NOV 2 1916 
 
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The Truth About Christian 
 
 Science 
 
 NOV 2 1916 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE M. SEARLE 
 
 of the Paulist Fathers 
 
 New York 
 
 THE PAULIST PRESS 
 
 120 West 60th Street 
 
 1916 
 
Copyright, 1916, by "The Missionary Society of 
 
 St. Paul the Apostle in the State 
 
 of New York " 
 
nm\ ©bstat : 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.D., 
 
 Censor 
 
 IFmprimatur : 
 
 ►t-JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY, 
 
 Ai'cJibisJiop of Neiu York 
 
 New York, February y, 19 16. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Of all the delusions, in the matter of religion, which 
 have at any time gained credence among apparently 
 intelligent people, the most surprising, perhaps, is that 
 known in recent times as '* Christian Science." It is 
 quite obvious that, as has been well remarked, it is 
 neither Christian nor Science. For a doctrine pro- 
 fessing to be Christian should (as is evident) be one 
 founded on the words of Christ as a whole, which the 
 person holding such a doctrine endeavors to explain in 
 their genuine sense ; rather than on theories which he 
 himself has elaborated, and supports, here and there, 
 by such words of Christ as he can manage to fit to 
 suit his purpose. Also, a system professing to be 
 scientific should rest on a solid basis of fact, and 
 be stated clearly and distinctly, not in vague generali- 
 ties, which are either truisms or have no precise mean- 
 ing whatever. A scientific system should be in some 
 way a contribution to our knowledge. But the most 
 favorable criticism on the lucubration known as 
 " Christian Science " would be that it contains " some 
 things which are new, and some things which are true ; 
 but the things which are true are not new, and the 
 things which are new are not true." 
 
 The book of Mrs. Eddy's, known as Science and 
 Health, and on which it all rests, has been gladly re- 
 ceived by many people, and more so than such attempts 
 usually would have been at the time when it appeared ; 
 and this because it professed to Obtain, and from the 
 Bible, results of value, not so much for the world to 
 
 (vii) 
 
viii Preface 
 
 come, as for that which now is. As is indicated by its 
 title, it claimed that the right understanding of the doc- 
 trine of Christ would give to those who obtained it a 
 perfect freedom from bodily as well as spiritual disease. 
 It told us that there was no need of waiting for another 
 life to be free from the chief pain and suffering which 
 we have here ; indeed that there was no reality in what 
 we seem to feel in that way, even now; and that the 
 main object of Christ's work in this world was to heal 
 the sick, or rather those who imagined themselves to 
 be sick. Get rid of this nonsense about being sick, and 
 you will be as well as anybody else; that was the 
 fujidamental idea of Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 But to impress this idea more firmly on her own 
 mind and on those of her readers, she saw that it 
 would help very much if she could persuade herself 
 and them, that there was no real existence in the body 
 in which they thought they were sick ; and going even 
 further, that there was no reality in the mind, which 
 could entertain such erroneous ideas; that nothing 
 had any real existence except the divine Mind, which is 
 incapable of this or any other error. And consequently 
 that there was no such thing as creation by that Mind 
 of anything outside of itself. It was, however, neces- 
 sary to have something in which these errors could be 
 located. She could not help seeing this. So she 
 boldly gave a name to it, and called it '* mortal mind," 
 and let it go at that. So far her absurdities were chiefly 
 philosophical. But hoping that they would not be no- 
 ticed, she does not consistently stick to them, but con- 
 tinually drops them, and talks about what she tries to 
 discuss according to the notions generally prevalent, or, 
 in other words, to common sense ; and even ventures 
 to bring physical science, as generally accepted, to help 
 
Preface ix 
 
 her out. But her ignorance on these lines is so palpable 
 that she only entangles herself more and more by it, as 
 well as by her inconsistency. 
 
 The more intelligent among her adherents have for a 
 good while perceived this, and have become sufficiently 
 aware that Science and Health is not a book which 
 can bear examination. They hope that it can be kept in 
 the background, and try to put the " catching " ideas 
 of it in a shape that will not be so fatal. But this way 
 of proceeding, though it may succeed for a time, has 
 no right to do so. They have no right, even on their 
 own professed beliefs, to do what they are now at- 
 tempting. For the book professes to be the result of a 
 Divine inspiration or illumination given to Mrs. Eddy 
 herself. If it proves not to be that, it has no value 
 whatever. 
 
 Let us, then, proceed to look in detail at Mrs. 
 Eddy's Science and Health, with which, whether it was 
 actually written by her or not, this so-called " Christian 
 Science " stands or falls. It seems better to take its 
 actual words, which, in imitation of our version of 
 Sacred Scripture, are kindly divided into chapters and 
 something like verses, for better reference, than to 
 attempt the task, evidently too much for herself, of 
 constructing a system from them, which her followers 
 could easily disclaim ; and it is really fairer to herself 
 and to them. Our chapters will correspond with her 
 own. 
 
 The book itself is entirely destitute of any order or 
 system, and therefore compels any review or examina- 
 tion of it to be of a somewhat similar character. It 
 has, of course, a few leading or principal notions, 
 which are continually repeated, indiscriminately, in all 
 parts of it. But if these were sifted out of its mass 
 
X Preface 
 
 of verbiage, it might be urged that the sifting had been 
 unfairly done, and did not correctly represent the 
 author. So the only possible course seems to be to go 
 through with the book in its own actual pretence of 
 order, taking these false notions when they are most 
 prominently stated, and with them the other absurdities 
 which she intersperses with them, and serve best to 
 show her utter ignorance of the subjects of which 
 she attempts to treat. The errors into which she con- 
 tinually falls, have been broached often before, and 
 defended far more ably than she was able to defend 
 them ; and shown to be inconsistent with anything 
 which could pretend to be any kind of Christian doc- 
 trine, or even with reason itself. But the most ef- 
 fectual way to show this falsity seems to be to illus- 
 trate the effects which they had on her own deluded 
 mind, and the preposterous ideas which she associates 
 with them. 
 
 In general, we have treated of them from a point 
 of view common to all Christians who have any posi- 
 tive system of religion as a revelation; but sometimes 
 we have stated more emphatically the Catholic teach- 
 ing on the matters concerned, as notably in the open- 
 ing chapters, where it seemed to be more specially 
 necessary. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prayer i 
 
 Atonement and Eucharist 6 
 
 Marriage 33 
 
 Christian Science and Spiritualism 44 
 
 Animal Magnetism 57 
 
 Science, Theology, Medicine 60 
 
 " Theology " 89 
 
 '' Medicine " 93 
 
 Physiology 99 
 
 " Footsteps of Truth " 102 
 
 Creation 114 
 
 Science of Being 121 
 
 Some Objections Answered 165 
 
 Christian Science Practice 176 
 
 Teaching Christian Science 192 
 
 Recapitulation 197 
 
 " Key to the Scriptures " 216 
 
 Key to the Apocalypse 22/ 
 
 Fruitage 2t,^ 
 
 General Remarks , 294 
 
 (xi) 
 
THE 
 
 Truth About Christian Science 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 This opening chapter has for its title, " Prayer." 
 Its first words are : " The prayer that reforms the 
 sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all 
 things are possible to God." This article of faith 
 is one of the truisms to which we have alluded; 
 that is to say, for those who believe in the existence 
 of God at all. It does not, however, require any faith, 
 properly so called, to endorse this statement. It is 
 perfectly ascertainable by unaided reason ; at least 
 if we do not take it as applying to what are called 
 metaphysical impossibilities, such as that a thing can 
 be and not be at the same time. But it is fair to ad- 
 mit that this would also be her own understanding of 
 the matter. 
 
 It can, of course, besides being a matter of reason, 
 be one of faith also. If we are rationally convinced 
 of the existence of a God, properly so-called, and He 
 tells us that all things are possible to Him, we can 
 take His word for it. For that is the genuine mean- 
 ing of the word " faith," the belief of a statement on 
 the word of another ; though inaccurate writers like 
 Mrs. Eddy often confuse it with " belief " in general. 
 
 However, we must get on a little faster than this. 
 Let us look at the rest of these opening words. " The 
 prayer," she says, is an " absolute faith." If she had 
 said that it '" requires an absolute faith," it w^ould have 
 been all right, though the words " an absolute " are 
 
2 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 superfluous. But prayer, even according to her own 
 words, is more than this. For it includes, as she 
 goes on to say, " a spiritual understanding, an unselfed 
 love." Faith, to reform a sinner, does require love, 
 certainly; and hope also. But that love is required, 
 to heal the sick, is not so clear. St. Paul seems to 
 say that it is not needed to move mountains ( i Cor. 
 xiii. 2). But Mrs. Eddy speaks of " unselfed" love. 
 Here we leave the region of truisms, and enter that 
 of meaningless phrases. What is meant by '' un- 
 selfed " love? You can't keep self altogether out of 
 love, for though not self is not necessarily the object 
 of love, it is the agent in it. If it is love on the 
 part of the sinner or of the sick, as seems to be the 
 notion, they themselves must feel it, and act according 
 to it, just as they themselves are the ones to have the 
 " spiritual understanding " alluded to. But really at 
 this rate we shall never get through the book, or even 
 get a good dose of it. It was, however, hardly pos- 
 sible to deny ourselves this little gem of thought with 
 which it begins. 
 
 She goes on. " Thoughts unspoken are not un- 
 known to the Divine Mind," We should think not. 
 Another truism. What kind of a Divine Mind would 
 it be, to which they were unknown? Next, she says, 
 " desire is prayer." Not at all ; desire may be purely 
 a natural affair, having no relation to God at all. For 
 example, what prayer is there in a desire for a good 
 meal, already prepared, and waiting for us? Still less 
 is there in a desire which one knows to be sinful. 
 Even a good desire is not necessarily a prayer. It may 
 be what is known as an *' inefficacious " desire, which 
 one would not carry out, even if knowing the ability 
 to do so. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 3 
 
 But she now leaves the Hne of mere vagueness and 
 inaccuracy, and enters that of absolute and funda- 
 mental error. " God," she says, '' is not moved by the 
 breath of praise to do more than He has already done, 
 nor can the infinite do less than bestow all good." The 
 error of this statement is quite obvious. If God is 
 not moved by the " breath of praise," there is no rea- 
 son why He should be moved by anything else that 
 we can do ; and that is really what she means. Ac- 
 cording to this, if the farmer wants the Lord to give 
 him a harvest, it makes no difference whether he him- 
 self plants the seed for it or not. This is a common 
 and superficial objection made to prayer, but it would 
 apply just as well to any exertion on our part. The idea 
 is that God has determined what He is going to do, 
 independently of any action of ours. It seems, to 
 those who make this objection, that this indifference 
 to our action is required by His foreknowledge of 
 the future. But the fact is that the case of prayer 
 or of other actions which we may perform are really 
 precisely parallel. The Lord, of course, knows what 
 our action, whether of praying, or of sowing the seed, 
 is going to be. And in both cases, equally, His ac- 
 tion corresponds to ours. In both cases His action 
 , is less than it would be if we ourselves did not act. In 
 both cases, if we do not act. Lie actually does not 
 "bestow the good" (to use Mrs. Eddy's own words) 
 that He would have bestowed if we had. There is no 
 ground for making the distinction which she makes 
 between the result on ourselves and on other mat- 
 ters. If the result, outside of ourselves, is to be the 
 same whether we pray or not, the same rule would 
 apply to our own interior. 
 
 In praying, no sensible person ever tries, as Mrs. 
 
4 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Eddy seems to suppose, " to give information to the 
 infinite Mind of God." Possibly she might, at some 
 time in her previous history, have made such attempts. 
 But she seems to have finally arrived at the reasonable 
 conviction that they would be futile, even for her- 
 self. 
 
 This false conception of prayer runs through the 
 whole chapter. Another form of it, however, seems 
 deserving of special mention. She says, " simply 
 asking that we may love God will never make us love 
 Him." These words show that she has no idea of 
 the function or the efficacy of Divine grace. As far 
 as we can judge, her idea is that we can, by our- 
 selves, work ourselves up to spiritual perfection, 
 though unable to do anything outside of ourselves. 
 But the truth is that this work on ourselves is the 
 most important and necessary of all for us to ask 
 God to do for us. '' It is God," says St. Paul, '' Who 
 worketh in you both to will and to do " (Phil. ii. 13). 
 (This quotation is from her own Protestant version, 
 which is substantially correct.) The idea that we can 
 even start this work of ourselves is what is known 
 as Semi-Pelagian, and condemned, not only by the 
 Catholic Church, but by Protestants as well. 
 
 This grace of God is given to us, in the first place, 
 without our asking for it. The same grace also moves 
 us to ask for its increase, but is given more abund- 
 antly, if, by means of it, we ask for more. "Asking 
 that we may love God," therefore, is really the princi- 
 pal and most eflfectual means of obtaining the love of 
 Him, though others must not be neglected. So this 
 error of Mrs. Eddy is of the gravest importance. 
 
 A part of this chapter on prayer seems to go on 
 the assumption that one who prays, with the belief 
 
The Truth About Chrislian Science 5 
 
 that God will do something for him which he cannot 
 himself accomplish, will, on principle, as it were, 
 neglect any effort on his own part to obtain what he 
 asks for. That there are some who deserve this re- 
 proach cannot be doubted, but that such is the uni- 
 versal, or even the general, rule among pious or 
 prayerful Christians is simply preposterous. We 
 trust that the author herself did not belong to this 
 class, but the sweeping character of her assertions 
 seems to strongly suggest that the idea of serious 
 efforts for self-amendment was rather a new one to 
 her until she arrived at the conviction that prayer, in 
 the usual sense, must be dropped before such efforts 
 could be begun. That they must be persistently made 
 is very true, and constantly insisted on by all spiritual 
 writers; but it seems to have been a sort of novelty 
 to her. It is one of the many doctrines on which she 
 is inclined to dwell, which may be classed as true, but 
 by no means new. 
 
 " Seeking," she says, " is not sufficient. It is striv- 
 ing that enables us to enter." It really never seems 
 to enter her head that we might perhaps combine 
 the two. 
 
 The main trouble with this poor woman, whose at- 
 tempts in the line of religion we are obliged to criti- 
 cize, on account of the harm which circumstances have 
 enabled them to do, is simply ignorance of the sub- 
 jects she undertakes to discuss. 
 
 We ought not to conclude this chapter without a 
 few words on Mrs. Eddy's attempt to improve the 
 Lord's Prayer. It is true that she gives it as what 
 she understands to be its " spiritual sense ; " as if 
 Our Lord Himself did not know much about the 
 spiritual sense of things. Commentaries on it are, of 
 
6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 course, quite lawful, in which the actual words are 
 strictly adhered to, and made the subject of reverent 
 meditation. But there is not much, if any, doubt that 
 she expected and intended hers to be used as a sub- 
 stitute for the actual Divine words. It seems to us 
 sacrilegious to give it here, though it may suit those 
 to do so who regard Mrs. Eddy as a being superior 
 to Our Lord and Saviour, and as possessed of the 
 perfect knowledge of Christian Science, of which He 
 was only quite an imperfect student. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Atonement and Eucharist. 
 
 In reading this chapter, one can hardly help being 
 moved to compassion for the writer. Like many other 
 Reformers of the Reformation, notably Emanuel Swe- 
 denborg, she was apparently, and probably as a matter 
 of fact, in total ignorance of the true Christian teach- 
 ing against which the unfortunate protest of the six- 
 teenth century was made. Orthodox Christianity, in 
 her mind, is identical with Lutheranism. She evi- 
 dently imagines that it does not suppose the sinner to 
 be actually freed from his sin, but only to be able to 
 prevent God from punishing it, by means of the merits 
 of Christ. " If the sinner," she says, " continues to 
 pray and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part 
 in the atonement — in the at-one-ment with God — for 
 he lacks the practical repentance which reforms the 
 heart and enables man to do the will of wisdom." 
 
 She does not seem to have the least notion that this 
 last is exactly what the Catholic Church means, and 
 always has meant, by repentance and atonement. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science y 
 
 Union with God, after estrangement from Him ; this 
 is precisely what the Church understands to be pro- 
 duced or caused by the atonement of Christ, and by 
 His grace in our souls which that atonement procures 
 for us, when accepted by faith in it, and by true re- 
 pentance and the firm purpose to abandon, by that 
 grace, the sin which separates us from Him. She 
 imagines that, according to us, the sinner is sorry for 
 his sin, just as he might be sorry for having caught 
 the smallpox, but goes on with it just the same ; that 
 his repentance is not real and practical ; as she plainly 
 enough says, in the words of hers, quoted above. 
 
 She is quite right in saying that '' if living in dis.- 
 obedience to Him, we ought to feel no security, al- 
 though God is good." But this is far from being 
 an original idea with her, for it is what we keep con- 
 tinually saying to all our Catholic people, and is just 
 what they themselves thoroughly believe. 
 
 '' Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall 
 save His people from their sins." Not merely from 
 the punishment which their sins deserve ; but from 
 the sins themselves. That is the real genuine Christian 
 teaching, and always has been. 
 
 But the Church does not hold or teach that this 
 utter and complete freedom from sin is successfully 
 accomplished, always and in the smallest matters, even 
 by the best Christian, except by a very special grace 
 and help from God. We do not believe that Mrs. 
 Eddy herself accomplished it, and think that there is 
 pretty good evidence that she did not ; and that is not 
 making any serious charge against her. But even if 
 her followers choose to imagine that such was the 
 case, to claim this for every genuine " Christian 
 Scientist " would involve a great strain, even on their 
 
8 The Truth About Chrisfiau Science 
 
 credulity. But everyone, centuries before Mrs. Eddy 
 was born, acknowledged that to live in this way is 
 the ideal and aim of true religion, and one theoreti- 
 cally in the reach of all of us. This is simply the 
 old-fashioned " Christian Science " known to Chris- 
 tians in general ; not any new discovery of hers. 
 
 Though having correct and normal views in this 
 respect, as just described, Mrs. Eddy and her " Chris- 
 tian Science " of course go astray in the doctrine of 
 the atonement in other important matters. Indeed, 
 they cannot help doing so, as they fail to recognize 
 the great fact on which our redemption, properly so- 
 called, rests; that is to say, that of original sin. 
 This is, in great measure, due to her ignorance of 
 anything but the exaggeration of this fact often 
 taught in Protestant theology. But this matter is 
 also connected with other parts of her scheme, and 
 cannot well be discussed till later on in our ex- 
 amination of it. 
 
 In common with others. Unitarians for example, 
 she is driven by this ignorance to confine herself to 
 a very inadequate view of the work accomplished by 
 our Divine Lord. " The efficacy of the crucifixion 
 she says, " lay in the practical affection and good- 
 ness it demonstrated for mankind." It is, of course, 
 quite true that it has immense efficacy in that way, 
 and this is quite generally recognized by all Chris- 
 tians, and by none more than by the Catholic Church. 
 Our -devotions largely rest on this, and are emphasized 
 by us continually, particularly in those to the Sacred 
 Heart and the Precious Blood. But it will not do 
 to confine religion entirely to this. It is a charac- 
 teristic of all heresies, and of none more than this 
 particular one, to make special capital of some par- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 9 
 
 ticular points, and to ignore everything else which 
 does not seem to fit in with them, and of whiclt they 
 would hide the evidence, as far as possible. There 
 is a notable instance of this in the very paragraph 
 from which the words just quoted are taken. " The 
 truth," Mrs. Eddy goes on to say, " had been lived 
 among men, but until they saw that it enabled their 
 Master to triumph over the grave. His own disciples 
 would not admit such an event to be possible." 
 
 We must stop for a moment just here to note the 
 utter confusion of thought into which she falls. '' The 
 efficacy of the crucifixion," she has just told us, " lay 
 in practical affection and goodness." Now she makes 
 it consist in truth. But " affection and goodness " 
 are not synonyms for truth. Of course goodness con- 
 sists partially, but only partially, in truth ; but af- 
 fection has no special relation to it. However, let 
 that pass. She seems to mean that the disciples saw 
 that affection and goodness, rather than truth, " en- 
 abled their ^Master to triumph over the grave." The 
 natural thing for them to see in this triumph was 
 power, rather than affection or goodness. But those 
 determined on some particular line see only what they 
 want to see. So she goes on, it suiting her purpose 
 that the disciples should see only what will help that 
 purpose along. '* After the resurrection," she pro- 
 ceeds, " soon the unbelieving Thomas was forced to 
 acknowledge how complete was the great proof of 
 Truth and Love." Now she lugs in Truth again, as 
 if it was the same as Love. The actual fact, how- 
 ever, which impressed St. Thomas evidently had no 
 particular connection with either Truth or Love. He 
 recognized, of course, by the event, that Our Lord 
 had told the truth in saying that He would rise from 
 
10 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 the dead ; but what carried conviction to him was 
 that He was able, in fact, to verify His words. What 
 St. Thomas actually said was, simply, '' My Lord 
 and my God! " This was not a mere ejaculation; it 
 evidently meant, " My Lord must indeed have been 
 God to be able to do this stupendous thing." 
 
 But this would not suit Mrs. Eddy. She does not 
 believe that Our Lord was really and truly God, any 
 more than that she is so herself. There is no need, 
 in her system, for Him to be so. According to it, 
 He is to be merely a great Teacher of her Christian 
 or Eddian *' science," who was enlightened in it by 
 the Deity, just in the same way as she is herself. 
 Of course, for her own credit and reputation. His 
 teaching must not differ from hers. 
 
 She goes on to say, " The spiritual essence of 
 blood is sacrifice." If she had said " meaning " in- 
 stead of " essence," she would have been more cor- 
 rect. " The efficacy of Jesus' spiritual offering," she 
 continues, *' is infinitely greater than can be ex- 
 pressed by our sense of human blood." Now, you 
 see, she drops the idea of sacrifice, for the word 
 " offering " with her has no such sense. His Blood 
 now, with her, no longer retains any meaning of 
 sacrifice, but simply becomes the blood of His or- 
 dinary life. " The material blood of Jesus," she tells 
 us, " was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when 
 it was shed upon *the accursed tree,' than when it 
 was flowing in His veins as He went daily about His 
 Father's business. His true flesh and blood were His 
 Life, and they truly eat His flesh and drink His blood 
 who partake of that divine Life." 
 
 There is a partial truth in this, wdiich is recognized 
 by the Catholic Church, and indeed by Christians 
 
The Truth About Christian Science ii 
 
 generally, especially when treating of the Holy 
 Eucharist. The idea is not at all new to any of us. 
 In that great Sacrament, and at other times also, we 
 are not partaking of the dead flesh of Jesus, or of 
 His blood separated from it, but of Christ Himself 
 living, in His Body and Blood, in His Soul .and Di- 
 vinity. All this we receive,, as the Catholic catechism 
 teaches even our children, when we receive Holy Com- 
 munion, even only in the form of bread. We are 
 partaking of the life of Christ, even of His Divine 
 Life, If Mrs. Eddy had not been so ignorant about 
 Catholic doctrine or practice, she would hardly have 
 given this out as if it were her own discovery. The 
 chief motive or reason why we receive Communion at 
 all, is because it is the Food of the Divine Life in us. 
 But besides there is another motive, which is given 
 by our Blessed Lord Himself in the Gospels, and even 
 more explicitly by St. Paul writing to the Corin- 
 thians, " As often," he says, " as ye eat this bread, 
 and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till 
 He come" (i Cor. xi. 26). (Again we quote from 
 the Protestant version, as being familiar to Mrs. 
 Eddy's followers.) 
 
 How do '' we show " the Lord's death by it? Evi- 
 dently, according to the teaching of the Church from 
 the beginning, by the separate representation of His 
 Body and Blood. " Christ, rising again from the 
 dead, dietb now no more ; death shall no more have 
 dominion over Him" (Rom. vi. 9). His Body and 
 Blood are now and forever united. But it is of the 
 highest importance for us to remember and com- 
 memorate the fact that they wtve once separated on 
 the Cross, and that all the Divine Life which we 
 have is due to this. 
 
12 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Mrs. Eddy assumes that we all have a right to this 
 Divine Life, and that all that we need is to have it 
 shown to us. According to her, " this Divine Prin- 
 ciple heals the sick, casts out error, and triumphs 
 over death ; " and all that we have to do is to recog- 
 nize this fact, as He did. In her view, He only helps 
 us to do so by His example; He does not bring the 
 Divine Life to us in any way except by showing 
 where it is to be found. As she goes on to say, He 
 simply *' presented the ideal of God, better than could 
 any man whose origin was less spiritual ; " perhaps 
 a little better, but not much, than Mrs. Eddy her- 
 self could. 
 
 But that this Divine Life is offered to us by virtue 
 of any thing that He has done, she of course does 
 not admit. She has no idea that the Atonement, ac- 
 cording to genuine Christian doctrine, has anything 
 to do with this. All that she knows about it is an 
 incomplete statement of it. 
 
 '' Does erudite theology," she asks, " regard the 
 crucifixion of Jesus chiefly as providing a ready par- 
 don for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to 
 be forgiven? " We hardly know of any theology, 
 " erudite " or not, which goes on this idea. Almost 
 all actual Christian theology requires more than this. 
 But true theology requires that the sinner should have 
 much more than simply be " willing to be forgiven." 
 It teaches that he must really repent of his sin, which 
 means that he must abandon it ; knowing that by 
 means of the Precious Blood of Christ, shed for him, 
 he has the grace and strength to enable him to do so. 
 But poor Mrs. Eddy has no idea of " erudite " Chris- 
 tian doctrine except that it holds that the sinner must 
 go on sinning, but be forgiven — or more properly 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 13 
 
 speaking, excused — for his sin, because Christ has 
 taken on Himself the punishment due to it. 
 
 Her alternative for this idea is, as she frankly seems 
 to confess, the spiritualistic one; which does not re- 
 gard the Crucifixion as in any way important, but 
 which takes the Resurrection as a proof "that spirits 
 can return to earth ; " or rather, as she means to say, 
 that the spirit can survive bodily death. Really, of 
 course, it proves much more than this ; but at present, 
 in the general wreck of faith outside the Church, that 
 seems a great deal to many. Besides these two 
 ideas, she seems to have no idea of the existence 
 of any other concerning the Death of our Blessed 
 Lord. " We must differ from them both," she says. 
 These two being discarded as insuf¥icient, she con- 
 siders that hers is established. 
 
 The truisms which she often triumphantly brings 
 out are really quite pathetic. For instance, a little 
 further on, she remarks : " Implicit faith in the 
 Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow on 
 Him, will never alone make us imitators of Him." 
 Did ever anyone seriously allege that they would? 
 " We must go and jdo likewise," she sagely remarks, 
 as if the idea were quite original ; whereas it is es- 
 sential to Christianity, and always has been. " Be 
 ye therefore followers of God, as most dear chil- 
 dren," says St. Paul (Eph. v. i), and he is continually 
 urging this. 
 
 The remainder of this chapter is, like the whole 
 body of the book, mainly composed of statements, 
 more or less vague, which everybody acknowledges, 
 or of others which have no precise meaning at all. 
 It is, of course, impossible to go over them all; 
 we must be content to show up some samples of 
 
14 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 them. One notable example occurs shortly after those 
 which have been quoted, and is as follows : " There 
 is a tradition," she tells us, " that Publius Lentulus 
 wrote to the authorities at Rome: The disciples of 
 Jesus believe Him the Son of God. Those instructed 
 in Christian Science have reached the glorious per- 
 ception that God is the only author of man." She 
 seems to imagine that what was meant by the dis- 
 ciples, in calling Jesus the Son of God, was that He 
 was the creation of God, whereas people in general 
 were created by somebody else. To this she opposes 
 the " glorious perception " that every human being, 
 as well as Himself, had God for his author (or 
 creator). We had an idea that everyone who believes 
 in God as the Creator of all, as the first article of 
 the Christian Creed states, had this " glorious percep- 
 tion " as fully as any " Christian Scientist." It seems, 
 however, to have been new to Mrs. Eddy, before she 
 got up her " science." 
 
 " The \'irgin-mother," she goes on to say, " con- 
 ceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the 
 name of Jesus." We fancied, in our ignorance of 
 *' Science," that Jesus really existed, and was not a 
 mere " ideal." 
 
 Of course, in fact, what was understood by calling 
 Jesus the Son of God, in the minds of the first Chris- 
 tians and in those of the immense majority of all 
 their followers, was that He actually had the same 
 Divine Nature as His Father; that He was really 
 and truly God, in the most absolute and complete 
 sense; that He was the Uncreated, and in His Di- 
 vine Nature not a creation of God at all. The Arians, 
 in order to avoid the ineffable mystery of this, held 
 that His Nature was only similar to that of the 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 15 
 
 Father, but not really precisely identical with it ; that 
 He held a kind of intermediate place between God 
 and the creation, and was a means through which 
 creation was accomplished. But they would not ad- 
 mit that His Being was, like that of the Father, from 
 eternity ; so that after all it followed that however 
 perfect His likeness to God might be in other ways, 
 it failed in that point. The words of St. Paul, de- 
 scribing Him as " the image of the invisible God, the 
 first-born of every creature" (Col. i. 15), were un- 
 derstood by them to mean, not '' horn before any- 
 thing was created, but simply the first of all creatures 
 to be created." They had, when pressed, to ac- 
 knowledge that they regarded Him, though stand- 
 ing, as it were, on a different plane from other crea- 
 tures, and existing before any other, and an agent 
 in the creation of others, to be really Himself a crea- 
 tion as well as they. 
 
 But of course Mrs. Eddy makes no such distinction 
 as the Arians endeavored to make. For her, He was 
 simply a creature like any other; God was His 
 " author " — whatever that may mean — and the sur- 
 prising discovery which she makes is that God is 
 also the only " author " of all men. 
 
 She seems to imagine that the world, before she came 
 to enlighten it, regarded matter as something quite in- 
 dependent of God, and that " its order of generation " 
 was something which was believed to work of its 
 own energy, not coming from God in any way. For 
 she says in her next paragraph : " This illumination 
 of Mary's spiritual sense put to silence material law 
 and its order of generation, and brought forth her 
 child by the revelation of Truth, demonstrating God 
 as the Father of men." 
 
i6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 As if, forsooth, the ineffable mystery of the In- 
 carnation only showed that a human child could be 
 produced without the regular " order of generation ; " 
 that '' material law " could not prevail against Him 
 Who established it. And as if this, which everyone 
 believes who believes in God at all, proved that there 
 is no such fact as the laws of matter, which are es- 
 tablished by Him, and, indeed, that there is no actual 
 existence of matter. That is what she seems to 
 mean by the sentence immediately following the one 
 just quoted, which is as follows: "The Holy Ghost, 
 or divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the 
 ^^irgin-mother with the full recognition that being 
 is Spirit." Which means, if it has any meaning, that 
 there is no reality except Spirit; and we may rightly 
 assume that it does mean this, for this is one of the 
 absurd points — indeed a fundamental one — of Mrs. 
 Eddy's " Science." 
 
 She proceeds, however, with the following state- 
 ment : " Man, as the offspring of God, as the idea of 
 Spirit, is the immortal evidence that Spirit is har- 
 monious and man eternal." If this has any meaning, 
 it is that there is no such thing as creation at all ; 
 that God cannot create anything whatever. The idea 
 of man, in the mind of God, is of course eternal ; but 
 Mrs. Eddy makes no difference between this eternal 
 idea, and its existence, in time, as an actual fact. 
 According to this there would be no existence of man, 
 even as spirit, except as the Spirit of God. Mrs. 
 Eddy protests, now and then, against pantheism; 
 but here it is pure and simple. Not only, according 
 to this, is there no reality except spirit; but there 
 is no spirit except that of God. 
 
 The one idea that nothing exists except spirit, and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 17 
 
 which she really carried to pantheism, comes out 
 more and more clearly, if anything can be said to be 
 clear, in her mind. She goes on, in her next utter- 
 ances, to reduce the doctrine of the Eucharist, as well 
 as everything else, entirely to this. Its " true sense," 
 she says, " is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is con- 
 fined to the use of bread and wine." This is in a 
 way, true ; but, in fact, no one, even among Prot- 
 estants, does so confine it. And there is no need to 
 say what the Catholic Church holds about it. But 
 Mrs. Eddy considers that the use of bread and wine 
 was entirely a sort of " concession to matter," as she 
 calls it, and, in her judgment, rather a weak one. She 
 reduces the Bread which came down from heaven to 
 the " great truth of spiritual being, healing the sick 
 and casting out error ; " as if this truth, admitted by 
 all who are not materialists, was utterly unheard of 
 by Christians. This, according to her, was all that 
 He had to give them ; but they knew it perfectly 
 well before. They knew that spirit really existed; 
 but they did not know, and neither did any other 
 sensible person, that its mere existence heals the sick 
 or casts out errors. And there is not the slightest 
 trace in any records which we have that Our Lord 
 made on this occasion, or on any other, any attempts 
 to tell them anything of the kind. Mrs. Eddy, how- 
 ever, asserts that He " had explained it all before." 
 Her followers are expected, of course, to take her 
 word for this ; but there is nobody else's word for 
 it. " Now," she says, " this bread," that is to say 
 this well-known and undoubted truth, which there was 
 no need for Our Lord, or for anyone else, to explain, 
 " was feeding and sustaining them." And she actually 
 pretends that when we are told that the disciples bore 
 
i8 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 this " bread from house to house " (Acts ii. 46), it is 
 merely meant that they " explained " to the people 
 this needless platitude about " spiritual being." 
 
 The depth of poor Mrs. Eddy's ignorance about 
 the Catholic Church is quite phenomenally shown in 
 this chapter, though it is evident enough all through 
 her book. She seems to have no idea of its doctrine 
 of the Eucharist. " Are all," she says, '' who eat 
 bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing 
 truly to drink His cup, take His cross, and leave all 
 for the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this 
 aspirant to a dead rite, instead of showing, by cast- 
 ing out error and making the body 'holy, acceptable 
 unto God,' that Truth has come to the understanding? 
 If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, 
 no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstra- 
 tion is requisite, for demonstration is Emmanuel, or 
 God zvith us; and if a friend be with us, why need 
 we memorials of that friend ? " 
 
 She seems to have no notion that the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment is believed by the immense majority of Chris- 
 tians to be a great deal more than simply a memorial. 
 It is believed to be, not a Christ-principle, but Christ 
 Himself, really and truly with us, with His Body, 
 Blood, Soul and Divinity; God zvith us, most ab- 
 solutely and completely. As a memorial, it is not 
 merely one of Himself, but of His Death on the 
 Cross, which Mrs. Eddy regards as of little impor- 
 tance, and as a reminder that we must be ready to 
 take up our cross, so far as He may choose to give 
 it to us. But Mrs. Eddy, by denying the reality of 
 suffering, is compelled to ignore this part of the 
 matter. She asks, indeed, if we are willing to " take 
 His cross ; " but this is, with her, merely a form of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 19 
 
 words. Taking any suffering on ourselves in imita- 
 tion of Him, is not her idea of the Christian life at 
 all. The plan of her " Christian Science " is to get 
 rid of suffering in this world, as well as in the next ; 
 or, in other words, to regard it as an " error." 
 
 She continues as follows : " If all who ever par- 
 took of the sacrament had really commemorated the 
 sufferings of Jesus, and drunk of His cup, they would 
 have revolutionized the world." This is very true; 
 but it seems to common sense that the Apostles, the 
 millions of Christian martyrs in the early days of 
 the Church, and many also in its whole history, ac- 
 complished a good deal in that way ; whereas it is 
 contrary to w^hat may be called the Eddy-principle, 
 to even endeavor to do anything in that line. Many 
 of her followers, we doubt not, really do suffer a good 
 deal, and have been very patient in suffering; but 
 the less they acknowledge this to Mrs. Eddy, the 
 better ; for, on her " principle," to do so would show 
 that they are still entangled in " mortal error." 
 
 A little later she again shows her singular ignor- 
 ance of Christian doctrine. She brings out the fol- 
 lowing paragraph, it would certainly appear, as an 
 original idea with herself: "If the sinner's punish- 
 ment here has been insufficient to reform him, the 
 good man's heaven would be a hell to the sinner. 
 They, who know not purity and affection by ex- 
 perience, can never find bliss in the blessed company 
 of Truth and Love simply through translation into 
 another sphere." This is, of course, just ordinary 
 Catholic teaching. The sinner must be reformed, 
 really and interiorly ; not merely have a " mantle " of 
 the righteousness of Christ (as some Protestants 
 would say) thrown over him, to make it look as if 
 
20 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 he were reformed. No good Christian imagines for 
 a moment that — to quote the words of Mrs. Eddy a 
 little later — " the wicked can gloat over their of- 
 fences to the last moment, and then be suddenly par- 
 doned and pushed into heaven." It is true that we 
 do hope that a real conversion from sin may come, by 
 the grace of God, at the last moment ; but " push- 
 ing " an unrepentant sinner " into heaven " is some- 
 thing quite unheard of with us. 
 
 It is, however, by no means true, that '' to remit the 
 penalty due for sin " (when it is really repented) 
 " would be for Truth to pardon error." Usually, in 
 the case of post-baptismal sin, the penalty is not 
 entirely remitted, even to the truly repentant, but, to 
 some extent, remains for purgatory. But it may be 
 remitted, even in this life. If it never could be re- 
 mitted at all (as Mrs. Eddy seems to mean, but 
 probably really does not), there would be rather a poor 
 prospect for us. But we must pass on, and not spend 
 too much time, even on such a matter as this. She 
 is coming, even in this chapter, to her principal prac- 
 tical error and misunderstanding of Our Lord's words. 
 Let us take a good look at them. 
 
 After showing, to her own satisfaction, that spirit 
 is everything, and matter merely an " error," Mrs. 
 Eddy starts in on what she calls " the more practical 
 import " of Christ's career. " When," she says, " will 
 Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate Him in 
 all His ways, and to imitate His mighty works? 
 
 '* Christians claim to be His followers," she con- 
 tinues, " but do they follow Him in the way that He 
 commanded? Hear these imperative commands: 'Be 
 ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 Jieaven is perfect! Go ye into all the world, and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 21 
 
 preach the Gospel to every creature! Heal the sick!' " 
 Then she asks : " Why has this Christian demand 
 so little inspiration to stir mankind to Christian ef- 
 fort? " And she answers : '' Because men are assured 
 that this command was intended only for a particular 
 period and for a select number of followers." As a 
 matter of fact, however, the great majority of Chris- 
 tians have never been assured, and never have be- 
 lieved, anything of the kind. Here, as so often else- 
 where, Mrs. Eddy shows her absolute ignorance of 
 Catholic doctrine, which is, as just rem.arked, that of 
 the great majority of Christians. Catholics are never 
 taught that the *' age of miracles has passed," or that 
 the working of them was restricted to any select num- 
 ber of Christ's followers. We all know that miracles 
 are continually worked in the Church; but we also 
 know that the working of really Divine miracles de- 
 pends on an extraordinary intensity of faith, which 
 usually is not given without a special inspiration ; 
 and not, in general, except to persons whose other vir- 
 tues are also extraordinary ; that is to say, to those 
 whom we call the Saints. And, furthermore, we 
 know that even these do not work them simply by 
 any power residing in themselves, but by a special 
 power given for the occasion by our Divine Lord 
 Himself. 
 
 In the first recorded miracle of healing by the 
 Apostles, namely, that of the cure of the lame man at 
 the Beautiful Gate, St. Peter said to those who won- 
 dered at it : " Ye men of Israel, why wonder you at 
 this? or why look you on us, as if by our strength 
 or power we had made this man to walk? " For in 
 the working of it, he had said : " In the name of 
 Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk." If he had 
 
22 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 had any power merely of his own for such things, 
 he would have worked them on every possible occa- 
 sion. But the power was reserved for the times at 
 which, in the Infinite Wisdom of God, it would con- 
 tribute most effectually to His glory. 
 
 Yes, Our Lord had indeed said of them that be- 
 lieve : '' In My name they shall cast out devils : they 
 shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up 
 serpents ; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, 
 it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay their hands 
 upon the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark xvi. 17, 
 18). But He did not promise to impart to them who 
 believe '' Christian Science," by virtue of which they 
 should learn to do on all occasions the same things 
 which He Himself had only done now and then. He 
 would Himself show them the proper times at which 
 this Divine power was to be used. 
 
 And it was not, as the passage just quoted shows, 
 to be restricted to healing the sick. But Mrs. Eddy 
 chooses to apply it only to this. For example, we 
 do not hear that she or any of her followers have 
 been in the habit of " taking up serpents " or of 
 " drinking any deadly thing." She only had made up 
 her mind that sickness is some kind of " error," quite 
 out of the order of Divine Providence, and even that, 
 in fact, it has no existence. So that all that we have 
 to do is to look it straight in the eye, and it will 
 disappear. " Healing the sick," with her, is simply 
 persuading them, or their persuading themselves, that 
 they are not sick at all ; and that ought to be al- 
 ways possible. They are in some kind of delusion 
 about it, which must be removed. 
 
 The fact is, that it is Mrs. Eddy herself who is 
 deluded. The great problem of the origin of evil has. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 23 
 
 perhaps vaguely, presented itself to her, and she 
 solves it by deciding- that there is not any such prob- 
 lem. She is quite right in holding that there ought 
 not to be any such problem. But unfortunately, the 
 evidence is too plain that, in fact there is, and almost 
 everyone except herself has common sense enough to 
 recognize this fact. It comes from another great fact, 
 not fully comprehensible to us, that Almighty God 
 has chosen to leave to man the perilous power of 
 free-will ; the power to disobey instead of obeying ; 
 to take evil rather than good. This is the source 
 of the original sin with which we are all affected ; 
 and that is the cause of all our other evils. But w^e 
 shall have to leave further discussion of this mat- 
 ter to the later portions of this book. 
 
 But to go on with the chapter now in hand. Of 
 course it contains her usual mixture of ambiguous 
 sentences, truisms and errors. We shall have to 
 mainly notice the latter. Quite an important one 
 soon occurs, as follows : 
 
 *' The educated belief," she says, " that Soul is in 
 the body, causes mortals to regard death as a friend, 
 as a stepping-stone out of mortality into immor- 
 tality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and 
 Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yield- 
 ing to them." 
 
