CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

A RECENTLY discovered sin against the First Commandment is the worship

of Mrs. Eddy, and it is commonly called Christian Science. This

sacrilegious humbug was conceived in the brain of an old woman up in

New Hampshire and, like the little demon of error that it is, it leaped

forth, after a long period of travail, full-fledged and panoplied, and

on its lips were these words: "What fools these mortals be!" Dame Eddy

gets good returns from the sacrilegio-comic tour of her progeny around

the country. Intellectual Boston is at her feet, and Boston pays well

for its amusements.



It is remarkable for an utter lack of anything like Christianity or

science. It is as Christian as Buddhism and as scientific as the

notions of our early forefathers concerning the automobile. It is a

parody on both and like the usual run of parodies, it is a success.



The average man should not attempt to delve down into the mysterious

depths of mind and matter which form the basis of this system. In the

first place, it is an impossible task for an ordinary intelligence;

then, again, it were labor lost, for even if one did get down far

enough one could get nothing satisfactory out of it. The force of

Eddyism lies in its being mysterious, incomprehensible and

contradictory. These qualities would kill an ordinary system, but this

is no ordinary system. The only way to beat the Christian Scientist is

to invite him to focus all the energy of his mind on a vulgar lamp-post

and engrave thereon the name of the revered Eddy--this to show the

power of mind. Then to prove the non-existence of matter, ask him to

consent to your endeavoring to make a material impression on his head

with an immaterial hammer.



Of course this is not what he meant; but what he did mean will become

by no means clearer after the wearisome, interminable lengths to which

he will go to elucidate. The fact is that he does not know it himself,

and no one can give what he does not possess. True philosophy tells us

to define terms and never to employ expressions of more than one

meaning without saying in what sense we use them. Contempt of this rule

is the salvation of Christian Science, and that is where we lose.



Yet there is something in this fad after all. Total insanity is never

met with outside state institutions, and these people are at large. The

ravings of a delirious patient are often a monstrous mass of wild

absurdities; but, if you question the patient when convalescent, you

will sometimes be surprised to find they were all founded on facts

which had become exaggerated and distorted. There is no such thing as

pure unadulterated error. All of which is meant to convey the idea that

at the bottom of all fraud and falsehood there is some truth, and the

malice of error is always proportionate with the amount of truth it has

perverted.



The first truth that has been exaggerated beyond recognition is this,

that a large proportion of human diseases are pure fiction of morbid

imaginations, induced by the power of the mind. That such is the case,

all medical men admit. Thus, the mind may often be used as a

therapeutic agent, and clever physicians never fail to employ this kind

of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy is therefore no more the discoverer of

the "malade imaginaire" than Moliere. When you' distort this truth and

write books proclaiming the fact that all ills are of this sort, then

you have Eddyism up to date. Mrs. Eddy gathers her skirts in her hand

and leaps over the abyss between "some ills" and "all ills" with the

agility of a gazelle. Yes, the mind has a wonderful power for healing,

but it will make just as much impression on a broken leg as on a block

of granite. So much for the scientific part of the theory.



The method of healing of Jesus Christ and that of the foundress of

Christian Science are not one and the same method, although called by

the name of faith they appear at first sight to the unwary to be

identical. There is a preliminary act of the intelligence in both;

there is the exercise of the will power; and a mention of God in

Eddyism makes it look like a divine assistance. To the superficial

there is no difference between a miracle performed at Lourdes by God at

the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and a "cure" effected by the

Widow of New Hampshire hills.



Yet there is a wide difference, as wide as the abyss between error and

truth. In faith healing, God interposes and alone does the healing. It

is a miracle, a suspension of the ordinary laws of nature. Faith is not

a cause, but an essential condition. In Christian Science, it is the

mind of the patient or of Mrs. Eddy that does the work. It is God only

in the sense that God is one with the patient. Mind is the only thing

that exists, and the human mind is one with the Mind which is God. Then

again this cure instead of being in opposition to the normal state of

things like a miracle, itself establishes a normal state, for disease

is abnormal and in contradiction with the natural state of man. Mental

healing, according to this system sets the machine going regularly;

miracles put it out of order for the moment. Christian Science

therefore, repudiates the healing method of Jesus by faith and sets up

one of its own, thereby forfeiting all title to be called Christian.



Being, therefore, neither Christian nor scientific, this new cult is

nothing but pure nonsense, like all superstitions; the product of a

diseased mind swayed by the demon of pride, and should be treated

principally as a mental disorder. The chief, and only, merit of the

system consists in illustrating the truth, as old as the world, that

when men wander from the House where they are fed with a celestial

nourishment, they will be glad to eat any food offered them that has a

semblance of food, even though it be but husks and refuse. Man is a

religious animal; take away the true God, and he will adore anything or

everything, even to a cucumber. However limited otherwise, there is no

limit to his religious folly.