying recognition to all who do not advertise in the 
 Christian Science Journal. This plan has the double 
 advantage of securing a considerable advertising 
 patronage for the periodical, and at the same time 
 warning the public against false teachers of the 
 Divine Science. Many of those who have graduated 
 under the instructions of Mrs. Eddy and her pupils 
 have achieved notoriety as healers, and have been 
 greatly prospered. The lucrative character of Chris- 
 tian Science practice may have something to do with 
 the amazing industry of those who are engaged in 
 propagating the new creed. Their campaign is 
 waged on principles somewhat different from those 
 
Christian Science. 41 
 
 which were adopted by the first preachers of the 
 cross; and the bait which the devil offered to Christ 
 in his temptation is held steadily before the great 
 army of Christian Scientists. They confidently ex- 
 pect to gain "all the kingdoms of the world and the 
 glory of them." 
 
II. 
 
 A BAD BEGINNING. 
 
 If it be true that "a bad beginning makes a good 
 ending,''' and if it be also true that the blessedness 
 of the ending is always proportional to the badness 
 of the beginning, Christian Science is destined to 
 shine like the sun in an eternal blaze of glory. Its 
 antecedents are suspicious in the extreme. Its origin, 
 according to the statement of its founder, was in 
 humbuggery, patent and confessed. Mrs. Eddy is a 
 native of Xew Hampshire, and alleges that for more 
 than thirty years she was a member in good standing 
 of the Congregational Church in the town of Tilton. 
 She was a homoeopathic physician. Her "experiments 
 in homoeopathy had made her skeptical as to material 
 curative methods." Two of these experiments she 
 relates with charming naivete. In one she "attenu- 
 ated common table salt until there was not a single 
 saline property left.'*' Putting a drop of that attenu- 
 ation in a goblet of water, and administering a tea- 
 spoonful dose of this medicated water every three 
 hours, she succeeded in curing a patient who was 
 sinking in the last stages of typhoid fever ! The other 
 experiment was even more wonderful. The patient 
 was in the last stages of dropsy; had been tapped; 
 "looked like a barrel." Mrs. Eddy prescribed "the 
 fourth attenuation of Argenitum Xitricum, with oc- 
 casional doses of a high attenuation of Sulphur is." 
 The patient improved perceptibly. Fearing an un- 
 favorable reaction from the prolonged use of these 
 very dangerous remedies, Mrs. Eddy desired to 
 
Christian Science. 43 
 
 change her treatment, and so informed the patient. 
 The latter, however, objecting, Mrs. Eddy, unwilling 
 to risk reaction, continued her treatment by slyly ad- 
 ministering the unmedicated* pellets, and thus ef- 
 fected a cure! — Science and Health, pp. 46, 49. 
 Others, whose minds reason normally, would have 
 concluded from these experiments, not that all medi- 
 cine was useless, but that cases which could be cured 
 by homoeopathy could be cured as well without medi- 
 cine ; but Mrs. Eddy was thus led to see in the "meta- 
 physics" of "Christian Science" the "next stately step 
 beyond homoeopathy/' — Ibid., p. 50. 1 
 
 1 Apropos of the fact that Mrs. Eddy graduated into Chris- 
 tian Science "discovery and revelation" from the ranks of 
 homoeopathy, we are reminded of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' 
 opinion of homoeopathy as given in his Medical Essays. It 
 is, he says, "a pretended science, ... a mingled mass of 
 perverse ingenuity, of tinsel erudition, of imbecile credulity, 
 and of artful misrepresentation, too often mingled in prac- 
 tice, if we may trust the authority of its founder, with heart- 
 less and shameless imposition." Mrs. Eddy's account of her 
 own homoeopathic practice bears out the doctor fully. It 
 may be noted that in speaking of her success in healing with 
 unmedicated pellets and with diluted salt water she men- 
 tions it quite as a matter of course, and shows no sign of any 
 moral compunction in view of her own humbuggery. On 
 the contrary, she regards homoeopathy as "stately," and her 
 own "sacred discovery" as another "stately step" beyond 
 what she herself has shown to be palpable humbuggery. It 
 is, indeed, a somewhat more "stately" imposition upon public 
 credulity. 
 
 Another remark of Dr. Holmes is pertinent : "The pseudo- 
 sciences, phrenology and the rest, it seems to me, only appeal 
 to weak minds and the weak points of strong ones. There is 
 a pica, or false appetite, in many intelligences ; they take to 
 odd fancies in place of wholesome truth, as girls gnaw at 
 chalk and charcoal." — Medical Essays, p. 245. 
 
44 Christian Science. 
 
 In her revolt against the use of drugs, our new 
 reformer was further encouraged by the outspoken 
 skepticism of Dr. Benjamin Rush and sundry other 
 eminent medical men^s to the value of their own 
 science. Among numerous startling opinions she 
 quotes that of "Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon Extra- 
 ordinary to the King/' to the effect that if there were 
 not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, man mid- 
 wife, chemist, druggist, or drug, in the world, there 
 would be less sickness and less mortality. She was 
 then, according to her own testimony, a conscious 
 quack, deeming all other practitioners equally dis- 
 honest with herself, and fully convinced that all drugs 
 were worthless. While in this state of mind she be- 
 gan to muse on the healing practiced in the primitive 
 church, together with the admitted fact that the 
 mind has much to do with both the cause and cure of 
 disease. At last, she avers, when desperately ill, and 
 "standing within the shadow of the death-valley," 
 she lighted upon her marvelous discovery, and re- 
 ceived her call to become the prophetess of a new dis- 
 pensation. 1 
 
 ^ Justice to the facts of the case, however, demands 
 the statement that some four years prior to her al- 
 leged "discovery" of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy 
 was for many months under the treatment of one Dr. 
 Phineas P. Quimby, whom she admits to have been 
 "a distinguished mesmerist," with some "advanced 
 views about mental healing." This fact has given 
 rise, even in the ranks of so-called Christian Scient- 
 ists, to much acrimonious discussion, many holding 
 that she is indebted to Dr. Quimby for 'the chief 
 points of her system, and that her claim to exclusive 
 
 1 Science and Health, pp. 2, 3. 
 
Christian Science. 45 
 
 originality, revelation, etc., is not altogether unques- 
 tionable. Among the latest who have appeared in 
 the lists challenging the proofs of Mrs. Eddy's origi- 
 nality is Mrs. Josephine Curtis Woodbury, formerly 
 one of her most devoted adherents, but now an inde- 
 pendent teacher of Mental Healing. In a letter pub- 
 lished in the Bangor (Me.) News of December 6, 
 1898, Mrs. Woodbury says that the leading ideas of 
 Science and Health are " borrowed from various 
 writers, chiefly from the late Dr. Phineas P. Quimby, 
 of Portland, Maine." 
 
 "Dr. Quimby was an original thinker, and achieved marked 
 success as a healer along mental lines years before Mrs. 
 Eddy (then Mrs. Glover or Airs. Patterson), afflicted with a 
 disease in the nature of palsy, 'turned in despair from materia 
 medica' and sought the doctor's aid. 
 
 "In the Christian Science Journal for June, 1887, Mrs. 
 Eddy states, over her own signature, that she was under Dr. 
 Quimby's treatment from 1862 till his death in 1865. Mrs. 
 Eddy further states in the same journal that in 1865 she was 
 so well under Dr. Quimby's treatment that she believed her- 
 self healed. 'I wrote and talked,' so she affirms, 'as if his 
 method must be genuine science, and was too proud to think 
 it could be anything else.' 
 
 "In writings only recently examined I find a series of ar- 
 ticles dating from 1841 to 1865, written in some instances by 
 Dr. Quimby himself, and in others by his patients and pu- 
 pils, some of them being printed in the newspapers in various 
 towns and cities of Maine. 
 
 "The ideas thus promulgated were then credited to Dr. 
 Quimby, even by Mrs. Eddy herself; but in 1875 we find 
 them incorporated into Science and Health as part of a 'spe- 
 cial revelation' to its author." * 
 
 1 In the paper in the Arena for May, 1899, just now quoted, 
 Mrs. Woodbury united with Horatio Dresser in presenting 
 
46 Christian Science. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's defense of herself against this charge 
 of plagiarism is brilliant and conclusive. It is simply 
 this: Dr. Quimby died in 1865, whereas her "first 
 revelation" of Christian Science was in 1866! It is 
 characteristic of the peculiar modes of reasoning 
 which distinguish Mrs. Eddy from all who have 
 written books or founded great religious systems, that 
 in this instance she relies triumphantly upon the very 
 fact which clear-headed people are compelled to con- 
 sider most suspicious — that she did not receive this 
 revelation until Dr. Quimby was under ground. 
 Imagine Joseph Smith, Jr., defending himself against 
 the charge that Rev. Solomon Spaulding wrote the 
 Book of Mormon by saying he did not "discover" 
 that book till long after Spaulding was dead ! 
 
 Mrs. Eddy has not been allowed to play her role of 
 prophetess and reformer without rivals. Several 
 
 what all unprejudiced readers are compelled to regard con- 
 clusive and overwhelming testimony to show that Mrs. Eddy 
 derived the essential points of her theory, and even the term 
 "Christian Science," from Dr. Quimby. Among other items 
 contributed by Mrs. Woodbury is a poem by Mrs. Eddy, en- 
 titled "Lines on the Death of Dr. P. P. Quimby, who healed 
 with the Truth that Christ taught," etc.. which concludes as 
 follows : 
 
 "Heaven but the happiness of that calm soul. 
 Growing in stature to the throne of God. 
 Rest should reward him who hath made us whole, 
 Seeking, though tremblers, where his footsteps trod." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy has since intimated that if she wrote this poem 
 it must have been under the malign influence of Dr. Quimby's 
 departed spirit ! Her head, she says in the Christian Seience 
 Journal of June, 1887, must have been "turned by animal 
 magnetism and will-power." 
 
Christian Science. 47 
 
 mutually antagonistic schools of mental healing have 
 been developed, and the feelings engendered by these 
 rivalries combine the intensity of the odium theologi- 
 cum with that of the odium medicum. Forgetting, 
 possibly, the old proverb that those who live in glass 
 houses should not throw stones, Mrs. Eddy does not 
 hesitate to hurl the accusation of plagiarism against 
 all and singular of her rivals. "Some silly publica- 
 tions/' she remarks, with her wonted modesty and 
 gentleness, "whose only correct or salient points 
 are borrowed, without credit, from Science and 
 Health would set the world right on Metaphysical 
 Healing, like children thrumming a piano and pre- 
 tending to teach music or criticise Mozart." 
 
 Christian Science began in pious fraud and shame- 
 less pretense. Into what it grew, I propose to show 
 in the following chapters. 
 
A MIRACULOUS BOOK. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's great work, Science and Health, de- 
 serves to be counted among the curiosities of nine- 
 teenth century literature. Giving the results of her 
 ripest thought and experience, and containing, as she 
 would have us believe, a revelation of truth, which is 
 the "gospel to this age," 1 it is unique both in matter 
 and style. 
 
 In this volume Mrs. Eddy essays to discuss and 
 decide all the great questions that concern the origin, 
 duty, and fate of humanity. The sublime egoism of 
 the whole performance is but faintly indicated by a 
 quotation which one must needs observe on the fly- 
 leaf as he opens the volume : 
 
 I, I, I, I itself, I, 
 The inside and outside, the what and the why, 
 The when and the where, the low and the high, 
 
 All I, I, I, I itself, I. 
 
 Scarcely for a moment from the time when the 
 author, 'leaning on the sustaining Infinite," emerges 
 to the dear reader's view in her preface till he finishes 
 the last page, in which, with wondrous humility for 
 an "Immortal" so richly endowed and so marvelously 
 favored, she concludes her "feeble revelation," is he 
 permitted to lose sight of her very original and inter- 
 esting personality. "Verily, I say unto you," is her 
 
 1 Science and Health, Preface. 
 
Christian Science. 49 
 
 only "oath for confirmation." She is her own highest 
 authority, and declares that the revelation which she 
 announces to the world was vouchsafed to none but 
 herself. 
 
 Science and Health is a book of endless repetitions. 
 The author's perpetual iterations are bewildering 
 and wearisome. With many an eccentric curve, 
 and many a perilous leap, and many a startling flight 
 through thinnest ether, she rides her winged Pegasus 
 round the whole universe ; but after her first flight she 
 returns from every new excursion only to tell us 
 something she has already told. Never for a single 
 instant does her reasoning proceed on a straight line. 
 In fact, the straight line is a symbol, in her system, 
 of the error she hates, "the finite, which has both be- 
 ginning and end," "the belief in a self-existent and 
 temporary material existence." Having such a pre- 
 judice against straight lines, it is, perhaps, natural 
 that she should indulge in circular demonstrations. 
 Her method is the absence of all methods. Her 
 definitions do not define. Her syllogism invariably 
 expresses its conclusion in its premise. One may 
 open the volume at random and read in either direc- 
 tion without being able to discover any material dif- 
 ference either in the style of the argument or the se- 
 quence of the author's thoughts. 
 
 Her use of common English words is often such as 
 to puzzle the reader. Assuming as the basic principle 
 of her thinking a theory which denies the evidence of 
 our five senses and the testimony of our reason, and 
 yet compelled to clothe her vague conceptions in the 
 language of ordinary experience, she must of neces- 
 sity use many words in an accommodated sense. But 
 words refuse to be thus always emptied of their origi- 
 
5<3 Christian Science. 
 
 nal contents and made the vehicles of foreign ideas, 
 and the result is confusion than which imagination 
 can conceive none worse confounded. But, never- 
 theless, she seems blissfully unconscious of the havoc 
 she makes of the proprieties of English speech. "No 
 pent-up Utica contracts her powers.'' Spurning all 
 conventional restraints, both in thought and expres- 
 sion, — pouring "the new wine of the Spirit into the 
 old bottles of the letter,'' 1 heedless of the bursting 
 which must inevitably ensue, entailing the loss of both 
 wine and bottles, — setting at defiance the laws of logic 
 and the laws of language, — she essays to unfold a 
 new system of medicine, a new philosophy, and a 
 new theology. 
 
 Nor can she be accused of yielding to any excessive 
 timidity or modesty in her supreme effort. Engaged 
 in a higher and holier cause, she emulates the cour- 
 age of the old Abolitionists. With heroic sense of the 
 danger she incurs, and of the tremendous difficulties 
 she must overcome, she addresses herself to the "task 
 of the sturdy pioneer," and proceeds laboriously to 
 " hew the tall oak and cut the rough granite" ; and 
 it may be safely affirmed that from the beginning f 
 the world until now such hewing, sawing, twisting, 
 dividing asunder, and refashioning of tilings in the 
 world of thought has not been witnessed. Impelled 
 to open her treasures, she exhibits to our wondering 
 view a new pearl of great price, and having risen 
 high above all capability of displeasure at our unbe- 
 lief, she commits her discovery, with Miltonic assur- 
 ance of its high destiny, to "honest seekers for Truth 
 in this and every age." 2 
 
 1 Science and Health, p. 8. * Ibid., Preface. 
 
Christian Science. 51 
 
 Science and Health is a mixture of oracular dog- 
 matism, of feeble and inconsequential argument, 
 crude theory, hackneyed platitudes, adroit misrepre- 
 sentations of orthodox teaching, fallacious reasoning, 
 stupid and ignorant perversions of Scripture, bor- 
 rowed heathenism, and withal of multitudinous ab- 
 surdities. Its author's statements abound in self- 
 contradictions. Facts which she denies in her 
 theology she is compelled to admit in her ethics. 
 Professing exceeding faith in the Scriptures as the 
 "chart of life," she nevertheless seeks to substitute for 
 them another chart, woven out of her own fancies, 
 and marked with the eccentric lines of her own ill- 
 regulated thought. Announcing her creed by a sig- 
 nificant and absurd reference as the "leaven which 
 A WOMAN took and hid in three measures of meal," 
 she illustrates on every page the poet's remark about 
 feminine thinking, — 
 
 "A woman's reason is a woman's reason, — 
 I think him so, because I think him so" — 
 
 a remark abundantly justified by the reasoning of 
 some women, and particularly by the reasoning of 
 such philosophers and theologians as Mrs. Eddy and 
 a few others. 
 
 I have intimated that this new prophetess betrays 
 gross ignorance. It would be tedious, even if it were 
 necessary, to cull out of her pages the multiplied in- 
 stances of incorrect grammar, of misused words, of 
 faulty rhetoric, of stupid misconception, of irrelevant 
 remark, and of unconscious blundering with which the 
 book abounds. 1 Every page bears evidence that the 
 
 1 Two amusing instances of the ignorance of "Mother 
 Mary" are cited by Mrs. Woodbury in the Arena for May, 
 
52 Christian Science. 
 
 writer is not only a woman of deficient education, but 
 of meager and eccentric intellect. Her style shows 
 not an element of grace. Her occasional efforts at 
 fine writing are supremely ludicrous, while her at- 
 tempts to lug into her discussion every fact which 
 can possibly be twisted into a seeming confirmation 
 of her theory, are at once palpable and absurd. She 
 claims to have "discovered" a new system of Meta- 
 physics, and yet in her discussions she exhibits igno- 
 rance of the very rudiments of mental philosophy. 
 She pretends to have elaborated a science which will 
 take the place of so-called "natural science," and yet 
 she makes it plain that she is profoundly ignorant of 
 the facts which it has been the function of natural 
 science to classify and to explain. Thus, for instance, 
 she asserts that the propagation of bees, moths and 
 butterflies takes place "without the customary pres- 
 ence of male companions !" And having stated as a 
 fact what is not a fact, she uses this as an argument to 
 prove her theory that the procreation of the human 
 species is mental, and not physical! — Science and 
 Health, p. 541. She knows little of the English lan- 
 guage, and less of Hebrew, Greek and Latin ; but in 
 her disjointed arguments she does not hesitate to 
 quote and translate, with all the assurance of the most 
 
 1899. On page 12 of Science and Health, edition of 1886, 
 Mrs. Eddy speaks of her opposition to gnosticism, but later 
 it appeared that she meant agnosticism. Again, in the sum- 
 mer of 1898 certain newspapers ridiculed her copyrighted 
 statement that the word Pantheism was derived from the syl- 
 van god, Pan. She took pains to correct her error, when in- 
 formed of it by one outside the ranks, at the very time the 
 "Christian Science Journal" was laboring to support her ig- 
 norance in the premises! 
 
Christian Science. 53 
 
 profound scholar, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and even 
 Icelandic ! She challenges the whole Christian world 
 to controversy ; and yet she does not understand the 
 first principles of logic, and is blind to the innumer- 
 able fallacies of her own reasoning. 
 
 And yet this book, which is plainly the product of 
 an untrained and ill-furnished mind, claims more than 
 ever book claimed since the world began. It is not 
 only a new gospel, but a "final revelation/' — the very 
 last that shall ever illuminate the darkness of human 
 ignorance and woe. It proffers a "Key to the Scrip- 
 tures/' without which the manifold wealth of Reve- 
 lation must forever remain hidden from our eyes, and 
 contains truth sufficient to deliver the entire race for 
 all time from all the ills that flesh is heir to. 
 
 As a matter of course, such a book must needs 
 possess plenary inspiration. And Mrs. Eddy is equal 
 to the emergency. "No human tongue or pen," she 
 declares, "taught me the science contained in Science 
 and Health, and neither tongue nor pen can over 
 throw it." "Genuine Christian Scientists/' says the 
 Christian Science Journal of February, 1891, "are 
 those who adhere to Science and Health with Key to 
 the Scriptures to regulate their daily life." "It surely 
 is God's word," writes a correspondent in the same 
 periodical — "his best gift to fallen man ; our rich in- 
 heritance, our salvation from sin, sickness and death." 
 Says still another, "What a wonderful help the quar- 
 terly Bible lessons are ! They seem to be the link 
 connecting Science and Health and the Bible, uniting 
 them as one — the word of God." 
 
 Not only is this book alleged to be in all points 
 equal to the Bible in respect of inspiration and au- 
 thority, but even superior. The following, written 
 
54 Christian Science. 
 
 by one of Mrs. Eddy's followers, and published in a 
 tract protected by her copyright, is presumed to have 
 been printed with her full approbation : "Science 
 and Health does what Jesus did not, because human- 
 ity was not ready for it — what the apostles could not," 
 etc. — Christian Science Series, No. 6, p. 3. And ac- 
 cordingly it is even presented as a substitute for our 
 glorious Lord, whose name was called "Emmanuel, 
 which is, being interpreted, God with us." Says one 
 of its advocates, "Science and Health is 'God with 
 us.' " It is, says still another, "the true Logos," and 
 likewise the "Comforter, which leadeth into all 
 truth." This new creed, and not the Divine Man, 
 Christ Jesus, is the "Good Shepherd," who feeds 
 and protects the flock of the redeemed, and "its sub- 
 stance is the bread of life, which feeds the multi- 
 tudes." 1 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, in view of her claim 
 to a degree of inspiration and authority which she 
 does not accord to the Bible itself, that Mrs. Eddy 
 goes so far as to proclaim herself a new infallibility, 
 possessing the keys of the heavenly kingdom. This 
 she does, blowing her own trumpet with no uncer- 
 tain sound ; and her brazen blare is echoed through- 
 out the camp of her followers. "We must forsake 
 the foundations of material systems, however time- 
 honored," says this new mistress of mankind, "if we 
 would gain the Christ as our only Saviour." — Science 
 and Health, p. 221. "At the present stage of human 
 experience the only way to gain this consciousness 
 [i. c, of being the child of God | can be found 
 through competent instruction in Christian Science, 
 
 1 Christian Science Journal, February, 1891. 
 
Christian Science. 55 
 
 by which [sic] can be learned how to conform our 
 daily walks to the footprints of Jesus' pathway." — 
 Christian Science Series, No. 12, p. 3. 'Those who 
 live the life of science" are "children of Good," or 
 God (Christian Science Series, No. 12, p. 7), and 
 they only are true "immortals," while all who reject 
 the claims of the new revelation are dead in tres- 
 passes and in sins. — Science and Health, p. 212. "As 
 Christian Scientists," said Mrs. Woodbury before 
 her eyes were opened, "we have taken a stand before 
 the world — the avowed exponents of a religion which 
 claims to set forth the only way into the kingdom of 
 heaven. . . . Every student of our college knows 
 beyond all doubt that Christian Science is the narrow 
 way that leads to eternal life." — Christian Science 
 Voices, p. 63. 
 
 Such claims are enough, surely, to startle the 
 world ; but we have not yet fully exhibited the bound- 
 less presumption of our author, nor the infinite 
 credulity of her dupes. More marvelous than its 
 claim to plenary inspiration and more than Messianic 
 authority, is the claim asserted for Mrs. Eddy's book 
 as a remedy for human ills. "The perusal of the 
 author's publications heals sickness constantly," Mrs. 
 Eddy calmly informs us (Science and Health, p. 
 443) ; and Science and Health is her great medicine 
 chest. It is a truly miraculous volume, a physician 
 and Saviour in paper and ink, healing all manner of 
 sickness and all degrees of depravity in those who 
 read it, accomplishing the speedy redemption both of 
 soul and body. It has been its author's aim to make 
 it the "^Esculapius of Mind" (p. 45), and she thinks 
 she has succeeded in her effort. It possesses "sana- 
 tive leafage" (p. 443), and in those who read it with 
 
56 Christian Science. 
 
 proper faith it "changes the secretions, expels 
 humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, and 
 restores carious bones to soundness/' Its author re- 
 ports that, in her own "demonstrations," and solely 
 by the magic truth which her book sets forth, she 
 has seen shortened limbs elongated, cicatrized joints 
 made supple, the lost substance of lungs restored, 
 and- — more wonderful still ! — cancer that "had eaten 
 its way to the jugular vein" cured instantly, and even 
 the dying revived in a moment ! "A high attenuation 
 of truth" — the only form in which, as the reader will 
 be led to suspect, Mrs. Eddy ever administers that 
 potent remedy — is a sovereign specific for boils, and 
 is equally efficacious for small-pox or diphtheria. — ■ 
 Unity of Good, pp. 8, 9; Science and Health, pp. 47, 
 55, 56, 73> 89, 423. 
 
 True, these wonderful results do not always follow 
 at once upon the perusal of this magical book. Some- 
 times, indeed, the first symptoms of the invalid, as 
 he drinks at this fountain, are disagreeable. His dis- 
 ease may even seem to be aggravated. This, however, 
 need not discourage him. He is assured by his in- 
 fallible guide that the very aggravation of his trouble 
 is a hopeful sign — only, in fact, the "chemicalization" 
 or mental ferment caused by the digestion of the 
 truth, — a proof, indeed, of approaching recovery ; and 
 that if he will continue to read — and, of course, to be- 
 lieve — he will find himself well in due time. — p. 419. 
 
 The book likewise imparts to all who read it its 
 own wonderful power! Mrs. Eddy declares that 
 when her mind is filled with these precious principles 
 the very "aroma" of her thought, 1 like the hem of the 
 
 1 Rudiments and Rules, p. 17. 
 
Christian Science. 57 
 
 Master's garment, has power to heal; and we may 
 presume that her volume is well perfumed with this 
 miraculous essence. Nor is there any unwillingness 
 on the part of her adherents to admit the justice of 
 this claim. They count her a Saviour, and affirm, 
 with Mrs. Woodbury, that "no one can remain long 
 within the pure realm of her thought, yet care to con- 
 tinue in sin." — Christian Science Voices, p. 129. Not 
 only sinless perfection, but prophetic inspiration and 
 foresight, ability to read the minds of others, even 
 miracle-working power, are guaranteed by Mrs. Eddy 
 to all who faithfully obey her commands, and duti- 
 fully accept her teachings ! They may "reach the 
 range of fetterless mind," be able to "foresee and 
 foretell events," "be divinely inspired," and learn to 
 "read mortal mind more accurately than the astrono- 
 mer can read the stars or calculate an eclipse." — 
 Science and Health, p. 250. Never did politician 
 seeking votes make more reckless promises than this 
 new prophetess has made in commending her own 
 literary wares. She holds out to all the multitudes, 
 whom she prophesies will yet follow her footsteps, 
 the hope not only of attaining to the exalted heights 
 to which she has attained in the healing and redemp- 
 tive arts, but even of surpassing her by the splendor 
 of their achievements. The extinction of sin and of 
 evil in this world depends, she would have them be- 
 lieve, not upon any divine permission or decree, but 
 solely upon the efforts of those devoted Christian 
 Scientists who, like herself, are working unselfishly 
 for the world's redemption. She, indeed, is driven, as 
 we shall see, to confess the impotency of her science 
 to deal properly with broken bones ; she does not pre- 
 tend to have raised any who were dead, nor does she 
 
58 Christian Science. 
 
 dare to' hope that she herself will, like Elijah, escape 
 from death ; yet nevertheless she predicts a time when 
 her followers will demonstrate over every form of 
 evil, "hold crime in check/' and "master sin, sickness 
 and death." — Science and Health, pp. 262, 426. 
 
 That such pretensions have gained credence to any 
 considerable extent in the noon-day glare of our nine- 
 teenth century Christian civilization, is a sad com- 
 mentary on the gullibility of mankind. How these 
 pretensions tend to overthrow the very foundations 
 of the Christian faith, and to enthrone stark heathen- 
 ism in the place of Christian truth, will appear in the 
 further progress of our discussion. 
 
IV. 
 A NEW MARIOLATRY. 
 
 In Boston there is a magnificent church dedicated, 
 not to Almighty God, but to Mrs. Mary Baker Glover 
 Eddy, the alleged "discoverer" and "founder" of 
 "Christian Science." The society under whose 
 auspices the stately pile — which is said to have cost 
 a quarter of a million dollars — was built, was estab- 
 lished by Mrs. Eddy, who was its first, and continued 
 to be for some years, its only pastor. A striking 
 feature of the services in this church, which are said 
 to be always attended by immense crowds, is that a 
 seat is reserved perpetually for Mrs. Eddy, to whom 
 the whole sect gives the title of "mother." This va- 
 cant pew reminds her followers that, though absent 
 in body, she is still present by virtue of her om- 
 nipresent thought, and serves to emphasize the fact of 
 her spiritual authority and oversight among them. 
 On the wall behind the pulpit are pictures of two 
 books side by side — the Bible and Science and Health 
 — which these "scientific" Christians consider equal 
 in authority and inspiration. 
 
 There is also in this church a "circular apartment 
 with stained glass windows, which symbolize, as does 
 everything else in the building, some thought con- 
 nected with religion." This room, built and fur- 
 nished for Mrs. Eddy's exclusive use, was the offer- 
 ing of some four thousand children of the sect, and 
 is said to be one of the most expensive private rooms 
 
60 Christian Science. 
 
 in the city. It is, in fact, a sort of shrine to a human 
 divinity. 1 
 
 The deference paid by Christian Scientists to Mrs. 
 Eddy is, indeed, extraordinary. She is accorded all 
 the rights of a prophet and an apostle. More than 
 that, she is, says Horatio W. Dresser, in the Arena, 
 "compared to Christ, whose face is made to resemble 
 hers in a picture where the two stand side by side." 
 She is accredited with having achieved more than 
 
 1 A marble archway opposite the central door of the church 
 leads to this room. The archway is draped with dark velvet 
 hangings, and on either side stand white pots holding orna- 
 mental palms. The vestibule is lighted from above, the 
 light falling on the door and revealing over it a white marble 
 tablet upon which, in gold, is inscribed the word "Love." 
 The room is furnished with beautifully carved white ma- 
 hogany, and the chairs are upholstered in white satin and 
 gold. The couch is rilled with eider-down. A writing-desk 
 of costly material and exquisite workmanship has in its 
 stationery case, for Mrs. Eddy's use whenever she may 
 choose to occupy the apartment, paper with the words, 
 "Mother's Room" stamped upon it in gold. An elegant eider- 
 down rug ornaments the floor. An exquisite cabinet holds a 
 complete edition of Mrs. Eddy's works, bound in the pre- 
 vailing white and gold. The mantel and table are of Mexican 
 onyx, and on the former rest a magnificent French clock, 
 candelabra, and imported vases. An artistically draped pic- 
 ture shows the chair in which Mrs. Eddy sat when composing 
 her precious book, and the table on which she wrote, with 
 scattered sheets of MSS. lying on the table and the floor— 
 the latter, it must be admitted, being a most appropriate indi- 
 cation of the chaotic character of Mrs. Eddy's inspired com- 
 positions. A door on one side opens into an elegantly fur- 
 nished bed-room, while on the other side is a bath-room done 
 in African marble, with pipes and faucets heavily plated with 
 gold.— Vide Charleston (S. C.) Sunday News, Aug. 15, 1897. 
 
Christian Science. 6i 
 
 Jesus did, and more than his apostles could achieve. 
 Her utterances are accepted as divinely inspired. Her 
 word is law to thousands. She occupies, in the opin- 
 ion of her followers, the place of Saviour to all in 
 this generation. "The key to happiness is in her 
 hands, 7 ' said Mrs. Josephine Curtis Woodbury in 
 the days when she blindly followed Mrs. Eddy's 
 guidance, "and she is waiting until the slumbering 
 world awakes to seek it before she can present it." 
 Of the nature of the homage paid her we can gather 
 some idea from Mrs. Woodbury's account of her ap- 
 pearance before the National Association of Chris- 
 tian Scientists in Chicago in 1888, if we bear in mind 
 that as the number of her disciples has increased and 
 the fame of her holy life and astounding miracles has 
 gone abroad, the worship which she receives has be- 
 come more popular and pronounced. At Chicago, in 
 the year aforesaid, eight hundred of Mrs. Eddy's fol- 
 lowers came together, acknowledging "one leader, one 
 purpose, one cause." Memorable scenes followed 
 her address on that occasion. Said Mrs. Woodbury, 
 in the Christian Science Journal: 
 
 The people were in the presence of the woman whose 
 book had healed them, and they knew it. They came in 
 crowds to her side, begging for one hand-clasp, one look, 
 one memorial from her whose name was a power and a 
 sacred thing in their homes. Those whom she had never 
 seen before — invalids benefited by her book, Science and 
 Health — each attempted to tell her the wonderful story. A 
 mother who failed to get near held aloft her babe, that the 
 little one might behold her helper. Others touched the dress 
 of their benefactor, not so much as asking for more. An 
 aged woman, trembling with palsy, lifted her shaking hands 
 at Mrs. Eddy's feet, crying, "Help ! Help !" and the cry was 
 answered. Many such people were known to go away 
 
62 Christian Science. 
 
 healed. Strong men turned away to hide their tears as the 
 people thronged about her with blessings and thanks . . . 
 Meekly and almost silently she received all this homage 
 from the multitude. . . The thoughts of those present 
 went back in memory to scenes of eighteen hundred years 
 ago, when through Jesus was manifested the healing power. 
 
 The parallel between this account of the thronging 
 of Mrs. Eddy and the gospel story of the thronging 
 of Jesus is palpably intentional, and the writer does 
 not surprise us by her remark upon the resemblances 
 between the two scenes. Her expressed conviction 
 that in Mrs. Eddy is manifested the same healing 
 power that was manifested in Jesus, is only one of 
 many evidences that this sect regards the prophetess 
 of Tilton as a new Theophany. 
 
 The worship accorded to Alary the Virgin by the 
 intelligent Romanist amounts to little more than that 
 accorded by Christian Scientists to their holy mother, 
 if, indeed, it can be justly considered as great. The 
 Romanist does not pretend that to Alary he is to look 
 for the words of eternal life, whereas Mrs. Eddv 
 is to her followers the accredited oracle of God, with- 
 out whose instructions they have no way of attaining 
 happiness or salvation. Catholics are solicitous of 
 Mary's favor, and attribute marvelous efficacy to her 
 intercessions with her Divine Son, to whom, after 
 all, they look for their redemption; but they do not 
 invest her with any divine attributes. They do not 
 believe her to be an incarnation of God, nor does she 
 in their system take the place of the Saviour as their 
 teacher and exemplar. They place her, it is true, be- 
 tween the sinner and his Saviour, but they do not 
 pretend that she can save any soul without the grace 
 of Jesus. But Christian Scientists deny, as we "shall 
 
Christian Science. 63 
 
 see in a subsequent chapter, the whole scheme of 
 salvation by grace, and claim for Mrs. Eddy, as she 
 has claimed for herself, that her teaching, and it 
 alone, is the "bread of life," and that salvation is im- 
 possible to all who do not accept her theories and fol- 
 low her example. Only by treading in the path of 
 Christian Science can we learn how to follow Christ. 
 The Christian Scientist, as Mrs. Woodbury has 
 shown, deems it a privilege if he may but touch the 
 hem of Mrs. Eddy's garment; counts her a healer 
 possessed of the same power that Christ had, and 
 acknowledges her book and herself to be "the voice 
 of Truth," or God, "to this generation." It is the 
 ambition of all true Scientists to "come closer to that 
 wonderful life which is being lived among them for 
 their example and hope" ;* and at least one speaker 
 in the Christian Science Church of Boston is known 
 to have declared her conviction that Mrs. Eddy is 
 now to be considered "the Word made flesh." 2 It is 
 said that many of Mrs. Eddy's followers believe that 
 she will never die. "The facts of Mary Eddy" show 
 that she is the willing recipient of an homage just as 
 genuine, if not as elaborate, as that paid by Romanists 
 to the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 Perhaps the following rhapsody by Mrs. Woodbury 
 may be considered a sample of Christian Science 
 prayer to the "dearest mother" of this new church of 
 Christ : 
 
 Oh ! faithful one ! We can come into a true conception 
 of thee, sharing thy love and thy power, only when we pat- 
 tern our ways after thine, heeding thy precious words of 
 
 1 Christian Science Voices, p. 188. 
 
 2 War in Heaven, p. 57. 
 
64 Christian Science. 
 
 warning and wisdom so freely given. Thou callest us from 
 the worship of idols to close communion with the true and 
 perfect Father, and biddest us sup with thee at the table 
 spread with the gifts of daily food; but we are loath to listen 
 until sharp struggles turn us, worn and weary, from the 
 vanity of our ways. We test the purity and endurance of 
 thy love and pity by ingratitude and disdain. We are cold 
 and indifferent to thy pleadings, often turning a deaf ear to 
 thy watchful, tender prayers ; yet thou dost ever wait and 
 watch and pray, yearning over us thy children with that 
 exquisite mother-love which knows no change nor abate- 
 ment, repaying injustice and falsehood with blessing and 
 healing. 
 
 Oh ! patient Mother ! We see thee dearer as we grow 
 older in truth. We learn that this book which thou hast be- 
 queathed to us is the outgrowth and epitome of thy life. We 
 are willing to follow as thou leadest, looking away from the 
 personal sense of thee, as thou revealest to us the mother- 
 heart of God! — Christian Science Voices, pp. 75-6. 
 
 How closely this outburst of devotion follows the 
 thought of the Christian as he bows before the Divine 
 Son, whose example he would fain imitate, and 
 through whom he holds fellowship with the Divine 
 Father, will be apparent to any one who will study its 
 phrases a moment. It is a rhapsody embodying essen- 
 tial prayer. Most plainly does it recognize in Mrs. 
 Eddy's life and character a new Theophany, and be- 
 seech her to pardon the sin of not having duly heeded 
 her words of instruction. As to the spirit in which 
 Mrs. Eddy's instructions have been received by her 
 disciples, the following, from the same authority, is 
 doubtless a fair indication : 
 
 In the sacred hours of the class-room, illumined with the 
 supernal light of revelation, did we not bare our feet, like 
 Moses before the bush burning with holy fire? When self- 
 
Christian Science. 65 
 
 hood was hushed we saw the temple veil rent asunder; 
 neither was Gehenna hidden from our astonished gaze. Our 
 Leader opened the door, that we might, like the Revelator, 
 have glimpses of the awfulness latent in mortal mind. Upon 
 our hearts rested a sacrament of extreme unction, impelling 
 us forth . . . counting not the cost of crucifixion, looking 
 not backward upon Gomorrah, pressing anew the bleeding 
 footprints of our past Master and our present Mother. — 
 War in Heaven, pp. 27-8. 
 
 Our Lord is here spoken of as occupying a subor- 
 dinate position — a past Master! It is only just, how- 
 ever, to Mrs. Woodbury, and at the same time an en- 
 hancement of the value of her testimony, to add that 
 since she wrote her two volumes, Christian Science 
 Voices and War in Heaven, she has recanted her 
 Christian Scientist profession. In a letter written to 
 me December 31, 1898, she speaks regretfully of the 
 "blind adoring faith" and the "idolatrous love" which 
 she formerly cherished toward Mrs. Eddy, and to 
 the enormity of which she has but recently awakened. 
 Mrs. Woodbury has been known for a number of 
 years as a poet of no mean ability, a very successful 
 teacher of Christian Science, and also a healer of con- 
 siderable reputation. She was at one time acting 
 editor of the Christian Science Journal, and was also 
 chairman of the Christian Scientist Association's Pub- 
 lishing Committee. Until within the past year (1898) 
 she was an earnest advocate of Christian Science 
 doctrines, and her success as healer and teacher has 
 at times brought her an income of several thousands 
 annually. She was at last enabled to realize her folly 
 in yielding so completely to the influence of Mrs. 
 Eddy, and according such unquestioning faith to her 
 teachings. In the Boston Herald in December last 
 
66 Christian Science. 
 
 she published a sharp satire, entitled "Americanitis," 
 of which the following are the concluding verses : 
 
 Fie, Dame Christian Science ! 
 
 We place no reliance 
 On all your high-sounding stock-phrases and cant ! 
 
 Your creed a disease is 
 
 Like appendicitis, — 
 The poison and rot of ineffable rant. 
 
 What's the logical sequence 
 
 Of miracle frequence, 
 Except to inflate us with glamour and pelf? 
 
 Is the Dame that seemed august 
 
 A doll stuffed with sawdust, 
 And must we believe that the doll stuffed herself? 
 
 To call Mrs. Eddy's doctrine the "poison and rot 
 of ineffable rant" after years of labor in trying to 
 convert the world to faith in it as the latest revela- 
 tion of Divine truth, shows a complete somersault ; 
 and to declare that the chief effect of the success, 
 or "miracle frequence," of Christian Science healers 
 is to "inflate them with glamour and pelf," is to draw 
 a sharp indictment. And, inasmuch as we behold in 
 "Dame Christian Science" no less a personage than 
 Mrs. Eddy, who has assuredly seemed a most "au- 
 gust" dame to her deluded worshippers, the epithet, 
 "a doll stuffed with saw-dust," affords a striking con- 
 trast with some expressions in the prayer just now 
 quoted, and indicates a very complete awakening to 
 the baseless character of Mrs. Eddy's claims, and the 
 infamy of the imposture which she has perpetrated. 
 
 But Mrs. Woodbury's recantation will have little 
 effect on those who have yielded themselves com- 
 pletely to Mrs. Eddy, receiving her as Mrs. Wood- 
 bury once did, as a "Mental Messiah," and finding 
 
Christian Science. 67 
 
 themselves relieved of their ailments, as they imagine, 
 by the "sanative leafage" of her miraculous book, 
 and the "aroma" of her more miraculous thought. 
 The last gathering at Concord, New Hampshire, of 
 Christian Scientists, who came from far to pay 
 "homage" to Mrs. Eddy, brought together a con- 
 course of more than two thousand souls. Of this 
 gathering the Peoria (111.) Journal remarked: 
 
 The Christian Scientists of the country had a grand rally at 
 Concord, Mass., 1 July 4, and "paid homage," whatever that 
 may mean, to the foundress of their sect. Mrs. Eddy made 
 the usual address, to the effect that she had "banished sin, 
 suffering and death" from the world. And one of her ad- 
 mirers present has written to the secular papers expressing 
 the sorrow many of them felt when recognizing that they had 
 probably seen her for the last time. That is better than any- 
 thing in Mark Twain. There is no humorist equal to your 
 unconscious humorist. The mental make-up of a hearer who 
 pays "homage" to a woman because she has "banished death," 
 and who is bowed in sorrow when the thought occurs to him 
 how soon the speaker herself must die, is past finding out. 
 David said that all men are "fearfully and wonderfully 
 made," but some men are more wonderfully put together 
 than others. 
 
 This homage has resulted, it seems, in bringing 
 upon Mrs. Eddy a flood of inquiries as to her preten- 
 sions. As far back as 1895 it had brought her an 
 inquiry by telegraph, to which she replied in the New 
 York World, February 1, 1895, as follows: 
 
 A despatch is given to me, calling for an interview, to an- 
 swer for myself, Am I the second Christ? 
 Even the question shocks me. What I am is for God to de- 
 
 1 An error. It should have been N. H. 
 
68 Christian Science. 
 
 clare in his infinite mercy. As it is, I claim nothing more 
 than what I am, the discoverer and founder of Christian 
 Science and the blessing it has been to mankind which eter- 
 nity unfolds. 
 
 My books and teachings maintain but one conclusion and 
 statement of the Christ and the deification of mortals. 
 
 Christ is individual, and one with God, in the sense of 
 divine Principle and its compound divine idea. 
 
 There never was, is not now, and never can be, but one 
 God, one Christ, one Jesus of Nazareth. Whosoever in any 
 age expresses most of the spirit of Truth and Love, the Prin- 
 ciple of God's idea, has most of the spirit of Christ, of that 
 Mind which was in Christ Jesus. 
 
 If Christian Scientists find in my writings, teachings and 
 example a greater degree of this spirit than in others, they 
 can justly declare it. But to think and speak of me in any 
 manner as a Christ is sacrilegious. Such a statement would 
 not only be false, but the absolute antipode of Christian 
 Science, and would savor more of heathenism than of my 
 doctrines. Mary Baker Eddy. 
 
 "In the name of the God whom she serves/' says 
 the Christian Science Sentinel of February 16, 1899, 
 commenting on this telegram, "and of the humanity 
 she desires to serve, and to the best of her ability is 
 serving in so large a measure that untold thousands 
 are calling her blessed, should she be stoned and 
 maligned?" Here is testimony from an unimpeach- 
 able source. The Christian Science Sentinel affirms 
 that "untold thousands are calling her blessed," quot- 
 ing the very passage to which Romanists appeal for 
 justification in worshipping the Blessed Virgin ! 
 But Mrs. Eddy's disclaimer, when examined in con- 
 nection with her teachings, and when its own terms 
 are analyzed, turns out to be quite as much an affirma- 
 tion as a denial of the very point at issue. We ob- 
 
Christian Science. 69 
 
 serve in this manifesto, which is polished after the 
 similitude of Mrs. Eddy's choicest rhetoric, — 
 
 1. That Mrs. Eddy is delightfully uncertain as to 
 who and what she is. Evidently she thinks herself 
 no common mortal. The "discoverer and founder of 
 Christian Science and the blessing it has been to man- 
 kind which eternity unfolds" may well be excused for 
 being uncertain as to the precise rank she occupies 
 among the most august of God's "creatures, or ideas." 
 
 2. That any claim on her part to be a Christ is ex- 
 cluded by her definition of the term. Christ, she 
 says, is individual — which is to say, not personal. 
 She prefers to use the term individual instead of per- 
 sonal, as we shall see when we come to examine her 
 teachings in detail, both when speaking of God and 
 man. She is a "human personality," but Christ is, in 
 her opinion, neither a human nor a divine personality. 
 He is the "compound idea" of God, while Mrs. Eddy, 
 though a "spiritual idea," mysterious and incompre- 
 hensible, both to herself and others, is not precisely 
 that "compound idea." 
 
 3. That, while denying that she is Jesus, or the 
 Christ, or even a Christ, for these obvious reasons, 
 she does not object to the homage bestowed upon her. 
 She admits practically that she may be "the chief 
 among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely," 
 the highest and most favored of mortals. If, in the 
 estimation of her followers, she expresses "most of 
 the spirit of Truth and Love, the Principle of God's 
 idea," which Principle, as we shall see, is God him- 
 self, she may be justly declared to have "most of 
 the spirit of Christ, of that Mind which was in Christ 
 Jesus." This statement concedes the very point in 
 dispute. She admits in terms that she considers her- 
 self an expression or manifestation of God, since she 
 
jo Christian Science. 
 
 holds that the only mind in the universe is God, and 
 that she may be the highest "expression" of God. 
 
 That she is considered a true Theophany, and is wor- 
 shipped as such, whether in orthodox forms or not, is 
 beyond question; and her own words show that she 
 does not reject this worship, even should it go so far 
 as to acknowledge that in her, as in Jesus, dwells "the 
 fullness of the Godhead." 
 
 As bearing upon this point, and also upon the 
 mooted question whether Mrs. Eddy is as original in 
 her alleged revelation as she claims to be, we ma) r add 
 the following, which is quoted from her in the same 
 periodical : 
 
 In his (Dr. Quimby's) conversations with me, and in his 
 scribblings, the word science was not used at all till one day 
 I declared to him that back of his magnetic treatment and 
 manipulation of patients there was a science, and it was the 
 Science of Mind, that had nothing to do with matter, electric- 
 ity, or physics. After this I noticed that he used that word, 
 as well as other terms which I employed, which seemed at 
 first new to him. He even acknowledged this himself, and 
 startled me one day by saying what I cannot forget. It was 
 this: "I see now what you mean, and I see that I am John, 
 and that you are Jesus." At that date I was a staunch ortho- 
 dox, and my theological belief was offended by his saying, 
 and I entered a demurrer which rebuked him. But after- 
 wards I concluded that he only referred to the coming anew 
 of Truth, which we both desired, for in some respects he was 
 quite a seer, and understood what I said better than some 
 others did— and for one so unlearned, he was a remarkable 
 man. 1 
 
 'There is a striking similarity between the origin of 
 Christian Scientism and that of Shakerism. We have here 
 Mrs. Eddy's statement that when she was brooding over the 
 possibility of a second advent she was startled by Dr. Quim- 
 by's prophecy, "I am John the Baptist, and you are Jesus." 
 
Christian Science. 71 
 
 It is evident from this that, however much the 
 "theological belief" of our "staunch orthodox" may 
 have been offended by Dr. Quimby's blasphemous 
 suggestion, her modesty was not. And here is the evi- 
 dence that not only did she learn much from Dr. 
 Quimby, but talked with him about the science which 
 she afterwards professed to discover. Here, too, is 
 the evidence, if her own statement is to be trusted, 
 that in the early sixties she was already musing upon 
 
 Ann Lee, the founder of Shakerism, a native of Manchester, 
 England, joined in 1758 a small religious body, "a remnant 
 of the French Prophets," the leader of which was Jane 
 Wardley, who was considered by her followers to be "the 
 spirit of John the Baptist, operating in the female line." It 
 was already a tenet of this body that the second advent of 
 Christ was to be in the person of a woman, who was to be a 
 spiritual Eve, the "first mother or spiritual parent in the line 
 of the female." When Ann was "converted" and had become 
 a leader, her gifts led the sect to consider her the new 
 Christ for whose advent they were looking, and they forth- 
 with recognized her as "Mother." Had she not promulgated 
 a doctrine of celibacy it is quite probable that her new church 
 would have flourished. As it is, there are now some eight or 
 ten thousand Shakers in the world. Mrs. Eddy, while evi- 
 dently favorable to celibacy, and prophesying a future mil- 
 lennium in which the race will be propagated mentally, 
 without conjugal association, recommends matrimony for the 
 present. Like Ann Lee, she is recognized by her followers as 
 Mother, and as the manifestation of Christ to this genera- 
 tion. In her recent congratulatory message to the Atlanta 
 Christian Scientist Church, read at the dedication of their 
 meeting-house, she says, in her usual plain style, "The pon- 
 derous walls of your grand cathedral cannot prevent me 
 from entering where the heart of a Southron has welcomed 
 me." This, taken in connection with her empty pew in the 
 "Mother Church," squints a little at omnipresence. Great is 
 human credulity, even in this nineteenth century. 
 
J2 Christian Science. 
 
 another advent of truth, and cherishing the idea that 
 this advent of truth was to be realized through her 
 ministry. She uses the capital T in writing truth, 
 and this means that she is talking of a new Theoph- 
 any, a second advent of Christ. For Truth, in her 
 terminology, means Christ; and just as God was in 
 Christ reconciling the world unto himself, so now 
 does Mrs. Eddy claim to be considered a revealer of 
 the Divine will and word to man, publishing the 
 glad tidings of a more perfect salvation than any 
 which has yet been proclaimed. She does not conceal 
 the persuasion, which has never been kept secret 
 from her followers, — a persuasion springing, it may 
 be, from her own gratified vanity, — that Dr. Ouimbv 
 was right, and that she is indeed a Jesus to this gen- 
 eration. A Jesus, that is, in the sense of being a 
 Saviour; and inasmuch as "woman is the highest 
 species of man," according to the revelation which she 
 commands us to receive at her hands, she must needs 
 be accounted superior to the Man of Nazareth. Says 
 the Rev. Air. Vosburg, in a lecture delivered under 
 the auspices of the Christian Science Board of Lec- 
 tureship, and reported in the Xew York Mail and 
 Express of March 17, 1899: 
 
 As Jesus revealed the fatherhood of God, she, our Mother 
 in the faith, has revealed to us the motherhood of God, and 
 has unveiled the transcendent beauty of Christliness. And 
 for this we give her love. As Christians, could we do less? 
 
 Our Lord's dying cry was mistaken. He should 
 not have said, "It is finished." His work was not fin- 
 ished until Mrs. Eddy, the anointed woman, came: a 
 female Christ, anointed with the Spirit, that she 
 might, in her own motherly character, reveal the 
 divine motherhood and explain Christ himself ! 
 
V. 
 
 OBSTACLES REMOVED— THE BIBLE SET ASIDE 
 AND ORTHODOXY REPUDIATED. 
 
 The eighth, ninth and tenth verses of Revelation x. 
 are a puzzle to all commentators except to Mrs. Eddy 
 and her children. They are confident that "the little 
 book" which John was commanded to eat was noth- 
 ing less than "Divine Science," which is now embodied 
 in Science and Health. "Mortal," cries this new 
 infallibility, "obey the heavenly evangel. Take up 
 Divine Science. Read it [/. e. } as presented in her 
 book] from beginning to end, Study it, ponder it. 
 It will be indeed sweet at its first taste when it heals 
 you ; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its diges- 
 tion bitter." — Science and Health, p. 551. And she 
 proceeds to hint mysteriously that all who become 
 her disciples must surfer persecution, "share the hem- 
 lock cup, and eat the bitter herbs," for thus did the 
 Israelites at the Paschal meal prefigure "this perilous 
 passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith 
 and hope." 
 
 But sweet as this infallible Science is in the tast- 
 ing, there is needed a certain preparation for those 
 who are to partake of it as a daily passover. It is, as 
 she admits, not easy to digest. It is not only sweet, 
 but entirely too sweet, and liable to nauseate all who 
 believe in the inspiration and authority of the Bible, 
 as well as all who have ordinary respect for the cur- 
 
74 Christian Science. 
 
 rent theology of evangelical Christendom. The Bible 
 warns us against those who shall add to its divine ut- 
 terances, and it declares itself to contain "all things 
 that pertain unto life and godliness, through the 
 knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and 
 virtue/' Its denunciations of false teachers are 
 numerous and terrible ; and its testimony that the gos- 
 pel, as proclaimed by the prophets and apostles, is 
 sufficient for the salvation of the world, is clear and 
 emphatic. The gospel of our Lord Jesus, as it is pre- 
 sented in the New Testament, is a final revelation, 
 and has been so understood by the church for nine- 
 teen Christian centuries. Nor is there among the 
 chief sects of Evangelical Christendom any great 
 divergence of views as to the teachings of the Scrip- 
 tures bearing upon the main points of Christian doc- 
 trine. The orthodox mind is disposed to reject any- 
 thing that is proposed as a substitute for, or an addi- 
 tion to, the "faith once delivered to the saints/' 
 Hence the Bible must be somehow set aside if the 
 revolutionary teachings of this new gospel are to be 
 accepted, notwithstanding the loud professions made 
 by the new prophetess of her allegiance to the Scrip- 
 tures as the "chart of life," and her pretense— incred- 
 ible in itself, as will appear when we come to examine 
 her doctrines, and unsupported by the evidence, as 
 we have already seen— that the Bible was her "only 
 text-book" in studying out the great system which 
 she has managed to fabricate. 
 
 Those who consider themselves inspired cannot be 
 expected to defer very much to the dictum of any 
 Galilean fisherman or converted Pharisee; and a 
 woman who is willing to be worshipped as the "Word 
 made flesh" for this generation, need hardlv be 
 
Christian Science. 75 
 
 counted upon to stand up for any word of Jesus, or 
 any doctrine of Paul or Peter. Two things, there- 
 fore, must be accomplished in the preparation of all 
 who are to accept Christian Science. They must be 
 taught that the doctrine of inspiration, as held by 
 Evangelical churches, is all stuff, and that orthodoxy 
 is the synonym of ignorance and narrowness. Both 
 efforts combine to prepare the mind of the docile 
 "student" for the assimilation of Mrs. Eddy's "ad- 
 vanced thought." 
 
 The first step, then, must be to discredit the Bible. 
 The following, from a writer in a Christian Science 
 periodical, edited by one of Mrs. Eddy's most loyal 
 pupils, may be considered as expressive of the view 
 entertained by the school : 
 
 The general disagreement as to what is sin is owing to the 
 fact that no infallible standard for judging such matters has 
 been found. The Hebrew and Christian Bible is not the 
 standard for the race. — Rostrum, p. 51. 
 