 This seems to mean that Our Lord did not really 
 die ; that His death was simply a pretense. This 
 error got some hold in the early Christian times. 
 It hardly needs to be said that it is contradicted by 
 what may be called innumerable passages of the New 
 Testament ; and the actual death of Christ is the most 
 fundamental article of the Christian faith. By 
 " death " is properly meant the separation of soul 
 
24 Tlic Truth About Christian Science 
 
 and body. But according to the Eddy gospel, it 
 would not do for Our Lord to die. He must " over- 
 come " death ; that is to say, according to this gos- 
 pel He must, if we may say so, dodge it. " To Him," 
 she tells us, " death was not the threshold over which 
 He must pass into living glory." It is, perhaps, pos- 
 sible that Mrs. Eddy had an idea that she would 
 be able to do as she thought that He had done. It 
 seems to follow that if disease is only an " error," 
 death should also be one, and that this ought to be 
 proved in her case ; though other Christian Scientists 
 might not have " science " enough to accomplish 
 this, she might prove to be the needed "exception. 
 At any rate, some of her disciples seem to have en- 
 tertained this hope. But to proceed. 
 
 '' Noiv," cried the apostle, she tells us, " is the ac- 
 cepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation; 
 meaning, not that now men must prepare for a fu- 
 ture world salvation or safety, but that now is the 
 time to experience that salvation in spirit and in 
 life." 
 
 Here, again, she fails to show any knowledge of 
 Christian doctrine except of the kind in which she 
 was brought up. The Catholic — though we do not be- 
 lieve that this is the meaning of these words of St. 
 Paul — knows well that now is, no doubt, the time for 
 him to experience that salvation. Anyone whose sins 
 have been truly forgiven, and who is in the state of 
 grace, does " experience " it as truly, thought not so 
 completely, as those who are actually in heaven. The 
 chief trouble is that he may fall from that state of 
 grace. 
 
 But it is not as yet the time for anyone still in this 
 world, as she would maintain, " for so-called material 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 25 
 
 pains and material pleasures to pass away." She 
 says it is, ''' for both are unreal, because impossible in 
 Science." Here she contradicts herself. " Jesus," she 
 says, " experienced few of the pleasures of the phys- 
 ical senses." But she does not deny that He ex- 
 perienced some of them. As to material pains, she 
 goes on to say, that "His sufferings were the fruits 
 of other people's sins, not of His own." Of course 
 we all admit that; but that did not make them any 
 the less real. 
 
 It was not, then, the time in His case, any more 
 than in ours, for material pains and material pleasures 
 to pass away. Perhaps, however, He was not a com- 
 plete Scientist, or quite up to Mrs. Eddy's level. She 
 tries to explain by saying, '' The eternal Christ, His 
 spiritual self-hood, never suffered." If that means 
 anything, it means that His Divine Nature never suf- 
 fered. This of course all of those wdio believe in 
 His true Divinity, believe firmly, but IMrs. Eddy does 
 not seem to be one of them. She is in fact a Uni- 
 tarian. 
 
 Poor Mrs. Eddy ! She is stumbling, and tripping 
 herself up all the time. 
 
 She now proceeds to ask, as it were, triumphantly: 
 " V\\\o v/ill stop the practice of sin, as long as he 
 believes in the pleasures of sin?" We had a notion 
 that this was exactly what all good Christians were 
 habitually doing. If Airs. Eddy has not met any such, 
 we can only say that her acquaintance has been singu- 
 larly unfortunate; and it does not speak very well, 
 indeed, for herself. For she was not always a 
 " Scientist," and must, for a considerable time, have 
 believed, like every person of common sense, that there 
 are '' pleasures of sin." If she means " as long as he 
 
26 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 voluntarily indulges in the pleasures of sin," no one 
 could find fault with her question, just quoted. But 
 she does not mean this. For she goes on to say : 
 '' When mortals once admit that evil confers no 
 pleasure, they turn from it ; " implying, of course, the 
 same as in her question, that they don't turn from it 
 until they do admit this. " Remove error from 
 thought," she says, " and it will not appear in effect." 
 If she had meant, " remove sin," which she calls 
 " error," from free acts of the zvill, '' and it will not ap- 
 pear in effect," this would be, of course, quite true; 
 it would be only saying the same thing in other words. 
 But she evidently does not mean this. 
 
 Then she goes on with a page or two of her plati- 
 tudes, such as this : " Our heavenly Father, divine 
 Love, demands that men should follow the example of 
 our Master and His Apostles, and not merely worship 
 His personality." (Or, as He Flimself puts it, " Why 
 call you Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 
 I say?" Luke vl. 46.) All of us, of course, recog- 
 nize the force of this; but Mrs. Eddy seems to 
 imagine that until she appeared on the scene, all 
 Christians adhered to the Lutheran doctrine that faith 
 alone justifies us, without works. But in her system, 
 the healing of the sick, unfortunately, stands on about 
 the same plane as the casting out of sin, which she 
 calls " error." Both seem to her about equally im- 
 portant. " The proofs of Truth, Life and Love," she 
 says, '^ which Jesus gave by casting out error and heal- 
 ing the sick, completed his earthly mission." \n point 
 of fact, the healing of the sick was done by Him, not 
 merely as a proof of " Truth, Life and Love," but 
 mainly to show that He could cast out sin also, as 
 well as bodily disease. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 2j 
 
 She proceeds, having thus put sickness and sin on 
 the same level, to make the following astonishing state- 
 ment. She seems to admit that some success has been 
 attained by the Church in the casting out of sin ; but 
 as to healing the sick, she asserts that " in the Christian 
 Church the demonstration of healing was early lost, 
 about three centuries after the crucifixion." Here 
 again she simply follows her Protestant tradition 
 about the age of miracles having passed, being entirely 
 ignorant of any other. ^But it is quite safe to say that 
 in the Catholic Church works of healing the sick, far 
 surpassing those which Mrs. Eddy can claim for her- 
 self or her followers, are claimed as having been done 
 through all its history, and are now being done con- 
 tinually, as for example, at Lourdes. All this, how- 
 ever, she either does not know, or persistently ignores. 
 This is not the place to go into the proof of this as 
 a fact. The records were quite accessible to Mrs. 
 Eddy, if she had cared to read them. 
 
 Speaking of the. Jews, she says, a little further on : 
 " It was enough for them to believe in a national 
 Deity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has 
 never made a disciple who could cast out evils and 
 heal the sick." What she really means that belief in 
 the Divine power has never made a disciple who could 
 heal the sick; according to her, one must believe not 
 in the power of the Almighty to heal us, but simply 
 believe that there is nothing to be healed. And as 
 no one from three centuries after the Crucifixion up 
 to the time of " Science " believed this, of course there 
 was no one who could heal the sick ; and there is no 
 need to look at any alleged facts. It is very convenient 
 to have a theory which saves us such lots of needless 
 trouble. 
 
28 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 This delusion of hers that there is no such thing 
 as body or matter, sickness or death is now again 
 stated by her. And it goes, as previously, even into 
 still more absurd statements. " The belief," she says, 
 "that man has existence or mind separate from God 
 is a dying error ; " again the denial of Creation ; again 
 simple pantheism. '' Sin, sickness, and death," she 
 tells us, '' had no terror for Jesus. Let men think 
 they had killed the body ! Afterward He would show 
 it to them vmchanged." In plain words, she means 
 that His pretending to die was simply a trick. The 
 Resurrection was an imposture ; there never was any- 
 thing of the kind. Christ did not, in fact, rise from 
 the dead. 
 
 But St. Paul clearly tells us : " Now Christ is risen 
 from the dead." ''' If Christ be not risen again, then 
 is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain," 
 And He could not rise from the dead, except by first 
 being dead"; that is by the separation of His human 
 Soul and Body. 
 
 It has seemed well on account of the fundamental 
 importance of this article of the Christian Creed, its 
 essential connection with Christianity, and the utter 
 denial of Christianity involved in so-called '' Christian 
 Science," to give a somewhat extra emphasis to it. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy is not content, however, with this denial, 
 but tries to make St. Paul a partner in it. " Paul 
 writes," she tells, " for if when we were enemies, we 
 v/ere reconciled to God by the (seeming) death of 
 His Son," etc. It is, of course, only fair to remark 
 that she puts " seeming " in parenthesis, as above ; 
 but it makes the quotation all the more impudent when 
 she confesses that it is garbled. What is the use 
 of quoting the Apostle at all, if you acknowledge that 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 29 
 
 he really teaches just the reverse of what you try to 
 put into his mouth ? 
 
 Then she tries to make out that because the disciples 
 at first did not understand the Resurrection, they 
 believed that it was only the ghost of their Lord 
 which they had seen. '' The reappearing of Jesus," 
 she says, " was not the return of a spirit." Of course 
 they did not think, except for a moment, th.at it was 
 so. His own words, which she quotes — and apparently 
 imagines that she was the first to understand them — 
 convinced them that it v/as His own Body which they 
 saw. " He presented," she informs us, " the same 
 body that He had before the Crucifixion." No one 
 who believes in the Resurrection doubts this; but 
 no one, except Mrs. Eddy and those led astray by 
 her, regards it as any proof that He had never died. 
 The Christian faith of the Apostles, and which the 
 whole Church has received from them, is simply that 
 at the Crucifixion, Christ's Soul and Body were 
 separated, for that is what death means; and that at 
 the Resurrection, the union of them w^as restored. 
 
 She next goes on to " explain away " the Ascension 
 as well, and without the slightest proof, or even 
 shadow of reason, asserts that " it revealed unmis- 
 takably a probationary and progressive state beyond 
 the grave." The impudence of this assertion exceeds 
 anything that she has so far been guilty of. 
 
 But something still more astonishing occurs on the 
 next page. This is simply phenomenal. Would any- 
 one believe that one calling herself a Christian could 
 write words like these ? " The disciples' desertion of 
 their Master in His last earthly struggle was punished : 
 each one came to a violent death except St. John." 
 
 Is this not almost incredible? This thoroughly 
 
30 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 worldly-minded deserter — for this is really just what 
 she is — regards martyrdom, which universal Christian 
 belief has always held to be our highest crown and 
 glory, as a punishment! Indeed, the whole of man- 
 kind has always accorded to those who have died for 
 their faith, even if it were erroneous, a certain amount 
 of respect and admiration ; but in the eyes of Mrs. 
 Eddy, they were simply criminals. The duty of those 
 who have been called on to die for their faith, was, 
 according to her, simply to deny it, as she has 
 done. The important thing, the '* one thing necessary," 
 in her gospel, is to secure the good things of this 
 world, and let the next take care of itself. But He, 
 whom she calls '* the Master," tells us in all His gos- 
 pels : " He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he 
 that loseth his life for My sake shall find it " (Matt. 
 X. 39), and others to the same effect. We quote here 
 from the Protestant version, as being remarkably em- 
 phatic, though substantially the same as our own. 
 
 But Mrs. Eddy's idea is that Christ's great benefit 
 to us was to enable us to keep our bodily health ; and, 
 we may say, our comfort and general welfare in this 
 world. As to sacrificing our life itself for Christ's 
 sake, why such a thing could not be thought of by any 
 genuine " student of Christian Science." There would 
 be no " science " in anything like that. 
 
 She probably would consider the experience of St. 
 John, in the caldron of boiling oil (of which she does 
 not seem to have heard), and which naturally would 
 have been a violent death^ as showing that he, at least, 
 was a genuine '' Scientist." He must have said : 
 *' There is nothing in this boiling oil, it is merely a 
 mortal error." By means of this " science " of his 
 he escaped his " punishment." Of course he really was 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 31 
 
 not one of those who deserted the Master ; so prob- 
 ably he did not have to be punished. But it must have 
 been a disappointment to him not to receive the crown 
 of martyrdom which had been given to the rest. 
 
 After a page of pious remarks, not quite so "scien- 
 tific " as usual, she suddenly bursts out : '' Where were 
 the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were all con- 
 spirators save eleven?" She does not seem to have 
 read in the Acts of the Apostles that immediately 
 after the Ascension, when it came to the question of 
 a successor to Judas, there were about a hundred and 
 twenty disciples assembled in that upper room ; prob- 
 ably this was about as many as it would conveniently 
 hold. It may be reasonably and charitably supposed 
 that if the seventy were not all there, they were at 
 least well represented. Also, it does not seem that 
 the seventy all lived in Jerusalem, or had all been told 
 to assemble there. This we mention as an example 
 of Mrs. Eddy's slap-dash style, somewhat unworthy, 
 perhaps, of what she put forth, and her followers 
 generally accept, as a sort of inspired document. 
 
 After a while, she comes back, of course, to 
 " science " again. Speaking of our Divine Lord, she 
 says : " His consummate example was for the salva- 
 tion of us all, but only through doing the works 
 which He did and taught others to do." That is to say, 
 mainly His works to restore health ; but also " to 
 demonstrate His divine Principle." Not His Divinity, 
 but His ''divine Principle;" which, if the same as 
 that of " Christian Science," was, presumably, that the 
 notion of there being any real need to restore health 
 was only a delusion of '' mortal mind." And by " sal- 
 vation " she seems to mean the curing us of the false 
 idea that there is anything at all really the matter 
 
32 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 with us. It is not quite clear how His '* consummate 
 example " helped toward this. To the unhiased ob- 
 server, it would seem to indicate that there was a great 
 deal the matter. But, of course, according to Mrs. 
 Eddy, He did not really suffer at all ; but it is hard 
 to see why He should have pretended to do so. His 
 example would demonstrate the '' divine Principle " 
 rather better, if He had smiled at the whole thing, or 
 even joked at it. 
 
 She, however, accounts for this by saying, a little 
 later, that " at the time Jesus felt our infirmities, He 
 had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or His 
 sense of material life, nor had He risen to His final 
 demonstration of spiritual power." That is to say, 
 that He, for the greater part of His life, had not 
 soared to the heights of " Christian," or more prop- 
 erly " Eddian " Science, which she, professing to be 
 His interpreter, subsequently attained. Why didn't 
 she call it ''Eddian Science" at once? Of course, it 
 v/as to get the shelter and prestige of His Name 
 for it. But she really does not seem to have doubted 
 that she was altogether superior to Him. It is strange 
 how so many, seemingly pious people, can swallow this 
 blasphemy. It is simply because they have lost what 
 is undoubtedly the Christian Faith, that Christ was, 
 and is, really and truly the Incarnate God. 
 
 There is not much left in this chapter that requires 
 special comment. Of course, there are any number 
 of unmeaning sentences in it, but how can one com- 
 ment on anything which really has no meaning or 
 sense in it to comment on? The only definite idea in 
 it is that there is nothing the matter with mankind 
 except a want of bodily health, and that this is onlv 
 apparent, and can easily be cured by simply denying 
 
TJic Tnitli About Christian Science 33 
 
 that there is any such want. If we are rightly atoned, 
 according to Mrs. Eddy, that is to say, made one with 
 God, there wih be no difference between Him and our- 
 selves. As He, in Himself, is pure Spirit, so shall 
 we also be, and the matter in us (or with us) will 
 disappear. Strangely enough, however, she herself in- 
 sists that it remained in Our Lord, after His Resur- 
 rection, just the same in every way as it was before. 
 The only disappearance of it, until His Ascension, was 
 W'hen it was, for a time, hid away in the grave. In 
 Mrs. Eddy's own case, hovv^ever, this has lasted a good 
 while ; and is to be feared, even by her own followers, 
 that it would not, if examined, be found to be in very 
 good condition. It has been quite carefully concealed. 
 It is not even claimed that there has been any Ascen- 
 sion for it. 
 
 There is one thing, in a general way, about this 
 chapter, which really ought to be mentioned. It pro- 
 fesses to be about " Eucharist," as well as " Atone- 
 ment." But about the former hardly anything seems 
 to be said. One would think that the words of the 
 institution of this great Sacrament w^ould have some 
 remarks made on them. What did Our Lord mean 
 by saying " This is My Body ; " " this is My Blood? " 
 One would think that the usual non-Catholic explana- 
 tion would at least be alluded to. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IMarriage. 
 
 It certainly does seem a little strange to lug in a 
 chapter on '' marriage " at such an early stage of the 
 proceedings. One would expect something having a 
 more immediate connection wnth ]\Irs. Eddy's " scien- 
 
34 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 tific " plan of salvation. For even she herself does 
 not seem to hold that marriage, theoretically, is an 
 essential part of that plan, though making rather a 
 point of it, practically, in her own case. On the whole, 
 her practical ideas regarding it are such as are held 
 by all good people ; there is not much, if anything, 
 really original about them. But there is one remark 
 which she makes near the beginning which seems to 
 require a little explanation. It is as follows : " Until 
 the spiritual creation is discerned intact, is appre- 
 hended and understood, and His kingdom is come as 
 in the vision of the Apocalypse — where the corporeal 
 sense of creation was cast out, and its spiritual sense 
 was revealed from heaven — marriage will continue, 
 subject to such moral regulations as will secure in- 
 creasing virtue." 
 
 The difficulty about this is that it does not plainly 
 indicate when this discernment, apprehension and un- 
 derstanding occurred ; or, if it has not yet occurred, 
 when it is going to do so. We had supposed that the 
 " corporeal sense of creation was cast out, and its 
 spiritual sense was revealed from heaven," by Mrs. 
 Eddy herself; and that the "casting out" and the 
 '* revelation " were quite accomplished for all Christian 
 Scientists, as well as for Mrs. Eddy, personally. But 
 it would appear that " scientists " are still allowed to 
 marry, and do not forfeit their '' science " by so doing. 
 Perhaps, however, this corporeal sense is not to be 
 entirely cast out, or the revelation to be fully made 
 for anyone, until he or she dies, or — begging her par- 
 don — seems to die. If that is her meaning, we all 
 agree, there will be no marrying after that. We are 
 glad to see that she accepts the words of Our Lord 
 that " in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 35 
 
 given in marriage " in this their usual sense. But 
 then, you see, she does not say '' is cast out," or '" is 
 revealed." The word is " was ; " not is. There seems 
 to be no way of getting things straight, or of putting 
 any consistent sense into this passage. 
 
 We find a little farther on, another point to notice. 
 
 " She that is married careth how she may please 
 
 her husband," she quotes, correctly enough from the 
 Bible; omitting, however, after "careth," the words, 
 " for the things of the world." But in her own ver- 
 sion — which we will use, not to be accused of cor- 
 rupting the text, though both are substantially the 
 same — we find : " The unmarried woman careth for 
 the thin.gs of the Lord, that she may be holy both in 
 body and in spirit ; " then the passage which Mrs. 
 Eddy gives immediately follows with a " but " before 
 it. All this context she omits. And all that she says 
 about what she does quote is that " this is the 
 pleasantest thing to do." 
 
 We had a sort of notion that the cjuestion would 
 be, not what was the '' pleasantest," but the best and 
 most perfect ; the most pleasant, not to ourselves, but 
 to the Lord. St. Paul says of the man, two verses 
 before, " He that is unmarried careth for the things 
 that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord." 
 And the same would evidently be true of the woman. 
 But this would not suit Mrs. Eddy's purpose. She 
 ignores the whole sense of St. Paul's words, and would 
 represent them as simply teaching us that '' matrimony 
 should never be entered into without a full recognition 
 of its enduring obligation on both sides ; " and that it 
 is also much " pleasanter " to live in this way than 
 to be constantly fighting and quarreling, and trying to 
 get the best of everything for oneself. 
 
36 Tlic Truth About Christian Science ■ 
 
 A little beyond this, we find the following rather 
 suspicious remark : " The nuptial vow should never 
 be annulled, so long as its moral obligations are kept 
 intact." There is really no meaning in this, except 
 that it may be annulled, if its moral obligations are 
 not kept intact. And as Mrs. Eddy has just said 
 that one of these obligations is '' the most tender 
 solicitude for each other's happiness," it would seem 
 that if this '' tender solicitude " ceases, even on one 
 side, or at any rate if it does so on both, the nuptial 
 vow is quite annulled and knocked on the head. Or 
 in other v/ords, that " incompatibility " may be a quite 
 sufficient cause for divorce. 
 
 She says that " the frequency of divorce shows that 
 the sacredness of this relationship is losing its in- 
 fluence, and that fatal mistakes are undermining " the 
 foundations of the nuptial vow. But really the fatal 
 miistake is not in ceasing the '' tender solicitude," but 
 in thinking that the nuptial vow depends for its 
 validity on it. 
 
 The only security for it on which she seems to 
 depend is to be obtained by everyone becoming a 
 *' Scientist." '' Separation never would take place," 
 she says, " if both husband and wife were genuine 
 Christian Scientists." Not, it would seem, that there 
 is any law of God putting such separation out of the 
 question, but simply that they wouldn't want to 
 separate. " Science," she tells us, " inevitably lifts 
 one's being higher in the scale of harmony and hap- 
 piness." " Kindred tastes, motives and aspirations are 
 necessary," she adds, "to the formation of a happy 
 and permanent companionship. The beautiful in 
 character is also the good, welding indissolubly the 
 links of affection." 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 37 
 
 Still, perhaps, she may be willing to admit that 
 kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations, and perhaps 
 also beautiful characters, are occasionally found among 
 people whom she would not regard as " scientific ; " 
 but they don't seem to be effectual in preventing 
 divorce. 
 
 A good deal of platitude follows, in which the poor 
 Vv'oman seems to imagine that " unscientific " people 
 have no '' craving " for anything but the pleasures of 
 the senses. She says, as if it were quite an original 
 idea with her, that the " good in human affections 
 must have ascendancy over the evil, and the spiritual 
 over the animal or happiness will never be won." As 
 if anyone maintained the contrary, at any rate among 
 any sort of Christian people ! 
 
 But she goes on, more and more completely tan- 
 gling herself up. " We must not," she says, '' attrib- 
 ute more and more intelligence to matter, but less 
 and less, if we would be wise and healthy." Who, 
 except some non-Christian materialists, attributes any 
 intelligence to matter at all? But it has its laws, 
 which God has implanted in it, but could alter them 
 at any time, or destroy matter itself at any moment 
 which He may choose. But unless He chooses to al- 
 ter or annul these laws, they are supreme in their 
 own domain. Mrs. Eddy will never succeed, in mat- 
 ters pertaining entirely to that domain, in bringing 
 about any change in them, unless the Almighty, to 
 Whom alone they are completely subject, chooses to 
 come especially to her assistance. She will never be 
 able, by her " Christian Science " any more than 
 others by their material science, to make an eclipse 
 occur a second earlier or later than the law of gravi- 
 tation requires; and she really knows this, and is 
 
38 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 wise enough not to try to do so. It is only in mat- 
 ters in which the domains set by the Lord for mat- 
 ter and spirit, as it were overlap, as in those concern- 
 ing the human body (to which she chooses to con- 
 fine her attention) that she can, by her so-called 
 " science," produce any effect whatever. But that this 
 is possible is no new discovery of hers. Everyone 
 knows that the soul of man has a very considerable 
 control over the body ; the way in which it has it 
 is not thoroughly understood by us, and probably 
 never will be. It can also direct the forces of mere 
 matter into one channel or another, as we do con- 
 tinually by simply, for example, pressing a button; 
 but its laws are not changed in the slightest degree. 
 They work in precisely the same way, in this last 
 case, if we press the button ourselves, or if some 
 simple force of nature, by which something falls on 
 the button, presses it for us. 
 
 It is not, of course, impossible, that this direction 
 of the forces of nature may be accomplished by the 
 soul without the help or intervention of the body ; 
 or by the voluntary action of some spirit not asso- 
 ciated with a body; but even this would not require 
 any change in the laws or the forces of nature, or 
 any suspension of them, but only that some superior 
 force should counteract them, and partly prevail 
 against them, for the time being. This may be sup- 
 posed, evidently, in the case of what may be called 
 material miracles, recorded in the Bible or elsewhere. 
 But this hardly applies to the alleged achievements 
 of Mrs. Eddy or other " scientists," which mainly or 
 even entirely relate to matters of bodily healing. 
 
 " Because mortals believe in material laws and re- 
 ject the Science of Mind," she says, " this does not 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 39 
 
 make materiality first and the superior law of Soul 
 last." 
 
 In point of fact, there are no mortals who believe 
 in God as Omnipotent and believe in material laws 
 as existing independently of Him. But all sensible 
 mortals believe in God as the Author and Creator 
 of matter as well as of mind ; and think, in spite 
 of Mrs. Eddy in her next sentence, that in the usual 
 case, according to the laws which He has established 
 for both matter and mind, " flannel is better for Vv^ard- 
 ing off pulmonary disease than the controlling Mind," 
 that being the order divinely established. If, how- 
 ever, she means (by putting Mind with a capital M) 
 the Mind of God, of course no Christian thinks any- 
 thing of the sort. But the difficulty is that we know 
 that this Mind is not in our control, and that it would 
 be simply presumptuous for us to act as if it w^ere. 
 
 In the next paragraph, we find something really 
 mysterious. It is as follows : " In Science," Mrs. 
 Eddy says, " man is the offspring of Spirit. The 
 beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. 
 His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute in- 
 stinct, nor does he pass through material conditions 
 prior to reaching intelligence." Well, we still cling 
 on, somehow, to the idea that man is a mortal, even 
 according to Mrs. Eddy. What is the " mortal mind," 
 that she speaks of, if not the mind of man? But 
 perhaps she is speaking of Christian Scientists, or of 
 those predestined to become so. But even they, even 
 Mrs. Eddy herself, if we are not mistaken, passed 
 through some material conditions prior to reaching 
 intelligence, especially if she means the intelligence 
 required for a " scientist." But if she just means 
 plain, ordinary intelligence, it seems to follow that 
 
40 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 scientists at any rate existed and had intelligence be- 
 fore they were born or even conceived. We did not 
 know that such claims were made for them, or for 
 anyone; and they do seem rather stag-gering-. But 
 we must confess to being rather mixed up, and have 
 a lingering fear that Mrs. Eddy was also somewhat 
 so, when she wrote these words. 
 
 But she goes on. " Spirit," she says, " is his 
 (man's) primitive and ultimate source of being; God 
 is his Father, and Life is the law of his being." 
 Well, perhaps she only means that God created man, 
 and that God is pure Spirit. This is orthodox 
 enough. But it does not seem to be common sense 
 to hold that God created man as also a pure spirit, 
 and she doesn't actually hold it was. There was 
 something, an error if you please, but still something 
 else in him, even on her own reading, from the start. 
 She cannot steadily keep up the pretense that there is 
 not, or she would have to stop talking at all about 
 *' material conditions, flannel, real estate " or anything 
 else. 
 
 There are a few more enigmatical sentences in 
 this chapter, from which it is hard, and probably 
 impossible, to extract any definite meaning. For in- 
 stance, she tells us that " the time cometh of which 
 Jesus spake, when He declared that in the resurrection 
 there should be no more marrying or giving in 
 marriage, but man vv^ould be as the angels." No 
 doubt that the time for this cometh, but as we have 
 said, it cannot well be supposed to be till after what 
 is commonly called " death." 
 
 But, according to Mrs. Eddy, the time will be 
 " when it is learned that God is the Father of all." 
 We had the impression that this was learned a good 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 41 
 
 while ago. But of course she holds that no one 
 but "scientists" have got hold of it yet. So she 
 seems to mean that when everybody gets converted 
 to her " science," marriage will stop, as it did with 
 her when she became thoroughly scientific. But why 
 should it not stop for all those who are truly disciples 
 of hers? Surely there must be some such. Why 
 should they have to wait till everyone comes into 
 their ranks? 
 
 Well, she does seem really to hold that something 
 of the kind is coming on in some sort of way which 
 she does not fully explain. She says that she '' dis- 
 credits the behef that " agamogenesis " (or "par- 
 thenogenesis," as it is usually and more precisely called) 
 " applies to the human species ; " or in other words, 
 that children cannot come by means simply of a 
 woman. But still, she holds that "human genera- 
 tion " is going to cease. 
 
 " Proportionately," she says, " as human generation 
 ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious be- 
 ing will be spiritually discerned ; and man, not of the 
 earth earthy but co-existent with God, will appear." 
 
 If this has any meaning at all, it is that a married 
 couple will somehow or other have children "ap- 
 pear," sim.ply because they are married; not, of 
 course, unless they are. These children are going to 
 be " evolved " from Spirit in some way. " The scien- 
 tific fact," she says, " that man and the universe are 
 evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed 
 in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain 
 the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin 
 and disease." She seems to think that the only al- 
 ternative to children being " evolved " in this mys- 
 terious way, is that man is the creator of them. 
 
42 TJie Truth About Clirisliaii Scioicc 
 
 " Mortals," she says, *' can never understand God's 
 creation while believing that man is a creator." We 
 have never met anyone who believed this. Certainly 
 no Christian has any such idea. Catholics, at any 
 rate, believe that every individual human soul is a 
 new creation of God ; created by Him, not " evolved " 
 from Him. The corresponding body they believe to 
 be formed from the bodies of the parents according 
 to the laws which God has established. The matter 
 out of which it is formed was created by Him in the 
 beginning. 
 
 But, somehow or other, according to Mrs. Eddy, 
 " the real, ideal man appears " — she perhaps means 
 ''will appear" — '' as the false and material disappears." 
 " God's children already created will be cognized," 
 she says, just before this, " only as man finds the 
 truth of being." (What is it, by the way, to be 
 cognized?) The only possible meaning of this seems 
 to be that God's children will only be known as such 
 when man finds out that He is their Father and 
 Creator; but that was found out ages ago. And the 
 sentence is tautological, anyway. 
 
 Next follows a real gem of unmeaning nonsense. 
 
 " No longer to marry nor to be 'given in marriage' 
 neither closes man's continuity nor his sense of in- 
 creasing number in God's infinite plan." What is 
 meant, precisely, by " continuity ? " And what is 
 man's "sense of increasing number? " Of course it 
 can't be an actually increasing number, for if so, 
 why say "sense" of it? The fact simply is, that 
 there is no sense in the whole thing, and we are 
 merely wasting time over it. 
 
 One more brief remark, and we are done with this 
 chapter. " Some day," Mrs. Eddy asks in conclud- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 43 
 
 ing it, " the child will ask his parent : *Do you keep 
 the First Commandment? Do you have one God and 
 creator, or is man a creator?' If the father replies, 
 *God creates man through man,' the child may ask, 
 'Do you teach that Spirit creates materially or do you 
 declare that Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out 
 of the question?' " 
 
 She evidently holds to her idea that God cannot 
 create anything differing in any way from Himself. 
 Or, in other words, that He cannot create (out of 
 nothing, or that is what creation means) anything at 
 all. Her old pantheism again. 
 
 Then, triumphantly, she quotes Our Lord's words 
 again : " The children of this world marry, and are 
 given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted 
 worthy to ol^tain that world, and the resurrection 
 from the dead, neither marry nor are given in mar- 
 riage " (Luke XX. 34, 35). She seems to think that 
 this is a sort of clincher. But in point of fact, its 
 actual and obvious meaning relates, as we have said, to 
 the world to come, after the day of our physical resur- 
 rection. 
 
 It might have been well for Mrs. Eddy to remember 
 the words of St. Paul, in his second epistle to 
 Timothy (ii. 17) referring to Llymeneus and Phile- 
 tus ; '' who," he says, " have erred from the truth, 
 saying that the resurrection is past already, and have 
 subverted the faith of some." Perhaps they dis- 
 covered " Christian Science " before Mrs. Eddy her- 
 self. 
 
 Swedenborg, also, had an idea similar to hers, about 
 the resurrection. But it did not occur to him to get 
 a cure for disease connected with it, so that it has 
 not been so much of a success as hers. 
 
44 TJic TniiJi .-Iboiil Chrisliaii Science 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Christian Science and SriRiTUALiSM. 
 
 As this chapter opens, poor Mrs. Eddy becomes 
 more wild and paradoxical than ever. " The revela- 
 tions of Christian Science," she tells us, " unlock the 
 treasures of Truth." Well, here are some " gems " 
 out of these treasures. *' There is," we learn, " but 
 one Spirit." This, of course, is just her old pantheism 
 again. " Man," she next proceeds to say, " is never 
 God, but spiritual man, made in God's likeness, re- 
 flects God." Well then, is man a spirit, or is he 
 not? If not, what does she mean by "spiritual" 
 man? She tries to get out of her old pantheism, and 
 pull the wool out of her eyes, and out of those of 
 her readers, by saying that " spiritual man reflects " 
 God. But if any reflecting is to be done, there must 
 be something to do the reflecting ; and it must be 
 either spirit or something else. But she says that 
 there is but one Spirit; that of God, of course. 
 Spiritual man, then, is something else, not spirit. 
 But if not spirit, he must, it would seem, be cor- 
 poreal. But if so, his reflections, whatever they may 
 be, according co her, give no information about God, 
 or about anything whatever. For she says that " the 
 testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us 
 what is real, and what is delusive." And sense, ac- 
 cording to her, is all that there is in the *' corporeal." 
 This, however, is plainly impossible. " Sense " can- 
 not exist at all by itself; there must be something 
 in which it is to reside. 
 
 The plain truth is that there is no making any 
 sense out of anything that Mrs. Eddy says, when she 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 45 
 
 gets on this line. It is quite true that nothing- exists 
 of necessity outside of God ; but her whole trouble, 
 and her unavoidable absurdities, come from her 
 failure to recognize that God can create, out of noth- 
 ing, what has, previously, no existence ; that, in 
 fact, this is just Vv'hat " creation " means. \Mien once 
 created, however, it is truly real unless God chooses 
 to reduce it to nothing again. She often talks about 
 creation; but 'she really has no idea what the 
 word means. \Mien she tries to get rid of both 
 pantheism and creation, she simply has to flounder 
 around. 
 
 Let us see just one more specimen of this flounder- 
 ing. She says that we can close our eyes, and imagine 
 the touching or smelling of a flower. " Thus," she 
 says, " you learn that the flower is a product of mind, 
 a formation of thought rather than of matter." In 
 fact, we don't learn anything of the kind; most peo- 
 ple easily distinguished between the real flower and the 
 thought or dream of it. Then she says that we may 
 dream about landscapes, or men and women, as well 
 as about flowers. " Thus," she says, " you learn that 
 these also " — the men and women, apparently, as well 
 as the flov/er — " are images, which mortal mind holds 
 and evolves, and which simulate mind, life, and in- 
 telligence." But what about the mortal mind itself? 
 It must exist in order to evolve anything. 
 
 Now, to get out of this nonsense, as far as possible, 
 and to get at what she tries to say about spiritualism, 
 or " spiritism," as it is more correctly, to avoid con- 
 fusion, called. She says that its " basis and structure 
 are alike material and physical. Its spirits are so 
 many corporealities." Not necessarily. It is true 
 that modern experiments have seemed to some people 
 
46 The Truth About Chriflian Science 
 
 to indicate the existence of " astral bodies," so called, 
 in connection with them. But it is perfectly possible 
 for one to be a spiritist, without believing in these. 
 Spiritism does not, necessarily, " presuppose Spirit to 
 be a corporeal being." 
 
 And this is not, really, Mrs. Eddy's objection to 
 spiritism. It is, in her own words, that it has " no 
 scientific basis nor origin, no proof nor power out- 
 side of human testimony. It is the offspring of the 
 physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit." 
 And then she adds, as a kind of clincher, " I never 
 could believe in spiritualism." That, of course, ought 
 to be conclusive. Her infallibility, of course, is be- 
 yond anything that was ever claimed for the Pope, 
 or even for the prophets. Theirs was only occasional ; 
 but hers lasts all the time. Why should she, or any- 
 one else, try to argue, when it is so easy to settle 
 everything? 
 
 But it seems, after all, that she does condescend to 
 do so, and that we may be allowed to examine her 
 statements. She states that spiritism " has no scien- 
 tific basis nor origin, no proof nor power outside of 
 human testimony." We had an idea that the basis 
 and origin of all that is scientific, outside of what 
 is metaphysical or mathematical, rested largely on 
 human testimony. She indeed bases her " Christian 
 Science " more successfully than in any other way, 
 on her own testimony and that of others, to the cures 
 effected by it. In the next paragraph to those already 
 quoted, she continues to knock out, not only her own 
 " science," but the source from which she claims to 
 derive it. 
 
 " There is," she says, " but one spiritual existence, 
 the Life of which corporeal sense can take no 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 47 
 
 cognizance." In this she widely differs, certainly, 
 from St. John, who begins his first epistle thus : 
 " That which was from the beginning, which we have 
 heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we 
 have looked on, and our hands have handled, of the 
 \\'ord of Life : for the life was manifested ; and we 
 have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you 
 the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath 
 appeared to us." 
 
 Of course, Mrs. Eddy has shown often enough that 
 she does not believe in the Divinity of Christ. But 
 in this paragraph she goes farther, and does not ad- 
 mit that His Body, was, even after the Resurrection, 
 " permeated by Spirit." If it had been, she says, it 
 would " disappear to mortal sense." But all that she 
 claims to derive from Him came before any such 
 disappearance, that is to say, before His Ascension. 
 And it really also would seem, to most of us, that she 
 rather knocks the ground from under her ozvn feet 
 when she says that a " sinning earthly mortal " is 
 not " the medium through which truth passes to the 
 earth." 
 
 Practically, she denies, in these last words, that 
 truth can ever pass to us on earth at all. For even 
 if she does not count Our Lord as a " sinning, earthly 
 mortal " (and it is certainly to be hoped that she does 
 not), she has to admit that such were some of the 
 media through which His words have passed to us. 
 But perhaps she would deny that truth passed to us 
 at all by His words. Why, then, does she quote 
 them? Or, why, indeed, did she herself write a book 
 about " Christian Science," even if she herself was 
 not a sinning, earthly mortal? For her book must 
 have been set up, printed, and sold by some such peo- 
 
48 TJie Truth About Christian Science 
 
 pie; and that would take all the good out of it as a 
 means for us to get at the truth. 
 
 She now goes on to some other statements, which 
 seem to refer to what she considers " spiritualism " to 
 be. She says that " the belief that material hollies 
 return to dust, hereafter to rise up as spiritual bodies 
 with material sensations and desires, is incorrect." 
 Strange to say, we find among the few verses of 
 Scripture, which her " Key " seems to fit — at any rate 
 she does not give many more — these words of God 
 to Adam (Gen. iii. 19): ''Dust thou art, and unto 
 dust thou shalt return." If this part of the belief of 
 which she speaks is incorrect, it is rather strange, for 
 this she gives out as being the word of God. But 
 perhaps she only means that the part about " rising 
 up " is wrong. But at whom is she driving in that 
 part? Who holds that the spiritual bodies which 
 rise up have "material sensations and desires?" It 
 would rather seem that she is " fighting a man of 
 straw." 
 
 Again, she says, " it is a grave mistake to suppose 
 that matter is any part of the reality of intelligent 
 existence." Few, if any, believe that matter is in it- 
 self intelligent; but it can hardly be doubted that 
 it plays a great part, and is a great help, in intelligent 
 existence. Not even Mrs. Eddy herself could have 
 got along very well without it. 
 
 But really it is quite plain that either with it, or 
 without it, she confesses that she cannot rise high 
 enough in intelligent existence to be of any service for 
 the work which she has undertaken. " The finJte," 
 she says, " cannot become the channel of the in- 
 finite." Well now, is Mrs. Eddy finite or is she 
 infinite? We think that she herself must admit that 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 49 
 
 she is only finite. But she claims to be the means, 
 or channel, by which a Divine Science has been made 
 known to the rest of us. It follows, according to her 
 statements, that this claim must be rejected; and she 
 must confess that — to use her own words — " it is 
 a grave mistake to suppose " that her " Christian 
 Science " is Divine at all. 
 
 In her anxiety to destroy the tree of " material 
 existence," she cuts off the branch on which she her- 
 self is sitting. She repeats her o,vn condemnation 
 in the very next paragraph. " To be on communicable 
 terms with Spirit," she tells us, " persons must be 
 free from organic bodies." But when she wrote this, 
 she was not as yet quite free from this " error." And 
 she repeatedly insists that " Spirit " simply means 
 " God." She not only was unfit, then, at that time, to 
 receive a revelation from God ; she was not even on 
 communicable — or speaking — terms with Him. But 
 this, as it seems to us, was going rather too far. 
 
 She goes on insisting that " spiritualism would 
 transfer men from the spiritual sense of existence 
 back into its material sense." What ground she may 
 have for this statement is not quite clear; it is not, 
 at any rate, the usual idea of spiritualism. But she 
 seems to identify it, on some special information of 
 her own, with materialism ; and says : " This gross 
 materialism is scientifically impossible, since to in- 
 finite Spirit there can be no matter." It is, of course, 
 usually believed that to " infinite Spirit " — to God, 
 that is to say — the creation of anything whatever 
 ought to be possible ; but as has been remarked, Mrs. 
 Eddy does not seem to quite understand what is meant 
 by " creation." To her, as appears, from her " Key " 
 .at the very outset, it is simply the " unfolding of 
 
50 Tlic Truth About Christ iau Scioice 
 
 spiritual ideas ; " what is meant by " unfolding " 
 them is not clear. But the production of anything 
 not previously existing she evidently regards as im- 
 possible, even to God Himself ; and she naturally falls 
 into pantheism, which is her real trouble, and causes 
 her perpetual confusion, as she tries to escape from it. 
 If she would only squarely adopt it, she would get 
 along much better with her other false notions. 
 
 She almost does so, a little later on in this chapter. 
 *' Existence," she says, *' continues to be a belief of 
 corporeal sense until the Science of being is reached." 
 Poor woman ! She is struggling, without any really 
 scientific preparation, with these grave problems 
 which require the most serious study, even by the 
 greatest theologians. She seems never to have heard 
 of their investigations of these mysteries, humbly 
 made by the help of the light which the Holy Ghost, 
 through the Church, sheds on them. 
 