 If Mrs. Eddy's book is the standard for the race, 
 the Bible is not; so much, at least, is evident. But 
 Mrs. Eddy says that the Scriptures are "very sacred." 
 How sacred in the estimation of those who have eaten 
 her "little book" we may learn from Rev. Frank E. 
 Mason. "The Bible," says this distinguished advo- 
 cate of Christian Science, "contains more aggregate 
 truth than any other one production" ; but "to sup- 
 pose that it is especially divinely inspired is unreason- 
 able. . . . The Bible is a consensus of spiritual ideas, 
 in the same sense that Mother Goose is the consensus 
 of nursery rhymes, or as Puck and Judge are the cen- 
 tralization of humor." — Seed, p. 44. This is very ad- 
 vanced thought. The infallible exponents of the so- 
 
76 Christian Science. 
 
 called "higher criticism'' have been saying these 
 years past that the inspiration of prophets and apos- 
 tles is in no wise different in kind from that of Bacon 
 or Shakespeare. Now comes the "scientific" Mr. 
 Mason with the statement that Isaiah and Paul had 
 no inspiration other than that vouchsafed for their 
 purpose to Puck and Mother Goose. Verily, to use a 
 significant remark of Mrs. Eddy, "the rays of infinite 
 Truth, when gathered into the focus of ideas, bring 
 light instantaneously ; whereas a thousand vears of 
 unconcentrated beams — human beliefs,, hypotheses, 
 and vague conjectures — emit no effulgence!" — 
 Science and Health, p. 498. This gleam of inspira- 
 tion from Mr. Mason is startlingly brilliant ; but here 
 is another from the same shining source which is, if 
 anything, still more concentrated : 
 
 Remove the gospels, the epistles and the Psalms from the 
 Bible and what have you left ?— Jewish traditions, which may 
 
 or may not be true, but which obviously contain alike truth 
 and error, fact and fiction. Many portions of the Old Tes- 
 tament are but vague reminiscences of periods so remote 
 as to defy investigation, and which depict but the dim 
 recollections of ancient legends of doubtful repute. To de- 
 clare it sacrilegious to question their divine authenticity, or 
 to find more inspiration and help in the utterances of Emer- 
 son and Tennyson as preeminently God-inspired, is truly in- 
 dicative of bigotry and narrowness.— Seed, p. 44. 
 
 This is radiance even more effulgent than that cast 
 by the Drummond light of Dr. Briggs' beaming 
 thought; it is, in fact, the full splendor of Briggsism, 
 
 combined with the latest disc .very that has been util- 
 ized to aid our vision of hidden things. It is fluoro- 
 scopic light giving forth X-rays of candor, making 
 the whole bony frame-work of the writer's thought 
 
Christian Science. JJ 
 
 visible, notwithstanding what Mrs. Eddy would term 
 the "opacity" of our reason. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy does not dare to go so far in her as- 
 sertions. She assails the translators of King James' 
 version, and calls attention significantly to the fact 
 that there are "thirty thousand various readings in 
 the Old Testament and three hundred thousand in 
 the New !" And yet, though she has almost intimated 
 that the New Testament is unworthy of credence, she 
 prefers it to the Old. "The spiritual import of the 
 Word in its earliest articulations" is "smothered by 
 the immediate context" oftentimes ; "whereas the 
 New Testament narratives are clearer and come 
 nearer to the heart." — Science and Health, p. 495. 
 Again, "the Divine Science taught in the original 
 language of the Bible came through inspiration, and 
 needs inspiration to be understood." — p. 215. Which 
 is to say, none but those who, like herself, are inspired 
 can by any means understand the holy Book. All 
 others are as "blind leading the blind." She goes 
 so far even as to hint that the testimony of apostles 
 and prophets is unsatisfactory, and their under- 
 standing of truth unreliable. From the fact that 
 inspiration is required to understand the "original 
 language" of the Bible there has resulted "the mis- 
 apprehension of its spiritual meaning, and the 
 misinterpretation of the Word, in some instances, by 
 uninspired writers who were only zvriting down what 
 an inspired teacher had said." By this cunning 
 insinuation, so indefinite that to the unwary it may 
 seem most reasonable, she brushes aside the whole 
 New Testament as without authority, except as in- 
 terpreted by herself. As to the Old Testament, she is 
 driven, as we shall see in our examination of her 
 
78 Christian Science. 
 
 teachings as to the origin and moral status of man, 
 to adopt the absurd documentary hypothesis of the 
 "higher critics/' and otherwise to make the narrative 
 entirely meaningless to the uninitiated reader. 
 
 It is to be noted also that nowhere has Mrs. Eddy 
 defined inspiration. She makes quite orthodox state- 
 ments in all she says as to the sacredness of the Scrip- 
 tures, and even goes so far as to say that it is the 
 "chart of Life, to mark the healing currents and buoys 
 of Truth." — Science and Health, p. 329. But this 
 divine revelation, she would have us believe, is locked 
 forever to our understandings unless we use the "Key 
 to the Scriptures 1 ' which she alone offers; and it is 
 only Christian Science, of which she is the living 
 compendium, which can be relied upon to "separate 
 error from truth, and breathe through the sacred 
 pages the spiritual sense of Life, Substance and 
 Intelligence." — Ibid., page 540. Thus has she 
 taught unequivocally that the text of Scripture, 
 partly through the mistakes of its uninspired writers, 
 and partly through the mistakes of translators, is 
 meaningless unless interpreted by her "Key." Explic- 
 itly she denies inspiration to all but those who were 
 originally the mouth-pieces of Jehovah, and affirms 
 that the original revelation has come down to us 
 through such fallible media as to be entirely worth- 
 less, unless we have sufficient inspiration ourselves to 
 separate the chaff from the wheat ; or else, in our 
 bewilderment, are permitted to turn to one like her- 
 self, who is able to guide us into all truth. 
 
 It is evident that in his bold denials of the inspira- 
 tion of the Bible Mr. Mason and his correspondent 
 from whom we quoted have but followed loyally in 
 the path which Mrs. Eddy had marked out. She 
 
Christian Science. 79 
 
 suggested and hinted her opinion as to the worthless- 
 ness of the Bible as a standard for the race, and they 
 have boldly avowed it. 
 
 Having set aside the Bible, these apostles of "scien- 
 tific" religion proceed to do all in their power to dis- 
 credit and undermine the whole fabric of Evangelical 
 Christianity. Their evil animus toward all Christian 
 churches is plainly seen on almost every page of their 
 literature. Mrs. Eddy's writings teem with sly 
 thrusts at the faith of the Christian world. "We soil 
 our garments with conservatism/' she sweetly in- 
 forms us, "and afterwards must wash them clean." — 
 Science and Health, p. 449. Reliance upon mere 
 human authority has, in her opinion, vitiated all popu- 
 lar religious systems, but her new revelation is a 
 "truly Divine Science, which eschews man-made sys- 
 tems." — Ibid., p. 6. Christianity, as taught by the 
 churches, "stands before the black-board and prays 
 the principle of mathematics to work out the prob- 
 lem" {Ibid., p. 308) ; but not so her infallible doctrine, 
 since "between Christian Science and all forms of 
 superstition there is a great gulf fixed, as impassable 
 as that between Dives and Lazarus !" — Ibid., p. 249. 
 "The first gleam" of the new light which came to her 
 in the hour of her "sacred discovery" was sufficient 
 to wean her away from her old faith. — Ibid., p. 467. 
 The Bible is not to be considered authoritative, since 
 "the Jewish theology gave no hints of the unchanging 
 Love of God," and Christian Science undertakes to 
 supply the lacking revelation. — Ibid., p. 347. Sin can 
 never be vanquished until, "in place of creeds and 
 professions, the divine Principle of Being is under- 
 stood and demonstrated" ; and Christian Science only 
 can show how to achieve this blessed demonstration. 
 
80 Christian Science. 
 
 Christian demands have "so little inspiration 
 to spur mankind to Christian effort/" she thinks, 
 "because men are assured that these commands were 
 intended only for a particular moment and for a se- 
 lect number of followers" (p. 343) ; but she does not 
 tell us what church teaches this peculiar idea of Chris- 
 tian duty. However, she proceeds to say that this 
 teaching "is more pernicious than the old doctrine 
 of foreordination — the election of a few to be saved, 
 while the rest are damned." — Ibid. There is hope for 
 the world, however, inasmuch as the "lethargy" pro- 
 duced by such "man-made doctrines" will soon be 
 broken by this new creed, which is offered confidently 
 to the "advanced thinker and devout Christian." — 
 Ibid., pp. 343 and 345. 
 
 This angelic woman, whose mission it is to intro- 
 duce to the world "a higher and more practical Chris- 
 tianity," rivals, if she does not surpass, Ingersoll in 
 her persistent caricatures of current Christian teach- 
 ing. Her soul is sad, because the phrase, " 'divine 
 service' has come so generally to mean public worship 
 instead of daily deeds." — p. 345. Orthodox prayer 
 she denounces as prayer "to God as a corporeal be- 
 ing," and as hurtful and demoralizing in its tendency. 
 — p. 319. "Calling on him to forgive our work badly 
 done or left undone, implies the vain supposition," she 
 affirms, "that we have nothing to do but to ask par- 
 don, and that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the 
 offense." — p. 311. The doctrine of a vicarious atone- 
 ment, too, is one which she despises heartily. "Final 
 deliverance from error," according to this new infal- 
 libility, "is neither reached through paths of flowers, 
 nor by pinning one's faith to another's vicarious ef- 
 fort." — p. 327. Such a notion is, in her opinion, ab- 
 
Christian Science. 8i 
 
 surd, since "whosoever believeth that wrath is right- 
 eous, or that divinity is appeased by human suffering, 
 does not understand God." — Ibid. In common with 
 many others who count themselves "advanced think- 
 ers," she is unwilling to believe that Christ died for 
 the ungodly. The doctrine of the Trinity is handled 
 in terms even less respectful. To her "the theory of 
 three persons in one God . . . suggests heathen 
 Gods." — p. 152. 
 
 In keeping with her vicious assaults on the doc- 
 trines of Evangelical Christianity, of which more 
 anon, is her attitude toward the Christian ministry. 
 "Now that the gospel of healing is again preached by 
 the wayside, does not the pulpit scorn the message?" 
 — p. 360. Therefore it is that the bitterest vials of 
 her wrath are poured out upon the devoted heads of 
 "the clergy." Ruled out of the synagogue, she must 
 needs have her revenge, and she wreaks it upon the 
 parsons, now in contemptuous remark, and anon in 
 rhapsodic prophecy. Here, for instance, is a dignified 
 and delicate insinuation : "Is it not professional rep- 
 utation and emolument, rather than the dignity of 
 God's laws, which many leaders seek?" — p. 132. 
 Here, again, is a polite sneer: "One of the forms of 
 worship in Thibet is to carry a praying machine 
 through the streets and stop at the doors to earn a 
 penny by grinding out a prayer; whereas civilization 
 pays for prayers by the clergy in lofty edifices. Is 
 the difference very great, after all?" — p. 316. And 
 here is scorn, blazing and scorching : "If the soft 
 palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and architectural 
 skill, making spire and dome tremulous with beauty, 
 turn the poor and stranger from the gate, they also 
 shut the door on progress. In vain do the manger 
 and the cross tell their story to pride and fustian. 
 
82 Christian Science. 
 
 Sensuality palsies the right hand, and causes the left 
 to let go its divine grasp." — p. 36. This, too, is 
 equally contemptuous : "As in Jesus' days, tyranny 
 and pride need to be whipped out of the temple, and 
 humility and Divine Science welcomed in. The strong 
 cords of scientific demonstration twisted by Jesus" — 
 she is too modest, perhaps, to use her own name in 
 this connection, but her meaning is plain — "are still 
 needed to purge the temples of their vain traffic in 
 worldly policy, and make them meet dwelling-places 
 for Truth." — Ibid. Imitating him whom her followers 
 term their "past Master," she, it seems, has armed her- 
 self with a scourge of small cords, and proposes to 
 whip all orthodox preachers out of the temple, that she 
 may teach undisturbed by their contrary clamors ! 
 And here is prophecy : "The powers of this world will 
 fight, and command their sentinels not to let Truth 
 pass the guard until it subscribes to their creeds and 
 systems; but Science, heeding not the pointed bayo- 
 net, marches on." — p. 121. 
 
 In all this we recognize an echo of the Tempter's 
 question, "Hath God said?" The only way in which 
 Mrs. Eddy and her school can gain a hearing among 
 professed Christians is to break down in some way 
 their reverence for all commonly accepted interpre- 
 tations of the Scriptures, and destroy their respect 
 for the authorized ministry of the Church of Christ. 
 What we have quoted is but a small part of the 
 statements occurring on almost every page of her 
 book and abounding in the literature inspired by it, 
 in which this evil animus is manifest. She is well 
 aware that if Christian Science is ever to be accepted 
 by the world at large as a true version of the gospel 
 of Christ, the clergy must be silenced, and the new 
 structure must rise upon the ruins of the old. 
 
PART II. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AS A SYSTEM OF 
 MENTAL HEALING. 
 
VI. 
 
 A FOOLISH PHILOSOPHY AND ITS ABSURD 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 "There is nothing, either good or bad, but think- 
 ing makes it so." This quotation is found on the fly- 
 leaf of Mrs. Eddy's miraculous volume; and is most 
 appropriate, inasmuch as it sets forth her whole 
 theory of medicine and her whole system of theology 
 in a single sentence. The basis of her system is ideal- 
 ism, whether borrowed from Bishop Berkeley or 
 from theosophical sources. Mrs. Eddy makes no 
 reference to Bishop Berkeley in her magnum opus, 
 and boldly denies that her system has anything in 
 common with Theosophy. Some of her followers, 
 however, have recognized the identity of their philoso- 
 phy with Berkeley's. A w r riter in the Rostrum of 
 March, 1894, gravely asserts that the feat of ex- 
 tracting sunshine from cucumbers, which the crank in 
 Gulliver is trying to achieve, may yet prove possible ; 
 and the same sapient reasoner declares that "the most 
 notable exponent of this [i. e., our] philosophy was 
 undoubtedly the keenly intuitive and spiritually de- 
 veloped Bishop Berkeley. . . . He boldly affirmed 
 all true substance to be spirit, and all true causation 
 to be comprised in the free activity of such spirit. 
 . . . Nature, in its ultimate analysis, was but a con- 
 scious experience — the outward symbol of a divine 
 universal intelligence." 
 
 It is wonderful how often Mrs. Eddy enunciates 
 
86 Christian Science. 
 
 this fundamental postulate of the idealistic philos- 
 ophy, and with what labored steps, tracing the thought 
 into all its ramifications, she seeks to make it the 
 foundation of a two-fold system of theology and ther- 
 apeutics. But she differs from Berkeley and all other 
 idealists in that, while they denied the substantial ex- 
 istence of external nature, they did not undertake to 
 construct a new scheme of human life that would 
 ignore the conscious experience and accumulated 
 knowledge of the race. Berkeley, for instance, was 
 an enthusiast in regard to the virtues of tar water, 
 and published a lengthy treatise on the subject. He 
 and all his school, moreover, were content to eat, to 
 drink, and to sleep ; to take medicine when they were 
 sick, and to rest when they were tired. Nor did it 
 occur to any of them that such a manner of living was 
 inconsistent with their philosophy. They did not 
 confound the human with the Divine intelligence, nor 
 conclude that because mind was the only true sub- 
 stance, and all else to be considered as ideas of which 
 mind is conscious, therefore we are to ignore all ma- 
 terial appearances as unreal. Xor did Berkeley and 
 his school ever confound the facts of creation and of 
 external nature with those imaginations which are the 
 product of human intellect. But all this Mrs. Eddy 
 does; and the result is a philosophy that is folly, a 
 theology that is heathenism, and a medical practice 
 that is madness. 
 
 "All real being/' she says, "is in the Divine Mind 
 and idea"; a "false sense evolves, in belief, a subjec- 
 tive state of mortal mind, which this same mind calls 
 matter. . . . Mind is all, and matter is naught . . 
 the only realities are the Divine Mind and idea," 
 which idea, she holds, is man. — Science and Health, 
 
Christian Science. 87 
 
 pp. 2, 3. This is the Alpha and the Omega of her 
 thinking, and if the innumerable repetitions of this 
 fundamental thought were taken out of her bulky 
 volume, it would shrink into comparatively small pro- 
 portions. 
 
 Her system of mind healing is a deduction from 
 this general principle of the "allness of God and the 
 nothingness of matter." If Mind, or God, is the only 
 reality in the universe, it follows that our perceptive 
 faculties must be counted lying witnesses. Their re- 
 port as to the reality of the external world being 
 rejected, we must likewise reject their testimony as to 
 our sensations. The universal Intelligence, which 
 is none other than the Divine Mind, cannot be sick, 
 nor can it, being infinite Good, create sin or sickness. 
 Hence it follows that there is, in fact, no such thing 
 as either sin or sickness. 
 
 This, then, is the omnipotent truth which is to be 
 prescribed, after approved homoeopathic methods, in 
 attenuations high or low, as may suit the symptoms 
 and the patient, in the treatment of all diseases. All 
 may rise superior to sin, to sickness, and even to death 
 itself, simply by refusing to admit their "false claims." 
 "Mind governs the body, not partially, but wholly/' 
 says this new saviour of mankind ; and if we will but 
 correct our "erroneous beliefs" all will be well with 
 us. The last enemy to be conquered by Christian 
 Science is, of course, death ; but while admitting that 
 she and all her followers of this and possibly of seve- 
 ral future generations will pass through this phase of 
 mortal belief, Mrs. Eddy holds out steadfastly the 
 hope that ere long the advancing thought and the 
 progressive sanctification of the race will usher in 
 the glad day when there will be no more any belief, 
 
88 Christian Science. 
 
 and consequently no further experience, of death on 
 this planet. 
 
 With the proverbial blindness of the enthusiast, 
 Mrs. Eddy proceeds to apply her theory to all manner 
 of sickness and of sin, and also to every conceivable 
 question of diet, exercise, cleanliness, hygiene, and 
 sanitary precaution, with every other phase of human 
 life and conduct. In this effort she falls into in- 
 numerable absurdities and self-contradictions. Thus, 
 consistently adhering to her assertion that all disease 
 is caused by erroneous belief, and opposed by the fact 
 that young children experience ailments of which 
 they have never heard, and of which they have no 
 idea whatever, she is driven to prescribe for a com- 
 mon ailment of childhood in this way : "A child can 
 have worms, if you say so, . . . timorously holden 
 in the beliefs of those about him." — p. 412. This, 
 then, is her "scientific" vermifuge — Don't say so ! 
 And this same prescription, which is, of course, to be 
 taken, like the prescription for boils, in a "high at- 
 tenuation," is equally efficacious for membranous 
 croup or diphtheria, which also are to be regarded as 
 "timorously holden" in the minds of the fond parents. 
 Few, indeed, will be so foolhardy as to swallow such 
 "scientific" nonsense, and suffer themselves to be 
 treated for a "belief," while a precious child lies gasp- 
 ing before them in the agonies of death. And yet 
 this is precisely the practice of Christian Scientists 
 in dealing with the ailments of children who are too 
 young to comprehend the argument which makes up 
 their treatment in the case of adults. 
 
 Again, if children, too young to comprehend the 
 philosophy of this new creed, are to be taught to 
 "demonstrate," as was the little tot of whom we are 
 
Christian Science. 89 
 
 told in a "scientific" periodical (Seed, p. 104) by say- 
 ing, "God is all, and bumps are nothing/' ordinary 
 consistency requires that a "Scientist" shall treat a 
 broken bone in the same way. "If the Science of Life 
 were understood/' argues Mrs. Eddy, "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 the genuine one." — Science 
 and Health, pp. 484- ? 5- The "unthinking lobster/' 
 when he loses his claw, straightway grows another; 
 and our author sees no good reason why men should 
 not do the same thing when they have had a limb 
 amputated by accident or otherwise. Why not heal 
 in all such cases, as in so many others, simply by in- 
 sisting on the "facts of Being?" 1 Mrs. Eddy can 
 only say, in reply, that "the Science of Life is not 
 yet understood." The fault is not in her theory, but 
 only in the perverse stupidity and unbelief of those 
 who refuse to " admit the supremacy of Mind." 
 Hence, notwithstanding her own marvelous cures of 
 cicatrized and dislocated joints and spinal vertebrae, 
 etc., she is at this juncture driven to confess her faith 
 in the efficacy and necessity of surgical treatment ! 
 Christian Science surgery, she avers, is best, of course, 
 but this branch of her new healing art will be the last 
 to be developed ; and therefore she advises that "until 
 the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy 
 of Mind, it is better to leave the adjustment of broken 
 bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon," 
 
 1 Our author was forgetful of the fact that nails on the ex- 
 tremities of human beings are reproduced like, the lobster's 
 claw, from roots; but limbs have no roots. 
 
90 Christian Science. 
 
 while the "scientific" healer devotes his energies to 
 "mental reconstruction and the prevention of inflam- 
 mation/' etc. — Science and Health, p. 400. Anti- 
 septics may be dispensed with, if the surgeon will 
 permit, but his skilful fingers are needed — for a time, 
 anyhow! Who does not read between these lines in 
 the new word of God a confession of conscious fail- 
 ure? 
 
 Still further, if our bodily sensations and ailments 
 are all due solely to our beliefs, and Christian Science 
 is a "remedy for weather" (pp. 383, 600), then it 
 ought to be in the power of any man whose opinions 
 have been corrected to rise superior to all discomforts 
 due to the weather, or any other causes affecting 
 the temperature about him. If fire does not burn, and 
 cold does not freeze, and there is no danger of pneu- 
 monia, why take thought for overshoes and overcoats, 
 and why exercise ourselves about the weather? Why 
 not instruct the children properly — they would be- 
 lieve us, were we to begin in time — and allow them 
 to play in the fire ad libitum? "You say," says Pope 
 Mary Eddy, " 7 have burned my finger/ This is an 
 exact statement, more exact than you suppose, for 
 mortal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspi- 
 ration has created states of mind which are able to 
 nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case 
 of the three young Hebrew captives cast into the 
 Babylonian furnace, while an opposite mental state 
 might produce spontaneous combustion." — p. 54. 
 Now, if Mrs. Eddy can only demonstrate such state- 
 ments as this, all would be compelled to surrender, 
 and orthodox clergymen would willingly consent to 
 be scourged out of the temple. And yet she takes 
 pains to advise that her theory be not put into prac- 
 
Christian Science. 91 
 
 tice just yet on this particular point! "One should 
 not tarry in the storm if the body is freezing, or re- 
 main in the devouring flames. Unable to prevent 
 bad results, one should avoid their occasion. To do 
 otherwise is to resemble a pupil in addition, who at- 
 tempts to solve a problem of Euclid and denies the 
 principle of the problem because he fails in his first 
 effort." — p. 224. The words which I have italicised 
 are significant. It is a little singular that Mrs. 
 Eddy's next remark following this sage advice, ren- 
 dered quite necessary by her positive assertion as to 
 the possibility of becoming salamanders by virtue of 
 "holy inspiration," is this : "There is no hypocrisy in 
 Science." And yet she is not willing to allow her own 
 theories to be put to the proof — at least, not just yet ! 
 Does not this look like hypocrisy ? Observe, also, the 
 very cautious way in which her advice is given. // 
 the body is freezing, do not tarry in the storm ; 
 and if the flames are devouring, do not remain in 
 them. If you find you will neither freeze nor burn, 
 well; if not, get out of danger this time; but try it 
 again some other time ! Perhaps, though you fail in 
 your first effort, you may succeed after all ! In any- 
 wise, do not deny the "Principle" which I have pro- 
 claimed as guaranteeing the solution of all the prob- 
 lems of sin and suffering! 
 
 It is worthy of note, also, that if Mrs. Eddy's theory 
 is correct, clothing is unnecessary, either for comfort 
 or modesty. As to the former, heat and cold are sub- 
 jective conditions, and "Mind governs the body, not 
 partially, but wholly"; therefore, the chief thing to 
 be accomplished in the adaptation of our clothing to 
 the changes of the seasons — if, indeed, we are willing 
 to make such an inconsistent concession to the "ma- 
 
92 Christian Science. 
 
 terialistic spirit of the age" as to wear clothing at 
 all — is simply to "insist on the facts of Being I" And 
 as to the latter, "there is nothing, either good or bad, 
 but thinking makes it so." Immodesty is an impos- 
 sible thing to those who are living the life of Science, 
 in any event, if they choose to think so; why not, 
 therefore, refuse to "admit the claims" of mortal 
 sense in this particular, and so rise superior to the 
 "unscientific" mandates of Madame Grundy? Adam 
 in Eden knew not his nakedness ; what necessity is 
 there that an immortal should yield to the "impression 
 of nakedness and shame?" Has not Mrs. Eddy 
 taught us, in connection with the fact of Adam's 
 awakening to shame, that man had never lost "his 
 rich inheritance and God's behest — dominion over all 
 the earth?" — p. 525. Yet she does not so much 
 as allude to this question, save in the one hint she 
 has given us, in speaking of Adam's nakedness. And 
 so far as her vague hint means anything, it means 
 that clothing is unnecessary, and shame a delusion of 
 "material man," which may be readily corrected by 
 imbibing Christian Science, and so becoming "spirit- 
 ual." 
 
 Again, if Mrs. Eddy's view as to the supremacy 
 of mind over body is correct, dirt is a mere delusion, 
 and bathing can be as readily effected without soap 
 and water as with them. "Bathing and rubbing to 
 alter the secretions or remove unhealthy exhalations 
 from the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Chris- 
 tian healing."— p. 381. "The daily ablutions of an 
 infant are no more natural and necessary than would 
 be the process of taking a fi sn out f wa ter every day 
 and covering it with dirt, in order to make it thrive 
 more vigorously thereafter in its native element. . . 
 
Christian Science. 93 
 
 Water is not the natural habitat of humanity." — p. 
 411. These utterances of our inspired oracle are suffi- 
 ciently plain to delight a tramp, and are "adapted, if 
 not designed," to elicit the lasting gratitude of all 
 careless mothers. But, nevertheless, "mother Mary" 
 believes that "cleanliness is next to godliness," though 
 she affirms, with all the solemnity of inspiration, that 
 "washing should only be for the purpose of keeping 
 the body clean," and that "this can be effected 
 without scrubbing the whole surface daily." — Ibid. 
 A whole daily bath, therefore, for infant or adult, is 
 an "unscientific" thing ! But why does she not show 
 how to bathe "scientifically" without using any soap 
 and water ? If the power of Mind can be relied on to 
 cure cancers, scrofulous affections, and all manner of 
 diseases, alter the secretions, etc., why may we not 
 accomplish the cleansing of the body by mental meth- 
 ods without resorting to any material aids? This is 
 one more instance of Mrs. Eddy's unwillingness to 
 take her own medicine. Her God is everything — ex- 
 cept soap and water ! 
 
 Still another absurdity in Mrs. Eddy's reasoning 
 is found in her discussion of the subject of poisons. 
 Her theory is that all drug action is due to faith in 
 the helpful or deleterious effect of the drug, as the 
 case may be. But what of poisons administered to 
 domestic animals, or taken by mistake? It is a fact 
 that strychnine, whether swallowed by a cat or by 
 a human being, if the quantity be sufficient, will cause 
 death speedily, while the effect of cyanide of potas- 
 sium, administered to man or beast, is infallibly cer- 
 tain and swift. How can these facts, which are ad- 
 mitted by all Christian Scientists, be accounted for in 
 harmony with their theories? Mrs. Eddy admits 
 
94 Christian Science. 
 
 that if a dose of poison is swallowed through mis- 
 take, the patient dies, while physician and patient are 
 expecting favorable results. — p. 70. This, notwith- 
 standing her theory that the action of drugs in every 
 case is due to the expectation or faith of the person 
 taking it. And yet she attempts to account for the 
 event in this way : "A few persons believe the potion 
 swallowed by the patient to be harmless ; but the vast 
 majority of mankind believe . . . the drug used 
 to be poisonous/' and "the result is controlled by the 
 majority of opinions outside, not by the infinitesimal 
 minority of opinions in the sick chamber." — p. 70. 
 But how could the majority opinion govern the re- 
 sult, when, as she has supposed, nobody knows that 
 a mistake has been made? According to this, the 
 opinion of mankind as to a hypothetical case operates 
 with equal certainty to give a drug its power to take 
 life, whether anybody knows the drug has been ad- 
 ministered or not ! Thus, the very fact which to all 
 rational minds upsets her theory, she seizes upon as 
 a proof of it! And the same transparent fallacy is 
 her avenue of escape from many other embarrassing 
 difficulties. 
 
 Marston, who is perhaps one of the most plausible 
 of Mrs. Eddy's imitators, accounts for the origin of 
 materia rnedica in this way: 
 
 We can conceive a time in the mental history of the race 
 when no therapeutic value was assigned to certain drugs, 
 when., in fact, it was not known that they possessed any! 
 How did it come to pass that common thought, or any 
 thought, endowed them with healing virtue in the first place? 
 Simply in this way: Man finding himself unprotected, and 
 liable to be hurt by the elements in the midst of which he 
 lived, forgot the true source of healing and began to seek 
 
Christian Science. 95 
 
 earnestly for material remedies for diseases and wounds. 
 The desire for something led to experiments ; and with each 
 trial there was associated the hope that the means applied 
 would prove efficacious. Then what was at first an earnest 
 hope came at length to be a belief ; and thus, by gradual steps, 
 a belief in the contents of the entire pharmacopoeia was es- 
 tablished. 
 
 Is it not perfectly obvious that in the case supposed 
 the beliefs as to the action of drugs would grow out 
 of experience? Hope could become belief only when 
 results were favorable ; and when the drug proved to 
 be poisonous, the belief that it was a poison would be 
 produced by its poisonous effects. 
 
 According to this theory, says Dr. Buckley, "if it 
 were generally believed that alcohol were unintoxi- 
 cating, nourishing, and bland as milk, it would be an 
 excellent article with which to nourish infants ; and 
 if, on the other hand, it were generally believed that 
 milk were intoxicating, all the influences of alcohol 
 would be produced upon those who drank it. If the 
 public could only be educated to believe alcohol to be 
 nourishing, the entire mammalian genus might be 
 nursing their offspring upon alcohol with equally 
 good results/' 
 
 Such a transparent delusion is but a step from in- 
 sanity. 
 
 But there are more. We quote now a practical 
 question which Mrs. Eddy, in one of her treatises, 
 undertakes to answer. Let the reader imagine it 
 gasped out by a visitor, "fair, fat and forty/' who 
 has just arrived panting, perspiring, wheezing, strug- 
 gling for breath, as she drops into a chair on a hot 
 summer day, after a walk of ten blocks, which she has 
 taken in order that she may propound her important 
 
96 Christian Science. 
 
 question to one whom she regards as "the voice of 
 God to this age :" 
 
 "How — can I — believe — in no such thing — as mat- 
 ter — when I weigh over — two — hundred — pounds — 
 and carry — about this — weight daily?" 
 
 Now, we venture to say that in all such cases it is 
 vain for this exponent of a "higher and more practi- 
 cal Christianity" to assure her visitor, as she has 
 done, that "matter is but the manifestation of mortal 
 mind/' and that her "weight is an adipose belief of 
 substance." The plain truth is, that Mrs. Eddy has 
 none of that precious remedy — the desire of quacks, 
 the despair of chemists, the long-acknowledged de- 
 sideratum of the entire medical fraternity — anti-fat, 
 in her mental pharmacy. Granting, for the sake of 
 argument, her assertion that "substance is more than 
 matter — even the glory and permanence of Spirit" ; 
 that "which is hoped for, but unseen" ; and, unlike 
 an "adipose belief," "a thing that the senses cannot 
 take in" ; there is, in all these lucid and sublime state- 
 ments, little encouragement for those who are hope- 
 lessly and helplessly fat. Though she may teach 
 them "the possibility of the absolute destruction of 
 the consciousness of weight," is not that, in fact, the 
 thing "hoped for, but unseen?" It may be consid- 
 ered as reasonably certain that very few of those who 
 tip the scales at two hundred pounds or over, will 
 ever cease to believe in the reality of matter, Mrs. 
 Eddy's profound philosophy to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. No such creed as hers can succeed with- 
 out abundance of anti-fat, and the article which she 
 offers to the public is by no means satisfactory.— Vide 
 Christian Science Series, Xo. 1, p. 7. 
 
 On a par with Mrs. Eddy's delightful prescription 
 
Christian Science. 97 
 
 for fat folks, is her theory as to the way in which 
 men and women may retain youthful vigor and 
 beauty as long as they live. She expostulates against 
 the common mistake of thinking that we are growing 
 old, and quotes from a medical journal the following 
 "sketch from the history of an English lady :" 
 
 Disappointed in love in her early years, she became in- 
 sane and lost all account of time. Believing that she was 
 still living in the same hour which parted her from her 
 lover, taking no note of years, she stood daily before the 
 window watching for his coming. In this mental state she 
 remained young. Having no consciousness of time, she liter- 
 ally grew no older. Some American travellers saw her 
 when she was seventy-four and supposed her a young lady. 
 She had not a wrinkle or gray hair, but youth sat gently on 
 cheek and brow. Asked to guess her age, those unacquainted 
 with her history conjectured that she must be under 
 twenty 
 
 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful hint 
 that a Franklin might work upon with more certainty than 
 when he coaxed the enamoured lightning from the clouds. 
 Years had not made her old, simply because she had taken 
 no cognizance of the passing years, or thought of herself as 
 growing old. Her belief that she was young proved the 
 bodily results of such a belief. She could not age while be- 
 lieving herself young, for the mental state governed the phys- 
 ical. — Science and Health, p. 141. 
 
 Thereupon she proceeds to surpass Franklin by 
 deducing a general law from a single alleged fact, 
 which Franklin could not have done. "Impossibili- 
 ties never occur," she says, and there is no gainsay- 
 ing that. "One instance like the foregoing proves it 
 possible to be young at seventy-four," she goes on to 
 say ; but this oracle must be considered rather doubt- 
 ful. Proceeding to teach us the secret of maintaining 
 
98 Christian Science. 
 
 youthful beauty and strength, even when we are 
 nearing four-score, she dogmatizes on this wise : 
 
 The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and 
 gives ugliness to age. . . . Never record ages. . . . Mi- 
 nute chronological data are no part of the vast forever. Time- 
 tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies against 
 manhood and womanhood. But for the error of measuring 
 and limiting all that is good and beautiful we should enjoy 
 more than three-score years and ten, and yet maintain our 
 vigor, freshness and promise. We shall continue to be al- 
 ways beautiful and grand whenever mortal mind so decrees. 
 Each succeeding year will then make us wiser and better in 
 looks and deeds. — p. 142. 
 
 "Whenever mortal mind so decrees," we shall al- 
 ways remain young. And yet she defines mortal 
 mind as "error creating other errors." — p. 583. Such 
 a decree would go far toward proving her definition ! 
 
 Desiring still further to guard us against the "acute 
 belief of physical life," which is, she intimates, inci- 
 dent to advanced age, while "not so disastrous as the 
 chronic belief," though she does not explain the pre- 
 cise difference between the two, she mentions sundry 
 facts as corroborative of her theory. She has seen 
 a lady of eighty-five who had her second sight, an- 
 other who had new teeth, and one old gentleman of 
 sixty who had retained all his teeth and had not one 
 "decayed cavity!"— p. 143. But, unfortunately for 
 her argument, she cannot tell us that these old people 
 first believed they would regain their sight, etc., and 
 then found the results happening in accord with their 
 expectation. The fact is, second sight and new teeth 
 in old age are always a surprise to those who experi- 
 ence them. As to old people who retain a remark- 
 ably youthful appearance, and even sound teeth, such 
 
Christian Science. 99 
 
 cases are numerous. The late Charles A. Dana was 
 vigorous almost to the last month of his long life. 
 Beecher died when apparently in the prime of life, 
 and Talmage is stalwart and strong at seventy. Cases 
 in which elderly men and women have little signs 
 of age in their appearance, no gray hairs, and whose 
 natural force is not abated, are numerous; but most 
 of these find their eyes dim. This, according to Mrs. 
 Eddy, is altogether unnecessary; but it will be ob- 
 served that not a few of these "metaphysical healers" 
 say nothing about the fact that they themselves are 
 under necessity of wearing glasses. 
 
 The case of the English lady must be taken with 
 some grains of allowance. All who have much ac- 
 quaintance with the inmates of our insane asylums 
 can tell of persons who labor under the same delusion, 
 imagining themselves to be young — some of them 
 young girls, w r ho declare themselves engaged to be 
 married to presidents, kings, and even, in some cases, 
 to divine beings — and yet 'they are hairless, toothless, 
 and decrepit. Now, if a delusion kept the English 
 girl from growing old, as Mrs. Eddy testifies it did, 
 why does not the same delusion produce the same re- 
 sults in others? Again, is it not a little singular that 
 the only case which Mrs. Eddy can adduce in proof 
 of her theory that the mind creates the body, and de- 
 termines, all its sensations, is that of a lunatic? This 
 demonstrates the fact, Mrs. Eddy herself being wit- 
 ness, that in order to retain our youth for all time, 
 we must first become insane ; and it is obvious to all 
 who may lawfully be permitted to go at large that if 
 we cherish such fancies as Mrs. Eddy would have us 
 cherish, it will not be long before our friends will 
 think it wise to send us to those humane institutions 
 
ioo Christian Science. 
 
 in which persons who fully agree with Mrs. Eddy are 
 sometimes treated for their "beliefs. ' n 
 
 I have alluded to Mrs. Eddy's theory that the pro- 
 creation of the human species is a mental, and not a 
 physical process. Commenting on the creation of 
 Eve, she remarks that "the next change in the manner 
 of mortal birth may usher in the glorious fact of cre- 
 ation — namely, that both man and woman proceed 
 from God, and are his eternal children, belonging to 
 no lesser parent." This is a delicate intimation of her 
 idea that at some future time marriage will be super- 
 fluous, and children will be born into the world in 
 some quite transcendental fashion. Again, "did God 
 at first create one man unaided — that is, Adam — but 
 afterward require the union of the two sexes in order 
 to create the rest of the human family? No! He 
 made and governs all." — p. 524. Which means that 
 no union of the sexes is requisite in order to the mul- 
 tiplication of the race. But, with her usual consis- 
 tency, she is careful to advise her students not to un- 
 dertake to put her doctrines into practice. "Until it 
 is learned that generation rests on no sexual basis, 
 let marriage continue, and let us permit no such dis- 
 regard of law as may lead to a worse state of society 
 than now exists." — p. 274. Which is to say, it is bad 
 enough now, and none need make it worse by at- 
 tempting to put Christian Science doctrine into prac- 
 tice ! 
 
 Once more, if the doctrine is true that mind con- 
 trols the body, and is, in fact, the creator of the body, 
 
 1 Three cases have come to my knowledge of persons who 
 became insane through Christian Science. Two are men- 
 tioned in a subsequent chapter.— Anth or. 
 
Christian Science. ioi 
 
 it follows necessarily that human beings need not eat 
 in order to live. Food, like drug-medication, owes 
 its beneficial effects entirely to the belief of mortal 
 mind. Mrs. Eddy does not hesitate to adopt this con- 
 clusion, and to urge it with her wonted energy. She 
 affirms it to be "self-evident that food does not affect 
 the existence of man/' since God is our only Life. 
 But, just at this point, across the track of her daring 
 thought, a warning signal is displayed. It is dis- 
 played in a significant marginal note, "Hasten 
 slowly!'' and it is swung with firm hand in the text, 
 as follows : "It would be foolish to venture beyond 
 our present understanding, foolish to stop eating, un- 
 til we gain more goodness and a clearer comprehen- 
 sion of God.'' — p. 387. Most wisely, she leaves it to 
 her followers to decide when they have gained suffi- 
 cient goodness, and a sufficiently clear comprehension 
 of God to warrant them in venturing to do without 
 food ! This sage advice is either the dodge of a self- 
 convicted charlatan, or else is a flash of sanity out of 
 an unbalanced brain. Perhaps it is both. 
 
VII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND FAITH HEALING. 
 
 Were Christian Science the only system of cure 
 without medicine, its success would be much harder 
 to explain. But healing without medicine is nothing 
 new. Cases in which bed-ridden patients have been 
 enabled to rise, and cripples to throw away their 
 crutches, are so numerous and so well attested as hav- 
 ing occurred under the treatment of faith-healers, 
 mesmerists, and even of regular medical practitiom 
 that the claims of Christian Science in this particular 
 need excite no surprise. Inasmuch as healing by faith 
 has some things in common with Christian Science 
 healing, it may be well at this point in our discus- 
 sion to consider some of the facts which have come to 
 light as to the success of faith-healers in modern 
 times. 
 
 Dr. Tuke, in his great work on the Influence of the 
 Mind on the Body, admits that marvelous cures were 
 wrought by Prince Hohenlohe, the Roman Catholic 
 Bishop of Sardica. Among others, lie mentions two 
 cases of paralysis. One was an old gentleman, sev- 
 enty years of age, who had been pronounced incur- 
 able, was unable to walk, unable even to open his par- 
 alyzed hand, and had been confined to his room for 
 many years. After the Prince had prayed with him 
 he regained his ability to walk, could use his hand 
 readily, and was entirely cured. The other was a 
 young man who had also been unable to use his legs 
 
Christian Science. 103 
 
 for two years. After the first and second prayers of 
 the Prince he was partially relieved, and after the 
 third was fully healed. 
 
 Joseph Gassner, a Roman Catholic priest of Swabia, 
 effected many cures. Father Matthew, the great 
 Irish temperance reformer, was a very successful 
 healer. Even after his death multitudes visited his 
 tomb, hoping to derive benefit from his sleeping body, 
 and of these many were relieved, and on departing, 
 left their crutches behind them. Roman Catholic 
 traditions tell of many such instances in all ages of 
 the church, and in the light of well-known facts 
 there is no reason to doubt that many cures w r ere ef- 
 fected. 
 
 Among Protestants several names are famous in 
 connection with the cure of diseases without medi- 
 cine, and solely by means of the prayer of faith. One 
 of these was Dorothea Trudel, whose establishment 
 at Manheim enjoyed great reputation. Some remark- 
 able recoveries of health undoubtedly took place under 
 her ministrations. 
 
 More recently Rev. W. E. Boardman attained con- 
 siderable notoriety in consequence of his alleged 
 power with God in healing disease. For many years 
 his faith-cure home in London, known as Bethshan, 
 was frequented by seekers after health. It w r as re- 
 ported far and wide that hundreds of cases of cancer, 
 of consumption, even in its last stages, of chronic 
 rheumatism, of paralysis and lameness, had been cured 
 in this establishment ; and the canes, crutches, etc., 
 left by the sufferers were shown to inquirers to stim- 
 ulate their faith. The usual method employed by Mr. 
 Boardman and his associates was to anoint the pa- 
 tient w T ith oil, and then pray, though other means were 
 
104 Christian Science. 
 
 sometimes used to excite faith. Many cases were also 
 treated by correspondence, with the same results as 
 those following the treatment in Bethshan. 
 
 The name of Dr. Cullis, of Boston, was long famous 
 because of his well-known success in healing disease 
 by prayer and faith. Out of his movement grew the 
 faith-healing work now done in New York, and also 
 at Old Orchard, Maine, under the direction of Rev. 
 A. B. Simpson and others. There is no reason to 
 doubt that a large number have been benefited and 
 many permanently cured by their ministrations. 
 
 George O. Barnes, the Kentucky "Mountain Evan- 
 gelist/' claimed to possess healing power. Mar- 
 velous cures were alleged also to have been wrought 
 by Mrs. Mix, a Connecticut negress. Many respect- 
 able people, "without distinction of age, sex, creed, 
 or color," believed that they had been cured by her 
 prayers, and sincerely mourned her death. 
 
 Mrs. R. Stokes Adderton, of Lexington, N. C, a 
 lady of high character, related to the writer that when 
 she was an infant of two months her mother died. 
 The family were greatly distressed to know how the 
 child was to be reared, no wet-nurse being obtainable. 
 A company of Christian ladies united in prayer, the 
 grandmother leading in the petition that God in his 
 mercy would provide some way in which the child 
 could be nourished. While she was praying she felt 
 her own mammary glands sensibly stimulated, and, 
 on rising from her knees, she found herself able to 
 suckle the child, which she continued to do until it 
 was weaned. 
 
 In all Roman Catholic countries, and also in Russia 
 and other lands under the sway of the Greek Church, 
 may be found places where great stacks of canes, 
 
Christian Science. 105 
 
 crutches and splints are exhibited which have been 
 left there by those who, as Dr. Tuke says, there is no 
 reason to doubt have been cured and relieved of con- 
 tracted joints by the prayers offered at some shrine, 
 or by the supposed efficacy of their relics. The most 
 famous of these shrines is that of Lourdes, in France, 
 whose sacred waters, springing up in the grotto 
 where, according to the faith of all good Catholics, 
 the Virgin Mary revealed herself in 1858 to a peasant 
 girl, are accredited with thousands of cures. To this 
 shrine come pilgrims from all parts of the world, and 
 their gifts have been sufficient to erect a large church, 
 which was consecrated in 1878 in the presence of an 
 immense congregation, thirty-five cardinals and other 
 dignitaries of the Roman hierarchy by their presence 
 or otherwise assisting in the ceremonies. Many 
 whose gifts aided in building this splendid monu- 
 ment to superstition professed to have been cured by 
 the sacred waters of diseases which reputable physi- 
 cians had declared incurable. 
 
 In this category of faith-cures, perhaps, we ought 
 to include the cure of scrofula by the royal touch. 
 This disease was called "King's Evil" by former gen- 
 erations, because it was supposed that the touch of a 
 King was an infallible cure for it. There is ample 
 testimony proving, as well as any historical fact is 
 proven, that royal fingers did effect innumerable cures 
 of this particular malady. The roystering Charles 
 II. touched nearly 100,000 persons, and James, in one 
 of his journeys, essayed to heal as many as 800 cases 
 in Chester Cathedral at one time. Macaulay says that 
 when William III. abandoned the practice it brought 
 upon him "an avalanche of the tears and cries of 
 parents of children who were suffering from scrof- 
 
106 Christian Science. 
 
 ula. Bigots lifted up their hands in horror at his im- 
 piety." There were those who, denying his right to 
 the throne, insinuated that he feared to try a power 
 which pertained only to legitimate sovereigns ; but 
 this contention was altogether groundless, for, says 
 an old author, "the cure of the King's Evil by the 
 touch of the King does much puzzle our philosophers, 
 for whether our Kings were of the house of York or 
 Lancaster, it did cure for the most part." 
 
 Nor have faith-cures been confined to Christian 
 lands and to the ministries of Christian ministers and 
 sovereigns. Missionaries and travellers testify that 
 marvelous cures sometimes follow the incantations 
 and other magical rites performed by heathen priests 
 and by the medicine men of savage tribes. The witch 
 doctors of Africa and their congeners among the 
 negroes of our own country do undoubtedly cause, as 
 well as cure, diseases. A community in Georgia, not 
 far from Atlanta, was greatly excited a few years ago 
 by terrible diseases which followed the threats of one 
 of these negro quacks. The ignorant peasantry in 
 many parts of Austria, Germany and Russia, as well 
 as the negroes and some illiterate whites in our own 
 land, still believe in witchcraft, and are ready to 
 adduce many strange coincidences in justification of 
 their belief. The medical profession acknowledges 
 that the facts which prove the success of these charla- 
 tans, both in bringing about some distressing troubles 
 and in removing others, are marvelous. 
 
 The Mormons claim to have an unbroken record of 
 success in working miracles of healing since the first 
 establishment of their church, and the evidence is con- 
 clusive that in not a few cases their claims have been 
 justified by the facts. That the prayers and anoint- 
 
Christian Science. 107 
 
 ings of their prophets, apostles and priests have been 
 followed so frequently by recovery from sickness is 
 one of the most convincing of the signs by which they 
 challenge the faith of the ignorant and credulous. The 
 case of Newell Knight, as reported by Joseph Smith, 
 excited great interest in the early days of Mormon- 
 ism, and led not a few converts into the new prophet's 
 fold. According to Smith's account, Knight's body 
 was acted upon in a very strange manner, his visage 
 and limbs being often "distorted and twisted in every 
 shape and appearance possible to imagine," and some- 
 times he was "caught up and tossed most fearfully/' 
 He thought himself possessed of a devil, and his 
 friends shared the opinion. Being visited by the 
 Mormon prophet, Knight begged him to cast out the 
 devil, professing to believe that Smith could do it. 
 Smith, in compliance with this request, rebuked the 
 devil and commanded him to depart. The devil 
 obeyed, as was believed; Knight was overwhelmed 
 with joy, and, if Smith's account is to be credited, was 
 "lifted by invisible power until the beams of the house 
 would allow him to go no farther \" Knight testified 
 that he saw the departing demon assume the form of 
 a black cat as he vanished in the bush ! 
 
 The case of Mrs. Johnson, of Hiram, Ohio, was an- 
 other notable Mormon miracle, and the following are 
 the facts as given by Kennedy i 1 
 
 When Revs. Ezra Booth and Symonds Ryder, 
 both of whom were for a time carried away by the 
 new fanaticism, were investigating the claims of 
 Mormonism, prior to their conversion, they deter- 
 mined to subject the pretensions of Smith to a crucial 
 
 1 Vide Kennedy's Early Days of Mormonism. 
 
108 Christian Science. 
 
 test. Their neighbor, Mrs. Johnson, had suffered 
 from paralysis for six years, being unable to use her 
 right arm, or even to raise it to her head. Accom- 
 panied by this lady, with her husband and a physi- 
 cian, Booth and Ryder called on Smith. Without ac- 
 quainting him with their purpose, the two ministers 
 introduced a conversation as to the truth of the new 
 doctrines which Smith was proclaiming. In the 
 course of this conversation Ryder asked Smith if it 
 were true that he claimed to work miracles. "I can- 
 not work miracles,'' was the answer; "but I believe 
 that God, working through me, can do so." At a 
 preconcerted signal from one of the party Mrs. John- 
 son appeared. Said Ryder, "Here is Mrs. Johnson 
 with a lame arm ; has God given any power to men 
 now upon earth to cure her?" Thereupon Smith 
 moved backward a few steps, looking intently as he 
 did so into the woman's eyes, and then, advancing to 
 her side, took hold of her palsied hand and raised it 
 to her shoulder, saying solemnly as he did so, 
 "Woman, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I 
 command thee to be made whole !" Then he abruptly 
 left the room. Mrs. Johnson discovered immediately, 
 to her amazement, and that of all the rest of the party, 
 that her hand, which had been so long useless, was 
 perfectly restored, and it so continued until her death, 
 which occurred fifteen years afterwards. This oc- 
 currence had not a little to do with the conversion to 
 Mormonism of the two ministers, both of whom ac- 
 cepted Smith as a prophet ; and, though both of them 
 lived to be undeceived, and died in the communion of 
 the churches which they left to embrace the Mormon 
 faith, they did not retract their testimony as to this 
 case, nor even modify it in any particular. 
 
Christian Science. log 
 
 It may be asked, How are all these facts to be ac- 
 counted for? We answer, 
 
 I. As Christians we are compelled to believe that in 
 not a few cases God answers the prayers of his people 
 by healing their diseases. When our Lord was in 
 the flesh he honored the sincere though ignorant faith 
 of the woman who touched the hem of his garment, 
 and we see no reason to deny the possibility of heal- 
 ing by divine power in answer to the prayer of faith. 
 This is no more unreasonable in itself than the pos- 
 sibility of conversion in answer to prayer, which no 
 evangelical Christian can doubt. Nor can we deny the 
 possibility of a divine intervention in answer to prayer, 
 even in the case of one who is a pervert to an erro- 
 neous creed. There, may be Christian Scientists, as 
 there may be Mormons also, who, despite the errors 
 embodied in their false creeds, have yet faith in the 
 love and mercy of God, and are sincerely desirous of 
 glorifying his name. In the case of Christian Scient- 
 ists, I have been led to think that some persons have 
 been brought, through Mrs. Eddy's presentation of 
 God as Love, to realize the blessedness of the divine 
 love as they never did before — divine mercy answer- 
 ing their prayers and comforting their souls, and even 
 healing their bodies, notwithstanding the errors into 
 which they have fallen. I recall the case of one lady, 
 whom I am compelled to regard a sincere Christian, 
 who declares that she has enjoyed a peace and joy in 
 God as her Saviour and ever-present friend and 
 helper since she became a convert to Mrs. Eddy's 
 doctrines that she did not enjoy before. This is not 
 impossible. She is a woman of untrained intellect, 
 unable to grasp the philosophical subtleties of Mrs. 
 
no Christian Science. 
 
 Eddy's theory, and yet holds steadily to her belief in 
 God as infinitely wise and loving, and "not far from 
 every one of us," if haply we may feel after him. 
 
 The mistake of professional faith healers, and of all 
 who have followed them in their wanderings from 
 the truth, has been that of ignoring the limitations of 
 prayer as exhibited in the Lord's Prayer and as illus- 
 trated in the experience of our Lord himself. Jesus, 
 in Gethsemane, repeating in his great agony that 
 prayer which he had taught his disciples to repeat, 
 shows us in what spirit we must pray. We must say, 
 as he did, 'Thy will, not mine, be done." God has 
 not given men the right to demand any and every 
 blessing at his hands without reference to His own 
 purposes. Sickness may be for our good, since "whom 
 the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
 son whom he receiveth." In such a case, did we be- 
 lieve, as we should, that our affliction was working 
 out some good purpose, we would pray rather to 
 suffer as long as God might choose to allow us to 
 suffer. "Wife," said a Christian minister to his wife, 
 who had been a patient sufferer from rheumatism, 
 bed-ridden for twenty years, "would you not rather 
 leave this scene of suffering and be with Jesus at 
 once?" "If it is God's will that I should suffer," she 
 answered, "I would rather lie here in pain than to join 
 in the songs round the throne." This was the spirit 
 of an intelligent Christian faith, and that suffering 
 saint whose faith, patience and submission were so 
 perfect was enabled, in her tribulations, to rejoice 
 with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Were this 
 not true, we should lose much of our comfort in 
 affliction which enables us to sing joyfully, — 
 
Christian Science. hi 
 
 "Trials make the promise sweet, 
 
 Trials give new life to prayer ; 
 Trials bring me to his feet, 
 
 Lay me low, and keep me there." 
 
 2. Again, even when prayer for recovery from sick- 
 ness is answered, it is not necessary to suppose that 
 the divine interposition must be in every case miracu- 
 lous. When God answered the prayer of Hezekiah 
 it was by sending Isaiah back into the palace with 
 instructions to apply a poultice of figs to the king's 
 carbuncle — a good prescription, as many who have 
 tried it for the same ailment can testify. This, too, 
 is probably the meaning of the apostle's direction in 
 James v. that the sick should send for the elders of 
 the church, who shall "pray over him, anointing him 
 with oil in the name of the Lord." "The prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick," it is said ; and the anointing 
 was required, most probably, because anointing with 
 medicated oils was a common mode of medical treat- 
 ment in that day. 
 
 Physicians were not considered, either in the apos- 
 tolic or in the Jewish church, as pursuing a calling 
 that was contrary to the Divine will. The words of 
 Ecclesiasticus, pronounced more than two thousand 
 years ago, were doubtless then esteemed as wise as 
 they must be to-day by all who are free from irra- 
 tional vagaries : 
 
 "The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth ; 
 and he that is wise will not abhor them. My son, in 
 thy sickness be not negligent ; but pray unto the Lord, 
 and he will make thee whole. Leave off thy sins and 
 order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from 
 all wickedness. Then give place to the physician, for 
 the Lord hath created him ; let him not go from thee, 
 
ii2 Christian Science. 
 
 for thou hast need of him. There is a time when in 
 their hands there is good success. For they also shall 
 pray unto the Lord, that he would prosper that which 
 they give for ease and to prolong life." 
 
 King Asa's mistake was, not in seeking unto the 
 physicians, but in not seeking unto the Lord, who 
 only could bless the remedies they administered. It is 
 by no means improbable that Luke continued to prac- 
 tice his profession as long as he lived, being simply 
 a medical missionary, combining bodily healing with 
 his ministry to the souls of the people to whom he 
 went. 
 
 Even when medicines are not used it is unnecessary 
 to assume that recovery from sickness in answer to 
 prayer is miraculous. The forces which cause disease 
 are natural, and those which result in healing are 
 likewise natural. 
 
 Our discussion of this subject has made it evident 
 that Christian Science has no monopoly of the priv- 
 ilege of healing without medicine. It may now be 
 inquired. What has Christian Science healing in com- 
 mon with faith-cure? Mrs. Eddy admits that in 
 some instances faith cures are as speedy as her own, 
 but contends, without adducing any fact to support 
 her contention, that faith cures are only temporary, 
 and liable to result in worse diseases. But all that she 
 says about faith in drugs or faith in God as opposed 
 to her doctrine of faith in Mind is self-contradictor v. 
 If, in the case of drug cures, which she does not deny, 
 having cured by means of drugs in her own practice, 
 faith in the remedy is the potent cause, ordinary reas- 
 oners will be unable to distinguish between the cura- 
 tive potency of faith in a remedy and faith in mind 
 healing. If faith heals in one case, why not say it 
 
Christian Science. 113 
 
 heals in the other? Mrs. Eddy's assumption that 
 cures by her method are divine cures, while those by 
 faith-healers are merely cases of self-cure or self- 
 hypnotization, is gratuitous. The fact is, all who 
 place themselves under the treatment of a "Scientist," 
 do so with some degree of faith in the outcome of the 
 treatment. Usually they have been persuaded that 
 Mrs. Eddy has made indeed a wonderful discovery, 
 and that the mind cure is a marvelous and infallible 
 w T ay of healing sickness. This confidence the Chris- 
 tian Science practitioner makes it his business to in- 
 crease by every means in his power. And, in so far 
 as there is any faith in God, which all "Scientists" 
 profess to cherish, that faith, however ignorant, is 
 one which the Father of mercies may deign to bless. 
 Thus it is evident that Christian Science healing may 
 be counted in some cases but another form of faith- 
 cure. 
 
 Aside from Divine interposition, however, the suc- 
 cess of faith-healers, of Christian Scientists, and even 
 of African witch-doctors, may be accounted for on 
 principles long ago recognized by the medical pro- 
 fession, and which they seek to apply in their prac- 
 tice. Of these we shall now speak. 
 
VIII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE vs. MENTAL HEALING 
 BY THE MEDICAL FACULTY. 
 
 In the facts now to be related we find the basis of 
 reality which has made Mrs. Eddy's theories so dan- 
 gerous. Half-truths are more hurtful than whole lies. 
 
 It has long been known to the medical profession 
 that a large number of cases can be healed without 
 any medicine whatever. Current medical science 
 takes full account of the mental factors, both in its 
 diagnosis and in its treatment of disease. The mind 
 does, it is universally admitted, produce disease in 
 very many instances, and is all powerful to modify 
 sickness in any case. Much suffering is born of the 
 imagination. Every observant physician soon dis- 
 covers that as much depends upon the patient's temper 
 and disposition, and upon the mental atmosphere that 
 surrounds him, as upon the therapeutic qualities of 
 the remedies upon which he relies in his attempts at 
 healing. Says Dr. Wood in one of his lectures i 1 
 
 What physician is ignorant that violent anger may give 
 rise to apoplexy? that sudden emotions, whether of joy or 
 grief, may suspend for a time, if not altogether arrest, the 
 action of the heart? that continued mental excitement is not 
 an infrequent cause of inflammation of the brain? and mental 
 depression of dyspepsia, chronic hepatitis, and various other 
 forms of visceral derangement? that, finally, in the delicate 
 
 1 Lectures and Addresses, p. 153. 
 
Christian Science. 115 
 
 female, the sensitive nerves often respond in hysteria and 
 convulsions to the rude touches of anxiety and vexation, 
 while even the iron cords of man's constitution sometimes 
 melt before the flames of love? 
 
 Carpenter tells us that jealousy will not only vitiate 
 the quality, but increase the quantity, of bile secreted. 
 Murchison affirms that nervous agencies may not 
 only account for functional derangement, but may 
 cure even structural disease of the liver. Tuke "has 
 collected many cases of epilepsy produced by anxiety, 
 fear and grief ; of paralysis agitans as a result of ex- 
 cessive anxiety, grief, or even joy, while a sudden 
 shock, as of fear, may so disturb the motor centers as 
 to develop a true paralysis." Everybody is familiar 
 with cases in which fear or grief has been known to 
 blanch the hair in a single night. "A succession of 
 horrors, experienced in the wrecking of a train of 
 cars, has cured in a few moments' time an acute ar- 
 ticular rheumatism. " Hysterical patients, induced to 
 believe that they had inhaled ether, have become so 
 anaesthetized as to bear painful operations without 
 experiencing pain. 
 
 "Expectant attention/' says Dr. R. L. Payne, now 
 of Norfolk, Va., to whose able and scholarly address 
 on this subject, delivered before the North Carolina 
 Medical Society, I am greatly indebted, "fixed on an 
 organ with the belief that certain results will accrue 
 is often sufficient to produce such results. . . . No 
 organ can functionate properly if subjected to con- 
 stant surveillance, and woe be to the man who forms 
 the habit of daily counting his pulse, and who, on 
 rising in the morning, must always carefully scruti- 
 nize his tongue ; and if he but add to his armamenta- 
 rium a clinical thermometer, there is sure promise of 
 
n6 Christian Science. 
 
 another devotee at the crowded shrine of hypochon- 
 driasis." Nausea is produced frequently by expecta- 
 tion, and the man who in childhood was often dosed 
 with emetics served in jelly may come to find, like 
 this eminent physician, that "all jelly tastes like rhu- 
 barb, and is as efficient an emetic as ipecac." Paget, 
 Skey and others have recorded cases of "hysterical 
 joint" almost indistinguishable from the true disease. 
 The bloody sweat of our Lord in Gethsemane, deemed 
 miraculous, possibly, by his immediate followers, is 
 now scientifically accounted for as the physical result 
 of intense spiritual agony ; and the well-attested cases 
 of Louise Lateau and of Marie de Moerl show con- 
 clusively that the phenomenon of stigmatization, first 
 said to have been witnessed in the case of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, in which the bleeding wounds of Christ 
 seem to be reproduced on the person of the ecstatic, 
 may be induced by the contemplation of vivid mental 
 pictures of our Lord's dying agonies. 
 
 Again, without pausing to note the many curious 
 facts adduced by phrenologists in support of their 
 pretended science, the facts of physiognomy speak 
 for themselves, and furnish what seems to be strong 
 argument in favor of the doctrine that all disease 
 originates in the mind and may be cured by the mind. 
 The maiden's blush may spring from wounded mod- 
 esty, from anger, surprise, love, or embarrassment. 
 Character and passing thought alike make report of 
 themselves through the features of the human face. 
 Vice glasses the eye and thickens the complexion, 
 while purity of character imparts clearness to the 
 countenance and a gleam of truth and sincerity to the 
 eye. Truth and falsehood, intellect and stupidity, all 
 hang out their signals in the human visage. Tenny- 
 
Christian Science. 117 
 
 son execrates the "gold which gilds the straitened 
 forehead of the fool ;" and who but knows at sight 
 the beaming face and sparkling eye of joy, the quiz- 
 zical look and merry glance of wit, the scarlet flame 
 or death-like pallor of rage, the frosty gleam and up- 
 turned nose of pride or scorn, the compressed lip of 
 avarice, the square jaw and firm mouth of determina- 
 tion, the open face of honest good-will, the drawn 
 features and dull eye of pain, grief and despondency, 
 the attractive mien of humility, or the hang-dog coun- 
 tenance of conscious guilt? Beyond all question, the 
 soul is in some sense a chambered nautilus, building 
 its own shell. 
 
 Add to all this the well-known vis medicatrix 
 naturae, the tendency of nature to heal. Broken bones 
 knit themselves together, and need only to be prop- 
 erly adjusted, as Mrs. Eddy advises, in order to in- 
 sure a proper recovery. The bloody gash in the 
 flesh needs only to have its edges sewed together, and 
 to be kept cool and clean, in order to insure quick 
 healing. Antiseptics do not aid in the healing pro- 
 cess, but are useful simply in killing the germs which 
 might produce inflammation. Hemorrhage is conser- 
 vative, and many persons are known to have recov- 
 ered spontaneously from true pulmonary consump- 
 tion. The dissecting room has often afforded evi- 
 dence of this fact when it was probable that the sub- 
 ject himself had never in life realized that he was a 
 sufferer from that dreaded scourge of humanity. 
 Colds and fevers, mumps and measles, and a host of 
 minor maladies, run their course and need little medi- 
 cation, unless the system has been previously disor- 
 dered, or the type of the disease is especially virulent. 
 
 Physicians who have attempted to practice the 
 
n8 Christian Science. 
 
 healing art without the use of medicines have some- 
 times achieved marvelous success. Usually some de- 
 vice has been employed, and certain manipulations 
 performed, in order to inspire confidence, while some- 
 times supposititious medicines, such as bread pills, 
 have been administered after the patient had been 
 induced to believe they would be effective. The suc- 
 cess of Dr. Perkins, with his metallic tractors, is well 
 known, and admitted by the whole medical fraternity. 
 He was particularly successful in the treatment of 
 rheumatism, curing stiff ankles, knees, wrists and 
 hips, and this even when the patients had long been 
 ill and the diseased joints had become much swollen. 
 He cured one case of lockjaw in which the rigor had 
 lasted four days, and the attending physicians had 
 lost all hope. The effects of the tractors were at first 
 attributed to galvanism, but it was discovered that 
 the same results followed the use of wooden tractors 
 painted so as to resemble the metal ones. 
 
 The case of the paralytic cured by Sir Humphrey 
 Davy by means of a clinical thermometer is famous. 
 Desiring to take his temperature, Sir Humphrey 
 placed a thermometer under the patient's tongue. 
 Thereupon he professed himself better, and asked 
 that he be allowed to keep it there, and Sir Humphrey 
 consented. From that hour the sick man improved 
 steadily, and was soon well, having meantime used no 
 other remedv. 
 
 Dr. Buckley, whose volume on Faith Healing, 
 Christian Science and Kindred Phenomena is rich in 
 information on this phase of our subject, states that 
 he has frequently relieved the pain in ulcerated teeth 
 by applying to the gums a silver dollar wrapped in 
 silk, the patient being led to suppose it an infallible 
 
Christian Science. 119 
 
 remedy. The application was useless when the patient 
 had been informed that there was no efficacy in the 
 silver dollar itself. He relates also how a well-known 
 public singer was relieved of great nausea and intense 
 headache by two applications of the silver dollar, and 
 was then able to perform a full programme with his 
 usual energy. 
 
 Another experiment of the doctor is interesting, 
 and shows that, had he chosen, he might have become 
 a worthy successor to the famous Dr. Perkins. Be- 
 ing detained at a ferry, he went into a house and 
 found there a woman afflicted with rheumatism in her 
 hand. Her fingers were very much swollen, and she 
 had been unable to move them for two weeks. Call- 
 ing for a pair of knitting needles, he held them 
 "about two inches from the end of the woman's fing- 
 ers, just above the clenched hand, and said, 'Now, 
 madame, do not think of your fingers, and, above all, 
 do not try to move them, but fix your eyes on the 
 ends of those needles/ " She did so, and "to her own 
 wonder and that of her daughter, the fingers straight- 
 ened out and became flexible without the least pain/' 
 He then moved the needles about over the hand, and 
 "she declared that all pain left her hand, except in one 
 spot about half an inch in diameter/' 
 
 The late Dr. Krackowitzer, of New York, was called 
 to see a young lady who had been ill for a long time, 
 suffering intense pain and unable to move. Her 
 former physician had advised a severe operation, in- 
 volving deep and painful incisions. The surgeon had 
 come three times to perform the operation, but the 
 parents had shrunk from the ordeal. At last Dr. 
 Krackowitzer was called, and after thoroughly exam- 
 ining the patient, he exclaimed suddenly, in a tone of 
 
120 Christian Science. 
 
 -command, "Get out of bed, put on your clothes, and 
 go down stairs to meet your mother in the parlor!" 
 She arose at once and obeyed him, took a walk with 
 her mother next day, and soon recovered. This was 
 a case which would have given Airs. Eddy a golden 
 opportunity, and would probably have gained con- 
 verts for her new Christianity. Dr. Krackowitzer had 
 recognized it as a case of obstinate hysteria, in which 
 the patient required the stimulus of "sudden com- 
 mand from a will stronger than her own." 
 
 Another case reported to Dr. Buckley by an emi- 
 nent physician was that of a lady who had been suf- 
 fering for months with rheumatism. Her physician, 
 having done everything else he could think of, at last 
 concluded to give her a vapor bath. Having ex- 
 temporized an apparatus out of the tea-kettle and 
 some old tin pipe, he introduced the pipe into the 
 bed and instructed the servant to fill the kettle half 
 full. She, however, exceeded her instructions, and 
 filled the kettle so that the steam forced the scald- 
 ing water up through the pipe into the bed. The 
 instant it reached the body of the patient she jumped 
 out of bed with a shriek, crying, "Doctor, you have 
 scalded me!" Her rheumatism left her that instant, 
 and did not return. 
 
 Two cases of cures resulting from shock came to 
 the writer's knowledge. Mrs. John H. Hughes, of 
 Cedar Grove, X. C, was at the time of the Charleston 
 earthquake suffering and almost bed-ridden with 
 rheumatism. She was greatly alarmed by the earth- 
 quake shocks, and her rheumatism left her that hour, 
 and did not return for six months. A Mrs. Sullivan, 
 of Shelby, X. C, h&d been bed-ridden with paralysis, 
 as was supposed, for seven years, when one dav some 
 
Christian Science. 121 
 
 one informed her that a cyclone was coming. There- 
 upon she jumped out of bed, ran up stairs, and after 
 recovering from her fright, found her paralysis gone. 
 It was due to hypochondria, and returned after some 
 years. When I knew her she was again bed-ridden, 
 and continued so during the whole time of my pas- 
 torate in that place. 
 
 Dr. , of Wilmington, N. C, cured a lady 
 
 of hysterical cough by bringing "railing accusations" 
 against her until she was made furious by what she 
 considered his insults. I had the story from her hus- 
 band, who related it with great glee. It is, perhaps, 
 not to be wondered at that this lady, though not a 
 follower of Mrs. Eddy, is now a devout believer in 
 mental science healing. 
 
 During the siege of Breda in 1625 scurvy prevailed 
 in the army of the Prince of Orange to such an ex- 
 tent that he was about to capitulate. In their despera- 
 tion the following experiment was resorted to by the 
 physicians : Three small vials of medicine were dis- 
 tributed to each physician, not enough for the cure of 
 two patients. "It was publicly given out that three 
 or four drops were sufficient to impart a healing vir- 
 tue to a gallon of liquor/' Dr. Frederick Van Der 
 Mye, one of the physicians concerned in the experi- 
 ment, says that the effect of the delusion was aston- 
 ishing. "Many quickly and perfectly recovered. 
 Such as had not moved their limbs for a month be- 
 fore were seen walking in the streets, sound, upright, 
 and in perfect health." Before this fortunate experi- 
 ment they had been, he tells us, in a state of despair, 
 and the scurvy and their despair had brought about 
 "fluxes, dropsies, and every species of distress, at- 
 tended with a great mortality." 
 
122 Christian Science. 
 
 The cases of rheumatic patients who were cured, 
 one by being accidentally scalded, a second by suffer- 
 ing the shock of a railroad collision, and a third by 
 the Charleston earthquake, are in the same category 
 with the cases of consumption referred to by Van 
 Swieten and Smollet, which were cured by falling 
 into cold water. 
 
 The late Dr. Buzzell, of Norfolk, Ya., during the 
 cholera epidemic of 1832, was summoned to the bed- 
 side of a stalwart negro who was in a state of col- 
 lapse from the dread disease. "Instead of beginning 
 at once to treat him, he accused him of shamming, 
 denounced and derided him in every possible way," 
 and then, feigning intense anger, "procured a switch 
 and began to thrash" him severely. The more the 
 negro groaned and protested that he was dying, the 
 more vigorously the doctor plied his switch, and thus 
 succeeded in bringing about a tremendous reaction, 
 and the negro recovered. Dr. Hunter McGuire, of 
 Richmond, Va., is said to have cured a case of neuras- 
 thenia by having the nurses administer to the patient 
 a number of chastisements with rubber rods. The 
 patient, a young lady, had been disinclined to all ex- 
 ertion, and unable to take interest in anything; but 
 the towering passion caused by the doctor's treat- 
 ment roused her energy, and she returned home 
 cured. 
 
 Less severe was the method formerly, if not to this 
 day, pursued by the Oneida communists as related to 
 Dr. Buckley by a sister of John H. Noyes, the founder 
 of the sect. That was treatment by criticism. When 
 one of their number was taken ill a committee was 
 appointed to visit the patient, who entered the room, 
 sat down, and without paying any attention to the 
 
Christian Science. 123 
 
 patient, proceeded to speak of his or her peculiarities, 
 bringing every fault to the surface with unsparing 
 condemnation. It was claimed that an epidemic of 
 diphtheria was fought in this way, and not a case 
 died. The irritation produced by this caustic treat- 
 ment was said to be such that an hour's experience of 
 the ordeal caused the patient to perspire freely, and 
 rapid recovery followed. 
 
 Dr. James R. Cocke, in his work on Hypnotism, 
 says he has known an athlete who had been paralyzed 
 a year to be restored to health by "simple sugges- 
 tion" and a little ridicule. "A friend laughed at him, 
 and told him he could walk if he would. He tried it, 
 and he did." 
 
 Glancing over these numerous cases, it will be seen 
 that all the mental causes operating to bring about 
 recovery from diseases may be summed up in three 
 general classes: 1, Mental expectation, induced either 
 by faith or suggestion ; 2, Shock, as of accident, fright, 
 vehement command given unexpectedly, etc. ; 3, Vio- 
 lent anger, or violent emotion of any sort, which pow- 
 erfully diverts the attention of the patient from his 
 condition. Christian Science practice, as we shall 
 see, is well adapted to bring all these factors into 
 play. 
 
 In addition to these natural causes, which may ac- 
 count for recovery, we must also consider the wide 
 field of coincidence. Thus, if a dyspeptic patient 
 is reading Mrs. Eddy's book, after having eaten im- 
 prudently, he will find himself somewhat nau- 
 seated. Just at that moment he reads or remembers 
 the paragraph in which Mrs. Eddy assures her read- 
 ers that if their symptoms seem to be aggravated 
 while reading her book this is itself a favorable sign, 
 
124 Christian Science. 
 
 and only the "chemicalization," or ferment, caused 
 by the sacred truth of her volume as it is being assim- 
 ilated. Having no appetite for his next meal, he fasts, 
 and next day, as a matter of course, his stomach, hav- 
 ing been permitted to rest, gives evidence of no un- 
 pleasant symptoms, and he leaps to the joyful con- 
 clusion that he is being cured ! This conclusion is it- 
 self, as we have seen, a very helpful thing, aiding 
 nature to correct tendencies toward diseased condi- 
 tions. The patient of bilious or dyspeptic habits is, 
 perhaps more than any other, dependent upon en- 
 couragement and mental expectation, because of the 
 sympathy between the brain and the digestive system ; 
 and this being the case, we need not be surprised that 
 patients testify that they have been healed of "chronic 
 hepatitis" simply by reading Science and Health. So, 
 also, persons recovering from disease under the treat- 
 ment of regular physicians may be placed under the 
 care of "Scientists," and their subsequent improve- 
 ment is attributed to the skill of the "Science healer" 
 instead of to the skill of the physician, whose medi- 
 cines have relieved organic lesion or functional dis- 
 order. And in all the minor. maladies which require 
 little treatment, mental healers have an easy victory, 
 and gain laurels without risk. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, moreover, that many pa- 
 tients are benefited by being allowed to do without 
 medicines. Their systems have been irritated or de- 
 pleted by drastic remedies until the best cure is to let 
 them alone. It is often the case that little children 
 are killed by improper medication. Dr. Paris de- 
 clared long ago that "the file of every apothecary 
 would furnish a volume of instances in which the 
 ingredients of the prescription were fighting to- 
 
Christian Science. 125 
 
 gether in the dark." And what is true of adults is, 
 of necessity, more true of children, who cannot relate 
 their own symptoms so as to aid the physician in 
 his diagnosis. Adults, too, frequently exaggerate 
 their symptoms, and medicines stronger than neces- 
 sary are administered. Add the fact of empiricism 
 on the part of practitioners who are seeking to intro- 
 duce new remedies, and the wonder is that so many 
 who are seriously ill do recover. 
 
 Nor can we overestimate the therapeutic value of 
 the freedom allowed to patients under the treatment 
 of mental healers in respect of air, exercise and diet. 
 They are relieved of anxiety, assured that recovery 
 will be speedy, required to think and talk about other 
 things than their maladies, and encouraged to eat, 
 drink and sleep, and to attend to their business as if 
 they were well. This sort of treatment is precisely 
 what is needed in many cases of chronic invalidism to 
 induce the "resumption of customary health." 
 
 The weight of all these considerations is such as to 
 compel a careful reasoner to return the Scotch ver- 
 dict of "not proven" when examining into Christian 
 Science miracles, no matter how many Mother Eddy 
 and her children may be able to report. Another 
 class of facts will now be discussed which tend to 
 throw some light on certain mysterious procedures of 
 mental healers, and may account in part for their suc- 
 cess. 
 
IX. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND HYPNOTISM. 
 
 One peculiarity of Mrs. Eddy's system seems to be 
 its pronounced opposition to hypnotism. In her pub- 
 lic addresses she has been wont to warn her follow- 
 ers against this "pernicious error/' and in her book 
 she devotes a whole chapter to animal magnetism, 
 pronouncing it a "criminal misuse of mortal mind," 
 "mental crime," etc. "The hypnotizer employs one 
 belief to destroy another," she says ; "and if he heals a 
 sickness, and a belief originally caused the sickness, 
 it is a case of the greater error overcoming the lesser. 
 This greater error thereafter occupies the ground, 
 leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by 
 the stronger error." Practical people, however, can 
 see little, if any, difference between the hypnotic 
 method as thus very correctly described by her and 
 the method which she herself so laboriously teaches. 
 She tells her patient his sickness is unreal, and when 
 the patient is fully convinced that such is the case he 
 is cured, according to her doctrine. So, also, does the 
 hypnotist proceed. He suggests to his patient, after 
 hypnotizing him, that he is now well, and in many 
 cases the results are quite as favorable as those 
 claimed for Christian Science cures. 
 
 In a former generation hypnotism was invested 
 with great mystery. It was called "animal magnet- 
 ism," and it was supposed that some subtle influence 
 was transmitted from the operator to his subjects. 
 
Christian Science. 127 
 
 The experiments of Dr. Buckley, however, and of 
 many others have demonstrated that there is needed 
 no exercise of will-power on the part of the operator, 
 and that, in fact, many persons will fall into hypnotic 
 sleep and become subject to suggestion when there 
 has been absolutely nothing done to induce the hyp- 
 notic condition. Dr. Buckley relates an experiment 
 performed by himself in which eight gentlemen and 
 ladies were requested to rise, stand without personal 
 contact with one another or with him, clasp their 
 hands and close their eyes for a few minutes. In a 
 little while five passed more or less into the trance 
 state, two becoming unconscious of their surround- 
 ings, and the others exhibiting peculiar phenomena. 
 A lady was made to believe that she was writing a 
 letter, and simulated the act by motions in the air. 
 A young man was told that an envelope placed on his 
 head weighed a ton, and his legs trembled under the 
 tremendous burden. A prominent lawyer believed 
 himself sitting on a log looking into the muddy bot- 
 tom of a creek. Speaking of a young man who, in 
 one of his exhibitions, passed into such a perfect state 
 of trance, according to the village editor, that he was 
 "clairvoyant, ecstatic, mesmeric, somnambulistic, and, 
 in fact, took any form of ideomania at will/' Dr. 
 Buckley expresses the opinion that a word would 
 have sent him back to sleep, and that if he had been 
 suffering from any of the diseases which faith-healers 
 could have relieved he would have received equal help. 
 We see also that he would have been a good subject 
 for a Christian Science practitioner. 
 
 Dr. Cocke has given reports of a large number of 
 cases treated by himself through hypnotism. They 
 include cases of rheumatism, ulnar neuritis, paralysis, 
 
128 Christian Science. 
 
 irritable or traumatic spine, nervous cough, hysteria, 
 vomiting, neuralgia, neurasthenia, and dipsomania. 
 He enumerates also sundry cases in which pain was 
 greatly relieved, one of them being that of a man who 
 had an ulcer on the brain, from which he finally died, 
 but was relieved of pain by hypnotism to such an ex- 
 tent that he passed the last months of his life in com- 
 parative ease. He reports a number of cases in which 
 surgical operations were performed upon persons 
 who were hypnotized instead of being put under the 
 influence of ether. He mentions cures effected by 
 hypnotism of persons addicted to the morphine, co- 
 caine, and tobacco habits. "Moral resistance," he 
 remarks, "is the element of hope in all these cases. 
 Sometimes it can be aroused by hypnotic suggestion 
 when all other means fail. Because of this, and for 
 the sake of a wider experience, I plead earnestly for 
 a more extended trial of it.'' 
 
 Mrs. Eddy attributes all diseases to "self-mesmeri- 
 zation." Drs. Cocke, Buckley and other writers on 
 the subject agree that there is such a phenomenon as 
 auto-hypnotism. By concentrating their attention 
 upon some bright object, such as a coin, a bed of coals, 
 or smooth running water, many persons may induce 
 in themselves a trance sleep, in which they will see 
 visions, or imagine many such things as they might 
 be led to imagine at the suggestion of another. Dr. 
 Cocke declares his conviction that many persons who 
 are thought to be suffering from delusional insanity 
 are simply in a state of auto-hypnotism. 
 
 The modus operandi of hypnotic practitioners is 
 worthy of note as throwing not a little light on the 
 methods pursued by Mrs. Eddy and other mental 
 healers. The practitioner will put the hand of the pa- 
 
 
Christian Science. 129 
 
 tient, if he finds him asleep, into cold water, or in 
 some way apply cold water to his body, and then be- 
 gin making suggestions. This method may be pur- 
 sued in some cases when the patient is awake. A Mr. 
 , of Buffalo Lithia Springs, Virginia, was hyp- 
 notized by Dr. Hodges, of Richmond, at the instance 
 of Dr. E. C. Laird, who found him suffering from a 
 nausea that was intractable by the ordinary remedies. 
 Dr. Hodges simply wet his hand and placed it on the 
 patient's stomach, and after a short interval, said, 
 "You feel better now ! Your nausea is leaving you !" 
 The nausea left him that moment, and did not 
 return. 
 
 Ordinarily, the hypnotist will ask his subject to 
 look steadily at a coin, a revolving disk, or some 
 other bright object, and concentrate his attention 
 upon that for a few moments. In a little while the 
 sensitive subject will begin to breathe heavily, and 
 will almost immediately fall into sleep more or less 
 profound. In this state he will be completely subject 
 to the will of the operator, and may be induced to be- 
 lieve that water is whiskey, that he is drunk, etc., and 
 will, at the bidding of the operator, do many absurd 
 things. While in this state it is suggested to him that 
 on awaking he will find himself relieved of his dis- 
 ease, and in many cases, as has been shown, the result 
 will be a cure more or less perfect. Many people are 
 so liable to lapse into this state that a word will 
 send them to sleep after one or two experiences. 
 Many hypnotists only require their subjects to look 
 them steadily in the face. This accomplishes the 
 same end as would be attained by requiring them to 
 look at a "magic crystal," such as was used by some 
 of the earlier mesmerists. The only prerequisite, ac- 
 
130 Christian Science. 
 
 cording to Dr. Cocke, is voluntary obedience on the 
 part of the subject for a few minutes. When this 
 obedience has been yielded, and the hypnotic state 
 induced, the results are marvelous. 
 
 Beings which are children wholly of his imagination will 
 exist for him as conscious entities. His personality may be 
 changed, and he will for the time think, act and live another 
 man. The various faculties of the mind may be, each in their 
 turn, rendered abnormally acute. The speech centres may 
 act in such a way that the man who has naturally a poor com- 
 mand of language will, when hypnotized, converse volubly, 
 or deliver an address, speaking fluently. The emotions may 
 be played upon by suggestions, like an instrument of music 
 by a master's hand. Joy, sorrow, grief, despair, may be made 
 to follow each other and appear in combination with mar- 
 velous rapidity. The man may be made to believe that he is 
 a broomstick, a pitcher, chair or carpet, or any other inani- 
 mate thing, and to act his part with wonderful skill. — J. R. 
 Cocke, M. D., Hypnotism. 
 
 Andrew Wilson, M. D., in a very interesting paper 
 
 on "Some By-Ways of the Brain," in Harper's Mag- 
 azine for May, 1898, takes the ground that the phe- 
 nomena of hypnotism, however mysterious they may 
 be considered as yet, are to be explained upon the 
 same principles as the phenomena of somnambulism, 
 mental abstraction and the like. "Things cease to be 
 wonderful/' he remarks, "when you can find parallels 
 for them ; and when we see in hypnotism merely a 
 further expression of the brain by-way which has led 
 us through sleep and dreams to sleep-walking, we 
 have allocated it to its true position in the series of 
 mental phenomena of which it forms a part. Hypnot- 
 ism, indeed, has been well styled 'artificially induced 
 somnambulism,' for the phenomena of the one state 
 
Christian Science. 131 
 
 aie analogous to those of the other, and the actions 
 performed by the sleep-walker run parallel to those 
 which we can induce at will in the mesmeric subject. 
 That which we do effect in hypnotism is essentially 
 the inhibition of the upper brain. We switch off the 
 cerebrum temporarily from its command of the body 
 and allow the central ganglia, under the influence of 
 suggestion, to come to the front in the mental life of 
 the individual." 
 
 The persons who are good subjects for hypnotic 
 experiments, it is said, are generally excitable, imagi- 
 nary, and credulous persons. Men and women of 
 small imagination, free from any tendency toward 
 superstitious vagaries, are not, as a rule, susceptible 
 to hypnosis. Here, however, extremes meet. Many 
 sensible, unimaginative, practical men and women, 
 who are disposed to be incredulous, will run to the 
 opposite extreme as soon as they see something which 
 they cannot explain, and hence become ready subjects, 
 either for the charlatanism of the hypnotist or the pal- 
 pable humbuggery of the Christian Scientist. In all 
 cases their credulity is the result of their ignorance, 
 and a temporary, stubborn incredulity is sometimes 
 more favorable to sudden effects than the stupid, ac- 
 quiescent credulity of others who are not so hard to 
 convince, and can be more readily undeceived. 
 
 These facts, in connection with others previously 
 noted, are sufficient to explain the alleged powers of 
 mental healers. The treatment given by Christian 
 Scientists, as we shall see, is always solitary. This 
 gives abundant opportunity for hypnotizing without 
 danger of discovery. All the conditions of hypnotic 
 results are present. The mysterious silence of the 
 healer is well adapted to induce in sensitive patients 
 
132 Christian Science. 
 
 the highest degree of hypnotic passivity. The 
 "spoken argument" or vehement command is but hyp- 
 notic suggestion under another name. "Christian 
 Science," says Mrs. Josephine Curtis Woodbury in 
 a letter to the writer, "is built on the law of sugges- 
 tion." Voluntary obedience on the part of the patient 
 is yielded from the first moment of treatment. A 
 complete surrender is induced by the reports that may 
 have come to hand of the healer's mysterious powers 
 and miraculous cures, and this confidence, already 
 grown into a feeling of veneration, is further in- 
 creased by the healer's hints as to thought transfer- 
 ence. The patient, having been isolated from all un- 
 believers in this new method of miracle-working, is 
 assured that the thought of his physician is in itself 
 a healing panacea, which is communicated irresistibly, 
 being a force of such potency that it may be sent 
 round the globe at will. Hence, aside from the power 
 of encouragement and vivid mental expectation, we 
 have the patient in a condition of mind which makes 
 him as clay in the hands of the potter. Tf dominated 
 by a fixed idea of disease which has no real basis in 
 organic lesions or in unsanitary habits, the healer's 
 suggestions may quickly remove that idea and re- 
 place it with another conviction that a real and per- 
 manent cure has been effected. 
 
 Xor is this all. The power of suggestion, as has 
 been seen, applies to numerous other things besides 
 healing. The hypnotized subject will obey the sug- 
 gestions of the hypnotizer even after awaking from 
 the hypnotic sleep. To what extent this control of 
 the patient's mind may go is not yet fully ascertained. 
 ( rifts and fees may be obtained without doubt through 
 this medium of suggestion. Mrs. Eddy's violent de- 
 
Christian Science. 133 
 
 nunciations of "malicious animal magnetism" are, in 
 view of all the facts, as suspicious as the cry of 
 "Stop, thief!" when raised by a certain class under 
 certain circumstances. Much of the instruction in 
 her lectures and in the Christian Science Journal con- 
 sists in explaining this "fashionable and lucrative 
 vice." The charge of occultism, brought against all 
 non-conformists in Christian Science healing by Mrs. 
 Eddy and her followers, comes with ill-grace from 
 those who have adopted as one of the fundamental 
 principles of their healing art the idea that the heal- 
 er's thought may be transferred to the patient. If 
 healing thought, why not any other? There is, in 
 view of this fact, profound significance in the follow- 
 ing criticism of Evans' Esoteric Christianity, pub- 
 lished in the Christian Science Journal of August, 
 ii 
 
 If good will to man is the motive of Dr. Evans' book, why 
 does he withhold from the world the manner in which he 
 protects himself from the mental suggestions of others? He 
 virtually owns that if the head of an institution, a faith-curer, 
 be a magnetizer, he can quietly and secretly address persons 
 through thought suggestions, thus inducing them to furnish 
 money for his particular institution. These mental sugges- 
 tions can reach persons near or remote, and affect them to 
 frenzy until the transferred thoughts are put into action. 
 Later the victim is made happy by a letter from the doctor 
 acknowledging the money as a special dispensation from God 
 in answer to prayer. 
 
 I introduce this as a sample of the sort of supersti- 
 tion which is fostered by Christian Science, as well 
 as to show that there is ground for suspicion that 
 hypnotic influence may be attempted by Science heal- 
 ers for selfish ends. If the "thought suggestion" fails, 
 
134 Christian Science. 
 
 as it certainly will, what is more natural than sugges- 
 tion of a more direct and immediate character ? Chris- 
 tian Scientists may not be any worse than they sus- 
 pect faith-healers or "Esoteric Christians" to be, — 
 
 "But Och ! mankind are unco weak, 
 An' little to be trusted ; 
 If self the wavering balance shake, 
 It's rarely right adjusted." 
 
 How much Mrs. Eddy has profited by her studies 
 of hypnotism may be inferred from her reference to 
 the subject in one of her circular arguments : 
 
 We rarely remember tbat we govern our own bodies. The 
 social error of mesmerism, or hypnotism, . . . illus- 
 trates the fact just cited. The operator makes his subjects 
 believe that they cannot move a certain part of the body 
 . . . and they cannot, until at last their belief is better 
 instructed and emancipated by understanding, which masters 
 both belief and fear. — Science and Health, p. 401. 
 
 The inference here is plain ; but in the next para- 
 graph we have it stated clearly. The hypnotist em- 
 ploys "mortal mind" either to produce or to relieve 
 the illusion ; but, argues our oracle, all illusions 
 "should be healed by immortal Mind," which simply 
 means by suggestions after Mrs. Eddy's method. In 
 other words, the hypnotic practices of Christian 
 Science healers are legitimate, because, forsooth, they 
 do not rely upon "mortal mind," but upon "immortal 
 Mind I" Xot only so, but Christian Scientists are ren- 
 dering a great favor to suffering humanity by means 
 of their peculiar style of hypnotic practice. 
 
 Mortal mind is constantly producing on mortal body the 
 results of false opinions, and it will continue to do so until 
 this belief is deprived of its imaginary power by Truth, which 
 sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion. — pp. 401 -2. 
 
Christian Science. 135 
 
 In order toheal through immortal Mind, it is neces- 
 sary to fix truth in your patient's thought. To do 
 this you must explain Christian Science to them. 
 This will include instruction as to the power which 
 illusion exercises over their bodies. Hence it is neces- 
 sary to "destroy the patient's unfortunate belief by 
 both silently and audibly arguing the opposite facts 
 in regard to harmonious Being/' "If delusion says, 
 I have lost my memory, you must contradict it," and 
 so of every disease and every infirmity. "You sen- 
 tence yourself to suffer" is the omnipotent suggestion 
 upon which Mrs. Eddy relies. Thus it is evident 
 that, apart from any mysterious proceedings, the 
 power of Christian Science is due largely to the influ- 
 ence of repeated suggestions. "You are better," "you 
 are well," says the healer, and the sensitive patient is 
 likely to respond if the disease be not one in which 
 organic deterioration has gone too far. 
 
 Nor is there in all this anything mysterious and 
 occult. Suggestion is, perhaps, the most powerful 
 means of influencing human thought and conduct of 
 which we have any knowledge. Military command- 
 ers issue orders and require obedience. Parents who 
 are wanting in tact can rule only by force. The 
 sand-lot orator, persuaded of the justice of his cause, 
 thinks to gain his ends by personal abuse. The un- 
 skilful teacher hopes to rule his pupils by holding the 
 rod or ferrule in terrorem over their heads. The un- 
 wise pastor, planning some useful work, frets because 
 his people do not see things as he does, and crying, 
 "Thus saith the Lord !" tries to drive his flock for- 
 ward on the path he would have them pursue. But, 
 while military commanders must rule sternly, and 
 there can be no successful campaign where there is 
 
136 Christian Science. 
 
 not rigorous discipline, it is evident that parents, 
 orators, teachers, pastors — all who would rule young 
 or old for their good through their rational natures — 
 must shape their methods so as to take advantage of 
 the laws of mind. One of these laws is the associa- 
 tion of ideas. By opportune suggestion a thought 
 of hope or of duty may be so associated with 
 the thing in view as to become a motive, swaying the 
 will. Save in exceptional cases, parents may control 
 their children by making them control themselves, 
 and they can do this by wise and timely suggestion. 
 The skilful teacher learns to make his pupils think for 
 themselves, and by bringing their mental and moral 
 faculties into play, he rules them so wisely that they 
 do not realize how strict his discipline is. The true 
 orator soon learns that the passion which he represses 
 in his public discourses affects his audience even more 
 than his most vehement and passionate utterance ; 
 that he is best able to sway a multitude and make 
 them think as he wills when he attains most complete 
 self-mastery; and that, far beyond the power of the 
 thoughts which he pours out, is the power of those 
 thoughts which he has suggested. The most suc- 
 cessful pastor is not always the man of most intense 
 spiritual force, but the man who has learned how to 
 suggest the thing to be done, and to make the sug- 
 gestion at the right time. 
 
 The power of suggestion is the might of gentle- 
 ness. Its leaven is the leaven of thought. Open ob- 
 scenity is repulsive and disgusting ; but impure sug- 
 gestions, cloaked in double entendre, are strong 
 agents of the evil one. What we call the power of 
 example is only the suggestive force of righteous- 
 ness ; not so much what a man savs and does as the 
 
Christian Science. 137 
 
 impression which his presence and his speech make 
 as to the moral principles which guide him. Sociolo- 
 gists are now beginning to account for epidemics of 
 crime on this principle of suggestion ; and there are 
 many who believe that a sensational press ought to be 
 curbed by the strong hand of the law, and prevented 
 from publishing the minutiae of every crime and 6i 
 every scandal. A recent illustration was afforded in 
 the murder of a woman in New York by means of 
 poison sent to the house in a bottle of bromo seltzer. 
 The New York and London press published the de- 
 tails of the crime, and within a few days a somewhat 
 similar murder occurred in London. Some years ago 
 accounts of the crimes of "Jack the Ripper/' com- 
 mitted in London, were published on this side of the 
 ocean, and not long afterward there were similar mur- 
 ders, accompanied by horrible mutilation, committed 
 in New T York. The pictures of the "bold, bad life" 
 led by burglars and outlaws in books like The Life 
 of Jesse James have been known to lead young boys 
 to organize themselves into bands of burglars. The 
 devil himself used the power of suggestion in the 
 first temptation, and his children have learned from 
 their father through all the ages. 
 
 Whether used for good or for evil, then, the power 
 of suggestion is incalculable. And this power is made 
 almost omnipotent when one soul surrenders itself to 
 another. Hypnotic passivity results, as we have seen, 
 from voluntary obedience. The mental powers are 
 freed from the restraint of the will, and the mind is 
 like a boat w T hose pilot has deserted it, leaving the 
 wheel in the hands of another. Suggestion is the 
 turning of the wdieel when the engines are already at 
 work and the screws revolving. Christian Science 
 
138 Christian Science. 
 
 patients are passive in much the same way. Sur- 
 rendering themselves to the healer, they listen pa- 
 tiently to his instructions, obey his directions, even 
 try to think as he directs, and thus prepare them- 
 selves to be dominated by the thought which it 
 is his effort to fix in their minds. This thought, 
 repeated in endless reiterations, is, " I am not sick, 
 and cannot be, because Mind cannot be sick, and 
 there is nothing in the universe but Mind and its 
 idea." Uttered in willing ears, it may soon assume 
 the power of a "fixed idea," ruling the after-life of 
 the patient until some mental or physical shock shall 
 rudelv rid him of his insane delusion. 
 
X. 
 
 THE MIRACLES OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 It is to be regretted that in her books Mrs. Eddy 
 has not given more cases of healing, accompanied by 
 references to persons other than the alleged sufferers. 
 As an excuse for not doing this she pleads that she 
 "never believed in receiving certificates. " The pub- 
 lic, however, cannot be satisfied with such an excuse, 
 especially in view of the fact that Mrs. Eddy does give 
 some certificates, and even publishes a letter from one 
 who was healed of "bronchitis, dyspepsia, gastralgia 
 and gastritis, etc.," as an appendix to her one hun- 
 dredth edition of Science and Health. The possibili- 
 ties of faulty diagnosis are such, even when compe- 
 tent physicians are employed, that patients may be 
 very much in error as to the nature and status of their 
 maladies, and it is undoubtedly true that enthusiastic 
 healers of any sect are liable to overestimate the mag- 
 nitude of the danger from which their patients have 
 been rescued. 
 
 But, without pressing this point, let us examine 
 the cases reported by Mrs. Eddy as having been 
 healed by herself. 
 
 One is astounded to find in Science and Health the 
 statement that Mrs. Eddy "never made a specialty of 
 healing disease," although she asserts, with great 
 modesty, that healing has accompanied all her efforts 
 to introduce Christian Science. Mrs. Woodbury 
 affirms that Mrs. Eddy usually referred applicants for 
 
140 Christian Science. 
 
 help to her students, and that "if students failed to 
 cure, it was because of their weakness." Their leader 
 "never failed/' Evidently Mrs. Eddy was prudent 
 enough to rest on her laurels after having started her 
 new crusade. It is possible that prudence, not less 
 than preoccupation, may have dictated the notice 
 which has appeared in Science and Health in all its 
 multitudinous editions, "The author takes no patients, 
 and declines medical consultation/' And yet the as- 
 sertions and intimations of her ability to heal, should 
 she choose to exercise her powers, are many in all 
 her publications. 
 
 In Unity of Good Mrs. Eddy makes the state- 
 ment, "as due both to Christian Science and her- 
 self," that she has been enabled to heal instantly a 
 cancer that had eaten its way to the jugular vein. The 
 fact that in sundry other less marvelous cases she has 
 given references makes it somewhat significant that 
 in this miraculous case she gives none whatever, 
 and does not even tell us where nor when the miracle 
 was wrought. Is she sure it was a cancer? What 
 evidence have we, beside her own unsupported state- 
 ment, to show either that it was a cancer, or that she 
 healed it? 
 
 On page 86 of Science and Health, to "elucidate 
 her topic," she gives a certificate from James Ingham, 
 East Stoughton, Mass. Mr. Ingham testifies that he 
 was suffering from "pulmonary difficulties, pains in 
 the chest, a hard and unremitting cough, hectic 
 fever," all which unpleasant symptoms disappeared 
 in a short time under Mrs. Eddy's treatment. Now, 
 it is a well-known fact that such symptoms frequently 
 appear when there is no lesion in the lungs. Further, 
 as to whether Mr. Ingham really had consumption, 
 
Christian Science. 141 
 
 or only thought himself afflicted with "pulmonary 
 difficulties/' the reader is entitled to something more 
 than the patient's diagnosis of his own case, even 
 though that be supported by Mrs. Eddy. The patient 
 may have been mistaken as to the serious character of 
 his symptoms, and Mrs. Eddy is an interested wit- 
 ness. 
 
 On page yj she tells of a lady whom she "cured of 
 consumption," and who, prior to her treatment of the 
 case, was unable to breathe freely when the wind blew 
 from the east. "I sat by her side a few moments," 
 says Mother Mary; "her breath came gently. The 
 inspirations were deep and natural. I then requested 
 her to look at the weather-vane. The wind had not 
 changed, but her difficult breathing had gone. My 
 metaphysical treatment changed the action of her be- 
 lief upon her system, and she never suffered again 
 from east winds." Here the facts related point clearly 
 to a case of hysteria. It is no unusual thing for hys- 
 terical patients to imagine that they have consump- 
 tion, and during the period in which they cherish 
 this fancy they suffer apparently from many of the 
 symptoms of consumption. But granting, for the 
 sake of argument, that it was a genuine case of con- 
 sumption, it does not follow that her recovery was 
 due to Mrs. Eddy's "metaphysical treatment," al- 
 though it is also possible that this may have aided 
 somewhat in the recovery. A change of diet, as we 
 have seen, with recovery from despondency, which 
 might have been induced by any treatment in which 
 she had faith, was sufficient to have produced the 
 same results ; or there may have been some acci- 
 dental wetting, like that in the case reported by Smol- 
 lett, which was cured by falling into water. Still 
 
142 
 
 Christian Science. 
 
 further, the name and residence of the lady are not 
 given. Are we to attribute this, in blind credulity, to 
 Mrs. Eddy's want of belief in receiving certificates? 
 How are we to believe her for her works' sake when 
 she refuses to give us proof of her w T orks? 
 
 Again, on page 87, she gives an account of a case 
 of "enteritis, following typhoid fever/' which she 
 cured. The patient, Miss Pillsbury, had been given 
 up by the regular physicians, and was lying at the 
 point of death. Airs. Baker, who, it is presumed, is 
 a relative of Mrs. Alary Baker Glover Eddy, as also 
 of the patient, Miss Pillsbury, certifies that Mrs. 
 . Eddy (then Mrs. Glover) entered the room and stood 
 — it may be supposed silently — by the bed-side. Very 
 soon Miss Pillsbury recognized her, and said, "I am 
 glad to see you. Aunty." Ten minutes later Mrs. 
 Eddy bade her rise and walk, which she did, walking 
 seven times around the room, and then taking her seat 
 in a chair. For two weeks previous all who had 
 entered the room had been obliged to step lightly, 
 because the patient's bowels were so tender she could 
 feel the slightest jar. Now, however, she was com- 
 manded by Mrs. Eddy to stamp her foot strongly 
 upon the floor, and she did so without suffering any 
 pain. The next day she came down to the table, 
 and the third day took a railway journey, etc. Here 
 it is to be noted, 1. That the patient had been under 
 treatment. 2. That Mrs. Eddy stood, it is presumed 
 silently, by her bed-side for some time, and then told 
 her to rise and walk. Here, then, are two possi- 
 bilities. She may have been relieved of the tender- 
 ness in her bowels by the medicines previously ad- 
 ministered ; or else the case may have been wrongly 
 diagnosed, and may have been simply a case of ner- 
 
Christian Science. 143 
 
 vous hysteria, like that treated in a somewhat similar 
 way by Dr. Krackowitzer. There is, assuredly, no 
 proof whatever in this case that Mrs. Eddy's theory 
 is true. 
 
 On pages 77-8 our author gives a report of a case 
 in which she relieved labor pains and brought about 
 a painless child-birth, the mother certifying that she 
 sat up the evening of the same day for several hours, 
 and the next day ate a boiled dinner of meat and veg- 
 etables. The third day she dressed, and in a week 
 was able to perform her household duties, running 
 up and down stairs. Her recovery was notable also in 
 that it was recovery not only from the prostration of 
 labor, but also from prolapsus uteri, from which she 
 had suffered for several years. In this case it is to be 
 observed, 1. That Mrs. Eddy does not claim to be able 
 to bring about painless child-birth in every case. 2. 
 That one or any other number of such isolated cases 
 would not prove the truth of Mrs. Eddy's theory. 
 There have been instances of painless child-birth in 
 every age, and among savage tribes it is the rule. 
 3. It is well known that the birth of a child not unfre- 
 quently results in the recovery of the mother from 
 uterine troubles. 
 
 On page 88 Mrs. Eddy gives three remarkable 
 cases. Mr. R. O. Badgely, of Cincinnati, is quoted 
 as having written, "My painful and swollen foot was 
 restored at once on your receipt of my letter, and that 
 very day I put on my boot and walked several miles." 
 Previously he had written, "A stick of timber fell on 
 my foot from a building, crushing the bones. Can- 
 not you help me? I am sitting in great pain, with 
 my foot in a bath." Here observe, 1. That Mr. 
 Badgely gives no other evidence than his own opin- 
 
144 Christian Science. 
 
 ion that the bones of his foot were crushed. 2. Mrs. 
 Eddy herself does not claim to be able to cure broken 
 bones, alleging that it is best to leave the adjustment 
 of broken bones to a surgeon. 3. Air. Badgely, at the 
 time he wrote first, was sitting with his swollen foot 
 in a bath, presumably, of course, a hot bath, which is 
 a specific treatment for bruises, recommended by all 
 the medical faculty. 4. His recovery dates, not from 
 the hour, but only from the day, when Mrs. Eddy re- 
 ceived his letter imploring her help. This report, if 
 true, shows conclusively that Mr. Badgely exagger- 
 ated his injury, and was cured by a hot water bath, 
 and not by Mrs. Eddy's "absent treatment," of which 
 more anon. 
 
 The next case is that of a child who was suffering 
 from ulcerated bowels. His physicians had given him 
 up, saying they could do nothing more for him. He 
 was reduced to a skeleton, was losing strength daily, 
 and could take nothing but the simplest nourishment, 
 such as gruel, etc. He was taking laudanum. "Airs. 
 Eddy came in, took him from the cradle, kissed him, 
 and laid him down again and went out. In less than 
 an hour he was taken up, had his playthings, and was 
 well. All his symptoms changed at once. For months 
 previously blood and mucus had passed his bowels, 
 but that day the evacuation was natural, and the next 
 day he ate all he wanted." 
 
 Here, again, the facts show that Mrs. Eddy was 
 in no wise responsible for the cure. The child was 
 practically under treatment, the parents continuing 
 to give him, up to the hour of Mrs. Eddy's visit, the 
 nourishment suitable for his case, and laudanum to 
 quiet his pain. Here was a coincidence, and nothing 
 more. When ulcers have discharged, the healing pro- 
 
Christian Science. 145 
 
 cess is very speedy, and appetite is recovered at once. 
 Had Mrs. Eddy not paid her visit to this child, it is 
 quite probable that the cure would have been attrib- 
 uted to the skill of his physicians, who had done all 
 they could do for him. 
 
 A still more wonderful case is that of Mr. Clark, 
 of Lynn, Mass. He had been confined to his bed for 
 six months with hip-disease, caused by falling upon 
 a wooden spike when quite a boy. As Mrs. Eddy 
 entered the house she met the physician, who told 
 her that Mr. Clark w r as dying. She found him with 
 the damp of death upon his brow. The doctor had 
 just probed the ulcer on the hip, and showed the rot- 
 ten bone adhering to the probe in proof of his asser- 
 tion that the bone was carious for several inches. The 
 doctor went out, leaving Mrs. Eddy in possession of 
 the field. The patient lay with eyes fixed and sight- 
 less. In a few moments after she went to the bed- 
 side his death-pallor passed away, he fell asleep, and 
 his breathing became natural. In about ten minutes 
 he opened his eyes and said, "I feel like a new man. 
 My suffering is all gone." She told him to rise and 
 dress himself, and take supper with his family, which 
 he did. She saw him in the yard next day, and was 
 informed that he was well in two weeks, pieces 
 of the wood discharging from his sore as it healed. 
 Mrs. Eddy adds naively that she learns that his phy- 
 sician claims to have cured him, and that his mother 
 was threatened with incarceration in a lunatic asylum 
 for saying, "It was none other than God and that 
 woman who healed him." 
 
 The reader will observe, 1. That this story is to be 
 believed on the unsupported authority of Mrs. Eddy. 
 2. That, she being witness, it shows that the physician 
 
146 Christian Science. 
 
 claims to have effected the cure. Airs. Eddy asks us 
 to believe her statement without hearing the physi- 
 cian, which is, to say the least, not a wise way to de- 
 cide a controversy. The public has a right to hear 
 both sides of the case. 3. That Mrs. Eddy does not 
 claim to have treated the' patient. All she says is 
 that she entered his room, went to his bed-side, and, 
 after hearing him say he was feeling better, and had 
 no pain, told him to rise and dress himself, and sup 
 with his family. 4. That it is quite conceivable that 
 the physician's discouragement may have been 
 groundless, his patient being, in fact, upon the very 
 eve of recovery in consequence of the remedies used. 
 Cases of recovery after apparent death had super- 
 vened are so numerous and well authenticated that, 
 unless already prejudiced in her favor, nobody can 
 believe this case to have been cured by Airs. Eddy. 
 That the ulcer discharged for two weeks after Airs. 
 Eddy's visit shows that recovery was in progress, and 
 it is not at all improbable that the physician may 
 have mistaken rotten wood for carious bone. 5. That 
 her command to rise and dress himself, etc., may 
 have been, like the command given by Dr. Kracko- 
 witzer, as related above, the means of inducing a more 
 vigorous reaction. 
 