 Of course her difficulties are as much with the 
 existence of other spirits, as well as with that of mat- 
 ter. But she tries to shake these ofif, by ignoring in 
 spiritism, as well as in orthodox Christian teaching, 
 any assertion of the existence of spiritual beings ex- 
 cept that of God Himself, and making out that in 
 them also is " materialism," from which we are 
 gradually being freed. But the question who are zve, 
 she puts aside, and will not grapple with it. Neither 
 spiritual nor material it would seem. 
 
 In spite of her efforts, her pantheism crops out 
 now and then continually. " Man," she says, " in the 
 likeness of God as revealed in Science cannot help 
 being immortal." That is to say, his existence is 
 not contingent, but necessary ; and must go on 
 eternally. But she seems to fail to see that this would 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 51 
 
 show that the existence of man, as well as that of 
 God, had no beginning, as well as no end. But this 
 would be a too logical pantheism for her to swallow, 
 or to give out at any rate. But she likes to serve 
 it up under a fine-sounding form of words, such as 
 this : " In Science, man's immortality depends on 
 that of God, good, and follows as a necessary con- 
 sequence of the immortality of good." 
 
 Just after this passage, she makes the following 
 statement : " That somebody, somewhere, must have 
 known the deceased person, supposed to be the com- 
 municator, is evident." How does she make this out? 
 And what does she mean by " known? " In ordinary 
 language it would seem to mean been acquainted in 
 this world with the person now deceased ; or, perhaps, 
 have been properly introduced to him. Well, the 
 chances certainly are that somebody, somewhere, had 
 even that privilege. But why should it be necessary? 
 We do not, usually, stand on ceremony so strictly. 
 Most of us do not refuse to communicate by tele- 
 phone, for instance, with people to whom we have 
 never been introduced, or with whom we have 
 had no previous acquaintance; and we may even go 
 so far as to give the time of day to some stranger 
 on the street. And one does not exactly see the con- 
 nection between this remark, even if there is any 
 sense in it, and the one which follows, which informs 
 us that " it is as easy to read distant thoughts as 
 present." We might form a connection between the 
 two remarks by means of the next, in which we are 
 told that " we think of an absent friend as easily as 
 we do of one present." But this won't do, because 
 she immediately extends this to the "absent mind" 
 in general. "Chaucer," she says, "wrote centuries 
 
52 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 ago, and yet we still read his thought in his verse ; " 
 and even Mrs. Eddy can't have been personally knov/n 
 to Chaucer. We must confess that we can't see what 
 she is driving at; and we have a lingering suspicion 
 that she doesn't see it herself. 
 
 And so she goes on through a whole page, of which 
 the gist, if there is any, seems to be that " even if 
 our departed friends were near us, we could not com- 
 municate with them, because " their state of conscious- 
 ness must be different from ours." It certainly does 
 not seem evident that it must be so different as all 
 that. Her proof of it appears to be established in 
 her own mind by the question w^hich she asks : 
 ''When wandering in Australia, do we look for help 
 to the Esquimaux in their snow huts? " Really, 
 however, the trouble with the Esquimaux in this case 
 is not a want of anything in their " state of conscious- 
 ness," but that they are, physically, so far away, and 
 also probably don't know anything about Australia. 
 But if an Esquimaux had ever been in Australia, as 
 the departed friends are supposed to have been here, 
 he might perhaps be of some service. And at any 
 rate if we could reach him by 'phone, he could tell 
 us something about Esquimaux-land ; and in the case 
 of the departed spirits, it is about their world that we 
 want to know, not about our own. On the whole, 
 the illustration does not seem to be a very fortunate 
 one. 
 
 We have dwelt somewhat at length on this — in it- 
 self rather unimportant point — for it seems to be 
 about the only one which has any close reference to 
 " Spiritualism," which, rather than Spirit in general, 
 seems to be the special subject of the chapter. 
 
 But Mrs. Eddy gives a caution, immediately fol- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 53 
 
 lowing it, which is certainly well worthy of our at- 
 tention, and also would have deserved her own. " It 
 is wise," she says, " earnestly to consider whether it 
 is the human mind or the Divine Mind which is in- 
 fluencing one." It is refreshing to learn, by the way, 
 that there really is such a thing as the human mind. 
 Usually it would appear that this mind is only an 
 " error," and has no real (or positive) existence. 
 Mrs. Eddy seems, however, just here, to be willing 
 to look at things as they actually are. And it is just 
 this " consideration " which she recommends, which 
 brings us to the real and serious danger of spiritism. 
 She wants us, it would seem, to realize that there is 
 no possibility of our coming under influences w^hich 
 are real, but very far from being Divine. And the 
 worst of it is — though this she hardly admits — that 
 these influences may be a great deal more injurious 
 to us than merely human ones can be. 
 
 The existence of such influences is plainly shown 
 to us in the comparatively small portion of Scripture 
 to which Mrs. Eddy confines the use of her " Key." 
 But she chooses to shut her eyes to it; to explain it 
 all away. And in this she simply falls in with the 
 prevailing ideas of the world in this unbelieving age. 
 
 " The masterpiece of Satan," said the great Jesuit 
 preacher. Father de Ravignan, '' has been to get his 
 existence denied by the world of to-day." People 
 who do not believe in him will not be on their guard 
 against him. But if there is anything plainly taught 
 in Scripture — and there are many things so taught, 
 though it nowhere claims to be our only guide to 
 truth in religion — it is the actual existence of Satan 
 and other evil spirits. \\t have Our Lord's own 
 word for it. We read in St. Luke's Gospel that He 
 
54 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 said in replying to His disciples, who told Him that 
 " the devils are subject to us in Thy Name," that 
 He Himself " saw Satan like lightning falling from 
 heaven." Of course, Mrs. Eddy can explain away 
 these plain words, as she does so many other things 
 which He said. But the personal existence of Satan 
 and his crew is asserted most clearly, over and over 
 again, in Scripture, particularly in the New Testa- 
 ment. And it is also confessed by modern spiritists, 
 and even by the " controls " themselves. " I am not 
 a departed spirit," said one of them not long ago, to 
 its medium, as reported by a scientific investigator, 
 in the Annals of Psychical Science. Usually, as the 
 endeavor of most spiritists is to prove the ** survival 
 of bodily death," and evidence of it is specially ac- 
 ceptable to them, " controls " do not speak so plainly. 
 But at any rate, whether we are ready to accept 
 such statements or not, the possibility of diabolic in- 
 fluences in any sort of communications can hardly 
 be denied, except by those who, like Mrs. Eddy, find 
 the actual existence of anything not Divine, incon- 
 sistent with a theory to which they have committed 
 themselves, and which they choose to regard as un- 
 questionable. And this, as was above remarked, is 
 the real danger of the whole business to people in 
 general, and even to " scientists " (or Eddyists) them- 
 selves, that it requires the most serious considera- 
 tion, and even with such consideration it will not al- 
 ways be ascertained what sort of " mind " it is by 
 which we are '' influenced," as Mrs. Eddy herself 
 warns us. And she does not indicate any way, in 
 which her own statements can be clearly determined 
 as coming from the Divine Mind, as long as she 
 admits that they may come from some other " mind," 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 DO 
 
 even though it be so exalted a one as hers. Of 
 course, if her mind is actually identical with the 
 Divine Mind, and has no admixture of human 
 *' error " in it, we need not be worried ; but in that 
 case we fail to see any need for the consideration 
 which she recommends. It would be quite sufficient 
 that the " influence " is that of Mrs. Eddy. If it is 
 "Eddy," it is all right; if it is "not Eddy," it is 
 wrong. Where, then, is the need for any great care 
 or earnestness in consideration? There remains, how- 
 ever, one little difficulty, it must be confessed; it is, 
 that Mrs. Eddy not infrequently contradicts herself. 
 
 The rest of the chapter has nothing particular about 
 " Spiritualism," which it is fair to assume, she means 
 in it, what is more distinctively defined by the word 
 " spiritism." For she says that she " never could be- 
 lieve in spiritualism." Tt evidently is the ordinary 
 thing known as such, which she means. Or at any rate, 
 it probably is so ; for really, one is not always sure — 
 in fact, one seldom is — just what she is talking about. 
 
 One curious idea, however, crops out in the last part 
 of this chapter, rather more frequently than usual. 
 It is that the belief of ordinary Christians, and people 
 in general who are not '' scientists," is that thought 
 and all mental action are produced by what we call 
 *' matter." This is not, perhaps, distinctly stated, but 
 she seems to be fighting this " straw man " all the 
 time. She seems to think that because we believe in 
 the reality of matter, we must be " materialists." 
 
 Of course, one can find specimens, all the way 
 through this chapter as well as others, of the sort of 
 thing already commented on. For example : " The 
 more destructive matter becomes, the more its nothing- 
 ness will appear " (how, we might inquire, can " noth- 
 
56 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 ing " be destructive, or become so?) "until matter 
 reaches its mortal zenith " (how can nothing reach a 
 zenith?) "in illusion and forever disappears." If 
 people like this sort of talk, that, as Lincoln said, is 
 the sort of thing they like, and v^^hich fills them 
 with admiration for Mrs. Eddy's wonderful wisdom. 
 But it might be well for them to ask themselves if 
 they can translate it into plain English, or make any 
 real sense out of it. 
 
 There is, however, one fairly definite statement of 
 hers which really ought to be noticed, as she makes 
 it with some reference to her special hobby about 
 bodily " healing," which she regards as the chief ob- 
 ject which Christ came to earth to accomplish. She 
 says: "If this Science [Christian Science] has been 
 thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can learn 
 the truth [all truth of course, for why one more 
 than another?] more accurately than the astronomer 
 can read the stars or calculate an eclipse." Well, if 
 this statement is correct, Mrs. Eddy ought to have 
 shown its correctness by calculating eclipses " more 
 accurately " than they are given in the Nautical Al- 
 manac. For she must have " learned and properly 
 digested " her Christian Science as well as anyone 
 can be expected to do it. But if she had made any 
 attempt in this line, it would hardly have been suc- 
 cessful, unless she had looked in the Almanac on the 
 sly ; and even if she had, she probably would not have 
 correctly understood the calculations there made, and 
 therefore prudently did not make the attempt. 
 
 Later on, she makes the remark that " the earth's 
 motion and position are sustained by Mind alone." 
 This is a very true one; but all the "Christian 
 Science " that Mrs. Eddy or anyone else has ever at- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 57 
 
 tained, has never obtained any approximation to that 
 Mind except by the help of plain ordinary '' material " 
 science ; which, according to her, could lead to noth- 
 ing but '' error." Perhaps, however, she would say 
 that the observations made on phenomena like eclipses, 
 and even the phenomena themselves, are also ''er- 
 rors ; " but it is strange that two independent errors 
 can agree so well. If Mrs. Eddy here, and indeed all 
 through, had tried to use a little more common sense, 
 she would have avoided a good many blunders. 
 
 But we must pass on to other chapters, in which we 
 shall also find them, perhaps even more abundantly. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Animal Magnetism. 
 
 This is rather an antiquated sort of title ; but as 
 she is careful to state, she uses the term as meaning 
 what is now usually known as " hypnotism." But 
 still she takes advantage of the old form to show, to 
 her own satisfaction, that God can have nothing to 
 do with it, for what seems to her the conclusive rea- 
 son that " His power is neither animal nor human." 
 *' God," according to her, " governs all that is real, 
 harmonious, and eternal," and seems to mean by this 
 that He governs nothing else ; probably because she 
 holds that there is nothing else. This " argument " 
 would be shorter and simpler if she had said : " There 
 can't be any animal magnetism, because there isn't any 
 animal." So of course, as she continues, " animal 
 magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism, is a mere ne- 
 gation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor 
 reality." She naturally goes on to demonstrate that 
 therefore it can't do any harm. An extract which 
 
58 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 she gives from the Boston Herald objects to " mes- 
 merism " as implying the use of despotic control, and 
 quite sensibly states that it may *' be abused by its 
 possessor." " Oh, no," says Mrs. Eddy. *' Mankind 
 must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called 
 despotism is but a phase of nothingness." 
 
 Very well then; this is really quite consoling. If 
 an evil-minded person — she seems to admit sometimes 
 that there are evil-minded (or mortal-minded) peo- 
 ple — should fire off a train of powder or other ex- 
 plosive, it really would seem that even Christian 
 Science practitioners who were in the vicinity might 
 get hurt; that it might, indeed, in one sense, be a 
 phase of nothingness for their arms or legs, or even 
 their whole bodies; but one which would seriously 
 interfere with their usefulness. Perhaps, however, 
 she does not believe this would be the case, if they 
 really had " digested " the principles of Christian 
 Science. For she says that " Christian Science despoils 
 the kingdom of evil." But we fear that even she her- 
 self would not have liked to take such a chance. And 
 besides it seems to be some sort of evil to blow up 
 people who are not " scientific " enough to escape un- 
 harmed. 
 
 She says that, " in Christian Science, man can do no 
 harm." But we see that here by " man " she only 
 means Scientists. And why? Simply because such an 
 one can't think wrong. " Scientific thoughts," she 
 says, ''are true thoughts, passing from God to man." 
 With this, the sky seems to clear up somewhat. There 
 is some sense in holding that no harm can be done 
 to Scientists, or by Scientists. But her other dicta 
 will have to be modified. To the assertion that " evil 
 is not power," we shall have to add ** over Scientists." 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 59 
 
 Really, however, her idea and statement was that it is 
 not power at all, over anyone or anything. For " evil," 
 she tells us a little above, " is unreal." And this is 
 her doctrine all the time. What is " unreal " certainly 
 has no power. In that we all agree. 
 
 It is, however, a hopeless undertaking to make any 
 sense of statements like the following : " Christian 
 Science goes to the bottom of mental action, and re- 
 veals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of all 
 divine action as the emanation of divine Mind, and the 
 consequent wrongness of the opposite so-called ac- 
 tion — evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal 
 magnetism, hypnotism." This is not a statement of 
 any thing at all. It is a mere string of words. 
 
 There is quite a good deal of this kind of talk 
 in the chapter, but not so much as in most of them, 
 for the simple reason that it is shorter than the others. 
 So, for the same reason, there is no reason to say so 
 much about it ; but we can pass on to the next, which 
 has an appearance of coming nearer to the gist of 
 what Mrs. Eddy regards as the gospel which Christ 
 came to teach ; that is to say, how to escape from 
 bodily disease, and the suffering that it causes. St. 
 Paul and the other Apostles, and all the saints, re- 
 garded the sharing or " fellowship of His sufferings 
 and being made conformable to His death" (Phil. iii. 
 10) as the greatest blessing which, in this life, they 
 could hope to attain; but Mrs. Eddy's notion is evi- 
 dently quite different. He, however, tells us, and takes 
 the pains to repeat it, that " though we, or an angel 
 from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than 
 that which we have preached unto you, let him be ac- 
 cursed " (Gal. i. 8). Mrs. Eddy's own version is even 
 more emphatic than ours. 
 
6o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Science, Theology, Medicine. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy prefixes to this chapter a quotation from 
 St. Paul, which she seems to mean to apply to her- 
 self. St. Paul, in it, tells us of his gospel, that he 
 " neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, 
 but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." And she starts 
 out by informing that '' in the year 1866, I dis- 
 covered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, 
 Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian 
 Science." And that there may be no doubt what kind 
 of a " discovery " this was, she goes on to say that 
 " God had been graciously filling me during many 
 years for the reception of this final revelation of the 
 absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." 
 It was, then, not what is commonly understood as a 
 " scientific " discovery, but a real and genuine revela- 
 tion; just the thing that St. Paul warns us against. 
 
 Christians in general, and Catholics in particular, 
 have always, in accordance with St. Paul's words, re- 
 fused to accept any revelation of later date than that 
 made to the Apostles. It may be worth while to 
 state, by the way, that Catholics are far from imagin- 
 ing that even the Pope, though divinely commissioned 
 as successor to the xA.postles, has the power which they 
 had, to receive or promulgate new revelation. The 
 sphere of his infallibility is simply to determine, in 
 case of doubt, what they had received from Christ or 
 from the Holy Ghost. But Mrs. Eddy's claim, as 
 you see, goes far beyond that. The Pope, moreover, 
 in thus determining, simply tries, by a careful study of 
 Scripture and tradition, to find out, historically, what 
 
The Tnifli About Christian Science 6i 
 
 the actual doctrine was in the Church of the x\postles 
 itself ; but Mrs. Eddy does not bother about that. She 
 is quite as competent to get original revelations as the 
 Apostles themselves. 
 
 This, of itself, should completely discredit her 
 " Christian Science " in the eyes of Catholics, and 
 should suffice for all genuine Christians. For the lat- 
 ter, in general, it ought to be enough to remark that 
 there is in Scripture no intimation of anyone to come 
 with authority to communicate a new message from 
 God, after that made by Christ and His chosen 
 Apostles. Mrs. Eddy is condemned by her own pre- 
 tensions just as much and on the same grounds as 
 Mahomet, and is just as thoroughly antichristian as 
 he was. The only way in which Scripture predicts 
 her is in passages like Matt. xxiv. 5 : " Many will 
 come in My name, saying I am Christ : and they will 
 seduce many." It would have been well for Mrs. 
 Eddy to have thought more seriously of these and 
 other similar words. And particularly for Catholics, 
 it would also be well to add those very " intolerant " 
 ones of St. John's first Epistle: "We are of God. 
 He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of 
 God, heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of 
 truth, and the spirit of error." 
 
 But it is time to go on, and look into what Mrs. 
 Eddy's pretensions actually are, and to see not only 
 how antichristian they are, and how fallacious in 
 themselves. She starts out, as usual, to fight a notion 
 of her own, which is not a Christian one at all. " Feel- 
 ing," she says, " so perpetually the false consciousness 
 that life inheres in the body; yet remembering that 
 in reality God is our Life." Now all good Christians 
 are as much persuaded of this falsity and of this reality 
 
62 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 as Mrs. Eddy herself. Life does not " inhere " in the 
 body, we all know that ; that is to say, it is not ''stuck" 
 in it, for that is what " inhering " would mean. Chris- 
 tians, as has already been said, are not materiahsts. 
 And we all perfectly recognize that " in reality God is 
 our Life; " and not only our Life, but the Life of all 
 that is; that all life originates in Him, is created by 
 Him, and requires His continual support for it to con- 
 tinue. There is not, for even a moment, any life in- 
 dependent of His. But it does not follow from this 
 that all life is identical with His, any more than that 
 inanimate creation is identified with Him. 
 
 It is really time now for us to come to some under- 
 standing of what is meant by the word " life," in- 
 stead of using it vaguely, as Mrs. Eddy so constantly 
 does. Life, properly speaking, does not simply mean 
 existence. Inanimate matter (such as stones, metals, 
 chemical substances in general) has a real existence. 
 But it is not said to have life in any sense if it is 
 merely governed by the physical — in a technical sense 
 — or chemical laws which entirely control what is 
 recognized as inanimate. There is something more in 
 it than these and which directs them ; though we do 
 not, as yet, exactly know what it is. Whatever it is, 
 it is, of course, dependent on the will of God, 
 created and maintained by Him, as inanimate matter 
 itself is. 
 
 It is interesting to all of us, particularly to students 
 of natural science. But it is not important, as far as 
 Mrs. Eddy's doctrines are concerned. For they are 
 really occupied, almost or quite exclusively, with hu- 
 man life ; hardly with that of vegetables, or of brutes, 
 at all. Whatever may be held with regard to brute or 
 vegetable life, man is distinguished from the inanimate 
 
The Truth 'About Christian Science 63 
 
 by having something connected with his material body, 
 which is quite different from that body, and which has 
 none of the ordinary marks or properties rightly be- 
 longing to matter. It is not directly apprehended by 
 any of the senses, by means of which we know all that 
 we are able, experimentally, to know about matter. 
 It has none of the properties we find by our senses 
 to exist in matter. It has no extension, color, odor or 
 taste. It is invisible and intangible. But it is, though 
 not apprehended directly by the senses, much more 
 intelligible to us than what is so apprehended. It is, 
 in fact (in philosophy) called the intelligible, as dis- 
 tinguished from the sensible. We. may, if we please, 
 and sometimes we do, doubt the information which 
 the senses gives us about matter ; but we cannot refuse 
 to believe in the existence of this ; for it is by it that 
 the refusal would have to be made. 
 
 It is not exclusively located in, or confined to any 
 part of our material bodies, though it operates more 
 effectually in some than in others. Its activities are 
 more or less helped or hindered by the good or bad 
 condition of the body, as is quite evident; that the 
 body can operate on it is true. But it is also true, 
 and much more evidently, that it can and does act on 
 the body. 
 
 This principle of activity in us is, by the universal 
 consent of all Christians, of immensely more im- 
 portance than any residing in the body. And by the 
 same universal consent, the body is not necessary to 
 its existence ; but it and its mysterious union with the 
 body are necessary to the existence of the body as an 
 organized substance. If this union ceases, the body 
 becomes mere matter, subject to the same physical laws 
 as matter in general. But the action of this principle 
 
64 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 in us is not, in itself, affected ; but only as regards its 
 connection with the material world outside. This 
 principle in us is called the spirit, or soul. 
 
 Human life, as known in this material world, in- 
 volves the existence of the soul and also of the body 
 with which it is connected. Each, however, may be 
 said to have a life of its own. But the life of the 
 body is evidently connected with that of the soul, and 
 ceases when the connection is entirely broken by the 
 change which we call death. According to universal 
 Christian belief, that of the soul continues after death. 
 The life, both of the soul and of the body, comes, of 
 course, from God. But neither of them is identified 
 with His. These simple facts every Christian believes, 
 and such has always been the teaching of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 But it appears that Mrs. Eddy, in some way, got 
 the idea that the Church, at any rate at the present 
 day, had accepted, if it had not held from the be- 
 ginning, thoroughly materialistic views on these sub- 
 jects, and believed that matter existed quite inde- 
 pendently of God, and that all its properties '' in- 
 hered " in it without being caused in any way by Him. 
 She seems to have thought that according to Christian 
 teaching, " life inheres," as she says, " in the body " of 
 itself and by itself ; that it is a purely physical " func- 
 tion," as a mathematician would say, of the energies 
 which the body possesses of itself; but that these 
 energies may cease to produce it, by being, as it were, 
 exhausted, or in some way which she does not explain. 
 And that this is not the case (which every Christian 
 understands very well) she calls a "heavenly convic- 
 tion," which came to her by a special revelation ; that 
 it was, in her case, '' the gift of the grace of God, given 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 65 
 
 unto me by the effectual working of His power." In 
 point of fact there was no need of any special reve- 
 lation to her, unless she was so stupid as not to possess 
 the faculties of reason, by which it is quite possible for 
 people in general to see that there can be only one nec- 
 essary and self -existent Being, and that all the energies 
 existing in any other come from His creating and 
 preserving power. 
 
 '' It was," she tells us, " the divine law of Life and 
 Love, unfolding to me the demonstrable fact that mat- 
 ter possesses neither sensation nor life." It certainly 
 is a demonstrable fact, that matter, in itself, inde- 
 pendent of God, does not and cannot possess either 
 sensation or life, and indeed that it cannot without 
 Him exist in any way. But that this (if this is what 
 she means) was unfolded in any special way to her, 
 implies that she herself could not get at it otherwise. 
 But she says herself, that it is " demonstrable." Was 
 she, then, the only person so inaccessible to demonstra- 
 tion, that she had to have it " unfolded " to her by a 
 special revelation? But to be fair to her, this cannot 
 be what she means. Well, then, what does she mean? 
 She means that matter cannot, even by any power from 
 God, either have sensation or life. There is no other 
 thing for her to mean ; and she might as well say right 
 out, that matter cannot, or at any rate, does not exist 
 in any way. For she says that *' human experiences 
 show the falsity of all material things." And what is 
 the meaning of this, if not that there are no material 
 things? 
 
 The whole difficulty with the poor woman is that she 
 never has accepted, or apparently even understood, the 
 dogma of creation, as has already been remarked. She 
 cannot or will not admit that anything can exist unless 
 
66 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 it always has existed. It is a puzzle, undoubtedly, to 
 all of us, how something can be created out of nothing. 
 But the rest of us, as a rule, see that, as a fact, it is 
 unquestionable. 
 
 Conformably with this conclusion of hers, that there 
 are no material things, she arrives at another, namely, 
 that the only sufferer is " mortal mind," whatever that 
 may be. But what is this " mortal mind?" If there 
 are no material things, how can there be any spiritual 
 or mental things? It is just as denionstrable of mind 
 outside of the Divine Mind, as it is of matter, that it 
 cannot exist of itself. 
 
 What seems to result from all this simply is that 
 there really is, according to Mrs. Eddy, something 
 which God somehow did manage to create, and which 
 really exists as a fact ; and it is what she calls " mor- 
 tal mind." It really exists, however delusive its 
 imaginings about matter and even about itself may be. 
 But we read on a little farther, and this hope of some- 
 thing to stand on is knocked out, by the statement that 
 '' Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind " 
 (with a large M) " is All-in-all, and that the only 
 realities are the divine Mind and idea." 
 
 This she calls a " great fact." She confesses that it 
 is not '' seen to be supported by sensible evidence." 
 What she means by " sensible evidence " is not per- 
 fectly clear. She can't mean the evidence of the bodily 
 senses, for that, of course, with her, could not exist. 
 There is no material body, she tells us, and of course 
 no bodily senses. Probably she means rational evi- 
 dence. For, she says, its " divine Principle is demon- 
 strated " (that is, proved rationally) "by healing the 
 sick and thus proved absolute and divine." But un- 
 fortunately there really are no " sick." The only 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 67 
 
 realities, she has just stated, " are the divine Mind 
 and idea." 
 
 Certainly, Mrs. Eddy's book is a very holy one. 
 Wherever you put your finger, you find a hole. Such 
 is the result of neglecting the senses as an evidence of 
 certitude. When you need them most, they slip away 
 from you, and you have nothing ; only vacancy. 
 
 She goes on, struggling desperately for some firm 
 footing. " I knew," she says, " the principle of all 
 harmonious Mind action to be God." " The principle 
 of all harmonious Mind action." What is meant by 
 this exactly ? A paragraph or so above, " Mind is all." 
 Now Mind (with a large M) which in her notation 
 means God, is reduced to being merely the principle 
 of all harmonious Mind action. But if Mind still 
 means God, it is certainly a very small claim that He 
 is the principle of His own action. Perhaps she meant 
 to write mind (with a small m). But if Mind (with 
 a large M) is All, there is no room for mind, even 
 with a small m ; which, nevertheless, she told us just 
 now that she had discovered as producing " all the or- 
 ganism and action of the fnortal body." She says that, 
 in this producing, it is misnamed mind. What, then, 
 is the right name for it? " Mortal mind," she prefers 
 to call it. But in the ordinary use of language, mortal 
 mind should mean some kind of mind, unless perhaps 
 it is quite a new word, mortalmind ; just one word, 
 not two. This, however, does not help. If Mind is 
 All-in-all, and matter is naught, mortalmind is also 
 naught, just as absolutely naught as matter is. What 
 is the use of having a name, when there is nothing to 
 be named? 
 
 Oh, the whole thing is simply a maze of hopeless 
 confusion. And yet in struggling with it, Mrs. Eddy 
 
68 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 says that she was " buoyant with hope." She hoped, it 
 would seem, that in course of time some sense could 
 be made of it, by somebody else, if not by herself. 
 Certainly she must have had a very sanguine dis- 
 position. No sense can be got out of it, for the simple 
 reason that there is no sense in it. And no sense can 
 be made of it, because there is nothing to be made 
 sense of. 
 
 She seems to base her hope, sometimes, on using big 
 or somewhat unusual words; such as the " equipol- 
 lence " of God, which appears a little below. We find 
 " equipollence " defined in the dictionary as follows : 
 
 1. Equality of power, force, signification, or appli- 
 cation. 
 
 2. And equivalence between two or more proposi- 
 tions. 
 
 In relation to God, it does not appear what mean- 
 ing Mrs. Eddy attaches to the word. There seems to 
 be none, except perhaps that she uses the -word 
 "Mind" as synonymous with ''God." This is quite 
 allowable, but requires, of course, more complete 
 statement. But it is not evident how by it " Man's 
 perfectibility and the establishment of the kingdom of 
 heaven on earth " is " brought to light," which she as- 
 serts to be the case. 
 
 She says that " in following these leadings of scien- 
 tific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook." It 
 really seems that it might have been more prudent for 
 her to take some commentary made by those more 
 learned than herself ; for St. Peter tells us that in the 
 epistles of St. Paul " there are some things hard to 
 be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest 
 unto their own destruction ; " and says that the same 
 is true also of the other Scriptures. (This is Mrs. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 69 
 
 Eddy's own version.) But of course when they were 
 "ilhimined" for her from on High, the wonder is 
 only that she troubled herself with the Bible at all; 
 and, in fact, it does not seem that she used her " text- 
 book " very much. Usually, she got along without 
 any textbook at all. Her idea of Christ's teachings 
 is obtained rather from what He ought to have taught, 
 than from what He actually, according to the records, 
 did teach. Any statement which He made, but which 
 is not thoroughly " scientific," can be easily explained 
 by His imperfect scientific development. One has only 
 to look at her book to see how seldom in it she quotes 
 the Bible at all. But it is strange that, as she did not 
 have to make her gospel agree with it, she could not 
 get up something agreeing with itself a little better. 
 
 She says about this very book of hers, that " no 
 human pen nor tongue taught me the Science con- 
 tained in this book Science and Health; and neither 
 tongue nor pen can overthrow it." Well, if that is 
 the case, it is not very surprising: it is rather hard 
 to " overthrow " or even oppose a statement which 
 has no ascertainable meaning in it to be opposed. It 
 is, of course, impossible to make any remark on all 
 the wild statements of which this book is full with- 
 out writing one a hundred times as large. All that 
 can be done is to make a selection, here and there, of 
 some which may serve as examples. It is, fortunately, 
 not necessary to notice them all, for the great ma- 
 jority of them are simply repetitions ; now and then 
 something may emerge which seems to be a little dif- 
 ferent from the mass. 
 
 The following, for instance, might seem to be such. 
 She says : *' Jesus demonstrated the power of Chris- 
 tian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies." One 
 
70 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 would think that, if this is the case, there must be 
 some plain statement of His own record to the effect 
 that He was using what she calls '* Christian Science " 
 in His works of healing; but there is nothing, in 
 fact, of the kind. All that this little sentence, then, 
 amounts to is that He actually did heal mortal minds 
 and bodies. The rest of it simply means that since 
 Mrs. Eddy has " demonstrated " (that is to say, as- 
 serted) that there is no other power except Christian 
 Science by which this can be done, so that it must 
 claim the credit of all that He did in this line. One 
 would think that even her followers would see how 
 barefaced and groundless an assumption like this is; 
 but no ; they swallow it right down. 
 
 Then she goes on to say that this power was " lost 
 sight of." But how could it be " lost sight of," if 
 nobody before Mrs. Eddy ever had a sight of it? 
 The actual works which she ascribes to it were not 
 lost sight of, as she seems to imagine or, at any rate, 
 to pretend ; they have been going on steadily all the 
 time in the Church, right down to the present day, 
 and still continue. But she pays no attention to facts. 
 If they don't correspond with her theory, which she 
 calls " Science," so much the worse for them. It is 
 impossible, according to her, a priori, for any works 
 of healing to be done by those who do not believe in 
 her teaching. " Its Science," she says, " must be ap- 
 prehended by as many as believe on Christ, and 
 spiritually understand Truth." Believing on Christ 
 will not do ; even spiritually understanding Truth is 
 not sufficient. You must also apprehend Mrs. Eddy. 
 And she is not so easy to apprehend, when she uses 
 phrases like this, for instance, of " spiritually under- 
 standing Truth," which give no peg, as it were, to 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 71 
 
 hang- an apprehension on. What is it, may we ask, 
 to "spiritually" understand a thing? It must be, 
 apparently, the same as to " mentally " understand it. 
 But how can one mentally understand anything-, with 
 nothing but mortal mind to do it with ? '' Mortal 
 mind," she tells us just below, " implies something 
 untrue and therefore unreal : and as the phrase is 
 used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to 
 designate that which has no real existence." We 
 can't, then, according to her Science, even make this 
 preliminary stop needed for her " Science," of 
 " spiritually understanding Truth," for we have noth- 
 ing which really exists to do it with. 
 
 As to her " Scientific Translation of Immortal 
 Mind," a long document, which shortly follows, it is 
 quite impossible to make anything out of it, for there 
 is really nothing in it, but a jumble of statements, 
 some of which everybody believes, some of which have 
 no definite meaning, and some of which we can only 
 trust that she herself did not believe. Of the last kind, 
 we select the following choice " gem :" " Christian 
 Science," she says, " attaches no physical nature and 
 significance to the Supreme Being or His manifesta- 
 tion ; mortals alone do this." 
 
 We ought to pass by as unworthy of notice the 
 idea that even " unscientific " Christians regard the 
 Supreme Being as corporeal, if that is what she 
 means by " physical." They have always " empha- 
 sized " the statement that God is incorporeal, just as 
 much as any " Scientist." And the word " physical," 
 when not used in such a restricted technical sense, 
 simply means " natural ; " and this sentence, there- 
 fore, seems to mean that there is no Divine Nature 
 at all, or at any rate, if there is, " Christian Science " 
 
J2 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 attaches no significance to it. In other words, the 
 Divine Nature is insignificant. 
 
 After all, this may be too much, even for Mrs, Eddy. 
 So, probably, she must mean *' corporeal " when she 
 says " physical." But then she goes on to tell us, 
 that " God's essential language is spoken of in the 
 last chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue." 
 the spiritual meaning of which is attained through 
 " signs following." Now in point of fact, in this 
 place she really garbles the Gospel from which she 
 quotes. It does not speak of any " new tongue," but 
 of " new tongues," and the words evidently do not 
 have any special, or mystical meaning, but simply 
 refer to corporeal tongues or languag-es personally 
 unknown to the believers who were to use them. 
 These were corporeal, if she allows that they were 
 real at all ; and so were the " signs following." They 
 really were " manifestations of the Supreme Being." 
 But Mrs. Eddy, it seems, will not allow them to be 
 such. It is rather strange that when she gets the 
 whole evidence of her so-called " Science " from them, 
 of like phenomena, she insists that Science regards 
 them as insignificant. 
 
 But here is something still more important. In 
 passing, we may happen to notice a simple allusion 
 to " His (Jesus') mighty, crowning, unparalleled, 
 and triumphant exit from the flesh." She speaks of this 
 as if it were a well-known fact, acknowledged by 
 everyone. As no one, however, seems to have any 
 information about it except herself, we should like, 
 if Mrs. Eddy had not already made that exit, to have 
 her tell us when it occurred. For she does not seem 
 to be speaking of His death on the Cross. She at- 
 taches no special triumph to that. Moreover, that exit 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 73 
 
 of His was only 'for a brief time, at any rate; unless 
 Mrs. Eddy chooses to doubt His own words, spoken 
 after the Resurrection, to His Apostles, ** See My 
 hands and feet, that it is I Myself ; handle, and see : 
 for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me 
 to have." 
 
 The only line which Mrs. Eddy could take in this 
 matter, without charging Our Lord with conscious 
 fraud or deception, would be to say that Christ, 
 Whom she calls " the Master," as not far enough ad- 
 vanced in Christian Science to know that He did not 
 really have any flesh and bones, which He said, " You 
 see Me to have," not " I seem to have." She would 
 probably say that He was mistaken about that ; it was 
 an error of '' mortal mind," which still clung to Him. 
 
 Or she, perhaps even more probably, would say 
 that He had not then made the " exit from the flesh " 
 to which she was alluding. That was made when He 
 ascended into heaven. But the record tells us that 
 " while they looked on He was raised up, and a cloud 
 received Him out of their sight." His body went up 
 till they could see it no longer on account of the 
 cloud. No exit from the flesh on His part is recorded 
 as having been seen, or in any way made known to 
 us. What, then, should make Mrs. Eddy say so con- 
 fidently that any such exit occurred? That was the 
 last chance for us to have any evidence of it. Well, 
 it is just of a piece with most of the other things 
 which have any sense or meaning which she says. 
 " I myself, am the evidence for it ; " that is all that 
 there is for her to say. " God, Spirit, Mind, revealed 
 it to me. What more evidence do you want ? " 
 
 Whatever her followers would think of this, it is 
 to the unprejudiced mind the most extreme audacity 
 
74 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 and absurdity for her to call her alleged discovery 
 *' Christian " Science, when Christ seems to have 
 known nothing of it. Even her followers must, one 
 would think, see that she is trying to get the shelter 
 of His Name for what, even if it came from God, 
 was unknown to Christ, and of course no science 
 to His. 
 
 Why not come out in the open, and not make such 
 a pretense? Why not have the courage, like her il- 
 lustrious predecessor, Mahomet, to boldly say that 
 " there is but one God, and Mrs. Eddy is His 
 prophet? " He got along pretty well, and she might 
 have done as well herself, on a similar platform. For, 
 really, what she holds out to her believers is much the 
 same sort of thing as what he promised to his. In 
 his case, it was sensual pleasure ; in hers it is very 
 similar; that is to say, relief from sensual pain. 
 How to have a good time, in this world as well as in 
 the next, is the gospel for both. And it is a very 
 good gospel to draw those who do not relish the idea 
 of sacrifice, and do not see any use in it, or any need 
 for it. It has always had a great many disciples. 
 
 A little farther on, Mrs. Eddy comes out with a 
 statement which actually does have a definite mean- 
 ing, a very unusual thing for her, and quite refresh- 
 ing. It is easily seen to be erroneous, and it may be 
 regarded as the chief cause of her other errors. It 
 is in the form of a dilemma ; and because there is 
 some appearance of sense and logic in it, it is better 
 worth looking at than most of the mere verbiage of 
 which she is so lavish. 
 
 It is as follows : " When," she says, " we endow 
 matter with vague spiritual power — that is when we 
 do so in our theories, for of course we cannot really 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 75 
 
 endow matter with what it does not and cannot 
 possess — we disown the Almighty, for such theories 
 lead to one of two things : they either presuppose the 
 self-evolution and self-government of matter, or else 
 they assume that matter is the product of Spirit." 
 She quite correctly says that '' to seize the first horn 
 of this dilemma, and to consider matter as a power 
 in and of itself, is to leave the creator out of His 
 own universe." But she is not so happy with the 
 second horn. '' To grasp this," she says, " and re- 
 gard God as the creator of matter, is not only to 
 make Him responsible for all disasters, physical and 
 moral, but to announce Him as their source, thereby 
 making Him guilty of maintaining perpetual misrule 
 in the form and under the name of natural law." 
 
 Let us now see just what the error in this is. It 
 would be quite true, if matter were the whole of what 
 He has created. Of itself it always follows strictly 
 the laws which He has laid down for it. But He has 
 chosen to create something else, which does not work 
 in the same way. This something else is what she 
 calls " mortal mind." He has seen fit, for reasons 
 which we cannot fathom of ourselves, and which He 
 has not fully explained to us, to endow this other 
 class of His creation with a faculty which matter does 
 not possess ; and this is the faculty or ability of free 
 zvill. One reason for giving it seems to be the greater 
 or additional glory resulting to Himself from being 
 served and obeyed by a creature who is able to say, 
 " I will not serve or obey," than by one who is so 
 constituted as not to be able to do so. This glory is 
 expressed, perhaps, most clearly in words which Mrs. 
 Eddy had not been brought up to consider as in- 
 spired ; and perhaps she may not have even known 
 
76 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 anything about them. They are in themselves, of 
 course, very clear. They are the following : " Who 
 hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall 
 have glory everlasting. He that could have trans- 
 gressed, and hath not transgressed : and could do evil 
 things, and hath not done them : therefore are his 
 goods established in the Lord" (Ecclus. xxxi. lo, ii). 
 
 But we do not need the words of inspiration to assure 
 us of this ; for it is a^ fact evident to our own con- 
 sciousness. The early Reformers of the sixteenth 
 century chose to deny this ; and, as they could not 
 deny that man did do evil things, they chose to deny 
 that he was able to avoid them. By this they fell 
 into the same fatal mistake as Mrs. Eddy, of making 
 the All-Good the creator of evil, in this second horn of 
 her dilemma. They were not able to get out of it. 
 And how does she think that she gets out of it? 
 Why, simply by denying the actual existence of mat- 
 ter. It would have been simpler to deny the existence 
 of " mortal mind," as she sometimes does ; that would 
 have been quite sufficient. But as the great point 
 which she had in view was the healing of bodily ills, 
 and as this could not always be accomplished, the pref- 
 erable way was to assert that there really were no 
 bodily ills ; that they were only a delusion of "mor- 
 tal mind ; " and in this way God is no longer re- 
 sponsible for them or any other material " disaster." 
 But as she saw well enough that this delusion would 
 be a mental " disaster," she had, sometimes at any 
 rate, to also assert that there really is no '* mortal 
 mind." The difficulty, of course, brought in by this, 
 would be that her second horn would vanish alto- 
 gether, and reduce her argument to nothing. 
 
 If she had only been content with simply asserting 
 
The Truth About Christian Science yy 
 
 that the only existence was that of God, she could 
 have got along well enough ; but that would have 
 knocked out the " sick " people, who were to be healed, 
 and which were the underpinning for her whole sys- 
 tem. But a great deal of her difficulty comes in by 
 her simply insisting on her own ideas of what is 
 good or bad. She says : " The lawgiver, whose 
 lightning palsies or prostrates in death the child at 
 prayer is not the divine ideal of omnipresent Love." 
 She means, '' is not Mrs. Eddy's ideal." It does not 
 seem to even occur to her that anyone else, even God 
 Himself, could have any idea different from hers. 
 Many of us poor ordinary Christians, for instance, in 
 this particular case, could easily account for it by the 
 words of what we regard as Scripture : " He was 
 taken aw^ay lest wickedness should alter his under- 
 standing or deceit beguile his soul " (Wisd. iv. ii). 
 