 When reading Airs. Eddy's accounts of her miracles 
 we cannot forget that she has upset her own theory 
 by relating the steps which led her to adopt it. She 
 has told us of her marvelous success in curing typhoid 
 fever with a dilution of common salt, and dropsv 
 with unmedicated pellets of sugar of milk. These 
 cures are attributed by the medical fraternity to the 
 fact of mental expectation. It has long been a prac- 
 tice with physicians to administer harmless remedies, 
 
Christian Science. 147 
 
 "pro forma " in doubtful cases after inspiring the pa- 
 tient's confidence in the medicine about to be admin- 
 istered. Now, if this is the case in the practice of 
 some regular physicians, the success of Mrs. Eddy in 
 various cases can hardly be adduced to prove any- 
 thing more than has already been long known, viz., 
 that in certain cases no medicine is necessary, and that 
 satisfactory results can be obtained simply by excit- 
 ing a proper degree of mental expectation. A friend 
 of the writer, who acted as a sort of assistant sur- 
 geon during the w T ar, used to relate with great glee 
 how, on one occasion, being applied to by a soldier 
 who complained of a severe bilious attack, and hav- 
 ing no calomel, he compounded a number of bread 
 pills and gave them to the patient with the caution 
 not to take more than two before going to bed, and 
 not to take any the next morning if the first dose 
 acted properly. The next day the soldier appeared, 
 weak and hollow-eyed from excessive purgation, and 
 complained that those pills were the strongest he had 
 ever taken in his life ! Dr. Tuke reports a case in 
 which a patient dreamed she had taken rhubarb, and 
 the imaginary drug acted as freely as the actual medi- 
 cine would have done. Shall we wonder, then, that 
 Mrs. Eddy has sometimes made people think them- 
 selves well or recovering? 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's theories and methods seem to be par- 
 ticularly adapted to the cure of hysterical affections, 
 to which the w r eaker sex is specially liable. "Hys- 
 teria," says Dr. Buckley, 
 
 "Can simulate every known complaint : paralysis, heart dis- 
 ease, and the worst forms of fever and ague. Hypochondria, 
 to which intelligent and highly-educated persons of sedentary 
 habits, brooding over their sensations, are liable, especially 
 
148 Christian Science. 
 
 if they are accustomed to read medical works and accounts 
 of diseases and their treatment, will do the same. Dyspepsia 
 has various forms, and indigestion can produce symptoms of 
 organic heart disease, while diseases of the liver have often 
 been mistaken by eminent physicians for pulmonary consump- 
 tion. Especially in women do the troubles to which they are 
 most subject give rise to hysteria, in which condition they 
 may believe that they are afflicted with disease of the spine, 
 of the heart, or indeed of all the organs. I heard an intelli- 
 gent woman testify that she had 'heart disease, irritation of 
 the spinal cord, and Bright' s disease of the kidneys, and had 
 suffered from them all for ten years.' " — Faith Healing and 
 Kindred Phenomena. 
 
 The last would have been undoubtedly a witness 
 most valuable for creating faith in the remedial power 
 of Christian Science. 
 
 The Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D. D., is authority 
 for the statement that at St. Luke's Hospital, New 
 York City, a woman with a swelling which her phy- 
 sicians pronounced ovarian tumor was entirely re- 
 lieved by the administration of ether. The swelling 
 disappeared as soon as the drug' took effect, thus 
 proving- itself to be the result of hysteria. Had she 
 fallen into the hands of Airs. Eddy her cure by "men- 
 tal treatment" would have been probably as quick as 
 that by ether, and it would have gained many adher- 
 ents for the new creed ; or the same result could have 
 been obtained by hypnotizing her, and the hypnotist 
 would have been remembered by all the woman's kin- 
 dred as a miracle-worker. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy has challenged the whole world. 
 The challenge addressed to her by Dr. Charles A. L. 
 Reed, of Cincinnati, which was published in the 
 New York Sun of January 1, 1899, is certainly a 
 
Christian Science. 149 
 
 fair proposal, but has not been noticed by "Mother 
 Mary." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy comes into the arena with her characteristic 
 bravado and challenges the world to prove a negative. She 
 blissfully closes her eyes to the fact that she herself has not 
 proved the positive. On the contrary, her self-heralded won- 
 ders rest entirely upon her own unsupported declaration, and 
 that to me and to a great many other people is worth abso- 
 sutely nothing. She should remember that even people who 
 are not the victims of vagaries such as hers, and whose every- 
 day utterances do not toy so confusingly with the eternal veri- 
 ties as do hers — even such people are expected to bear the 
 burden of proof when they seek to tax credulity. I, therefore, 
 demand the proof of this high priestess, and that the issue 
 may be clearly drawn, I shall take up a few of her declara- 
 tions, seriatim: 
 
 Mrs. Eddy says, "I healed consumption in its last stages, 
 . . . the lungs being mostly consumed." 
 
 I denounce this declaration as false, and challenge its 
 substantiation by competent and disinterested testimony. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy says, "I healed carious bones that could be 
 dented with the finger." 
 
 I denounce this declaration as false, and challenge its sub- 
 stantiation by competent and disinterested testimony. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy says, "I have healed at one visit a cancer that 
 had so eaten the flesh of the neck as to expose the jugular 
 vein, so that it stood out like a cord." 
 
 I denounce this declaration as false, and challenge its sub- 
 stantiation by competent and disinterested testimony. 
 
 When Mrs. Eddy speaks of "malignant tubercular diph- 
 theria" as among her cures she, by her own phraseology, pro- 
 claims her utter ignorance of one of the most dangerous of 
 diseases, now nearly bereft of its horrors through the benefi- 
 cence of modern medical science — a disease chiefly of de- 
 fenceless childhood that she and her fanatical followers would 
 sacrifice upon the altar of their tragic egoism. 
 
150 Christian Science. 
 
 But if Mrs. Eddy has done all of these wonders she can 
 do them again. If she is so devoted to humanity in the 
 altruistic fashion that she proclaims, she will not hesitate to 
 demonstrate her alleged "science'' under circumstances that 
 will give it the widest possible influence. To this end, if she 
 will come to Cincinnati I will place at her disposal cases of 
 consumption, cases of cancer, and cases of carious bones. 
 She shall have them under observation for such time as she 
 shall determine, and she shall dictate 'all details of their 
 management. They shall, however, be under the daily obser- 
 vation of a competent and disinterested person of my choice, 
 but who shall have no voice in their management, and who 
 shall visit them only in her presence. If she, by her Christian 
 Science, shall cure any one of them, I shall proclaim her 
 omnipotent from the housetop, and if she shall cure all or 
 even half of them I shall cheerfully crawl on my hands and 
 knees that I may but touch the hem of her walking dress. If 
 it will be more to the convenience of Mrs. Eddy, and she is 
 not disposed to honor us with a visit, I shall take pleasure 
 in endeavoring through my friends to make a similar ar- 
 rangement for her at Bellevue or some other New York 
 hospital. If Mrs. Eddy will accept this challenge and cure 
 one or more of the cases, she will thereby demonstrate that 
 she may be something more than either a conscienceless 
 speculator on human credulity, or an unfortunate victim of 
 egoistic alienation. 
 
 To which, we suppose, Airs. Eddy would reply, "An 
 evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, 
 and there shall no sign be given to it." Christian 
 Scienee healers are not willing to afford proof. They 
 must make the diagnosis, and their word unsupported 
 must he aeeepted as "confirmation strong as holy 
 writ." Their miracles, as will be seen presently, can 
 only he performed secretly, or in the presence of sym- 
 pathetic, which is to say, Christian Science witnesses. 
 Mrs. Eddy fears to have her patients exposed to any 
 
Christian Science. 151 
 
 risk of being injured by the transference of the un- 
 believing thought of unsympathetic witnesses ! — 
 Science and Health, p. 422. 
 
 One more fact may be mentioned as aiding the un- 
 biased reader to make up a verdict. It is the marked 
 differences between Christian Science miracles and 
 the miracles wrought by our Lord and his apostles. 
 They did not court privacy w T hen performing their 
 miracles. Lazarus was raised from the dead in the 
 presence of a large number, who had been witnesses 
 of his death. The ruler's daughter was restored to 
 life under circumstances which precluded the possi- 
 bility of deception. The raising of Dorcas and of 
 Eutychus was public. When our Lord cleansed lep- 
 ers or cured fevers he did not retire into privacy or 
 resort to any mysterious methods. He simply uttered 
 his word of power. So also when the apostles healed 
 the sick. They spoke in the name of Jesus, and the 
 cure was accomplished in an instant. Not only do 
 Christian Scientists heal privately, and by the use of 
 mysterious methods, but their cures are limited to 
 certain classes of disease. Our Lord healed the ear 
 of the servant of the high priest which had been cut 
 off by Peter's sword. He healed leprosy, the most 
 invincible of diseases. He and his disciples raised 
 the dead. Mrs. Eddy's book has the motto of the 
 new church on its cover, "Heal the sick, raise the 
 dead," but we observe in it no report of any case of 
 leprosy healed, nor of amputated members restored, 
 nor yet any case of resurrection. Christian Scientists 
 claim to work their cures by the same methods by 
 which Jesus wrought his "so-called miracles." Why 
 do their works, both as to character and methods, fall 
 so far below the miracles of our Lord? 
 
152 Christian Science. 
 
 Not only is it true that Christian Scientist healers 
 fail to achieve the same results which attended the 
 ministry of the apostles, but they do not always suc- 
 ceed in their attempted cures. Our Lord made no 
 failures. The apostles did what they attempted to 
 do. As we shall see, this cannot be said of Christian 
 Scientists. 
 
XL 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE. 
 
 A careful study of Christian Science methods in 
 healing will convince any unbiased reader that such 
 methods are well adapted to influence all who are pe- 
 culiarly liable to hypnotic passivity, as well as to cre- 
 ate in less sensitive patients a degree of mental ex- 
 pectancy which will often answer the purpose of 
 drug stimulation. Mrs. Eddy gives the following 
 directions to mental healers : 
 
 I. The healer must acquire the highest degree of 
 self-confidence. He must watch "lest he be over- 
 whelmed by a growing sense of the odiousness of 
 sin, and by the unveiling of sin in his own thoughts." 
 — Science and Health, p. 365. He must suffer no be- 
 lief in his own ill-desert to mar his peace, and so will 
 be "calm in the presence of both sin and disease, 
 knowing, as he does, that God is Love, and that God 
 is All." — Ibid. This blinding of one's self to the 
 thought of his own ill-desert will tend to give him a 
 self-possessed and confident manner, which is of the 
 utmost importance. Again, "To succeed in healing 
 you must conquer your own beliefs and fears as well 
 as those of your patients, and you must rise daily into 
 higher and holier consciousness." This "conscious- 
 ness" is nothing more than the conviction aforesaid 
 that God is all, etc. The practitioner who can 
 bring himself to believe this, with its resulting doc- 
 trines of the unreality of sin and sickness, will feel 
 
154 Christian Science. 
 
 himself fully competent to deal with the "beliefs" of 
 
 others to the contrary, and will comport himself with 
 quite the air of a conqueror, which, in fact, he is, 
 having conquered his own reason and common sense. 
 Xo mere good opinion of one's self will suffice. "In 
 the Science of Mental Healing it is imperative to be 
 perfect, for victory rests on the side of immutable 
 right/' This persuasion of one's own immaculate 
 perfection is a degree of self-confidence which goes 
 far beyond the modesty of the medical profession, 
 and will of itself tend to bring mental healers a mul- 
 titude of patients. The public is generally willing to 
 give considerable credence to reformers who seem to 
 believe in themselves, and the sick in especial respond 
 readily to the confidence of a physician. 
 
 2. Mrs. Eddy advises sympathetic behavior. This, 
 of course, applies to the patient's infirmities, and not 
 to his diseases, which are to be accounted unreal, and 
 not to be admitted as entitling him to sympathy. No- 
 body can fail to approve "the tender word and gentle 
 touch, sweet forbearance with an invalid's hastiness, 
 and pitiful patience with his fears." — p. 366. 
 
 3. It is essential to relieve the patient's fears, change 
 his belief, and rouse mental energy. "Establish the 
 scientific sense of health, and you relieve the oppressed 
 organ, and the inflammation, decomposition, or de- 
 posit, will abate, and the disabled organ will resume 
 its healthy functions." — p. 372. Thus, "chills and 
 heat are often the form in which fever * manifests 
 itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and 
 fever disappear." — p. 374. 
 
 1 In early editions the words "the fear" stood in this place. 
 I- Mrs. Eddy afraid to say that disease is fear after having 
 said it so often? Or is this a typographical error? 
 
Christian Science. 155 
 
 Not only has Mrs. Eddy learned something from 
 the hypnotists, but she has learned something also 
 from the failures of despondent physicians. "By 
 conceding to discord such great power a large ma- 
 jority of doctors depress mental energy, which is the 
 only real recuperative power," she thinks ; and hence 
 this very wise and proper advice to her students : 
 "Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no un- 
 necessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. 
 Never startle with a discouraging remark about re- 
 covery, or draw attention to certain symptoms as un- 
 favorable, or speak aloud the name of the disease. 
 Never say beforehand how much you have to contend 
 with in a case, or encourage, in the patient's thought, 
 the expectation of growing worse before the crisis is 
 past." — pp. 394- ? 5- Every reputable physician will 
 endorse these as sound rules of treatment, especially 
 when no medicine is to be administered. In his ad- 
 dress on "The Mental Factors in the Causation and 
 Cure of Disease," which I quoted in a previous chap- 
 ter, Dr. R. L. Payne, of Norfolk, Va., advises his 
 fellows of the healing art, in order to inspire con- 
 fidence, to make a thorough examination. "Carefully 
 interrogate each organ, auscultate, percuss, palpate, 
 scrutinize the tongue, note the pulse and tempera- 
 ture, and investigate the secretions, and if you gain 
 nothing beyond what you have almost intuitively de- 
 termined, you have none the less impressed your pa- 
 tient with the idea that you have given his condition 
 a proper study, and are competent to treat him." Fur- 
 ther, he advises that the patient be given "such men- 
 tal distraction from his ailment as his condition will 
 admit of," such as pleasant conversation, trips away 
 from home, change of scene, and last, but not least, 
 
156 Christian Science. 
 
 the stimulant of hope. "In so far as you can, con- 
 sistently with truth, lead the patient to believe a given 
 result will accrue, and you will have gone a long way 
 in reaching the end of your medication. Excite his 
 will power, make him believe that much depends upon 
 his own determination, and always remember to ad- 
 minister the cordial of hope." 
 
 4. The nurse should be cheerful, and by all means 
 a believer in Christian Science. "An ill-tempered or 
 complaining person should not be a nurse. The nurse 
 should be full of cheerfulness, faith, light — a believer 
 in God, Truth." — p. 394. Aside from the tonic effects 
 of cheerfulness, it is manifest that it would always be 
 best for a mental healer to have as his assistant in the 
 sick-room one who firmly believes in the glorious 
 "Science of Mental Healing." 
 
 5. While it is alleged that faith in Christian Science 
 is not needed to insure a cure, the healer must never- 
 theless take pains to make the patient a convert during 
 the healing process. This is, in fact, but a part of the 
 process. The sick "know nothing of the mental pro- 
 cess by which they are depleted, and next to nothing 
 of the metaphysical method by which they can be 
 healed . . . Assure them that they think too much 
 about their ailments, and have already heard too much 
 on that subject. Turn their thoughts away from 
 their bodies to higher objects. Teach them that their 
 bodies are sustained by Spirit, not matter, and they 
 will find rest in God, divine Love, more than in obliv- 
 ious sleep." — pp. 4i4-'i5. If the patient is only an 
 ordinary Christian, without any acquaintance with the 
 vagaries of Christian Science theology, this will be a 
 good introduction to the blessed religion whose alias 
 is the "Science of Mental Healing." It is carefully 
 
Christian Science. 157 
 
 coated, and sufficiently like orthodox teaching to be 
 swallowed whole and without suspicion. This pro- 
 cess must be kept up during the patient's convales- 
 cence. "Explain audibly to your patients (as soon 
 as they can bear it) the utter control which Mind 
 holds over the body. Show them how mortal mind 
 seems to induce disease by certain fears and false 
 conclusions, and how divine Mind can cure by oppo- 
 site thoughts." — pp. 41 5-' 16. 
 
 6. Take pains to isolate the patient from all who 
 doubt the truth of Mrs. Eddy's doctrines. "It is 
 equally important in metaphysical practice that the 
 minds which surround your patient should not act 
 against your influence by continually expressing such 
 opinions as may alarm or discourage, either by giv- 
 ing antagonistic advice or through unspoken thoughts 
 resting on your patient. While it is certain that Mind 
 can remove any obstacle, you yet need the ear of your 
 auditor. It is more difficult to make yourself heard 
 mentally when others are thinking about your pa- 
 tients or conversing with them. Therefore you should 
 seek to be alone with God and the sick while treating 
 the cases confided to your care." — p. 422. This will 
 enable the mental healer to get the patient completely 
 under his influence, and also to hypnotize him, should 
 he choose to do so, without being discovered. 
 
 7: The healer must in certain cases use authority, 
 and order the patient to get well. "If it becomes 
 necessary to startle mortal mind in order to break its 
 dreams of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that 
 he must awake." — p. 418. It has been seen that 
 shock of almost any sort is useful in bringing about 
 reaction. Dr. Krackowitzer shocked his patient by 
 commanding her in a loud voice to get out of bed and 
 
158 Christian Science. 
 
 dress and go down to the parlor; and we have re- 
 ferred to a case in which the shock of a railroad acci- 
 dent has cured rheumatism. Now, Mrs. Eddy is wise 
 in her generation, and an example to all wise physi- 
 cians, in thus advising her students to rouse the pa- 
 tient, if possible, by vehement commands. If the pa- 
 tient should resent this method of dismissing his 
 ailments, an explanation is always in order. "Should 
 you thus startle the mind in order to relieve its fears, 
 afterwards make known to your patient your motive 
 for this shock, showing him that it was to facilitate 
 recovery." 
 
 8. The healer should never be discouraged by a re- 
 lapse. "If, from any cause, your patient suffers a re- 
 lapse, meet the case mentally and courageously, know- 
 ing there can be no reaction in Truth." — p. 417. The 
 doctrine that there is no reaction in Truth, which can- 
 not be denied, since Truth in this system is but an- 
 other name for God, is to be maintained at all haz- 
 ards, even though the patient should die while the 
 healer is trying to make him walk, as in the case 
 of Mr. Kershaw, related in the next chapter. If 
 the facts don't agree with Airs. Eddy's theory, so 
 much the worse for the facts. And, besides, what 
 effect would facts have in destroying the conviction 
 of Christian Scientists that "there is no reaction in 
 Truth?" This oracle is sufficiently Delphic to meet 
 any emergency. Not death itself among mortals 
 could change the Changeless. 
 
 9. Airs. Eddy recommends the "silent treatment" 
 as ordinarily best, though permitting the spoken ar- 
 gument when this seems necessary. The value of the 
 silent treatment is supposed to reside in the fact that 
 thoughts transferred from healer to patient without 
 
Christian Science. 159 
 
 words are, if anything, more effective than thoughts 
 transferred through speech. "If you mentally and 
 silently eall the disease by name as you argue against 
 it, as a general rule the body will respond more 
 quickly — just as a person replies more readily when 
 his name is spoken/' says Mrs. Eddy, though she 
 recommends a more excellent way, which is, "to let 
 Spirit, through the power of Divine Love, bear wit- 
 ness, without arguments, to the healing Truth." — p. 
 409. Which is to say, let the healer simply think that 
 Spirit will certainly heal the disease, whatever it may 
 be, without engaging in a mental argument w r ith the 
 disease or with the patient. He must "silently reas- 
 sure his patient as to his exemption from disease and 
 danger." "The silence of Christian Science and Love 
 is eloquent." — p. 410. 
 
 Other mental healers have carried Mrs. Eddy's 
 hints out to their logical sequences. Helen Wilmans 
 says that thought is a force, a kind of ether, which 
 goes where you send it. I deem it unnecessary to dis- 
 cuss the question of telepathy in this connection. Suf- 
 fice it to say, there is no proof that in any case the 
 thought is really transferred. Some effect is un- 
 doubtedly produced in the way of exciting expecta- 
 tion by the healer's mysterious silence. He is sup- 
 posed to be treating the case, and thinks he is. Fur- 
 ther, he is known to be attempting to heal through 
 mental power alone ; and this thought is already trans- 
 ferred to the patient, even before the silent treatment 
 begins, unless the patient happens to be unconscious, 
 in which case the only mental treatment possible or 
 rational is to wait silently until the patient awakes 
 from his stupor. If he happens to awake feeling bet- 
 ter, as is frequently the case, the mental healer is ac- 
 
160 Christian Science. 
 
 credited with a partial cure before he has uttered a 
 word. 
 
 It is evident that this silent treatment has in it all 
 the elements of "therapeutic suggestion/' and is well 
 adapted to influence sensitive subjects who are liable 
 to hypnotize themselves. 
 
 10. Mrs. Eddy recommends "absent treatments," 
 and her followers and imitators have elaborated her 
 theory, and have profited by the credulity of thou- 
 sands. kk Science can heal the sick who are absent 
 from their healer," she says, "as well as the present, 
 since space is no obstacle to Mind." — p. 71. Follow- 
 ing in her wake, Hazzard declares, "There is no space 
 nor time to mind. A person in St. Louis may be near 
 to me while I am in New York. A person in the 
 same room may be very distant. Sit down and think 
 about the person you wish to affect. Think long 
 enough and strong enough, and you are sure to reach 
 him." Mrs. Eddy, in one of her publications, re- 
 ports one case of heart disease which she cured with- 
 out even seeing the patient, who afterwards wrote, 
 "The day you received my husband's letter I became 
 conscious for the first time in forty-eight hours, . . . 
 and sat up. . . . The enlargement of my left side 
 is gone, and the doctors pronounce me rid of heart 
 disease. I had been afflicted with it from infancy. It 
 became organic enlargement of the heart and dropsy 
 of the chest. I was only waiting and almost longing 
 to die, but you have healed me. How wonderful to 
 think of it, when you and I have never seen each 
 other !" 
 
 With reference to this case, upon which Mrs. Eddy 
 relies strongly, Dr. Buckley remarks : 
 
Christian Science. 161 
 
 What can this prove? What evidence is there that she 
 would not have become conscious if the letter had not been 
 written? If she were ever to come out of an unconscious 
 state and recover, it must be at some time. The coincidence 
 of Mrs. Eddy's receiving a letter from the husband does not 
 show any connection between the two facts, for such letters 
 have been sent and the patients died. To my personal 
 knowledge her treatments have failed, and her predictions 
 have not been fulfilled, the patients dying in excruciating 
 agony. Instances which have occurred, and can be repro- 
 duced at any time, of the attempted absent treatment of per- 
 sons who never existed are numerous, for there is not one 
 of this class of healers who cannot be imposed upon. This 
 is sufficient to raise a powerful presumption that the spiritual 
 presence which they evoke, and to which they speak, is "such 
 stuff as dreams are made of." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy assumes thought transference as an es- 
 tablished fact. Professional hypnotists have more to 
 say about the possibility of thought transference than 
 others, and Hudson claims that experimental tele- 
 pathy is much more easily produced when hypnotism 
 is practiced after the method of Mesmer. The hypno- 
 tized subject, it is claimed, will experience all the sen- 
 sations of the hypnotist. This similarity of teaching 
 is suspicious. 
 
 ii. Before leaving the subject of Christian Science 
 practice, it is well to bear in mind another statement of 
 Mrs. Eddy's, as to what constitutes the most favorable 
 condition of success in Christian Science healing. 
 This is ignorance on the part of the patient. "A pa- 
 tient thoroughly booked in medical theories has less 
 sense of the divine power, and is more difficult to heal 
 through Mind, than an aboriginal Indian who never 
 bowed the knee to the Baal of civilization. " — Science 
 and Health, p. 381. The last clause is omitted in 
 
1 62 Christian Science. 
 
 recent editions, so that instead of "than an aboriginal 
 Indian," etc., we read "than one who is hot." The 
 reason of this revision is plain. 
 
 Perhaps the following specimen treatment, as re- 
 ported by Helen Wilmans, will indicate somewhat the 
 elements of power in this style of healing : 
 
 I said to him mentally, You have no disease; what you 
 call your disease is a fixed mode of thought arising from the 
 absence of positive belief in absolute good. Be stronger, I 
 said; you must believe in absolute good. I am looking at 
 you, and I see you a beautiful, strong spirit, perfectly sound. 
 You are not diseased; the shadow of a doubt is reflected in 
 your feet, but it has no real existence. There, look down 
 yourself, and see that it is gone. Why, it was a mere negation, 
 and the place where you located it now shows for itself as 
 sound as the rest of your body. Don't you know that im- 
 perfection is impossible in that beautiful structure, your real 
 self? Since there is no evil in the universe, and since man is 
 the highest expression of good amidst ubiquitous Good, how 
 can you be diseased? You are not diseased. There is not 
 an angel in all the spheres sounder or more divine than you 
 are. Then I spoke aloud, "There, now." I said, "you won't 
 have that pain again." As I said it there was a surge of con- 
 viction through me that seemed to act on the blood vessels 
 and made me tingle all over. 
 
 Here is "therapeutic suggestion" again. 
 
XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FAILURES. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy contends that all medical systems are 
 fraudulent, and based on a supposititious "material 
 law" ; but she takes pains to advise her students to 
 follow, in their practice, substantially the same rules 
 that are obeyed by all intelligent physicians. In addi- 
 tion to these directions, she adds such recommenda- 
 tions as are adapted, if not designed, to hypnotize 
 sensitive patients, and in any event to insure to the 
 mental practitioner, in case the patient recovers, the 
 credit of accomplishing a cure. 
 
 But our new healing oracle claims to have discov- 
 ered an infallible rule, an undeviating principle, which 
 she spells with a capital P, by which all diseases may 
 be cured, food rendered unnecessary, cold and heat 
 defied, and death itself driven from earth. Here is 
 her argument : 
 
 If mathematics presents a thousand different examples of 
 one principle, the proving of one example authenticates all 
 the others. A simple statement of Christian Science, if dem- 
 onstrated by healing, contains the proof of all here said of it. 
 If one of the statements in this book is true, every one must 
 be true, for not one departs from its system or rule. You 
 can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of Healing, 
 and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct inter- 
 pretation of Scripture. — Science and Health, p. 539. 
 
 No finer specimen of Mrs. Eddy's logic than this 
 paragraph can be found. It is the very quintessence 
 
164 Christian Science. 
 
 of the aroma of her thought. It consists of four 
 statements, the first of which is an axiomatic truth, 
 while the rest are transparent fallacies. When it has 
 been shown that ia — b» 2 = a 2 — 2ab — b 2 , a principle 
 has been illustrated which enables us to find the square 
 of the sum of any two algebraic quantities. But it 
 does not follow from this mathematical truth that if 
 Mrs. Eddy succeeds in healing one case of disease. 
 she thereby demonstrates her rule, and much less her 
 own infallibility. Neither can it be said that if one 
 statement in her book is true, all of them are true. In 
 trying to lug into her arguments a great many f; 
 to prove her theory, she has made glaring mistake-, 
 both in her reasoning and in the facts upon which she 
 has built her arguments. If she adduces as proofs 
 facts that are not facts, her argument is weakened by 
 just so much as she relies on those facts ; and yet her 
 argument is, that if she states one fact correctly, this 
 proves that she has made no erroneous statement in 
 any particular! Suppose the m: of Egypt, 
 
 prior to their miracle-working contest with Mos 
 had declared that all their miracles were wrought by 
 the same rule, and that if they succeeded in working 
 one, their success proved the truth of their whole 
 em. Those who accepted that reasoning as con- 
 clusive would have been compelled to close their eyes 
 to facts when the time came that these magicians 
 could no longer "do likewise with their enchant- 
 ment-." And this is precisely what Mrs. Eddy would 
 have us do. Her success in a single instance pr< 
 her infallible. Her failures must be accounted 
 without in anywise denying her "rule." 
 
 r, again, would any number of cures by Chris- 
 tian Science methods prove that Mrs. Eddy's interpre- 
 
Christian Science. 165 
 
 tations of Scripture are correct. As we have - 
 Catholics. Greek and Roman, Protestants. Mormons, 
 and even heathen medicine-men. have succeeded in 
 healing diseases according to their several rules. 
 - this prove that all the diverse interpretations of 
 Scripture adopted by Roman Catholics. Protestants 
 and Mormons are correct ? Does it elevate heathen- 
 ism to the same platform of demonstration with 
 Christianity? It must be so, if Airs. Eddy's logic is 
 right. Her argument proves too much. Her diffi- 
 culty is in confounding mathematical with moral cer- 
 tainty, and then assuming that her method has all the 
 certainty of a mathematical principle. She is wrong 
 in both directions. Many passages of Scripture are 
 not susceptible of interpretation with certainty. The 
 facts necessary to explain them are not at hand, and 
 when we have the facts, there may be difference- :: 
 opinion as to precisely what the facts prove. Besides. 
 Mrs. Eddy's method is neither mathematical nor 
 philosophical. The only true scientific method is to 
 deduce a general law from a large number of facts in 
 which, certain conditions being present, the sequences 
 are absolutely uniform. If Newton had found that 
 some of his apples fell toward the moon and passed 
 out of sight, while others fell into his lap. he would 
 never have discovered the law of gravitation. But he 
 found that all apples fell toward the earth, and by fur- 
 ther experiments was able to deduce his law. There 
 were no exceptions. 
 
 w this is a very simple and elementary principle 
 of reasoning, which Mrs. Eddy has ignored, if indeed 
 she ever learned it. Her patients — including, if I am 
 not mistaken, one or more of her husbands — have died 
 under Christian Science treatment. Does that prove 
 
166 Christian Science. 
 
 anything ? Are we not bound to conclude that if she 
 fails in one case her rule must be wrong? Must we 
 take the familiar ground that "exceptions prove the 
 rule," and assume that the greater the number of ex- 
 ceptions, the better the rule is proven? Or must we 
 conclude that a failure occurring in the practice of 
 people who profess to heal all manner of diseases on 
 "a demonstrable Principle," shows conclusively that 
 their so-called "Principle" has not yet been demon- 
 strated ? Take the following case in point : 
 
 Thomas Greenwood Kershaw, leader of the Christian 
 Science congregation in Tacoma, Washington, died of acute 
 pneumonia November 12th as a result of his refusal to re- 
 ceive medical treatment. According to reports he was a man 
 of the highest education and intelligence, and until he identi- 
 fied himself with Christian Science was one of the most ac- 
 tive and successful business men in Tacoma. Since em- 
 bracing that doctrine, though himself a sufferer from a 
 broken hip, he had devoted his entire time to promulgating 
 the faith and administering to the afflicted. When taken ill 
 Mr. Kershaw, despite the entreaties of his family, refused to 
 see physicians, and placed himself in the care of a woman 
 Christian Science healer at Savannah, 111., who, he said, was 
 able to relieve him, regardless of distance. He was visited 
 by several of his Christian Science followers, and at their 
 suggestion he rose from the bed and took a step forward. 
 He would have fallen had he not been caught. It was then 
 found that he was dead. — Philadelphia Medical Journal. 
 
 This is but a typical case. This man saw no incon- 
 sistency in his course, notwithstanding his own ina- 
 bility to heal, or find some one of his associates who 
 could heal, his broken hip; and yet he persists in 
 trusting the theory which he has embraced until he is 
 dying, and at last falls dead in the very act of rising 
 
Christian Science. 167 
 
 from his bed to demonstrate the unreality of his sick- 
 ness ! If this man had obeyed the dictates of reason, 
 he would have remembered the proverb, "Physician, 
 heal thyself," and would not have risked his life on 
 the treatment for pneumonia, which he supposed him- 
 self to be receiving from a woman two thousand miles 
 away. 
 
 In the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer of No- 
 vember 27, 1898, the following item, copied from an 
 exchange, appeared : 
 
 The pretensions of Christian Science have again been 
 brought prominently before the public by the death of the 
 gifted correspondent, Harold Frederic, and the verdict of 
 the coroner's jury that the persons responsible for his death 
 were guilty of manslaughter. Here is a sort of summary of 
 the Christian Science doctrine as taken from the book of 
 Prophetess Eddy : 
 
 "You say a boil is painful ; but that is impossible, for mat- 
 ter without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests 
 your belief in pain through inflammation and swelling, and 
 you call this belief a boil. Now administer mentally to your 
 patient a high attenuation of truth on this subject and it will 
 soon cure the boil. The fact that pain cannot exist where 
 there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this so-called 
 mind makes its own pain — that is, its own belief of pain." 
 
 Nothing could be more complete than this demonstration 
 of the non-existence of pain and disease if the patient could 
 only be brought to realize it, and could arise and walk and 
 enjoy himself, just as a well man does. Unfortunately for 
 Harold Frederic, he was not able to realize this absence of 
 pain until he was dead, after which no further complaint 
 was heard from him. Before his death, however, he begged 
 not to be abandoned to the Christian Scientists, but he had 
 no longer strength of will to drive them away. 
 
 Cases might be multiplied, but these will suffice for 
 our purpose. 
 
1 68 Christian Science. 
 
 Now, in view of the fact, which nobody can deny, 
 that every person who has ever been treated by Chris- 
 tian Scientists must die some time, and that many die, 
 as did Messrs. Kershaw and Frederic, while they are 
 under treatment, do not these ever-recurring excep- 
 tions to her ''rule" show that it cannot be relied upon ? 
 If twice two sometimes made four, and other times 
 did not, what faith could we have in the multiplica- 
 tion table ? 
 
 Christian Scientist healers are discreetly silent as 
 to their innumerable failures. Every instance in 
 which their treatment is followed by the recovery of 
 the patient is set down as a "demonstration" of Chris- 
 tian Science. Failures count for nothing-, unless to 
 show that the practitioner failed to "realize" the 
 Truth. Does it not stand to reason that if Mrs. Eddy 
 had discovered a certain method of healing all man- 
 ner of sickness, and even of conquering death, her 
 success would be so invariable as to show the world 
 that it is wrong in rejecting her theory? 
 
XIII. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE BODY ON THE MIND. 
 
 I have accounted for the success of mental healers 
 by exhibiting the mental factors in the cause and cure 
 of disease. Mental expectation, or faith, violent emo- 
 tion, shock, which causes extraordinary excitement, 
 and either "simple" or hypnotic suggestion, have been 
 shown to be influences sufficient to explain many re- 
 markable cures, leaving out of view the vast possi- 
 bilities of coincidence. But we may not conclude that 
 drugs are useless, and all diseases due to mental 
 causes. Two considerations, both of which are 
 obvious, will prevent thoughtful readers from adopt- 
 ing Mrs. Eddy's hasty generalization. One is, that 
 the classes of disease which have been success- 
 fully treated by mental methods do by no means ex- 
 haust the category of human ills. One case of alleged 
 cancer is paraded. The testimony is challenged, and 
 no attention is paid to the challenge. Rheumatism, 
 neuralgia, nervous dyspepsia, and all the diseases that 
 may be simulated by hysteria and hypochondria, are 
 conceded to afford a profitable field for Christian 
 Science experiment; but Mrs. Eddy confesses the 
 weakness of her system on the score of surgery. 
 Many illnesses can only be relieved by surgical treat- 
 ment. Another consideration is, that the influence 
 of the body over the mind is a fact as well attested by 
 the medical profession as the influence of the mind 
 over the body. Mrs. Eddy, as we have seen, seizes 
 
170 Christian Science. 
 
 upon the latter principle, and urges all the facts which 
 medical science presents on that side of the question 
 as proofs of her theory as to the uselessness of drugs. 
 She ignores a class of facts even larger, which dem- 
 onstrate to any mind open to conviction that the hu- 
 man body affects the mind quite as much as the mind 
 affects the body. 
 
 The Scriptures contain a number of instances in 
 which this principle is illustrated. Esau, hungry and 
 dispirited after his fruitless chase, despises his birth- 
 right, and sells it for a mess of pottage. Jonathan, 
 faint with battle toil, finds that his "eyes have been 
 enlightened" by the honey which he has tasted. Eli- 
 jah, under the juniper tree, is discouraged and ready 
 to die, and God not only encourages him, but first of 
 all gives him rest and food. Says a brilliant writer, 
 who has wrought nobly tinder the burden of constant 
 infirmity : 
 
 It is now coming to be well understood that largely the 
 bodily temperament acts upon the mind; that often the fears 
 of the brave and the follies of the wise can he resolved into 
 neuralgia, catarrh and dyspepsia. The condition and coating 
 of the tongue have become not only the tell-tale of the phys- 
 ical man, but the barometer of his spirits. The animal part 
 leaves its mold on the ethereal. As a dent on a can prints 
 the blow on the core of yielding lard within, so the touch of 
 disease disorders the mind. Insanity is a lesion in the or- 
 gans. 
 
 The diagnosis of spiritual distempers would be more sure 
 if there was better acquaintance with the morbid functions 
 of the human frame. How often are good men in heaviness, 
 not by reason of sin, but through vitiated secretions or dis- 
 turbed circulation. They mi-take the cause of lowness of 
 spirit-. "Asbury," says Bishop McTyiere. "was subject to 
 melancholy and dejection." The reader of his journals can 
 
Christian Science. 171 
 
 see how his exhausted powers, unstrung nerves, indifferent 
 health and overtaxed strength dragged down his soul into 
 a slough of desperation. Sad utterances come from weari- 
 ness and disease. There are hints in the pastoral epistles 
 of hesitation and the misgivings in Timothy. Paul exhorts 
 him to courage and cheerfulness, but wisely also prescribes 
 for his indigestion and "often infirmity," the source probably 
 of mental disquietude and spiritual distrust. 
 
 In the autobipgraphies of saintly people we find them at 
 times writing bitter things against themselves. Careful scru- 
 tiny will connect these pitiful self-accusations with the bod- 
 ily confusions and the mental vagaries of the invalid. There 
 is no sadder sight than a godly person treating the natural 
 droopings and dullness — the offspring of physical malady — 
 as the frown of the Almighty. With the departure of the 
 pain the dark pall of doubt and dismay lifts and reveals the 
 mistake of a miasmatic mist for an eclipse of faith. 
 
 God knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust. 
 The highest place among the celestials will not be given to 
 the saint of hearty appetite, sound sleep and thorough diges- 
 tion. When the Job of saffron skin, of rasped nerves, 
 scalded epigastrium and dismal liver can command himself 
 and not curse God and die, he is a hero of patience and 
 worthy of exaltation. And consider what a magazine of ex- 
 plosive sin is in such a soul, and exposed to the fiery darts of 
 Satan ! . . . With the tongue dripping with exudations 
 from viscous glands, what a force is needed to restrain ex- 
 pectoration of venom on rivals ! What martyrdom to keep 
 silent and swallow his own bubbling bile ! Be thankful for 
 the smallest civility of speech from mortals whose dinners 
 decay without digestion, inflaming the blood and leaving on 
 the lip a bitter cud. 1 
 
 Every wise physician, and every thoughtful soul 
 outside the ranks of Christian Scientists, will approve 
 
 1 Rev. J. J. Lafferty, LL. D., in Richmond Christian Ad- 
 vocate. 
 
172 Christian Science. 
 
 these statements. We are "fearfully and wonderfully 
 made;" and one of the most fearful and wonderful 
 things about us is that our frames of dust do so clog 
 and hinder the freedom of the immortal mind. An 
 abscess in the liver will becloud the most sanguine 
 spirit, nor will the darkness disappear until the sur- 
 geon has made an incision, drawn off the poisonous 
 pus, and introduced a drainage tube. Why is it that 
 the consumptive is ordinarily so cheerful, and often 
 succeeds in doing a vast amount of useful work, even 
 when in the advanced stages of his disease, while the 
 sufferer from jaundice is melancholy, and incapaci- 
 tated for either mental or physical exertion? In the 
 one case, the disease is attended with a fever which 
 quickens the circulation, and drives the blood toward 
 the head, flushing the cheek and also nourishing the 
 brain, while in the other the circulation is sluggish, 
 the brain is anaemic, and the whole system is left with- 
 out proper nourishment. It is a well-established fact 
 that drugs which alter the disturbed secretions, and 
 relieve the system of noxious matter, will invariably 
 bring relief from distressing mental symptoms, as well 
 as clear the complexion, and change the coating of 
 the tongue. 
 
 Christian Scientists claim peculiar success in deal- 
 ing with insanity. This may well be questioned save 
 in cases of hysterical mania. Many of the facts of 
 insanity and its correlated forms of disease, such as 
 epilepsy, paralysis, and cretinism, are such as effec- 
 tually explode the theory that all disease originates 
 in the mind ; though it has been proven conclusively 
 that insanity may result from the acceptance of Mrs. 
 Eddy's views. 
 
 Medical science has long ago demonstrated that 
 
Christian Science. 173 
 
 in even case of insanity there is some lesion in the 
 brain substance. The brain is now mapped out, and 
 the skilful surgeon can often determine, by a study of 
 his patient's symptoms, not only the character of the 
 lesion, but in many cases the precise locality of the 
 brain in which it can be found. Where there is no 
 sign of injury on the surface of the skull, surgeons 
 may and do succeed in diagnosing the cause of paraly- 
 sis accurately, and have raised the skull, or removed 
 buttons of bone from the interior surface, the result 
 being the patient's complete recovery. That insanity 
 is often due to concussion and fracture of the skull is 
 now thoroughly established. Folsome mentions a 
 case reported by S. K. Towle {Pepper's System of 
 Medicine, p. 145) of a soldier who was, when he en- 
 tered the army, a model young man, amiable and af- 
 fectionate. On his return from the army he was ad- 
 mitted into a soldiers' home, where he soon showed 
 himself an example of almost total depravity. He 
 had a small scar on his head, which he attributed to a 
 flesh wound. After his death, which was very sud- 
 den, autopsy revealed the presence of a bullet, which 
 had fractured the skull, and, passing through the 
 membranes, had partially entered the brain. The in- 
 ternal table of the skull was splintered, and there was 
 evidence of severe chronic inflammation all round the 
 wound, with an accumulation of pus in the brain at 
 the point where the bullet projected into it. It is now 
 well known that, could an examination have been 
 made by means of the Roentgen X-rays, the bullet 
 would have been located, the skull promptly trephined, 
 the patient's sanity restored, and his life greatly pro- 
 longed. Dr. Buckley reports the case of a negro who 
 
174 Christian Science. 
 
 was wounded during the war between the States by a 
 fragment of a shell. He wandered about for several 
 years, to all appearances a drivelling idiot, when cer- 
 tain surgeons became interested in him, and concluded 
 that his idiocy was probably due to pressure upon his 
 brain. They accordingly trephined his skull, and, on 
 lifting the piece of bone which had been pressing 
 down upon his brain, they were astounded as the light 
 of intelligence returned to his eye, and he said, "Wo 
 were at Manassas yesterday; where are we to-day?" 
 Similar cases, in which operations have brought pa- 
 tients up from the jaws of death, some of them be- 
 ing already in a state of coma, have occurred so 
 frequently in recent years that those who refuse to 
 believe must needs be blind to facts. 
 
 Dr. Brown-Sequard, in his lectures on "The Physi- 
 ology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System," 
 relates a case which is conclusive, as showing that 
 insanity is sometimes due solely to physical condi- 
 tions. The patient had never exhibited any symptom 
 of mental disease until one morning he became a 
 maniac as soon as he set foot on the floor when getting 
 out of bed. He was forced back upon the bed, and 
 was immediately sane. During the morning he at- 
 tempted several times to rise, with the same result 
 each time. A physician was called, who, in the course 
 of his examination, discovered that when he held the 
 boy's right great toe with his finger and thumb, the 
 leg was drawn up instantly, and the muscles of the 
 jaw suddenly convulsed, and that when he released 
 the toe, these effects ceased immediately. Further ex- 
 amination disclosed a small irritated point on the skin, 
 scarcely visible, and when this was removed by the 
 
Christian Science. 175 
 
 knife, the boy was freed from his unpleasant sensa- 
 tions, and they did not return. 1 
 
 Post-mortem examinations have revealed the fact 
 that many cases of insanity were due to tumors, and 
 there is evidence that the irritation and malnutrition 
 due to the presence of tape-worms in the intestines 
 have occasioned serious mental and nervous derange- 
 ment. Kuchenmeister collected many cases of cystic 
 worms in the brain. In sixteen there were no morbid 
 svmptoms during life, due, doubtless, to the slight de- 
 gree of pressure exerted upon the brain substance. 
 Six cases showed slight evidence of mental disturb- 
 ance, twenty-four were cases of epilepsy, six of cramp, 
 forty-two of paralysis, and twenty-three of mental dis- 
 turbance of varying intensity. "Impairment of will 
 is not uncommon in antero-frontal and other cerebral 
 tumors, and failure of memory, depression of spirits, 
 and even acute mania, occur." (Pepper, System of 
 Medicine, p. 1038.) 
 
 It is well know r n that congenital insanity is asso- 
 ciated always, either with irregular development of 
 the skull or with impairment of the brain tissue, and 
 frequently with other deformities, such as hare-lip, 
 cleft palate, and with defective sight and hearing. 
 In nearly all cases of idiocy this malformation of the 
 skull is marked. Dropsy of the brain, or change in 
 the interstitial tissues, producing pressure, has often 
 been revealed by autopsy in cases of acute dementia. 
 The phenomena resulting from "softening of the 
 brain" are so well known as hardly to require re- 
 hearsal. 
 
 1 Related also by Dr. Buckley in Faith-Healing, Christian 
 Science and Kindred Phenomena. 
 
176 Christian Science. 
 
 Many cases of insanity occur during the "evolu- 
 
 tional periods of life." Boys and girls Ay ho are just 
 entering upon the age of puberty are liable to attacks 
 of melancholia, and sometimes of acute mania, which 
 usually yield to proper treatment, and one type of in- 
 sanity is known as senile. The insanity of pregnant 
 women is an occurrence so common as to need no 
 comment, and puerperal insanity is on the same plane. 
 In all these cases, when the system is properly toned 
 up, and the secretions become normal, mental health 
 is resumed. Insanity is likewise associated with con- 
 sumption, with gout, with rheumatism, and with 
 anaemia, the mental symptoms ameliorating or grow- 
 ing worse as the disease yields to treatment, or else 
 progresses toward a fatal termination. 
 
 The facts of cretinism are conclusiye as to the effect 
 of physical conditions upon mental development. The 
 cretin, according to Beaupre, has a head of unusual 
 form and size, a squat and bloated figure, a stupid 
 look, bleared, hollow and heavy eyes, and a flat nose. 
 
 His face is of a leaden hue, his skin dirty, flabby, covered 
 with tetters, and his thick tongue hangs down over his moist, 
 livid lips. His mouth, always open and full of saliva, shows 
 teeth going to decay. His chest is narrow, his back curved, 
 his breath asthmatic, his limbs short, misshapen, without 
 power. The knees are thick and inclined inward, the feet 
 flat. The large head drops listlessly on the breast; the abdo- 
 men is like a bag. 
 
 The cretin is usually deaf and dumb, or else able 
 only to utter a hoarse cry. Some show no signs what- 
 ever of intelligence. Many are indifferent to heat 
 and cold, and even to violent blows, and are appa- 
 rently insensible to the most revolting odors. Some 
 are unable to acquire speech, and none of them learn 
 
Christian Science. 177 
 
 more than the rudiments of speech, or are able to 
 perform any but the simplest tasks. Many are found 
 to have water on the brain. Others, again, have 
 heads abnormally small, with sutures prematurely 
 ossified, and portions of the brain matter indurated, 
 while in all the anterior lobes of the brain are much 
 lighter than in persons of normal intelligence. The 
 great mass of them, as shown by the researches of 
 Roesch and Niepce, are afflicted with goitres, which 
 appear at the age of arrested development. St. Lager 
 has demonstrated the fact that cretinism is confined to 
 metalliferous districts, occurring most frequently 
 where the pyrites of iron and of copper predominate, 
 and there is much evidence tending to prove that the 
 cause of goitre, which prevails in those districts, is 
 also the cause of cretinism ; or, at any rate, as Maffei 
 puts it, "goitre is the beginning of that degeneration 
 of which cretinism is the end." 1 
 
 Add to these facts the phenomena of alcoholism. 
 The intemperate use of alcoholic beverages is now 
 known to result, sooner or later, in a degeneration of 
 the entire brain structure. The brain becomes coagu- 
 lated, and when this process has gone far enough, the 
 poor drunkard dies of "mania a potu." Drs. Pritch- 
 ard and Esquirol agree in declaring that one-half the 
 insane were first "crazy on purpose" with alcoholics. 
 Lunacy, it has been well said, is "mostly saloonacy." 
 Eminent authorities may be named who assert that 
 one-half the idiots in the land are the children of those 
 who have made fools of themselves through strong 
 drink. 
 
 Such facts are inexplicable by Christian Science or 
 
 1 Vide Encyclopedia Brittanica, article "Cretinism. 1 
 
178 Christian Science. 
 
 any other theory which attributes all diseases and de- 
 formities to mental influence. Besides all this, it must 
 be borne in mind that scientific autopsy and vivisection 
 have given to the medical profession a complete 
 knowledge of the structural character and localized 
 functions of the brain, and that many diseases for- 
 merly considered incurable yield readily to the sur- 
 geon's knife and saw. We have seen that Mrs. Eddy 
 advises the employment of surgeons. This is a com- 
 plete surrender of the field. The maxim, "falsus in 
 uno, falsus in omnibus" can be justly applied to any 
 theory which assumes to cure all diseases and all 
 accidental injuries, and yet confesses its impotency in 
 dealing with broken limbs and fractured skulls. 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF CHRISTIAN 
 SCIENCE. 
 
XIV. 
 
 AN OLD THEOLOGY IN NEW SHAPE. 
 
 Were Christian Science only a system of mental 
 healing, it would deserve to be ranked as a compara- 
 tively harmless medical fad, like Thompsonianism and 
 other medical vagaries which, from time to time, have 
 occupied the attention and commanded the faith of 
 multitudes. But that which makes it a dangerous 
 enemy to rational Christian faith is that it claims to 
 be a new system of theology. Mrs. Eddy asserts that 
 she has received a new revelation, which is God's gos- 
 pel to this age. To this revelation she has given the 
 name of Christian Science. "In the nineteenth cen- 
 tury," runs her bold challenge, "I affix for all time 
 the word Christianity to Science, and call the world 
 to battle on this issue." (Science and Health, eighty- 
 fourth edition.) It is the hope of all the votaries of 
 this new religion, as Mrs. Woodbury once wrote, to 
 "see all so-called sciences fading away, to give place 
 to the only real science — the Science of Christ-Truth, 
 or Christian Science ;" and even more than that, to 
 see all existing Christian churches forsaken, and cur- 
 rent Christian theology overturned, as the result of 
 the proclamation of this new gospel. Christian 
 Science is a new Protestantism, denouncing as anti- 
 Christ the whole fabric of evangelical Christian doc- 
 trine, and the whole body of orthodox Christian be- 
 lievers. 
 
182 Christian Science. 
 
 With such a system there can be no compromise. 
 Challenged to the battle, it will be my purpose in the 
 following pages to demonstrate the anti-Christian 
 character and heathen origin of M rs. Eddy's theology. 
 She would, indeed, have us surrender our conceptions 
 of every distinctive principle of the Christian religion. 
 
 The fundamental postulate of all Christian theology 
 being the existence of a personal God, she enters 
 against this doctrine an ambiguous and equivocal 
 denial. 
 
 She defines God as "Principle, Life, Truth, Love, 
 Mind, Spirit, Soul," and to these ideas she adds, in a 
 subsequent definition, "Substance, Intelligence," de- 
 claring him to be "the great I AM, the all-knowing, 
 all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal." (Science 
 and Health, pp. 9, 578.) There is nothing in this 
 definition which answers to the conception entertained 
 by intelligent Christians. It ascribes to him not only 
 omniscience and eternity, but all action as well, inti- 
 mating that there is no agent in the universe but God. 
 Evidently she holds to the Pythagorean doctrine that 
 God is the Soul of the universe. She conceives of him 
 as the Divine Essence of all things. In defining him 
 simply as "Spirit, Soul, Mind, Intelligence," she indi- 
 cates her creed by her use of capitals, meaning that 
 God is the only soul, mind, intelligence, etc. This 
 was the teaching of Pythagoras, and we are not 
 surprised to find a writer in The Seed (May, 1893) 
 recapitulating, with manifest approval, the teachings 
 of that ancient philosopher. By following in his wake, 
 heathen though he was, Mrs. Eddy has, in the estima- 
 tion of her worshippers, only rendered her doctrine 
 more "scientific." To their enamored olfactories it 
 makes no difference if her new, infallible, and unpre- 
 

 Christian Science. 183 
 
 cedented revelation is found to have the musty smell 
 of out-worn heathenisms. 
 
 Having made God an abstraction by defining him 
 in terms which exclude, by necessary implication, the 
 idea of personality, Mrs. Eddy labors to impress upon 
 her readers a still more emphatic denial of the person- 
 ality of God. "God is identical with nature," she 
 says; he is "natural Good." (Science and Health, p. 
 13.) The opposite view of God as personal she re- 
 jects as "anthropomorphism, or humanization of 
 Deity" (page 510), and declares that "if God is per- 
 sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one 
 God !" This must be so, if God is all. Orthodox the- 
 ology makes God, she thinks, "a physical personality," 
 a "corporeal Saviour," while she would have us con- 
 sider him a "Saving Principle" (page 181). So 
 strongly is she opposed to the recognition of the per- 
 sonality of God that she finds even the term individ- 
 ual, as applied to him, "open to objections," because 
 God must be "one alone and without an equal" (page 
 
 10). 
 
 One is astonished at the new and foreign designa- 
 tions, imported from ancient pagan philosophy, and, 
 as we shall see, even from modern Buddhism, which 
 she prefers to bestow upon God. Terming him "the 
 only Substance," the "Principle of Being," or simply 
 "Principle," "Mind," "Soul," "Spirit," etc., she takes 
 pains not to admit into her nomenclature any term 
 which seems to imply, even faintly, the doctrine of an 
 Almighty Father, as held by all Christendom. True, 
 she sometimes uses the personal pronoun he in speak- 
 ing of the Divine Being, and sometimes she uses the 
 word Father or the term Father in secret in referring 
 to him, but when she has once waived aside all ideas 
 
184 Christian Science. 
 
 of personality in telling us who and what he is, he 
 must remain to her followers nothing but an infinite 
 abstraction. 
 
 At first glance, it seems possible that her doctrine 
 in this particular may result from ignorance of the 
 doctrine of the divine personality, as understood by 
 evangelical Christians. Indeed, when speaking of 
 human personality, as well as of the divine, she does 
 not distinguish between the physical and metaphysical 
 senses of the word person. When we say of one, "He 
 possesses an agreeable person," we refer to his ap- 
 pearance ; and this seems to be the sense in which 
 Mrs. Eddy invariably uses the word. She seems to 
 think that the very word implies limitation and form. 
 But the distinctive idea conveyed by the word person 
 in metaphysical parlance is. speaking broadly, the 
 conjunction of life with self-consciousness, reason 
 and self-direction, or will. A tree, for instance, is not 
 a person, but a thing. It has life, but not self-con- 
 sciousness, self-direction, or reason. An oyster is not 
 a person, because it has only life and self-conscious- 
 ness, lacking self-direction and reason. A dog has 
 life, self-consciousness and self-direction, but is not a 
 person, because it has not reason. A human being or 
 an angel has all these qualities, and may therefore be 
 spoken of as a person. A person, says Locke, "is a 
 thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflec- 
 tion." And so, since God has all these attributes, he 
 may be spoken of as a person. 
 
 But when we speak of God, we think not only of 
 those qualities which constitute him a person, but also 
 of those attributes in which his infinite glory resides. 
 1 le is, as our Westminster Catechism has it, "infinite, 
 eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, 
 
Christian Science. 185 
 
 power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." At a 
 glance it is seen that the divine personality infinitely 
 transcends the human. Man's attributes are all finite, 
 while God is infinite in all his perfections. 
 
 But Mrs. Eddy's difficulty as to the doctrine of the 
 divine personality, which involves her in a wholesale 
 denial of Scripture, springs logically from her defini- 
 tion of God as Substance, by which she means the 
 only substance in the universe. Hence, she cannot, 
 with evangelical Christians, admit the truth of the 
 Bible doctrine that man is a creation of the divine 
 power, wisdom and love, bearing in his rational na- 
 ture the image of his Creator. True, she uses the 
 terms "creation" and "creature," but she very often 
 uses other terms, such as "instituted" instead of "cre- 
 ated." As we shall see presently, her doctrine is that 
 man is an emanation from God, as a stream is an 
 emanation from its fountain. He is, so far as his men- 
 tal and spiritual attributes are concerned, part and 
 parcel of divinity. Here is a grave divergence from 
 the teaching of Christendom from time immemorial. 
 Catholic theology has always held that man is not an 
 emanation, not a part or subdivision of God. Were 
 he a part of God, we could not conceive of him as 
 "giving account of himself to God," or as receiving 
 the command, "Depart from me, all ye workers of in- 
 iquity," in the day of judgment. But if he is a crea- 
 ture, he is under the divine sovereignty, and if he is 
 a rational creature, he is justly amenable to any law 
 which God may be pleased to make known for his 
 guidance. The persistence of his personality is due to 
 the fact that he is a creature, and not an emanation 
 from God, or a part of God. The whole system of 
 salvation by grace, which is certainly taught in the 
 
1 86 Christian Science. 
 
 Bible, if anything is taught in it, is founded upon the 
 fact that man is a rational, accountable creature. It 
 was because of this fact that when Adam sinned he in- 
 volved his whole posterity in his fall. His federal 
 relation to his descendants in the covenant of works 
 can be understood only when we contemplate him as a 
 creature in whom, seminally, his whole posterity were 
 contained, so that their fate was bound up necessarily 
 in his conduct. As accountable creatures, both Adam 
 and his descendants became the objects of divine so- 
 licitude, and as such they are addressed in the words 
 of gospel warning and invitation. To the fact of ac- 
 countability the human conscience bears witness, as 
 Paul teaches, even among heathen nations. 
 
 That we cannot understand how God could create 
 finite intelligences is no reason why we should reject 
 the Bible doctrine. The fact of such a creation is as- 
 serted clearly, repeatedly and unmistakably. "Thus 
 saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, 
 Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and 
 concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I 
 have made the earth, and created man upon it ; I, even 
 my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all 
 their host have I commanded. " But Mrs. Eddy does 
 not accept the testimony of Moses and the prophets. 
 
 Again, all true worship is founded upon this idea 
 of the personality both of God and man. Only per- 
 sons can offer worship, and only a person can receive 
 it. Could we conceive of the law of gravitation as 
 the power which created our world and all that is in 
 it, we might feel a great degree of awe in contemplat- 
 ing such a wonder-working principle, but we could 
 not think of praying to it, nor of offering to it such 
 homage as the Scriptures bid us ascribe to the King 
 
Christian Science. 187 
 
 of Saints. The denial of the Christian doctrine of the 
 personality of God tends manifestly to take the very 
 heart out of the Christian religion. It bids us re- 
 ject as meaningless myths the story of Enoch, who 
 walked with God, and "was not, for God took him ;" 
 t of Abraham, honored in being spoken of as the Friend 
 of God; of Moses, who spoke to God as friend to 
 friend, and "endured as seeing him who is invisible/' 
 Relegating all these to the category of superstitious 
 fable, we can hardly find ground for the faith of Da- 
 vid, as he cries, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord 
 thinketh upon me." 
 
 And yet in every way possible does Mrs. Eddy urge 
 her denial of the divine personality. Not even when 
 she uses scriptural terms in speaking of him is she 
 content to use them in their scriptural phraseology and 
 in their natural sense. Thus, for instance, when she 
 quotes as a scripture statement, "God is Spirit," she 
 adroitly suppresses the indefinite article, which the 
 correct translation of the original requires, and which 
 is used both in the common and the revised versions. 
 A lawyer is hard put to when, in order to defend his 
 client, he must needs garble the evidence which is 
 part of the court record ; what must we think of one 
 who claims to have received a divine revelation, and 
 then includes in her revelation such transparent false- 
 hood ? 
 
 From what has been said, it is manifest that, unless 
 Christian Scientists are content to stultify themselves 
 by retaining in their conception of God and of his 
 Christ ideas which their creed positively rejects, they 
 can no more engage in the worship of God than they 
 can bow down to the law of gravitation or pray to the 
 precession of the equinoxes. Hence, as I shall show 
 
1 88 Christian Science. 
 
 in the progress of this examination, "Christian 
 Science" worship is quite different from our Chris- 
 tian worship, as we have learned it from our Lord 
 and his apostles. 
 
 Further, when she has declared that God, and God 
 only, is "Substance," thereby making him the only 
 reality and the only substance in the universe, it is 
 obvious that by no possibility can Mrs. Eddy escape 
 the charge of teaching pantheism. True, she enters 
 her protest against this charge in sundry passages ; 
 but on the principle that we are not bound to accept 
 apologies when the offence is often repeated, and there 
 is never any profession of repentance, we can pay no 
 attention to her repeated disclaimers. The basis of 
 her system is the proposition that God is all. This is 
 pantheism, whatever she may say to the contrary; 
 since pantheism, from pan, all, and tlicos, God, is the 
 word which theology employs to designate the doc- 
 trine that ( irod is all. Nor can we honor her sincerity, 
 save at the expense of her intelligence, when she con- 
 tends that all who believe that in man soul and body 
 are united, are entertaining a pantheistic idea. Ac- 
 cepting, for the sake of argument, her own false defi- 
 nition of pantheism, viz., that it is the belief in the 
 intelligence of matter, there is no material difference 
 between her theory and that of Spinoza. He taught 
 that there is but one infinite substance, and that all 
 finite existences are but modes or limitations of that 
 one infinite substance. She makes the universe con- 
 sist of one infinite substance, and views all finite in- 
 telligence as the expression or "idea" of that one in- 
 finite substance. Her attempts to find and maintain 
 some distinction between this one infinite substance 
 and all created beings, only makes her confusion 
 
Christian Science. 189 
 
 worse confounded. The only difference between her 
 system and that of the great Jewish philosopher is 
 one of nomenclature. In either system the question 
 arises, Is all the mind or spirit in the universe one 
 and indivisible ? Are we to regard men and angels as 
 distinct personalities, separate intelligent entities, as 
 related to God ? or does all finite intelligence and con- 
 sciousness blend in the one universal consciousness? 
 To these questions, in her works, Mrs. Eddy makes 
 the following reply : 
 
 God is all. He is all the Life and Mind there is or can be. 
 Life is God or Spirit, the supersensible Eternal. The uni- 
 verse and Man are the spiritual phenomena of this one in- 
 finite Mind. All consciousness is Mind, and Mind is God. 
 Science declares God to be the Soul of all Being, the only 
 Mind and Intelligence in the universe. All that can exist is 
 God and his idea. Spirit is the only Substance, the invisible 
 and indivisible God. 1 
 
 Such views of God necessitate the rejection of all 
 evangelical teaching as to the origin, nature and moral 
 status of man, the doctrine of atonement, the future 
 life, and every distinctive doctrine of historical Chris- 
 tianity. Mrs. Eddy, as will appear in further quota- 
 tions from her works, meets the issue courageously, 
 and proceeds to make or to borrow new theology as 
 her system requires. 
 
 It may now be inquired, what place does Jesus oc- 
 cupy in Mrs. Eddy's doctrinal scheme? 
 
 The place of Jesus in evangelical teaching is such as 
 to secure for him, not only the reverence, but the wor- 
 ship of all Christian peoples. The Scriptures declare 
 
 1 Vide Science and Health, pp. 7, 230, 365, 412, 419; and 
 Unity of Good, pp. 4, 13, 30, 36 and 59. 
 
190 Christian Science. 
 
 his divinity, eternity, and almightiness as the Son of 
 God, and his exalted work as the Word or Revealer 
 of God to man, and the mediator of the new covenant. 
 He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." 
 He accepted the worship of his disciples and forgave 
 sins. He declared himself to be the future judge of 
 the world. Prophecy heralded his birth, first as the 
 seed of the woman, which would bruise the serpent's 
 head ; anon, as the Star of Jacob, and later as the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah, and still later as the Son of Da- 
 vid, and the virgin-born child of Bethlehem. His 
 name is the "Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Prince of 
 Peace, the Everlasting Father." He is also "Emman- 
 uel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us." He 
 is, in his humanity, the Son of Alary and the Son of 
 man ; while in his unique personality he is also divine 
 — "God manifest in the flesh." The beloved disciple 
 declares his eternity in the words, "In the beginning 
 was the Word, and the Word was with God;" his 
 divinity in the words, "And the Word was God;" his 
 humanity in the words, "And the Word was made 
 flesh and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and 
 truth." As God, he created the world, and his being 
 is "from everlasting to everlasting ;" as man, he "was 
 made under the law, and became obedient unto death." 
 Innocent in all his life, "holy, harmless, separate from 
 sinners and undefiled in the way," he was able to offer 
 himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He was 
 both the "apostle and high priest of our profession," 
 and the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world." In the apocalyptic vision he appears to the 
 beloved disciple standing in the midst of the throne 
 "a Lamb as it had been slain," and before him the four 
 and twenty elders fall down, singing the new song, 
 
Christian Science. 191 
 
 'Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the 
 seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed 
 us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and 
 tongue and people and nation/' 
 
 That these teachings of the Scriptures are full of 
 mystery has never been denied. "Without contro- 
 versy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was 
 manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of 
 angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
 world, received up into glory." But notwithstanding 
 the mystery involved in his incarnation and also in his 
 redeeming work, our Lord is represented as the only 
 hope of fallen humanity. "There is none other name 
 under heaven given among men whereby we may be 
 saved." Only in him and through him can a guilty 
 sinner find pardon, purity and eternal blessedness. 
 Having died for our sins, he has ascended to the right 
 hand of the Father, and now "ever liveth to make in- 
 tercession for us." He will be the central figure in 
 that awful solemnity spoken of in the Scriptures as 
 the "judgment of the last day." He himself has fore- 
 told the part he will play, the words he will utter, the 
 awards he will render; and John in his vision sees 
 before him all the myriads of the dead being "judged 
 out of those things which were written in the books, 
 according to their works." It is his word which en- 
 courages the saint who is fighting the good fight of 
 faith: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit 
 with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
 am set down with my Father on his throne." To him 
 has been given "a name above every name, that at the 
 name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every 
 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father." He is the Alpha and 
 
192 Christian Science. 
 
 the Omega of Christian doctrine and of Christian 
 hope. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, however, denies the divinity, the aton- 
 ing death, and even the personal immortality of the 
 Man of Nazareth ! She holds that he was merely a 
 model man, and that he was not, in any sense impos- 
 sible to others, a Son of God. Rev. Frank E. Mason, 
 one of her students, in his Reminiscences of the Class 
 Room, reports her as explicitly denying the divinity 
 of Christ, and as affirming that our Christian wor- 
 ship is idolatry, in these words : 
 
 Jesus was able to do the works that he did because his idea 
 of God was so grand and noble. This lofty conception of 
 divinity permeated his consciousness, and he reflected the 
 greatest power of any man who ever lived simply because his 
 aspirations were the highest. — p. I. 
 
 He was only a man, with a "lofty conception of 
 divinity !" 
 
 This is broader than the broadest Unitarianism. 
 Dr. Channing himself would have repudiated such 
 doctrine as contrary to the plainest teachings of the 
 Scriptures. Says that great Unitarian preacher: 
 
 Other sages have spoken to me of God. But from whom 
 could I have learned the essence of divine perfection, as 
 from him who was in a peculiar sense the son, representa- 
 tive and image of God — who was especially an incarnation 
 of the unbounded love of the Father? And from what other 
 teacher could I have learned to approach the Supreme Being 
 with that filial spirit which forms the happiness of my fel- 
 lowship with him? From other seers I might have heard of 
 heaven ; but when I behold in Jesus the spirit of heaven, 
 dwelling actually upon earth, what a new comprehension 
 have I of that better world ! And when at last I see him 
 returning through a life and death of all-enduring devoted- 
 
Christian Science. [93 
 
 to those pure mansions of the blessed, how much nearer 
 arc thgy brought to me! What a new power does futurity 
 
 thus associated with Jesus exert upon the mind! 
 
 Nowhere in all that Mrs. Eddy and her school have 
 written about him can be found a tribute to him that 
 indicates such exalted faith in Christ our Saviour as 
 that which hreathes through these words of Channing. 
 ( Observe the following from Mr. Mason's notes of 
 Mrs. Eddy's lectures: 
 
 Jesus the Christ is the ideal man. The physical embodi- 
 ment was but the material manifestation of the ideal man. 
 This material manifestation modern Christianity has deified, 
 and by so doing has lost the ideal, worshipping a man after 
 the similitude of the flesh rather than the Creator, which is 
 wholly spiritual. — Reminiscences of Class Room, p. 13. 
 
 If this means anything, it means that modern Chris- 
 tians worship the body of Jesus, and do not worship 
 the Creator ! Can anybody believe this monstrous 
 falsehood ? 
 
 Again, on pages 56 and 57 of the Rostrum, we find 
 these words : 
 
 The blunder of the world is in assuming and supposing 
 that the Man of Galilee possessed power in excess of the 
 residue of mankind. . . . Such an ignoble conception of 
 deity travesties justice and equality. ... A God . . . 
 can have no favorites. . . . Jesus possessed no power in 
 excess of yourself. . . . The Christ-Mind belongs to the 
 universe. It is the generic mind of man. All can assimilate 
 it. It is not the specific mind of the Nazarene. . . . God 
 has no specific son. Man is the son of God. 
 
 Which is to say, Jesus was the Son of God only in 
 the same sense in which any other man may count 
 himself the son of God. 
 
194 Christian Science. 
 
 Again, in the Rostrum, page 101, the same writer 
 declares that "Christ is the image of man, made in the 
 likeness of God," and that "a like conception, that is, 
 the same mind in us that was also in him, transforms 
 us into the Christ of the God-Mind, full of grace and 
 truth." 
 
 This goes beyond the hope of the apostles. John, 
 we suppose, voices their expectation when he says, 
 "When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we 
 shall see him as he is." Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Mason 
 agree that we shall be transformed into the Christ, 
 which is to say, absorbed into his essence. Of this pe- 
 culiar doctrine we shall have something further to say. 
 
 From of old, theological cranks have tried to iden- 
 tify Melchizedec with Christ. Mrs. Eddy attempts 
 a more startling identification. The first man was not 
 Adam, according to this inspired teacher, but the man 
 Jesus in a previous incarnation! 
 
 It was the antedated state of the meek and mighty Naza- 
 rene, his life, truth and love spiritual, that antidoted die ills 
 of the flesh and were the first man; it was Jesus, as he ex- 
 pressed himself. Before Abraham was, I am. — Christian 
 Science Scries, No. 4. p. 9. 
 
 Since Christ was only a Buddha — or, to use the 
 
 phrase of modern Theosophy, with which evidently 
 Mrs. Eddy is in full accord in her entire doctrinal 
 system — an adept, or mahatma, which any one else 
 may become by proper effort, it follows that he is 
 not in any sense the Saviour of men. He was a great 
 teacher, and a great martyr to truth. He was cru- 
 cified, according to Airs. Eddy, because his "scientific 
 definition of personality " incensed the Pharisees. 1 
 
 1 Science and Health, p. 259. 
 
Christian Science. 195 
 
 He was an ideal man — that is, to a considerable ex- 
 tent — but nothing more. He had no gift of power 
 or grace that did not belong equally to the whole race, 
 and can do nothing for us. Each man is his own 
 saviour, and saves himself by imitating, not too 
 closely, the example and character of Christ. 
 
 The notion of a vicarious atonement, according to 
 "scientific" theology, is only "the creation of a senti- 
 ment j" 1 and the death of Christ effects nothing save 
 for our instruction. Says the Rev. Frank E. Mason, 
 who has been privileged to drink deep from the Pie- 
 rian springs of Mrs. Eddy's teaching : 
 
 Jesus is the model man over whom we throw the various 
 garments of thought to study their effects ; and the privilege 
 is granted each child of God to select the garment which is 
 most becoming. In this sense only is Jesus our Saviour and 
 Redeemer ; not vicariously and by substitution, but by pois- 
 ing before us as a model to instruct us in the nature and 
 character of thoughts and their effects upon man, to save us 
 from suffering by donning only those garments that clothed 
 him with joy, and by refusing to be arrayed in the habili- 
 ments which bring sorrow and pain. — Seed, April, 1892. 
 
 This account of the work of Christ, and especially 
 of his agony on the cross, is not only ungrammatical, 
 but it differs somewhat from the doctrine of our Lord 
 and of his apostles. He himself told his disciples that 
 "it behooved him to suffer and to rise from the dead, 
 that repentance and remission of sin should be 
 preached in his name among all nations, beginning at 
 Jerusalem. " And from the Epistle to the Hebrews we 
 learn that "for the joy that was set before him he en- 
 dured the cross, despising the shame." But, according 
 
 1 Rostrum, January, 1895, p. 56. 
 
196 Christian Sciexce. 
 
 to Mr. Mason and his new prophetess, all this was a 
 foolish performance, quite unnecessary and unbecom- 
 ing! Christ saves us by posing before us, after the 
 fashion of a clothier's dummy or a milliner's model, 
 and from his very unsatisfactory experience, as we be- 
 hold him arrayed in the various "habiliments" of his 
 sometimes erroneous thought, we may learn what 
 garments of thought to don for ourselves ! This, for 
 example, is one of the lessons of the crucifixion : "No- 
 thing is gained by suffering for the truth. It is sim- 
 ply a sentimental patriotism so to believe. Suffering 
 is not an essential quota of the divine plan of salva- 
 tion." — Ibid. 
 
 Jesus, then, was only a sentimental patriot ! He 
 was ignorant of the fact that suffering was not an 
 essential "quota" — whatever Mr. Mason may mean 
 by that — of the plan of salvation! It was a foolish 
 blunder when an apostle wrote: "It became him for 
 whom all things were made, in bringing many sons 
 unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation per- 
 fect through suffering." Nay, rather, the Man of 
 Xazareth ought by all means to have avoided the 
 "habiliments which bring sorrow and pain." There 
 have been saints in every age since Calvary who have 
 been attracted toward Jesus because he "bore our 
 griefs and carried our sorrows ;" because he was 
 "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and 
 was, alike in the sadness of his lot and in the perfect 
 sympathy of his two-fold nature, "a man of sorrows 
 and acquainted with grief." But to Mrs. Eddy and 
 her inspired school of interpreters, the story of the 
 sufferings of Christ is one which excites in them no- 
 thing more than a feeling of compassionate superi- 
 ority. He ought to have known better; but "at the 
 
Christian Science. 197 
 
 time when Jesus felt our infirmities he had not," as 
 
 he should have done long before, "conquered all the 
 beliefs of the flesh !" He had not yet "risen to his 
 final demonstration of spiritual power." 1 It was 
 through sheer weakness and ignorance that the Man 
 of Xazareth suffered, and all the scriptures which rep- 
 resent that suffering as a part of the divine plan for 
 the redemption of sinners must be set aside, because 
 Mrs. Eddy knows more about the matter than 
 prophets and apostles did, or even than Jesus himself. 
 With her accustomed diffidence — a diffidence which 
 ean only be considered bewitching in a "Scientist" 
 who has made such "a sacred discovery" and a proph- 
 etess w r ho announces herself as the recipient of a new 
 and final revelation from heaven — this woman "clad 
 with the radiance of spiritual Truth" differs both from 
 "erudite theology" and from Spiritualism. The pur-^ 
 pose of the crucifixion w r as not, she says, to provide "a 
 ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it, and are 
 willing to be forgiven." Xo ! This teaching of "eru- 
 dite theology," — which we can see at a glance is fairly 
 and accurately stated ! — must be thrown overboard, 
 and we must pity the orthodox simpletons w T ho allows 
 their ministers to preach such a gospel. Nor, again, 
 was the death of Christ "necessary for the presenta- 
 tion, after death, of the material Jesus, as a proof that 
 spirits can return to earth." There was no special 
 need, in her opinion, that "life and immortality" 
 should be brought to light through the gospel. "The 
 efficacy of the crucifixion lies in the practical affection 
 and goodness it demonstrated for mankind." Still 
 further, Christ "proved by his deeds" — amazing 
 
 1 Science and Health. 
 
198 Christian Science. 
 
 thought ! — "that Christian Science destroys sin, sick- 
 ness and death!" (Science and Health, pp. 329, 330.) 
 "Only this, and nothing more!'' 
 
 The seer of Concord goes even further in her efforts 
 to minimize the importance of the death of Jesus, and 
 in so doing administers wholesale correction and re- 
 buke to such ignorant theologians and preachers as 
 was Paul, and to all in our own time who are so fatu- 
 ous as to consider Paul good authority in matters of 
 Christian doctrine, and even to the Man of Nazareth 
 himself ! Redemption by the blood of Jesus is the 
 key-note of the Xew Testament, as it was the mean- 
 ing of the whole Levitical system and the burden of 
 Old Testament prophecy. Under the Mosaic econ- 
 omy it was a principle of the divine law that "without 
 shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." The 
 author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, if not Paul him- 
 self, is at least Pauline in his teaching as to the rela- 
 tion of our Lord's sacrifice to the pardon of sin. He 
 refers to this principle of the old law as prophetic of 
 the new dispensation, and grounds the believer's bold- 
 ness as he enters into the holiest, in the fact that the 
 blood of Jesus was shed for the sins of his people. 
 The reprobate, according to him, deserves a condem- 
 nation worse than death, because "he hath trodden 
 under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
 blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
 an unholy tiling, and hath done despite unto the 
 Spirit of grace." But evidently this primitive Chris- 
 tian writer had not been privileged to "peck his shell 
 open with Christian Science." With her usual malice 
 in misrepresenting orthodoxy, Mrs. Eddy speaks as 
 if the Christian world thought that somehow the blood 
 of Christ was to be smeared on the sinner, and that 
 
Christian Science. 199 
 
 God would be delighted with the smell of it, and 
 would be "appeased by suffering." Desiring to cor- 
 rect such a heathenish notion, she informs us oracu- 
 larly that the "material blood of Jesus was no more 
 efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed on 
 the 'accursed tree' than when it was flowing in his 
 veins as he went daily about his Father's business." 
 (Page 330.) In other words, the shedding of his 
 blood was unnecessary, and sinners could have been 
 cleansed without it. How she reaches this conclusion 
 will appear when we come to consider her teachings 
 as to sin, pardon, and atonement. 
 
 But these glaring and deliberate contradictions of 
 hoh' writ are not to be wondered at when we remem- 
 ber that in Mrs. Eddy's scheme all suffering is illu- 
 sory. If we consider the sufferings of Jesus to have 
 been real, we might properly consider our own suf- 
 ferings real : and if his sufferings were illusions, they 
 could have been, and ought to have been, avoided. 
 This is the only logical conclusion from Mrs. Eddy's 
 general principle of the "Allness of God and the no- 
 thingness of matter." Thus has the "Christian Scien- 
 tist" reached a height of heavenly contemplation from 
 which he can look down in pity upon the folly and 
 weakness of the poor sense-ridden, suffering Naza- 
 rene! 
 
 Still another way to discredit the sufferings of 
 Christ is suggested by the female Pope of Christian 
 Scientism. If he suffered — and the if in such a con- 
 nection is significant of her exceeding doubt as to the 
 reality of any suffering on his part — his sufferings 
 must have been caused by the thought or mental in- 
 fluence of others. "If Jesus suffered," she says, "it 
 must have been from the mentality of others." {Unity 
 
200 Christian Science. 
 
 of Good, p. 70.) That is to say, the agony in the gar- 
 den, the scourging and the crown of thorns, the buf- 
 feting and the shame, and even the torture of the cru- 
 cifixion, with the hiding of the Father's face, all were 
 created by the mentality of others ; and, however real 
 to him in the seeming, were nothing but hypnotic illu- 
 sions ! 
 
 In similar fashion does our new infallibility deal 
 with the death and resurrection of Christ. In Chris- 
 tian theology, as understood by Catholic Christendom, 
 these great facts of the mediatorial work of Christ 
 play a most important part. But Mrs. Eddy and her 
 followers have learned how to view them quite differ- 
 ently. Thus, Mrs. Eddy tells us that "in Science, 
 Christ never died. In sense, Jesus died and lives 
 again. The fleshly Jesus seemed to die, though he 
 did not. Mortal sense ... is all than can be buried 
 or resurrected." — Unity of Good, p. 78. 
 
 This is a very characteristic passage. The average 
 reader will find here, being accustomed to use words 
 in their sense as determined by common usage, a med- 
 ley of contradictions. In science, Christ never died. 
 In sense, Jesus did die. But, no! he only seemed to 
 die, while in fact he did not : it was his "mortal 
 sense" that died. And we venture to say that almost 
 any practical man, coming to this passage in his first 
 attempt to read the wandering dissertations of the 
 oracle of Concord will determine in his haste that 
 there is no "mortal sense" in Mrs. Eddy or in her 
 doctrine, and lay the book down in disgust. But we 
 must remember that Mrs. Eddy is speaking i n a "new 
 tongue," and that her oracles require to be studied. 
 Here is the meaning of this parable : when she speaks 
 of Christ, she does not always mean the Man of Xaza- 
 
Christian Science. 201 
 
 roth. It was, she holds, not the Christ, but Jesus, who 
 died, that is, "in sense," or in appearance; and so, 
 likewise, he seemed to rise from the dead. But his 
 resurrection was also an illusion, since death, like sin 
 and sickness, is simply a belief of mortal mind — 
 a mere passing fancy. Since, then, there is no such 
 thing as death or resurrection, and, further, since no 
 man's body is a reality, but is only the imagination of 
 himself and of mankind, it is, "scientifically" speak- 
 ing, incorrect to speak of Christ as dying, etc. He 
 had no body, and "Soul cannot die." All that men 
 beheld of him, all that died or was raised from the 
 dead, w r as his mortal sense, or, in other words, that 
 phantom form to which men, imagining it to be real, 
 gave the name of Jesus. 
 
 Mr. Mason reiterates the teaching of Mrs. Eddy 
 somewhat more coherently : "We affirm that he was 
 alive during the three days, despite the fact that he 
 was pronounced dead." — Reminiscences of Class 
 Room, p. 5. 
 
 This might be understood as implying that the 
 death of Christ was only a suspension of animation ; 
 what it means is that the death of Christ w r as only an 
 appearance, inasmuch as there is no death. Again, 
 "The only tomb in which Jesus lay w r as the world's 
 physical apprehension of him." — Ibid. 
 
 This statement need not be wondered at. It is no- 
 thing more than we should expect of people so "scien- 
 tific" that they count the sun and moon and stars 
 as "subjective states of the human thought," and 
 nothing more — held only, as Mrs. Eddy tells us the 
 baby's worms are held, in the minds of those who look 
 upon them! 
 
 But Mrs. Eddy goes even further in her determina- 
 
202 Christian Science. 
 
 tion to idealize our Lord and his redeeming work. 
 Her expressions, when speaking of his birth, seem 
 deliberately intended to cast doubt upon the genuine- 
 ness of his humanity. She refers to Mary as the 
 "reputed" mother of Jesus, and says that he "wore in 
 part a human form, that is, as it appeared to mortal 
 view, being conceived by" — this term is especially 
 suitable for her purpose here, because of its double 
 meaning — "a human mother." (Science and Health, 
 p. 211.) She means that he was conceived in Mary's 
 mind, and was her idea! Her "conception of him 
 was spiritual" (page 228), not physical. She was 
 thus, in fact, his creator, her mind having projected 
 him upon the world ! Thus again : 
 
 The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to silence 
 material law, and brought forth her child by the revelation of 
 Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of man. The Holy 
 Ghost, or Divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the 
 virgin-mother with the full recognition that Being is Spirit. 
 The Christ dwelt forever as an ideal in the bosom of the 
 Principle of the man Jesus, and woman perceived this idea, 
 though at first faintly developed in an infant form. 
 Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conseious communion 
 with God. — pp. 334-*5. 1 
 
 Thus has she taught that he was an idea Christ, and 
 that his birth, passion, death and resurrection were 
 imaginary. 
 
 Just now we caught a glimpse of another peculiar 
 doctrine. Jesus himself is declared in the Scriptures 
 
 1 It is, of course, a mere coincidence that in a similar way 
 Simon Magus accounted for the existence of Helena, his 
 paramour. She was. he said, the first conception QEwnatyof 
 his mind. — Vide Encyclopedia Brittanica, article "Gnosti- 
 cism." 
 
Christian Science. 203 
 
 to be the Christ of God. When he challenged his dis- 
 ciples to say who he was, Peter answered, "Thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of the living* God." Mrs. Eddy, 
 to whom all mysteries are plain, and the faith of 
 prophets and apostles no more important than the 
 vagaries of ignorant children, does not hesitate, in this 
 case, to correct Peter and all catholic Christendom. 
 She would have us believe that it was a mistake to 
 consider Jesus the Christ. He was, she says, not the 
 Christ. He was only "a material manifestation" in 
 which the Christ dwelt. And she has given to "the 
 Christ" the unscriptural, but charmingly "scientific" 
 name of "the Christ-Principle," and speaks of that also 
 as "the Principle of the man Jesus." Bearing in mind 
 her definition of God as Principle, Mind, etc., and her 
 statement as reported by Mr. Mason, that "the Christ- 
 Mind belongs to the universe," and is "the generic 
 mind of man," it is evident that she denies the spe- 
 cific divinity of our Lord by claiming it for the whole 
 race. Of this also, more anon. 
 
 Again, Mrs. Eddy differs from the angel who ap- 
 peared to comfort the disciples after the ascension of 
 Christ. He said, "This same Jesus, which is taken up 
 from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
 as ye have seen him go into heaven." Possibly she 
 regards the story of this angel's appearance and mes- 
 sage as a myth. At any rate she does not believe a 
 word of the account. "The Christ," she says, speak- 
 ing ex cathedra, infallible, "dw T elt forever in the 
 bosom of the Father, God," and "this dual person- 
 ality, of the unseen and the seen, the spiritual and ma- 
 terial, the Christ and Jesus, continued until the Mas- 
 ter's ascension, when the human, the corporeal con- 
 cept, or Jesus, disappeared ; while his invisible self, 
 
204 Christian Science. 
 
 or Christ, continued to exist," etc. (page 229). This 
 antithesis is significant. The term disappeared is op- 
 posed to the term continued to exist ; and the meaning 
 is evidently that the humanity of Jesus, which she 
 expresses by "the human, or corporeal concept," was 
 annihilated ! It was nothing but an appearance, or 
 idea; and that appearance ceased — that idea was no 
 longer entertained among men ! The hope of the 
 church, expressed in that precious Epistle of John, 
 that "when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for 
 we shall see him as he is," was all wrong. Angels, 
 ministers of grace, apostles or prophets, who assert 
 such doctrine must stand corrected by this woman 
 who sees herself in prophecy as "clothed with the 
 sun, and the moon under her feet." 
 
 But, notwithstanding her denial of the immortality 
 of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy would not leave us altogether 
 comfortless. There is a sense in which we may still 
 realize his presence and power. From The Seed 
 (April, 1890) we learn, as its editor has learned from 
 Mrs. Eddy, that the "only right understanding of 
 Jesus" is gained through the recognition of Christ as 
 "the ever-present consciousness of true manhood." 
 and that when Jesus died, he "diffused his thought 
 through the universe, and this thought is the leaven 
 which will leaven the whole lump." This thought, 
 too, no doubt, is the leaven which Mrs. Eddy has hid- 
 den in her three measures of meal. "The realization 
 of Truth is the Christ-Principle working within, for 
 he said. 'I am with you, even unto the end of the 
 world.' " We are thus emphatically and repeatedly 
 forbidden to believe in the immortality of the Man of 
 ( ialilee. He is now only — 
 
 "The sweel presence of a good diffused, 
 And in diffusion evermore intense." 
 
Christian Science. 205 
 
 He is in) longer, in his blessed person, our Master. 
 Our only Master, says Mrs. Eddy, is "a Master 
 
 thought which possesses the mind of each individual." 
 (Reminiscences of Class Room, p. 8.) Nor will the 
 blessed Redeemer appear at last in the midst of the 
 throne, "a Lamb as it had been slain." Nay, verily, 
 since " 'the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins 
 of the world' is the sense of individual dominion . . . 
 the inward consciousness of perfection, which lifts us 
 slowly above the claims of matter, to the realization 
 that Mind is all." {Seed, April, 1890, p. 98.) Sal- 
 vation, according to our new oracle, as we have seen, 
 is nothing but complete acquiescence in the teachings 
 of her new creed. The passage just quoted indicates 
 the Christian Science way of salvation clearly. It is 
 to make a Christ of one's own self-conceit, and follow 
 its suggestions until the "inward consciousness of 
 perfection" develops into the assurance of "oneness 
 with God." In all which heresy borders close on 
 lunacy. 
 
 But what explanation will Mrs. Eddy give of the 
 second advent? The apostles taught that our Lord 
 would "appear the second time without sin unto sal- 
 vation." With his second coming they associated the 
 resurrection of the just, and the beginning of the 
 saints' everlasting rest. They expected it to occur "in 
 the end of the world," or aeon, of which the ministry 
 of Christ was the commencement. Peter declared that 
 those who should remain until the coming of the Lord 
 should be "caught up with" the saints "in the air," as 
 they came with their Lord back to earth. But Mrs. 
 Eddy is better informed. She has been taught of 
 God, and now teaches us, that Jesus has already come 
 the second time, and that his second coming dates 
 
2o6 Christian Science. 
 
 from the year 1866, and was simply the advent of 
 "Christian Science!" And as she herself is the sole 
 author of that blessed system, which is the "outgrowth 
 and epitome" of her life, we may say that Mrs. Eddy 
 herself is, for all practical purposes — and Christian 
 Science is "so practical'' — Christ returned to earth ! 
 She has gathered up his diffused thought, and — at 
 least until she discontinued healing — was so full of its 
 aroma that she was omnipotent to heal all human ills, 
 barring only broken bones, and a few other maladies, 
 which it were prudence in a Christian Scientist not so 
 much as to name! — Vide Science and Health, p. 43. 
 
 Matthew, Mark and Luke all report their Lord as 
 declaring that he would come "in the clouds with 
 great power and glory," and Matthew and Mark re- 
 port his statement that he would "send his angels 
 with a great sound of a trumpet," and that they should 
 ".gather together his elect from the four winds, from 
 one end of heaven to the other." Mrs. Eddy, indeed, 
 did not make her appearance in the clouds, but only in 
 the midst of Xew England fog, literal and spiritual ; 
 but we have seen that she has, at least among her wor- 
 shippers, great power and glory, and we hear the 
 sound of her trumpet as she seeks to gather the elect 
 into the true gospel fold of the "Church of Christ, 
 Scientist." Minute discrepancies between the august 
 prophecy and its alleged fulfilment in this feminine 
 Theophany will by no means discourage those credu- 
 lous people who have had their ailments cured, and 
 who are therefore ready to receive Mrs. Eddy's teach- 
 ings as the "voice of Truth to this age," and worship 
 her as the "Feminine Principle of the Messianic Ex- 
 pectation." — Vide Arena, May, 1899. 
 
 The worship of our Lord Jesus Christ is, of course, 
 
Christian Science. 207 
 
 out of the question for those who believe his human- 
 ity was only a temporary phantom, and that they 
 themselves can claim to be divine as he. This logical 
 result oi Airs. Eddy's reasoning brings her theory 
 into sharp contrast with the gospel as taught by our 
 Lord and his apostles. He exists now as diffused 
 thought, and who ever heard of worshipping thought? 
 We may no longer look back to Calvary, and behold- 
 ing him whom our sins have pierced, cry in adoring 
 love — 
 
 Oh, Lamb of God ! was ever pain, 
 Was ever love like thine? 
 
 The old gospel was all a mistake, a foolish misunder- 
 standing of God. Paul and John and all the rest of 
 the New Testament writers, and, of course, all the Old 
 Testament writers also, were men who meant well, 
 and testified as best such ignorant men could in the 
 midst of barbarous ages, that were not yet illumined 
 by the 'light of Science. " But they were as blind 
 leading the blind. Only since a new revelation was 
 vouchsafed to the anointed woman, the Mental Mes- 
 siah, of this age, have mortals been taught the whole 
 truth — the truth, as Mrs. Eddy boldly affirms, as it 
 was not in Jesus. The Man of Nazareth did w r rong 
 to accept the worship of his disciples, and all who 
 have been worshipping him through the ages have 
 been guilty of idolatry ! The whole Christian world 
 has gone wrong. The blind man, when he was healed ; 
 the entire company of the disciples, overwhelmed as 
 they were by the triumphant demonstration of his 
 Messiahship afforded by a splendid series of miracles ; 
 Peter, after the miraculous draught of fishes ; the 
 multitude gathered to witness the ascension ; the com- 
 pany assembled in that upper chamber where the 
 
208 Christian Science. 
 
 glories of Pentecost began; the martyr, Stephen, as 
 his soul was departing, and he — doubtless deluded, 
 according to Mrs. Eddy's way of thinking — imagined 
 he saw the Son of man at the right hand of the Fa- 
 ther; Paul, as his epistles abundantly show; the 
 early church, which "in every place" called on the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; Catholic Christendom 
 in all ages, which has sought to bring peculiar honors 
 to our King — all have erred most egregiously. They 
 have been worshipping a Saviour who was not only 
 not divine, any more than other men are, but they 
 have continued to worship him even after he had 
 ceased to exist. Paul's prophecy, too, was false, when 
 he predicted that at the name of Jesus every knee 
 should bow and every tongue confess that he, Jesus, 
 is the Christ, for Mrs. Eddy says he is not; and the 
 application to Jesus, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of 
 the words of Messianic prophecy, "And let all the 
 angels of God worship him," was a blunder. 
 
 Xot only so, but when a Christian poet, paraphras- 
 ing the testimony of the evangelical prophet, sings of 
 Jesus — 
 
 To him shall endless prayer be made, 
 And endless praises crown his head, 
 His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise 
 With every evening sacrifice. — 
 
 he is exhibiting gross ignorance. Mrs. Eddy sum- 
 mons us from all such "worship of idols/' and would 
 have us banish the very name of Jesus from our 
 prayers. She is reported as saying that — 
 
 "Worshipping the personal Jesus keeps the world on a phy- 
 sical basis and in a physical belief, making such a religion 
 largely emotional, while, on the contrary, the adoration of 
 
Christian Science. 209 
 
 the Christ-Principle, which influenced Jesus in his demeanor, 
 teaches us that we can be like him, and becomes an incen- 
 tive to labor for such a glorious possibility. The impersonal 
 Christ should be the only object of worship." — Reminiscences 
 of Class Room, p. 5. 
 
 We have seen her charge, that modern Christianity 
 had deified the "material manifestation" of Christ. 
 Now we have her advice not to worship his person. 
 Why not, if it be not idolatrous in her opinion? The 
 Apocalypse represents him as saying, "I am he that 
 liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever- 
 more ;" but Mrs. Eddy teaches that his humanity does 
 not now exist, his "duality" having ceased at the as- 
 cension. If she is right, John is wrong, and the Chris- 
 tian world is now praying to a Saviour who does not 
 exist. Such worship was idolatrous in its origin, and 
 is now worse than idolatrous, if the seer of Concord, 
 X. H., has seen the truth ! 
 
 The teachings of our oracle as to the Holy Spirit 
 are much more clear and concise, though hardly less 
 inconsistent,, than her teaching as to the character and 
 work of Christ. She identifies the Holy Spirit now 
 with Christ himself, and anon with her own precious 
 doctrines. "Throughout all generations," she in- 
 forms us, "the Christ as the spiritual idea — as the 
 Holy Ghost, the Comforter, has come." (Science and 
 Health, pp. 228-229.) And, lest we should fancy him 
 to be a divine spirit, infinitely transcending the "dif- 
 fused thought" of Jesus, she tells us further that "the 
 Holy Ghost, or Spirit, reveals this triune Principle" of 
 Life, Truth and Love, "and is expressed in Divine 
 Science, which is the Comforter, leading into all Truth, 
 and revealing the Divine Principle of the universe — 
 universal and perpetual harmony" (page 227). Her 
 
210 Christian Science. 
 
 doctrine, then, is both the second and third persons or 
 entities in that "triune Principle" which she wor- 
 ships ; it is both the Christ, or "spiritual idea," and 
 the Holy Comforter promised by our Lord ! This 
 must be so, since it is a mathematical axiom that 
 things which are equal to the same thing are equal to 
 each other. 
 
 And, inasmuch as she has taught us that the Christ 
 is the only proper object of worship, and that this 
 Christ appears in "Divine Science," it follows of neces- 
 sity that the only proper object of worship for man- 
 kind is Christian Science ! Other people worship 
 their God ; Christian Scientists must needs worship 
 their religion ! 
 
 Thus does she make manifest the fact that the words 
 which she puts into the mouth of "Mortal Sense" in 
 one of her profound allegories are an unwitting de- 
 claration of her own fallibility: "Like an airy bubble, 
 I but expand to my own destruction, and shine with 
 the fatal resplendency of error." 
 
 It is just a little singular that our inspired author 
 was not satisfied with this specimen of sparkling and 
 iridescent rhetoric. With a few notable exceptions 
 it was the most beautiful and striking sentence in any 
 of the older editions of Science and Health. But in 
 the one hundred and fifty-fourth edition she makes 
 it, if possible, even more impressively, though none the 
 less unconsciously, prophetic: "Like bursting lava, I 
 but expand to my own despair, and shine with the 
 resplendency of doom." — p. 148. 
 
 Yes, Mrs. Eddy still shines, still expands, and still 
 expects to explode; but shrinking from destruction, 
 she finds expansion tending to despair, and her re- 
 splendency is still fatal — the sure foretoken of doom. 
 
Christian Science. 21 \ 
 
 Even in describing her own (and our) "mortal 
 sense" she feels that there is something real and sub- 
 stantial about all this unreality. "An airy bubble" is 
 too light, too cool and too transient to describe her 
 mighty spirit, even under such an alias. Her "mor- 
 tal sense" is volcanic in its fiery splendor, and, like 
 bursting lava in its majestic upheavals, rushes madly 
 to its fearful fate ! 
 
XV. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF NO GOSPEL. 
 
 Having exhibited the affinities of Mrs. Eddy's sys- 
 tem with Pantheism in its teaching as to the being and 
 attributes of God, let us now inquire, What does she 
 teach as to the origin, nature, moral status, and final 
 destiny of man ? And what has she to say of angels 
 and demons? 
 
 Having, in the primary postulate of her system, 
 made God the sum of all things, it would be impos- 
 sible for Mrs. Eddy to consider man less than divine. 
 But upon the threshold of this inquiry, we must pause 
 and ask, What does Mrs. Eddy mean by the term, 
 man? Is it, in her new tongue, as it is in common 
 parlance, a word which stands both for the race and 
 for any individual of it? She says not. In one of her 
 publications she declares that when she uses the term 
 man she means by it just what a certain Methodist 
 bishop meant when he said in a lecture, "Nobody has 
 ever seen man." And yet, as will be seen, she finds 
 herself unable to maintain this distinction between the 
 race, which, in its totality, no man has ever seen or 
 can see, and the individual man ; and her statements 
 as to man are liable to be misunderstood on almost 
 every page of her writings by being received as re- 
 ferring to individual men. But when her words are 
 carefully weighed, it is found that she means to teach 
 that the race is one great universal being, and that 
 she purposely avoids every term which might imply 
 that what she says of man is true of all men. 
 
('n rist] \.\ Science. 21 3 
 
 following arc sonic of her statements concern- 
 
 m : 
 
 1 1 should be well understood that all men have one Mind, 
 one God and Father, one Life, Truth and Love. Mankind 
 will become perfect in proportion as this becomes apparent, 
 and the true brotherhood of Man will thus be established. 
 Having no other gods, turning to no other mind but the one 
 perfect Intelligence to guide him, Man is the likeness of God, 
 pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ. 
 — Science and Health, p. 463. 
 
 Man was and is God's idea, even the infinite expression of 
 Infinite Mind, and co-existent and co-eternal with that Mind. 
 Man has been forever in the eternal Mind, God. . . Man's 
 consciousness and individuality are reflections of God . . . 
 the emanations of Him who is Life, Truth and Love. — Ibid., 
 p. 231. 
 
 Man is . . . the compound idea of God, including all 
 right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image 
 and likeness ; the conscious identity of Being, as found in 
 Science, where Man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and 
 therefore is eternal ; that which has no separate Mind from 
 God. — Ibid., p. 471. 
 
 These statements exemplify again the utter worth- 
 lessness of Mrs. Eddy's disclaimer as to Pantheism. 
 It is impossible for her words to be understood in any 
 other than a pantheistic sense. Man is, she says, not 
 God himself, but only his eternal idea. But, never- 
 theless, Man has no separate mind from God. His 
 intelligence is none other than the Divine intelligence. 
 In him resides the "conscious identity of Being." 
 That is, the only consciousness which God has of his 
 own identity is found in the consciousness of man. 
 In such statements she holds out to her followers the 
 intoxicating thought that they themselves are not 
 merely temples of the Holy One, but that all their 
 
214 Christian Science. 
 
 thoughts are, in fact, God's thoughts, and that the 
 only soul which anybody has is God himself. He is 
 the Ego: that which says, "I" or "Us" in every hu- 
 man being is nothing less than the Spirit of the Eter- 
 nal, conscious of its own identity. 
 
 How this doctrine affects some people, we may 
 learn from Mrs. Woodbury: 
 
 On all hands are victims believing themselves to be 'as 
 gods.' Estrangement in families, discords in the home circle, 
 bitter alienations from pastors and churches, are inevitable 
 results from such mal-teaching and mal-practice, while cases 
 of ensuing insanity are not rare. — Christian Science Voices, 
 P- 142. 
 
 It is true that Mrs. Woodbury is here speaking, not 
 of Christian Science as she then understood it, and as 
 she supposed Mrs. Eddy to teach it, but of certain 
 other "ambitious teachers of the people, deluded by 
 egotism and flattery from their blind followers," 
 whom she represents as engaged in the work of dis- 
 seminating "spurious adulterations of Christian heal- 
 ing." But such doctrine as that just now quoted from 
 Mrs. Eddy herself is precisely adapted to induce in- 
 sanity and all the other difficulties named, simply be- 
 cause of its tendency to make people count themselves 
 "as gods." Let any man become possessed with this 
 thought, "My intelligence is God's intelligence, my 
 consciousness is his," and he will speedily conclude 
 that his thoughts are in fact God's thoughts, and that 
 in all his life he is acting and speaking by divine in- 
 spiration. Is not the man who is laboring under such 
 a delusion already fit for the insane asylum? * 
 
 1 Since the above was written a friend writes me that quite 
 recently there was in the State Hospital for the Insane at 
 
Christian Science, 215 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, however, would have us keep ourselves 
 humble ; and hence this bit of sublimated idealism and 
 "scientific" humility, "Think of thyself as the orange 
 
 just eaten, of which only the pleasant idea is left." — 
 mce and Healthy p. 277. 
 
 Just why, we are not told, unless it be because Man 
 is not substantial, but only an idea ! This is predi- 
 cating a very shadow r y existence, indeed, for that ex- 
 alted being of whom we have been told that in him 
 resides the "conscious identity" of God ! 
 
 At this point, we notice another of the many ab- 
 surdities of our "scientific" reasoner. The Scriptures 
 tell us (Romans viii. 9, and sundry other passages) 
 that God dwells in his children. This, however, is 
 one of the texts quoted by her, without any attempt 
 to explain or translate it into the "new tongue" of 
 Christian Science. Having defined man as God's idea, 
 she is driven to keep up somehow^ the distinction be- 
 tween God and his own thoughts. Hence the follow- 
 
 Morganton, N. C, a patient whose trouble was caused by 
 becoming a convert to Christian Science, and sends me the 
 following, clipped from the Philadelphia Medical Record of 
 March 4, 1899 : 
 
 "Indignity to a Christian Scientist. — A Christian Science 
 healer was recently committed in a police court here for ex- 
 amination as to her sanity because she expressed the con- 
 viction that Mrs. Eddy, the plutocratic founder of the de- 
 lusion, was God. As Mrs. Eddy claims to have cured caries, 
 tuberculosis, cancer, 'tuberculous diphtheria,' and a host of 
 other trifling ailments of the sort, by just thinking, it seems 
 natural enough for anybody who believes her to believe also 
 that she is the Supreme Being. The healer just committed 
 is no more insane than her associates; she is only more logi- 
 cal." 
 
216 Christian Science. 
 
 ing remarkable denial of the doctrine of God's im- 
 manence in his creation : "God is the only Life, and 
 life is no more in the forms which express it than Sub- 
 stance is in its shadow/' — Science and Health, p. 226. 
 Again : 
 
 Man reflects and expresses the Divine Substance or Mind ; 
 but God is not in his reflection any more than man is in the 
 mirror which reflects his image, or the sun is in the ray of 
 light which goes out from it. — Ibid., pp. 196-'/. 
 
 Her reasons for this denial are quite logical and 
 conclusive. First, "If Life were in mortal man or in 
 material things, it would be subject to their limita- 
 tions and end in death." — Ibid., p. 226. How Life, 
 which she regards as the only reality, could end in 
 death, which she counts an unreality, she does not 
 pause to explain. Second, "If he dwelt within what 
 he creates, God would not be reflected, but absorbed," 
 etc. — Ibid., p. 226. 
 
 Her reason, it appears, for denying a very plain 
 scripture, which she cannot by any possibility recon- 
 cile with her philosophy, is simply to avoid cata- 
 clysms and take care of the universe. A dead God, 
 or one to whom his universe has become a fatal 
 sponge to absorb or digest him, must not be tolerated 
 in our thinking! We confess that quite as much as 
 Mrs. Eddy herself do we repel all the "glittering au- 
 dacity of diabolical and sinuous logic" 1 that would 
 lead to such horrible conclusions. For this won- 
 drously wise reductio ad absurdum — a feat of inspired 
 intellect which, we venture to assert, is without a 
 parallel in the writings of Paul, of Bacon, of Berkeley, 
 
 ! I r nity of Good, p. 68. 
 
Christian Science. 2\y 
 
 or even of Mother (loose — Mrs. Eddy deserves the 
 gratitude oi the race she came to save. 
 
 Having shown us conclusively that God cannot be 
 in his creation, it is quite as easy for Mrs. Eddy to 
 show us that the scriptural account of the creation is 
 all wrong. To this position her system forces her. 
 if Alan is, and always was, God's idea, it follows that 
 he was never created. If we devise any theory, upon 
 the hasis of her teaching, that gives to the race a 
 beginning, we fall into other cataclysms that are too 
 horrible to contemplate. One is, that if man, God's 
 only idea, ever had a beginning, then prior to that 
 beginning God had no ideas ! Who could believe in 
 an empty-headed, idiotic sort of a god, without ideas ? 
 Again, since man's being is God's only identity, if 
 there was ever a time when Man did not exist, God at 
 that time had no identity ! Further, since in Man 
 resides God's consciousness, if Man were ever created, 
 prior to that creation God was unconscious ! Still 
 again, if God had ideas he must have expressed them, 
 in order to maintain his own existence ; " for," says 
 our oracle, speaking with her usual lucidity, "God 
 without the image and likeness of himself would be 
 a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed." From all which 
 reasoning it follows conclusively that if the Bible or 
 any other book gives an account of the creation of 
 man, .that account must be dismissed as mythical. 
 Mrs. Eddy, being inspired beyond the prophets of the 
 "Jewish tribal God, Jehovah," can make no such mis- 
 takes as did Moses and his successors. 
 
 Seeking to explain the biblical account of creation, 
 so as to compel it to harmonize with her teaching as 
 to the eternity of man, Mrs. Eddy takes advanced 
 ground in a way well adapted to abash the whole 
 
218 Christian Science. 
 
 world of "traditional theologians." She is not sat- 
 isfied to interpret scripture by reversing its proposi- 
 tions, or even by substituting, in certain passages, for 
 the word which denies her precious doctrines, another 
 which affirms it. When she comes to speak of crea- 
 tion, she makes a dexterous movement, in keeping 
 with the Napoleonic character of her genius, and puts 
 herself in the very vanguard of the Higher Criticism. 
 She discovers in the "latest conclusions" of "modern 
 scholarship" abundant verifications of her teaching ! 
 In fact, she captures the whole camp of the critics, and 
 appears, as it were, in triumphal procession, dragging 
 Drs. Driver, Cheyne, Briggs, et id omnc genus, cap- 
 tive in her train ! And, with the conceded right of 
 conquest, she proceeds to make such use of their 
 stock in trade as suits the exigencies of her argument. 
 These infallible critics are all agreed that, notwith- 
 standing the fact, which they claim to have verified, 
 that the account of creation, as given in Genesis, is a 
 patchwork story made by dove-tailing two narratives 
 together, there is truth in each story, whether it be 
 considered mythical, poetical, or what not. But to 
 Mrs. Eddy there is no beauty in one of them that she 
 should admire it. She regards the first chapter of 
 Genesis as all true and inspired, and also the first five 
 verses of the second. But the story of Eden and the 
 fall she finds all wrong, and all else connected with it. 
 This second chapter of Genesis gives us, she has dis- 
 covered, "a material view of God and the universe 
 which is the exact opposite of scientific truth." It 
 "chronicles man as mutable and mortal — as having 
 broken away from Deity, and as revolving in an orbit 
 of his own." This cannot be, since "existence, sep- 
 arate from Deity, is impossible." It is also panthe- 
 
Christian Science. 219 
 
 istic, teaching thai "Spirit cooperated with matter in 
 
 creating man," winch, of course, is false! Besides; it 
 it contradictory of the first, etc. Hence her efforts to 
 explain this portion of the Bible are mainly efforts 
 to show its falsity, and yet she seeks to make it at the 
 same time a sort of allegory, teaching her doctrine. 
 We give one specimen of her reasoning in the prem- 
 ises: "Is Spirit, God, injected into dust, and eventu- 
 ally ejected at the demand of matter? Does Spirit 
 enter into dust, and lose therein the Divine nature and 
 omnipotence?" — Science and Health, pp. 515, 517. 
 
 Aside from the necessity of so explaining the Bible 
 as to make it support her peculiar view of the dignity 
 of man, as "God's eternal idea," there is another rea- 
 son for the wrath in this celestial mind, burning, as it 
 does, with steady glow, against the biblical account of 
 man's creation and fall. That account of the origin of 
 woman does not suit her. She has been commissioned 
 to teach the world that "woman is the highest, species 
 of Man," and she can in no wise admit the truth of a 
 story which makes woman's subjection to man a part 
 of the creative plan, and a fundamental law of human 
 society. Accordingly, she indulges a scorn quite In- 
 gersollian in her remarks upon the ancient myth, 
 which she would fain effectually explode. In com- 
 menting on Genesis ii. 21, she says: "Falsity, error, 
 charges Truth, God, with inducing a hypnotic state 
 in Adam, in order to perform a surgical operation 
 on him, and thereby create a woman." — Ibid., p. 521. 
 Following this refined and delicate piece of wit, she 
 makes some jocular remarks upon surgery and ob- 
 stetrics, as illustrated in this story of creation. 
 
 But where did the various orders of created 
 things come from ? Mrs. Eddy answers : "Beholding 
 
220 Christian Science. 
 
 the creations of his own dream, and calling them real 
 and God-given, Adam — alias error — gives them 
 names. Afterwards, he becomes the basis of the crea- 
 tion of woman and of his own kind, calling them man- 
 kind." — Science and Health, p. 521. 
 
 This is a marvelous account of creation. God was 
 not the Creator of the visible universe ! Adam 
 dreamed, and the objects first seen in his vision be- 
 came the supposed realities of his waking hours ! He 
 errs in calling them real and God-given ! Xot even 
 the sun and the moon, as we have seen, are to be con- 
 sidered as real things, but as subjective states of hu- 
 man thought; and so likewise, "vertebrata, articulata, 
 moUusca and radiata, are evolved by mortal and ma- 
 terial thought." — Ibid., p. 548. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, in teaching that the real cause of all 
 material tilings beside himself was the dream of 
 Adam, comes perilously near the absurdities of Mor- 
 monism, and, following the parabolic curve of her 
 genius, goes beyond them. The Mormon hierarchy 
 declares, with Brigham Young, that Adam is "the 
 only God with whom we have to do, and that he 
 helped to make and organize the world." According 
 to Mrs. Eddy, Adam imagined it all, and all that now 
 exists is but the outcome of his imagination, the work 
 of which has been perhaps supplemented by the crea- 
 tive fancies of successive generations. 
 