 Just a little word for a moment to show the inaccuracy 
 so often found in her writing. She says, " In viewing 
 the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts the evidence 
 before the senses to believe that the earth is in motion, 
 and the sun at rest." Begging her pardon, it does 
 nothing of the kind. All that the senses tell us is 
 that there is relative motion of the two. It may be 
 worth these few words to remark that if one looks 
 at the sunrise through a telescope which has a driv- 
 ing clock attached, the sun will appear to the senses 
 as standing perfectly still, and the earth's horizon as 
 plainly falling away from it. So it is by no means 
 true that " the earth's diurnal relation is invisible to 
 the physical eye," as she asserts on the next page 
 but one. 
 
 She proceeds to argue on this point to something 
 more important, but with equal and more evident 
 
78 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 error. She says : " Health is not a condition of mat- 
 ter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear 
 reliable testimony on the subject of health." Well, 
 of course, we may have wrong ideas on the matter of 
 health : but as far as the senses bear testimony, we can 
 depend on them. It may be very healthy for a man 
 to have his pulse beating two hundred times a minute ; 
 the senses give no testimony on that point, but only 
 on the actual rate at which it is beating. Or it may 
 be very healthy for his face to be covered with pus- 
 tules of something which looks like small-pox, but 
 the senses are correct in their testimony that the pus- 
 tules, whatever they may be, are there. 
 
 It is not on the senses directly that the conclusions 
 of physicians are based ; but what is reasonably de- 
 duced from their evidence. It may be that a pulse 
 of two hundred a minute is all right ; but we know 
 by reason and experience, that in all probability it is 
 not. 
 
 Some of Mrs. Eddy's remarks, which she imagines 
 to be scientific, are certainly rather amusing. For 
 example, she says on the next page : *' The barometer 
 — that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying 
 the testimony of the senses — points to fair weather in 
 the midst of murky clouds and drenching rain." One 
 would think that this remark was made by some little 
 boy or girl ; and that it is, indeed, probable that Mrs. 
 Eddy did not know what a barometer really is, or is 
 meant for, as well as the average little boy or girl in 
 these learned days. 
 
 What a real barometer does, and the only thing 
 which it does, is to measure the pressure of the air. 
 It does not, of itself, tell us anything at all about 
 storm or sunshine. Those words are simply put on 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 79 
 
 aneroid barometers offered on sale, to interest the 
 unscientific (or Eddian) public. Really the absolute 
 reading of the barometer is not of much significance ; 
 it is the direction or amount of its change that is of 
 importance. You can learn nothing about the weather 
 by merely looking at a barometer; you have got to 
 watch it, and see the way the hand is moving; and 
 it is for this purpose, and so, save the trouble of mak- 
 ing successive notes of its position, that the little brass 
 pointer, which is moveable by hand, but does not 
 move otherwise, is attached. To do this is of some 
 use to ship captains ; but really not much toward fore- 
 casting the weather can be done without measurements 
 of the barometric pressure made at various points 
 over a large area and at regular intervals of time. 
 And yet, comical as it really is, the poor woman 
 actually brings up her own personal ignorance of the 
 use of a barometer as one of the " illusions of material 
 sense." 
 
 It is really astonishing that ordinarily intelligent 
 people can be taken in by stuff like the following, 
 which we find a little further on. But the book is 
 full of the same sort of thing. " Our theories," she 
 tells us, " make the same mistake regarding Soul and 
 body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system. 
 They insist that soul is in body, and mind therefore 
 tributary to matter." Of course the notion of " mind 
 being tributary to matter " does not in any way follow 
 from the connection evidently existing between soul 
 and body, as long as it is held (as of course it is by 
 all Christians) that the soul is the superior element, 
 and that body, without it, has only some auto- 
 matic functions of a lower order, and that even these 
 cease when the two are separated. 
 
8o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 The " error relating to soul and body " of which she 
 here writes, is one which in reality hardly anyone 
 holds ; it is all in her own imagination ; for the or- 
 dinary materialist does not admit the idea of soul at 
 all. This is the same old fighting a man of straw, in 
 which she so often indulges, and which is quite a 
 favorite pastime with opponents of the plain truth of 
 common sense. 
 
 " The verity of Mind," she adds, " shows conclu- 
 sively how it is that matter seems to be, but is not." 
 This sort of sentence is quite a favorite one with 
 her. Her disciples, of course, swallow it right down, 
 as if it really had some meaning. But unless the 
 " verity " has some peculiar definition which she does 
 not condescend to explain, it would mean simply 
 " truth," or actual existence, of the thing which is 
 stated to have *' verity." But to maintain that the 
 actual existence of " Mind " shows '' conclusively " 
 that matter has no actual existence is obviously a 
 mere assertion on her part ; not in any way a proof. 
 It is perfectly conceivable that both Mind and matter 
 have actual existence. Even if it were in some way 
 proved that matter had no actual existence, it would 
 not appear ** how " the existence of Mind showed or 
 proved this. 
 
 She now starts out on a special lucubration, to ex- 
 plain her use of the term " Christian Science." She 
 says that she introduced it " to designate the scien- 
 tific system of divine healing," and goes on to state 
 that the " revelation " consists of two parts. 
 
 I. "The discovery of this divine Science of Mind- 
 healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures 
 and through the teachings of the Comforter, as 
 promised by the Master. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 8i 
 
 2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so- 
 called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a 
 dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an 
 ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of 
 this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific 
 order and continuity of being." 
 
 There seems to be no particular call for this second 
 part of the '* revelation " or " demonstration," as far 
 as any new '* Science " is concerned, as the great 
 majority of Christians have never held that the 
 miracles of Jesus belonged to a dispensation now ended, 
 as these miracles have, by evidence unquestionable to 
 those who will examine it, been going on continually 
 ever since, right down to our own day. The Church 
 has also always held that " they illustrated an ever 
 operative divine Principle," for He had said : *' I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of the world." 
 (We quote the Protestant version, as more familiar to 
 Mrs. Eddy, and as being in a way more unmistakable 
 than the Douay, which has " consummation " instead 
 of " end.") Catholics, at any rate, have always ex- 
 pected these miracles, and have always had them ; not 
 because of any " eternality " of the scientific order and 
 continuity of being (for Our Lord might have stopped 
 them if He had so chosen), but simply because such 
 was His promise. What, we may ask in passing, does 
 she mean by " eternality." One always has to look 
 out, in " Eddian " Science, for something behind 
 which she hopes to take refuge, and spring from it on 
 you at some time, unexpectedly. We do not find the 
 word in the dictionary, and do not see how it is an 
 improvement on the well known one " eternity." 
 
 Well, now to go back to the first part of the " reve- 
 lation," which is the only part which seems to have 
 
S2 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 anything in it. This is the alleged discovery of " a 
 divine Science of Mind-healing." It does not at first 
 clearly appear w^hether this mind-healing is a healing 
 of mind, or by mind; and we have ventured, tenta- 
 tively, to amend her name for it, by putting mind with 
 a small " m." For she cannot, surely, be undertaking 
 to heal the Divine Mind. And as to mind-healing, 
 (with a small " m ") we have always supposed that 
 this was the science which they try to get at in luna- 
 tic asylums. 
 
 So it seems that she must mean healing coming 
 from " Mind," and that the capital " M " is right. 
 But then, what is it that is to be healed? Wq shall 
 have to go back to the small " m," for she has just 
 now, as often before, told us clearly that " matter " 
 does not exist. It is the healing of mind, not in the 
 way of doctors in asylums, but by Mind. But here 
 again, we run right into the old snag, about " mortal 
 mind," which, she says, " in teaching Christian 
 Science, is meant to designate that which has no real 
 existence." One would almost begin to fear that 
 " Christian Science " itself has no real existence. 
 
 Let us then try to examine if there is not something 
 in it which has been puffed up by Mrs. Eddy into this 
 great bubble, which with her and her disciples, oc- 
 cupies the whole field of view. We shall find that all 
 that there really is in it has been well known for a 
 long time, and comes in fact more or less within the 
 experience of everyone. We all know that imagina- 
 tion has great power, and takes the place of fact, 
 particularly with some people. And in the matter of 
 our bodily ills and diseases, it has more effect than in 
 almost anything else. Everyone knows the encourage- 
 ment and actual benefit which one feels on being told 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 83 
 
 that he looks better, and the depression and harm result- 
 ing from hearing the contrary. Bread pills, supposed to 
 contain medicine, may do a great deal of good. There 
 is no need to multiply instances to prove mind-healing 
 of this kind, that is to say the healing of the functions 
 and even to some extent of the organs of the real, ac- 
 tual and material body, by the action of the controlling 
 mind ; for everyone grants it before you begin. 
 There is no need for adding to the real evidence, at 
 hand, a wild theory that matter has no existence, or 
 another about " mortal mind," which leaves us guess- 
 ing whether you believe or disbelieve in its existence, 
 or are in doubt about it, or whether you are, perhaps, 
 merely trying to confuse us about it, and pull the 
 wool over our eyes. 
 
 You may be able to prove by actual facts that you 
 can cure sick people by making them believe that 
 they are not really sick ; but you cannot make them 
 really believe that they have no bodies to be sick 
 with ; though they may try to do so, if they are 
 told that the whole thing goes together. And you 
 don't believe it yourself; for your words are letting 
 out your real belief all the time. The fact is that 
 you really believe and can't help believing the same 
 as we do, as to what you call your " Science." The 
 chief real difference between us in the extent of pos- 
 sible influence of the mind (or soul) on the body ; 
 you maintain that it can go farther than most of us 
 are inclined to admit. Bring on whatever facts you 
 have, and your evidence as solid as possible. People 
 who are really scientific are not afraid of evidence. 
 
 As to the effect of what you call " Mind " (that is 
 to say God Himself) on the body, all Christians are 
 as sure as you are that this effect is unlimited. 
 
84 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 God, as He has created the body, can destroy it, or 
 do anything that He pleases with it. But the weak 
 point in your theory is that you can, according to 
 it, if you are " scientific " enough, identify yourself 
 with this infinite '' Mind and produce the effect you 
 desire, independently of His Will. That is what 
 seems to you the strong point in it, instead of the 
 weak one; but, in fact, it is simply a weak and 
 foolish, not to say blasphemous, attempt to climb 
 on to His Throne. But we are not inclined to make 
 a real difference between us out of this; you don't 
 mean it, that is all; at any rate, we hope so. 
 
 Well, let us go on a little farther, to see the follies 
 into which a blind attempt to carry out a so-called 
 " Science " may lead one. One fundamental difficulty 
 with Mrs. Eddy, personally, seems to have been that 
 she never could conceive of the establishment by the 
 Creator of any force or energy anywhere outside of 
 Himself. It would not suffice for her that He could 
 control or direct at any moment such a force of 
 energy ; no, it must all come from Him directly. She 
 says that " the universe, like man, is to be interpreted 
 by a Science from its divine Principle, God, and then 
 it can be understood." But apparently she cannot 
 understand or admit any action, though perfectly nor- 
 mal, regular, and in accordance with God's plan, 
 which He can intrust— so to speak— to anything be- 
 sides himself. So she says: ''Adhesion, cohesion, 
 and attraction are properties of Mind. They belong 
 to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that 
 thought-force which launched the earth in its orbit, 
 and said to the proud wave, Thus far and no 
 farther.' " 
 Of course the last part of the above, with its 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 85 
 
 " equipoise, thought-force," etc., in just the usual Ed- 
 diaii stuff; but the idea mentioned above, which 
 causes her difficulty, emerges. She does not, or will 
 not, admit that " Mind," or God, could impart to 
 matter any properties like " adhesion, cohesion or at- 
 traction." It seems to her, indeed, that matter can 
 neither act in any way, nor oppose any obstacle to 
 any action on it, from which she quite naturally con- 
 cludes that it can have no real existence. She feels 
 equally sure that the same ought to hold with regard 
 to spirit (or "mind" with a small m). But she has 
 to account in some way for the " sick " people, the 
 removal of whom is the whole motive for her 
 " science," so she has to desperately fall back on 
 something which she calls " mortal mind," which is 
 neither God, nor anything created by Him. Of course 
 it has no real or actual existence, any more than 
 matter has ; but it is just as good to talk about as 
 if it had. It would seem that she simply cannot un- 
 derstand or will not admit that God can lodge or im- 
 plant any force in His creation, and be able to take 
 it back. 
 
 " We tread," she says, " on forces. Withdraw 
 them and creation must collapse." She cannot con- 
 ceive that God could modify or change these forces, 
 even for a moment. " Human knowledge," she says, 
 " calls them forces of matter. But divine Science de- 
 clares that they belong wholly to Divine Mind." Of 
 course every Christian holds that they do, and he 
 does not need any Eddian Science to assure him of 
 the fact. But that does not prevent God's creation 
 of matter, or His implanting in it of certain forces ; 
 which may, while this state of things, according to 
 His will, continues, be called " forces of matter." If 
 
86 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 He choses to " withdraw " them (of course we can- 
 not do this of ourselves) it is not creation, but Ed- 
 dian Science, which " must collapse." She uses again 
 the word " inherent," with the meaning of being 
 " stuck " inextricably. She says that these forces 
 are *' inherent " in this Mind, which seems to mean 
 that if He could let them go, He could not get them 
 back again, or make any use of them while they 
 were gone. 
 
 From these false notions, she draws, but quite il- 
 logically, some startling conclusions. '' The seasons," 
 she tells us, " will come and go with changes of time 
 and tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude." 
 (What she means by this last is not clear, unless she 
 is referring to the slight variation, lately discovered 
 by astronomers, in the position on the earth's surface 
 of the terrestrial pole. We hardly think, however, 
 that she had heard anything about that for she 
 doesn't seem quite up to date about astronomy.) But 
 for some reason, not apparent to " mortal mind," she 
 tells us that " the agriculturist will find that these 
 changes cannot effect his crops." Of course, as it is, 
 if they go on regularly or normally, they don't affect 
 his crops, for his planting, ploughing, etc., is done 
 in accordance with them. But if even in his " mortal 
 belief," there appeared to be a big change in cold or 
 heat, or, at any rate, if " mortal " observations should 
 show such a change in latitude that the pole came and 
 settled down in Illinois, for example, even the most 
 ardent supporters of Mrs. Eddy would hardly, we 
 fear, be able to believe that the crops would not be 
 affected. The idea, if there was any at all in her 
 mind, seems, for the moment, to have been that " time 
 and tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude," were 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 87 
 
 not merely matters of '' mortal belief ; " though why 
 they should be exceptions to the general rule about 
 " matter " does not appear. But really it is hardly 
 worth while to treat such stuff as this seriously, or 
 even jocosely. 
 
 She continually hangs on, or as she would say, 
 " adheres," in this chapter, to the idea that natural 
 science is, with those who believe in it, built on the 
 false hypothesis " that matter is its own lawgiver," or 
 that material conditions " are final and overrule the 
 might of divine Mind." The plain and universal 
 Christian belief that God is the author, creator and 
 preserver — so long as He chooses — of all that exists, 
 she simply ignores, and blinds herself to everything 
 except her own weird notion that the only conceivable 
 alternative to what she calls " natural science " is to 
 deny the actual existence of His creation entirely. 
 
 To escape from the charge of pantheism, naturally 
 and rightfully made against her doctrine, Mrs. Eddy, 
 on her next page, proceeds to give a definition of 
 pantheism. She says : " Pantheism may be defined 
 as a belief in the intelligence of matter." Of course 
 it may be defined in this way, or in any way that one 
 may choose. But she wants to give the idea by this, 
 that such is the universal and — as she would perhaps 
 say, " inherent " — definition of it ; or, perhaps, that 
 this is really the only definition. 
 
 Of course, however, the etymological definition of 
 the word would be got at by taking the two Greek 
 words of which it is composed ; namely " Pan," which 
 means All, and " Theos " which means God ; which 
 would make it mean that All is God ; or in other 
 words that nothing exists except God, which is a 
 brief statement of Mrs. Eddy's " Science." It is 
 
88 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 simply a form or variety of pantheism. And it is 
 equally plain that the definition which she gives of 
 " pantheism " has nothing whatever in it of what is 
 expressed by the two words of which it is composed. 
 This definition of hers does not say t?hat God is all ; 
 indeed it doesn't say anything about God at all. It 
 simply says something about matter; it doesn't even 
 say that matter is all; it only mentions one particular 
 idea about it, namely, that it has intelligence. 
 
 She cannot seem to free herself from the notion 
 that there are some people, somewhere, that are hold- 
 ing this particular idea or belief about matter. Who 
 they are does not appear. The ordinary materialist 
 does not have any such idea ; and we have never 
 heard of any Christian who does. Perhaps Mrs. 
 Eddy, in the course of her wanderings, may have 
 come across some such people, and it is possible that 
 she may have been one of them herself. And not 
 knowing what to call them, she thinks that perhaps 
 the name of '' pantheist " might fit them, though she 
 does not seem to know exactly what it properly would 
 mean. 
 
 A most unaccountable little remark appears shortly 
 after this. She says : " The generous liver may ob- 
 ject to the author's small estimate of the pleasures 
 of the table." We are somewhat puzzled to under- 
 stand where in her 'book this "small estimate" is 
 to be found ; at any rate to any extent that the 
 " generous liver " could object to it. It would seem 
 rather funny for a book on religion, as this of hers 
 may be called, to dwell with great enthusiasm on the 
 pleasures of the table. We hardly see why the most 
 '* generous liver " could expect it to do so. But most 
 spiritual books that we know of treat more plainly 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 89 
 
 of the dangers of such pleasures than Mrs. Eddy 
 seems disposed to do. Most of them have some good 
 word to say for asceticism; but all she has to say 
 about it, in her long chapter on " Atonement and 
 Eucharist," is that " Jesus was no ascetic," which 
 seems to be rather in favor of the " generous liver " 
 than otherwise. One can hardly help wondering 
 where she has met with these petty intellects who are. 
 as she tells us, alarmed at her " constant appeals to 
 Mind." One would think that the alarm would rather 
 be at finding in her book so little appeal to " mind " 
 (with a small " m "). 
 
 But we must pass on to the next section, on what 
 she calls 
 
 " Theology." 
 
 In the beginning of it, it is worth w^hile to notice 
 the calmness with which this amateur theologian fits 
 in any words of Our Lord, whether having any re- 
 ference to her doctrines or not, as being an approval 
 by Him of them. 
 
 " In reply," she says, " to John's inquiry (John being 
 St. John Baptist), 'Art thou He that shall come?' Jesus 
 returned an affirmative reply, *Go and show John 
 again those things which you do hear and see: the 
 blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
 and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And 
 blessed is he, whosoever shall not be ofifended in Me." 
 
 The natural meaning of these words, obvious enough 
 to all of us, and even to Mrs. Eddy, is that by the 
 Divine power manifested in the wonderful works men- 
 tioned, it was plain that He Who worked them was 
 indeed the One " that should come." But all that she 
 
90 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 chooses to make out of them is merely that " He gave 
 his benediction to anyone who should not deny that 
 such effects, coming from divine Mind, prove the 
 unity of God — the divine principle which brings out 
 all harmony." 
 
 She seizes what seems to her a suitable occasion to 
 bring out her "Science " catch-words about " Mind," 
 " Principle," and " harmony," though there is not the 
 slightest reference to them in the actual words of 
 Christ. Of course her justification for this would be 
 that He must have had these catch-words in mind, 
 though perhaps not very clearly; that He must have 
 had an incipient idea about this great revelation which 
 Mrs. Eddy (whose forerunner He was) was to bring 
 out much more completely. He Himself was a 
 " student," but, of course, a very imperfect one, in 
 her great school of Eddian Science. That she assigns 
 to Him this place, so low compared with her own, is 
 plain enough throughout her book. 
 
 A curious example of the carelessness on her part 
 of what does not affect her own glory or her pet no- 
 tions, is to be found soon after this. She says : " This 
 righteous preacher" (that is all that St. John is to 
 her) " once pointed his disciples to Jesus as 'the Lamb 
 of God,' yet afterward he seriously questioned the 
 signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry 
 to Jesus, 'Art thou He that should come ?' " 
 
 She seems to forget, or not care to notice, that the 
 occasion on which St. John called Jesus the Lamb of 
 God, was that of Our Lord's baptism by him, where 
 he also testified that Jesus was He Who baptizeth with 
 the Holy Ghost (John i. 33). Anyone, except Mrs. 
 Eddy, would see that, after this, St. John did not 
 " seriously," or in any way, " question the signs of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 91 
 
 the Messianic appearing ; " that he only sent the in- 
 quiry to Jesus, "Art thou He that should come ? " in 
 order that our Blessed Lord might Himself announce 
 that He was indeed that One, with His own Divine 
 authority and majesty. But she is so blinded by her 
 own pride that she can't see even the most obvious 
 things. What absurdity to suppose that St. John seri- 
 ously questioned who our Divine Lord was, after he 
 had said of Him : " Behold the Lamb of God, behold 
 Him Who taketh away the sin of the world '* 
 (John i. 29). 
 
 She actually proceeds on the next page to make out 
 that the healing of the Israelites (Num. xxi. 9) was 
 only a " belief that they were healed." According to 
 her, there was nothing the matter with them before 
 the healing, except a silly notion that snake bites were 
 injurious, and all that was needed was to get rid of 
 such a nonsensical idea. We rather think that Mrs. 
 Eddy always clung to this notion, however, and would 
 not have wanted to show its foolishness in her own 
 case by any rash experiments. 
 
 In the next paragraph comes another wild imagina- 
 tion, that the indignation of the Jews against Christ 
 was due to His teaching of good orthodox Eddian 
 pantheism. Again, on the next page, she says: 
 " Denial of the possibility of Christian healing robs 
 Christianity of the very element which gave it divine 
 force." Quite true ; but who, among Christians, denies 
 this possibility? All that any of us deny is that you 
 can't cure sick people by merely asserting that they 
 are not sick. It may work, if there is really not much 
 the matter with them ; but if they are just plain hyp- 
 ochondriacs, it may only make them all the more con- 
 fident that they are right and you are wrong. 
 
92 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 There is not much in the rest of this section on 
 " Theology " which calls for special comment or criti- 
 cism. Throughout the whole of it, however, one finds, 
 cropping out here and there, her continual taking for 
 granted that w^hat she calls '' popular theology," or 
 Christianity as generally understood, teaches that God 
 has left man entirely under the control of the material 
 forces which He has established, and that He has 
 nothing to do with the world which He has created. 
 She insists on claiming as a special discovery of her 
 own so-called " Science" that there is or can be any 
 " triumph of Spirit, Mind over matter." According to 
 her, if anybody has this idea at the present day, they 
 got it from her. If such an idea existed at any 
 previous time, it must, she imagines, have been lost. 
 
 In fact, however, it has always been held, and is at 
 present by all Christians who are not merely nominal 
 ones, that God has now, as He always has had, com- 
 plete supremacy and control over His whole universe. 
 If they had not this belief, they would never say a 
 prayer. But they actually do this, frequently, with 
 regard to all matters which they cannot help seeing, 
 that the power which He has committed to them- 
 selves is not sufficient. They pray, of course, mainly 
 for spiritual graces and energies for the resisting of 
 sin and the attainment of virtue ; but they are not in- 
 different to Mrs. Eddy's special hobby of " curing the 
 sick." Prayers for the sick are continually offered; 
 and such prayers would not be offered, did not Chris- 
 tians know that they were frequently answ^ered. But 
 they also believe, as their very faith obliges them to 
 believe, that curing sick people in general, or even 
 themselves when they are sick, is not the most im- 
 portant thing in the world. They recognize, as Mrs. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 93 
 
 Eddy apparently does not, that spiritual blessings may 
 come from bodily disease; but she considers disease 
 the one principal evil which afflicts us, and that every 
 trouble in serving God that we can suffer comes from 
 our being sick, or from imagining that we are sick. 
 
 She certainly seems to hold that our Blessed Lord's 
 great object in this world was to heal the sick ; or, as 
 she would say, to rid them of the dangerous error of 
 " mortal mind " that they were sick. And yet it may 
 be remarked in passing, that she herself seems to have 
 finally succumbed to this dangerous error ; unless when 
 she was about to die, she still thought that there was 
 nothing the matter with her, which seems hard to 
 believe. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that on the point of en- 
 tirely avoiding death, she is rather non-committal in 
 this book. She says : " The adoption of scientific 
 religion and of divine healing will ameliorate sin, sick- 
 ness, and death." This word " ameliorate " is, of 
 course, somewhat ambiguous. But if it only means 
 that it will make sickness and death easier or less 
 painful, why say " scientific," or bring in the words 
 "divine healing?" Any kind of sincere religion will 
 " ameliorate " sin, sickness, and death. One can 
 hardly help a lurking suspicion that, when writing 
 these words, she still thought it quite possible that 
 she might die, after all, and that it would be well to 
 cast an anchor to windward (as the saying is) if that 
 should prove to be the case. 
 
 Let us proceed to her views in the next section, 
 called 
 
 " Medicine." 
 Mrs. Eddy starts out here with statements rather 
 
94 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 more wild and absurd than any previously made by 
 her. We are staggered in the very begininng by the 
 audacity of the following, which she appears to 
 present as an argument: "God," she says, ** being 
 All-in-all, He made medicine; but," she concludes, 
 " that medicine was Mind." The rather important 
 premise, which she suppresses, may as well be given. 
 The thing should read : " God, being All-in-all, He 
 made medicine. But, being All-in-all, He could not 
 make anything outside of Himself." Therefore that 
 medicine was Mind (which is her word for God). 
 This suppressed premise is, obviously, simply a denial 
 of the possibilities of Creation. But the first premise 
 becomes still more astounding; for it is reduced by 
 this to the statement that " God made God." 
 
 We always understood that God was self-existent; 
 that He was not " made " at all. And indeed she has 
 just acknowledged this, herself. Probably, however, 
 this was not exactly meant for an argument. But 
 still she must have had some sort of idea in this 
 first paragraph. Its very first words are : " Which 
 was first. Mind or medicine? If Mind was first and 
 self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been 
 the first medicine." Of course everyone of us who 
 believes in the creation of matter holds that the 
 Creator exists prior to the thing created ; or if she 
 chooses to put it so, that Mind is the first medicine, 
 in the logical order as well as in that of time. But 
 to infer from this that Mind is the only medicine ; or 
 in other words, that the creating Mind is unable to 
 give to what He has created any power or effect to 
 do anything whatever, because He Himself could do 
 the same thing without its assistance, by no means fol- 
 lows. And it is not only contrary to common sense and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 95 
 
 universal experience, but is also a limitation on the 
 power of Mind. And yet, it is probable that many 
 are deceived by such stuff as this. She goes right 
 on with the same kind of thing. 
 
 " It is plain," she says, " that God does not em- 
 ploy drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human 
 use." Really, however, that is just the very thing 
 that He does do. She might just as well say, that 
 God does not provide anything for us to eat, or at any 
 rate, that He does not show us how to cook it. He 
 leaves us to find out these things, like so many others, 
 for ourselves. 
 
 Another most obvious fallacy meets us in the very 
 next sentence. " The sick are more deplorably lost 
 than the sinning," she says, " if the sick cannot rely 
 on God for help and the sinning can." What Chris- 
 tian ever said that the sick cannot rely on God for 
 help, when we all pray to Him for such help for 
 them? Also, this remark would mean that it is more 
 deplorable to be sick, than to be a sinner. This really 
 seems to be her idea, as she apparently regards the 
 healing of the sick (in the usual sense of the word) 
 as Christ's chief work on earth. She absolutely ig- 
 nores the actual belief and practice of Christians in 
 general, of using both medicine and prayer in case 
 of illness, and insists that we must cut out either one 
 or the other. She finishes this paragraph with the 
 fine sounding (perhaps) but utterly unmeaning maxim, 
 " The body is not controlled scientifically by a nega- 
 tive mind." What in the world is meant by con- 
 trolling the body scientifically, or by a negative mind ? 
 The plain truth is that Christians use drugs, as well 
 as " Mind," for the sick, because there are the surest 
 indications that such, usually, is the will of God. 
 
96 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 It is rather amusing, by the way, with her great 
 desire and pretence to " science," that she does not 
 seem to know what is meant by " the science (so 
 called) of physics," or that it is concerned with matter 
 as inanimate. She seems to think it is the same as 
 that of medicine. This same blunder occurs five pages 
 further on. "The universal belief in physics," she says 
 (meaning "physic"), "weighs against the high and 
 mighty truths of Christian metaphysics," which, she 
 soon tells us, is taught in Christian Science ; though 
 it is hard to find it. She tells us that in metaphysics, 
 " matter disappears from the remedy entirely," not 
 realizing that ''metaphysics," properly defined, has 
 nothing whatever to do with " remedies." 
 
 She goes back a little later, to a conundrum about 
 the drug business, already alluded to. " If God creates 
 drugs at all and designs them for medical use, why did 
 Jesus not employ them and recommend them for the 
 treatment of disease?" The answer to this, from our 
 point of view, is very easy. It was simply that we 
 might see the superiority of the supernatural, when 
 God wishes us to use it, to the merely natural. But 
 there is no evidence that He does so wish all the time. 
 Indeed the human life of Jesus Himself was mainly 
 on natural lines. 
 
 There is just one other little paragraph in this 
 chapter which may be worth noticing, for it is really 
 too amusing to let pass. It is as follows : " You 
 say," she remarks, " a boil is painful ; but that is 
 impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. 
 The boil simply manifests, through inflammation and 
 swelling, a belief in pain, and this belief is called 
 a boil." 
 
 Everyone, of course, knows very well, that for any- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 97 
 
 thing whatever to be painful, there must be some mind 
 to feel the pain. And that mind must have a special 
 union with the body in which the actual material boil 
 exists ; you can't feel somebody else's boil, though of 
 course you may easily see it. You can, however, as 
 for example by some local anaesthetic, partly cut ofif 
 the union between body and mind so that you will 
 cease to feel your own boil, though you know it is 
 there; and that it would be painful, if you had not 
 cut, for the time being, the connection between body 
 and mind. But it is simply nonsense to say that this 
 belief in pain is the boil. You know it is there, all 
 the time, just as well as ever. There is such a thing 
 as a painless abscess, which may go on and swell up 
 to a large size ; but it isn't a " belief in pain," for 
 there isn't any actual pain, or any belief in the ex- 
 istence of any. Isn't it astonishing that people can 
 be taken in by such stuff as this? 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's remedy for a boil (and it ought to work 
 just the same for an abscess of the kind just men- 
 tioned) is to " administer to the patient a high at- 
 tenuation of truth." We think that a good solid 
 dose of truth and common sense would be better than 
 an '' attenuation." 
 
 There is another curious example in the chapter 
 of the making of an argument out of what is merely 
 a theory of her own. She takes for granted that homoe- 
 opathy is the accepted school of medicine, and naturally 
 enough asks, " If drugs are an antidote to disease, why 
 lessen the antidote? If drugs are good things, is it 
 safe to say that the less in quantity you have of them 
 the better? " Well, this really is a fair argument 
 against homoeopathy ; but it calmly ignores the fact 
 that most people do not believe in the latter. The 
 
98 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 present writer happened to be brought up, as a child, 
 on that system, and got through various illnesses on 
 it ; and probably would have got through them (as 
 he had a good constitution) without any medicine at 
 all. But having at one time a rather severe attack of 
 fever and ague, the doctor (who was not a very strict 
 practitioner) concluded, after trying the little pellets 
 for quite a while, that it might be well to make a 
 change, and gave him, to his great surprise, a good 
 stiff dose of quinine ; and the effect being satisfactory, 
 kept on with the same, which got the trouble out of 
 his system, so that it has never returned. 
 
 I do not claim to have refuted homoeopathy by this 
 one fact ; or even by many similar ones which might 
 be argued ; but it can hardly be used as an argument 
 for Eddian Science. Mrs. Eddy is, however, probably 
 enough right in saying that there is too much 
 drugging, and giving of strong medicines without 
 necessity ; and that harm results from this. But this 
 is not the same as saying that drugs are never use- 
 ful. And we can't help suspecting that she may her- 
 self have kept a little quinine on the sly, to be used 
 when really needed, when her Science did not seem 
 to w^ork; or, as a kind of short cut, to save need- 
 less strain on it. 
 
 In conclusion of this chapter, we can hardly pass 
 by the remark she makes just at its end, as follows : "If 
 you or I," she says, " should appear to die, we should 
 not be dead." We don't, perhaps, quite get the proper 
 force of this. But we can't quite see how it is that 
 Mrs. Eddy is not now, in the universally accepted 
 sense of the word, as dead as a door nail. And we 
 don't see why she was so carefully boxed up in con- 
 crete, if it were not to hide the evidence of this 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 99 
 
 fact. If it is not a fact, it will be rather awkward. 
 Her next chapter is very similar to this one. It is 
 headed 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Physiology. 
 
 We don't quite see why Mrs. Eddy made a special 
 chapter out of this. It is the same old hodge-podge 
 and medley, which she has been working on all the 
 time. One idea, however, which comes in the course 
 of it, has certainly some novelty and ingenuity. She 
 says: 
 
 " If a dose of poison is swallowed through mis- 
 take, and the patient dies, even though physician and 
 patient are expecting favorable results, does human 
 belief, you ask, cause this death? Even so, and as 
 directly as if the poison had been intentionally taken. 
 In such cases," she continues, " a few persons be- 
 lieve the poison swallowed by the patient to be harm- 
 less, but the vast majority of mankind, though they 
 know nothing of this particular case, and this special 
 person, believe the arsenic, the strychnine, or what- 
 ever the drug used, to be poisonous, for it is set down 
 as a poison by mortal mind. Consequently, the result 
 is controlled by the majority of opinions, not by the 
 infinitesimal minority of opinions in the sick-chamber." 
 
 Well this certainly opens the door wide enough to 
 let in an ample excuse for any failures in Eddian 
 Science. But it is hard to see how she can account 
 for its ever succeeding, if things are to go in such a 
 democratic way, by a majority vote in every case. 
 For she now tells that the patient's own opinion, or 
 that of his friends, counts for hardly anything. *' The 
 
loo The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 result is controlled," she says, " entirely by what 
 people in general think, even though unaware of the 
 particular case." 
 
 Well, then, the general belief is, for instance, that 
 a certain per cent of people will die if attacked by 
 typhus fever, or some other kind of dangerous dis- 
 ease. We had supposed that there was no danger, 
 even in such a disease, for a good ' scientific " patient, 
 especially in charge of a good " scientific " prac- 
 titioner. But now it appears that it is only the 
 opinion of the unscientific crowd outside of the 
 charmed circle of Eddian Science which counts. The 
 typhus fever is just like the poisonous drug. If 
 people in general think that your " science " won't 
 help you, then it won't; that is all there is about 
 it. To conform to the popular belief, you will have 
 to fall back on the medicine or treatment that would 
 popularly be thought most effective. And you would 
 not have so good a chance, on account of your lack 
 of belief in it, as If you belonged to the majority 
 yourself. Your science is an injury to you, not a 
 help. It would evidently be better to " get on to the 
 band wagon." Better drop your " science," and be- 
 have like other people. 
 
 The " man of straw " whom we have to notice so 
 often, comes in a few pages after this with more 
 prominence than usual, though he is lurking around, 
 more or less, all the time. " To admit," she says, 
 " that sickness is a condition over which God has no 
 control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power is 
 powerless on some occasions." That is obviously 
 true; it is just saying the same thing in two dif- 
 ferent ways. But what Christian " admits " anything 
 of the kind? 
 
The Truth About Christian Science loi 
 
 It would seem that she simply cannot get rid of the 
 idea that the Christian faith, as usually held, teaches 
 that matter has its own laws, and that God has noth- 
 ing- to do with them. She must have got this notion 
 in her early days from hearing that the age of 
 miracles has passed, and has understood it as being 
 a sort of polite way of saying that there never was 
 any such age, and that there could never have been 
 any. 
 
 So she thinks that she has entirely knocked out the 
 underpinning from the ordinary unscientific Christian, 
 by remarking that the senses and all other indica- 
 tions of life disappear when the body is left with- 
 out a mind to control it ; as if anyone ever imagined 
 that they were a consequence of its simply material 
 formation. " If we take away this erring mind," she 
 gravely says, " the mortal material body loses all ap- 
 pearance of life or action, and this so-called mind 
 then calls itself dead." "Calls itself dead?" What 
 Christian calls it so? He simply calls his body dead, 
 because he knows that it cannot, by its merely ma- 
 terial formation, exercise the vital powers which the 
 soul can produce in it when united to it. 
 
 She ventures, later on, to go a step further. She 
 seemingly is not able to get the idea that even the 
 Creator can give any energy to matter without giving 
 it intelligence in the use of that energy ; and that 
 nobody could, for a moment, suppose such a thing 
 to be possible. She actually says in her next chapter : 
 " Material substances or mundane functions, astronom- 
 ical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu- 
 lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material 
 law or life and intelligence resident in matter " (as if 
 these two, " law " and " intelligence," were identical 
 
102 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 or inseparable), "will ultimately vanish, swallowed 
 up in the infinite calculus of Spirit." 
 
 But there is not the slightest reason to suppose that 
 this " infinite calculus of Spirit," whatever it may be, 
 will' make any difference whatever in the laws which 
 Spirit has, in His infinite wisdom, laid down for mat- 
 ter ; to remain permanently, unless He chooses to de- 
 stroy it altogether. The planets, as one would think 
 even Mrs. Eddy herself would have seen, have not 
 " mortal minds " to vitiate our calculations on them. 
 
 This strange notion that she somehow got into her 
 head, that the material laws, which the wisdom of the 
 Creator laid down for the material part of His crea- 
 tion, are only something trumped up by " mortal 
 mind," instead of being actual facts, discovered with 
 God's help, by it, is probably the cause and the ex- 
 planation of most of her vagaries. But the strange 
 thing is that she has been able to impose this foolish 
 notion on so many whom one would suppose to be 
 fairly intelligent people. 
 
 But without wasting any more time on this chapter, 
 which is mainly a mere repetition of what she had 
 previously tried to impose on our common sense, let 
 us pass on to the next, which she calls 
 
 " Footsteps of Truth." 
 
 Our old acquaintance, the " straw man," makes his 
 appearance rather early in this. She says : " Graft- 
 ing holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin can 
 be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as 
 straining out gnats and swallowing camels." 
 
 This seems to be a sort of relic of the Lutheran 
 theology, in which she must, we suppose, have been 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 103 
 
 brought up, and which, as she imagines, is the regular, 
 orthodox, or historical teaching of the Christian 
 Church. She does not seem to know that it has been 
 practically abandoned long ago, or that it is generally 
 recognized now that for sin to be forgiven, it must be 
 forsaken, at any rate in the serious intention and pur- 
 pose of the sinner ; though the complete carrying out 
 of this intention may, on account of human frailty, be 
 realized only by a few. But what connection it has 
 with her special Eddian views, is not at all clear, un- 
 less it be that for a real genuine " scientist," it is 
 impossible to commit even the smallest sin. She might 
 perhaps have said that if a " scientist " does some- 
 times fall into sin, it is because he has not yet thor- 
 oughly mastered his " science," or got thoroughly '' in 
 accord with the divine Principle of his being ; " to use 
 her own words, which one finds a little later. 
 
 But of course this is just what the Christian Church 
 has always said, though it doesn't use these catch- 
 words about " Science," and " Principle of being." It 
 is only by the Divine union, which Christ came to ob- 
 tain for us, that sin can be overcome. That is what 
 He chiefly came for, to heal not our bodies, but our 
 souls. To heal a bodily illness, and to hope by that 
 to heal sin, the illness of the soul, is to put the cart 
 before the horse. When " Immortal man " to use her 
 words, does get " thoroughly in accord with the divine 
 Principle of his being," it is quite true that " he neither 
 sins, suffers, nor dies." But that is no Eddian dis- 
 covery ; the Church has taught that all along. 
 
 She says : " We rely on a drug to heal disease, as 
 if senseless matter had more power than omnipotent 
 Spirit." If we " relied on a drug " to get rid of sin, 
 she would be quite justified in this criticism. But as 
 
104 ^^^^ Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 things actually are, God has left the body largely in 
 the control of His own material laws, which have not 
 lost their efficacy by our soul-sickness, and which will 
 work without being affected by it. Their working may 
 be more effectual if the soul-sickness is more or less 
 cured ; but that is not because they themselves work 
 in any different way, but because we interfere less with 
 their work. 
 
 She says, in the next paragraph : " Common opinion 
 admits that a man may take cold in the act of doing 
 good." It would be better to put " common sense " 
 instead of " common opinion," for there is no doubt 
 whatever that such a thing may happen. It is not, of 
 course, that his doing good makes him take cold, but 
 that in doing it he runs against some natural law, the 
 effect of which God does not choose to nullify, though 
 in some other way He may compensate for it. 
 
 To take a practical example. If a man sees a burn- 
 ing fuse attached to a barrel of gunpowder, he will 
 do a good act by trying to put it out. He may not 
 succeed, and the result may be that he will be blown 
 up, whereas he might have saved himself by running 
 away in time. Or a man may be drowned in trying to 
 save another man, who might have saved himself if 
 he had been left alone. It is quite evident, in such 
 cases, and many others which might be adduced, that 
 what Mrs. Eddy calls " evil " does " check the reward 
 for doing good," in spite of her saying, "as if evil 
 could overbear the law of Love." 
 
 The fact is, that " common opinion " though ad- 
 mitting, as she says, that such a thing may happen, 
 holds that the man who suffers for his heroism, gets 
 from God a reward better than the one which he has 
 Igst " In the Science of Christianity," Mrs. Eddy 
 
Tlic Truth About Christian Science 105 
 
 says, "Mind assigns sure rewards to righteousness;" 
 but it does not show " that matter cannot make sick 
 nor destroy." She lugs in " create ; " but in the proper 
 sense of the word every Christian agrees to that. 
 