 But who was Adam, and how did he come into be- 
 ing? The reader of Mrs. Eddy's works will search in 
 vain for a clear and unambiguous answer to this 
 question. Having forsaken the teachings of God's 
 own liook, she wanders in a fog whenever she touches 
 the relation of the race to Adam, or Adam's relation 
 to God. Her definition of the name Adam, in her 
 
Christian SCIENCE. 22] 
 
 sary, which pretends to give the "spiritual sense" 
 and also the "original meaning" of the terms therein 
 defined, is the longest definition in the whole chapter. 
 Evidently, Adam is a refractory subject. Abel's 
 spiritual significance is explained "scientifically" in 
 two lines, and Abraham's in five; but she labors 
 through a whole page in trying to explain Adam ! 
 She defines him as meaning — 
 
 Error; a falsity; the belief in original sin, sickness and 
 death ; evil ; the opposite of Good, or God,, and his creation ; 
 a curse ; a belief in intelligent matter, finiteness and mortality ; 
 "dust to dust"; red sandstone; the first god of mythology; 
 not God's man, who represents the one God, and is his own 
 image and likeness ; the opposite of Spirit and its creations ; 
 that which is not the image and likeness of Good, but a 
 material belief opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit ; a so- 
 called finite mind, producing other minds, thus making "gods 
 many and lords many" (i Cor. viii. 5) ; an unreality, as op- 
 posed to the great reality of spiritual existence and creation; 
 a so-called man, whose origin, substance and mind are sup- 
 posed to be the opposite of God, or Spirit ; an inverted image 
 of Spirit; the image and likeness of God's opposites — namely, 
 matter, sin, sickness and death ; the antipodes of Truth, 
 termed error ; the counterfeit of Life, which ultimates in 
 death ; the opposite of Love, called hate ; the antipodes of 
 Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; Immortality's 
 opposite, mortality ; that of which Wisdom saith, "Thou shalt 
 surely die;" . . . the false supposition that Life is not 
 eternal, but has beginning and end; that the Infinite enters 
 the finite, Intelligence passes into non-intelligence, and Soul 
 dwells in material sense ; that Immortal Mind results in mat- 
 ter, and matter in mortal mind ; that the one God and Creator 
 entered what he created, and then disappeared in the atheism 
 of matter. — Science and Health, pp. 5/0-'i. 
 
 This definition is a tremendous effort to get Adam 
 out of the way. He is now a myth, and anon a mvth- 
 
222 Christian Science. 
 
 ological god ; dust and red sandstone ; a false belief, 
 which, on examination, is found to be simply a denial 
 of Mrs. Eddy's infallibility; evil, which, as we shall 
 see in a subsequent part of our examination, is the 
 devil ; nor can it escape her shrewd intellect that in 
 making the visible universe the creation of Adam's 
 dream, she has, in her definition of Adam, made the 
 devil the father of us all in very truth ! This is true, 
 in her opinion, if we do not agree with her ! Adam is 
 also an unreality, a "so-called man;" an "inverted 
 image" of God, whatever that may mean ; and, in a 
 word, the "false supposition'' that Christian Science is 
 not a true gospel and an infallible revelation ! And 
 yet we cannot fail to see that Mrs. Eddy's labored, 
 tautological and self-contradictory definition is un- 
 satisfactory to herself, as it must appear nonsensical 
 to the "unscientific" reader. Why does she speak of 
 him, a "so-called man," as being supposed to be the 
 opposite of God, when she has plainly declared him 
 to be the "antipodes" of Truth, which is one of her 
 terms for the Divine Being? As nobody but herself 
 ever imagined the unfallen Adam to be opposed to 
 God, we can only understand from her confusion here 
 that she has her own doubts as to her truthfulness in 
 attempting what she so happily terms her "feeble 
 revelation." 
 
 Having exploded Adam — blowing him to the four 
 winds with a definition of the most fulminating char- 
 acter — Mrs. Eddy must needs provide a first man. 
 If Adam was not the first man, who was? We have 
 seen her answer to this question. It was Jesus in a 
 previous state of existence. This she learns from his 
 statement that he existed before Abraham, and having 
 the universe at her disposal, she chooses to locate him 
 
Christian SCIENCE. 223 
 
 Oil this planet. Just where and when he lived, what 
 he did, besides antidoting the ills of the flesh, and 
 
 whether he was a cotemporary of Adam or not, she 
 has not informed us; nor, since she has finished her 
 "feeble revelation." is there any reasonable proba- 
 bility that she ever will. It is a passing pity that the 
 only person in the world who possesses all this infor- 
 mation should "disappear" without enlightening our 
 ignorance. Adam was evil, a nonentity, and a myth ; 
 but Jesus was the real primordial man. Did he marry 
 some unchronicled Eve, and die childless ? Or did he 
 share with Adam, that supposed man, in some way 
 the paternity of the race? Are there two human 
 races — one, that of enlightened spirits, or Scientists, 
 sprung from Jesus in his first incarnation, and the 
 other of common mortals, sprung from Adam, the 
 evil, or devil? Or did Jesus live and die unmarried, 
 achieving among the antediluvian mortals great repu- 
 tation as a Science healer? These are important 
 questions. Having told us so much, Mrs. Eddy ought 
 to have told us more. She knows, having no mind 
 but God, and being thus able to command the treas- 
 ures of Omniscience. 
 
 In this connection, the remarks of our new infalli- 
 bility upon the name of Adam are interesting : "Adam 
 is from the Hebrew adamah, signifying the red color 
 of the ground, dust, nothingness. " — Science and 
 Health, p. 223. 
 
 This will surprise Hebraists of all calibres. The 
 following, too, is another "ray of infinite Truth," as 
 perceived bv our new prophetess, and is luminosity it- 
 self: 
 
 Divide the name Adam into two syllables, and it reads a 
 dam, or obstruction. This suggests the thought of something 
 
224 Christian Science. 
 
 fluid, or mortal mind mixed in solution, of the darkness 
 which seemed to appear when "darkness was upon the face of 
 the deep" and matter stood as opposed to Spirit, as that which 
 was accursed. Jehovah declared the ground — matter or earth 
 — accursed, and from this earth or matter sprang Adam, al- 
 though God had blessed the earth for man's sake. — Ibid., p. 
 233- 
 
 But really, does not this division of .Adam's name 
 suggest rather the thought of a weak brain, laboring 
 under the burden of infinite absurdity? of a "mortal 
 mind" befogged with its own irrational theories? of 
 the darkness which abides in the soul when the light 
 of reason and of scriptural truth has been shut out, 
 and a silly woman opposes her stupid vaporings to 
 the plain utterances of the Divine Spirit? At any 
 rate Mrs. Eddy's feat in cutting Adam's name in two 
 is profoundly suggestive of her ability and originality 
 as an expounder of scripture. Not to look farther, 
 we find a startling proof that she possesses 
 
 "Optics keen, 
 To see what is not to he seen" 
 
 in the inference which she deduces from her discus- 
 sion and division of Adam's name : "From this it fol- 
 lows that Adam was not the ideal man for whom the 
 earth was blessed. The ideal man was revealed in 
 due time, and known as Jesus the Christ." — Ibid., p. 
 
 233- 
 
 This is all we can gather from the new word of 
 God as to the creation of Adam. He sprang out of 
 the earth somehow, notwithstanding God had blessed 
 it for man's sake; and the fact that Adam sprang 
 out of the ground is proof positive that he was not 
 the ideal man, the "man of God's creating." 
 
Christian Science. 225 
 
 It is to be regretted that Mrs. Eddy does not tell 
 US — it would have been so easy for one so richly in- 
 spired to do so — how Adam got into the ground be- 
 fore he sprang out of it, and where he was and what 
 he was doing before he got into the ground. As she 
 has not condescended to give us this important infor- 
 mation, we are left to our own inferences. Adam, as 
 we have seen, means nothingness; and the ground, 
 being matter, is unreality or nothingness. So we see 
 very plainly that the scriptural account of creation, as 
 it opens under the light of ''Science/' means that 
 nothingness got into nothingness, and then — we can 
 readily imagine how easy it was — "sprang out of" it ! 
 And it has been ever since springing out of itself and 
 bamboozling its descendants, who are the people that 
 will not believe in Airs. Eddy ! 
 
 But how came Man, the infinite idea of the infinite 
 God, perfect, co-existent and co-eternal with God, to 
 be associated with Adam, that embodied falsity? 
 Whence came "mortal mind" and all its train of illu- 
 sions, such as the dream of human personality, the 
 five senses, and the rest? We have in vain searched 
 the pages of this new and only infallible revelation 
 for any answer to these questions. The only clue to 
 Airs. Eddy's views we can find is in her scattered re- 
 marks upon man and mortals. In our common par- 
 lance, to which all respectable writers conform, these 
 terms are synonymous. But she has invented a "new 
 tongue," which is an entirely original method of spir- 
 itualizing, contradicting, dividing, allegorizing, or 
 otherwise distorting plain Scripture, to make it bear 
 some semblance of agreement with her doctrines. 
 Hence, the need of a glossary, that the reader may 
 understand passages in which she uses old words in 
 
226 Christian Science. 
 
 a new sense. According to her vocabulary, Man 
 stands for the spiritual man, the Idea of God, while 
 the terms, mortal, mankind, and human, all stand for 
 the illusory and transient phases of our life. Here is 
 her account of "mortals" : 
 
 Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of 
 God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of Man. 
 Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a 
 perfect state of being which may be regained. They were, 
 from the beginning of human history, conceived in sin and 
 brought forth in iniquity. Mortals are material falsities, 
 . . . "without hope and without God in the world," . . . 
 errors, made up of sin, sickness, and death, which must dis- 
 appear, to give place to the facts which belong to immortal 
 man. — Science and Health, p. 472. 
 
 . . Mortals have a very feeble and imperfect idea of 
 
 the spiritual man and the infinite range of his thought. To 
 him belongs eternal life. Never born and never dying, it is 
 an impossibility for Being, under the government of eternal 
 Science, to fall from its high estate. — Ibid., p. 154. 
 
 And still more specifically: 
 
 Man represents God; mankind represents the Adamic race, 
 and is a human, not a Divine creation. . . . The senses 
 repre-ent Man as having untimely birth, and his death as 
 irresistible, as if he were a weed growing apace, or a flower 
 withered by the sun, or nipped by untimely frosts. But this 
 is true only of mortals, not man. The Truth of Being is 
 perennial. — Ibid., pp. 518, 161. 
 
 More pantheism. The Scriptures, which represent 
 man as being horn and as destined to untimely death, 
 etc., are wrong", because man is God! "The senses ,, 
 give this testimony as to the race, but their testimony 
 is false, because the Truth of Being, which is God, is 
 perennial. 
 
( 'i i kim' i w Science. 227 
 
 Man, then, we must understand, is not to be con- 
 founded with the Adamic race. The former is spirit- 
 ual and perfect; the latter is an embodied falsity, a 
 
 mass of sin, sickness, and death. The former is never 
 born and never dies, being co-existent and co-eternal 
 with God; the latter are brought forth in sin, and 
 destined every one to pass through the "belief of 
 
 death," to "disappear/' and so "give place to the eter- 
 nal verities which belong to immortal man." And yet 
 in all Mrs. Eddy has to say about the creation and 
 the fall, she has not one plain word in regard to the 
 origin of "mortal sense/' with all its train of w r oe. 
 The fall she represents as a myth, and "mortal sense" 
 is smuggled into her scheme, so far as I can find, with- 
 out so much as a word of introduction. 
 
 There are profound mysteries in this "Divine 
 Science." It is, however, a significant fact that in six 
 of the points named in her definitions of Adam and 
 mortal sense, she states the same things of both. 
 Hence we may conclude, in view of her denial of the 
 identity of the Adamic race with man, that she con- 
 siders "Adam" and "mortal sense" identical. She 
 cannot be accused of running "mortal sense" into the 
 ground. She simply gets it out of the ground when 
 she gets Adam out, without pretending to show how 
 it, any more than Adam, got there ! 
 
 The distinction between Man and mankind which 
 Mrs. Eddy has revealed, involves necessarily the de- 
 nial of the doctrine of human personality. Man she 
 has defined as the infinite idea of the infinite God. 
 Being only an idea, he can hardly be spoken of as a 
 person. Further, if man is an infinite idea, as she con- 
 tends, it follows that if he is a person, he must be an 
 infinite person ; and God being infinite, we would then 
 
228 Christian Science. 
 
 have two infinite persons, which cannot be. Mrs. 
 Eddy holds to "a sweet and sacred sense of Man's 
 unity with his Maker/' and she cannot admit any 
 view of human personality that would contradict what 
 she has already said of the divine personality, of 
 which, it will be remembered, she is so doubtful. In 
 all her scattered remarks upon this question, her 
 thought is muddy as the Tiber. She never anywhere 
 gets away from the notion that personality, as com- 
 monly understood, means a personality that is con- 
 fined within the body. Hence she rejects the idea of 
 personality as applied to God, as anthropomorphism, 
 or "a humanization of deity." And since the race, as a 
 whole, cannot be confined within the limits of any par- 
 ticular body, she denies personality to the race. 
 
 But in this denial, she fails, as we have shown, to 
 get hold of the true meaning of personality. This 
 attribute of man, which is predicable of every indi- 
 vidual of the race, implies individual existence, self- 
 consciousness, reason, and moral agency, or freedom 
 of will. It is a spiritual, and not a physical attribute. 
 Death cannot destroy it. The body changes in all its 
 constituent atoms every few years, and at death re- 
 turns to its mother earth. But the spirit, which is the 
 personal man, lives on. This doctrine Mrs. Eddy re- 
 pudiates expressly by denying that human beings have 
 individual souls. In answering the question, What 
 are body and soul ? she informs us oracularly that 
 "identity is the reflection of Spirit in multifarious 
 forms of this living Principle;" and that "Soul," 
 which in her terminology is but another name for the 
 divine Being, "is the Substance, Life, and Intelligence 
 of Man." 1 She has defined Man as that which has 
 
 1 Science and Health, p. 473. 
 
Christian Science. 229 
 
 no separate Mind from God. To admit his real per- 
 sonality, as one "revolving in an orbit of his own," 
 would be to admit that he is somehow so independent 
 of his Maker as to have no relations with him what- 
 ever. More than one mind would mean, to her, more 
 than one God, since she defines God as Mind. Hence 
 she solemnly waives aside the notion with oracular 
 and sententious brevity : "Verily, I say unto you, God 
 is All-in- All, and you can never be outside of his one- 
 ness. " 
 
 Elsewhere she seems to admit that human per- 
 sonality is a real fact to be reckoned with in our 
 mortal career. On page 8 of Rudiments and Rules, 
 we read: 
 
 The human person is finite, and, therefore, I prefer to re- 
 tain a proper sense of deity by using the phrase an individual 
 God, rather than a personal God ; for there can be but one 
 infinite individual Being, whom mortals have named God. 
 
 But in Science and Health she says we "run into 
 error when we divide Soul into souls, and multiply 
 Mind into minds." So there is, after all, no such thing 
 as a human personality. "Upon this stage of exist- 
 ence goes on the dance of mortal mind," in which 
 "mortal thoughts chase each other like snowflakes" 
 (p. 146) ; but the "mortal thought of personality" 
 is at variance with the only true and "scientific state- 
 ment" of the fact. Still again, she tells us that "per- 
 sonality includes more than is implied by the term 
 person as commonly used." What then? Without 
 giving any very definite reply to this question, she 
 informs us that Christ was crucified because his ene- 
 mies w r ere incensed by his "truly Christian and scien- 
 
 1 Science and Health, p. 255. 
 
230 Christian Science. 
 
 tific statement of personality and the relation of Man 
 to God." 1 From this we can only infer that the 
 statement in question was our Lord's answer to the 
 high priest's inquiry, "Art thou the Christ, the Son 
 of the Blessed?" Man's only true personality con- 
 sists, then, in being, or in becoming, in precisely the 
 same sense that Christ is, the Son of God. If "the 
 word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus," and 
 if Christ "expresses God's spiritual and eternal idea," 2 
 which idea, as we have seen, is Man, does not this 
 mean that man's destiny — the destiny, that is, of the 
 whole race — is to become all that Christ now is? 
 "When his personality disappears, man is immortal. 
 Who can say what his personality becomes as the 
 image and likeness of his Maker?" And if we are in 
 doubt as to the answer she would give to the question, 
 we may permit her spokesman, Mr. Bailey, to answer 
 for us : 
 
 The New Testament declares, and Science and Health 
 demonstrates, that the Principle of Jesus — in other words, 
 the Christ — is the name for that state of consciousness which 
 is the goal, the inevitable, ultimate state of every soul. 
 
 This is her universalism. All arc saved by being 
 at last absorbed into the "Christ-Principle." But we 
 are still in the dark. What docs Mrs. Eddy mean by 
 human personality in this life? In the absence of any 
 clear definition by herself, perhaps the following" from 
 her pupil, Mr. Mason, may be accepted as a definition 
 of human personality, according- to Mrs. Eddy: "The 
 so-called material man is an incorporate belief of 
 carnality, and the dissolution of the component parts 
 
 1 Science and Health, p. 259. % Ibid., p. 228. 
 
Christian Science. 231 
 
 or beliefs which constitute him we term death/' — 
 Seed, April r, 1890. 
 
 Man, if we are able to comprehend this mysterious 
 doctrine, is an infinite creature, composed of a divine 
 idea or consciousness, which is common to all the in- 
 dividuals of the race, united to an indefinite number 
 of "incorporate beliefs of carnality. " At death or 
 subsequently these incorporate beliefs, or personal- 
 ities, will all disappear, and nothing else will be left 
 but the impersonal, eternal idea which has existed 
 from the beginning. Human personality, then, like 
 all other facts of consciousness, as viewed in this pe- 
 culiar system, is illusory and transient. Man is, in 
 the distant future, to become identified with the 
 Christ-Principle, and all the individuals of whom the 
 race was composed will have "disappeared" when the 
 "man of God's creating" shall have been revealed. 
 Thus do we find the doctrines of human individuality 
 and of personal immortality both distinctly denied. 
 
 Having denied the fall, repudiated the doctrine of 
 human personality, and declared that man's mind is 
 one with the divine intelligence, Mrs. Eddy is also 
 compelled to deny that human beings are accountable 
 to God. Mankind, indeed, is sinful, as she seems to 
 admit ; but Man, she insists, is not to be confounded 
 with the Adamic race. Besides, sin itself is not a fact 
 in the universe, but an illusion, or false sense, which 
 is destined to be lost or to disappear. This disap- 
 pearance, or destruction of sin, is at once hell and 
 heaven ; since the destruction of sin is God's only 
 method of either pardon or punishment, and the loss 
 of the sense of sin restores the sinner to "harmony," 
 which is heaven. Now, it is evident that no amount 
 of argument, and no repetitions, how r ever multitu- 
 
1 
 
 232 Christian Science. 
 
 dinous, of the text, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap," can prevent such doctrines from 
 effecting in those who accept them a complete deliv- 
 erance from all the wholesome fears wrought by the 
 old doctrine of human accountability, with its corol- 
 laries of future reward and retribution. 
 
 But, lest her disciples should fail to follow her doc- 
 trines into their logical consequences, she enters 
 against the doctrine of human accountability a most 
 positive denial. She is even driven to adopt the 
 threadbare arguments of infidelity, in order to give 
 to the shadowy fancies of her crazy creed some sem- 
 blance of reasonableness. Infidels have argued that 
 God would not and could not make man capable of 
 sin, and then damn him for sinning. She, in like 
 manner, argues that this would be to perpetuate a 
 4k fraud on humanity." "In common justice," she 
 cries, "we must admit that God will not punish man 
 for doing what he created him capable of doing, and 
 knew from the outset that he would do." (Science and 
 Health, p. 302.) Just why she should go to the 
 trouble of denying human accountability in such ex- 
 plicit terms, when she has already denied the reality of 
 sin, we cannot imagine. 
 
 But it may be asked. How does Mrs. Eddy recon- 
 cile her denial of personal immortality, etc., with the 
 plain teachings of our Lord? He said, "Fear him 
 which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." 
 Her interpretation of this passage, which was un- 
 deniably the product of her most careful study, is a 
 striking instance of her facility in cutting Gordian 
 knots of difficulty when they stand in the way of her 
 theories. This is her explanation of our Lord's 
 meaning : 
 
Christian Science. 233 
 
 A careful study of the text shows that the word soul meant 
 sense or corporeal consciousness. The command was a 
 warning to beware, not of Rome, Satan, or God, but of sin. 
 —Science and Health, p. 92. 
 
 From this brilliant example it is evident that Mrs. 
 Eddy's powers of discernment are equal to any emer- 
 gency. 
 
 But, after all, this warning was not sufficiently ter- 
 rible to justify a sinner in trembling as he reads it. 
 This we may see from the following : 
 
 In Science we learn that it is material sense, not Soul, 
 which sins ; and it will be found that it is the sense of sin 
 which is lost, and not man's sinful soul. When reading the 
 Scriptures, the substitution of the word sense for soul gives 
 the exact meaning in a majority of cases. — Ibid., p. 477. 
 
 "All sin is of the flesh/' she has told us elsewhere ; 
 "it cannot be spiritual/' Flesh, being matter, is an 
 unreality, and sin, being of the flesh, is an unreality ; 
 and hence the salvation promised in Holy Writ, and 
 for which Jesus seemed to die that it might be ours, is 
 nothing but salvation from unrealities. "The real 
 Man cannot depart from holiness," nor can God, "by 
 whom Man was evolved, engender the capacity or 
 freedom to sin." True, there are sinners, but these 
 are not, properly speaking, men. "Mortals are man's 
 counterfeits . . . the children of the Wicked One, 
 or one evil, which declares that man begins as a ma- 
 terial embryo." (Ibid., pp. 207, 471.) Moreover, all 
 men, though now classed as mortals, if not sufficiently 
 enlightened to accept Mrs. Eddy's guidance, are not- 
 withstanding destined to pass through the "gateway 
 of Science" into the royal estate of manhood, which is 
 Christhood. 
 
234 Christian Science. 
 
 We would, however, do Mrs. Eddy the justice to 
 say that in her treatment of sin, her practice ignores 
 her logic quite as much as it does in the matter of eat- 
 ing. She counts sin an "awful unreality." But if it 
 be an unreality, why not treat it as all other beliefs of 
 mortal mind are treated in the Christian Science 
 medical practice — that is, as a mere illusion, which is 
 to be destroyed simply by refusing to admit its re- 
 ality? "Healing the sick and reforming the sinner 
 are one and the same thing in Christian Science," 
 says this "Mental Messiah." {Science and Health, 
 p. 403.) If, then, it be truly "scientific" to say to an 
 invalid, Your sickness exists only in your belief ; cor- 
 rect your thought by denying the evidence of your 
 senses — why not say to the conscience-stricken suf- 
 ferer from "chronic sin," Your sin is only a belief of 
 mortal mind, a figment of your imagination ; you have 
 done no wrong, and your regrets are needless? If 
 we may deny the plain sense of Scripture and the 
 testimony of our senses in the one case, why may we 
 not deny, with equal propriety, the testimony of Scrip- 
 ture and of our own consciences in the other? 
 
 Much that Mrs. Eddy and her followers have writ- 
 ten has seemed to imply that no sinner needs to pay 
 any attention to his conscience, and that "Christian 
 Science" repentance consists simply in blinding one's 
 self to one's own sins. Thus the "Word of Science" 
 declares that — 
 
 These beliefs of sin, sickness and death are only beliefs; 
 they are not realities of Being; God is Love, and he has not 
 bound on you these burdens ; you are not the hateful beings 
 you believe; you were made in, and you are, the image and 
 likeness of God. — Christian Science Scries, No. 6, p. 4. 
 
Christian Science. 235 
 
 Again, we are told repeatedly that Man is per- 
 fect; that "Soul cannot sin," that "Man is incap- 
 able of sin, sickness or death," and we might infer 
 that all repentance is needless. (Science and Health, 
 p. 464.) But for all that, Mrs. Eddy and her school 
 will not use, in their treatment of sin, the method 
 which they have so clearly indicated, and which they 
 consistently apply in their treatment of disease. They 
 dare not assure the sinner that his conscience is a 
 lying witness, and that he must banish all thought 
 and memory of his own guilt, and stoutly affirm, 
 / have not sinned! Two difficulties lie in the way 
 of such a course, consistent as it must appear to all 
 who believe her teachings. One is that both the 
 general tenor and many particular passages of Scrip- 
 ture plainly estop any such proceeding. Paul and 
 John, not to mention other apostles, and even our 
 Lord himself, have spoken so plainly that their testi- 
 mony must be accepted, or else the whole Scripture 
 must be thrown overboard. Paul (Romans iii. 23) 
 declares that all men have sinned, and come short of 
 the glory of God ; while John goes so far as to say, "If 
 we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
 the truth is not in us," and also, "If we say that we 
 have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word 
 is not in us." Such declarations from a book which 
 "Science" requires us to accept as of equal authority 
 even with Mrs. Eddy's "feeble revelation," cannot 
 be waived aside. Mrs. Eddy does not hesitate, when 
 she is discussing other points of doctrine, to misapply, 
 explain away, or even deny, the authority of Scrip- 
 ture ; but in this case the contradiction would be too 
 bald, and the probable result a revolt in her camp. 
 The other difficulty is, that in reforming sinners she 
 
236 Christian Science. 
 
 can hardly expect to succeed by telling them no refor- 
 mation is necessary. It is quite pleasing to her fancy 
 to view Man — the vague, general, impersonal Man, 
 conceived of as the abstract, Divine, Archetypal Idea 
 — as perfect, sinless, and incapable of sin, but never- 
 theless, as we have seen, she affirms that all mortals 
 are sinners. She cannot be blind to the facts, and 
 does not pretend to deny them. 
 
 Accordingly, she advises quite a different method 
 of dealing with sin. She would have her students 
 never so much as audibly name diseases, lest the 
 very naming of them should prove a creative power 
 to produce such "erroneous beliefs ;" but "lust, hatred 
 and dishonesty/' however unreal, are not to be con- 
 sidered such unrealities that they may be dismissed 
 by denial, like the "false claims" of headache. 
 (Science and Health, p. 403.) She must, perforce, 
 uphold the Bible, declaim against sin as an evil, 
 and preach up the duty of holiness. Sins she counts 
 errors, but she manifestly uses the word in this con- 
 nection in a different sense from that in which she is 
 wont to use it in discussing physical maladies. The 
 latter she has defined as errors in the sense of being 
 illusions, mere spectres conjured up by "mortal mind." 
 Sinful passions and propensities she seems to con- 
 sider errors in the sense of being mistakes of judg- 
 ment, and as promising falsely — which is correct. 
 Nobody denies that sin is a fearful mistake and a 
 dreadful delusion. Hence, her treatment of sin is 
 so far almost orthodox. Witness the following : 
 
 The heat of hatred, inflaming brutal propensities, the in- 
 dulgence of evil motives and aims, will make any man who 
 is above the lowest type of manhood a hopeless sufferer. 
 
 . . . Christian Science commands man to master these 
 
Christian Science. 237 
 
 propensities — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to 
 conquer revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with 
 honesty. . . Choke these errors in their early stages, if 
 yon wonld not cherish an army of conspirators against health, 
 happiness and success. . . . "Whatsoever a man soweth, 
 that shall he also reap." . . . Yon had better be exposed 
 to every plague on earth than to endure the cumulative ef- 
 fects of a guilty conscience. The abiding consciousness of 
 wrong-doing tends to destroy the ability to do right. — Science 
 and Heal tli, p. 403. 
 
 Thus we see, that while denying the reality of sin 
 in general, she is forced to admit the existence of 
 sinful appetites, propensities and deeds in particular ; 
 and that she would have these destroyed, not like dis- 
 ease, by the mere mastery of "Mind" over mortal 
 sense, but from first to last by being " regretted, " 
 struggled against and conquered. 
 
 But the trail of the serpent is in her doctrine of 
 sin, and Mrs. Eddy does not succeed in neutralizing 
 the poisonous slime by covering it with orthodox 
 phrases. She holds that sin is an unreality, and her 
 followers are compelled to regard it as a mere delu- 
 sion. She maintains that God "is of purer eyes than 
 to behold iniquity," and explains this to mean that 
 God cannot be conscious of any evil in his universe. 
 "Doth God know, and is there knowledge with the 
 Most High?" is a question to which she returns, in 
 all her discussion of sin, an emphatic negative. The 
 God of the Bible, to whom she refers respectfully as 
 "the Jewish tribal God, Jehovah," is a God who hates 
 and abominates sin ; but Mrs. Eddy's God, abiding in 
 a passionless calm, is unconscious of evil and of sin. 
 He is incapable of displeasure, and his wrath, Paul 
 to the contrary, is never visited upon the children of 
 
238 Christian Science. 
 
 disobedience. He has not appointed any day in which 
 he will judge the world by that man whom he hath or- 
 dained. No ; Paul was mistaken. Thus sounds the 
 "trumpet voice of Truth": "No final judgment 
 awaits mortals; for the judgment day of Wisdom 
 comes hourly and continually, even the judgment by 
 which mortal man is divested of all material error. 
 As for spiritual error, there is none." — Science and 
 Health, p. 187. 
 
 Sin is "a material error," of which mortals are be- 
 ing surely and inevitably divested. It does not touch 
 the Soul, and is left behind in the march of Mind, with 
 all other mundane illusions ! 
 
 We have observed, also, that she scouts the doc- 
 trine of original sin, and makes it synonymous with 
 "Adam, falsity, error," etc. ; and then, admitting it 
 through constraint, counts it the fictitious attribute of 
 an imaginary "Adamic race." The key-note of her 
 anthropology is that Man is "perfect and sinless as 
 the Mind which created him." Xo amount of ortho- 
 dox exhortation, no grudging and ambiguous admis- 
 sion of sin as an evil actually affecting the lives of 
 men, can prevent such doctrine from being turned, 
 by those who accept it, into practical antinomianism. 
 Let any man consider that his thoughts are divine, 
 and his real self sinless and incapable of sin, and it 
 it but a step to the opinion that do what he may, he is 
 doing right. The following is Mrs. Woodbury's tes- 
 timony, as to her own experience in Christian Science 
 teaching and healing: 
 
 Certain manifestations were unaccountable on any ra- 
 tional theory. Persons whom I persuaded to try this cura- 
 tive system drifted into abnormal actions. Their statements, 
 sometimes written as well as spoken, w r ere startlingly con- 
 
Christian Science. 239 
 
 tradictory. ... In my own "chambers of imagery" also 
 was mental bewilderment. At one moment all seemed 
 surely good, yet the next hour the feeling supervened that 
 wrong was the great ruler, and that mankind might exclaim 
 with ^Milton's Satan, "Evil, be thou my Good." . . . 
 
 A bulwark was needed to stem the erotic tide, favored in 
 some quarters ; and moral stamina was the more essential, 
 because the odium of increasing divorce and domestic aliena- 
 tion, the land over, was often attributed to Christian Science. 
 Certain patent domestic misfortunes among mental workers 
 naturally brought discredit upon Christian Science and in- 
 creased my strenuous advocacy of the imperative necessity 
 of the home. . . Some essays of mine on this very sub- 
 ject were later rejected by the Christian Science Journal as 
 not coming within its scope, etc. — War in Heaven. 
 
 All this is readily accounted for. Bewilderment, 
 immorality, insanity, domestic alienation and divorce, 
 all conspiring to "bring discredit upon Christian 
 Science/' are sufficient to indicate a state of things 
 that would make the management of a "Scientific" 
 periodical chary about admitting into its pages essays 
 that would, even in sounding the alarm, publish the 
 shame of the new "Church of Christ!" Christian 
 Science doctrine is moral poison. The fact stated by 
 Mrs. Woodbury in the Arena, May, 1899, that "Chris- 
 tian Science families are notably childless," is just 
 what we would expect. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy and her followers may insist as much 
 as they please that sin must inevitably produce suf- 
 fering; but she has blunted the force of all such or- 
 thodox warnings by her own invariable proviso that 
 sin and suffering are both unrealities. Her doctrine 
 delivers its adherents from all sense of accountability, 
 and breeds an egoistic perfectionism that is close akin 
 to madness. 
 
240 Christian Science. 
 
 But she and her school, being sure that her inter- 
 pretations of Scripture are the only ones which give 
 the "spiritual sense/' are unable to see the reason of 
 their own spiritual impotence. Her own w r ords sound 
 like an unconscious prophecy of her disastrous failure 
 to reform the world : "Take away the spiritual sig- 
 nification of Scripture, and that compilation can do 
 no more for mortals than moonbeams to melt a river 
 of ice." — Science and Health, p. 137. 
 
 We need not pause to inquire particularly what 
 our oracle teaches as to the new birth. She has made 
 it plain that Man does not need it, and that "mortals" 
 attain it only at their last death. Then, and not till 
 then, do they forever "put off false individuality," by 
 ceasing to exist as personal beings. 
 
 Little need has Christian Science of atonement. 
 Man is no sinner, and there is no pardon for the 
 transgressions of mortals. "In trying to undo the 
 errors of sense one must pay, here or hereafter, the 
 utmost farthing, until the body is fully brought into 
 subjection to the Spirit." The divine method of 
 paying sin's wages differs, in "Science," from the 
 method indicated by Paul. It is not death that the 
 sinner inherits; but the reward of sin simply "in- 
 volves unwinding one's snarls, and learning from ex- 
 perience, through pangs unspeakable, how to divide 
 between error and Truth." But inasmuch as one who 
 professes to believe the Bible must believe in an atone- 
 ment of some sort, she makes the sinner's "at-one- 
 ment" consist in a "true sense of Love," or "unity 
 with God," i. e. 3 deification. — Ibid., pp. 136, 137, 324. 
 
 In leaving this part of our subject, we may glance 
 at the Christian Science doctrine as to unembodied 
 spirits. The existence of personal angels and devils 
 
Christian Science. 241 
 
 Mrs. Eddy dismisses unceremoniously. Having - re- 
 fused to allow us to think of men as persons, she can- 
 not, of course, admit the existence of any hierarchy of 
 spirits, either in heaven or hell. Accordingly she 
 gives this impressive and beautiful account of angels : 
 
 Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving ani- 
 mal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial visitants, 
 flying on spiritual, not material pinions. They are pure 
 thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no mat- 
 ter what their individualism may be. Human conjecture 
 confers upon them its own forms of thought, making them 
 human creatures with suggestive pinions; but this is only 
 fancy. . . . 
 
 My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of 
 some sepulchre, where human belief has buried its fondest 
 earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a 
 new and glorified trust, a higher ideal of Life and its joys. 
 Angels are God's impartations to man — not messengers, or 
 persons, but messages of the true idea of divinity flowing 
 into humanity. These upward-soaring thoughts never lead 
 mortals toward self or sin, but guide them to the Principle 
 of all Good, whither every pure and uplifting aspiration 
 tends. — Science and Health, pp. 194-5. 
 
 Applying, for the purpose of eliciting its inmost 
 meaning, one of Mrs. Eddy's own principles of in- 
 terpretation to this passage, let us reverse one of its 
 propositions, and the meaning leaps out luminously. 
 Her thoughts are the "upward-soaring" angels, mes- 
 sages of the true idea of divinity, leading us to the 
 Principle of Good, etc. And all other thoughts, of 
 course, are angelic in proportion as they harmonize 
 with hers ! When the Scripture writers spoke of an- 
 gels as persons and messengers, they were only in- 
 spired by human fancy — nothing more ! David was 
 in a fine frenzy of mere poetic fervor, and did not ex- 
 
242 Christian Science. 
 
 pect to be understood literally, when he wrote, "Bless 
 the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that 
 do his commandments, hearkening unto the. voice of 
 his word !" And much Scripture must be cut out of 
 our Bibles, if we entertain Mrs. Eddy's beautiful, 
 white-fingered, wingless angels, that would lead us 
 to a "new and glorified" trust in her book as Im- 
 manuel ! 
 
 Her treatment of devils is even more summary. 
 She simply decapitates the principal w r ord which 
 stands for an evil spirit, and the father of liars be- 
 comes merely abstract Evil, while lesser demons be- 
 come evils. Thus does this higher and more practical 
 Christianity deliver its adherents from all necessity of 
 taking precautions against Satan's devices, not only 
 denying to him and his hosts a "local habitation and a 
 name," but annihilating the wretched hierarchy of 
 hell. Nevertheless, Mrs. Eddy finds a devil somehow 
 necessary in her system, and she makes use of the 
 idea by distributing evil through the ages, and iden- 
 tifying it particularly with all opinions that militate 
 against her revelation. Thus she identifies the devil 
 in her definition of him with Adam, Eve, Canaan, 
 Ham, Issachar, with matter and mortal mind, and 
 more than all, with animal magnetism. As the adver- 
 sary, he is all that opposes, denies and disputes reality 
 and Truth, which is to say, Christian Science. Our 
 Lord said, "Why do ye not understand my speech? 
 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of 
 your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye 
 will do." But in this he was explaining "the origin of 
 material man and of mortal mind !" We do not know 
 which to admire most in this luminous exposition — 
 the ingenuity with which she gets rid of the devil, or 
 
Christian Science. 243 
 
 the refined wit which prompts her to retain his name 
 as a convenient term by which to designate the pa- 
 ternity of all unbelievers in her "sacred discovery.'' 
 And, since she has defined "evil spirits" as false be- 
 liefs, and said that these were the devils that Jesus cast 
 out during his earthly ministry, we who refuse to 
 acknowledge her as the Messiah for this age must 
 be content to let ourselves be thought of by pious 
 Scientists as devils possessed of devils ! 
 
 But, notwithstanding her annihilation of the devil 
 and all his host, Mrs. Eddy has not succeeded in de- 
 livering her followers from fear of evil. Says Mrs. 
 Woodbury (Arena, May, 1899) : 
 
 Demonophobia, the fear of demons, the fear of witch- 
 craft, is the better name for the Christian Science disease. 
 Its advocates are crazy with the fear of a Satan of their 
 own making, and this fear is stimulated by Mrs. Eddy's 
 constant allusions to the subject. "If you cannot take up 
 malicious animal magnetism," she said to one of her editors, 
 kk you can't handle my magazine." Nowhere does demono- 
 phobia thrive with such virulence as in this sect of people, 
 who cross themselves in the name of Mary Eddy. 
 
 The stark superstition and insane fear taught and 
 exemplified by Mrs. Eddy are almost incredible. 
 When Mrs. Eddy's fourth husband died, the autopsy, 
 according to the writer just quoted, showed that 
 "death' was the result of distinctly developed heart- 
 disease ; but Mrs. Eddy declared that it was the effect 
 of arsenical poison, mentally administered" by some 
 of her former students who had now become rivals ! 
 She claimed, it is said, that she could have healed the 
 assassinated Garfield but for the "malicious interfer- 
 ence" of Messrs. Kennedy and Arens, both of whom 
 had been her pupils. But perhaps the greatest mar- 
 
244 Christian Science. 
 
 vel in the superstitions which she has taught is the 
 doctrine she has communicated privately to her pu- 
 pils, to the effect that women may not only "become 
 mothers through a supreme effort of their own 
 minds," but also by the influence over them of some 
 "unholy ghost," or malign spirit; albeit, she assured 
 them she could "dissolve such motherhood by a wave 
 of her celestial rod." "Women of unquestionable in- 
 tegrity, who have been Mrs. Eddy's students, testify 
 that she has so taught, and that by this teaching fam- 
 ilies have been broken up ; that thus maidens have 
 been terrified out of their wits, and stimulated into a 
 frenzy resembling that of deluded French nuns, who 
 believed themselves brought into marital relations 
 with the glorified Jesus, as veritably the bridegroom 
 of the church." 1 Comment is unnecessary. 
 
 1 Mrs. Woodbury. 
 
XVI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, THEOSOPHY AND 
 GNOSTICISM. 
 
 The denial of all commonly accepted doctrines as 
 to the future life follows necessarily upon Mrs. Eddy's 
 denial of human personality, and her views of the final 
 destiny of the race. Already we have scented, in her 
 teaching as to the pre-incarnation of Jesus in the 
 first man, the unmistakable odor of Theosophy. We 
 have observed that she teaches Pantheism, though 
 she stoutly denies that she is a Pantheist; and that, 
 while she denounces hypnotism in the strongest 
 terms as "mental mal-practice," criminal, etc., she 
 adopts its basic principle of "suggestion 1 ' as the 
 ground-work of her system of mental healing. When, 
 therefore, we find her declaring that Theosophy is 
 opposed to Christian Science, it need not surprise us 
 to learn that a large part of her system is a plagiarism 
 from theosophical sources, and little more to be 
 heeded than her refusal to acknowledge her debt to 
 Dr. Quimby. Her defense against this charge could 
 hardly be more decisive than her defense in the mat- 
 ter of her mental healing theory. She did not re- 
 ceive her revelation until after Dr. Quimby was dead, 
 and neither did she receive it all until after Theosophy 
 had been brought to the attention of New Yorkers 
 and presumably of Bostonians. The first edition of 
 Science and Health was not published until 1875. 
 
246 Christian Science. 
 
 Some time before that Madame Blavatsky, the oracle 
 of modern Theosophy, came to New York, and her 
 society was organized in that city in 1875. Here, 
 then, is another coincidence. 
 
 Theosophy, or the "Wisdom Religion," is the term 
 chosen to represent their creed by certain people who 
 have within the past thirty years undertaken to bring 
 an emended, enlarged Buddhism to the front, and 
 substitute it for Christianity. They have adopted 
 the philosophy which flourished in the first ages of 
 the Christian era among certain heathen sects in 
 India, and, to a considerable extent, among early 
 Christian heretics. To this they have added some 
 gleanings from Spiritualism, and from various other 
 religions and philosophies, with some small flavor of 
 Christian ethics and philanthropy. 
 
 The resemblance between "Christian Science" and 
 Theosophy is noticeable, first, in their nomenclature. 
 It can hardly be considered a matter of accidental 
 coincidence that so many of the terms chosen by Mrs. 
 Eddy and her followers as the symbols of their "ex- 
 alted thoughts" are identical with those adopted by 
 Madame Blavatsky and her school. "Divine Science" 
 is a term which the former use as synonymous with 
 "Christian Science," while the word "Science" they 
 use interchangeably with Wisdom. Divine Science 
 means, therefore, Divine Wisdom, and this is simply 
 a translation of the word Theosophy. "Embracing 
 both the scientific and religious/*' says William Q. 
 Judge, "Theosophy is a scientific religion and a re- 
 ligious science." In the Christ-Principle of Mrs. Eddy 
 we recognize the "Christos Principle" of which Mad- 
 ame Blavatsky has somewhat to say ; and both are 
 agreed that this Christ-Principle incarnated itself in 
 
Christian Science. 247 
 
 others before it was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth. 
 In defining God as Being, Substance, Principle, Life, 
 Good, the Infinite, etc., Mrs. Eddy but follows in the 
 wake of those who profess their belief in a "Universal 
 Divine Principle. " So also in Mrs. Eddy's division of 
 Man into "mortal sense/' the Christ-Principle, and 
 the Divine Mind or Ego, all of which she considers 
 as possessed by each of us, we recognize a crude and 
 bungling effort to appropriate the main ideas of the 
 "higher trinity" of Theosophy — Manas, the Thinker, 
 Buddhi, or the Christos Principle, and Atman, the 
 Supreme Ego. To this last Madame Blavatsky gives 
 the further names of the "Universal Life," the "One 
 Self," and the "Higher Self;" and Mrs. Eddy, after 
 defining "I, or Ego," as "Principle, Spirit, Soul, in- 
 corporeal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind," 
 goes on to say, "There is but one I, or Us, but one 
 Principle, or Mind, governing all existence," etc. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, having thus adopted a number of the 
 terms in which this Oriental philosophy is paraded, 
 has been followed by other teachers of Mental Science 
 healing in the use of such terms as the following, all 
 of which are borrowed from the same source : 
 
 Gnosis is the spiritual understanding, which is de- 
 fined by Madame Blavatsky as knowledge, and as 
 applying to "the spiritual and sacred knowledge, the 
 gupta-vidya of the Hindus." Yoga is simply concen- 
 tration of thought, in Mental Science teaching, while 
 Madame Blavatsky applies it to the philosophy of 
 "Yajnavalyah, a famous and very ancient sage." 
 Karma is the law of cause and effect in Mental 
 Science literature, and has the same meaning in 
 Madame Blavatsky's works. Maya is used by Mental 
 Scientists as meaning illusion, "mortal mind," and 
 
248 Christian Science. 
 
 false beliefs, while its first meaning in Theosophy is 
 illusion. 
 
 "These terms/" observes Dr. Buckley, "are as val- 
 uable in affecting the ordinary mind as chloride of 
 sodium for salt, capsicum for pepper, and H 2 for 
 water. They serve also to make it appear that the 
 Science is difficult, and that large fees for instruction 
 are reasonable." 
 
 But when we turn from the symbolism of the new 
 Christianity to its doctrines, and compare these with 
 the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and her followers, 
 the resemblances are so many and so minute that we 
 are compelled to ascribe both to a common origin. 
 The evidence is overwhelming that if Mrs. Eddy did 
 not seize upon Madame Blavatsky's religious ideas 
 when they first appeared, she has at any rate learned 
 something of the Oriental philosophy from which the 
 Madame professed to have derived her "Wisdom Re- 
 ligion." 
 
 Beginning with her definition of God, as we have 
 already seen, Mrs. Eddy, in every important partic- 
 ular, teaches precisely what has been taught for ages 
 by the Hindu philosophy. That system is pantheistic. 
 Denying Pantheism, Mrs. Eddy holds steadfastly to 
 its fundamental postulate, which is, God is all. Com- 
 pare the following passages, in which the italicized 
 words and phrases are the same in both authors : 
 
 From Mrs. Eddy — 
 
 God is identical with nature. — Science and Health, p. 13. 
 
 Christian Science strongly designates the thought that 
 God is not corporeal (p. 10). Human conceptions would 
 . . . say that an anthropomorphic god instead of infinite 
 Principle is the Father, etc. — p. 153. 
 
 God is individual, incorporeal, the Universal Cause, . . . 
 
Christian Science. 249 
 
 . . . all-inclusive. (Pp. 226-' 7.) Divine Principle, Reality, 
 and can produce nothing unlike himself . . the eternal. — 
 p. 231. 
 
 From Madame Blavatsky — 
 
 We reject the idea of a personal or an extracosmic and 
 anthropomorphic God, who is but the gigantic shadow of 
 man. etc. — Key to Theosophy, p. 55. 1 
 
 We believe in a universal Divine Principle, the root of all, 
 from which all proceeds, etc. — Ibid., p. 56. 
 
 When we speak of the Deity, and make it identical with 
 Nature, the eternal Nature is meant, and not your ag- 
 gregate of flitting shadows and finite unrealities is meant. — 
 p. 58. 
 
 We occultists and Theosophists see in it the only universal 
 and eternal Reality, casting a periodical reflection of Itself 
 on the infinite spacial depths. — p. j6. 
 
 This last statement of Madame Blavatsky is her 
 account of creation. God simply reflects himself 
 through space; and she has also told us that this 
 Nature thus created is not that composed of "flitting 
 shadows and finite unrealities." We have seen how 
 Mrs. Eddy rejects the Mosaic account of creation. 
 Here is her own : 
 
 The creative Principle — Life, Truth and Love — is God. 
 The universe reflects him. There is but one Creator and one 
 creation. This creation consists in the unfolding of spiritual 
 ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite 
 Mind, and forever reflected. These ideas range from the 
 infinitesimal to immensity, and the highest ideas are the sons 
 and daughters of God. — Science and Health, p. 496. 
 
 Here we have precisely the same thought as to the 
 
 1 Quotations from Key to Theosophy are from second and 
 revised American edition. 
 
250 Christian Science. 
 
 character of creation. It is a reflection or unfolding 
 of God. There appears to be a difference only as to 
 the duration of the universe. Mrs. Eddy apparently 
 holds that it is eternal, while Madame Blavatsky holds 
 that it is periodically "reflected" and then absorbed 
 back again into God. 
 
 What do these two prophetesses have to say of 
 Man? 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's account has already been given, and 
 is simply that Man is the infinite idea or reflection of 
 God, reflecting God as the image in the mirror reflects 
 the man looking at the mirror. Man had no begin- 
 ning, being "co-existent and co-eternal with God," 
 and can "never be outside of his one-ness." Madame 
 Blavatsky also holds to the same theory of the "unity 
 of All in All." We have quoted Christian Science 
 doctrine as to the fact that Man's only Mind is God, 
 who is "Substance, the invisible and indivisible" and 
 that the "Principle" of Jesus is the "Father in secret" 
 of whom he speaks, and is the "generic Mind of Man." 
 Madame Blavatsky agrees with this precisely. "We 
 say that the Spirit — the 'Father in secret' of Jesus — 
 or Atman, is no individual property of any man, but 
 the divine essence . . . invisible and indivisible" 1 
 Here the agreement between these two antagonists is 
 perfect. 
 
 We saw in her doctrine as to the first man that Mrs. 
 Eddy believed in the preexistence of men. Elsewhere 
 she asserts this idea plainly, and argues to prove it 
 true : 
 
 If man did not exist before the material organization be- 
 gan he could not exist after the body is disintegrated. If we 
 
 1 Key to Theosophy, p. 90. 
 
Christian Science. 251 
 
 live after death, and are immortal, we must have lived before 
 birth; for if Life ever had any beginning it must have also 
 an ending. — Science and Health, p. 427. 
 
 This is good Buddhism, as witness the following 
 from Madame Blavatsky : "Both the human spirit or 
 the individuality, the reincarnating spiritual Ego, and 
 Buddhi, the spiritual soul, are preexistent." — Key to 
 Theosophy, p. 94. 
 
 The only difference between the two inspired 
 teachers seems to be that the American denies that 
 there is any sense in which God is in Man ; but even 
 in this the difference is but superficial. Says the 
 Russian divinity, " . . . we believe with the Neo- 
 platonists and the Eastern teachings that the spirit 
 (Atma) never descends hypostatically into the living 
 man, but only showers more or less its radiance on 
 the inner man/' — Ibid., p. 91. 
 
 So, after all, this is, "scientifically" speaking, 
 heavenly, which is to say, "harmonious with Truth/' 
 or otherwise with Mrs. Eddy's doctrine. 
 
 Theosophy, like Christian Science, appeals to the 
 Scriptures w T hen a text can be squeezed into service. 
 And this teaching as to the preexistence of man is 
 held to be sustained by the question addressed by the 
 disciples to Jesus, touching the affliction of the man 
 who had been born blind. "Master, who did sin, this 
 man or his parents, that he was born blind?" We 
 might grant that the question shows at least the ig- 
 norance of the disciples ; but the Master's answer 
 was certainly not an admission of the doctrine in 
 question, "Neither . . . but that the works of God 
 might be manifest in him." Inasmuch as the doctrine 
 of reincarnation is based upon the idea that birth it- 
 self is a misfortune, and in some sort a punishment 
 
252 Christian Science. 
 
 for misdoing in a former life, and that every afflic- 
 tion which we suffer here is to be accounted for by 
 reference to Karma, or the law of cause and effect, 
 otherwise retribution, which is held by both Buddhists 
 and Christian Scientists, we cannot conceive how our 
 Lord could have given a more emphatic denial to the 
 doctrine. The disciples, tinctured possibly with the- 
 osophic errors, assumed that the poor man's blindness 
 was due to the sin either of himself or his parents, 
 and the .Master corrected that assumption with an 
 emphatic neither. 1 
 
 1 There are some minds, imaginative and sentimental, to 
 whom the thought of previous existence is exceedingly at- 
 tractive. Wordsworth seems to have expressed his convic- 
 tion of its truth in his well-known words — 
 
 "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, 
 The Soul that rises with us. our life's Star, 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 And comcth from afar ; 
 
 Not in entire forgetfulne--. 
 Nor yet in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 From God, who is our home. 
 
 Even Tennyson, true as he was to most of the essentials 
 of Christianity, might be accused of being somewhat tinc- 
 tured with this old philosophy. Witness the following in his 
 last poem, full as that is of genuine Christian hope: 
 
 Twilight and evening star, 
 
 And one clear call for me, 
 And may there be no moaning of the bar 
 
 When I put out to sea; 
 But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 
 
 Too full for sound or foam. 
 When that which drew from out the bo mull ess deep 
 
 Turns toward home. 
 
Christian Science. 253 
 
 Again, we observe an identity of doctrine in the 
 
 two systems touching the doctrines of grace. We 
 have seen how Mrs. Eddy sneers at "pinning one's 
 faith to another's vicarious effort/' and we find 
 Madame Blavatsky repudiating the atonement, which, 
 
 But it is evident that he did not agree with Theosophists. 
 In the last stanza of that swan song of his spirit we have the 
 words — 
 
 And though from out this bourne of time and space 
 
 My soul may wander far, 
 I hope to see my Pilot face to face, 
 
 When I have crossed the bar. 
 
 Here is a clear expression of hope in personal immortality, 
 and of desire to see that "strong Son of God," of whom he 
 had sung in strains so sweet in his immortal tribute to his 
 dead friend. Nor can we forget his passionate protest in 
 In Memoriam against the doctrine which is the logical cor- 
 relative of the Pantheistic notion of man's preexistence — 
 that of final reabsorption into the Soul of the Universe : 
 
 That each who seemed a separate whole, 
 Should move his rounds, and fusing all 
 The skirts of self, at last should fall 
 
 Remerging in the general Soul, 
 
 Is faith as vague as all unsweet ; 
 
 Eternal form shall still divide 
 
 The Eternal Soul from all beside, 
 And I shall know him when we meet. 
 
 Tennyson was in full sympathy with much of the advanced 
 thought which became current through the ministry of such 
 men as Frederick W. Robertson and his own intimate friend, 
 Maurice; but there is no evidence in all that he has written 
 that he was at heart a Buddhist. Doubts he may have had, 
 but, like his friend, he had learned how to slay those 
 "spectres of the mind." 
 
254 Christian Science. 
 
 whether the vicarious actor be "God or man, is most 
 revolting" to her, and also "most degrading to human 
 dignity." Again, she pronounces that a dangerous 
 doctrine which teaches that "no matter how enormous 
 our crimes against the laws of God and of man, we 
 have but to believe in the self-sacrifice of Jesus for 
 the salvation of mankind, and his blood will wash 
 out every stain." As to pardon, says Mrs. Eddy, 
 "mercy cancels the debt only when justice approves;" 
 and Madame Blavatsky remarks that one's innate 
 sense of justice is perverted if taught that his sins 
 will be forgiven because another man has been put 
 to death for his sake. Mrs. Eddy goes out of her way 
 to scout and repudiate "the old doctrine of foreordi- 
 nation ;" Madame Blavatsky and her followers take 
 pains to quote and condemn the Westminster Confes- 
 sion of Faith, and the Madame herself roundly de- 
 nounces election as a "cruel and idiotic doctrine which 
 makes of God a senseless fiend." 
 