 She goes on with more of the same sort of stuff. 
 " We are prone," she says, " to believe in more than 
 one Supreme Ruler." Excuse me, but whatever Mrs. 
 Eddy may confess as to herself, Christians in general, 
 are not prone to believe that at all. And she goes on, 
 as if it were all the same thing, " or in some power 
 less than God." We are " prone " to believe in that, 
 which is quite a different matter. But we do not be- 
 lieve that there is any power not completely subject 
 to God. 
 
 " When the material body has gone to ruin," she 
 continues, " when evil has overtaxed the belief of life 
 in matter and destroyed it, then mortals believe that 
 the deathless Principle, or soul, escapes from matter 
 and lives on ; but this is not true." Well if this is 
 not true, it seems to be a bad lookout for all of us, 
 including Mrs. Eddy. It really seems strange that she 
 should have said — or at any rate written — a thing like 
 that. But perhaps she really did not expect even to 
 seem to die. 
 
 The straw man soon pokes his head out again. 
 ** Befogged in error," she says (the error of be- 
 lieving that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), 
 " we can catch clear glimpses of God only as the mists 
 disperse." We wonder if Mrs. Eddy ever had the 
 belief that " matter can be intelligent." We never 
 heard of anyone else that had it. There seems to be 
 a good deal of " befogging " about what she writes ; 
 perhaps this was just a specimen of it. Perhaps the 
 straw man, after all, was just herself. 
 
io6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Really, it is hard to plough through such a mass 
 of stuff as we find in this chapter, where almost every 
 paragraph is either a truism or an absurdity, and 
 hardly any sentence has any connection with the one 
 which preceded it. We must just quote one choice 
 and good-sized gem of unmeaning nonsense : 
 
 " The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all 
 things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of 
 man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the 
 ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted ; the 
 opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to 
 spirituality, is not real. The only evidence of this 
 inversion is obtained from suppositional error, which 
 affords no proof of God, Spirit, or of the spiritual 
 creation. Material sense defines all things materially, 
 and has a finite sense of the infinite." 
 
 We defy anyone to make any " material sense," or 
 any kind of sense, out of this. 
 
 Here is another little gem : " The immanent sense 
 of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind. Near- 
 ness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view." 
 Another : " Because immortal sense has no error of 
 sense, it has no sense of error; therefore it is with- 
 out a destructive element." Probably that was the 
 trouble with Mrs. Eddy. We have often wondered 
 what was the matter with her. It must be that she 
 had " immortal " sense, though what that is is not 
 plain to those of us who just have the common or 
 " garden " variety. So, even when she fell into the 
 most glaring errors, she had no sense by which to 
 detect them. She had nothing in her destructive 
 of them, as most other people have. 
 
 This childish stuff about " intelligence in matter " 
 reappears in the very next paragraph to this : *' If 
 
TJic Truth About Christian Science 107 
 
 brains, nerves, stomach," she says with apparent 
 seriousness, " are intelligent — if they talk to us, tell 
 us their condition, and report how they feel " — well, 
 that will do before going on. It is simply astonish- 
 ing that anyone can be impressed in any way except 
 disgust by such stuff as this. She might just as well 
 say, " if a clock is intelligent, if it can tell us the 
 time of day, or— if it has an alarm — can inform us of 
 a terrible convulsion going on in its vitals," etc. No 
 one, except Mrs. Eddy, was ever so foolish as to 
 imagine that this would show any " intelligence " in a 
 clock. It does show, of course, intelligence in the 
 person who designed or made the clock. It is the 
 familiar " argument from design," which is used by 
 Paley, and a host of others. If one finds a watch 
 lying around in some desert place, no sensible per- 
 son imagines that it just happened to grow there, 
 or to be a fortuitous concourse of atoms, but naturally 
 feels sure that somebody made it, and for the express 
 purpose of keeping time ; and that somebody had it, 
 and lost it or threw it away. But no one would think 
 for a moment that the watch, so found, must be an 
 *' error of mortal mind," and couldn't possibly be real, 
 for if it were, it would show " intelligence in matter." 
 And indeed, it doesn't seem possible that Mrs. Eddy 
 herself really took any stock — except in a literal 
 pecuniary way — in nonsense like this. In that way, of 
 course, perhaps she did. She may have thought it 
 might impose on some one, and help to sell her book ; 
 especially if dressed up in some high sounding words, 
 like the following, which immediately follow those 
 quoted from her in the beginning of this " gem." 
 " If," etc., she continues, " then Spirit and matter. 
 Truth and error, commingle and produce sickness and 
 
io8 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 health, good and evil, life and death ; and who shall 
 say whether Truth or error is the greater ? " 
 
 One doesn't like to accuse anyone — especially a 
 lady — of a deliberate attempt to deceive in important 
 matters, or of committing any other grave moral 
 fault ; but really it does seem impossible that anyone, 
 however stupid, could get so much " befogged in 
 error " as to write anything of this kind, and be de- 
 luded by it himself. 
 
 A page or so later on there is a passage which calls 
 for more serious attention than those which we have 
 quoted; though it begins with the same stupidity 
 about " intelligence in matter." But on the whole, it is 
 a sort of " lucid interval " in her usual raving. 
 
 " If it is true," she remarks, " that nerves have 
 sensation, that matter has intelligence, that the ma- 
 terial organism causes the eyes to see and the ears to 
 hear, then, when the body is dematerialized, these 
 faculties must be lost, for their immateriality is not in 
 Spirit, whereas the fact is that only through dema- 
 terialization and spiritualization or thought can these 
 faculties be conceived of as immortal." 
 
 There is undoubtedly a mystery here, which, how- 
 ever, what Mrs. Eddy says does not at all help to 
 clear up. Of course nobody pretends that matter has 
 intelligence, as we have said all along. All that mat- 
 ter does in the cases which she mentions, as far as we 
 can as yet discover, is to form a picture on the re- 
 tina of the eye, or a vibration in the drum of the 
 ear ; but how the mind can get hold of this picture or 
 vibration any better than it can of the actual objects 
 outside which they reproduce, is not evident, and per- 
 haps never will be, in this world. 
 
 The mystery of the transit from matter to mind re- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 109 
 
 mains the same as it was. And it is certainly true 
 that when the connection between the two is broken 
 by death, we do not at present understand what can 
 take its place. The trouble, of course, is that all our 
 knowledge of matter is obtained by the senses, which, 
 however, being a Divine gift to us, cannot, when work- 
 ing normally, deceive us. But what right have we to 
 assert that God cannot or will not substitute some- 
 thing else beside the senses to which we are ac- 
 customed to make this transit for us, with even a 
 more perfect security from error than what they now 
 afford? It therefore is not true that when they are 
 gone, the faculties which they now give must be lost. 
 What are we thus to set limits to the power of the 
 Omnipotent? A faculty is not lost when it is im- 
 proved. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, of course, wants to prove that these 
 faculties or senses do not, now, give us any true in- 
 formation ; as if they were not given to us from God, 
 but something which we ourselves had invented by 
 " mortal mind." If this last were really the case, 
 it would be quite true that they could not be depended 
 on ; but the fact is that our experience in using them, 
 by the harmony or accordance of its results, shows us 
 the Source from which they have come. So, in try- 
 ing to exalt " Mind " by denying the existence of mat- 
 ter, she really is insulting (or blaspheming) " Mind," 
 by accusing it of falsehood and deceit. 
 
 This false idea of hers about matter makes her write 
 paragraphs like the following : " Mortals have a 
 modus of their own, undirected and unsustained by 
 God. They produce a rose through seed and soil, and 
 bring the rose into contact with the olfactory nerves 
 that they may smell it." 
 
no The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Well, this is certainly quite an achievement, to pro- 
 duce a rose unsustained by God. But we did not know 
 that it could be done. She goes on. " In legerdemain 
 and credulous frenzy, mortals believe that unseen 
 spirits produce the flowers." We have never met mor- 
 tals of this kind. They can't be very common. We 
 wonder who they were. Mrs. Eddy seems to have had 
 some strange acquaintances. 
 
 In the remainder of the chapter, she goes maunder- 
 ing on, very much on the same old lines as usual. Oc- 
 casionally she makes a funny slip, like one a few 
 pages further on, in which she seems to think that 
 '' infinity " and " finity " (a term which she seems to 
 have invented) refer to size. " Remember," she says, 
 " that truth is greater than error, and that we cannot 
 put the greater into the less ; " seemingly having in 
 mind the old saying, that " you cannot put a quart 
 into a pint-pot." '' Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater 
 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit 
 would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit," 
 she sagely remarks; as if spirit had, like body, its 
 geometrical dimensions. 
 
 She makes, however, in this chapter and the one 
 preceding, some practical cautions about not paying 
 too much attention to ailments by rules or theories 
 of diet, or hygiene. She carries them rather too far 
 sometimes in the book, probably rather farther than 
 in her own personal practice; from what she writes 
 one might infer that she never took a bath, used a 
 flesh brush, or (perhaps) even a toothbrush. But still 
 it may be that in these times this sort of thing may 
 receive more attention than it really deserves. A good 
 deal of this self-doctoring, as it may be called,^ 
 probably has come from the little books, especially 
 
The Truth About Christian Science iii 
 
 popular among homoeopaths, in which they are in- 
 structed what particular little pellet is the right one 
 to take for every symptom which may be noticed. 
 By means of these one can always feel sure, if skilled 
 in consulting the book, that this calls for *' Bryonia," 
 or that for " Pulsatilla." The best general practical 
 rule, probably, is not to mind about trifling ailments, 
 and when more serious ones occur to send for a doc- 
 tor, who understands the causes of them better than 
 you do by a more thorough knowledge of the sub- 
 ject. To worry about every little symptom is a mts- 
 take, as surely as it would be to kick the doctor over- 
 board altogether. Only, if one confines oneself to very 
 small pills of medicine which is much diluted, it would 
 really seem that it cannot do much harm ; and by 
 bringing " mind " to the rescue, may secure, to a great 
 extent, all the good which can be got from " Christian 
 Science." 
 
 But there is not much practical danger of quiddling, 
 as it may be called, too much, in the matter of soul- 
 sickness, which is commonly called "sin." Mrs. 
 Eddy, however, thinks that the right course about 
 this, as in body-sickness, is (to use her own words) to 
 " hold yourself superior " to it. " To hold yourself 
 superior to sin," she tells us, " is true wisdom." The 
 trouble about this, however, is that it isn't of any use 
 to " hold yourself " superior to it, unless you really 
 are so. Simply to pretend to yourself that you are in 
 this blessed condition, in which we all hope, some day, 
 to be, is of no more use than to make the same pre- 
 tence to others, and is even more harmful to spiritual 
 health. 
 
 She gives what looks like good spiritual advice be- 
 fore ending the chapter, saying : " You must control 
 
112 The Tniih About Christian Science 
 
 evil thoughts in the first place or they will control 
 you in the second." But it is rather spoiled by what 
 she says a little later ; that " evil thoughts and aims 
 reach no farther and do no more harm than anyone's 
 belief permits." What belief has to do with the mat- 
 ter is not clear to persons unlearned in Eddian Science. 
 Those who are learned in real spiritual science would, 
 for " belief," substitute " will." 
 
 She gives, however, the following very good advice 
 with regard to the education of children : " The 
 teachers of schools and the readers in churches should 
 be selected with as direct reference to their morals 
 as to their learning or their correct reading." (This 
 is all right, except that it is not the general practice, 
 as yet, to have readers in churches, other than their 
 regular pastors ; but if there are to be readers, who 
 are simply to read passages of Scripture or of Mrs. 
 Eddy's substitute for it, the only matter of much im- 
 portance would seem to be that they should know how 
 to read them correctly.) 
 
 But she hits the nail squarely on the head, when 
 she says that " school examinations are one-sided ; 
 it is not so much academic education, as a moral and 
 spiritual culture, which lifts one higher." This is just 
 what Christians in general have been saying for a 
 long time. The only thing that we want to be sure 
 of is that the culture is really and genuinely moral 
 and spiritual. 
 
 One little " gem," which she gives us a few pages 
 later, is worth quoting. She tells us of a woman who, 
 " disappointed in love in her early years, became in- 
 sane and lost all account of time." It appears, how- 
 ever, that her insanity made her fail to realize that the 
 lover could not now be expected to turn up; and as 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 113 
 
 she had lost all account of the time during which he 
 had not done so, she had a constant state of agree- 
 able expectation that he would appear, at any and 
 every moment, and so did not worry about him at all. 
 She actually, as we are told, looked the same when 
 seventy-four years old as she did in youth. Well, of 
 course this was rather extraordinary ; but it may be 
 conceded that such an unusual thing might happen, 
 and the explanation she gives of it is not so bad. As 
 Mrs. Eddy wisely remarks " impossibilities never oc- 
 cur." " One instance like the foregoing," she says, 
 " proves it possible to be young at seventy-four." 
 
 But now notice the sudden leap which she makes 
 from the possible to the regular or normal. " The pri- 
 mary (whatever that means) of that illustration makes 
 it plain that decrepitude is not according to law." 
 Common sense would say that it is plain from our 
 regular or normal experience, that decrepitude is, in 
 fact, according to law, and that this case which she 
 produces was a very extraordinary exception. 
 
 " Never record ages," she says. " Chronological 
 data are no part of the vast forever." Practically, for 
 some purpose at any rate, this advice is quite good, 
 and ladies (and gentlemen too) may prudently fol- 
 low it. 
 
 She goes on to say: "Life is eternal. We should 
 find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof." 
 She carried out her own advice, and did begin the 
 demonstration ; but it so happened that she " lost the 
 thread of her discourse." This sometimes is the case 
 with demonstrations which really are good ones ; so 
 perhaps it was only an accident with her, after all. 
 
 She tells us that "men and women of riper years 
 and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and im- 
 
114 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 mortality, instead of lapsing into darkness and gloom." 
 But if the author of the science which ought to pro- 
 duce glorious results did not succeed so well as lots 
 of people who were quite ignorant of it, it does not 
 seem to be a very convincing argument for that 
 science. 
 
 \\e\\, perhaps we may now be allowed to pass on 
 to her next chapter, which would seem from its title, 
 to be getting somewhat nearer to the real issues in- 
 volved in her remarkable theories. It is called 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Creation. 
 
 Instead of tackling at once, as we might expect, 
 the usual or orthodox ideas about creation, and show- 
 ing the superiority of her own, Mrs. Eddy starts out 
 in it by a sort of vague discussion of the Christian 
 dogma of the Incarnation, which seems to be rather 
 irrelevant. In this she gives a little slap, by the way 
 as it were, at that of the Holy Trinity. On this last 
 she does not spend much ink or time. She contents 
 herself by saying: ''The theory of three persons in 
 one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-unity) sug- 
 gests polytheism; rather than the one ever-present 
 / Am. 'Hear Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord.' " 
 
 This one little slap or snap she seems to think quite 
 enough to dispose at once of the arguments made long 
 ago by the greatest minds of the time (and indeed of 
 all time) to show that the dogma of the Trinity does 
 not mean polytheism. " It suggests polytheism," she 
 says, " at any rate it suggests it to me, and of course 
 no one can see anything else in it, if I don't." 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 115 
 
 She evidently has no idea or knowledge whatever of 
 the profound examinations of the dogma made for 
 several centuries by St. Athanasius and the other great 
 Doctors of the Church against Arius and his partisans ; 
 in which incomparably mo^e ability was shown on both 
 sides of the question than poor Mrs. Eddy could ever 
 by any possibility have had. If she had said: "I, 
 though a comparatively ignorant person, have received 
 a special revelation, showing to me, and to the world 
 through me, that this dogma of the Trinity, so long 
 held by the immense majority in the Church, is 
 erroneous," she might have had something to rest on. 
 She might have been asked to give some evidence to 
 prove the fact of her revelation, but that might have 
 been managed well enough to satisfy a good many. 
 But no ; this little snap is all that she deems necessary. 
 
 She does, however, condescend to go on to show that 
 no one appearing to be a man like others, could pos- 
 sibly have been God. " The everlasting I Am," she 
 says, " is not bounded nor compressed within the nar- 
 row limits of physical humanity." Again the notion 
 into which she is prone to fall, that infinity is a 
 matter of size, shows itself. She goes on : " Nor can 
 He be understood aright through mortal concepts." 
 We quite agree with this last. But probably an ex- 
 ception would have to be made in favor of Mrs. 
 Eddy, as she was thoroughly imbued with " immortal 
 Mind," and had shaken off the false notions of mortal 
 mind (with a small "m"). But as to the everlasting 
 I Am not being " bounded or compressed within the 
 narrow limits of physical humanity," no one who be- 
 lieves in the Incarnation ever entertains any such 
 idea; nor would she, if she could stop thinking of 
 infinity as being a matter of size. 
 
ii6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 The fact is, as she sees well enough, that this is a 
 matter which cannot be " understood aright through 
 mortal concepts ; " especially by any to which she 
 has been accustomed. But she has nothing to offer 
 in place of these. It seems to her that if a spirit of 
 any kind is to be put into a body, the body must be 
 fitted to it, as a coat is to a man. This is conceivable, 
 and perhaps she regards it as our regular " concept " 
 of the matter. '' But," she would say, " God is in- 
 finitely too large for anything like that to be possible. 
 No material body could be big enough for Him.' So," 
 she would tell us, " the Incarnation, or Divinity of 
 Christ, as taught by Christians, must be rejected." 
 
 Well, she can of course reject it, if she chooses. 
 But she cannot very well deny that Our Lord said 
 words about Himself which seem to be a plain state- 
 ment of it. On one occasion, as St. John tells us in 
 his Gospel, He said to the Jews, " Your father Abra- 
 ham rejoiced to see My day ; and he saw it, and was 
 glad. Then said the Jews unto Him, Thou art not yet 
 fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus 
 said unto them. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, before 
 Abraham was, / Am." There are other passages, of 
 course, in which He is recorded as asserting His own 
 Divinity; but this seems specially appropriate, as in it 
 He uses the very words which, as Mrs. Eddy has 
 just insisted, cannot be applied to anything bounded 
 or compressed " within the narrow limits of physical 
 humanity." 
 
 She goes on, in her following words, to reassert her 
 denial. " No form or physical combination," she says, 
 " is adequate to represent infinite Love. A finite and 
 material sense of God leads to formalism and narrow- 
 ness; it chills the spirit of Christianity. A limitless 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 117 
 
 mind cannot proceed from physical limitations. Fi- 
 niteness cannot present the idea of the vastness of in- 
 finity. A mind originating from a finite or material 
 source must be limited and finite." 
 
 In all this, we see her idea of infinity, as a matter 
 of infinite size or dimension, continually cropping out ; 
 and also the notion of " a mind originating from a 
 finite or material sense," which is not held by any 
 orthodox Christian, if indeed it is by anyone at all. 
 
 She cannot, it would seem, shake off this strange 
 notion that our usual belief is that one mind pro- 
 duces another. " The theory," she goes on to inform 
 us, '' that Spirit is not the only substance and creator 
 is pantheistic heterodoxy." This certainly is rather 
 mixing things up. The first part (that about sub- 
 stance) would only mean that there are other sub- 
 stances created by the Almighty, which are not identi- 
 cal with Himself. We don't see, nor can anyone, 
 how she makes this out to be pantheistic ; it would 
 seem to be quite the contrary. But that there are 
 other " creators " no Christian admits for a moment, 
 and we have never heard of anyone that did. The 
 old straw man again. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy simply has a habit of slinging words 
 about without attaching any definite meaning to them. 
 She would seem to be gradually getting at the idea 
 of what she understands by the word " creation." Let 
 us try to find out if she has any. Properly, it means, 
 of course, the causing something to exist which did 
 not exist before. But with her it seems to mean a 
 reflection or representation of what has always existed. 
 " Man," she tells us, '' is not absorbed in Deity, and 
 man cannot lose his individuality, for he reflects 
 eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, solitary idea, for 
 
ii8 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance." 
 Astonishing as it may seem, and as it really is, this 
 is about the nearest approach to anything about '' cre- 
 ation," in this chapter, which one naturally expects to 
 explain what Mrs. Eddy understands by this very im- 
 portant word. 
 
 A few pages further on in it, indeed, she makes her 
 usual style of remark, as follows : "' The creations of 
 mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man 
 alone represents the truth of creation." But this does 
 not tell us how " immortal spiritual man " came into 
 existence. He was not, it would seem, himself '* the 
 truth of creation," which we might suppose to mean 
 '' truly created," if it means anything at all. No, he 
 only " represented the truth of creation." 
 
 She says, a little later, '' there can be but one 
 creator, who has created all." But she does not deign 
 to tell us what she means by a creator, or by creating, 
 or what is the " all " that this creator has created. 
 '' Immortal spiritual man " is not this " all," but only 
 represents it, as we have just seen; and she has pre- 
 viously said that he represents " infinite Mind," and 
 that can't have been created. 
 
 If there is any idea at all that can be got out of 
 this mass of confusion, it would seem to be that man 
 (''immortal spiritual man" of course) has always 
 existed and is a reflection of eternal Life or God. 
 The nearest idea to this is that of the eternal Word, 
 or Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed 
 Trinity, Who, as we Christians believe, became In- 
 carnate in a human soul and body. But she can't 
 be referring to Him, or she would speak more plainly. 
 And she doesn't believe in the Incarnation at all, as 
 she has given us to understand very distinctly. 
 
The Truth 'About Christian Science 119 
 
 As to " matter," of course, that can't be any part 
 of the " all " which the creator has created. In fact 
 she has said, just above as quoted, that " the crea- 
 tions of mortal mind are material," which really means 
 that the material universe is a " creation," figment, 
 or delusion of mortal mind, as she has told us 
 before. 
 
 What, then, is the real creation? We can't find it 
 anywhere. And what in the world is she talking 
 about? It is quite safe to say that she herself had 
 not the remotest idea. Only, an unmeaning word fits 
 even better into her strings of unmeaning words, than 
 it would if it had some definite sense of signification. 
 It is time to stop merely laughing at the confusion 
 of ideas under which this poor woman labored, and 
 talk very seriously. It really seems that she some- 
 times is simply lying; trying to deliberately deceive 
 her readers, when she continually repeats false 
 charges as to what Christians in general hold and 
 teach, and claims the credit of it all to her own 
 groundless notions, as in the following passage: 
 " Mortals," she says, " when the supposed pain and 
 pleasure of matter cease to predominate, will drop 
 the false estimate of life and happiness, of joy and 
 sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, work- 
 ing patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God." 
 By this, she plainly means to assert that what she 
 describes was never done and could not be done, with- 
 out her false principles of Eddian Science ; whereas 
 it has been the daily life of all true Christians, ages 
 before she was born, and practised continually by them 
 much better than she ever even imagined. 
 
 There is no chapter in her book in which it is more 
 evident — as it is here — that what is true in it is not 
 
I20 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 new, as we remarked in our preface. She says, for 
 instance, in this chapter: "If one turns away from 
 the body with such absorbed interest as to forget it, 
 the body experiences no pain." Everyone knows that 
 a great deal can be accompHshed in this way. At 
 times of intense intellectual occupation, the pleasures 
 cf the senses cease to allure, and unless bodily pains 
 are so great as to prevent absolutely such occupation, 
 the mind ceases to pay much attention to them. The 
 same may be said of a strong desire or turning the 
 will in some other direction. In trying, for instance, 
 to extinguish a dangerous fire, one may be quite 
 severely burned without being aware of it till the peril 
 is over. And this distraction of the mind from the 
 lower by its fixing on the higher may rise to heroic 
 degrees when (usually by special Divine help) the 
 supernatural rather than the merely natural comes into 
 play; as in the case of St. Lawrence on the gridiron, 
 or of many of the martyrs ; or in the ecstasies of the 
 saints. 
 
 But there is no need to account for this by bring- 
 ing in Eddian theories that there is no reality in 
 matter, or that it is only " an error of mortal mind," 
 any more than there is to conclude that a bore, who 
 tires you by his conversation, and tries to force it on 
 you, has no real existence, or is only an '' error." The 
 mind simply escapes from him, if bodily escape is not 
 possible, to fix itself on something of more interest. 
 You would be glad, perhaps, if he did not exist, but 
 you know, only too well, that he does. You simply 
 minimize him, as much as possible. 
 
 So we may proceed on these minimizing lines with 
 this chapter, in which there is so little that really re- 
 quires attention. We were very sanguine in entering 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 121 
 
 on it; as when in boyhood we had ice-cream in a 
 wineglass, and thought that when the *' froth," piled 
 up on the top (which really was the whole thing) was 
 disposed of, we would come to the solid part. So 
 we have a similar experience here. In this promising 
 chapter about " Creation," we find next to nothing on 
 that subject at all; all froth. 
 
 The next one seems even more solid, by its title; 
 but we have grave misgivings about it, now. It is 
 called 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Science of Being. 
 
 This title does look as if we were here to have 
 something really scientific, at last. " Science of Be- 
 ing! " A treatise on " Ontology," or something of the 
 kind. (How was it that Mrs. Eddy never got hold 
 of this word? She could have had great fun with it.) 
 But any such expectations will be soon dispelled. In- 
 deed they were unreasonable from the start. For how 
 could anyone write on something of which he had 
 never heard even the name? 
 
 As we begin to look into this chapter, the first 
 thing we notice is our old friend the straw man, poking 
 out his head more continually than ever before. His 
 first appearance is an unusually startling one. He 
 appears now in the guise of " belief in a material 
 basis from which may be deduced all rationality." 
 We are told, it is true, that he is now " slowly yielding 
 to the idea of a metaphysical basis," which, we are 
 informed, " looks away from matter to Mind as the 
 cause of every effect ; " but he seems to be quite 
 lively still. *' Materialistic hypotheses challenge meta- 
 
122 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 physics to meet in mortal combat," Mrs. Eddy says. 
 "In this revolutionary period," she continues, "like the 
 herd-boy with his sling, woman (Mrs. Eddy, that is) 
 goes forth to battle with Goliath." 
 
 She seems really to have got this " materialism " on 
 the brain, as it were, and thinks that everyone else 
 has it as well; and that there is no one fighting it 
 except herself. 
 
 Imagine a person writing stuff like this : " The 
 theories I combat are these: i. That all is matter; 
 2. That matter originates in Mind, and is as real as 
 Mind, possessing intelligence and life. The first 
 theory, that matter is everything, is quite as reason- 
 able as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and 
 cooperate. One only of the following statements can 
 be true: i. That everything is matter; 2. That every- 
 thing is Mind. Which one is it? " 
 
 Imagine a person going out as Mrs. Eddy valiantly 
 does with her " sling," and slinging around such logic 
 as this! 
 
 There is only one of these statements that any 
 Christian admits, and that is, that " matter originates 
 in Mind." It is not, in a very true sense of the word, 
 as real as Mind, for it does not necessarily exist, as 
 indeed the statement just preceding, that it " origi- 
 nates " in Mind, clearly shows. Still less does it fol- 
 low that it " possesses intelligence and life." 
 
 The reason, of course, for her trying to force on 
 us these two theories given as the only possible ones 
 different from her own, is that she determines to 
 ignore the regular Christian teaching, that matter is 
 created; which means, created out of nothing. She 
 simply does not mention this even as a '' theory," at 
 all; she chooses to take for granted that no one can 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 123 
 
 possibly hold it. She has just written a chapter, 
 nominally about '' Creation," in which she omits to 
 say anything about the subject of the chapter. 
 
 If she would make some objection to this point of 
 Christian belief, no one could complain. But she does 
 not even seem to understand it in any way. So we 
 shall have to state it for her, or rather for her fol- 
 lowers, who are inclined to swallow everything that 
 she gives them to swallow. The Christian belief is 
 then as follows : 
 
 1. Nothing exists, necessarily or from eternity, ex- 
 cept God, Whom she chooses to call " Mind." He 
 can, however, call into existence anything which He 
 pleases ; but even He cannot make any such thing to 
 be necessary or eternal as He Himself is ; for He 
 being omnipotent, must necessarily reserve to Himself 
 the power to destroy it. 
 
 2. There was a '' time," as we have to say (for we 
 have no other word for it) when nothing did exist 
 except God. But, properly speaking, it was not 
 " time " at all. For " time " properly means a succes- 
 sion of events. And in Him there is no such succes- 
 sion. God Himself, His own Life, is absolutely in- 
 dependent of time. 
 
 3. This is a profound mystery, which human reason 
 can never thoroughly comprehend. But it follows, 
 logically, from what we are able to know by the facul- 
 ties which He has given us. For we know, by our 
 own consciousness, that in us there is a succession of 
 events and we see the same all around us. But this 
 succession must have had a beginning. And it simply 
 could not start of itself. It could only begin in some 
 Being independent of time, in Whom there is no suc- 
 cession, whose Life is one eternal Kow. That is to 
 
124 Tlie Truth About Christian Science 
 
 say, of course, in Him, for whose Life the only word 
 is / Am. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's fundamental mistake is in not being 
 willing to acknowledge this ineffable mystery, which 
 it is vain for us to try to sound. She sees well enough 
 that matter could not always have existed ; but she 
 refuses to believe that it ever could have begun to 
 exist. So she simply concludes that it does not now 
 exist, and will not take any evidence to show that it 
 does. 
 
 With regard to what she calls " mortal mind," she is 
 really puzzled. For she knows, by her own conscious- 
 ness, that this does exist. And she is afraid to con- 
 fess that it can have been' created out of nothing, 
 for if it could have been, why not matter as well? 
 So there is, or seems to her to be, no other course ex- 
 cept to hold that whatever there is of reality in it, is 
 identical with *' INIind " or the Being of God Himself. 
 In other words, she is convinced that she herself is 
 God. There would be no trouble about this, except 
 that other people have also to be accounted for, to 
 make her conclusions of any practical service. So un- 
 less their existence, like that of matter, is absolutely 
 to be denied, they must be God, as well as she. 
 
 This being the case, of course there can be nothing 
 really imperfect, or not in good working order in any- 
 body else, any more than with herself, li there seems 
 to be, it must be a delusion, or illusion of " mortal 
 mind." But how in the world can there be any il- 
 lusion in God? Yet, if she once admits that she (and 
 other people) are not God, the whole business falls 
 to pieces. 
 
 Of course, there is nothing for her to do but to 
 dodge this difficulty, and say nothing about it; and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 125 
 
 talk loudly and continually about " materialism," and 
 try to ascribe to her opponents' false beliefs about 
 matter, as for example, that it '' possesses intelligence 
 and life." Some people, perhaps, may have such be- 
 liefs and that is quite sufficient for her purpose. She 
 may be as pantheistic as she likes, if she can only 
 have it believed that her opponents are so, and that 
 she, of course, since she is slinging (not a stone, but 
 mud) at them, must be different. 
 
 It is a pity that she does not seem to have had 
 exactly the soil of *' an honest and good heart " of 
 which she speaks later, in which to sow her own doc- 
 trines, to begin with. This defect makes her con- 
 stantly assume that it is '' chastity and purity, in con- 
 trast with the earthward gravitation of sensualism and 
 impurity, which really attest the divine origin and 
 operation of Christian Science." This is, practically, 
 to assert that her Eddian Science is only opposed by 
 those who are controlled by " sensualism and im- 
 purity." 
 
 Of course she goes on firing occasionally at " ma- 
 terial hypotheses " all through this chapter, as usual, 
 hoping, as it would seem, to make so much smoke as 
 to hide the actual issues. We can just take these 
 samples, all on one page. '' Deductions from material 
 hypotheses are not scientific." " Divine Science re- 
 verses the false testimony of the material senses." 
 '' Science shows that material, conflicting mortal 
 opinions emit the effects of error at all times." " God 
 never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual 
 law." As if anyone ever pr^etended that He did ! Or 
 again, on the next page, she speaks of the five senses 
 as being " the manifested beliefs of mortal mind, 
 which affirm that life, substance, and intelligence are 
 
126 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 material, instead of spiritual. Of course they don't 
 affirm anything of the kind. The danger to those not 
 .instructed in real religion, and particularly evident in 
 this chapter, is in the pious sound of much of the 
 talk in which she indulges. For example : '' The 
 starting point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is 
 All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind — 
 that God is Love, and that therefore He is divine 
 Principle." 
 
 Of course these last v^ords mean nothing whatever. 
 But they sound nice, and give her a chance to lug in her 
 favorite word ''Principle." She then goes on: "To 
 grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, 
 you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Prin- 
 ciple of all that really is. (As if any Christian failed 
 to do that!) " Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as 
 one — and are the Scriptural names for God. All sub- 
 stance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause 
 and effect belong to God." " These are His attributes, 
 the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Prin- 
 ciple, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom ; no 
 truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the 
 divine ; no good is, but the good God bestows." This, 
 of course, is quite right ; it is quite theologically sound, 
 if taken widely, and might be put into any good 
 spiritual book. It really has a good deal of what we 
 call " unction " about it. But the amazing thing is 
 that Mrs. Eddy should try to palm it off as her 
 own discovery, and a part of her new Eddian Science, 
 when in fact it has been said over and over again in 
 all the ages of Christianity. It has no connection at 
 all with her peculiar ideas. 
 
 A couple of pages later on, she falls into a strange 
 mistake which ought to be evident, even to her own 
 
The Truth 'About Christian Science 127 
 
 bewildered mind. She tells us that matter is a '' hu- 
 man concept." So far is this from being the case, 
 that the human mind not only cannot thoroughly un- 
 derstand it; it cannot of itself make any concept of it 
 at all. We have already had occasion to refer to this ; 
 but it will do no harm to repeat it. Mind is intelligi- 
 ble to us ; for we ourselves are in its region or do- 
 main. Matter on the other hand is not intelligible, to 
 us directly, and we probably might never be able to 
 get any idea of it if God had not mysteriously re- 
 vealed it to us through the senses. It even seems 
 likely, that, if we were entirely deprived of these 
 physical senses, which God has given to us, we should 
 never be able to get any idea even of the geometrical 
 space in which matter lies or moves. We cannot, ex- 
 perimentally, be quite sure as to this, for even in the * 
 cases of such of us who have never had those of sight 
 and hearing, or have at any rate lost them at a very 
 early age, and in whom those of smell and taste are 
 much dulled, that of touch has to a considerable ex- 
 tent remained; so that we cannot have any certain 
 test to go by. 
 
 Of course He Who is the Creator of both spirit 
 and matter could have bridged the gap between the 
 two by some other means beside that of the senses ; 
 but we cannot even imagine what that means could 
 have been. Not can we imagine what sort of knowl- 
 edge the angels which He has created (or any other 
 incorporeal spirits which He may have created) can 
 have of matter or even of space. It certainly seems 
 that Mrs. Eddy, if she wanted, for her purpose, to 
 deny the existence of matter, would have done much 
 better by following this line than that of calling mat- 
 ter a '* human concept," which is precisely what it is 
 
128 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 not. The reason why the rest of us, who may be 
 called " sensible " people, do not follow it, is that we 
 are sure that God, Who can neither deceive nor be 
 deceived, would not have given us up by our senses 
 to a delusion, and compelled us to believe in what 
 really does not exist. 
 
 It would be absolutely impossible for " mortal 
 mind " to invent matter if there were none ; it may be 
 called a revelation from God to us. And as it is so, 
 we rightly say, in accordance with all sound philoso- 
 phy, that the senses are an infallible motive of certi- 
 tude; though of course they may occasionally work 
 abnormally, so that nothing exterior to our own or- 
 ganism is the cause of the impressions which we re- 
 ceive from them. Mrs. Eddy, however, has no diffi- 
 culty, in pronouncing, by her complete and infallible 
 knowledge of all the things of God, that He never 
 could have created matter. 
 
 " Is Spirit," she asks, '' the source or creator of 
 matter?" *' Science," she has the audacity to say, 
 " reveals nothing in Spirit out of which to create mat- 
 ter." She does not, as has often already been re- 
 marked, recognize at all what is meant by '' creation." 
 Spirit needs nothing " out of which " to create mat- 
 ter. If she chooses to say, that even for God creation 
 out of nothing is impossible, very well ; that is the 
 only line to take, and it has already been taken by 
 others. But she should not, disingenuously, assume 
 that if God created it, He must create it " out of " 
 something previously existing, and thus set limits to 
 the Almighty. 
 
 What she goes on to say is simply not true. '* The 
 admission," she says, " that there can be material sub- 
 stance requires another admission — namely, that 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 129 
 
 Spirit is not infinite, and that matter is self-creative, 
 self-existent, and eternal." It requires nothing of the 
 sort. It simply requires the admission that Spirit is 
 infinite, not that It is not so. But she is, as it would 
 seem, hopelessly befogged by her idea of infinity as 
 a matter of quantity, from which it appears to her 
 that if God created anything He would be bigger than 
 He was before ; as if the manifestation of His power 
 and glory made any difference in Himself. 
 
 This subject, however, is too great a one to be 
 properly discussed in a book like this. If Mrs. Eddy 
 had wished to go into it thoroughly, she should have 
 read the profound and exhaustive treatises on it to 
 be found in regular and professional theological works, 
 instead of just flipping it aside in a page or two ; and 
 her " students " should follow that course now. To 
 assume that she knew, and others by her can know, 
 all about it is a case of " fools rushing in where angels 
 fear to tread." 
 
 The difficulty which in fact she finds, but tries to 
 cover up by a maze of words, is to explain how, if 
 God is '' All-in-all " in her sense of the term, " error " 
 comes in, in any way. If she would admit that He 
 could create substance not perfectly possessing His 
 own attributes (which is what is meant by creation) 
 this difficulty would disappear. This difficulty we have 
 already remarked. 
 
 The whole trouble is caused by the one purpose 
 which is the raison d'etre, as the French would say, 
 of her whole system, which is of course to " cure 
 the sick." She vainly struggles to get rid of it by 
 saying that matter and its effects — sin, sickness, and 
 death — are states of mortal mind, which act, react, 
 and come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. 
 
130 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 But what is mortal mind, to have these "states?" 
 Please step up to the Captain's office and settle. God 
 can't have created it, for Mrs. Eddy says that He 
 can't create anything. And she also rightly says that 
 nothing can create itself. After all, then, " mortal 
 mind " must be the same as " Mind." How, then, 
 do its states " act, react, and then come to a stop ? " 
 There seems to be only one answer to this. They are 
 not facts of " Mind," but just states of " Mind." Any- 
 one ought to see the difference between " facts " and 
 ** state." Of course she doesn't mean this, for she 
 doesn't mean anything at all. But she has to say 
 something. If she stops talking she is done for. 
 
 It is about time now to bring more to the front a 
 very important matter, which is among those just 
 mentioned, but which we have not yet paid much at- 
 tention to, in this examination of " Eddian Science." 
 The inventor of this pseudo-science does not say 
 much about it herself, and indeed it seems that she 
 tries to pass it over as of not much consequence. But 
 it is really not only a very important matter, but by 
 far the most important one, practically, that we can 
 have to discuss. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy simply mentions it in the passage just 
 now quoted, as being one of the '' effects " of matter, 
 which she says are " sin, sickness and death." She 
 names it first, but in her estimate it seems to be 
 last. It is the worst thing in the world, and is not 
 one of the " effects of matter," which is created by 
 God, and of course in itself good. '' Sickness and 
 death," also, are effects of it, not of " matter," as she 
 would have us believe. We hardly need to say that 
 this worst thing of all in the world is " sin." 
 
 The genuine Christian Science, revealed to us by 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 131 
 
 our faith, teaches us that in fact sin did not have its 
 origin in matter, in any way at all. The first sin 
 was committed by beings who were not associated 
 with matter, and were purely spiritual. These were 
 the angels of God. These, as the apostle St. Jude 
 (whom ^Irs. Eddy has to number among the first 
 students of Christian Science) tells us were the ones 
 whose evil example mankind has followed. That is to 
 say, some of them were ; the rest remaining in justice 
 or righteousness and obedience, and being therefore 
 confirmed in that happy state forever. The Apostle's 
 words are the following : " The angels who kept not 
 their first estate, but left their own habitation. He 
 hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, 
 unto the judgment of the great day." (We quote this 
 from the version with which Mrs. Eddy was familiar, 
 though all are substantially the same.) 
 
 As to to our following their example, St. Paul ex- 
 plicitly tells us : " Wherefore, as by one man sin en- 
 tered into this world, and death by sin." (Her own 
 version again.) Rom. v. 12. This one man was the 
 first man, Adam. St. Paul could not possibly have 
 meant to refer to any other. 
 
 Now what was this first sin, both of the angels 
 and of man ? It had, of course, with the angels, noth- 
 ing to do with matter at all. And even Mrs. Eddy 
 herself does not, in her fragmentary "Key" or else- 
 where, consider it as caused in man by a merely 
 gluttonous desire for a material apple. But even 
 if she did, we do not need information from her, 
 for the Scripture is plain. The sin of the angels, and 
 also of man, was obviously one of disobedience and 
 pride, of setting up the judgment or opinion of a 
 creature against that of the Creator. It might have 
 
132 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 been committed by man if matter really had no 
 existence whatever. The temptation was, as the 
 Scripture tells us, that if Adam and Eve would dis- 
 obey God's commands, they should " be as gods, know- 
 ing good and evil." It was a spiritual temptation. 
 The result leading of yielding to it was, that matter, 
 which was created for good, became an occasion of 
 evil to man, and the Divine Principle (as Mrs. Eddy 
 would say) of obedience to God ceased to be his sole 
 control. 
 