 The affinity between Mrs. Eddy's system and mod- 
 ern Theosophy appears still more plainly in her teach- 
 ings as to the future life. It is a fundamental notion 
 of this popular form of Buddhism that human beings 
 are in a state of transition, and destined to be re-born 
 again and again until at last absorbed into the divine 
 essence. We have seen how Christian Scientism 
 teaches that mortals are all destined to "disappear," 
 and man to become at last identified with the Christ- 
 Principle. We observe in all its literature a studious 
 avoidance of anything that looks like the doctrine that 
 human personality, as we are conscious of it here, is 
 to survive and characterize the eternal state of man. 
 Nor do we find anything definite in the system touch- 
 ing heaven and hell, and the experiences of the soul 
 
Christian Science. 255 
 
 in the future life. Heaven is harmony, and hell is 
 discord, both here and hereafter — so much, and no 
 more, are we told concerning our future life. The 
 explanation of all this significant silence and nebulous 
 dogma is that Mrs. Eddy believes in re-birth and in 
 the transmigration of souls ! 
 
 Those who reach this transition called death, without hav- 
 ing rightly improved the lessons of this primary school of 
 mortal existence, — and still believe in matter's reality, pleas- 
 ure and pain, — are not ready to understand immortality. 
 Hence they awaken only to another sphere of experience and 
 must pass through another probationary state before it can 
 be truly said of them, Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord* — Unity of Good, p. 3. 
 
 Man is not annihilated, nor does he lose his identity by 
 passing through the belief called death. After this momen- 
 tary belief passes, at the moment of death, from the erring 
 mortal mind man finds himself still in a conscious state of 
 existence, and that he has but passed through an extreme 
 moment of mortal fear to awaken with thoughts and being 
 as material as before. , . . Spiritualization of thought is 
 not attained by the death of the body but by conscious union 
 with God. When we are on the same plane of conscious ex- 
 istence with those gone before, we shall be able to communi- 
 cate with them and recognize them, and when we have done 
 our work here well enough not to have to do it over again, 
 that change increases all our joys and means of advance- 
 ment. — Christian Science Series, No. 1, p. 9. 
 
 The Buddhism of these extracts is plain. Theo- 
 sophical writers have much to say about "planes of 
 being" and "planes of consciousness," and it is a 
 favorite doctrine of theirs that in the future life we 
 will be able to recognize and hold intercourse with 
 none but those who are on the same "astral plane" as 
 we ourselves. In the extract just quoted we have ob- 
 
256 Christian Science. 
 
 served the same doctrine. But some Buddhists be- 
 lieve that men may be re-born as apes or peacocks. 
 Mrs. Eddy seems to be in doubt upon this point. She 
 only ventures to hint that unless we accept her gospel 
 there is danger of our being doomed to a second ex- 
 perience of material existence. And where, pray, 
 shall we do our work, if doomed to do it over again, 
 unless the effort be repeated in this world ? Has she 
 not taught us by implication that Jesus failed as the 
 first man, and so had to be re-incarnated? And, 
 again, if we may be doomed to a second experience of 
 mortal existence, why not, if unfaithful, to a third 
 and a fourth? Why not, also, be in danger of sinking 
 to the plane of bestial life? For these questions our 
 oracle has no answers. Having taught the general 
 principle, she leaves her pupils to work out such ap- 
 plications as may be suggested by the hardihood of 
 their faith. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy is silent touching the rapture, the song, 
 and the exalted praise and holy service of the heavenly 
 state. Madame Blavatsky speaks out plainly, "What 
 between truncated angels, brass trumpets, golden 
 harps, and material hell fires, the Christian heaven 
 seems like a fairy scene at a Christmas pantomime." 
 (Key to Theosophy, p. 152.) Mrs. Eddy is less can- 
 did and more politic. She does not denounce ortho- 
 dox teaching and contradict the Scriptures on these 
 points as she does on so many others, but she does not 
 discuss particularly the question of the future life of 
 the blessed. Why this silence touching the most pre- 
 cious hopes which the gospel brings to our fallen 
 race? Evidently because in her system immortality 
 is the immortality of God himself, and nothing else. 
 The hope of Christian Scientist!! is the hope of Bud- 
 
Christian Science. 257 
 
 dhism, of Brahmanism, and of Pantheism. It is to be 
 merged at last in the divine essence, and to have at 
 last no being or consciousness distinct from God's. 
 
 Such a hope seems to be flattering to our self- 
 importance, until it is examined in the light of reason, 
 and then it is seen to be not one whit better than blank 
 Atheism. It is but another form of the doctrine that 
 death is an eternal sleep, since this absorption into the 
 Divine Principle is placed at the end of the round of 
 births and deaths. The final death, or at all events the 
 triumph achieved in the last stage of material exist- 
 ence, ushers the spirit into "the consciousness of one- 
 ness with Being," in which the sense of personality 
 disappears. God himself, in any wise, knows us alto- 
 gether, and divine memory, unless we conceive of God 
 as himself unconscious and unthinking, will register 
 our fleeting life. If, then, our human personality is 
 destined to be merged into the impersonal divine es- 
 sence, that "deification of mortals" is to our souls, 
 with all their hopes and longings and thirstings for 
 immortality, but a shining entrance into eternal ob- 
 livion. The doctrine is a glittering mockery of hu- 
 man hope and human affection. As one has well said, 
 "Pantheism is Atheism." He who surrenders his 
 faith in a personal God and in a personal immortality, 
 may fancy himself emancipated from the thraldom of 
 superstition, but he has in fact been robbed of the 
 most joyous hopes that ever cheered our poor, frail 
 humanity. He has become an Atheist indeed, "with- 
 out God and without hope in the world." 
 
 If we would know what effect upon human am- 
 bition and character this faith exerts, we have but to 
 look across the seas, and witness the despairing apathy 
 which has settled down upon all the nations which 
 
258 Christian Science. 
 
 have been subjugated by the religion of Buddha. 
 Witness the stolid indifference of the Chinese, and the 
 sad hopelessness of the Hindus, toward all that 
 makes for progress and happiness. Woman is an out- 
 cast from social life, and maternity is a crime, where- 
 ever Buddha, the "Night of Asia," has shed abroad 
 his blighting faith. Love for one's own mother is 
 mixed with contempt for womankind wherever men 
 have been taught that life is a punishment and a 
 curse, and that salvation can only be attained by be- 
 coming freed from the fetters of matter and the illu- 
 sions of mortality. 
 
 Theosophists, indeed, pretending, like Christian 
 Scientists, to find in their doctrine of the oneness of 
 the human soul, a basis for a true brotherhood of 
 humanity, claim to exhibit great unselfishness, and 
 vaunt their shadowy creed as the grandest inspiration 
 of altruism and philanthropy. But a greater than 
 Buddha has given an infallible mark by which a creed 
 as well as a personal profession can be tested — "by 
 their fruits shall ye know them." Tested by this crite- 
 rion, Buddhism lias been tried through the ages, and 
 lias been found wanting. Its votaries have been de- 
 prived of all motive to unselfish living in that they 
 have been taught that the attainment of personal sal- 
 vation is the supreme end of human endeavor, and 
 that this salvation is not righteousness, but the ex- 
 tinction of all desire and sensibility. Mortification 
 of the flesh, and not the service of humanity, is the end 
 of the Buddhist discipline. 
 
 But without delaying further on this point, we ob- 
 serve, once more, that if Mrs. Eddy's inspiration is 
 all original, it is a little singular that she and Madame 
 Blavatsky both deduce their favorite doctrine of the 
 
Christian Science. 259 
 
 brotherhood of Man from the same pantheistic prem- 
 ise, and both enter the same claim for public recogni- 
 tion on the ground of their doctrine. Thus Mrs. 
 Eddy: "Having one God, one Mind, establishes the 
 brotherhood of man. ... All have one Mind, one 
 Soul." — Science and Health, p. 172. 
 
 And so also speaks Madame Blavatsky : "The iden- 
 tity of the soul and spirit of real, immortal man . . . 
 would lead us far on the road of real charity and 
 brotherly good-will." — Key to Theosophy, p. 40. 
 
 Lastly, in this comparison, we note that Christian 
 Scientism resembles Buddhism in that it discounts the 
 evidence of the material senses, and makes it the chief 
 effort of human life to escape from their imperious 
 rule. Both agree that the misery of the world is due 
 to discord between the soul and its fleshly environ- 
 ment. Mrs. Eddy bids her followers discredit the 
 testimony of the senses, and thus attain •the "con- 
 sciousness of oneness with God." Buddhism teaches 
 that through the destruction of the senses we may at- 
 tain nirvana, or complete peace, which is entire and 
 final unconsciousness, though it be also union with 
 the Absolute. In the Hindu fakir, lying on his back 
 in the scorching sunshine of a tropical summer, his 
 face plastered with mud, in which he has sown seed 
 which must germinate before his painful vigil ends, 
 or standing on a post for days and years together in 
 constant effort to silence the voice of his rebellious 
 senses, we see a spiritual kinsman of Mrs. Eddy and 
 her followers. The latter teach that the way to har- 
 mony, which is their term for nirvana, is the destruc- 
 tion of our senses by the denial of their testimony to 
 the reality of the external world and the facts of our 
 conscious experience. Both are aiming at the destruc- 
 
260 Christian Science. 
 
 tion of sin and misery through the extinction of all 
 passion and sensibility, and both look forward to a 
 state in which all material "illusions" will have passed 
 away forever. 
 
 Compare the following passages. The first three 
 are from Buddhistic authorities. One is quoted by 
 Dr. DuBose, in his masterly work on the three re- 
 ligions of China, and describes the famous meditation 
 of Buddha under the Bodhi tree : 
 
 He forced his mind as the night wore on to a strict se- 
 quence of thought, and as morning dawned the light he so 
 long sought broke upon him, and he reached the goal of abso- 
 lute intelligence; freed from the bondage of sense, perception 
 and self, he has broken with the material world, and lives in 
 eternity. 
 
 The second is from that favorite classic of Theoso- 
 phists, the Bhagavad Glta, and describes the "inde- 
 structible path" entered by those who are "free from 
 attachments," and are "laboring for salvation" : 
 
 I [e who closeth all the doors of his senses, imprisoneth his 
 mind in his heart, fixeth his vital powers in his head, stand- 
 ing firm in meditation, repeating the monosyllable OM, and 
 thus continues when he is quitting the body, goeth to the 
 supreme goal. — Bhagavad Gita, sixth American edition, 
 p. 60. 
 
 The third is also from the Bhagavad Gita, in 
 which Krishna advises that for the soul's purification 
 one should — 
 
 Practice meditation with his mind fixed on one point, the 
 modifications of the thinking principle controlled, and the 
 action of the senses and organs restrained. Keeping his 
 body, head and neck firm and erect, with mind determined, 
 and gaze directed to the tip of his nose, without looking in 
 
Christian Science. 261 
 
 any direction, with heart at peace and free from fear, the 
 Yogee should remain, . . . his thoughts controlled, and 
 heart fixed on me. The devotee of controlled mind, who 
 thus always bringeth his heart to rest in the Supreme, reach- 
 eth that tranquility, the supreme assimilation with me.— 
 Ibid., p. 46. 
 
 These three passages, observe, are from recognized 
 heathen writers. The next passage I quote is from 
 Mrs. Eddy : 
 
 Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a 
 form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of 
 God, or Good, and the nature of the immutable and immortal. 
 Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, . . . 
 fixing your gaze upon the realities supernal, you may rise 
 to the spiritual consciousness of Being, even as the bird 
 which has burst the egg, and preens its wings for a skyward 
 flight. — Science and Health, p. 157. 
 
 Here is striking resemblance, both of sentiment and 
 expression. By the "spiritual consciousness of Be- 
 ing/'' it is plain that Mrs. Eddy means just what the 
 Buddhist oracle does by "absolute intelligence," 
 "tranquility" and "assimilation" with Krishna, which 
 latter is one of the names given to the Christos Prin- 
 ciple of Theosophy. "Breaking away from the mu- 
 tations of time and sense" is certainly equivalent to 
 becoming "freed from the bondage of sense, percep- 
 tion and self ;" and in order to achieve this freedom we 
 must act upon the Buddhistic plan, close the door and 
 silence the voice of the senses, and thus "break with 
 the material world." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy does not, indeed, give such minute direc- 
 tions as to the modus operandi as the Buddhist oracle 
 does, as to standing, fixing the mind on one point, gaz- 
 
262 Christian Science. 
 
 ing upon the tip of the nose, pronouncing the mono- 
 syllable OM when quitting the body, etc. Her direc- 
 tions, however, though less definite, are practically the 
 same as Krishna's. She would have her followers 
 "detach sense from the body/' and in order to do this, 
 she would have them "enter into their closets" by 
 closing the doors of sense, and in silent meditation, 
 like that of Buddha under the Bodhi tree, gaze upon 
 the realities supernal, until they can at last "peck their 
 shells open with Christian Science" and — surpassing 
 all other fledgelings — immediately "preen their wings" 
 for a skyward flight. (Science and Health, p. 554.) 
 The main difference between the two oracles is, that 
 Mrs. Eddy does not tell precisely how the gaze may 
 be directed toward realities supernal, while the Bud- 
 dhist is expected to see them at or beyond the tip of 
 his nose ; but as the word supernal implies elevation, 
 it is obvious that if his nose is properly elevated the 
 Buddhist, even according to Mrs. Eddy, may be look- 
 ing in the right direction. And as to the sacred 
 monosyllable OM, who could object to that? It is 
 assuredly as good as any other ejaculation for a dying 
 Buddhist, Christian Scientist, Theosophist, or any 
 other person who rejects the Bible, does not believe 
 in audible prayer, and reckons himself his own sav- 
 iour, a part of God, and the only divinity with whom 
 he has to do. 
 
 Xo ingenuity of forced exposition, and no argu- 
 ment, however plausible, can convince any rational 
 soul that all this heathenism is in accord with the 
 teachings of Christ. The labored efforts made by 
 Mrs. Eddy and her tribe to reconcile their borrowed 
 philosophy with the plain and unequivocal statements 
 of Holy Writ — which reconciliation need not trouble 
 
Christian Science. 263 
 
 them at all, since, as we have seen, they do not regard 
 
 the Scriptures as "in any special sense inspired" — are 
 only useful in blunting the sense of shock which the 
 neophyte must inevitably experience in becoming ac- 
 quainted with the high doctrines of the new revela- 
 tion. Christian Scientists claim to be Christian, and 
 profess reverence for that revelation without which 
 there would be no Christianity in the world ; but after 
 the first few lessons are learned, and the beginner is 
 able to subscribe the doctrine that God is all, and that 
 matter and sin are unrealities, the road to "harmony'' 
 is plain, and all pretense of loyalty to Christ may be 
 dropped. 
 
 In leaving this part of our subject, it may be proper 
 to observe that neither Mrs. Eddy nor Madame Bla- 
 vatsky can claim any originality for their system. 
 An examination of their peculiar teachings, point by 
 point, will convince any student of church history 
 that these modern oracles have simply revived the 
 teachings of the ancient Gnostics in every important 
 particular. Glimpses of the Gnostic heresy appear 
 in the New Testament. In the book of the Acts one 
 sect of these ancient schismatics appears in the person 
 of their founder, Simon Magus, to whom Irenseus 
 gave the title of Master and Progenitor of all heretics 
 in general, and of Gnostics in particular. Another 
 appears in the second chapter of the Apocalypse, 
 verses six and fifteen, from which it appears that the 
 Nicolaitanes were distinguished by false doctrine and 
 by scandalous lives. Paul warns us against "opposi- 
 tions of science, falsely so-called/' and marks "end- 
 less genealogies," or, as Alford happily translates it, 
 "doctrines of emanations/' as dangers threatening the 
 purity of Christian doctrine. His word for science is 
 
264 Christian Science. 
 
 gnosis, and as all Gnostics believed in a god of some 
 sort, and many called themselves Christians, they were 
 the Theosophists or Christian Scientists of their time. 
 Like the modern Theosophists, they claimed that theirs 
 was the "wisdom religion" underlying all the relig- 
 ions and philosophies of the world. Like the Chris- 
 tian Scientists, they claimed that their doctrines and 
 methods were peculiarly ''scientific." Like both, they 
 wrested the Scriptures to their own destruction, and 
 looked down with contempt and pity on all who pre- 
 sumed to disagree with them. There were plain peo- 
 ple, deeply versed in the wisdom which the Holy 
 Ghost teacheth, even in that long-past day, who felt 
 some degree of resentment that these heathenizing 
 teachers pretended to have the only wisdom or science 
 worth naming. 
 
 Gnosticism was Pantheistic, teaching that the real 
 creation consisted of a series of emanations, or seons 
 proceeding from God. It held to a sort of dualism, 
 counting matter unreal and evil, and opposed to the 
 real universe of spirit. Its doctrine of sin was that 
 sin was of the flesh, attaching only to the perishing 
 body, and this doctrine led some to practice mortifica- 
 tion of the flesh as a means to holiness, as the Mar- 
 cionites, while others, as the Xicolaitanes, threw 
 themselves into the mire of licentiousness. Gnosti- 
 cism held that, as God was not the author of evil, he 
 could not be the creator of the visible, material world. 
 Hence the invention of the demiurgic scheme of crea- 
 tion, in which one of the aeons, or world-spirits, is rep- 
 resented as becoming possessed of a sinful passion for 
 the embrace of the abyss, and thus falling into matter, 
 and through this fall becomes the father of the demi- 
 urge, who proceeds to create the world. The Gnostic 
 
Christian Science. 265 
 
 doctrine of salvation was the final emancipation of 
 the soul from the fetters of matter, and its saviour was 
 a being whose humanity was only a phantom, and 
 whose life was but a series of deceptive appearances. 
 Gnosticism taught that the destiny of the race was to 
 be at last elevated into union with the Christos in the 
 pleroma, or "light which is unapproachable and full 
 of glory." 
 
 The reader will see, if he will turn back to the teach- 
 ings of our two oracles, that in all these particulars 
 they have adopted the doctrinal system of the ancient 
 Gnostics. Mrs. Eddy teaches them, if anything, more 
 definitely than does Madame Blavatsky ; but the lat- 
 ter does not hesitate to claim kinship with Gnostics 
 in general and with Simon Magus in particular, iden- 
 tifying her system with theirs. Both hold to a doc- 
 trine of the Allness of God, and declare in the same 
 words that God is "identical with nature.'' Both teach 
 that the real creation w r as a reflection or emanation 
 from God. Both hold to the reality and perfection 
 of the spiritual universe, and to the unreality and sin- 
 fulness of the material world. Both agree that all 
 sin is of the flesh ; and we have seen how Mrs. Eddy's 
 teachings tend to utter demoralization, while the char- 
 acter of Madame Blavatsky was the worst possible 
 commentary on her doctrines. Madame Blavatsky 
 did not unfold any very coherent system of creation, 
 but as she claimed that her gnosis was the same as that 
 historically associated with the names of Marcion, 
 Basilides and Valentinus, w T e may rest assured that she 
 held devoutly to the demiurgic scheme. In Mrs. 
 Eddy's system, Adam takes the place of the Gnostic 
 demiurge, or w^orld creator. Christian Science agrees 
 with Theosophy as that agrees with Buddhism, and 
 
266 Christian Science. 
 
 all with the Gnostics, in teaching the doctrine of pre- 
 existence and re-incarnation, making salvation con- 
 sist in "breaking away from the mutations of time 
 and sense/' Both agree that the fallen race is to be 
 elevated into a union or spirit marriage with the 
 Christos, and the harmony in which human person- 
 ality disappears is the heaven to which they look. All 
 this is heathenism, which has come down through the 
 centuries. The old wine of false doctrine has been 
 transmitted rank, whole and entire, unchanged in 
 labels, skins cr contents. 1 It is to-day, as it was in the 
 time of Paul, an opposition of "science, falsely so- 
 called," a wisdom that is not from above. 
 
 1 A summary of the evidence in the premises may be found 
 in my paper, "An Old Enemy with Two New Faces," in the 
 
 Presbyterian Quarterly, April, 1899. 
 
XVII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE WORSHIP AND SACRA- 
 MENTS. 
 
 Christianity is, more than any other, a religion 
 of prayer. It teaches the privilege and manifold ben- 
 efits of supplication, praise and thanksgiving; and it 
 bids believers speak to themselves and to each other 
 in "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing 
 and making melody in their hearts to God." And, 
 in addition to the verbal expression of our faith, 
 joy, adoration, penitence and holy desires in our 
 prayers and praises, we are bidden to remember our 
 Lord in the supper which he ordained, and to admin- 
 ister to all who are admitted into the church the 
 sacrament of baptism, which is at once the sign and 
 seal of the blessings of the covenant of grace. 
 
 Touching all these particulars of Christian worship, 
 the directions of the Scriptures are clear and minute. 
 We are bidden to worship the Lord in the beauty of 
 holiness. All men everywhere are bidden to pray, "lift- 
 ing up holy hands unto God, without wrath or doubt- 
 ing." We possess the original hymn-book of the 
 church in the Psalms of David, and many hymns have 
 come to us from the earliest ages of the Christian era. 
 We are told what is the nature, and have in the Word 
 many examples of the form, of prayer. And as to the 
 sacraments, the elements, if not the mode of adminis- 
 tration, are plainly prescribed in each case. Water 
 
268 Christian Science. 
 
 is to be used in baptism, and the form of words is pre- 
 scribed ; bread and wine are to be used in celebrating 
 the Lord's Supper, and the memorial, covenant and 
 prospective character of the feast is plainly set forth. 
 
 The worship of any religious organization must of 
 necessity be a concrete embodiment of its doctrinal 
 system. Prayer has its theology. No man can sin- 
 cerely preach the gospel and at the same time offer 
 prayers that contradict the doctrines which he has 
 proclaimed. Every hymnal used in the various 
 churches of Christendom is a system of theology, more 
 or less elaborate. Sacramental forms are impressive 
 ritual presentations of Christian doctrine, as taught 
 by the several churches of Christendom. Thus Rome, 
 in her "sacrifice of the mass" and "holy eucharist," 
 associates the doctrine of Christ's perpetual re-incar- 
 nation and perpetual sacrifice with the Lord's Supper, 
 and makes every wafer and every particle of it a 
 whole Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity. Her 
 baptismal formulas teach baptismal regeneration. 
 Her prayers teach the doctrine of purgatory, the in- 
 vocation of the saints, the intercession of the living 
 for the dead, the worship of Mary, and much else. 
 Her hymns express the same doctrines that are set 
 forth in her ritual and embodied in her seven sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 It is natural, therefore, that Christian Science wor- 
 ship and sacraments should differ materially from 
 the simple cultus of Christianity as it came to us from 
 the apostles. But we can hardly repress a feeling of 
 amazement at the discovery that Mrs. Eddy has not 
 only introduced a system of doctrine alien to the 
 teachings of prophets and apostles, but has even 
 sought to revolutionize the worship of the church, 
 
Christian Science. 269 
 
 and to set aside altogether its sacramental observ- 
 ances. Her method is not opposition, but substitution. 
 She retains prayer, hymn-singing, and sacramental 
 rites, but each becomes, in her system, something en- 
 tirely different and distinct from Christian worship 
 as commonly understood and practiced. 
 
 Christian Science has its churches and its stated 
 services. It counts among its pastors some men of 
 respectable ability. There is much plausibility in the 
 new gospel as proclaimed by its "lecturers ;" but when 
 we look into its worship we find hardly so much as a 
 husk of true Christian devotion. 
 
 Aside from the preaching, we presume the services 
 held in the "Mother Church/' which is dedicated to 
 the "dearest mother" of the new sect, may be con- 
 sidered typical of the services held elsewhere by this 
 unique organization. Mrs. Eddy, unwilling, it would 
 seem, to have her doctrine diluted at the fountain 
 head, has designated her book Science and Health, 
 and the Bible as the impersonal preachers in that 
 particular church, the lesson sermon, as it is called, 
 being an antiphonal reading from both books. These 
 lesson sermons are the same as those published in the 
 Christian Science Quarterly, and are used in all the 
 churches. This antiphonal reading serves several val- 
 uable purposes. One is, to emphasize the equal au- 
 thority of the two books. Another is, to bolster up 
 the teachings of Mrs. Eddy by what may seem to be 
 Scripture proof. A third is to associate in memory 
 the teachings of Mrs. Eddy with the words of Scrip- 
 ture. All which, it will be observed, are valuable 
 means of popularizing and impressing the great doc- 
 trines which she has been commissioned to teach. 
 
 Vocal prayer is not permitted, for reasons which 
 
270 Christian Science. 
 
 will appear presently. The hymns used are those 
 composed by Mrs. Eddy and other members of the 
 sect. They are chiefly compositions, apostrophic and 
 hortatory in character, in which Life, Truth and Love 
 are lauded, and the changes are rung upon the Allness 
 of God, the nothingness of matter, and the supremacy 
 of mind, etc. Of Christian Science hymnology, the 
 following, by lone G. Daniels, is, perhaps, a fair 
 specimen : 
 
 Look forth, Oh, conscious child of God, 
 
 Into the spirit-realm of Mind; 
 The path that Jesus Christ hath trod 
 
 Is thy celestial joy to find. 
 Across the day no night hath spanned 
 The sea, sun-kissed from land to land. 
 
 Look forth ! and in the Master see 
 
 The perfect life thine own should be. 
 
 Shut the material doors of Sense, 
 And let the Soul look forth alone. 
 
 The mortal mind is blind and dense, 
 And hath no being of its own; 
 
 With Mary at the Saviour's tomb 
 
 Its gaze is downward in the womb 
 Of sensuous elements, to find 
 The Lord of Life, Immortal Mind ! 
 
 — Seed. 
 
 The nebulous character of the teaching embodied 
 in such hymns adds not a little to the mystifying effect 
 of the antiphonal readings ; while the sense of com- 
 plete stultification inevitably produced by the effort to 
 believe the shadowy nonsense of Mrs. Eddy's philo- 
 sophical creed, seems to have in it all the elements of 
 profound religious emotion for those who have en- 
 tered upon the "life of Science." 
 
Christian Science. 271 
 
 As to sacraments, it is obvious that in a system 
 which has for its supreme tenet the doctrine that the 
 external world is unreal, there is no room for any sac- 
 raments in which material symbols are used. Water, 
 if used in baptism, and bread and wine, if used in the 
 eucharist, would tend of themselves to upset the sys- 
 tem by keeping alive some faith in a material world. 
 Besides, if Mrs. Eddy and her followers should con- 
 tinue to use the forms of orthodoxy, many would 
 unconsciously imbibe orthodox notions simply from 
 the use of such forms. Hence there must needs be a 
 complete divorce of Christian Science sacraments 
 from all orthodox observances. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy defines baptism as "purification from 
 error," "submergence in Truth," and from this it is 
 evident that the only baptism which obtains in the 
 new church is simply conversion to Christian Scien- 
 tism. Speaking of baptism, Mrs. Eddy quotes also 
 2 Corinthians v. 8, as intimating also that the real bap- 
 tism of the soul is never accomplished until one is as- 
 similated with the "Universal Life." The first bap- 
 tism her followers receive is "John's baptism," in the 
 act of receiving her doctrines. The final baptism, un- 
 like other Christians, she defers to a future life. So 
 here is a very considerable difference, emphasizing 
 a new interpretation of the Master's words, "He that 
 believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." 
 
 The divergence between Christian Scientism and 
 evangelical Christianity is no less glaring in the 
 teachings of Mrs. Eddy as to the Lord's Supper. The 
 Master said, "Do this in remembrance of me." His 
 command was specific and perpetual, and was so 
 understood by his apostles. Paul rebukes the Corin- 
 thians for their riotous and unbrotherly manner of 
 
2J2 Christian Science. 
 
 celebrating this feast of the Lord, and while pointing 
 out the way in which it is to be decently observed, he 
 says, "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this 
 cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death until he come." 
 It is a sacrament, pledging, the believer to continued 
 faith and diligence ; it is a spiritual partaking of 
 Christ ; and it is retrospective as to our Lord's death, 
 and prospective as to his second advent. But, as we 
 have seen, Mrs. Eddy thinks the second advent took 
 place when she received her "feeble revelation," and 
 it is of course superfluous to keep a feast in prospect 
 of a past event ! Moreover, the bread which she dis- 
 tributes to her disciples as the bread which came down 
 from heaven, is Truth, which is to say, her own in- 
 spired doctrines. Therefore, her eucharist is "spir- 
 itual communion with the one God," her "cup is the 
 cross," her wine the "inspiration of Love — the 
 draught our Master drank and commended to his fol- 
 lowers." (Science and Health, p. 340.) "If Christ, 
 Truth, has come to us," she argues, "no commemo- 
 ration is requisite ; for he is Immanuel, or God with 
 us ; and if a friend be with us, why need we memo- 
 rials of that friend ?" < p. 339.) 
 
 This is evidently a view of the matter which did not 
 occur to Paul and the other apostles. They rejoiced 
 in his perpetual presence in the ministry of his Spirit ; 
 but they also remembered his saying, "Me ye have not 
 alway." Although abiding with his followers in the 
 fellowship of the Spirit, he was "absent from them in 
 body," and there was a blessed and glorious sense in 
 which he would come again, and with this hope of 
 his coming they were wont to nourish their souls 
 when they met at his table. 
 
 But a very effective way to drive out old ideas is 
 
Christian Science. 273 
 
 to substitute new observances for the old. And so 
 
 we have the following somewhat indefinite account of 
 a sort of saerament which Christian Scientists are 
 wont to celebrate. It is celebrated, according to 
 Mrs. Woodbury, "without wafer or wine." Says 
 Mrs. Eddy: 
 
 The spiritual meeting with our Lord, in the dawn of a 
 new light, is the morning meal which Christian Scientists 
 commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to receive 
 more of his reappearing, and silently commune with the Di- 
 vine Principle thereof. They celebrate their Lord's victory 
 over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exem- 
 plification of human probation, and his spiritual and final 
 ascension above matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of 
 material sight. — Science and Health, p. 340. 
 
 Here is a new mystery, embodying a new T concep- 
 tion of our Lord's death, resurrection, post-mortem 
 life on earth, and final ascension. His earthly sojourn 
 after the resurrection was a probation, and signified 
 human probation. Probation when? Obviously, 
 since his own was but an exemplification of ours, ours 
 also is "probation in the flesh after death;" or, in 
 other words, a re-birth, or awakening in another state 
 of existence "as material as before. " From which it 
 appears that Mrs. Eddy has made a most effective 
 substitution in her "morning meal." The morning 
 hour emphasizes the fact that it is not the Lord's Sup- 
 per ; and as to doctrinal import, it sets aside both the 
 atonement and the second advent, and makes devout 
 Scientists bow the knee in order to "receive more of 
 his reappearing," which is to say, more of "Science!" 
 
 But the essence of all true worship is prayer. 
 Christian hymns are but rhythmic prayers, set to 
 music. Christian sacraments become the occasion of 
 
274 Christian Science. 
 
 prayer, and without prayer are meaningless forms. 
 We have seen Mrs. Eddy's sneer at the worship of 
 evangelical Christians. What does she teach as to 
 prayer ? 
 
 Of prayer, as understood by Christians generally, 
 there can be none in any system which makes God an 
 abstraction, and regards man's mentality as an ema- 
 nation from God, and destined to be re-absorbed into 
 its source. Madame Blavatsky, speaking for theoso- 
 phists, is perfectly candid. "Being well-occupied per- 
 sons, we can hardly afford," she tells us, "to lose time 
 in addressing verbal prayers to a pure abstraction. 
 . . . We cannot pray to the Absolute, . . . there- 
 fore we try to replace fruitless and useless prayer by 
 meritorious and good-producing actions." 1 With this 
 view Mrs. Eddy is in perfect accord. The doctrine 
 of pardon, which, as we have already seen, is discarded 
 by her, is vitally connected with the duty of prayer. 
 That God does, upon certain conditions, pardon sin in 
 answer to prayer, has been in all ages a cardinal doc- 
 trine of the church. It is one of the chief particulars 
 which differentiates the religion of Christ from Bud- 
 dhism. The Buddhist, aside from the difficulty of 
 addressing prayers to a pure abstraction, does not 
 believe in pardon. He recognizes his subjection 
 to the law of an inexorable karma, or retribution, 
 which visits upon the soul in its present state of ex- 
 istence the consequences of all sins committed in a 
 former, and will visit upon it in its future life the 
 results of sins unexpiated by the sufferings of this. 
 Did he believe in a personal God, he could not, if 
 he would, change this law of karma, through which 
 
 1 Key to Theosophy, pp. 59, i$. 
 
Christian Science. 275 
 
 eternal justice operates in every age, and upon every 
 plane of existence. His only plan of salvation is to 
 extinguish his passions and desires, and, by avoiding 
 new sins, to exhaust the accumulated karma of his 
 past lives, and so at last to enter nirvana. And Mrs. 
 Eddy's doctrine is the same — 
 
 The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. 
 Divine life destroys death, truth destroys error, love destroys 
 hate. Being destroyed, sin needs no other form of forgive- 
 ness. Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, 
 prophesy and involve the destruction of all sin? — Science and 
 Health, p. 234. 
 
 It is not "scientific" to believe that God discrimi- 
 nates between the objects of his mercy. If he saves 
 one soul, he must save all. In the same strain, Mr. 
 Mason declares, quoting "our Teacher," that — 
 
 By the destruction of sin, every one must at some time be 
 freed from it. . . . Man can never be lost, nor can he 
 ever cease to exist. But if he is a wilful sinner he will suffer 
 until the chastening or natural result of the broken law has 
 become so severe that he will seek the repose and happiness 
 of right doing. — Reminiscences of Class Room, p. 9. 
 
 Hence it follows that consistent Christian Science 
 prayer is nothing but an egoistic meditation, resem- 
 bling a Buddhistic formula, without petition or 
 thanksgiving. "The Infinite cannot do less than be- 
 stow all good, since he is unchanging wisdom and 
 love," declares Pope Mary ; and this being so, she hes- 
 itates to approve any definite requests in prayer. 
 True, our petitions may have some subjective effect. 
 The broadest of Christians will admit so much. But 
 we must not imagine that God is in any wise affected 
 by our prayers. "We can perhaps do more for our- 
 
276 Christian Science. 
 
 selves by our petitions ; but the All-Perfect does not 
 grant them simply on the ground of lip-service" — the 
 opposite, of course, being the orthodox doctrine in 
 the premises. — Science and Health, p. 307. 
 
 Our Lord commended importunity in prayer. But 
 Mrs. Eddy is wiser than he, as witness the following : 
 
 Goodness alone reaches the demonstration of truth. The 
 habit of pleading with the Divine Mind, as one pleads with a 
 human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly cir- 
 cumscribed, — an error which impedes spiritual growth. — 
 Ibid., p. 308. 
 
 Here is the wisdom of the serpent. By inducing 
 her followers to surrender the habit of asking God for 
 needed grace, she will succeed in cutting up all 
 rational faith by the roots. So long as they continue 
 to repeat such humble ascriptions of praise and 
 thanksgiving and such petitions for divine help as 
 God's saints in all ages have been wont to use, they 
 will be proof against her vague doctrines in regard to 
 the conglomerate abstractions which she would fain 
 substitute for the God and Saviour revealed in the 
 Word of truth. She proceeds, therefore, to argue 
 against prayer with as much cogency of logic as a 
 Voltaire or a Tom Payne ever exhibited : 
 
 God is Love. Can we ask him to be more? God is Intelli- 
 gence. Can we inform the Infinite Mind, or tell him any- 
 thing he does not comprehend? Do we hope to change per- 
 fection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which 
 always pours forth more than we receive? Does spoken 
 prayer bring us nearer the source of all existence and bless- 
 edness? — Ibid., p. 308. 
 
 Of course not, we are to understand. This would 
 be but asking God to be God, and would there- 
 
Christian Science. 277 
 
 fore be but a vain repetition. It is not a sensible 
 thing to do, this thing of pleading for pardon and 
 asking a liberal outpouring of benefactions. "It is 
 
 only necessary to avail ourselves of God's rule, in 
 order to receive a blessing." — Science and Health, 
 p. 308. 
 
 True prayer, according to this new reformer, is 
 "the habitual struggle to be good" (p. 309). To 
 enter into our closet means to enter "the sanctuary of 
 Spirit, whose door shuts out sinful sense, but opens 
 to Truth, Life and Love." There can be no real 
 prayer in the spiritual exercises of those who refuse to 
 obey the new gospel. They deliberately refuse to en- 
 ter into their closets ! 
 
 Moreover, the world at large is making a grave 
 mistake in uttering audible prayers. In order to pray 
 aright, we must "close the lips and silence the ma- 
 terial senses." This was a part of the matter which 
 the poor carpenter of Nazareth did not know enough 
 to explain. But Mrs. Eddy, having quenched her 
 soul's thirst by studying Buddhism, has a "Master 
 thought" which makes her wiser than the ancients. 
 In the simplicity of his mind, Jesus approved audible 
 prayers, himself prayed aloud, and gave to his disci- 
 ples a form of prayer. But, says Mrs. Eddy, while 
 "audible prayer is impressive," and "gives momen- 
 tary, solemnity and elevation to thought," it cannot 
 produce "any lasting benefit," its motives embracing 
 "too much error to greatly forward Christian senti- 
 ment." Here, also, is evident the satanic method in 
 her madness. She sees that all who continue to pray 
 as Jesus taught his disciples to pray, will be unlikely 
 to heed her teachings. Hence she urges gravely that 
 such prayer "gives occasion for reaction unfavorable 
 
278 Christian Science. 
 
 to spiritual growth" — i. e., for advancement in her 
 way of thinking — and "militates against sober resolve, 
 and a wholesome perception of God's requirements." 
 Such "wholesome perception" must also of necessity 
 include the conviction that our chief duty is to take 
 Science and Health as the chief rule of our faith and 
 practice. And having argued against prayer in such 
 fashion, she indulges in a little mild ridicule of ortho- 
 dox prayer. She hints that it is usually a self-satisfied 
 ventilation of fervent sentiments, and declares that 
 it makes us hypocrites and leads us into temptation, 
 etc. — Science and Health, pp. 306-322. 
 
 Much that she says about prayer is true and just, 
 and were it not in an essay against all real prayer, 
 would serve some good purpose. But prayer that is 
 not petition is not prayer at all. It may be praise or 
 thanksgiving, both of which are indispensable in 
 Christian worship ; but it is not prayer. Our Lord 
 himself defines prayer as asking, and whenever sinful 
 man ceases to ask, he will cease to receive the grace 
 lie needs. No amount of sentimental desire and de- 
 vout meditation can avail to substitute this duty. It 
 is a primary law of the spiritual kingdom, "Ask 
 and ve shall receive." "Ye receive not, because ye ask 
 not." 
 
 How Mrs. Eddy would have us pray we may under- 
 stand from her new version of the Lord's Prayer, 
 which is perhaps the most successful of all her efforts 
 to translate the Scriptures into the "new tongue" of 
 Christian Science : 
 
 Our Father who art in heaven, 
 
 Our Father and Mother God, all-harmonious, 
 Hallowed be Thy name. 
 
 4 1 dor able One, 
 
Christian Science. 279 
 
 Thy kingdom come. 
 
 Ever just and omnipotent. 
 Thy will be clone on earth as it is in heaven. 
 
 Thy supremacy appears as matter disappears. 
 Give ns this clay onr daily bread; 
 
 Thou fittest our famished affections; 
 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 
 
 And love is reflected in lore. 
 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ; 
 And leavest us not in temptation, but freest us from 
 sin, sick)iess and death; 
 For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for- 
 ever. Amen. 
 For thou art all Substance, Life, Truth and Lore for- 
 ever. So be it. 
 
 — Science and Health, Edition of 1886. 
 
 This italicized version is a scientific prayer, and 
 we are to understand its several phrases as giving the 
 spiritual signification of their corresponding petitions 
 in the Lord's Prayer. At a glance we see that it elim- 
 inates every essential Christian doctrine from that 
 matchless "form of sound words," and substitutes for 
 it something different. There is no word of petition 
 in it, nor is there anything like a recognition of God's 
 personality. Its address introduces an idea as to the 
 Divine Femininity, thus making God a dual monad, 
 which is without any scriptural foundation. "Yea, 
 she may forget, yet will not I," said Jehovah, and 
 there is no need to add to the words of holy writ an 
 ascription which is without basis either in the teaching 
 or the example of prophets and apostles. The first 
 petition, instead of being a prayer, is a mere opinion 
 that God ought to be adored. The second petition, 
 instead of expressing desire for the coming of the 
 heavenly kingdom in this world, simply declares 
 
280 Christian Science. 
 
 God's justice and omnipotence; meaning, we sup- 
 pose, that the original was in error in its implication 
 that God's kingdom had not come! The third peti- 
 tion, instead of asking that God's will may be done, 
 startles us with a dogmatic assertion that the divine 
 supremacy can only appear when matter disappears. 
 In the fourth we are not to pray for daily bread, but 
 simply to acknowledge that God fills our "famished 
 affections ;" nor may we, in the fifth, pray for the 
 pardon of sin, since "love is reflected in love." There 
 being no evil and no temptation, we may also, in the 
 sixth, leave out those unrealities, and, instead of 
 praying for deliverance from them, compliment our 
 Father on having delivered us, and on the further fact 
 that he is now freeing us from sin, sickness and 
 death. The final ascription of dominion, power and 
 glory to God, is turned into an abstract definition of 
 Him, and the only particular in which this translation 
 into the new tongue of Christian Science resembles 
 the prayer as given in the Scriptures is the mysterious 
 fact that Mrs. Eddy deigns to give the familiar trans- 
 lation of the venerable word, A men. Even her mar- 
 velous invention has its limits. She could not invent 
 anything to take the place of amen, except a simple 
 translation. She leaves us the first two words and 
 the last, and all else is transmuted into something as 
 foreign to its original meaning and purpose as it is 
 possible to conceive. The prayer is no longer a 
 prayer but a creed ; a creed, moreover, which is at 
 war with every historic and distinctive doctrine of 
 Christianity. No wonder this white-robed prophetess, 
 with face all radiant from intercourse with her white- 
 fingered angels, finds it necessary to keep at a safe dis- 
 tance from conservatism, lest she soil her garments ! 
 
Christian Science. 281 
 
 If her doctrine is the "vesture of Truth," then the 
 words of Jesus are indeed black and smudgy with 
 falsehood I 1 
 
 1 It is singular that Mrs. Eddy, after having argued so 
 strongly against audible prayer, and also against all definite 
 pleas for pardon or for any other blessing, and exemplified 
 her doctrines by such a thorough mutilation of the Lord's 
 Prayer, has apparently revised her doctrine in the premises 
 so that it may be said to have advanced backwards. In the 
 later editions of her book she has made sundry changes in 
 her "spiritualized" version of the Lord's Prayer. In the 
 100th edition of Science and Health we have the following 
 variations from the form as given above : 
 
 Thy kingdom come, 
 
 Thy kingdom is come, God is ever present and omnipo- 
 tent. 
 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, 
 
 The supremacy of Spirit appears as the claims of matter 
 disappear. 
 Give us this day our daily bread ; 
 Give us grace for to-day; 
 
 Thou fillest the famished affections; 
 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, 
 
 And leave us not in temptation, but free us from sin, 
 disease and death; 
 For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for- 
 ever, 
 For thou art all Power, Substance, Life, Truth, Love. 
 
 The second petition is changed into a declaration — "Thy 
 kingdom is come," and "ever present" is substituted for 
 "just" where it occurs in the older version. In the para- 
 phrase of the third petition it is not matter that disappears, 
 but the claims of matter, Mrs. Eddy having remembered, 
 apparently, that matter, being an unreality, or a figment of 
 human imagination, cannot be "scientifically" said to disap- 
 
282 Christian Science. 
 
 It is interesting to note the variations which are 
 the resultants from Mrs. Eddy's doctrine of prayer, 
 as it flows farther and farther away from the foun- 
 tain head. Mrs. Eddy's followers do not all of them 
 dispense with prayers for pardon, nor absolutely deny 
 
 pear. The fourth petition, which in the older "spiritualized" 
 version had ceased to be a petition at all, is once more made 
 a prayer; but, inasmuch as food is unnecessary, and "gusta- 
 tory pleasure" an illusion, which all Christian Scientists can 
 conquer, we are bidden to pray, "Give us grace for to-day." 
 No change appears in the fifth petition, but in the sixth, 
 which the earlier paraphrase had made declarative, the form 
 of petition is restored, so that Christian Scientists were for 
 a time made to acknowledge temptation, sin, disease and 
 death as evils from which they must needs beg to be deliv- 
 ered. The conclusion of the prayer is emended by inserting 
 the word power and by leaving out "and" and "forever." 
 
 Now, comparing this version of 1896 with that of 1898 — 
 the 100th edition with the 154th — we find in the latter some 
 startling changes. The third petition, instead of remaining 
 as we have just given it, becomes 
 
 Unable us to know, as in Heaven, so on earth, God is .III 
 in AIL 
 
 Thus we find her restoring in this place the form of peti- 
 tion, which she had discarded in both her former versions. 
 The fourth petition, made partly a prayer and partly a decla- 
 ration in the version of 1896, becomes altogether a petition 
 in that of 1898, and in addition to the request, "Give us grace 
 for to-day," the "Scientist" is bidden to say, "Feed thou 
 the famished affections." instead of saying, "Thou fillest the 
 famished affections." In the last petition we find another 
 decided doctrinal rebound. In 1896 Mrs. Eddy was teach- 
 ing her children to pray for deliverance from temptation, 
 sir. disease and death. Now, however, for the second 
 time, if not oftener, their immaculate Mother has discovered 
 that such prayer is unnecessary, making her latest inspired 
 
Christian Science. 283 
 
 the reality of all human guilt. The following is an im- 
 pressive prayer, taken from a text-book published by 
 
 the President of the "New York School of Primitive 
 and Practical Christian Science." This devout be- 
 liever in a more extensive use of prayer than Mrs. 
 Eddy seems to favor, advertises that his school will be 
 free from "eccentricity, pretension and fanaticism !" 
 
 Prayer for a Dyspeptic. 
 
 Holy R.eality ! We believe in Thee, that Thou art every- 
 where present. We really believe it. Blessed Reality, we 
 do not pretend to believe, think we believe, believe that we 
 believe. We believe. Believing that Thou are everywhere 
 
 translation of this prayer into the "new tongue" identical 
 w r ith that of 1886, only adding the word evil and spoiling the 
 grammar. In repeating the latest paraphrase — unless a new 
 one has been made since January 1, 1899 — Christian Scient- 
 ists are now butchering both the Lord's Prayer and the 
 Queen's English, saying, 
 
 And thou leave th us not in temptation, but deliver eth us 
 from evil — sin, disease and death. 
 
 In the conclusion of the prayer as given in the form of 
 1898, the words, "God is omnipresent Good," are inserted 
 instead of "Thou art all Power." The thought of the Divine 
 Goodness seems more comforting to Airs. Eddy than that of 
 the Divine Power. 
 
 And it is to be noted that in both the later versions which 
 I have' quoted, Mrs. Eddy leaves out the venerable Amen, 
 which in her first paraphrase she translated. "Bible schol- 
 ars" have discovered, she tells us, that this word is an addi- 
 tion to the Lord's Prayer by some copyist! From all which 
 we gather that her method of explaining the meaning of the 
 Scriptures is to turn them into something as unlike the origi- 
 nal as is possible to imagine, and call that something the 
 "spiritual sense." 
 
284 Christian Science. 
 
 present, we believe that Thou art in this patient's stomach, 
 in every fibre, in every cell, in every atom ; that Thou art the 
 sole, only Reality of that stomach. Heavenly, Holy Reality, 
 we will try not to be such hypocrites as every day of our 
 lives to affirm our faith in Thee, and then immediately begin 
 to tell how sick we are, forgetting that Thou art everything, 
 and that Thou art not sick, and therefore that nothing in this 
 universe was ever sick, is now sick, or can be sick. Forgive 
 us our sins, in that we have this day talked about our back- 
 aches, that we have told our neighbors that our food hurts 
 us, that we mentioned to a visitor that there was a lump in 
 our stomach, that we have wasted our valuable time that 
 should have been spent in Thy service, in worrying for fear 
 that our stomach would grow worse, in that we have dis- 
 obeyed Thy blessed law in thinking that some kind of medi- 
 cine would help us. We know, Father and Mother of us all, 
 that there is no such thing as a really diseased stomach, that 
 the disease is the Carnal Mind, given over to the World, the 
 Flesh and the Devil; that the mortal mind is a twist, a dis- 
 tortion, a false attitude, the HARMATIA of Thought. Shin- 
 ing and glorious Verity, we recognize the great and splendid 
 FACT that the moment we really believe the Truth, Disease 
 ceases to trouble 11^; that the Truth is there is no Disease in 
 either Real body or mind ; that in the mind what seems to 
 be a disease is a False belief, a Parasite, a hateful excres- 
 cence, and that what happens in the body is the shadow of 
 the LIE in the Soul. Lord, help us to believe that All evil 
 is utterly Unreal : that it is silly to be sick, absurd to be ail- 
 ing, wicked to be wailing, atheism and denial of God to say, 
 "I am sick." Help us to stoutly affirm with our hand in 
 Your hand, with our eyes fixed on Thee, that we have no 
 Dyspepsia, that we never had Dyspepsia, that we will never 
 have Dyspepsia, that there is no such thing, that there never 
 was any such thing, that there never will be any such thing. 
 Amen. 
 
 Christian Science is a higher and more practical 
 Christianity, it is claimed. This is certainly a prac- 
 
Christian Science. 283 
 
 tical prayer, and its humble confessions of sin arc 
 quite edifying. Christian Scientists, bred to such 
 praying, must needs have tender consciences. 
 
 I have now shown the origin, the claims, the ab- 
 surdities, the unverified miracles, the undeniable fail- 
 ures, and the heathenish doctrines of Christian Scien- 
 tism. It were idle to pretend that Mrs. Eddy has de- 
 duced her system in its entirety from the Bible. She 
 certainly did not go to the Bible for her theosophical 
 terms and Buddhistic theology. When she says, 
 therefore, that in all her studies the Bible was her only 
 text-book, she is either using the word text-book in 
 an accommodated sense, or uttering a colossal false- 
 hood. She quotes a number of books by name, and 
 derives suggestions from many which she does not 
 name. She derived her idealism from Berkeley, her 
 mental healing system from homoeopathic charlatan- 
 ism and the mental and magnetic practice of Dr. 
 Quimby, and her principal terms and doctrines from 
 Oriental philosophy. Her claim of exclusive origi- 
 nality is an "impudent pretense, and her assertion of 
 plenary inspiration is a foul imposture. 
 
 But, inasmuch as she professes to have derived her 
 system from the Bible, save as that defective volume 
 had to be supplemented by revelations made only to 
 herself, it may be worth while to examine briefly her 
 methods of interpretation. 
 
XVHI. 
 
 MRS. EDDY AS AN EXPOSITOR. 
 
 It will be readily seen by any one who will be at 
 the pains to study Mrs. Eddy's peculiar interpreta- 
 tions of Scripture, that in all her expositions her effort 
 has been, not to explain, but to twist and distort the 
 Bible, so as to make it agree with her "sacred discov- 
 ery/' Her ignorance, cunning and presumption, al- 
 ways in evidence, are nowhere so conspicuous as in 
 those passages in her works in which she essays to 
 play the role of expositor. Ignorant of Hebrew and 
 Greek, guiltless of both classical and theological lore, 
 claiming a degree of inspiration such as renders her 
 independent of all commentaries, and yet driven, as 
 we have seen, to appeal to "modern scholarship" when 
 she thinks such appeal will strengthen her cause with 
 the ignorant and the credulous, she has given to the 
 world what she boldly terms a "Key to the Scrip- 
 tures." 
 
 The first thing that strikes the reader in examining 
 her "Key" is that it is so small. It is, as it were, a 
 skeleton key, if a key at all. It is made, evidently, not 
 to fit the lock, as are keys used by householders, but 
 resembles those which burglars use for the purpose 
 of picking locks. Even this want of proper adapta- 
 tion, however, could be overlooked, did it really suffice 
 to open to our understandings a single passage. But 
 it is safe to say that a more useless key for any one 
 who has not alreadv taken leave of common sense 
 
Christian Science. 287 
 
 could hardly be imagined. It not only docs not un- 
 lock the door, but it seems to injure the lock, so that 
 the bolt cannot be drawn. Christian Scientists, seek- 
 ing- to use this infallible key, cannot enter themselves, 
 neither can they lead anybody else into the great tem- 
 ple of Revelation.* 
 
 The first part of this magical Key, which proffers an 
 explanation of all the dark sayings in the holy book, 
 consists of an explanation, or translation into the 
 "new tongue" of Christian Science, of the first chap- 
 ter of Genesis and the first seven verses of the second. 
 Proceeding still further in her exposition, the author 
 first omits sundry passages, and then wanders away 
 from the book altogether. The last fourteen pages of 
 her commentary (?) on Genesis are devoted to a ram- 
 bling essay on her favorite theme. The second part 
 of Mrs. Eddy's "Key" is even more remarkable, both 
 for what it does and for what it does not contain. It 
 purports to be an explanation of the Apocalypse. 
 Plunging at once, without so much as a word of ex- 
 planation as to the reason of a proceeding so peculiar, 
 into the middle of the book, she attempts to explain , 
 one verse of the tenth chapter of Revelation, sixteen 
 verses of the twelfth, two of the twenty-first, and one 
 of the twenty-second chapter. To this fragmentary 
 exposition she adds the twenty-third Psalm, which her 
 inspiration has authorized her to alter by substituting 
 the word Love wherever the name of the Lord occurs, 
 making it read, "Divine Love is my shepherd," etc. 
 The whole body of Scripture, aside from these few 
 passages, is left unexplained, save as the defects of 
 her "Key" are supplied by her Glossary. This glos- 
 sary is unique. It seems to be intended to serve some- 
 what the purpose of a Bible dictionary for "scientific" 
 
288 Christian Science. 
 
 students of the Bible. It gives the "spiritual significa- 
 tion' 7 of the names of sundry Old Testament worthies, 
 together with the definitions, according to Mrs. Eddy, 
 of various words and terms used in the Bible and in 
 Science and Health. By using these definitions, to- 
 gether with Mrs. Eddy's interpretations of such pas- 
 sages in Genesis and the Apocalypse as are explained 
 in the "Key," and such other interpretations of Scrip- 
 ture as are found scattered through Mrs. Eddy's va- 
 rious works, the Christian Science "student" can man- 
 age, with proper straining, to turn many parts of the 
 Bible into allegory, which is found to teach the main 
 ideas of Christian Science. 1 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's reasons for choosing the first and last 
 books in the Bible for special explanation are plainly 
 indicated. The book of Genesis contains a story of 
 creation which must somehow be gotten out of the 
 way, if Mrs. Eddy's doctrines are to be accepted. 
 "The spiritual import of the Word, in its earliest artic- 
 ulations," she accordingly informs us, "often seems 
 so smothered by the immediate context as to require 
 explication ;" while in the Xew Testament "so-called 
 mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of nat- 
 ural goodness, are explained by that love for which 
 the weary ones sigh, when needing something more 
 native to their immortal cravings than the history of 
 perpetual evil." Moreover, "the living and real pre- 
 lude to the elder Scriptures is so brief that it would 
 almost seem, from the preponderance of unreality in 
 
 1 As a specimen of this allegorizing method, note the fol- 
 lowing: A writer in the Rostrum says David killed Goliath 
 and four other kings, which means that the spiritual David, 
 or Christian Scientist, must slay his five senses ! 
 
Christian SCIENCE. 289 
 
 the whole narrative, as if reality did not predominate 
 over the unreal," etc.: all which means that Bible 
 students, unless specially instructed in Mrs. Eddy's 
 doctrines, are little likely to find any Christian Science 
 in Genesis, with its story of the creation, the first sin, 
 and the fall, all which she has been inspired to deny. 
 
 In treating of the Apocalypse she plunges at once 
 in medias res, and sees in the angel who appears in 
 the tenth chapter "clothed with a cloud and a rain- 
 bow upon his head" nothing more nor less than 
 " Divine Science. 51 " When understood, it [Divine 
 Science] is Truth's prism and praise ; when you look 
 it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, and it 
 hath for you a 'light that is above the sun,' for 'God is 
 the light thereof/ ' In the twelfth chapter she sees 
 even more than this. "The Revelator," she says, 
 "saw also the spiritual ideal, as a woman clothed in 
 light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to 
 the Lamb of Love. To him the bride and the Lamb 
 represented the correlation of divine Principle and the 
 spiritual idea, God and his Christ, bringing harmony 
 to earth." Again, "the woman in the Apocalypse rep- 
 resents as man" — woman being, we must not forget, 
 the highest species of man — "the spiritual idea of 
 God, and God and man as the Divine Principle and 
 the Divine idea." 
 
 Here, then, we have tw r o reasons for her efforts to 
 explain the Apocalypse. She thinks she sees Chris- 
 tian Science in it, and also herself. Our suspicion, 
 that Mrs. Eddy fancies herself to be the original 
 of the prophet's picture, grows into certainty as we 
 read on. "As Elias represents the Fatherhood of 
 God through Jesus, so the Revelator completes this 
 figure with woman, as the spiritual idea or type of 
 
290 Christian Science. 
 
 God's Motherhood." In the judgment of her fol- 
 lowers, Mrs. Eddy herself is the woman who has 
 "completed the figure" by revealing the motherhood 
 of God, and is therefore called [Mother by them all, 
 as she has taught them to call her. She is, therefore, 
 to be regarded as the "woman in travail, waiting to be 
 delivered of her sweet promise, but remembering no 
 more her sorrow for joy that the birth goes on; for 
 grand is the idea and the travail portentous." Pro- 
 ceeding, she explains that the opposition which her 
 Science has elicited is a fulfillment of prophecy ; that 
 the serpent [/. c, in the shape of orthodoxy] lies wait- 
 ing to "bite the heel of Truth," and to "devour the off- 
 spring of the spiritual idea [herself], which is pro- 
 lific in health, holiness and immortality ;" that the 
 "rod of iron" with which the man-child born of the 
 woman — which is to say, redeemed humanity, born of 
 Mary Eddy — is to rule the nations, is Divine Science ; 
 and that this "immaculate idea, represented first by 
 man [i. c, Jesus Christ], and last by woman [Mrs. 
 Eddy], will baptize with fire;" which fire also must 
 be Divine Science, since it will "burn up the chaff of 
 error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, melt- 
 ing and purifying the gold of human character;" and 
 that the war made upon her in her ministry "has im- 
 pelled this idea [herself, that is] to rise to the zenith 
 of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness and death, 
 and be caught up unto God — be found in its [her] Di- 
 vine Principle." She is fully confident of her ability 
 to guide the redeemed race — Christian Scientists — 
 into all truth and on to glory ; for, like the pillar of 
 fire and of cloud, this "spiritual idea" (herself) will 
 "guide all right desires in their passage from sense 
 to Soul, — from a material sense of existence to the 
 
Christian Science. jgi 
 
 spiritual, — up to the glory prepared for them who love 
 God." She is confident that she will not be without 
 allies in her holy war. "In this age the earth will 
 help the woman; the spiritual idea will he under- 
 stood/' 
 
 While it is true that she does not anywhere claim 
 to be the woman spoken of by the prophet, she does 
 claim to perform precisely the same functions which 
 she assigns to the woman, and thus, by her own 
 favorite hypnotic method of suggestion, hint to her 
 children that which they now openly avow. That 
 Mrs. Eddy is a new Theophany, performing a work 
 of redemption complementary to that performed by 
 our Lord, and necessary to its completion, and that 
 she is the spiritual idea reflecting God's own light, 
 and "wedded to the Lamb of Love," is, as we have 
 shown, the belief of the new sect. This belief she has 
 managed to originate and keep alive in such a way 
 that the unwary can hardly tell how they attained to 
 it. Thus, there is no mention of Mrs. Eddy in the 
 following sentence : "This idea reveals the universe as 
 secondary and tributary to Spirit, from which it bor- 
 rows its reflected Substance, Life and Intelligence." 
 But the simple soul reading these words with full 
 faith in Mrs. Eddy will say, Has not Mrs. Eddy re- 
 vealed to us that the universe is secondary and tribu- 
 tary to Spirit? and that Man's only Life, Substance 
 and Intelligence is reflected from God? And must 
 she not be, therefore, the woman, or spiritual idea of 
 whom the prophet speaks ? So they do conclude, with 
 one accord. "The followers of Mrs. Eddy," says a 
 former Christian Scientist, who knows whereof she 
 speaks, "assert that these passages refer to Mrs. Mary 
 Mason Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, who was born 
 
292 Christian Science. 
 
 in the neighborhood of Concord, New Hampshire, 
 nearly four-score years ago." As Mary was the 
 mother of Christ, so is Mrs. Eddy held to be the 
 mother of the new Christ, or redeemed humanity, 
 which is to rule the world with Christian Science. 
 Hence it is that her disciples exalt her, as we have 
 seen, to a station of equality to that assigned by Ro- 
 manists to the Blessed Virgin, and look forward to 
 the time when all nations shall call Mrs. Eddy blessed. 
 
 It is surely unnecessary to argue that Christian 
 Science cannot be both the angel who makes his ap- 
 pearance "clothed with a cloud," and the little book 
 which that angel holds in his hand ; and if it is either 
 of these it can hardly be also the rod of iron with 
 which the child of the woman is to rule the nations. 
 With quite as much propriety it might be claimed that 
 John Bunyan, when lie wrote his Pilgrim's Progress, 
 was guided by the Spirit of inspiration to make it all 
 an allegory of Christian Science; and that Evangelist 
 is Christian Science, the wicket gate is Christian 
 Science, and that both Interpreter himself and the 
 beautiful palace which he shows to the pilgrim; the 
 wall that was called salvation; the porter, Watchful, 
 and the maidens, Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and 
 Charity, together with the pilgrims, Faithful, Great 
 Heart, Christian and the rest — one and all stand for 
 Christian Science. And yet this fairly illustrates the 
 way in which Mrs. Eddy manages to see Christian 
 Science in the Bible. She turns every narrative into 
 an allegory, and makes every prophecy a prediction, 
 and every name a symbol, either of Christian Science 
 or its opposite, in every case backing stupendous as- 
 sertions with others still more stupendous. 
 
 The way in which Mrs. Eddy professes to arrive at 
 
Christian Science. 293 
 
 some of her definitions is amusing. It was by apply- 
 ing the reversible principle to certain Bibte statements. 
 
 But the reversible principle, which is of doubtful 
 utility in the manufacture of clothing, is manifestly 
 
 inapplicable to many other articles of human use. We 
 want umbrellas, for instance, and shoes that are not 
 reversible. And so of Bible statements. The Bible 
 tells us that God is light; but we do violence to the 
 truth when we reverse the statement, and say that 
 light is God. So also, when the Scriptures tell us 
 that God is love, and that he is good, we are not war- 
 ranted in reversing these statements, and saying that 
 all love is God, and that all goodness is God. Yet 
 this is precisely what Mrs. Eddy has done. Her fa- 
 vorite name for the Divine Being is the double term, 
 God, Good, which seems innocent enough until one 
 gets at its real meaning. Then it is seen that she ac- 
 knowledges no Divine Father, such as is the God and 
 Father whom all other Christians are wont to worship 
 and love, but in place of him would have us acknowl- 
 edge Goodness, Love, Light, etc., as the "only living 
 and true God." 
 
 So, too, when she uses the double term, "Christ, 
 Truth." Christ said, "I am the way and the truth 
 and the life," meaning, as the church in all ages has 
 understood him to mean, that he is the medium 
 through which we approach God, the manifestation 
 and proof of the divine veracity and the embodiment 
 of gospel truth, and the source of all spiritual life. 
 But when we separate and reverse the several parts 
 of the proposition, and say that truth is Christ and 
 that life is Christ, we utterly confuse what else had 
 been perfectly intelligible, and make doctrines which 
 it is doubtful if anv Christian Scientist is ready to 
 
 1 
 
294 Christian Science. 
 
 avow openly. It is a truth that water runs down hill, 
 and we are compelled to say of every such proposition, 
 "It is the truth/' Now, would it be correct to say that 
 the truth that water runs down hill is Christ ? Mani- 
 festly, we cannot identify Christ with every possible 
 statement of facts. He is not the mere sum of all 
 truth — an indefinite series of correct statements. 
 Thus, too, when we say Christ is the life. We cannot 
 reverse this, and say that life is Christ. There are 
 various sorts of life — animal, vegetable and spiritual. 
 To say that Christ is the sum total of all the life in 
 the universe, is to make him, not the personal Friend 
 and Saviour whom the Scriptures represent him to be, 
 but an impersonal force and intelligence, diffused 
 throughout the universe. That Mrs. Eddy and her 
 followers do this, simply shows how far they have 
 erred from the gospel made known to us in that book 
 which she has termed "the chart of life, to mark the 
 healing currents and buoys of Truth." 
 
 Such a method violates every principle of language 
 and of rhetoric. When we say that God is good, the 
 word "good" is understood to be an adjective, de- 
 scribing the quality of the Being whom we term God. 
 When we reverse the proposition, this adjective has 
 become a noun, with an entirely different meaning. 
 As an adjective, the word "good," applied to any in- 
 telligent being, describes moral character, implying 
 the whole circle of praiseworthy qualities. But the 
 same word used as a noun means benefit, blessing. 
 Now, it is evident that, while God may be said to be 
 our greatest good in the sense of being our highest 
 blessing, it cannot be said that all blessing is God. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, moreover, while intimating that she 
 knows what "tropes and metaphors" are, ignores all 
 
Christian Science. 295 
 
 right interpretations of such figures of speech, when 
 they would deprive her of a coveted proof-text. She 
 converts tropical statements into literal at will, and 
 then when it suits her convenience she takes the most 
 evidently literal passages that are to be found in the 
 Bible, and turns them into allegory, in order to twist 
 out of them some seeming confirmation of her doc- 
 trines. Thus, it is plain that when our Lord said, "I 
 am the way and the truth and the life," he was not 
 using the words in a severe literal sense, but meta- 
 phorically, just as when he said, "I am the vine, and 
 ye are the branches." But in her interpretation of the 
 passage, Mrs. Eddy takes part of it literally, making 
 Truth synonymous with Christ, but ignoring the fact 
 that she must also, on the same principle, make life 
 synonymous with him. The word Life, however, she 
 has chosen to use as a synonym of God, and never 
 uses it in speaking of Christ. Again, it is unquestion- 
 able that the Bible uses the word "mother" in the 
 commonly accepted sense, and that no sacred writer 
 ever applies that word to the Divine Being. But 
 Mrs. Eddy's Glossary makes the word a synonym of 
 the Divine Being. Does this account for the fact that 
 one of her followers was brought before a court 
 charged with being insane, because she asserted that 
 Mrs. Eddy, who has taught her followers to call her 
 "Mother," was none other than God ? 
 
 Another device of Mrs. Eddy, in her effort to make 
 the Bible square with her doctrines, is direct contra- 
 diction. Thus, God says, "The soul that sinneth, it 
 shall die." He affirms, through the word of his Son, 
 that a man may gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul. Now, Mrs. Eddy cuts the Gordian knot of 
 difficulty in all such cases by simply contradicting the . 
 
296 Christian Science. 
 
 Scriptures. She says that the soul cannot sin, nor can 
 it be lost. If the Bible anywhere, or even Christ 
 himself, says so, the Bible or Christ is mistaken. So, 
 also, as to the judgment. "God," says Paul, "has ap- 
 pointed a day in which he will judge the world by that 
 man whom he hath ordained." Xo, says Mrs. Eddy, 
 "no final judgment awaits mortals." Numerous 
 other instances could be given in which this oracle of 
 Concord has coolly set aside the very plainest state- 
 ments of that book which she tells us was her "only 
 text-book" in her laborious task of bringing forth her 
 immortal "discovery." In such cases it is evident that 
 we must choose whom we will believe. 
 
 In spiritualizing the Scriptures. Mrs. Eddy gives 
 many startling instances of her daring originality. 
 Thus, she makes the question, "Adam, where art 
 thou?" mean, "Consciousness, where art thou?" She 
 tells us that Jacob at the brook Jabbok was alone, and 
 wrestled with error, until at day-break the angel ap- 
 peared, and gave him a new name. etc. Now, the in- 
 spired story says that Jacob was alone: but it does 
 not say that he wrestled first with error or with any- 
 body or anything. Its plain meaning is, that he was 
 alone until the "man," or, as the margin has it, the 
 "prince of God" — presumably the "Angel of the Cov- 
 enant" — "came and wrestled with him until the 
 breaking of the day." By thus inserting ideas that 
 were never, even in faintest degree, implied in the 
 original, she is enabled to make any historical pas- 
 sage teach Christian Science. Again, she tells us that 
 Hebrews xii. 1, "Let us lay aside every weight, and 
 the sin which doth so easily beset us. and let us run 
 with patience the race that is set before us," does not 
 mean, as Christians have alwavs understood it to 
 
Christian Science. 297 
 
 mean, that we are to lay aside all sin and selfish- 
 ness, and devote ourselves patiently to doing the 
 will of God; but that we are to "put aside material 
 self and sense, and seek the Divine Principle and 
 science of healing-," or, in other words, be Chris- 
 tian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy's works teem with such 
 revolutionary interpretations of scripture. She would 
 have ns believe that the stripes of Jesus, which heal 
 our sin-wounded souls, mean the "denial of error," 
 which is to say the denial of the assertion that Chris- 
 tian Science is not the truth. The first command- 
 ment means, when "spiritually interpreted, " "Thou 
 shalt have no belief of life in matter ; thou shalt not 
 know T evil, for there is one life, even God, Good," etc. 
 That is, Thou shalt be a Christian Scientist ; for only 
 in so doing canst thou acknowledge the true God, and 
 escape the curse pronounced upon all idolaters. 
 Paul's sublime argument for the safety of all be- 
 lievers is, that "if, when we were enemies, we were 
 reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, 
 being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." That 
 is, as Jesus paid our debt to the violated law by his 
 death, so, by virtue of his immortal life, will he make 
 good to us his guarantee of salvation. He died to 
 redeem us, and he still lives, to give us the benefits of 
 the purchased redemption. Mrs. Eddy, however, in 
 order to break the force of this passage, inserts the 
 word seeming before the word death, makes life begin 
 with a capital "L," and by these apparently slight 
 alterations of the passage, makes it mean, "If we were 
 reconciled to God by the seeming death of Jesus, we 
 shall be saved by his God." To such devices she is 
 driven by her determination to take out of the Bible 
 every passage that teaches the reality and the vica- 
 
 1 
 
298 Christian Science. 
 
 rious character of our Lord's death, and even his 
 personal immortality. 
 
 Another favorite device of this infallible expositor 
 is that of substitution. Thus, "When reading the 
 Scriptures, the substitution of the word sense for soul, 
 gives the exact meaning in a majority of cases." This 
 artifice enables her to break the force of all pas- 
 sages which teach that man is liable to lose his soul, 
 and to suffer in the eternal world, and at the same 
 time to deny the Christian doctrines of personal im- 
 mortality and accountability. She is blind to the enor- 
 mous absurdities in which this trick involves her, as 
 is manifest from her use of the one hundred and 
 fourth Psalm, the first verse of which she renders, 
 "Bless the Lord, oh ! my sense, and all that is within 
 me, bless his holy name;' Applying this principle of 
 interpretation to one of our Lord's solemn warnings, 
 the result is found to be startling. "What shall it 
 profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own sense ?" Aside from all questions as to the cor- 
 rectness of this particular interpretation, it is evident 
 to any one who has known much of Christian Science 
 doctrine and mental healing that men and women may 
 lose their sense, even in this world. Indeed, the only 
 difference between these learned "Scientists" and their 
 uncharitable critics, so far as the fate of the former 
 is concerned, is this: The "Scientists" expect to lose 
 their sense in some future life, and look forward to 
 this loss as the heaven of which the Scriptures speak, 
 whereas the cruel critics are so unkind as to hint that 
 all who have accepted Mrs. Eddy as their spiritual 
 Mother and guide may, according to their own creed, 
 consider themselves already in heaven, inasmuch as 
 they have already taken leave of their sense. And it is 
 
Christian Science. 299 
 
 characteristic of Mrs. Eddy's expository inspiration 
 that it enables her to make the same thing serve most 
 contradictory uses, as when she makes the loss of 
 sense the "second death/' as well as heaven. This is 
 a discovery which ought to be patented. 
 
 But there are some passages in which she cannot 
 substitute the word sense for soul. Mrs. Eddy is 
 equal to this as to all other emergencies, as we might 
 expect an inspired "spiritual idea of God" to be. 
 "The proper sense of the word soul can always be 
 gained by substituting the word God where the deific 
 meaning is required." In all other cases we may sub- 
 stitute the word sense. Thus is she enabled to teach, 
 on the one hand, that it is never the soul of any man, 
 but only his sense of sin, that is lost, and on the other 
 that God is the only Soul in the universe. Thus does 
 she succeed in making the old Bible an entirely new 
 book for her followers, and also in making the study 
 of the Scriptures a task of surpassing interest and 
 delight. "Scientists" profess to enjoy greatly their 
 study of the Scriptures. There is so much in it that 
 is new to their anointed eyes ! 
 
 Still another of her expository inventions may be 
 described as inflation and rejection. She first reads 
 into a passage a meaning which no sane person ever 
 dreamed of assigning to it, and then proceeds to dis- 
 miss it as unauthoritative, and to explain it as "er- 
 ror's" account. This is her method of interpreting 
 the creation story. The latter part of the second chap- 
 ter of Genesis, she tells us, "must be based on some 
 hypothesis of error," because in it "Spirit is sup- 
 posed to cooperate with matter in constructing man," 
 and because the "preceding passage declares God's 
 work to be finished." Either she does not know, or 
 
300 Christian Science. 
 
 else ignores, the fact that the first chapter of Genesis 
 and the first three verses of the second give, as the 
 Christian world believes, a general account of crea- 
 tion as a whole, and that the succeeding narrative 
 gives a more particular account of the creation of 
 man, of his probation, sin and fall, etc. Not even 
 those "modern scholars," to whose authority she bows 
 in conscious ignorance, have ever been able to find any 
 material contradiction between the two accounts, and 
 certainly none of them ever took the ground that in 
 rhe second account, so-called, "Spirit is supposed to 
 cooperate with matter in constructing man." She 
 must know that this is not, and never was, the teach- 
 ing of any orthodox body, or even of any respecta- 
 ble orthodox writer, if indeed, she ever heard of such 
 a doctrine before she saw it for her own purpose in 
 the creation story as given by Moses. She has simply 
 read into the book a meaning which nobody but her- 
 self ever attached to it, and then proceeds to dismiss 
 the whole account as mythical because of the ridicu- 
 lous sense which she pretends to have discovered 
 in it. 
 
 But Mrs, Eddy's inspiration and genius both at- 
 tain their highest triumphs in her Glossary. The im- 
 mense spiritual discernment which she has exhibited 
 in her definitions goes so far beyond the acumen of 
 all other lexicographers, and she finds such a wealth 
 of Christian Science in the Scriptures, when once she 
 is permitted to apply her magical explanations to 
 its proper names, that a sense of her inspiration grows 
 upon her enraptured followers as they traverse the 
 new regions of scriptural investigation thus opened up 
 to them by their leader. Already we have had some 
 samples of the marvelous meanings which Mrs. Eddy 
 
Christian Scien< 301 
 
 has elicited from some plain words. Bui when we 
 turn to this Glossary, and examine its definitions one 
 by one, our wonder grows, until we are led to exclaim, 
 Oh! the depth of this woman's cunning! Angels are 
 "God's thoughts passing to man." Benjamin means 
 "a physical belief as to life, substance and mind/' and 
 also, among other things, "a gleam of the infinite idea 
 of the infinite Principle, . . . that which com- 
 forts and supports ;" which is to say, Benjamin means 
 both the denial and the affirmation of Christian 
 Science. Bride means "purity and innocence, con- 
 ceiving man in the idea of God; the senses of Soul, 
 which have spiritual bliss, and enjoy, but cannot 
 suffer/' Bridegroom means "Spiritual understand- 
 ing; the pure consciousness that God, the Divine 
 Principle, creates man as his own idea, and is the 
 only creative power." Canaan is "a sensuous belief ; 
 the testimony of material sense." Children are "Life, 
 Truth and Love's spiritual thoughts and representa- 
 tives," and also "sensual and mortal beliefs," "counter- 
 feits of creation, whose better originals are God's 
 thoughts, not in embryo, but in maturity," etc. But, 
 not to delay further on this point, it is indeed amazing 
 how many and what diverse things appear to Mrs. 
 Eddy as proper synonyms of her sacred science. Dan, 
 one of the sons of Jacob, means "animal magnetism," 
 while Gad means "Science, spiritual Being, under- 
 stood;" and so, likewise, Elias, Euphrates and Hid- 
 dekel — two of the rivers of Eden — the new Jerusalem, 
 and the Holy Ghost, all stand for Divine Science ; and 
 the river Gihon, to the astonishment and confusion of 
 all who oppose woman's suffrage, is found to mean 
 "the rights of woman." 
 
 These illustrations must suffice. A volume could 
 
302 Christian Science. 
 
 be written, and a most amusing one, on the various 
 devices which Mrs. Eddy has adopted in order to 
 make the Bible agree with her theories. But after all, 
 her secret dissatisfaction with her ludicrous perform- 
 ance is manifest in various complaints which break 
 the monotony of her boundless egotism. Often she 
 complains of the inadequacy of the translation of the 
 Scriptures, and as a last resort asserts that the chief 
 difficulty in the teaching of Christian Science lies in 
 the imperfection of the English language. "English/' 
 she informs us, "is inadequate to the expression of 
 spiritual conceptions and propositions, through the 
 use of material terms." The trouble is, not that the 
 English language is such an imperfect vehicle of 
 thought, but that Mrs. Eddy neither fully compre- 
 hends the thoughts which she would set forth, nor the 
 language which she is compelled to use. She is a 
 striking specimen of a type of teachers whom Paul 
 describes in his First Epistle to Timothy: 
 
 "Now the end of the commandment is charity out 
 of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith 
 unfeigned : from which some having swerved, have 
 turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be 
 teachers of the law ; understanding neither what they 
 say, nor whereof they affirm." 
 
 ( )r, to adopt her own paraphrase of the apostle's 
 words, which she applies to "error" : "The mark of 
 ignorance is on" her "forehead, for" she "neither 
 understands nor can be understood." 
 
XIX. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 " Christian Science" originated in conscious 
 charlatanism and fallacious reasoning, if the testi- 
 mony of its founder is to be believed. If we credit 
 the testimony of her rivals, which is abundantly cor- 
 roborated by her own published statements, the sys- 
 tem which she claims to have discovered in 1866 had 
 been, in all its main features, taught for years before 
 his death by Dr. P. P. Quimby, at whose feet Mrs. 
 Eddy sat during his later life, and in whose foot- 
 steps she professed to be following even after his 
 death. Mrs. Eddy's claim, that she received her doc- 
 trines by direct revelation, is thus disproven, not only 
 by the intrinsic absurdity of the doctrines themselves, 
 but also by the abundant evidences that she had been 
 taught the same theory some years before she pro- 
 fessed to discover it. Under the mask of saintly 
 charity, she strives to conceal a bitter and implacable 
 enmity toward true scriptural Christianity. Profess- 
 ing to revere the Bible as "the chart of human life," 
 she and her followers are sparing no efforts to set 
 aside that venerable volume in the interests of a book 
 which is destined to be regarded in time to come as a 
 monumental exhibition of ignorance, incapacity and 
 unreason, and as a sad commentary upon the gulli- 
 bility of mankind. "Christian Science" has developed 
 into a new and fanatical Mariolatry, in which the wor- 
 ship of Mary Eddy exceeds, in all but its ritual, the 
 
304 Christian Science. 
 
 exalted homage paid by the Roman Catholic and 
 Greek Churches to the mother of Jesus. Its philos- 
 ophy violates every principle of reason, and involves 
 its votaries in innumerable absurdities and inconsist- 
 encies. Its alleged miracles are, so far as they can 
 be verified, due either to mere coincidence, or to the 
 operation of mental factors now universally recog- 
 nized and taken into account in the practice of all in- 
 telligent physicians. Its curative methods are based 
 chiefly upon the hypnotic principle of suggestion, and 
 according to the testimony of its own adherents it 
 labors under the suspicion of affording to its prac- 
 titioners unbounded opportunities for hypnotic im- 
 position. Its failures are so many and so signal as to 
 furnish a sufficient refutation of its claim to be a 
 divinely revealed system by means of which all dis- 
 eases can be healed on "a demonstrable principle." 
 Its doctrinal system is diametrically opposed to the 
 teachings of the Scriptures touching God and man, 
 the creation, the doctrines of grace, the moral status 
 and final destiny of the human race, as to angels and 
 demons, and as to the future life. Discarding the 
 Christian sacraments instituted by our Lord and cher- 
 ished in the church from the days of the apostles, it 
 substitutes rites that are anti-Christian both in spirit 
 and in feature. When compared with modern The- 
 osophy and with ancient Gnosticism, this new creed 
 is found to agree with both in its unscriptural tenets, 
 and to have borrowed from the former a large part of 
 its nomenclature. And, lastly, its interpretations of 
 the Scriptures exhibit boundless ignorance, stupidity 
 and presumption — interpretations so unwarranted, 
 either by sound scholarship or sound reason, that it 
 seems passing strange that any rational soul should 
 
Christian Science. 305 
 
 be attracted to such a chaff-heap in search of spiritual 
 
 food, and stranger still that any sane mind can be 
 satisfied with such bold travesties of scriptural ex- 
 egesis. 
 
 Christian Science is both a foul imposture and a 
 heresy ominous of danger to the church of Christ, 
 and of peril to immortal souls. It is a so-called 
 science which ignores God-given facts ; a philosophy 
 which stultifies God-given reason ; a religion which 
 thrusts aside a God-given revelation ; a theology 
 which abolishes God while pretending to deify mortal 
 man; a Christianity w T hich, after dishonoring Christ 
 by every possible denial of his word, presents him 
 to us as a phantom Saviour who disappeared more 
 than eighteen centuries ago — a Saviour who never 
 did, and never can, save a soul, and who, having gone 
 from earth, will never again return to bless his wait- 
 ing and longing church. In a word, it is a philosophy 
 without wisdom, a science without facts, a religion 
 without rational worship, a theology without a God, 
 and a Christianity without a Christ. 
 
 This new T rehash of ancient heresies, not only in its 
 name, but in its spirit and substance, fully merits the 
 description of error long ago given by Paul, and once 
 more makes timely his warning to every man who 
 bears a responsibility like that which rested upon the 
 young pastor of the church at Ephesus : 
 
 "Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoid- 
 ing profane and vain babblings, and 
 
 OPPOSITIONS OF SCIENCE, FALSELY SO-CALLED, 
 
 which some professing, have erred concerning the 
 
 faith r 
 
INDEX 
 
 [// has been the author 's aim to make this Index sufficiently 
 complete to enable the reader to find readily (/) the page or 
 pages in which any particidar topic referred to in this book 
 is discussed ; (2) the page or pages on which the teaching of 
 Christian Science authorities as to any phase of their so- 
 called science is presented ; (3) all citations from authors 
 quoted ; and (4) all cases of healing referred to. The 
 figures refer to the pages of this book.'] 
 
 Absent treatment, Christian Science, failures of, 161, 166. 
 Adam, explosive definition of by Mrs. Eddy, 221. 
 
 name of, divided by Mrs. Eddy for expository purposes, 223. 
 
 origin of, according to Mrs. Eddy, 224. 
 
 not the first man, according to Mrs. Eddy, 194. 
 
 was the creator of the world, according to Mrs. Eddy, 
 220 ; also according to Brigham Young and the Mor- 
 mons, 220. 
 Adderton, Mrs. R. Stokes, statement of, as to remarkable 
 
 answer to prayer, 104. 
 Adventist Church, origin of, 13. 
 Africa, witch doctors of, cures by, 106. 
 Age, youthful appearance in, 99. 
 Ages, should not be recorded, says Mrs. Eddy, 98. 
 Alcoholism, facts of, vs. Christian Science, 177. 
 Alienation, domestic, produced by Christian Science, 214. 
 Americanitis, poem by Mrs. Woodbury, quoted, 166. 
 Angels, personal, existence of, denied by Christian Science, 
 
 241. 
 Anti-fat, Christian Science article of, unsatisfactory, 96. 
 Apostles, controversies of, 21, 22; miracles of, 151 ; no fail- 
 ures of, in healing, 152. 
 
308 INDEX. 
 
 Articulata, mollusca, etc., created by mortal thought, ac- 
 cording to Mrs. Eddy, 220. 
 Atonement, vicarious, denied by Christian Science, 80, 81, 
 
 195, 198. 
 Attention, expectant, effects of, 115, 116. 
 Authors and books, etc., quoted: 
 Arena, The, 38, 46, 52, 206, 239, 243. 
 Beaupre, Dr. 176. 
 Bhagavad Gita, 260, 261. 
 
 Blavatsky, Helena P., Key to Theosophy, 249, 251, 254-6, 274. 
 Boston Herald, 66. 
 
 Brown-Sequard, Dr., Lectures on the Physiology of Cen- 
 tral Nervous System, 174. 
 Buckley, D. D., LL. D., Rev. J. M., Faith Healing, Chris- 
 tian Science and Kindred Phenomena, 95, 11S-19-20, 
 127-S, 147, 173-4-5, 24S. 
 Burns, Robert, Poetical Works, 134. 
 Carpenter, Dr. W. B., Mental Physiology, 113. 
 Cocke, Dr. J. R., Hypnotism, 123, 12S. 
 Channing, D. D., Rev. W. E., Works, 192. 
 Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, 167. 
 Charleston (S. C.) Sunday News, 60. 
 Christian Science Journal, 53, 54, 61, 133. 
 Christian Science Sentinel, 6S. 
 
 Christian Science Series, 31, 54-5, 96, 194, 235, 255. 
 DuBose, D. D., Rev. H. C, The Dragon, Image and 
 
 Demon, 260. 
 Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker, 
 
 in Christian Science Sentinel, 6S. 
 in Christian Science Series^ 194, 234-5, 255. 
 in Rudiments and Rules of Christian Science, 57, 229. 
 in Unity of Good, etc., 56, 140, 189, 200, 216, 255. 
 in Science and Health, 31-6, 48, 50-2-4-5-6-7-8, 73-6-7- 
 S-9, So-1-2-6-8-9, 90-1-2-3-4-7-S, 100-1, 140-1-2-3- 
 4-5, 153-4-5-6-7-3-9, 160-1-3, 1S1-2-3-9, 194-7-3-9, 
 294-6-9-10-13-15-16-19, 220-1-3-6-8-9, 230-2-3-4-5-6- 
 7-S, 240-1-2-S-9, 250-1-4-9, 261-2, 271-2-3-5-6-7-8-9, 
 281-2-7-8-9, 290-1-3-4-6-7-8-9, 300-1-2. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Authors and books, etc., quoted — 
 
 Encyclopedia Brittanica, 171, 202. 
 
 Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, Medic a I Essay s % 43. 
 
 Homiletic Review, 25. 
 
 Independent, 31. 
 
 Judge, William Q., Ocean of Theosophy, 246. 
 
 Kansas City Star, 16. 
 
 Lafferty, LL. D., Rev, J. J., in Richmond Christian Ad- 
 vocate, 171. 
 
 Law Notes, 17, 18. 
 
 Macaulay, History of England, 105. 
 
 Marston, Dr., 39. 
 
 Mason, Rev. Frank E., Reminiscences of Class Room, 192-3, 
 201-5-8, 275. 
 
 Murchison, Dr., 115. 
 
 New York Mail and Express, 72. 
 
 Paris, Dr., 124-5. 
 
 Payne, Dr. R. L., Mental Factors in the Cause and Cure 
 of Disease, 115, 155-6. 
 
 Peoria (111.) Jour nal, 67. 
 
 Pepper, Dr., Sy stein of Medicine, 173-5. 
 
 Reed, D. D., Rev. R. C, in Presbyterian Quarterly, 14. 
 
 Rostrum, The, 75, 85, 193-4-5, 288. 
 
 Seed, The, 75-6, 89, 182, 195-6, 204-5, 230-1. 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred, Poetical Works, 252-8. 
 
 Tuke, Dr., Influence of the Mind on the Body, 102, 115. 
 
 Wilmans, Helen, 162. 
 
 Wilson, Dr. Andrew, in Harper's Magazine, 130. 
 
 Woodbury, Mrs. J. C, 65, 132. 
 • Arena. See Arena. 
 Christian Science Voices, 55-7, 63-4, 214. 
 War in Heaven, 35, 63, 65, 239. 
 
 Wordsworth, William, Poetical Works, 252. 
 Auto-Hypnotism, 128. 
 
 Baptism, is what in Christian Science, 271. 
 Barnes, Geo. O., a faith healer, 104. 
 
 Bathing, opposed by Mrs. Eddy for ''scientific" reasons, 92. 
 Beaupre, Dr., on Cretinism, 176. 
 
*♦ 
 
 3IO INDEX. 
 
 Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward, vigor of, 99. 
 Berkeley, Bishop, idealism of, 85-6. 
 Bethshan, cures at, 103. 
 
 Boardman, Rev. W. E., faith cures by, 103. 
 Body, influence of mind on the, 169. 
 Boils, "scientific" prescription for, 56. 
 Bread pills, an efficient purgative, 147. 
 Breda, siege of, effect of delusion during, 121. 
 Bright's Disease, sometimes imaginary, 148. 
 Buckley, LL. D., Rev. J. M. See Authors. 
 Buddhism, Mrs. Eddy in agreement with, 245-262. 
 Buzzell, Dr., cured cholera by thrashing patient, 122. 
 Cancer, cure of, reported by Mrs. Eddy, 140. 
 Cholera, case of, cured by thrashing, 122. 
 Christ, atonement of, denied by Christian Science, 80, Si, 
 195-8. 
 
 birth of, spiritual and not physical, according to Christian 
 Science, 202. 
 
 death and resurrection of, denied by Christian Science, 
 199, 200-1. 
 
 divinity of, denied by Christian Science, 192-3. 
 
 doctrine of Mrs. Eddy concerning, 192-209. 
 
 place of, in Scripture, 190-1. 
 
 second advent of, occurred in 1S66, according to Mrs. 
 Eddy, 206. 
 
 sufferings of, their reality denied by Christian Science, 
 299. 
 Christian Science, animus of, toward the church, 79- 82. 
 
 absurdities of, S4-101. 
 
 basis of truth in, 1 14-125. 
 
 Buddhism by another name, 251, 261-2. 
 
 built on law of suggestion, 132. 
 
 challenge of, 31. 
 
 claims of, 1S-19, 33-5-6. 
 
 compared with faith healing, 102-113. 
 
 compared with Hypnotism, 126-138. 
 
 compared with Theosophy, 245-266. 
 
 compromise with, impossible, 19-20. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3" 
 
 Christian Science — 
 
 contradicts Scripture, 185-6-7, 190-1-2-4-5-6-7-8-9, 200-1- 
 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, 215, 218, 220-1-2-5-6, 231-2-5-7-8, 240- 
 1-2, 251-2-4-5. 
 
 cost of instruction in, 36-7. 
 
 dangers of, 18-19. 
 
 doctrinal contents of, 181-302. 
 
 failures of, 163, et seq. 
 
 general view of, 31, et seq. 
 
 Gnosticism revived, 263-5. 
 
 gospel, a new, 33, 53-4~5- 
 
 immoral tendencies of, 239. 
 
 in conflict with the law of the land, 15-18. 
 
 insanity results from faith in, 214-15. 
 
 institutes, etc., 32-4. 
 
 miracles of, examined, 139, et seq. 
 
 misnomer, a, 33. 
 
 not original with Mrs. Eddy, 44-5-6, 70^1. 
 
 origin of, 43. 
 
 practice of, rules for, 150-162. 
 
 presents Mrs. Eddy as an object of worship, 59-65. 
 
 pretensions of, to science, 34. 
 
 services of, 269. 
 
 sets aside the Scriptures, 77. 
 
 statistics of, 30-1. 
 
 terms of, obscure, why, 248. 
 Christian Scientists, a growing body, 31-2. 
 
 families of, notably childless, 239. 
 
 worship their religion, 210. 
 Clothing, unnecessary, according to Christian Science, 91. 
 Cocaine habit cured by Hypnotism, 128. 
 Cocke, Dr. J. R. See Authors. 
 Consumption, cures of, reported by Mrs. Eddy, 140-1. 
 
 cured by falling into water, 122. 
 
 simulated by liver complaint, 148. 
 
 spontaneous recoveries from, 117. 
 Controversies of apostles, 21-2. 
 
 of reformers, 23. 
 
312 INDEX. 
 
 Controversy, church established by, 21-2-3. 
 
 unwise deprecation of, 21. 
 Cough, hysterical, cured by anger, 121. 
 
 nervous, cured by Hypnotism, 14S. 
 Creation denied by Christian Science, 219. 
 Cretinism, facts of, conclusive against Christian Science, 
 
 176-7. 
 Criticism, cure by, 122-3. 
 Coincidence, illustrated, 123-4. 
 Cullis, Dr., faith cures by, 104. 
 Dana, Charles A., vigor of, 99. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, cure of paralysis by, with thermo- 
 meter, 119. 
 Death expected to disappear in triumph of Christian Science, 
 
 87-8. 
 Demonophobia, the wretched superstition of Christian 
 
 Scientists, 243. 
 Devil, is father of all who are not Christian Scientists, ac- 
 cording to Mrs. Eddy, 42-3. 
 Devils, existence of personal, denied by Christian Science, 
 
 241-2. 
 Diagnosis, possibility of mistakes in, 139-14S. 
 Dipsomania, cured by Hypnotism, 12S. 
 Discussion of Christian Science, probable benefits of, 25- 
 
 26. 
 Diseases which may be cured by Christian Science, 169. 
 Dropsy, case of, cured by Mrs. Eddy, with unmedicated 
 
 pellets, 42-3. 
 Dyspepsia, simulates many other diseases, 14S. 
 Ear, cut off, restored by Christ, 151. 
 Eating, inconsistent'advice as to, 101. 
 
 unnecessary, according to Mrs. Eddy, 101. 
 Ecclesiasticus, opinion of, as to physicians, in. 
 Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker, complains of imperfection of Eng- 
 lish language, 302. 
 
 considered a Jesus, 70. 
 
 contradicts Scripture. See Christian Scienci . 
 
 contrasted with Jesus, 39-40. 
 
INDEX. 313 
 
 Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker — 
 
 cures reported by, examined: cancer, 140; consumption, 
 140- 1 ; crushed bones, 143-4; enteritis, 142 ; heart disease, 
 1 60-1 ; hip disease, carious bone, etc., 145-6; ulcerated 
 bowels, 144-5. 
 
 defense of, against charge of plagiarism, 46. 
 
 disclaimer of, examined, 68-9. 
 
 does not heal sickness now, 40. 
 
 egotism of, 48-50. 
 
 expository tactics of, 286. 
 
 face of, made to resemble Christ's in picture, 60. 
 
 homoeopathy practiced by, before discovery of Christian 
 Science, 42-3. 
 
 identity of, with sun-clad woman of apocalypse, claimed, 
 89-90. 
 
 ignorance of, exposed, 51-2. 
 
 infallibility claimed by, 54-5. 
 
 life of, prior to "discovery'' of Christian Science, 42-6. 
 
 logic, specimen of her, examined, 163. 
 
 never made specialty of healing, 139. 
 
 patients referred to students by, 139-40. 
 
 plagiarism charged against others by, 47. 
 
 regarded a new Theophany, 62-5, 72, 290-1. 
 
 rhetoric, brilliant example of her, 210. 
 
 teaching of, considered the Bread of Life, 63. 
 
 teaching of, how received, 64-5. 
 
 testimony of , against herself , 46. 
 
 vanity of, 50. 
 
 worshipped, 63-4. 
 Faith healers, error of, no. 
 Faith healing, accounted for, 109-10-14, et seq. 
 
 compared with Christian Science healing, 1 12-13. 
 
 instances of, 103, et seq. 
 Flournoy, D. D., Rev. Parke P., opinion of, as to dangers 
 
 of Christian Science heresy, 21. 
 Foreordination, scouted by Mrs. Eddy, 254. 
 Fox Sisters, imposture of, confessed and explained, 14. 
 Frederic, Harold, death of, under Christian Science treat- 
 ment, 167. 
 
314 INDEX. 
 
 Freedom, of diet, exercise, etc., benefits of, 125. 
 Future life, Christian Science doctrine of, 255, et seq. 
 Gassner, Joseph, faith cures by, 103. 
 Glossary, Mrs. Eddy's, 2S7, 300-1. 
 
 Gnosticism, doctrines of, identical with those of Christian 
 Science and Theosophy, 264-5. 
 
 referred to in New Testament, 263. 
 
 revived by Christian Science and Theosophy, 265-6. 
 God, definition of, according to Christian Science, 1S2. 
 
 immanence of, denied by Christian Science, 216. 
 
 personality of, denied by Christian Science, 182,^'/^^., 
 and 229. 
 Greek Church, cures in, by faith, relics, etc., 105. 
 Headache, cured by application of silver dollar, 119. 
 Heart disease, case of, reported cured by Mrs. Eddy, 160. 
 
 often simulated by indigestion, 14S. 
 Heathen medicine men, cures by, 106. 
 Hodges, Dr., cures nausea by hypnotism, 12S. 
 Hohenlohe, Prince, faith cures by, 102-3. 
 Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, opinion of, as to homoeopathy, 
 
 phrenology, etc., 43. 
 Hughes, Mrs. John H., case of rheumatism of, cured by 
 
 earthquake, 120. 
 Hymnology, Christian Science, specimen of, 270. 
 Hypnotism, compared with Christian Science methods, 
 
 132-5. 
 
 curative powers of, 127-S. 
 
 modus operandi oil 127, 129. 
 
 nature of, explained, 129-30. 
 Hypochondria, case of, mistaken for tumor, 14S. 
 
 simulation of various diseases by, 147-8. 
 Hysteria, simulation of various diseases by, 147-8. 
 Idiocy, case of, cured by trephining skull, 174. 
 
 congenital, facts of, conclusive against Christian Science, 
 175-6-7. 
 Immorality, caused by Christian Science, 214-15. 
 Incantations of heathen priests cure disease, 106. 
 Incredulity, spirit of, sometimes makes liable to imposture, 
 
 131. 
 
INDEX. 315 
 
 Indigestion, simulation of other diseases by, 148. 
 
 Ingham, James, certificate of, examined, 140-1. 
 
 Insane, hallucinations of, 99. 
 
 Insanity caused by Christian Science, 214. 
 
 Jesus, an idea, according to Christian Science, 202. 
 
 a sentimental patriot, according to Christian Science, 196. 
 
 conception and birth of, spiritual and not physical, ac- 
 cording to Christian Science, 202. 
 
 death of, denied by Christian Science, 200-1. 
 
 divinity of, denied by Christian Science, 203. 
 
 exists not only as diffused thought, according to Chris- 
 tian Science, 204-5. 
 
 humanity of, now non-existent, 203-4. 
 
 not the Christ, according to Christian Science, 203. 
 
 not the only begotten Son, according to Christian Science, 
 207-9. 
 
 pre-incarnation of, taught by Mrs. Eddy, 194. 
 
 saves us by poising before us as a model, according to 
 Christian Science, 195. 
 
 sufferings of, denied by Christian Science, 195. 
 
 sufferings of, hypnotic illusions, according to Mrs. Eddy, 
 200. 
 
 worship of, idolatrous, according to Christian Science, 
 207-9. 
 Johnson, Dr. James, opinion of, as to doctors, drugs, etc., 
 
 44. 
 Joints, contracted, cured by faith, 203-5. 
 Kershaw, Thomas G., a Science healer, dies under "absent 
 
 treatment," 166. 
 Key to Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy's, 286-91. 
 King, touch of, a cure for scrofula, 105-6. 
 Knight, Newell, case of, cured by Joseph Smith, Jr., 107. 
 Knitting needles, cure of rheumatism by, 119. 
 Krackowitzer, Dr., cure of hysteria by, 119-20. 
 Lameness, cures of, by faith, relics, etc., 103-5. 
 Limbs, amputated, restored by Christ, 151. 
 
 amputated, cannot be restored by Christian Science, nor 
 grow again, 89. 
 
3l6 INDEX. 
 
 Lobster's claw, reproduction of, Mrs. Eddy's argument 
 
 from, 89. 
 Man, accountability of, denied by Christian Science, 232. 
 
 brotherhood of, how established in Christian Science and 
 Theosophy, 258-9. 
 
 definition of, by Mrs. Eddy, 213. 
 
 eternal and infinite, according to Mrs. Eddy, 213. 
 
 is God, according to Mrs. Eddy, 226. 
 
 never created, according to Christian Science, 213-219. 
 
 never fell, according to Christian Science, 226. 
 
 not to be confounded with Adamic race, 226. 
 
 perfect and sinless, according to Mrs. Eddy, 233-4. 
 
 personality of, denied, 229-231. 
 
 preexistence of, affirmed by Christian Science, 250-1. 
 
 re-incarnation of, affirmed by Mrs. Eddy, 255. 
 
 re-incarnation of, doctrine of, sad, 257-S. 
 Manheim, Dorothea Trudel's cures at, 103. 
 Marston, Dr., his account of the origin of the pharmaco- 
 poeia, 94-5. 
 Maternity, peculiar teaching of Mrs. Eddy as to, 244. 
 Matthew, Father, faith cures by, 103. 
 
 McGuire, Dr. Hunter, case of neurasthenia cured by, 122. 
 Medicines, rest from, sometimes beneficial, 124-5. 
 Mental Factors in Cause and Cure of Diseases, 114. 
 Mind-cure, basis of, in natural law, 114. 
 Ministry, Christian, obnoxious to Mrs. Eddy, Si. 
 Miracles of Christian Science, 139-152. 
 
 of Christian Science, differences between and those of 
 Christ and his apostles, 15 1-2. 
 
 of Mormonism, 106-8. 
 Modesty, a "delusion of material sense,'' according to Mrs. 
 
 Eddy, 92. 
 Mormon, Book of, plagiarized by Joseph Smith, 13. 
 Mormonism, growth of, 13-14. 
 Morphine habit, cured by hypnotism, 12S. 
 Mortals not man, according to Mrs. Eddy, 226. 
 Murchison, Dr., testimony of, as to mental cause and cure of 
 
 liver disease, 115. 
 
INDEX. 317 
 
 Natural causes for alleged cures, in, 115. 
 
 Nature, healing force of, 117. 
 
 Nausea, cured by application of silver dollar, [19. 
 cured by hypnotism, 129. 
 
 Nervous agencies in cause and cure of liver disease, 115. 
 
 Neuralgia, cure of, by hypnotism, 128. 
 
 Neurasthenia, cure of, by whipping, 122; by hypnotism, 
 127. 
 
 Neuritis, ulnar, cure of, by hypnotism, 127. 
 
 New York School of Primitive and Practical Christian Sci- 
 ence, 283. 
 
 Oil, anointing with, 103, in. 
 
 Oneida Communists, cure by criticism practiced by, 122-123. 
 
 Ovarian tumor, simulated by hysteria, 148. 
 
 Pantheism, cheerlessness of, 257. 
 defined, 188. 
 taught by Christian Science, 188, 226, 248-9. 
 
 Paralysis, cured by hypnotism, 127; by shock, 120; by sug- 
 gestion and ridicule, 123 : by thermometer, 118. 
 
 Pardon, Christian doctrine of, scouted by Mrs. Eddy, 254, 
 
 275. 
 
 Paris, Dr., opinion of , as to incompatible ingredients in pre- 
 scriptions, 124. 
 
 Payne, Dr. R. L., quoted, 115, 155-6. 
 
 Pennypacker, Judge, decision of, in Christian Science case, 
 
 15. 
 
 Personality, defined, 184. 
 
 of God denied by Christian Science, 182, et seq. 
 
 of man denied by Christian Science, 227-230. 
 Perkins, Dr., cures by, with tractors, 118. 
 Philosophy, Christian Science, absurdities of, 84, et seq. 
 
 Pythagorean, revived in Christian Science, 182. 
 Physicians, possibility of incorrect diagnosis by, 139, 14S. 
 Physiognomy, suggestions from, 116-17. 
 Poisons, effects of, how accounted for by Christian Science, 
 
 84-5. 
 Post-mortem examinations, show spontaneous recovery 
 
 from consumption, 117. 
 
318 INDEX. 
 
 Practice, Christian Science, rules for, 164, et seq. 
 
 Prayer, consists in what, according to Mrs. Eddy, 276-7 ; 
 according to Madame Blavatsky, 274; defined by our 
 Lord, 278 ; for healing, not necessarily answered by 
 miracle, in ; for sick, warrant for, in Scriptures, 109-11 ; 
 for a dyspeptic (Christian Science), 283 ; limitations of, 
 no; Lord's, as translated into "new tongue" of Chris- 
 tian Science, 279-83 ; no real, in Christian Science wor- 
 ship, 276-7-S ; vocal, not allowed in Christian Science 
 churches, 277-S. 
 
 Prescriptions, ingredients of, fighting together in the dark, 
 124-5. 
 
 Protestant faith healers, cures by, 103-4. 
 
 Pythagoras, teaching of, followed by Christian Science, 1S2. 
 
 Quimby, Dr. P. P., author of term, " Christian Science," 145. 
 originator of mental science healing, 44-5-6. 
 treatment of Mrs. Eddy by, for palsy, 45. 
 tribute of Mrs. Eddy to, 46. 
 
 Raising the dead, not attempted by Christian Science heal- 
 ers, 151. 
 
 Reed, Dr. Charles A. L., challenge of, to Mrs. Eddy, 149- 
 150. 
 
 Relics, cures by, 104-5. 
 
 Relapses, ignored in Christian Science practice, 15S. 
 
 Resistance, moral, necessary in cure of morphine habit, etc., 
 128. 
 
 Rhetoric, specimen of Mrs. Eddy's best, 210. 
 
 Rheumatism, cured by hypnotism, 127 ; by knitting nee- 
 dles, 119; by scalding, 120; by shock, 115, 120. 
 
 Rhode Island, Supreme Court of, decision of, in Christian 
 Science case, 15-16. 
 
 Rhubarb, dream of taking, effective as purgative, 147, 
 taste and effects of, communicated to jelly by imagination, 
 116. 
 
 Roman Catholic faith healers, cures by, 103. 
 
 Roman Catholic relics and miraculous waters, cures by, 105. 
 
 Sacramental forms, doctrinal import of, 268. 
 
 Sacraments, Christian Science, 271-3. 
 
INDEX. 319 
 
 Science and Health, considered equal or superior to Bible, 
 
 53-4- 
 
 exalted claims of, 53-S. 
 
 inspiration claimed for, 53. 
 
 literary character of, 49, 50-2-3-4. 
 
 miraculous, 55-6. 
 
 quoted. See Authors. 
 
 said to be the "little book" of Revelation x., 73. 
 
 said to be the Christ, 54. 
 
 said to be the Good Shepherd, 54. 
 
 title of, seductive, 35. 
 Scientific methods of investigation, ignored by Mrs. Eddy, 
 
 165. 
 Scriptures, the, contradiction of, by Mrs. Eddy, 1S6-9, 192, 
 195-8, 208-13-18-23-26. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's interpretations of, 285, et seq. 
 Scurvy, cured by delusion, 121. 
 Second Adventists, origin of, 13. 
 Self-mesmerization, 128. 
 Shakerism, origin of, similar to that of Christian Science, 
 
 70-1. 
 Simpson, Rev. A. B., cures by, 104. 
 Sleep-walking, in same category with hypnotic trance, 
 
 130. 
 Smollet, cure of consumption reported by, 122. 
 Sovereigns, touch of illegitimate, could cure scrofula, 106. 
 Spine, disease of, sometimes imaginary, 148. 
 
 disease of, cured by hypnotism, 128. 
 Spinoza, philosophy of, identical with that of Christian 
 
 Science, 188. 
 Spirit-rappings, origin of, 14. 
 Spiritualism, origin of, in imposture, 14. 
 Stigmatization, facts of, accounted for, 116. 
 Suggestion, power of, 135-7; uses of, in Christian Science, 
 
 132-3. 
 Sullivan, Mrs., case of, 121. 
 Sunshine from cucumbers, a Christian Science possibility, 
 
 84. 
 
320 INDEX. 
 
 Superstitions of Christian Science, 243. 
 of Mrs. Eddy, 46. 
 
 Surgery, Christian Science, a failure, S9-90. 
 
 Talmage, D. D., Rev. T. DeWitt, vigor of, 99. 
 
 Teeth, pain in ulcerated, relieved by application of silver 
 dollar, 119. 
 
 Theosophy, origin of modern, in imposture, 14 ; teachings of, 
 similar to those of Christian Science, 245, et seq. ; terms 
 of, identical with those of Christian Science, 246-7. 
 
 Thermometer, cure of paralysis by, 11S. 
 
 Thought, transference of, taught by Mrs. Eddy, 159, 243-4; 
 by hypnotists, 161. 
 
 Thrashing, cures by, 122. 
 
 Time and space annihilated by thought, according to Chris- 
 tian Science, 160. 
 
 Tobacco habit, cured by hypnotism, 12S. 
 
 Trance state, produced in Dr. Buckley's experiment, 127, 
 130. 
 simulation of acts in, 127, 130. 
 
 Treatment, absent, 160; Christian Science rules for, 
 
 153. 
 
 Tuke, Dr., admits faith cures by Prince Hohenlohe, 102 ; by 
 relics, etc., 105. 
 
 Tumor, supposed ovarian, relieved by administration of 
 ether, 14S. 
 
 Typhoid fever, cured by Mrs. Eddy with diluted salt water, 
 42. 
 
 Van Der Mye, Dr. Frederick, testimony of, as to effect of 
 delusion in epidemic of scurvy, 121. 
 
 Van Swieten, report by, of consumption, cured by falling 
 into water, 122. 
 
 Vapor bath, mistake in, cures rheumatism, 120. 
 
 Vertebrae, dislocated, cured by Christian Science, 89. 
 
 Vertebrata, created by " mortal and material thought," ac- 
 cording to Mrs. Eddy, 220. 
 
 Vincent, D. D., Rev. Marvin R., report by, of a case of sup- 
 posed tumor relieved by ether, 14S. 
 
 Vis medicatrix naturae, 117. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 321 
 
 Vosburg, Rev. Arthur, apology of, for Christian Science 
 
 worship of Mrs. Eddy, 72. 
 Weather, Christian Science an alleged remedy for, 90. 
 William III,, refused to touch for "King's Evil," 105-6. 
 Wilmans, Helen, statement of, as to transference of thought, 
 
 159. 
 
 specimen treatment by, 162. 
 
 Witch doctors, negro, may cause or cure diseases, 106. 
 
 Wood, Dr., on influence of mind on body, 114-15. 
 
 Woodbury, Mrs. J. C, character and prominence of, in 
 ranks of Christian Science, 65; quoted, see Authors; re- 
 cantation of, 65-6. 
 
 Wordsworth, William, on preexistence of soul, 252. 
 
 Worms, cystic, in brain, effects of, 175. 
 in children, how accounted for by Christian Science, 88 ; 
 
 and cured, 88. 
 tape, may cause nervous and mental disturbances, 175. 
 
 Youth, how to retain indefinitely, according to Christian 
 Science, 96-7. 
 
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