 The truth is that sickness and death are the eflfects 
 of sin; sin itself is the original cause of our evils. 
 Sin must not be lumped together with sickness and 
 death, as one of the effects of matter. Matter, hav- 
 ing been perverted for us by sin from its original 
 good purpose, may now be a cause or occasion for 
 sin; and it actually is so for most of the sins com- 
 mitted by mankind. But to put the blame for sin on 
 matter, as if the latter were something essentially bad, 
 is simply to put, as Mrs. Eddy so often does, the cart 
 before the horse. And it is the reason, of course, 
 why she tries to deny, against the senses which God 
 has given to us, and against common sense, the 
 existence of matter. She does not really disbelieve 
 in its existence, as her words frequently show ; but 
 it seems to her that she has to deny it, on account of 
 her false principles; and so she involves herself in 
 her continual contradictions. The worst of all this, 
 of course, is that it relieves us of all responsibility 
 for sin. Sin, instead of being, as it really is, an 
 error which we can avoid by our will, aided by the 
 grace of God, becomes simply a mistake, due to a 
 lack of understanding of some propositions of hers, 
 which no one can really understand as true. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 133 
 
 This fatal Eddian error is more or less prevalent 
 at the present day, not only among those who formally 
 accept her doctrine which leads to it, but also in the 
 world at large. Mankind are always only too ready 
 to make for themselves an excuse for sin, and still 
 readier to take one, if it is offered to them. And they 
 are all the more ready to do so, if the excuse is also 
 presented to them as a positive remedy for other evils 
 which most of them care more than for sin itself, 
 namely, *' sickness and death." And still more so, if 
 by means of a general acceptance of it, they can be 
 saved from the consequences which human justice has 
 assigned as penalties for sin, when it takes the form 
 of crime ; as is shown to be actually the case by the 
 increasing frequency of the plea of " insanity." 
 
 We do not, of course, mean to say that this last 
 motive is prominent or usual among actual Christian 
 Scientists. They are not, yet, quite enough of them 
 for it to be so ; and most of them are fairly well pro- 
 tected by circumstances from criminal tendencies. 
 But it is evident that if " Christian Science " became 
 the prevailing doctrine of any community, those who 
 were not so protected would be glad to avail them- 
 selves of it. 
 
 And with regard to sins which are not crimes 
 against the law, it is evident that they cannot be so 
 efficaciously or strongly resisted if they are believed 
 to be simply symptoms of a general disease causing 
 sickness and death, which can be otherwise overcome, 
 as they would be if they were regarded as in them- 
 selves, and individually, culpable. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, it is true, claims and directs that what 
 she calls " false beliefs " should be resisted as promptly 
 and energetically as good Christians resist what we 
 
134 T^he Truth About Christian Science 
 
 call " bad thoughts ; " but it is hardly possible for 
 those to act in this way who only look on them as re- 
 motely and slightly injurious, instead of being directly 
 and dangerously so. 
 
 The remainder of this chapter, and like most of 
 what has already been gone over, contains nothing 
 new. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature in it is 
 the continual repetition of the accusation that orthodox 
 Christians believe that the Infinite starts from the 
 finite. Mrs. Eddy really must know that they do not 
 so believe; but she not only constantly asserts this 
 false charge, but even takes its truth for granted. 
 Of course all Christians who know anything at all 
 about their religion know that it is false, just as well 
 as she knew it herself. But she hoped that those who 
 are not very well instructed can be induced to take 
 her word for it, especially if it is repeated often 
 enough, even without any attempt to give facts or 
 quotations to establish the charge. It may be as 
 well just to notice one more example of this sort of 
 thing from this chapter. 
 
 " If God," she says, " were limited to man or mat- 
 ter, or if the infinite could be circumscribed within 
 the finite, God would be corporeal and infinite Mind 
 would seem to spring from a limited body; but this 
 is an impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no start- 
 ing point, and can return to no limit. It can never 
 be in bonds, nor be fully manifested through cor- 
 poreality." 
 
 It is true that she does not say directly that any- 
 body actually makes the statements which she is at- 
 tacking; but she feels quite sure that her readers 
 will think that some one must have made them, and 
 in fact that there must be many of the " unscientific " 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 135 
 
 who hold them to be true. Many, she thought, will 
 believe on her word, that the ordinary Christian really 
 believes that God '' is limited to man or matter," and 
 that the infinite " can be circumscribed within the 
 finite ; " that God is, in fact, corporeal, and that un- 
 limited Mind " springs from a limited body ; " that 
 infinite Mind has a starting point, and returns to a 
 limit. Or, if they don't believe these latter proposi- 
 tions, which she deduces from the former ones 
 (though they are all the same), it is because they 
 are too stupid to see the connection. And also that 
 the ordinary Christian thinks that God is " in bonds, 
 and is fully manifested through corporeality." 
 
 This one paragraph alone ought to be enough to 
 stamp her as a falsifier and a liar; for though she 
 did not know very much about religion of any kind 
 except the false and absurd system which she tried 
 to palm off on the world, she did know well enough 
 that nobody whatever holds any of these things, 
 whether premises or conclusions, which she tries to 
 make her readers believe that practically everybody 
 except herself and her " students " hold. 
 
 We are sorry to have to speak in this way about 
 anyone who is commonly regarded, outside of her own 
 circle, as simply under a kind of harmless delusion; 
 but really one cannot regard this sort of thing as 
 merely a case of what we have called the " straw 
 man." And there are plenty of examples of it 
 all through her book. We can hardly expect that 
 those who have become her " students," and learned 
 to pay a sort of worship to her as superior to our 
 Divine Lord Himself, will be rescued from her by 
 anything that we or anyone else can say; but we do 
 venture to hope that some of those who have not 
 
136 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 seen through her may be warned against her while 
 there is yet time. 
 
 A few pages further on, she actually has the 
 audacity to quote Our Lord's own words, " I and My 
 Father are one,'* which the immense majority of 
 Christians have always taken as an assertion of His 
 Divinity, as a proof that everyone of us has a right 
 to say the same. She explains these words as show- 
 ing that '' he knew of but one Mind, and laid no 
 claim to any other. He knew that the Ego (and of 
 course that of everyone else) was Mind instead of 
 body and that matter, sin and evil were not Mind." 
 And she pretends that it was " His understanding of 
 this divine Science " which " brought upon Him the 
 anathemas of the age." As if it would have worried 
 the Jews at all to have Him claim to be a " reflec- 
 tion," as she calls it, of " Mind," if He allowed them 
 to be the same! 
 
 One cannot help wondering whether Mrs. Eddy's 
 deluded followers have ever read any considerable por- 
 tion of her book. It is especially remarkable, if they 
 have done so, how they can possibly continue to cling 
 to it, after the complete dissipation of its absurd no- 
 tions by her own inglorious departure from this world. 
 And one can hardly understand why she ventured to 
 write passages which evidently implied that she her- 
 self, at any rate, was not to be subject to death, 
 when she must have known that there was no real 
 reason why she should not die, like other people. 
 
 For instance, she says in this chapter which we 
 are now wading through, that '' the belief of that 
 mortal that he must die occasioned his departure." 
 And again, she says that " mortals claim that death 
 is inevitable." What was the sense of knocking her 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 137 
 
 own nonsense in the head by maintaining that a true 
 Christian Scientist can avoid death if he only re- 
 fuses to beheve he has to die, when she knew that 
 she would stamp herself as not a genuine Scientist 
 by actually dying? 
 
 There is really only one answer to this question, 
 for it is almost incredible that she was under the 
 delusion that she would live forever. And that 
 answer is that all that she really cared for was to 
 make some money by selling her book at an exorbitant 
 price, far above any possible expense incurred in pro- 
 ducing it; and that she felt sure that during her 
 life, people would be willing to pay this price on 
 account of the false promises held out to them in it. 
 She quite reasonably thought that a good many people 
 would be foolish enough to take some stock in these 
 promises, and that while she lived she could have 
 a life, which even if it should happen to be short, 
 would certainly be a merry one. But it is pretty 
 safe to say that she did not expect that they would go 
 so far as to continue believing in those promises after 
 she herself, by dying, exploded them. And how it 
 is that they actually do so continue, is an inscrutable 
 mystery. 
 
 Her own idea was " after me, the deluge," but she 
 did not care an atom about that. She was perfectly 
 willing, not only to sacrifice all posthumous fame, but 
 also to do all the injury that she could to the souls, 
 and even to the bodies of her '* students," and to take 
 her chance of incurring the judgments of God for 
 this, after her own death, so long as she could get 
 some money out of them while she lived. 
 
 Well, a good many people, indeed the great majority 
 of mankind, have always acted in the same way. 
 
138 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 " The children of this world," Our Lord has told us, 
 are wiser in their generation than the children of 
 light.'' Mrs. Eddy simply was in their class. She 
 probably did not even believe in God or His judg- 
 ments at all. 
 
 It is interesting, however, to observe how she tries 
 to lay a sort of anchor to windward to lessen the 
 shock and strain of the catastrophe which she ex- 
 pected to come. Of course she regards the death of 
 our Blessed Lord on the cross as not having occurred 
 at all. " To show," she says, " that the substance of 
 Himself was Spirit, and the body was more perfect 
 because of death, and no less material until the 
 Ascension (His further spiritual exultation) Jesus 
 waited until the mortal or fleshy sense had relinquished 
 the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual sense had 
 quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus He found the 
 eternal Ego, and proved that He and the Father were 
 inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual 
 man. Our Master gained the solution of being, 
 demonstrating the existence of but one Mind without 
 a second or equal." 
 
 Of course, Mrs. Eddy gained the " solution of be- 
 ing " with less difficulty than '' our Master " did, for 
 she got at it before going through the formality of 
 death at all. For she wrote this chapter on the 
 ''Science of Being" (which we suppose includes 
 its "solution") long before going through any such 
 formality ; and why " our Master " should have 
 needed it is not quite clear. Still less (according to 
 her own relative estimate of herself and Himself) 
 is it clear why she should have to have gone through 
 it; but of course as it had to come, there had to be 
 some explanation for it. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 139 
 
 So she gets up this ingenious scheme. "Our Mas- 
 ter," she tells us, did not really depart until the belief 
 in substance — matter was relinquished by Him, and 
 even then, it could not be called death. The mistake 
 of supposing that He had a body was got over, in 
 His case, by the disappearance of that body in the 
 clouds of the Ascension. Of course Mrs. Eddy knew 
 that she could not get up anything like that for her- 
 self. A balloon (aeroplanes were not practically a 
 success at the time) would be rather too " thin " as an 
 expedient; moreover, she would not have trusted 
 herself, at any rate without a skilled aeronaut, in a 
 balloon. And then there would have been the diffi- 
 culty about where to come down (to say nothing about 
 the chance of coming down too rapidly), or about 
 disposing of the necessary aeronaut. He might be 
 killed and buried, of course ; but then where was 
 she to live without her substance-matter being dis- 
 covered ? 
 
 She saw that a much better way than this balloon 
 idea would be, when the tirne really came for her 
 to die, to have her " substance-matter " safely boxed 
 up in concrete. This would practically make it dis- 
 appear as well as ascending into the clouds would, 
 if precautions were taken not to have the concrete 
 broken; in this way it could be alleged that it was 
 all a mistake that she had died like other people. On 
 the contrary, her not believing in substance-matter 
 would have resulted in a triumph. It would make 
 other people not believe in it, in her case at any rate. 
 For who could prove the contrary ? Her " students " 
 could say that " her mortal or fleshly sense finally 
 relinquished the belief of substance-matter, and 
 spiritual sense had quenched all earthly yearnings," 
 
140 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 in her, and indeed in all of her disciples, as far as 
 she was concerned. 
 
 And the shallow trick actually worked, surprising as 
 it may seem that it should do so. It was only a kind 
 of last resort, for which she probably did not seriously 
 expect success, but thought that it might be worth try- 
 ing. Human credulity proved to be a more potent 
 factor than even she, who had worked on it with 
 great success for so long, ever realized. 
 
 It would seem that enough has been said, and 
 enough quotations have been made of actual passages 
 in her book, to show the falsity of the doctrines on 
 which it rests. It is, indeed, probable enough that 
 she did not actually write the book herself, but got 
 some one else to write it for her. But even if this 
 is the fact, it makes no difference. This book, who- 
 ever may have written it, is the authorized expression 
 of the false system which she has been the means of 
 introducing, and her approval of it makes her as 
 thoroughly responsible for it as if it had proceeded 
 from her own pen; and justifies any personal blame 
 we have imputed to her for it. And this blame, of 
 course, is all the greater, because she unquestionably 
 gave it out, or allowed it to be given out, as a " reve- 
 lation " granted to her from above. If she had merely 
 published it as the expression of her own opinions, 
 it might, of course, have done some harm, but by no 
 means so much ; but she had the audacity to allow 
 herself to be put on the throne of God Himself, and 
 to be Divinely commissioned to speak for Him. Of 
 course she knew that this was the only way to get 
 a big sale for it ; but that is evidently no excuse, but 
 makes it a greater fault by far, than it would be if 
 she had, like other authors of false theologies or 
 
The Truth About Chrislian Science 141 
 
 philosophies, merely given it out as her own interpre- 
 'tation of what was indic;ited by reason, or as what 
 was agreed on by those to whom it was addressed 
 as being really the Word of God, or the Bible. 
 
 Those who wish to bring into the world what they 
 regard as new and valuable thoughts, are content, if 
 they are honest, to trust that they will recommend 
 themselves to sincere searchers for the truth. And 
 it is such a pity for those who are deceived by her. 
 For all that there is really valuable in the ideas which 
 she endeavored to propagate is already fully expressed 
 by sound Christian theology. 
 
 All orthodox Christians admit fully what she is 
 constantly falsely pretending that they do not; that 
 Spirit is the origin not only of all truth, but of all 
 that exists. No one holds that matter is in any way 
 independent of its Creator; or that it originates any- 
 thing whatever, simply by its own power. And we 
 all are perfectly sure that it can be destroyed entirely 
 by Him at any moment that He may choose. 
 
 There is no necessity whatever for holding that it 
 has no actual existence ; still less, if there could be 
 less than none, for limiting the power of the Al- 
 mighty by maintaining that it would be impossible 
 for Him to create it, or anything else. And with re- 
 gard to the one point which seems to be of any in- 
 terest to Mrs. Eddy or her " students," no Christian 
 supposes for a moment that " drugs. " or human con- 
 trivances of any sort are absolutely necessary for the 
 curing of disease. They are only needed, as food or 
 drink are, for the sustaining of life. It is simply 
 absurd to make a difference in this respect between 
 food and medicine. Both are gifts of God, and in- 
 tended by Him to be used in their regular and ap- 
 
142 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 propriate way. Both may be used to excess ; or both 
 may be unduly neglected. With regard to food, Mrs. 
 Eddy followed, and all her " scientific " followers un- 
 doubtedly now follow, the same lines that are fol- 
 lowed by other people. No one believes, and she her- 
 self does not pretend, that she got along without it, 
 or went without her regular meals; she did not put 
 out any theory that a piece of buttered toast, or a cup 
 of tea, had no real existence, and that there was no 
 use in partaking of either when one felt hungry or 
 thirsty. Indeed she expressly reprobates asceticism 
 of any kind. 
 
 The common sense of the matter is, that food is 
 necessary for the human machine in its regular work- 
 ing; medicine only when the working gets irregular. 
 Or, in other words, the care of the body is like that 
 of a watch; when it is going right all one has to do 
 is to wind it regularly; when it is out of order in 
 any way, one has to regulate the balance-wheel, or put 
 on a new hand, if one of them comes off, or a new 
 spring, if one is broken. The only difficulty which 
 we meet with practically in the treatment of the 
 body, is that we can't find out so well as we can 
 with a watch, just what it is that has gone wrong; 
 and that even if we do, we can't tell just how to make 
 it go right. Of course this is the reason why doctors, 
 who know more than others about its construction, are 
 needed even more than watchmakers are for mending 
 a watch. It is all just a matter of common sense, 
 and nobody (not even Mrs. Eddy) who has a bit 
 of that valuable quality throws it overboard when 
 watches are concerned. But when it is a question of 
 the body, a far more complex machine than a watch, 
 people will often jump at the first quack remedy offered 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 143 
 
 to them, instead of consulting one who ought to know ; 
 and will not, like the presumptuous Mrs. Eddy, get 
 up a theory, without the slightest need for it, and 
 against the plain evidence of common sense, that there 
 is nothing in it going wrong, or that in fact there is 
 nothing in it to go wrong, because there is nothing in 
 it at all to go either right or wrong. 
 
 And in fact just the same holds good in the sub- 
 ject of the soul or spirit as in that of the body. 
 Even Mrs. Eddy has to acknowledge that the soul, 
 spirit or mind (whichever she pleases) does go wrong, 
 and is not in harmony with the " Mind " to which 
 she tries to reduce everything. She doesn't try to 
 blame the body for this; indeed she can't; for she 
 doesn't admit the existence of the latter. So she 
 simply calls it " mortal mind," and lets it go at that. 
 She has no apology or explanation for this fatal flaw 
 in her system ; for none is possible. If the existence 
 of the body is an " error of mortal mind," well, 
 *' mortal mind" has gone wrong; it has not kept in 
 harmony with " Mind ; " that conclusion is unavoid- 
 able. " Mind," according to her, knows that there is 
 no body; "mortal mind" maintains there is. The 
 obvious need is that " mortal mind " has got to be 
 cured of this. Indeed the curing of this error, sick- 
 ness, or disease, in it is just the object of her book, 
 and of her whole system. 
 
 But the question which naturally comes to our 
 *' mortal mind " about this is, why should not the 
 body be allowed to have real existence also? If you 
 are going to believe that "mortal mind" exists fas it 
 must if it is to fall into "error"), why not let the 
 body exist too? Why not honestly confess that you 
 believe what common sense compels you to believe, 
 
144 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 or rather to see and know as a fact, instead of giving 
 out this nonsense about the non-existence of matter, 
 which you don't really believe yourself, and have to 
 forget as soon as you begin to talk practically about 
 anything at all ? For all the healing of the sick which 
 you can accomplish by any such ideas can be accom- 
 plished just as well without them. And more, indeed, 
 can be done if you try to put yourself in union with 
 God's holy will and ask His aid, instead of pretend- 
 ing that there is no need to ask for it. The healing 
 of the sick by the direct help of God (or " Mind " as, 
 according to your fad, you call Him) can be done, 
 and has been done right along, and is now done fre- 
 quently, in His Church. We all have almost daily 
 experience of these cures that you brag so much about. 
 It is no new thing; it only seems new to you, be- 
 cause you do not know so well how to bring it about 
 as we do. Why make a fool of yourself, teach non- 
 sense, and throw away common sense, for no object 
 and for no advantage? 
 
 There is one curious passage in this chapter on this 
 subject which may be worth mentioning. It is as 
 follows : " This understanding of man's power, when 
 he is equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from 
 Christian history. For centuries it has been dormant, 
 a lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries carry 
 the Bible to India, but can it be said that they explain 
 it practically, when hundreds of persons die there 
 annually from serpent bites. Understanding spiritual 
 law, and knowing that there is no material law, Jesus 
 said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe — 
 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any 
 deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.' " 
 
 In this IMrs. Eddy appears to be trying to give the 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 145 
 
 impression that she was quite in the habit of taking 
 up serpents, and getting no injury from them, and 
 that the same can be easily done by any real Christian 
 Scientist; whereas she knew very well that she had 
 never ventured on anything of the kind ; nor had she 
 ever taken a dose of prussic acid to prove that the 
 common idea that there was a material law, making 
 the experiment a fatal one, was merely an illusion. 
 But if her notion that there are no material laws were 
 correct, there was no reason why she should not have 
 made experiments of this kind, and no reason why they 
 should not succeed. That they do not succeed is a 
 conclusive argument against her whole theory; and 
 that she did not try them is a clear proof that she her- 
 self did not believe in it. 
 
 The Christian view of the matter, of course, is that 
 in fact there are material laws, which will work 
 uniformly unless He Who has made these laws chooses 
 to suspend them on some special occasion, or unless 
 some force (which may be merely a natural one, like 
 that of medicine) neutralizes their operation. This 
 last is the usual case, as we all know. And we do 
 not expect that the Lord will bring about any re- 
 sult other than the natural one, unless there is some 
 exceptional reason for it, as there was in the case of 
 St. Paul, when he shook off the viper, to show the 
 Divine protection which they who were sent by Him 
 to preach might well expect. It is not for us to de- 
 termine when such reasons may exist. We are, how- 
 ever, quite sure that they are exceptional ; that they 
 cannot be depended on, as a rule. Our Lord Himself 
 did not habitually take up serpents and have them 
 bite Him, nor did He drink poisons regularly, instead 
 of water or wine. Nor did He try dangerous experi- 
 
146 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 ments of any kind, just to prove that for an advanced 
 *' student " like Himself they were not dangerous. 
 
 There is one very notable example that has been 
 recorded, just to teach us, as it were, the errors of 
 Eddyism. There is no need to give it in detail, for 
 we all know it. It occurred in the temptation of 
 Christ by Satan, who urged Our Lord to cast Him- 
 self down from the pinnacle of the temple, because 
 the angels would bear Him up. Satan would not need 
 any such reason for a genuine Eddyite, if there were 
 such a person. All he would have to say to such an 
 one would be that '' this notion of the material law 
 of gravitation is an error of mortal mind; and since 
 you have, by union with Mind, got over such errors, 
 you will be quite safe. You need not think or worry 
 about angels at all, for in fact there are not any ; and 
 even if there wxre you wouldn't need them." 
 
 Our Lord's actual reply to this Eddian temptation 
 was, as we know : " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord 
 thy God." The word which we translate " tempt " is, 
 in the Greek, '' ekpeiraseis," from which our word 
 " experiment " is derived. So Christ's answer simply 
 means that we must not try dangerous experiments 
 with the Lord our God, to show that His natural laws 
 do not hold. To try such experiments in order to 
 prove such theories by them, when the facts are 
 already known, is precisely the Eddian idea, to re- 
 fuse medical treatment, is an actual case of its appli- 
 cation. 
 
 One other little question may as well be again asked 
 of Eddian '' students." How is it, if these laws of 
 matter are '' errors of mortal mind " that their results, 
 when there is nothing to interfere with them, are so 
 remarkably accurate? Accuracy, and agreement of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 147 
 
 fulfillment with prediction, are not the results we 
 should expect from " error." How is it that a solar 
 eclipse can be foretold within one or tw^o seconds of 
 time, by means of these laws, many years before it 
 occurs ? 
 
 Again we may repeat that the All-w^ise Mind is 
 not going to bring in new forces to counteract the 
 laws which He has established, still less to suspend 
 or nullify them, unless there are good reasons for do- 
 ing so. He is not going to subject them to the caprices 
 of the mortal mind of Mrs. Eddy or anyone else. But 
 He will depart from the regular course of the universe 
 which He has created, when for His own glory, or 
 even for our good. He sees fit to do so. 
 
 It is quite evident that when He said that " those 
 who believe shall take up serpents, or drink any deadly 
 thing," or " that they should lay hands on the sick, 
 and they shall recover," it w^as not His intention 
 that this should happen every time; for that w^ould 
 be simply to turn over His creation for us to fool 
 with, on the mere condition that we believed that 
 w^e had power and permission to take upon ourselves 
 the management of it for Him. 
 
 It is really wonderful that there can be well-mean- 
 ing people who do not see that this promise which 
 Mrs. Eddy presents to them of curing all diseases, 
 and of overcoming death itself by her " Science," is 
 the identical one which the Scripture tells us was 
 made by Satan to our first parents of obtaining eternal 
 life by having their eyes opened so as to have the 
 science or knowledge which God had chosen to reserve 
 to Himself. '' You shall not die the death," said 
 Satan ; and that is exactly what Mrs. Eddy says. 
 
 But it is not surprising that when such people be- 
 
148 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 lieve this Satanic promise which she offers, they 
 shouM lose, as Adam and Eve did, the union with God 
 which was their right in the beginning, by the grace 
 of Christ, Who had redeemed it for them; and that 
 they should also lose even all desire to obtain it. No 
 one tries to obtain what he imagines that he already 
 possesses ; and the Eddian idea is that you are united 
 to Mind by simply saying that there is nothing else 
 to be united to, and that in fact you are part of it, 
 or a '' reflection " of it already ; that there is no sin 
 in you, as well as no sickness. This indifference to 
 sin is one of the salient features of this false 
 " science." There is no need of prayer in it, in the 
 usual sense of the word. If there seems to be any 
 sin to trouble you, it is only part of this " error " 
 about sickness and death. You don't need to pray 
 about it, but only to absorb Mrs. Eddy's ideas more 
 thoroughly, and it will cease to bother you. There 
 is no repentance or purpose of amendment needed for 
 it, any more than there would be for a toothache; 
 both are merely imaginary, and all you have to do 
 is to get over the imagination of them. And of 
 course it is the same way, if you want to help others. 
 You don't need to get them out of their sins, even 
 if they think they have such, but only to make them 
 stop thinking so. Just sit by them, and think over 
 Mrs. Eddy's wonderful discoveries instead of these 
 nonsensical sins, and encourage them to do the same. 
 That may be tiresome, but if you succeed, it ought to 
 be worth five dollars at any rate ; and, strange as 
 it may seem, there is nothing imaginary about that. 
 Mrs. Eddy acknowledges, it would seem, in this chap- 
 ter, that she had not succeeded in walking on the water, 
 or in raising the dead ; but as to getting people out of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 149 
 
 sin, that was so easy, on the principles just laid down, 
 that there was no need to make any prolonged studies, 
 or complicated experiments, on it. And it was not of 
 much consequence, anyway. Sickness and death were 
 the really important things to get rid of. Her ideas, 
 as we easily see, were more advanced than those of 
 the angel, who said to St. Joseph, '' Thou shalt call His 
 name. Jesus, for He shall save His people from their 
 sins." Mrs. Eddy would have said to the angel, 
 " Why don't you say 'their sicknesses' instead of 'their 
 sins?'" Her idea, often plainly stated, is that He 
 came to heal the sick, and show others how to do it; 
 not to show His power or prove His mission for 
 more important matters, but because it was in itself 
 the most important of all. 
 
 But '' our Master " Himself had an idea differing 
 from that of Mrs. Eddy. (This was due, of course, 
 to His being only an imperfect " student " of Eddian 
 Science.) '' That you may knoiv," He said to the 
 people, " that the Son of Man hath pozver on earth to 
 forgive sins, He saith to the sick of the palsy, I say 
 to thee Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house " 
 (Mark ii. 10, 11, and Luke v. 24). 
 
 If He had gone as deeply into the matter as Mrs. 
 Eddy, He would have understood that the really im- 
 portant thing was to cure the illusion of the sick man 
 that he was really sick ; as to forgiving his sins, they 
 consisted simply in his giving way to this illusion of 
 thinking that his body actually existed. Or, if there 
 were others, they were of little importance compared 
 with this one, and would disappear of themselves if 
 this one was got rid of. 
 
 We, however, and Christians in general, prefer, in 
 our blindness, to take Our Lord's judgment of the 
 
150 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 matter, rather than that of the illustrious founder of 
 Eddian science; and to believe that sin or willful 
 disobedience to God, is our great soul-sickness, and 
 the reason for our bodily ailments, though they are 
 not given to us in proportion to our own personal 
 sins. If the latter are forgiven, we cannot, however, 
 always expect that the ailments will be cured, for 
 they may be blessings in disguise, by giving us the 
 privilege of sharing in the great work which Christ 
 our Saviour has taken on Himself of suffering for 
 our sins. And it may well be that those who are 
 most united to Him, and love most, will have the best 
 share of this, if He sees that they are able to bear 
 it. He asks of .His chosen Apostles, the sons of 
 Zebedee, who wished for the chief places in His King- 
 dom, "Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? 
 They say to Him, we can. He saith to them: My 
 chalice indeed you shall drink ; but to sit on My right 
 or left hand, is not Mine to give to you, but to them 
 for whom it is prepared by My Father" (Matt. xx. 
 22, 23). And why for others rather than for them? 
 Simply because there were a few others who loved 
 Him and were willing to suffer with Him, even more 
 than they. 
 
 The martyrs who suffered, even to death, for Him 
 are confessed by all Christians to be His chief 
 favorites. But Mrs. Eddy's gospel is meant to show 
 us how to escape from bodily suffering, the most 
 common form of which is sickness and disease. And 
 she even would encourage us to think that we can 
 escape from death itself, if we thoroughly believe in 
 this gospel, though it is probable that she did not 
 believe in it herself to quite that extent. It is a 
 gospel which human nature gladly accepts, and is. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 151 
 
 of course, naturally an attractive one to all of us. 
 But the only union with God which it offers is one 
 which is only intellectual and requires no sacrifice, 
 except a little '' study," to attain it. It is a curious 
 feature of it that though it dwells much on the truth 
 that God is Love, she says comparatively little on our 
 showing any love for Him by sacrificing anything else 
 for Him. And His own Love is to be principally 
 shown by sparing us any such sacrifice. 
 
 There is another remarkable feature in it, which 
 of course must have been noticed by almost everyone. 
 It is that she never seems to think of any other 
 trouble which we meet with in life, except this one 
 of bodily illness. And yet there are others which 
 one would expect her to pay some attention to. 
 Among them perhaps the most notable of all is that 
 of poverty, about which people in general worry more 
 than about anything else, and try hardest to avoid, 
 and from which, in these modern days, the masses 
 suffer continually more and more. One reason for 
 her inattention to it may be that her gospel is not 
 addressed to the poor; though that of Christ, by 
 His own statement, was so (Matt. xi. 5, and many 
 other places). And evidently, as a result of this, most 
 of those who actually have accepted it are those in 
 comfortable circumstances in this respect. 
 
 Another reason, it would seem, was that she could 
 not quite make even herself to believe or pretend 
 to believe that poverty is like sickness, merely an 
 illusion of mortal mind. She knew that she could 
 not make the poor believe, when they needed food 
 or clothing, or money to procure these necessities, 
 that their trouble could be got over by simply imagin- 
 ing that they had them. Indeed such imaginings would 
 
152 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 probably only make their suffering greater. And yet 
 one does not exactly see the difference between hunger 
 or thirst and other bodily sufferings. If one can get 
 over the smallpox by simply ignoring it or considering 
 it as an illusion, why can't an empty stomach be 
 treated in the same way? Or even an empty purse? 
 To be really consistent, she would have said, " Even 
 if your purse seemed to be stuffed with bills and coin, 
 there is no real existence in matter, which they would 
 seem to be." x\nd even if you had just had a good 
 dinner, and plenty of wine or beer to drink, there 
 would be no real existence in this ; it would be merely 
 one of the many illusions or delusions of '' mortal 
 mind." You would be really just as well off without 
 them as with them. But she quite realized that all 
 this would be too much of a strain on the credulity 
 of anyone. So the less said about it the better. 
 
 This one little point, if brought to the front, she 
 reasonably feared would be enough to discredit her 
 whole gospel. So the best way, the only way in fact, 
 was just to keep declaiming about Mind, mortal mind, 
 and the impossibility of being sick; and, moreover, 
 one couldn't get any money out of the business either 
 to. build churches or to teach " science " in any way, 
 on any such principle as this. By maintaining that 
 there was no such thing as money, one could not get 
 enough of it even for one's own personal needs ; so 
 that wouldn't do at all. There would be no " Science 
 of being" (at any rate well-being) on any such prin- 
 ciple as that. 
 
 This chapter concludes with what Mrs. Eddy very 
 appropriately calls a ''platform," in which she says, 
 " the infallibility of divine metaphysics " (as opposed, 
 we suppose, to the human physic of " drugs ") is to 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 153 
 
 be demonstrated. That is just what it is, a " plat- 
 form " on which to run her campaign for success. 
 The various errors scattered through her book are 
 fairly well contained in it, so that it would be waste 
 of time to go through it in detail, as most of them 
 liave already been pretty thoroughly noticed. 
 
 In this " platform," as is often the case with po- 
 litical ones, the real issues are dodged, if this seems 
 to be expedient in order to catch votes. There is 
 little in it that she has not said before. Still w^e will 
 take a look at its planks. 
 
 First Plank : It begins by denying, as she has done 
 so often, the whole dogma of creation. Not only is 
 it beyond the power of the Almighty to create mat- 
 ter, but He cannot create any intelligence, however 
 finite. " God is the only intelligence of the universe," 
 she says. Moreover, " the individuality of Spirit, or 
 the infinite personality, is unknown ; " absolutely un- 
 known, even to Mrs. Eddy. But really, of course, 
 from what has just been laid down, there is not any 
 Mrs. Eddy, and there never was any. Or if there 
 was, there was no intelligence in her. She says that 
 the knowledge of Spirit " is left to human conjecture, 
 or to the revelation of divine science." But '' conjec- 
 ture " certainly seems to need some sort of intelli- 
 gence. If then, no intelligence exists anywhere in 
 the universe, except in God, where does the " human 
 conjecture" come in? And if there is no human in- 
 telligence, how can there be any human conjecture? 
 And how can there be any '^ revelation of divine 
 Science," without some intelligence to reveal it to? 
 Spirit, Mind, of course, is thoroughly acquainted with 
 divine Science, and needs no revelation of it. 
 
 It is really astonishing that Mrs. Eddy could have 
 
154 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 blundered so badly as this. But it might be explained, 
 if she really had no intelligence, as she would have 
 us believe to be the case. 
 
 Second Plank : In this she gives us something which 
 she tries to pass off on us for an argument; at any 
 rate, the word " therefore " occurs in it. She re- 
 minds us of a good Episcopal negro, whom we once 
 knew, who put a " therefore " in every response to 
 the Psalms when he was reciting them in church. He 
 thought it had a good sound, probably. The '' argu- 
 ment " is so remarkable, that we must give it just as 
 it stands. 
 
 " Mind," she tells us, " is not both good and bad, 
 for God is Mind; therefore there is in reality one 
 Mind only, because there is (only) one God." 
 
 We have put in the '' only," for it seemed to be 
 needed. In this '' argument," we may leave out the 
 *' not good and bad" (for it seems to be irrelevant) 
 and simply. put it in this way: 
 
 1. ''There is only one God." 
 
 2. "Mind" (with a big M) is my word for God. 
 
 3. Therefore, there is only one mind, with either a 
 big M or a small one. 
 
 Third Plank : " The notion that both evil and good 
 are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science 
 annihilates. Evil is nothing, no thing, mind or 
 power." 
 
 It seems natural to ask her, once more, what in 
 the world is "mortal mind?" It must be some kind 
 of mind, if we have due regard for grammar. But 
 it would seem to be evil, for it has, we are told, its 
 delusions and deceives us. How is it, then, that evil 
 is no mind? Mrs. Eddy, perhaps, would say, " Never 
 mind; I say so, and that settles it." 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 155 
 
 Fourth Plank: ''If He dwelt within what He 
 creates, God would not be reflected, but absorbed." 
 The same old idea that the being of God is a matter 
 of space, and finite space too at that. Light, in the 
 physical sense, can't be reflected if it is all absorbed. 
 But what does she mean by God's being reflected, any- 
 way? It is a favorite word of hers. How can any- 
 thing, on this notion of hers^ be reflected, except by 
 something outside of itself? Then after all, there 
 must be something in some way outside of God. But 
 she has just told us that there is no intelligence out- 
 side of God ; and she often tells us that matter has 
 no existence whatever. What is it, then, that reflects 
 God? She also states in this plank, that "life is 
 no more confined to the forms which reflect it than 
 substance is to its shadow." But whom is she hitting 
 at? Whoever said that it was? 
 
 Fifth Plank : Here again we find that " nothing 
 possesses reality or existence except the divine Mind 
 and His ideas ; " just another denial of creation, and 
 of herself as a part of it. Then she sagely remarks 
 that ''God is Spirit;" and that "in Spirit (meaning 
 God) all is Life, and there is no death. Everything 
 in God's universe expresses Him." Of course we all 
 admit that. But the last sentence is rather vague. 
 And it seems rather inconsistent, for according to her 
 teaching, there isn't anything in God's universe, except 
 Himself to express Him. 
 
 Sixth Plank: In this the same misapprehension as 
 to the Divine infinity comes out again. God, it tells 
 us, " fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive 
 of such omnipresence or individuality except as in- 
 finite Spirit of Mind." 
 
 In fact, the notion of God as " filling all space," 
 
156 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 in the material sense in which she holds it, shuts out 
 that of " individuality," in the proper or grammatical 
 sense of the word. " Individuality " means, properly, 
 indivisibility; but if God fills all space, according to 
 her notion, part of Him would be in one part of it, 
 another part in another. The term does apply to God, 
 and to all spiritual beings ; Airs. Eddy is right enough 
 about that. But the idea of "filling all space" is 
 incompatible with it. This mistake is likely to oc- 
 cur with people like Mrs. Eddy, whose notions are 
 mainly materialistic, and derived from the material 
 senses. 
 
 Seventh Plank : This is truly a hodge-podge. " Life, 
 Truth, and Love," we are told, constitute the triune 
 Person called God — that is, the triply divine Prin- 
 ciple, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three 
 in one — the same in essence, though multiform in 
 office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual 
 idea of sonship ; divine Science or the Holy Com- 
 forter. These three express in divine Science the 
 threefold essential nature of the infinite. They also 
 indicate the divine Principle of scientific being, the 
 intelligent relation of God to man and the universe. 
 
 It has seemed worth the space needed to quote this 
 in full, as a choice specimen of unmeaningness. Poor 
 Mrs. Eddy seems to have glanced at some theological 
 works on the Holy Trinity, and thought that she 
 would just dash at a sort of imitation of their 
 language, in which her pet words, " principle, rep- 
 resent, express, indicate," etc., could be utilized. 
 
 Eighth Plank : " Father-Mother is the name for 
 Deity, which indicates His (why not His-Her?) ten- 
 der relationship to His (or His-Her) spiritual crea- 
 tion." The chief difficulty in this is that there isn't, 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 157 
 
 according to Mrs. Eddy, any creation, material or even 
 spiritual, towards which to have a tender relation, as 
 she already has sufficiently shown. As to '' Father- 
 Mother," we fail to see any need of bringing in the 
 idea of sex in Deity at all. When we are told that 
 Father-Mother is the name for Deity, it merely means 
 that this name is a fad of ^Irs. Eddy's, for w4iich 
 she does not scruple to pervert the words of Scripture. 
 
 Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Planks : The main object 
 of these planks is to assert that Christ never actually 
 existed. He was only an idea, '* voicing " good. And 
 the same must be held even if you call Him by the 
 name of Jesus. The " corporeal " man Jesus, we 
 learn, " was human." But of course, there really 
 never was any human being; we have learned that, 
 at any rate. Nothing really exists except the Divine. 
 These seeming existences were only " expressions." 
 Christ Jesus " expressed " the highest type of divinity 
 which a fleshly form could express in that age, when 
 Mrs. Eddy, the highest possible type, had not yet been 
 revealed. 
 
 Twelfth Plank : In this plank, the poor woman 
 goes out of her way to show her ignorance. As to 
 our Saviour's name, Jesus, she would have it that 
 this was just a name that happened to be given to 
 Him, as it was to Joshua^ who brought the Israelites 
 into the Promised Land. But she omits to say, and 
 seems not to know, that it means Saviour, and had 
 that meaning in Joshua's case also. As to that of 
 Our Lord Himself, its meaning ought to have been 
 still more evident. " Thou shalt call His name 
 Jesus," said the angel to St. Joseph, " for He shall 
 save His people from their sins." But she really was 
 not very w^ell up on Scripture. 
 
158 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 As to His name Christ, she hazards a guess that 
 " it expresses God's spiritual, external nature." Any 
 ordinary student of Greek knows that it simply means 
 *' anointed." Christ Jesus is literally translated 
 ''Anointed Saviour;" Mrs. Eddy, however, tells us 
 that it " signifies the Godlike " better than Jesus the 
 Christ ; which she says was *' the proper name of our 
 Master in the Greek." (Just why it should have any 
 different or '* better " signification in one order of the 
 words rather than in the reverse, is, of course, not 
 apparent.) 
 
 The whole business is a curious example of a sort 
 of brazen stupidity. Somebody, it seems, must have 
 told the poor creature that the Greek word '* Christ " 
 and Hebrew word " Messiah " were, as she correctly 
 states, synonymous ; but she seems to have forgotten 
 to ask what either of them meant. So she just 
 guessed that they must mean " spirituality " in some 
 way, for she had that word as one of her fads ; 
 though her notions of spirituality were, as we have 
 seen, quite materialistic. As to the Greek word "Jesus," 
 or the Hebrew " Joshua," she seems to have thought 
 that they couldn't mean much of anything. They were 
 just names, that was all. 
 
 Thirteenth Plank : In this she seems to have felt 
 the difficulty caused by Our Lord's assertions of His 
 Divinity, which we have already mentioned, and tried 
 to get out of it as follows : " The divine image, idea, 
 or Christ was, is, and ever will be, inseparable from 
 the divine Principle, God." So, she tells us, that 
 when Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I Am," all that 
 He meant was that this " Christ," as the " spiritual 
 idea — the reflection of God " — was lying around, as 
 it were, loose in the world, even before Abraham's 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 159 
 
 time ; and that Abraham, Jacob, Moses and the 
 prophets " caught glorious glimpses " of it ; and in- 
 deed it would appear that, according to her, this was 
 all that Jesus Himself claimed to have. A steady 
 view of it, of course, was reserved for Mrs. Eddy, 
 wdio in the fullness of time was to be revealed. 
 
 How much better it would have been for Mrs. 
 Eddy if Our Lord, when He saw that the Jews did 
 not understand what He said about Abraham, had 
 simply explained that His meaning was that " the one 
 Spirit includes all identities," as He might have done 
 if Mrs. Eddy had been there to prompt Him with 
 these words of her plank. That would have stopped 
 at once their taking up stones to cast at Him, and 
 set them merely to puzzling as to what He was 
 talking about now. When they gave it up, they 
 might have sent someone to inquire, and have got 
 the whole " platform," or as much of it as He had 
 yet learned. 
 
 Fourteenth Plank : In this we have simply a repe- 
 tition of the preceding one to show that she really 
 meant it. 
 
 Fifteenth Plank : In this we have it in a slightly 
 different shape, combined with her ignorance as to 
 what the word " Christ " means. Another notion now 
 comes in, that the name " Jesus " was somehow con- 
 nected with His bodily appearance (which of course 
 was a delusion of mortal mind) and of course only 
 lasted till the cloud (of course another delusion) took 
 its place. Poor woman ! She has, it may be, got 
 over her delusions now. One day she will do so, 
 even more completely ; the day of which St. John 
 tells us, when He will come with the clouds again. 
 " Behold, He cometh with the clouds, and every eye 
 
i6o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him " 
 (Apoc. i. 7). 
 
 She leaves out all this first part of the Apocalypse 
 from her absurd " key of the Scriptures." It is a 
 wonder that she was not warned by its concluding 
 words (though she also leaves them out) : 
 
 " If any man shall take away from the words of 
 the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his 
 part out of the book of life, and Out of the holy 
 city, and from these things that are written in this 
 book." 
 
 But she doesn't care an atom, nor, as it would ap- 
 pear, do her deluded " students," for St. John or any- 
 body else. Science and Health is the only book that 
 she gives to them as inspired. What was Christ Him- 
 self but a very imperfect " student " of her revela- 
 tion which was to come? And what could His 
 Apostles be, but second-hand students, knowing even 
 less than He? 
 
 Sixteenth Plank : In this, she ventures even further 
 in her audacious tampering with Scripture. '' The 
 Revelator " (not that she cares a snap for Him, ex- 
 cept as a hook to hang her delusions on) she says, 
 ''represents the Son of Man as saying: 'I am the 
 first and the last: I am He that liveth and was dead 
 (not understood), and behold, I am alive for ever- 
 more (Science has explained me).' This is a mystical 
 statement of the eternity of the Christ, and is also 
 a reference to the human sense of Jesus crucified." 
 The only thing needed to complete the enormity of 
 this would be to say something about the " eternity 
 of the Eddy." 
 
 Seventeenth Plank: In this we find a "theory" 
 mentioned, that spirit is distinct from matter, but must 
 
The Truth About Christian Science l6i 
 
 pass through it, or into it, to be individualized." Won- 
 der who holds or ever held this crazy notion ! No 
 Christian of any kind, so far as heard from. Perhaps 
 it was Eddy herself. 
 
 Eighteenth Plank : Here we find creation denied 
 again ; she does not really seem to have any idea what 
 the word means. The following passage is particularly 
 rich : " There is nothing in Spirit out of which mat- 
 ter could be made;" as if it were necessary to have 
 something to make it " out of." Then follows this 
 gem : *' For," as the Bible declares, she remarks 
 with a triumphant air, " without the Logos, the ^on 
 or Word of God, was not anything made that w^as 
 made." She actually seems to imagine this to mean 
 that whatever was made was made '' out of " the 
 Logos, as a sort of raw material ; and that as the 
 Logos is Spirit, matter could not be made " out of " it ; 
 so, whatever might have been made '' out of " the 
 Logos, it could not be " matter," at any rate. She 
 persistently ignores the obvious meaning of the words, 
 namely, that the Logos created the universe, and did 
 not need anything to make it out of. " Without the 
 Logos " means in the Gospel, of course, without the 
 Logos as Creator; not as material for creation. 
 
 We are sorry to have to treat this great subject with 
 apparent irreverence. But the Scripture tells us that 
 we must sometimes '' answer a fool according to his 
 folly" (Prov. xxvi. 5). It is true that it also warns 
 us that we may not altogether succeed in this or in 
 any way ; for it says that " though thou shouldest 
 bray a fool in the mortar, his folly would not be 
 taken from him" (Prov. xxvii. 22). Still, it may 
 sometimes be taken from others who are being in- 
 fected by it ; for people sometimes do *' catch " dis- 
 
l62 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 eases in spite of what our dear little Eddie may 
 say. 
 
 Nineteenth Plank: This is meant to deny a dogma 
 which no Christian holds, so far as we are aware, 
 that the human soul is a material substance. But in 
 language, it is all mixed up, as usual. 
 
 Twentieth Plank: Much of the same kind. Noth- 
 ing new in it, except " Father-Mother " and the word 
 '' suppositional," which is a sort of Eddian fad. Per- 
 haps it may be in use as a " scientific " password. 
 
 Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third 
 Planks: Here Mrs. Eddy's materialistic notions crop 
 out again. " Mind never enters the finite ; " it is 
 too big, of course. The old story of the quart and 
 the pint pot. The ideas of " reflection " and " emana- 
 tion " are also materialistic in origin, though they seem 
 to her to solve her difficulty. 
 
 Twenty-fourth Plank : Finally, in a sort of despera- 
 tion, she falls back on the statement that '' God and 
 man coexist and are eternal." This, of course, means 
 that man exists from eternity, that his existence is 
 necessary, not contingent or dependent, and is the same 
 as that of God. Every man rises to the level of the 
 eternal Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. 
 This comes of dabbling in mysteries which none of 
 us can thoroughly understand, and from denying the 
 idea of creation. 
 
 Twenty-fifth Plank: In this, the idea just men- 
 tioned, becomes still more evident. " The Son (with 
 a capital S) must be in accord with the Father.'* 
 To claim a patent, as it were, on this dogma, she has 
 to imply, as she so often does, that the ordinary or 
 unscientific Christian regards human personality as 
 being simply " material sensation." 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 163 
 
 Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Planks : She tries 
 to extend the same patent to Our Lord's words that 
 the *' pure of heart can see God ; " as if Christians 
 generally believed in nothing except " sensualism." 
 
 Twenty-eighth Plank : This repeats, or implies, her 
 old charge, that the " unscientific " believe that man 
 originates in matter. 
 
 Twenty-ninth Plank : This begins with something 
 intended for a pun, rendering the name '' Adam " as 
 "a dam," or obstruction; and that it (just how it 
 does not appear) " suggests the thought of something 
 fluid, of mortal mind in solution." She confesses, how- 
 ever, that '' the dissection and definition of words, 
 aside from their metaphysical (probably she means 
 etymological) derivation is not scientific." 
 
 Next, she goes on to state that '' Jehovah declared 
 the ground was accursed ; and from this ground or 
 matter sprang Adam." She does not seem to have 
 noticed that the words " cursed is the earth in thy 
 work " were only uttered after the Fall ; not at the 
 time when Adam sprung from it. On the contrary, 
 we read that at that time, '' God saw all the things 
 that He had made, and they were very good" (Gen. 
 i. 31). And yet she actually quotes this passage in 
 her " Key." 
 
 Thirtieth Plank: In this, we see again, the notion, 
 which she imagines, or pretends to imagine, that we en- 
 tertain, that sin is pardoned without being abandoned. 
 
 Thirty-first Plank : '' Evil cannot be the product of 
 God." We never heard of anyone that said that 
 it was. 
 
 Thirty-second and last Plank: In this plank, after 
 some of the usual beating about the bush, we come 
 right down to business, in one little sentence, which 
 
164 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 contains the whole Eddian gospel. *' You conquer 
 error by denying its verity." If this will only work, 
 it is a most valuable and important statement. Let 
 us see if it will. 
 
 In the present very terrible conflict in Europe, for 
 instance, Russia holds that Germany is in error, or, 
 as we may say, that it is error itself. Germany, 
 similarly, holds that Russia is. All that Russia has to 
 do to conquer Germany is to deny the verity of 
 Germany, or in other words, that Germany has any 
 real existence. And the same is all that is needed 
 by Germany to conquer Russia. What, then, is the 
 need of killing so many people? None at all, if both 
 parties follow this line. But one does not quite see 
 how either is to conquer anything at all. Everything 
 remains in statu quo. But if only one follows this 
 line ignoring the other, it is a safe bet that the other 
 will whip. 
 
 And so, if we start " to get rid of sin by Science," 
 by not " admitting that sin can have pain or pleasure," 
 when in point of fact it has them, the pleasure of it 
 will allure, while the pain being more remote, does not 
 counterbalance the pleasure. Sin will win, with most 
 people, all the time. No, the truth is, and always will 
 be, that as we read in the book of Job, " the life of 
 man upon earth is a- warfare," and victory cannot 
 be got by pretending that there is no enemy. This 
 notion is simply " an illusion of mortal mind," far 
 more dangerous than any of the real facts which 
 Mrs. Eddy calls by that name. 
 
 It is refreshing to get through, at last, with this 
 " Science of Being " chapter, which tries one's patience 
 even more than any of the preceding ones. In the 
 next, it would seem that we might expect not quite 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 165 
 
 so much talk about " science," and perhaps something 
 a httle more to the point ; for it is called 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Some Objections Answered. 
 
 We are, however, doomed to disappointment. 
 " Science " sticks up its head, even more prominently 
 than before. After a short introductory paragraph, 
 we find the following astounding statement : 
 
 " In Christian Science, mere opinion is valueless. 
 Proof is essential to a due estimate of this subject." 
 
 We had an idea that to prove anything one had to 
 start with some premises admitted by the party to 
 whom the proof was to be presented, and to proceed 
 by logically deducing a conclusion from them. But 
 Mrs. Eddy's idea is different. She proves her con- 
 clusions by simply stating them. This is just the 
 reason why they are not scientific at all, as noted 
 in our preface. The only way in which they can be 
 made to appear so, is by taking as granted by her 
 opponent something which he had no idea of holding, 
 or, in other words, by setting up a '' straw man " to 
 knock him down. She begins with remarking that 
 " sneers at the application of the word Science to 
 Christianity cannot prevent that from being scientific 
 which is based on divine principle, demonstrated ac- 
 cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to 
 proof." 
 
 Now, in the first place, it is possible, of course, 
 that there may be someone who sneers in the way that 
 she alleges. But we have never happened to meet 
 any such. If she had spoken of " sneers " at the appli- 
 cation of the word " Science " to her so-called " Chris- 
 
1 66 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 tian Science," some such persons might be found. 
 But she would make it appear that there are persons 
 who ''sneer" at the notion that Christianity in any 
 form can be considered as scientific. 
 
 This " straw-man," however, is withdrawn right 
 away, and another is substituted for him. This one 
 asserts, or impHes at any rate, that there are some 
 people who indulge in " unqualified condemnations of 
 scientific Mind-healing." By the big M, we judge 
 that she means that these people condemn the idea 
 that Mind (or according to her notation, God) can 
 heal anyone of anything, or at any rate in any " scien- 
 tific " way. 
 
 In point of fact, however, there are not, so far as we 
 are aware, any Christians, or even any who believe 
 in God at all, who do not believe that God can heal 
 anyone of any disease, whether bodily or mental ; and of 
 course we all believe that He can do so, if He chooses, 
 without the use of any " drugs," or any other " second 
 or intermediate causes." He, of course, can also do 
 it, if He so wills, even if those who are to be healed 
 hold what Mrs. Eddy calls " scientific " notions. Be- 
 ing a living and personal God, He does not do it by 
 holding her notion that He is only a vague and im- 
 personal Mind, " filling all space," for He cannot hold 
 what is not true. But He is not bound to refuse to 
 do it because those who are to be healed have been 
 deluded by such ideas. He knows that we are only 
 weak and ignorant creatures, liable to even the wildest 
 errors, but does not necessarily withhold His mercy 
 to us on that account. " He maketh His sun to rise 
 upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and 
 the unjust." He may reward, at any rate, with temporal 
 blessings, and dispose for eternal ones, those who be- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 167 
 
 lieve, even in an imperfect and erroneous way, in 
 Him, as, for instance, is recorded by St. Mark vii. 
 25-29. So nothing prevents Him from healing the 
 sick or the sinner, even in what perhaps Mrs. Eddy 
 would call a '' scientific " way. 
 
 It is true that by any such display of His power 
 or mercy He will not give any formal approval of 
 false doctrines, as opposed to true ones ; but He may 
 reward those who seek Him ignorantly, if they are 
 not to blame for their ignorance. Or to corne down 
 to the actual case in hand ; a student of " Christian 
 Science " may obtain a cure of some disease from 
 Him, when a mere materialist, not believing in Him 
 at all, but simply and solely in " drugs," would not. 
 But that does not prove that " Christian Science " is 
 an improvement on real Christianity. 
 
 But Mrs. Eddy falls into her usual misstatements 
 in saying that '' he that decries this Science does it 
 presumptuously, in the face of Bible history and in 
 defiance of the direct command of Jesus." She would 
 make it appear that he that decries this " Science " 
 decries any power in God to heal the sick ; as if 
 one who decries this " Science " must decry Chris- 
 tianity altogether. 
 
 She proceeds in the next paragraph to " let the 
 cat out of the bag," as it were more visibly. " If 
 Christianity is not scientific," she says, " and Science 
 is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and 
 truth becomes an accident." 
 
 " The cat," thus let out, is now seen quite distinctly. 
 It simply is that " Christian Science " regards God, 
 or Mind, as not having any will of His own, but ag 
 working in much the same way as materialists believe 
 matter does, by an absolutely '' invariable law ; " and 
 
1 68 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 moreover holds that the same results will always fol- 
 low when the conditions are the same. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy really seems to regard " Mind " as a 
 sort of foree of which we have complete control. We 
 have only to put ourselves in " harmony " with it, 
 and it can be turned on to suit our needs, or even our 
 mere wishes, just as easily as one turns on the steam 
 in an engine. She seems to have had a suspicion, 
 just about here, that she was making her " Christian 
 Science " a little too " scientific," and that some dust 
 must be raised to hide the issue. So she says: 
 
 '' Christian Science aw^akens the sinner, reclaims the 
 infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the help- 
 less invalid." But the question which one naturally 
 asks is, "does it do these things all the time? Does 
 not truth, on its principles, become an ** accident," 
 as she says it will, if not scientific? ''Sometimes it 
 works, and sometimes it doesn't." 
 
 The facts which she alleges, can be accounted for 
 just as well, and indeed much better, by the usual 
 Christian teaching on this subject. The ordinary, or 
 normal, Christian believes in '' Mind," that is to say, 
 in God, just as firmly as she or any of her " students," 
 and much more so. We believe " our Master's " 
 words, whe'n it is a question about '' healing the sick " 
 (which she takes as the whole Gospel) just as thor- 
 oughly as she does or can. If we did not, why 
 should we pray, as we constantly do, for the sick? 
 And many of us take the words of the Apostle St. 
 James very seriously and practically, when he says : 
 
 " Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in 
 the priests of the church, and let them pray over 
 him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 
 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man; and 
 
The Truth Aboiil* Christian Science 169 
 
 the Lord shall raised him up ; and if he b© in sins, 
 they shall be forgiven him." 
 
 We think that this, which the Apostle recommends, 
 is better than to sit by the sick man and put ourselves 
 and him, as far as possible, in harmony with " Mind." 
 And that it is still more of an improvement on any 
 sort of " absent treatment." But we do not believe 
 that it is going to work every time. We do not be- 
 lieve that even in the matter of sin (a far more im- 
 portant one than that of bodily illness) it is going to 
 work automatically, or according to any " invariable 
 law." We do not pretend that it is that sort of " Chris- 
 tian Science." But we know, as a matter of con- 
 stant (and indeed daily) experience, that it does work, 
 when God so wills ; and we are sure that God has 
 willed that we should use this means which He Him- 
 self has appointed. 
 
 If it were to work every time, no Christian would 
 ever die. That it does not, is no fatal objection to 
 our belief ; all we are looking for is a prolongation 
 of life, and (what is more important) the forgiveness 
 of sin. But the invariable " Science " of Mrs. Eddy 
 fails and disproves itself when it doesn't work. So 
 it seems to us " unscientific " people, that our method 
 is more of a success than hers. 
 
 We may notice, just by the way, a statement by 
 Mrs. Eddy (though not immediately touching our 
 present subject) that *' Paul was not one of Jesus' 
 students." Strangely, however,, we find that '' Paul " 
 thought that he was such. He says (Gal. i. 11-12): 
 " I give you to understand, brethren, that the Gospel 
 that was preached by me was not according to man. 
 For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn 
 it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." And this 
 
lyo The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 passage is, of course, substantially the same in Mrs. 
 Eddy's own Bible. But, as we remarked a little while 
 ago, Mrs. Eddy was not very familiar with the 
 Bible. Science and Health was the book for her. 
 Even in that, she does not seem to know, in some 
 places, what she wrote in others. 
 
 Right after this she says that '' whoever is the first 
 moekly and conscientiously to press along the line of 
 gospel-healing is often accounted a heretic." Not, so 
 far a? we know, if he presses along the line of gospel- 
 healing as laid down in the Scriptures. If he presses 
 too far along the line of '' Mind-healing" (a term not 
 found in the Scriptures), perhaps he might be. 
 
 Another curious statement is made by her on the 
 next page; she alleges that it is objected to Christian 
 Science that '' it claims God as the only absolute 
 Life and Soul, and man is His idea — that is. His 
 image." 
 
 We do not know who makes this objection. But 
 certainly it cannot be a Christian of any kind. For 
 all Christians undoubtedly recognize God as the only 
 absolute (we suppose that she means the only self- 
 existent and independent) Life and Soul, and that 
 man was as the Bible tells us, " made to His image 
 and likeness." They do not say, however, that man 
 is simply *' His idea," if she means '' His only idea." 
 And the great majority of Christians hold that the 
 likeness of man to God was very much injured by the 
 Fall of Adam; which, of course, Mrs. Eddy always 
 ignores. 
 
 In ending this paragraph, she asks (apparently as 
 a sort of clincher) '' is it sacrilegious to assume that 
 God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, 
 or death?" She lumps all these four together, of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science lyi 
 
 course. As to " matter, of course, she seems to for- 
 get that after saying, '' let us make man to our image 
 and Hkeness." God, as the sacred writer tells us, 
 "formed man of the dust of the ground" (as her 
 version has it). Mrs. Eddy, however, as we see in 
 her Key to the Scriptures, does not stick at a little 
 thing like that. In that " Key," she asks, '' is this ad- 
 dition to His creation real or unreal?" (We hardly 
 see how it could be an " addition," being made before 
 man was.) 
 
 Then she goes on, " is it the truth, or a lie con- 
 cerning man and God? It must he a lie, for God 
 presently curses the ground." Again she forgets that 
 this was not until after the Fall, and that then it was 
 on Adam's disobedience. '' Cursed is the ground for 
 thy sake " are the words in her own version. 
 
 To speak plainly, the real reason why she has to 
 make it a lie, is because it does not fit in with her 
 own wild theories. These words, and indeed any- 
 thing in Scripture or anywhere, must be a lie, if not 
 in "harmony with Science and Health." She shows 
 this plainly in her introduction to her " Key." It is 
 not a key to a better understanding of an inspired 
 book, the Word of God, but just a key to i^nlock, 
 and get rid of, the absurd idea that it is God's Word. 
 No book is inspired, except Science and Health. Even 
 on that, no human commentaries are allowed. You 
 have just got to read it, and swallow it right down. 
 vShe actually quotes words from the Apocalypse in 
 the outset of her " Key." " The angel," we there read, 
 said to St. John, " take the book and eat it up." 
 Mrs. Eddy actually has the audacity to apply these 
 words to her own absurd book. She paraphrases them 
 as follows: 
 
172 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 " Then will a voice from harmony cry : Go and take 
 
 the little book Take it and eat it up ; and it shall 
 
 make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth 
 sweet as honey. Mortals obey the heavenly evangel. 
 Take divine Science. Read this book from beginning 
 to end. Study it, ponder it." But before reading it, 
 pay five dollars for it. That is more important than 
 even to read it. 
 
 She does not begin to apply any " key " to the 
 Apocalypse, till she can get it to say something which 
 she can interpret as a favorable notice of her book. 
 That is all that is good for anything in what St. John, 
 or anyone else, can say. 
 
 It is hard to imagine how pride and impiety can 
 go much farther than this. It will not, perhaps, open 
 the eyes of those who have fully surrendered to her 
 really devilish delusions. But it may be the means 
 of saving others from them who have not yet com- 
 pletely become their victims. We hope that such 
 will be warned while there is yet time. One would 
 think that its silliness and ignorance would be enough 
 to scare readers away; but evidently they have not 
 been so. 
 
 To resume where we left off, however, we cheer- 
 fully concede that God's likeness is not found in 
 *' sin, sickness and death." But it does not follow 
 from this that man in his fallen state, is not subject 
 to these. 
 
 In spite of the spiritual danger of the Eddian doc- 
 trine, and its impiety, which we have to show up, 
 sometimes, as just now, we have to be amused now 
 and then, by its comicality, as we go along. As, for 
 instance, when she says, that " when the omnipotence 
 of God is preached and His absoluteness is set forth, 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 173 
 
 Christian sermons will heal the sick." We had an 
 impression that sermons were not allowed by Mrs. 
 Eddy, as they might introduce a human element into 
 her ineffable revelations. But here she seems to 
 throw out a hint, as it were, of suitable subjects for 
 sermons, and says, as it would seem, that if these 
 subjects were strictly adhered to, sick people might 
 be cured by them, even right in church. That would 
 surely be a great improvement over the soporific effect 
 with which we are more familiar. But the subjects 
 she wants to have " set forth " are in fact often 
 treated of. 
 
 Another funny little sentence : " The thought," she 
 says, " of human, material nothingness, which Science 
 inculcates, enrages the carnal mind." We should 
 think that the '' carnal mind " would be more likely 
 to laugh at such an absurd thought than to get " en- 
 raged " at it. 
 
 Would anyone believe that even Mrs. Eddy could 
 write such a sentence at this? " Do you feel the pain 
 of tooth-pulling," she asks, " when you believe that 
 nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?" Try 
 some other kind of gas (Mrs. Eddy's, for instance), 
 and no matter how much you believe that it has this 
 property, you will feel the pain as much as ever, and 
 also the pain of listening to her nonsense. 
 
 One absolute false statement of fact, which she 
 makes in this chapter, cannot be passed by in silence. 
 It is that " the Christian opponents of Christian 
 Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their 
 Master's religion can heal the sick." She may, per- 
 haps, refuse to listen to any proofs which we give 
 and offer; but to say that they are not given and of- 
 fered, and in immense numbers, is simply a lie, only 
 
174 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 excusable, if at all, by the unfathomable ignorance 
 which she shows so frequently. 
 
 She repeats it on the very next page. '' Popular 
 religion," she says, *' declines to admit that Christ's 
 religion has exercised any systematic healing power 
 since the first century." It seems to us that the re- 
 ligion of the great majority of Christians may have 
 some slight claim to be considered '' popular." But 
 she seems (or pretends) never to have heard of any 
 Christian religion except that of the '' orthodox Con- 
 gregational Church," of which, she tells us, that she 
 " became a member in early years." The point, it 
 should be observed, is not whether Christ's religion 
 has actually exercised any such " healing power," but 
 whether such a claim is popularly made for it. 
 
 This chapter is entitled " Some Objections An- 
 swered." But we practically do not find that Mrs. 
 Eddy even states any objections which she is supposed 
 to be answering. Just a little snip here and there, 
 that is all, answered by a wilderness of the same old 
 stuff that she is constantly repeating. 
 
 Once more, before concluding this chapter, she takes 
 occasion again to explicitly deny the dogma of the Incar- 
 nation and of the Holy Trinity, and reduces them both 
 down to the idea that our Divine Lord was in no way 
 different from the rest of us; that when He said, 
 " I and My Father are one." He simply meant that, as 
 with all of us, " in Him we live, and move, and have 
 our being." And she again lets out her quantitative, 
 or materialist, notion of infinity. She says that He 
 meant by what He said, " one in quality, not in quan- 
 tity. The Christian," she says, " recognizes that Jesus 
 Christ is not God, as Jesus Himself declared, but is 
 the Son of God. God and man, Father and son " 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 175 
 
 (now with a small '' s ") "are in one being." Thus 
 flippantly she disposes of the practically universal be- 
 lief of Christianity; as if no one could pos"sibly be- 
 lieve anything like that. 
 
 We are not quite sure, however, whether Mrs. Eddy 
 meant that " Jesus Himself declared " that He was 
 God, or that He was not. Probably, however, it was 
 the latter, as she says that the *' Christian " recognizes 
 that opinion. It is, at any rate, well to notice this 
 " Christian " opinion of hers once again, that Chris- 
 tians in general may be more thoroughly warned by 
 it against her other errors. 
 
 With this, it is perhaps allowable to conclude this 
 chapter, in which the theoretical part of this alleged 
 " science " should logically have been completed, and 
 all the objections to it refuted. - Of course next to 
 nothing has been attempted by the author in either 
 of these lines ; no clear and consistent scheme of doc- 
 trine has been developed, nor have the '' objections," 
 even such as may emerge in this chapter or others 
 from the mass of verbiage which makes up the whole 
 thing, been made in any formal way. And it is not 
 binding on us to formulate a set of definite objections 
 to a set of vague assertions, a great many of which 
 are simply statements that the opponents of her 
 " science " hold views which they are really never 
 dreamt of; they are attacks on what does not exist, 
 or in other words, on a " straw man." We hope, 
 however, before finally concluding our examination of 
 this mass of stuff, to give some statements of the 
 true Christian and common sense doctrine which she 
 endeavors to combat in it, and contrast them with her 
 wild errors. 
 
 But as she really has not yet got through with her 
 
176 The TnifJi About Christian Science 
 
 exposition of this false "science" (in spite of what 
 might appear from the titles of her chapters), we 
 shall have to proceed with these chapters in the order 
 in which they are given. Even in the next one, they 
 will be repeated. It is called 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Christian Science Practice. 
 
 This chapter certainly begins in rather a surprising 
 way. One would have expected to find, at the out- 
 set, and indeed all through, directions as to the proper 
 rules to be observed in working up people who 
 imagined themselves to be sick into a firm convic- 
 tion that there was really nothing the matter with 
 them. That is all that there is in the whole system; 
 so why not get right to work on it at once? But no, 
 instead of this, we find the Gospel account of St. Mary 
 Magdalen coming into the house of the Pharisee where 
 Jesus. was sitting at meat. We all know this beauti- 
 ful and true story so well that there is no need to 
 give it in full. But what has it to do with Christian 
 Science, or with its practice? 
 
 The instruction which Mrs. Eddy apparently wishes 
 to give by it to "practitioners" (as we believe they are 
 called), is that they must cultivate a spirit of sym- 
 pathy, like that of Jesus for the sinner ; sympathy, we 
 suppose, for their errors in supposing that there is 
 and reality in matter, or anything except " Mind " in 
 the world. 
 
 It seems to be her idea that the ordinary medical 
 "practitioner" (if we may be allowed to use this 
 sacred word) is brutal and scornful, like the Pharisee, 
 in his treatment of the sick that he regards it as 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 177 
 
 being their own fault that they are sick. And that 
 so he thinks the proper way to proceed is to punish 
 them for this fault - by stuffing some horrid and 
 nauseous '' drugs " down their throats, or perhaps by 
 cutting them up with his instruments of torture ; if 
 the case seems grave enough to call for it ; or, at any 
 rate,, that doctors, and even nurses, in their ordinary 
 work, have no sympathy for the sick, and that '' Scien- 
 tists " must show that they have it. 
 
 We must allow that doctors, and nurses also, are in 
 fact, and in a way, hardened to the sufferings of their 
 patients by seeing so much of them, and, moreover, 
 that they do not think it their proper place to offer 
 spiritual consolation, but are inclined to think that the 
 clergyman can do that work better, and that they can 
 do their own work more effectually by confining their 
 attention to it. In spite of this drawback, however, 
 we think that general experience shows that doctors 
 and professional nurses, are as a rule quite nice peo- 
 ple, and that their visits, as far as their personal be- 
 havior is concerned, are enjoyed and looked forward 
 to by the patients whom they may have in charge; 
 furthermore, that they are not at all likely to indulge in 
 " quoting theories, stereotyped, borrowed speeches, and 
 the doling of arguments." Mrs. Eddy seems to com- 
 plain that some " science " practitioners are apt to 
 err in this way, and that they need to be warned 
 against it. And though having no personal experience 
 in the matter, we should not be surprised if this were 
 the case. 
 
 We have found that, as a fact, '' Scientists " are 
 somewhat in the habit of ''gushing" about their 
 theories, which may be explained by there being so 
 little except " gush " in them. But the difficulty about 
 
178 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 the regular " unscientific " physician seems to be that 
 he says so Httle about his theories to his patient. He 
 seems to think that he must only talk to other doc- 
 tors about them. 
 
 For the " metaphysician," however, Mrs. Eddy gives 
 the following warning. (It is really funny, by the 
 way, that she really seems to have no idea at all what 
 the word actually means.) *' In order to cure his 
 patient," she says, " the metaphysician must first cast 
 moral evils out of himself, and thus obtain the 
 spiritual fredom which will enable him to cast phy- 
 sical evils out of his patient." (We had an idea, by 
 the way, that there really were no '' physical evils " 
 in his patient to cast out. But we may let that pass. 
 This sort of thing occurs so often.) But we don't 
 quite understand what she means by " moral evils." 
 If she mxcans sinful habits and desires, we all ac- 
 knowledge, of course, that this is very good advice for 
 '' the metaphysician," as it is for everyone else. It is 
 not, however, at all new. But in " scientific " 
 language, we thought that all moral evils were just 
 " errors of mortal mind." And anyone enough ad- 
 vanced to be a " practitioner," ought to have got rid 
 of these, one would think, long ago. 
 
 She goes on, however, to explain. " The physician," 
 she says (of course, if he is a "scientist" he is a 
 metaphysician, so it is all the same), *' must also watch, 
 lest he be overcome by a sense of the odiousness of 
 sin and by the unveiling of sin in his own thoughts." 
 
 This seems rather strange, with good respectable 
 patients. But what Mrs. Eddy means by " sin " is 
 immediately made plain. It is not anything in will 
 or act, but only in belief. " The sick," she tells 
 us, " are terrified by their sick beliefs," that is to say 
 
The Truth 'About Christian Science 179 
 
 the beliefs that they are really sick. So she says, 
 '' sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs," 
 these are, probably, that there is any difference be- 
 tween them and " Mind." But '' the Christian Scien- 
 tist," she assures us, '* will be calm in the presence of 
 both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is 
 God, and God is All." As he knows this, he has no 
 beliefs which are sick or sinful ; and can get such 
 belief's right out of his patient, even if he says noth- 
 ing about them. They will just " catch " them from 
 him. His presence, or even his absence, if it is a 
 case of " absent treatment," will be quite enough. 
 
 We have always rather wondered how this works 
 in the case of " Christian Science " dentists. But per- 
 haps there are not many. Or rather, we understand 
 that there are some, but they do not use it in their 
 practice ; or, in other words, that they are not " prac- 
 titioners," and evidently could not be advanced to that 
 grade. Of course, if they were they would only have 
 to sit by the side of the patient's chair and trium- 
 phantly see the illusion of there being any aching tooth 
 disappear; perhaps, a little cocaine might be given, 
 just to help the good work along. Of course it would 
 be absurd to try to pull out a thing which does not 
 exist. As to there really being any tooth, aching or 
 otherwise, both dentist and patient would of course 
 " turn from the lie of false belief and gather the facts 
 of being from the divine Mind." 
 
 Christians also prefer to get the facts of being from 
 the divine Mind, but not by throwing away the means 
 whick He has provided for us to enable us to do so. 
 
 But we must proceed with this foolish book. A 
 little farther on, our attention is arrested by this re- 
 markable statement : " that Life is not contingent on 
 
i8o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 bodily conditions is proved, when we learn that life 
 and man survive the body." Christians learn this 
 in childhood, as soon as they are able to learn or un- 
 derstand anything, but Mrs. Eddy seems not to have 
 been rightly instructed in her early years. Yet we 
 thought that the " orthodox Congregational Church " 
 believed in a life after death. But they, and other 
 reasonable people, do not prove from it that life is not 
 contingent on bodily conditions ; for they know that 
 in the ordinary sense of the word life, it means the 
 union of soul and body, and that the latter will wear 
 out, and become unfit for this union, whereas the 
 former will not; and that therefore life, in this normal 
 sense of the word, is contingent on bodily conditions, 
 as experience constantly proves; and Mrs. Eddy 
 " proved " that she was no exception to the rule. 
 But she tried in this sentence to make a sort of haze 
 or confusion by spelling '' life " in the first part of it 
 with a big L. If asked about this, she could say that 
 that Life (with a big L) means the Divine Life. 
 Of course we all admit that this is not contingent ; 
 but we do not admit that human life and Divine Life 
 are identical. The latter is necessary; the former is 
 created by it, and is contingent. 
 
 Of course it is understood that in this chapter she 
 is supposed to be talking to people who have, par- 
 tially at any rate, swallowed her nonsense ; but to re- 
 peat it in this chapter, which is supposed to be con- 
 cerned with practice, rather than theory, is hardly 
 keeping to the point. It looks as if she were afraid 
 that when going into practice, the theory might slip 
 away from them. 
 
 A little later, she gives an example, as she does so 
 often, of her unfamiliarity with Scripture. Really, of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science i8i 
 
 course, she has no need of it, Science and Health 
 being the only thoroughly inspired book. But she ven- 
 tures to make a guess that " Jesus never asked if 
 disease were acute or chronic." She does not seem to 
 have read the ninth chapter of St. Mark's Gospel. 
 In verse twenty, we find these words, " How long time 
 is it since this has happened to him? But he (the 
 father) said: From his infancy." Not that it made 
 any real difference to Our Lord how long a disease 
 had lasted. But poor :\Irs. Eddy thought that she 
 might score a point somehow, and so forgot to '' look 
 before she leaped." 
 
 She continues immediately, that " He " (Jesus) 
 "never recommended attention to laws of health, never 
 gave drugs, never prayed to know if God were willing 
 that a man should live." This certainly sounds strange 
 to Christians, who know that Our Lord really was 
 God, and that if He chose to exercise His Divine 
 Power, needed no " laws of health " or " drugs." To 
 " Scientists," however, it is simply an exhortation to 
 remember that they really are God, just as well as 
 Jesus was, and have the stream of Divine power to 
 turn on whenever they may wish to do so. It would 
 be quite absurd for a " Scientist " to pray ; they don't 
 need to pray, even to Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 But we find in this very chapter of St. Mark which 
 has just been quoted, that in the case there narrated, 
 which the '' students " of the " Christian Science " of 
 Jesus had failed to cure, and asked Him the reason 
 for their failure, that He told them for their instruc- 
 tion, that " this kind can go out by nothing, but by 
 prayer and fasting." It did not follow because He 
 did not need these, that the " students " did not. And 
 He Himself, as the Gospels tell us, gave them His ex- 
 
1 82 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 ample as well as His precept. Moreover, since ac- 
 cording to '' Science," His chief work on earth was 
 to ''heal the sick" (though real Christians do not 
 think so). His prayer, even when He was praying for 
 the whole night (Luke vi. 12), must have been made 
 mainly for that purpose. 
 
 Shortly after this we are astounded by a statement 
 that homoeopathy, according to Mrs. Eddy, does some- 
 times cure disease. She accounts for this by its re- 
 quiring more faith than the regular or " allopathic " 
 system ; but she says '' this confirms my theory that 
 the faith in the drug is the sole factor in the cure." 
 The really astounding part is that she should talk 
 about '' my theory." We have understood, all along, 
 that she did not have any '' theories," that with her, 
 all her '' science " had come by revelation. 
 
 But another " theory " soon appears. '' What you 
 call matter was originally error in solution," she in- 
 forms us ; it became matter, then, we suppose, by the 
 solution being boiled down or evaporated, with a pre- 
 cipitation of the error in the form of matter. One 
 " theory " about this '' error " or '' elementary mortal 
 mind," as she tells us that '' error is called when in 
 solution," is, that *' its sensations can reproduce man, 
 can form blood, flesh, and bones." We don't know 
 whether she approves of this theory or not; but it 
 seems as if her " science " was getting a little shaky 
 when she begins to talk about " theories." This one 
 seems to be rather in the domain of chemistry. 
 
 A little farther on she begins to make some rules, 
 as it would seem, which really may be intended for 
 what the chapter is supposed to treat on, that is to 
 say, '' Christian Science Practice." The first par- 
 ticular ailment she applies them to is intermittent 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 183 
 
 fever, or what she calls '' chills and heat, or chills and 
 fever." '' Change the mental state," she says, " and 
 the chills and fever disappear." But with sensible peo- 
 ple, who look at facts, and are not imaginative, it is 
 not so easy to change the mental state. Our family 
 doctor once tried that on the present writer, when the 
 latter w^as suffering in childhood, with a rather bad 
 case of this complaint, by telling him that in really 
 severe ones the house could be seen to shake by peo- 
 ple outside. That was a little in the " scientific " line, 
 but of course it was fatal to any thorough science 
 to admit that there were or could be any really severe 
 cases. It was rather amusing, and in a way en- 
 couraging, to have him say that; but it did not pro- 
 duce any effect on what shaking there was ; so he 
 concluded, later on, to give a good strong dose of 
 ordinary quinine, and keep on with it till the trouble 
 was actually cured. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy, however, goes further than most prac- 
 titioners would, probably, venture on doing with a 
 fairly intelligent child. " If the body is material, it 
 cannot," she asserts with apparent seriousness, " suffer 
 with a fever." Well, of course, it doesn't suffer in 
 the strict sense of the word, without a mind to re- 
 ceive the sensations which can be got from it. But 
 just put in a thermometer under the tongue, and if 
 you find it reading one hundred and four degrees or 
 so, you may very safely bet that it has got a fever, 
 and a pretty bad one. Well, she has the same 
 rigmarole in all other cases of which she mentions. 
 Palsy, consumption, and all other diseases disappear 
 when you believe that you have not got them. But 
 the difficulty is to believe that you have not got them, 
 w^hen you know that you have. 
 
184 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 It all sounds very easy. '' The efficient remedy," we 
 are told, *' is to destroy the patient's false belief by 
 both silently and audibly arguing the true facts with 
 regard to harmonious being." But the ordinary com- 
 mon sense patient would say, '' I don't care a rap 
 about 'harmonious being' just now. When I get well 
 it might amuse me, but now I am too sick." 
 
 What she says on the next page is really funnier 
 than usual, and quite worth quoting. It is, that " the 
 author never knew a patient who did not recover 
 when the belief of the disease had gone." Recover 
 from what? Why^ of course^ from the false belief 
 of disease. There being no real disease, there was 
 nothing else to recover from. But at the time of 
 recovery from this false belief, the false belief had 
 already gone, and there was nothing at all left from 
 which to recover. The author, then, " never knew a 
 patient who did not get rid of the false belief of dis- 
 ease when this false belief had been got rid of." This 
 was truly remarkable; and yet she had never known 
 even one case to the contrary. If she had said, that 
 she never knew a patient who did not recover from 
 a real disease when the belief that it was real had 
 gone, that would have made sense at any rate. But 
 she couldn't say that; it would be against her absurd 
 principles, and '' science of being." It is such a pity 
 that she did not know a little bit more about real 
 science before starting to talk about it. 
 
 On the same page, she gives the following title 
 direction to " practitioners : " " If your patient be- 
 lieves in taking cold, mentally convince him that mat- 
 ter cannot take cold." She might as well say, '' If 
 your patient believes that the water in his pitcher 
 is frozen, mentally convince him that matter cannot 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 185 
 
 freeze." Or, *' If your patient thinks that his watch 
 has stopped, mentally convince him that matter cannot 
 stop, or start, or do anything else." But be sure 
 that he is really patient, or he might get impatient at 
 such nonsense. 
 
 To this stuff she adds one little grain of really 
 good advice, such as a common-sense or real Chris- 
 tian might give, and often docs give. " If grief 
 causes suffering, convince the suft'erer that affliction is 
 often the source of joy." She is willing to concede 
 that grief may cause suffering, at any rate in what 
 she calls '' mortal mind." But in fact (and she 
 really knows it) she might as well substitute "a 
 toothache" for "grief." She continues: "Convince 
 
 the sufferer that he should rejoice always in 
 
 ever-present Love." That is what St. Paul says : ''Re- 
 joice in the Lord always." Or again, the '' Master " 
 says : " A woman, when she is in labor, hath sor- 
 row, because her hour is come; but when she hath 
 brought forth the child, she remembers no more the 
 anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." 
 
 It is refreshing to find her giving this little bit of 
 real Christianity, in the midst of a wilderness of 
 antichristian delusion. But it would not do to keep 
 it up for too long; for the bait which she wants to 
 hang out, to get people to take her " Science," is 
 that if they do, they will have no anguish of any 
 kind to feel or to remember. To get rid of all suf- 
 fering in this world is the whole gospel of her anti- 
 christian science. 
 
 One other little absurdity in it may be noticed, on 
 this same page. ''The cause of all disease" {all 
 disease, mind you) " is mental, even a mortal fear, a 
 helpless, mistaken belief or fixed conviction of the 
 
1 86 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 necessity and power of ill health." Imagine, if you 
 please, a bahy with a stonfachache, laboring under a 
 " helpless, mistaken belief or fixed conviction of the 
 necessity and power of ill health ! " But, of course, 
 this exalted science is not intended for babies. Still, 
 it is strange that they should have to suffer for the 
 want of it. Probably the '' practitioner " just lets them 
 suft'er. 
 
 Another thing that we find a little farther on, is that 
 *' if disease can attack and control the body without 
 the consent of mortals, sin can do the same." In fact, 
 sin is not a matter of the body, but of the soul. It 
 does not and cannot control anything without the con- 
 sent of the soul. Mrs. Eddy, like all of us, knows 
 very well that it does not follow that because disease 
 can control the body without the consent of mortals, 
 sin can do the same. 
 
 But this chapter, though supposed to be practical, is 
 so full of theoretical absurdities that it would be 
 " practically " impossible to notice them all. She says : 
 " The quickened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, 
 dry skin, pain in the "head and limbs, are pictures 
 drawn on the body by a mortal mind." That must 
 hold good for babies as well as for grown people. 
 Again : " We cannot in reality suffer from breaking 
 anything except a moral or spiritual law." How if one 
 should throw a match into a barrel of gunpowder, 
 supposing it to be charcoal for the teeth? Well, of 
 course, according to Eddian law, one ought not to use 
 anything for the teeth. But one might have intended 
 to burn it up, just to prevent anyone else from using it. 
 
 One other little thing may be quoted, because it is 
 so funny : " If half the attention given to hygiene," 
 she says, *' were given to the study of Christian 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 187 
 
 Science, and to the spiritualization of thought, this 
 alone would usher in the millennium. But why re- 
 strict this to "half" the attention? Why give any 
 attention to hygiene at all? She tells us that con- 
 stant " bathing and rubbing to alter the secretions or 
 to remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle re- 
 ceive a useful rebuke from Jesus' precept : '* Take no 
 thought for the body." A real Christian Scientist, 
 it would seem, ought never to bathe, and under no 
 circumstances to use a towel. But the whole business 
 is so reeking with absurdities that it seems incredible 
 that any person with even a grain of sense ould take 
 any stock in it. 
 
 Here, however, is an interesting passage : " Because 
 mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the penalty 
 of a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual 
 mind can be overworked? When we reach our limits 
 of mental endurance, we conclude that intellectual 
 labor has been carried sufficiently far ; but when 
 we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, and that 
 spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can so- 
 called material law trespass on God-given powers and 
 resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by 
 the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality." 
 This is encouraging, though we can't as yet quite ac- 
 cept it. For when we reach our limits of mental en- 
 durance in reading Mrs. Eddy's nonsense, we do con- 
 clude that for that day it has been carried sufficiently 
 far, and that if we were to go on without a rest on 
 something else, we might have to " pay the penalty of 
 a softened brain." 
 
 One more little ''gem:" ''If mortals think that 
 food disturbs the harmonious functions of mind and 
 body, either the food or this thought must be dispensed 
 
i88 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 with, for the penalty is coupled with this belief." We 
 can't help wondering if Mrs. Eddy would have 
 thought it all right to eat a nice big Welsh rarebit 
 just at bedtime. We are inclined to think that even 
 if she did so think, she might still have had " mortal 
 mind " enough to " report the food as undigested," 
 which, as she confesses, sometimes does happen. But 
 she assures us that the belief that there would in any 
 case be any trouble is one that '' totters to its falling 
 before the battle-axe of Science." So as she, if any- 
 one, was an expert with this battle-axe, she would have 
 taken a " dare " to eat the rarebit, undoubtedly. Per- 
 haps she might even have been a rival of the man 
 who drank sulphuric acid as a good strong tonic, 
 and when asked how he liked it, reported that it was 
 pretty good, but that he was afraid there was some- 
 thing the matter with the stuff, for " when he blew his 
 nose it burned holes in his handkerchief." 
 
 She gives a case of a woman who thought that she 
 had chronic liver complaint, but whom she cured in 
 a few minutes. This was evidently just a case of 
 hypochondria. The woman, probably, didn't believe 
 the doctors, but was persuaded to believe Mrs. Eddy. 
 When a disease is imaginary, that is, of course, a 
 good way to proceed against it, if the one who 
 imagines it is willing to listen to your words. But 
 one can hardly expect to succeed in this way, if it is 
 a case of a tumor or cancer, which is visible to every- 
 one. Even in such a case, however, Mrs. Eddy says 
 that the practitioner must really refuse to believe in the 
 existence of such things, when he " argues against 
 their reality." Of course, if he can actually do this, 
 it might give the force of sincerity to his arguments. 
 But it is a pretty hard thing to do: to believe Mrs. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 189 
 
 Eddy rather than one's own eyes. And yet she says 
 it is " mental quackery " to balk even at this ; and 
 she has already told her practitioners that " quackery 
 fails at length to inspire the credulity of the sick " 
 (which is all that they have to depend on), ''and 
 then they cease to improve." So it has got to be 
 done, however hard it may seem; or you must stop 
 your " practice." 
 
 Well, it is about time to drop this absolutely in- 
 credible nonsense, which keeps on for quite a number 
 of pages. And then we find some more under the title 
 of " Mental Treatment Illustrated." Like a drowning 
 man catching at a straw, we may have a faint hope 
 that some facts may appear in this. But we find 
 nothing but the same stuff which she has been giving 
 us all along; like the man of whom Hood writes, 
 " groping in the dark for combustibles in the coal- 
 cellar, and finding nothing but the torturous cat and 
 her kittens." 
 
 On the first page of this, we find something which, 
 though not an " illustration " of anything whatever, is 
 too bad to be let go without comment. 
 
 " It is recorded," she says, '' that once Jesus asked 
 the name of a disease — a disease which moderns call 
 'dementia.' The demon, or devil, replied that his name 
 was Legion." If we look at the place where this is 
 recorded, we find that Our Lord did not ask the 
 name of any disease at all. Everyone, as well as He, 
 knew that it was no disease that the man had, but that 
 he was simply possessed by devils. What Jesus asked, 
 of the possessing devil was what his name was ; and 
 that the answer was : " Legion ; because many devils 
 were entered into him" (Luke viii. 30). 
 
 Mrs. Eddy seems, in what she says, to try to make 
 
190 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 out that the word " dementia " has some connection 
 with the word ** demon." But that is just an example 
 either of her ignorance or her attempts to impose on 
 the ignorant. She goes on to say that " thereupon 
 Jesus cast out the evil, and the insane man was 
 changed and straightway became whole. The Scrip- 
 ture seems to import that Jesus caused the evil to be 
 self-seen and so destroyed." In fact " the Scripture 
 seems to import " nothing of the kind. It does not 
 " import " anything. It simply tells us, as a fact, 
 that the '' many devils " which had possessed the poor 
 man went out of him at the Divine command; and 
 entered into " a herd of many swine, feeding on the 
 mountain ; " and that this was in answer to a request 
 which these devils had made. 
 
 This whole thing Mrs. Eddy deliberately omits, be- 
 cause it is against her theory that there can't be any 
 real devils. It is of no importance to her that '' the 
 Master " had a different opinion, or that His opinion 
 was confirmed by the actual facts. He was only 
 an imperfect " student " of Christian Science, any- 
 way; what could His opinion amount to, and why 
 mention it when not in accord with hers? 
 
 Indeed, the same thing recorded in the Gospel occurs 
 only too often, even now. Diabolic possession is an 
 actual fact, and we do not have to go back to the 
 Bible to find cases of it, though they ought to be 
 enough for a Christian. The exorcisms of the Church 
 are used against it, and frequently prove effectual. 
 But it is a dangerous thing to meddle with. We 
 read in the Acts of the Apostles that some Jewish 
 exorcists tried to drive out devils by the formula, " I 
 conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth." But 
 the reply that they got was, '' Jesus I know, and Paul 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 191 
 
 I know, but who are you ? And the man in whom the 
 wicked spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering 
 them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled 
 out of that house naked and wounded." We some- 
 times find at the present time that even when the 
 exorcism is successful, the spirits expelled may take 
 vengeance on the exorcist, as it is C[uite natural that 
 they should. 
 
 We have dwelt upon this matter at some length, be- 
 cause of the unbelief which has crept in lately, even 
 among many Bible Christians, about this plain teach- 
 ing of the Bible. And even were it not taught in 
 Scripture there are enough plain proofs of it in modern 
 spiritism to convince those who examine the facts, and 
 do not shut their ears to evidence, to be convinced 
 of its reality. There is, of course, nothing new in the 
 " illustrations," here supposed to be made. But there 
 are some funny remarks which may enliven the reader 
 a little. 
 
 She says, for instance, that " etherization will ap- 
 parently cause the body to disappear." Wonder if it 
 disapppears from sight of the bystanders, as well as 
 of the person etherized. If it doesn't, nothing seems 
 to be proved. In this little paragraph she seems to 
 be fighting the old " straw man," as if there were 
 somebody who held that pain is in matter independent 
 of mind, and ought to go on when the mysterious con- 
 nection of the two is temporarily broken. 
 
 Another strange phenomenon, she says, sometimes 
 occurs : " If the reader of this book observes a great 
 stir throughout his whole system, and certain moral 
 and physical symptoms seem aggravated," she tells us 
 that " these indications are favorable." One doesn't 
 quite understand how any " great stir " can be pro- 
 
192 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 duced by reading the book, except in the way either 
 of amusement, or of indignation, that anyone can 
 venture to pahii off such absurdity on an unsuspecting 
 pubHc. We have noticed in ourselves some moral and 
 physical symptoms of both these kinds, and are glad 
 to know that they are favorable. She advises us to 
 " continue to read," and the advice is probably good. 
 Even a little stir in either of these ways is not a bad 
 thing; it keeps life off the dead level of monotony 
 which might be caused by more serious reading. Only 
 one shouldn't read too much at a time, or one's mind 
 might get unhinged, as the author's seems to have 
 become. 
 
 She has a new word on the next page, which evi- 
 dently tickled her fancy. It is the " matter-physician," 
 whom she contrasts with the " metaphysician " of 
 course to the advantage of the latter. She uses this 
 last word so often that she really seems to have 
 guessed that it must mean " mind-physician." 
 
 There are, of course, funny things on every page, 
 but even these may become monotonous, so we refrain. 
 
 This chapter concludes with " a mental case, sup- 
 posed to be on trial, as cases are tried in court." This 
 is too long to be waded through, so we may be ex- 
 cused, as it is really the same old story over again. 
 So we will go on to 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Teaching Christian Science. 
 
 We are glad to see, in the beginning of this, that 
 Mrs. Eddy, even if she had had the power to require 
 us to employ " metaphysicians " instead of the regular 
 faculty, when attacked by some ailment, would not 
 
The Truth 'About Christian Science 193 
 
 have compelled us to do so. The Mind-physician, she 
 tells us, " should give up cases of persistent failure 
 to experience the healing power of Christian Science," 
 and leave " invalids free to resort to whatever other 
 systems they fancy will afford relief." And probably 
 the same favor might be extended even to those who 
 are so sure that there is nothing in it that they never 
 have cared about trying it at all. 
 
 But she feels quite sure that they will come to it in 
 the end. She does not admit the possibility, it would 
 seem, that a regular doctor's treatment ever succeeded, 
 or ever can succeed. " Sooner or later," she says, '' all 
 must rise superior to materiahty." '' If the sick find 
 these material expedients unsatisfactory, and they rt\- 
 ceive no help from them, these very failures may open 
 their blind eyes." But she does not tell her students 
 what to do, if they find them satisfactory, as they do 
 in the great majority of cases, when there is any- 
 thing really the matter. If one finds that a blue pill or 
 a dose of salts vv^orks all right, why then reserve your 
 Christian Science for some occasion when the trouble 
 is not so " material " would seem to be the correct 
 procedure. " The teacher," she says, " must make 
 clear to her students the Science of healing, especially 
 its ethics — that all is Mind ; " that is, that pantheism 
 is the correct doctrine. 
 
 " The author trembles," we are told, '' when she sees 
 a man, for the petty consideration of money, teaching 
 his slight knowledge of Mind-power." As, for ex- 
 ample, selling a little book on the subject for many 
 times the money required to produce it. The price of 
 Science and Health is, we are credibly informed, 
 '' three dollars in cloth, six when it is finely bound, and 
 shaped to imitate the Testament, and is broken into 
 
194 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 verses." That is the way it is with the copy which 
 we have used in this review, which was lent to us 
 by a friend, to whoni it was presented by another. 
 Perhaps it may have gone down since the time of the 
 first purchaser. But the price seems rather steep, 
 especially when we consider that the usual profits 
 of " middlemen " and advertisers are pretty well done 
 away with by the obligation resting on all Scientists 
 to act in these capacities. For the following com- 
 mands were issued from headquarters: 
 
 " It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to 
 circulate and to sell as many of these books as they 
 can. 
 
 " If a member of the First Church of Christ, Scien- 
 tist, shall fail to obey this injunction, it will render 
 him liable to lose his membership in this Church. 
 
 " Mary Baker Eddy." 
 
 It is also notable in the very book itself that it is a 
 matter of faith that no other book will answer the 
 purpose. We are told distinctly that " a Christian 
 Scientist requires my work Science and Health for his 
 textbook, and so do all his students and patients." 
 (All of them, mind you; even a patient's cure can- 
 not be hoped for unless he himself buys the book. 
 A mere reading of it will not suffice. He must ponder 
 it, and let it sink into his mind.) 
 
 " Why does a Scientist require it? " she asks. " Oh, 
 that is very simple. 
 
 " First, because it is the voice of Truth to this age, 
 and contains the full statement of Christian Science, 
 or the Science of healing through Mind. 
 
 " Second, because it was the first book known con- 
 taining a thorough statement of Christian Science. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 195 
 
 Hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating this 
 Science, and registered the real Truth uncontaminated 
 by human hypotheses." (In other words because it 
 is a book inspired in every word, and of course noth- 
 ing can take its place.) 
 
 But now, in a few words, the real cat is let out of 
 the bag. *' Other works, which have borrowed from 
 this book without giving it credit, have adulterated the 
 Science." 
 
 Other works, no matter how completely they state 
 the " Science/' unless they give her hook credit (that 
 is to say advertise it, and promote the profits accruing 
 to Mrs. Eddy personally from its sale), adulterate the 
 " Science." It is impossible to avoid the conclusion 
 that the '' Science " does not consist in what is printed 
 in the book, but in the science of how to make money 
 out of it. To go on now to the third reason: 
 
 " Third, because this book has done more for teacher 
 and student, for healer and patient, than has been ac- 
 complished by other books." 
 
 It is easy to understand why this should be so, 
 because there are no other books which are allowed 
 to be circulated by Scientists ; and no one not at 
 least an incipient Scientist is likely to circulate any 
 books at all about this " Science." 
 
 In spite of all this she avers that " her prime ob- 
 ject, since entering this field of labor, has been to pre- 
 vent suffering, not to produce it." Well, we do not 
 say that she wants to '' produce " suffering ; but it 
 does seem that she was quite willing to let it go on, 
 rather than to have it prevented or stopped by any 
 other means. Let a person continue to suffer agonies 
 from a toothache, for instance, rather than violate 
 " scientific " principles by having a dentist interfere 
 
196 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 with it. Of course, she does not prohibit anyone not 
 a full member of her Church from weakening a little 
 on its principles, for she knows of course that it 
 would be useless to do so. But a fully approved mem- 
 ber, whom she can control, mus.t go on suffering; must 
 just grin and bear it unless " science " comes to his 
 relief. 
 
 In the end of this chapter, there is a concession 
 which really is remarkable: 
 
 " If," she says, " from an injury or any other cause 
 a Christian Scientist were seized with pain so violent 
 that he could not treat himself mentally — and the 
 Scientists had failed to relieve him — the sufferer could 
 call a surgeon, who would give him a hypodermic in- 
 jection, then, when the belief of pain was lulled, he 
 could handle his own case mentally." 
 
 There are lots of things in this, which, in the words 
 of Lord Dundreary, " no fellow can understand." In 
 the first place, how could there be any injury to a 
 Christian Scientist, or indeed to anyone whatever. 
 '' Injuries," at any rate if only material, as seems to 
 be implied, really do not and cannot occur. If even 
 one's leg seems to be cut off, it is only an " error of 
 mortal mind." The leg is really as much there as it 
 ever was. And then even if injuries did occur, there 
 could not be any pain from them, at any rate to a 
 full-fledged Scientist, as is supposed in the case. 
 
 Furthermore, what good could a hypodermic injec- 
 tion do ? It would be only a *' drug," and any real 
 Scientist knows that drugs are also errors of mortal 
 mind. Such an one could not have even a " belief of 
 pain," and even if he had, how could hypodermic in- 
 jections relieve beliefs? Surely not unless this alleged 
 Christian Scientist believed in them too. And surely 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 197 
 
 that would be almost an incredible apostasy, which 
 ought to turn him out of the Church at once. 
 
 Next after this chapter, comes another, which is 
 headed 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 There is not, of course, much hope of finding any- 
 thing in this which is not in the previous chapters. But 
 we might expect to find some condensation of what 
 has been hitherto spread out and as it were diluted. 
 Still, in glancing over the contents, we find some of 
 the points to be pretty long, as if it was rather hard 
 to boil them down into good and convenient form. A 
 catechism, as this, one would think, ought to be in- 
 tended for, would not be very practical in its present 
 shape. The questions in it are short enough, but to 
 remember the answers must be rather a strain on the 
 memory, as they sometimes spread over several pages. 
 
 The first three questions, and the answers too, are 
 quite brief and are fairly correct, though the words are 
 not used in their proper and accepted meaning. But 
 time and space are too valuable to bother much about 
 a comparatively little thing like that. We can put 
 it down to a want of mental and verbal training. But 
 these three questions being asked and answered, the 
 nonsense begins to appear. The fourth question is : 
 " What are spirits and souls ? " The answer begins 
 as follows : ''To human belief they are personalities, 
 constituted of mind and matter, truth and error, good 
 and evil." 
 
 "If human belief " means the belief of human 
 beings, this is a very strange statement. We have 
 
198 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 never heard of even a single human being who had 
 the notion that spirits or souls were constituted of 
 mind and matter. No human being whom we have 
 ever met had any idea that a spirit or soul had any 
 matter in its constitution at all. As to its being a mix- 
 ture of *' life and death," such a weird idea cannot 
 even be understood by an ordinary sensible human 
 being. No Christian, at any rate, believes that the 
 human soul, in itself, dies. Indeed the word " death " 
 has no meaning, strictly speaking, as applied to it by 
 itself. What Christians believe is that the human soul 
 is during life (as we commonly understand the word) 
 in union with a material body, which serves as a 
 means of communication for it with the rest of the 
 material world. Why the body should be needed for 
 this purpose, we do not know ; but as a matter of 
 fact, we know that normally or regularly it is. What 
 is meant by death is simply the breaking off of this 
 normal or regular communication. It is as absurd to 
 speak of a human soul as being constituted of life and 
 death, as it would be to speak of a man as being con- 
 stituted of " living at Boston and leaving Boston." 
 Similarly, it is as absurd to speak of the soul as being 
 " constituted of truth and error," as it would be to 
 speak of a schoolboy as being constituted of adding up 
 a column of figures right and adding it up wrong. The 
 soul may be correct in its beliefs or opinions, or it 
 may be incorrect in them ; that is all that the words 
 mean. But it isn't " constituted " of correctness and 
 incorrectness, and can't be both correct in any definite 
 opinion, and incorrect in it, at the same time. 
 
 In the next sentence, our learned Prof. Eddy tells 
 us that *' there is no finite soul or spirit." Though 
 this is evidently and absolutely false, still we must not 
 
4 
 
 The Truth About Christian Science 199 
 
 quarrel with it just here ; for of course it is merely 
 a statement of opinion. 
 
 The next question of the catechism is: "What are 
 the demands of the Science of Soul? " We will mark 
 the questions in order; so this will be Question 5, 
 the first three not needing special notice. 
 
 There really is not much in this, except a repetition 
 of the materialist idea of the quart and the pint-pot. 
 " The belief," we are told, ** that the greater can be 
 in the lesser is an error that works ill." Then comes 
 an unintelligible remark that *' this is a leading point 
 in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its 
 idea." We thought that Principle was everything, but 
 now it seems it is excluded from the " Science of 
 Soul." Next, " we reason imperfectly from the effect 
 to cause, when we conclude that matter is the effect 
 of Spirit." Just how the imperfection of the reason 
 comes in. Dr. Eddy does not deign to show. She 
 says, however, that '' a priori reasoning shows material 
 existence to be enigmatical." It is quite true, as we 
 have stated in the beginning, that it is " enigmatical," 
 if by that is meant " not perfectly intelligible." But 
 that does not prevent it from being a fact, thoroughly 
 ascertainable by the senses by which God manifests 
 it to us. Then comes the old stuff, that " matter 
 neither sees, hears, nor feels," as if somebody had said 
 that it did. Of course it does not see, hear or feel; 
 but it is the means which God has provided to enable 
 spirit to become aware of its existence. 
 
 Question 6. " What is the scientific statement of 
 being?" 
 
 Answer. " There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor 
 substance in matter. All is infinite Mind, and its 
 infinite manifestation for God is All-in-all Spirit 
 
200 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 is the real and eternal ; matter is the unreal and 
 temporal." 
 
 Real and unreal are good words to use to pull the 
 wool over people's eyes; but it would be gratifying 
 to have Prof. Eddy give a clear definition of them. 
 
 Question 7. *' What is substance?" 
 
 Answer. " Substance is that which is eternal and in- 
 capable of discord and decay." "Spirit, the 
 
 synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real 
 substance." 
 
 In other words, pantheism is the true doctrine. 
 
 Questions. "What is life?" 
 
 Answer. " Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, 
 Spirit." 
 
 Yet, just now, we were told that " it is a leading 
 point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its 
 idea." 
 
 Question 9. "What is intelligence?" 
 
 Answer. ''Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, 
 and omnipotence." 
 
 We begin to see now why Dr. Eddy has no in- 
 telligence. 
 
 It is just because she is not omnipresent and om- 
 nipotent. 
 
 Question 10. "What is Mind?" 
 
 Answer. " Mind is God There can be but one 
 
 Mind, because there is but one God, and if mortals 
 claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin 
 would be unknown." 
 
 For mortals to claim the Divine Alind, seems to be 
 rather a big claim, except, of course, in the case of 
 our Professor; but as to accepting no other, the rest 
 of us have to be content with what God has seen fit 
 to give us. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 201 
 
 Later in this " answer " the Doctor says that '' the 
 supposed existence of more than one mind was the 
 basic error of idolatry." It really would seem to be 
 just the other way. For if we have no mind except 
 the " Mind of God," then " idolatry," which is the 
 giving of Divine honor to man, or to something which 
 he has made, would not be an '' error," whether 
 " basic " or of any other kind. 
 
 Another '' gem " worth quoting appears toward the 
 end of this answer. Dr. Eddy tells us that the " so- 
 called senses receive no intimation of the earth's mo- 
 tions or of the science of astronomy." 
 
 Was the science of astronomy got at, then, by Divine 
 revelation like Eddian science? We have always sup- 
 posed that it was laboriously built on careful ob- 
 servations made by the senses. 
 
 Question 11. ''Are doctrines and creeds a benefit 
 to man ? " 
 
 Answer. " The author subscribed to an orthodox 
 creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until 
 she caught the first gleam of that which interprets 
 God as above mortal sense. This view^ rebuked human 
 beliefs, and gave the spiritual import, expressed 
 through Science, of all that proceeds from the divine 
 Mind." 
 
 Well this certainly is rather a stunner. We had, 
 previously, some kind of an idea that her pretending 
 to be God was just a sort of formula, to which she liad 
 been driven by what she took to be logic. But now it 
 seems that w^hen she got her " gleam," she attained, at 
 one leap, to a knowledge of '' all that proceeds from 
 the divine Mind." That was surely '' some " gleam. 
 The prophets did not begin to be in it with her. They 
 only knew just a little, as much as God chose to reveal 
 
202 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 to them. And then as to what we call natural knowl- 
 edge, which we believe comes to us largely by the 
 Divine illumination of our reason, it must have all 
 come to her in a moment by this " gleam." She was, 
 she must have been, familiar with all the researches, 
 for instance, of the higher mathematics. Quaternions 
 would have been mere child's play to her. In the 
 Mecanique Celeste of La Place, he sometimes says, 
 '' thus we easily see so and so." Bowditch, who made 
 a translation of this great book, said that when he saw 
 this, he knew that he was in for a couple of days of 
 hard work, and the using up of many pages of 
 foolscap. But Prof. Eddy would have seen through 
 the whole business at a glance. 
 
 It surely is a great pity that she did not give to 
 some of us poor mortals some help in these studies 
 that cost us so much labor. But no, she was too far 
 above us. But she might have written something in 
 these lines, for us to break our poor heads over. She 
 could have given us the results, at any rate, even if 
 we could not follow the steps; and they would have 
 been quite useful, and we would have humbly accepted 
 them, if they worked out all right, like those of La 
 Place. 
 
 Question 12. ''What is error?" 
 
 Answer. '* Error is a supposition that pleasure and 
 pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in 
 matter." 
 
 Really, Professor, it seems to us that these three 
 ought not to be lumped together. " Intelligence " is 
 not the same thing as either substance or life, and the 
 last two differ from each other. And then you say 
 that '' error is a belief without understanding." If 
 we believe this first statement of yours, then, we fall 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 203 
 
 into " error," because it is one which no one can pos- 
 sibly understand, as it has no definite meaning. If 
 you had said that it was error to suppose that any one 
 of these three were existent in matter, we should have 
 had three different examples of '' error." But in a 
 definition, as this is supposed to be, to give examples 
 instead of a definition hardly seems to fill the bill. It 
 would seem better to say simply that " error " is the 
 taking something as true, when it really is not so. 
 But then we all know that; so of course we should 
 not need to ask the question, or to get any answer. 
 
 Question 13. '' Is there no sin?" 
 
 Answer. This question seems, if we may speak so 
 irreverently, to be dodged by our learned Professor. 
 She says that " the only reality of sin, sickness, or 
 death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to 
 human, erring belief, until God strips off their dis- 
 guise." 
 
 But we were not asking whether sin is what she 
 calls, in her way of speaking, a '' reality." The only 
 sense of the question is, whether people ever do fall 
 into the '' unreality " which is commonly called " sin." 
 They certainly are sometimes sick; otherwise her 
 whole business of " healing the sick " would disappear. 
 Of course their sickness may be an " unreality " or an 
 "illusion;" but still' the illusion is there, to be 
 " healed." And the same about sin ; the question is 
 '' do people fall sometimes even into this 'unreality,* as 
 well as into that which we call sickness? " 
 
 Question 14. '' What is man ? " 
 
 Answer. '' Man is not matter ; he is not made up 
 of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements." 
 Nobody, except some non-Christian materialists, ever 
 said that he was; so this seems to be needless. We 
 
204 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 want to know what he is, not what he isn't. She goes 
 on, however, to this : " Man is idea, the image, of 
 Love." 
 
 We wish that we were ; but sometimes man does not 
 answer to this description. When one man murders 
 another (which sometimes, Professor, really happens) 
 he is more like the image of hate. The question is 
 not what he ought to be, but what he actually is. 
 You can't answer it by this high-sounding talk about 
 " reality." 
 
 What you go on to say, that *' he has no separate 
 mind from God," is obviously and blatantly untrue. 
 If it were true, he would never make a mistake, even 
 in a small thing like adding up a column of figures ; 
 still less would he commit the " unreality " (as you 
 call it) of sin. But she goes on, courageously, in the 
 teeth of evidence. '' Man is incapable of sin, sickness 
 and death." If man is incapable of sin, sickness and 
 death, why are you making such a fuss about healing 
 the sick? 
 
 She says " the real man cannot depart from holi- 
 ness." If this is so, all we can say is that up-to-date 
 the number of real men, in all history, can be counted 
 on the fingers of one hand. The only ones that any- 
 one feels sure of are our Lord Himself, His Blessed 
 Mother, and St. John Baptist. Why don't you say the 
 ideal man, instead of the real man? That is what you 
 really mean. And why do you, who call yourselves 
 " Scientists," pay attention to this nonsense, which con- 
 tradicts our own interior science or knowledge of 
 yourselves ? 
 
 But it is not simply and merely nonsense. It is a 
 very dangerous kind of nonsense. The doctrine of 
 " total depravity," seriously held in the early days of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 205 
 
 the Reformation, was bad enough, as representing that 
 man could in no way attain to hoHness ; that he must 
 to all eternity remain sinful, with his sins the same as 
 ever, but ignored by the Most High, and hidden 
 from His sight by the mantle of the righteousness 
 of the Redeemer. But at least one expected not to 
 add to his sins after death, and to be then really in 
 peace, and in a way in union with God. 
 
 But this delusion is far worse, for it does not free 
 one from sin, even in appearance. For it does not 
 acknowledge its existence. It hides sin from our own 
 sight as well as trying to hide it from that of God; 
 and of course recognizes no responsibility in us for it, 
 and consequently makes repentance for it impossible. 
 It shuts the door of heaven in our faces. It also makes 
 union with God for us impossible, by falsely asserting 
 that we have it already; that we are not only in 
 union with Him, but indeed identical with Him. Open 
 your eyes, and see whose words these are, in whose 
 steps the author of this false Science is treading. 
 You will find them in the prophet Isaias (xiv. 12-15). 
 " How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who 
 
 didst rise in the morning! Thou saidest in thy 
 
 heart; I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
 
 throne above the stars of God I will ascend 
 
 above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most 
 High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, 
 into the depth of the pit." And our Blessed Lord con- 
 firms this sentence. '' He that exalteth himself shall 
 be humbled." 
 
 Question 15. "What are body and soul?" 
 Answer. Here the question asked seems again to 
 be dodged, for no apparent reason. The Professor 
 starts by telling us what " identity " is, but nothing 
 
2o6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 about " body." She does, however, deign, to say that 
 " Soul is the substance. Life, and intelHgence of man." 
 Of course we have now learned enough " science " to 
 understand that man has no intelligence of his own ; 
 that is the reason why he never makes any mistakes, 
 or falls into error. It is only " mortal man " who does 
 this; but as all men really are mortal (even the Pro- 
 fessor herself, as events have shown) it seems of little 
 use to tell us about any other kind of man. How- 
 ever, we know that when she writes Soul with a big 
 S, she means God. 
 
 Now, however, comes something really startling: 
 " Separated from man, who expresses Soul, Spirit 
 would be a nonentity." But Spirit (with a big S) also 
 means God. We learn, then, that separated from man, 
 God would be a nonentity. But we are encouraged 
 by hearing that there is no danger of this, for 
 " man is coexistent with God." It is true that 
 the Scriptures say (Gen. i. 27) that "God created 
 man ;" but what are they compared with Science and 
 Health? 
 
 She proceeds to tells us that the ordinary kind of 
 man (even the Professor herself) can have no evidence 
 of Soul, that is to say, of God. *' Alan," she says, 
 " has never beheld Spirit or Soul leaving a body or 
 entering it." And of course, according to her ma- 
 terialistic ideas, which she jumps to whenever she 
 thinks there is no need of pretending to denounce them, 
 can have no evidence except that of t-he material senses. 
 And this seems to be true not only of " mortal man," 
 but of any possible kind of man. For she makes the 
 last-quoted statement of " man " in the most general 
 sense of the word. Even Mrs. Eddy herself is no 
 exception to it. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 207 
 
 This is a terrible result to get from our " science," 
 that there is no God. 
 
 Question 16. " Does brain think, and do nerves 
 feel, and is there intelligence in matter ? " 
 
 Answer. Having no further use, just now, for her 
 materialism, she immediately proceeds to attack it. 
 But there is really no use in this, as far as her cam- 
 paign against Christianity is concerned, for Christians 
 have no idea that " brain thinks," or any of the rest 
 of it. 
 
 There is no need, therefore, for us Christians to go 
 into all the incoherent nonsense which she spreads out 
 through her '' answer." But there are some little 
 " gems " of it, which stand out, as it were, from the 
 rest. 
 
 For instance, she says, quite correctly, that " man 
 is not God, and God is not man." But we have learned 
 in the answer to Question 14 that " man has no 
 separate mind from God ; " and also, in many places, 
 that his body is only an illusion. The difference, then, 
 between man and God must be just simply one of size, 
 as far as we can make out. Man is God, according 
 to Dr. Eddy, but of course, on a small scale. The old 
 " material " idea again. 
 
 Again, " God, or good, never made man capable of 
 sin. It is the opposite of good — that is, evil — which 
 seems to make man capable of wrong doing. Hence 
 evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis." 
 
 It is too bad that man should be hanged, or electro- 
 cuted, simply on account of an illusion. The jury 
 ought to say, " Not guilty," every time. No basis 
 even for any indictment. 
 
 Again, " Human hypotheses first assume the reality 
 of " sickness, sin and death, and then assume the 
 
2o8 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 necessity of these evils because of their admitted 
 actuality." 
 
 The trouble with our learned Professor seems largely 
 to have been that she got, somehow, a little smattering 
 of philosophy, and that she found, or thought she 
 found, in it the statement that evil had no existence, 
 being merely a negation of good. This is, in a sense, 
 true ; it is like the statement in mathematics, that 
 negative, or minus quantities, have no real existence, 
 which is also true. But all the same, the operation 
 denoted by them has a real significance. 
 
 In money matters, for instance, if a man owes a 
 sum of money this is a " negative " asset, and just as 
 real as a positive one. And this applies precisely to 
 the matter of *' sin." God has given us all that we 
 have or can have. In return, we owe Him all the 
 service we can give. We can never get on the credit 
 or positive side of the account. Our Lord tells us 
 (Luke xvii. lo) : *' So you also, when you shall have 
 done all these things that are commanded you, say: 
 We are unprofitable servants; we have done that 
 which we ought to do." 
 
 But w^e have not, in fact, done all things that are com- 
 manded to us. We are, in other words, guilty of many 
 sins of omission. We have, moreover, done many things 
 which were distinctly forbidden to us or, in other words, 
 are guilty of many sins of " commission." It is simply 
 nonsense to say that there is no " reality " in all these 
 sins. To deny that there is any reality in them is 
 simply to add another sin, of falsehood, to the list. 
 And to say, as she does, that '' if sin is supported " 
 (that is to say, the fact of sin) " God must uphold it," 
 is to make the nonsense blasphemous, as well as false. 
 
 *' In Science," we are told, " it is material sense, not 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 209 
 
 Soul, which sins." Prof. Eddy tries to escape from 
 her nonsense, by spelling soul with a big S ; which 
 makes it mean that '' it is not God Who sins." We all 
 know that. But she really means that it is not soul 
 which sins (with a small ''s") ; for soul is the same 
 as Soul, according to her own doctrine. Trying to 
 throw the blame on '' material sense " will not work ; 
 there is no sense, '' material " or otherwise, in doing so. 
 
 She tries to confuse herself and us by saying that 
 " human thought has adulterated the meaning of the 
 word soul through the hypothesis that soul is both an 
 evil and a good intelligence, resident in matter." 
 \\1iether it is '' resident in matter " or not makes no 
 difference. The worst sins are committed by souls 
 whom no one claims to be " resident in matter." 
 Spiritual sins (so-called because matter is not con- 
 cerned in them) like those of the devils and also of 
 many human beings, and of which the chief is "pride," 
 are worse than any others. 
 
 What she calls a " hypothesis " is not a hypothesis 
 at all, but an absolute and undeniable fact, with which 
 " matter " is in no way involved. The existence of 
 this evil intelligence in us, which is the cause of our 
 innumerable sins, is testified to us by our conscience, 
 which Mrs. Eddy endeavors to smother and blind. 
 
 This impudent error is practically the worst and 
 most dangerous of all in her alleged '' Christian 
 Science." Fortunately, it is not, and cannot, thank God, 
 be fully accepted by her '' students " and probably was 
 not, even by herself. But it does tend to give to any- 
 one who tries to accept it a false and delusive sense 
 of security, similar to that given by the doctrine of 
 '' total depravity," which taught that man, since the 
 Fall, cannot help sinning all the time; and that the 
 
2IO The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 more he sins, the more glory is given to the Redemp- 
 tion. This present error goes to the other extreme, 
 by asserting that man cannot sin at all ; that it is only 
 a " material sense " which seems to sin, for which 
 he is in no way responsible. 
 
 Neither of these doctrines can be thoroughly ac- 
 cepted by anyone. The one denies the possibility of 
 amendment; the other that there is anything to be 
 amended. " I believe it," said the old lady, about that 
 of total depravity ; " but I can't quite live up to it." 
 And so it is with '' Christian Science." But so far as 
 they are accepted, they give a sort of false and de- 
 lusive cheerfulness, which is mistaken by those who 
 feel it, and may be by those who witness it in others, 
 for a good and healthy state of things. 
 
 Question 17. " Is it important to understand these 
 explanations, in order to heal the sick? " 
 
 Answer. The answer given has nothing in it which 
 really needs to be noticed, as it has all been dealt with 
 sufficiently before. It may, however, be remarked 
 that the cheerfulness of which we have just spoken 
 may be a factor in restoring health, just as it is in 
 any other of the kinds of treatment to which Dr. 
 Eddy alludes, by " drugs, hygiene or animal mag- 
 netism." A pleasant and cheerful doctor has the same 
 effect, as everyone knows. 
 
 Question 18. '' Does Christian Science, or meta- 
 physical healing, include medication, material hygiene, 
 mesmerism, hypnotism, theosophy or spiritualism ? " 
 
 Answer. '' Not one of them is included in it." 
 
 Well, we all know that. If you want to be cheer- 
 ful, you must be " scientifically " so. Other means for 
 the recovery of health must be rigorously excluded. 
 " Drugs and hygiene/' particularly, '' because they op- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 211 
 
 pose the supremacy of the divine Mind." They were 
 not made by the divine Mind ; whoever made them only 
 Prof. Eddy ever knew, and now that she has gone, there 
 is no one to tell us. It is like the story of the professor 
 who once, for fun, asked a stupid boy, " What is elec- 
 tricity? (A question, which no one is, as yet, able 
 to thoroughly answer.) The poor boy, thinking it must 
 have been in his book, somewhere, replied : " I did 
 know, professor, but I've forgotten." '' Well," says the 
 professor, " that is an irreparable loss to science. You 
 were the only one who ever did know, and now even 
 you have forgotten." 
 
 Question 19. '' Is materiality the concomitant of 
 spirituality and is spirituality, and is material sense, 
 a necessary preliminary to the understanding and ex- 
 pression of Spirit? " 
 
 Answer. We are at a loss to understand why the 
 learned Professor asks this question. For she her- 
 self tells us that " material sense " is an absurd phrase, 
 and in her meaning of the word everyone not a 
 thorough-going materialist, such as have apparently 
 been her chief associates, agrees with her. 
 
 There are one or two ''gems," however, in her 
 " answer," which may help to the main object of Ed- 
 dian Science, by helping toward cheerfulness and 
 hilarity. One is that "man never dies. The belief 
 that he dies will not establish his scientific harmony." 
 Mrs. Eddy tried to keep up her scientific harmony by 
 not yielding to this belief. But at last even she had to 
 give it up as a bad job. But the rest of us seem to 
 keep it up pretty well, in spite of this inevitable belief. 
 Again she says '' there is more Science in the per- 
 petual exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their 
 Joss." It seems that this must really be so, and that 
 
212 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 this must be the trouble with Mrs. Eddy's alleged 
 " Science." 
 
 Question 20. " You speak of belief. Who or what 
 is it that believes ? " 
 
 Answer. '' Spirit is all knowing; this precludes the 
 need of believing." 
 
 Well, if we know, it is quite true that we don't need 
 to believe. But the comment of the illustrious ex- 
 ponent of common sense. Josh Billings, would be 
 well for Mrs. Eddy to have pondered; namely, that 
 " it is better not to know so awful much than to know 
 so much that ain't so." This applies to a good many 
 things that pass with the public under the name of 
 " science " at the present day ; but to none more than 
 to the Eddian variety. 
 
 Question 21. "Do the five corporeal senses consti- 
 tute man ? " 
 
 Answer. As nobody says that they do, the answer 
 seems to be rather superfluous. But there is a " gem " 
 of the first water in the Professor's answer. 
 
 She says that '' when the unthinking lobster loses 
 its claw the claw grows again." So she feels sure that 
 if she could only manage to be " unthinking " enough 
 (she does go pretty far in that way), she might grow 
 a claw herself. She doesn't merely beheve this, she 
 knoivs it. '' If the Science of Life were understood," 
 she actually says, " the human limb would be replaced 
 as readily as the lobster's claw. Not with an arti- 
 ficial limb, but with the genuine one," she assures us. 
 But why not with a claw, if that were preferred? Or 
 with a new brain, which might, in spite of her theories, 
 be convenient for some people. 
 
 You can't very w^ell reach greater heights of non- 
 sense than this. But she wanders on to variations, 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 213 
 
 like a musical composer, when he has an appropriate 
 theme, or " motif," as we believe the slang is to-day. 
 It is a pity, however, to spoil such a gem as this with 
 any kind of setting. 
 
 Question 22. " Will you explain sickness, and show 
 how it is to be healed ? " 
 
 Answer. For this question the answer is not given. 
 \\t are told that " a full answer to it requires teaching, 
 wdiich enables the healer to demonstrate and prove for 
 himself the Principle and rule of Christian Science or 
 metaphysical healing." ^Metaphysical healing means, of 
 course, according to the learned Doctor's idea, healing 
 without " physic." So we are forbidden to use any 
 kind of physic, even when we know that it will give 
 the result desired. If, for instance, we have taken 
 any kind of poison, we must sooner die than take an 
 emetic, though we may know that in this way we can 
 get it off the stomach. Take a good dose of Christian 
 Science, and the stomach will be relieved at once. 
 
 '' Mind," she says, " must be found superior to all 
 the beliefs of the corporeal senses, and able to destroy 
 all ills." It must be found so. But she does not say, 
 in a case like the one just mentioned, what is to be 
 done if it isn't found to be so, in fact. Well, the 
 patient must die, that is all. For there isn't time, 
 in such a case, to go on fooling indefinitely. The 
 patient must offer himself as a sacrifice to " the idea 
 of Truth." For w^e are told that " if sickness is true 
 or the idea of Truth " (that is, if we are truly sick), 
 " you cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd 
 to try." 
 
 Question 23. " How can I progress most rapidly 
 in the understanding of Christian Science?" 
 
 Answer. " Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe 
 
214 ^^'^ Truth About Clirislian Science 
 
 the spirit In the Science of Mind, you will soon 
 
 ascertain that error cannot destroy error." 
 
 But how soon? In urgent cases, you must " imbibe 
 the spirit in a few moments." So you will probably 
 have to call in some other " practitioner," who has al- 
 ready managed to imbibe it at his leisure. Don't try 
 to be one yourself, till you have made a thorough fool 
 of yourself, for you may be standing in the way of 
 others, who have already become so. 
 
 Question 24. " Have Christian Scientists any 
 creed ? " 
 
 Answer. " They have not, if by that term is meant 
 doctrinal beliefs." 
 
 Why not say any beliefs at all, without putting in 
 the '' doctrinal ? " For of course no true Scientist can 
 believe anything whatever. He knows it all. The 
 Professor, however, condescends to give us what she 
 says are " the important points, or religious tenets of 
 Christian Science." The word " tenets " seems rather 
 unfortunate. It is not usual to speak of '' tenets " in 
 matters of science. But the ones which are given are 
 somewhat in the ordinary style in which " tenets " are 
 given; particularly where it is stated in No. 5, that 
 " we acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and 
 His resurrection served to uplift faith." Here we find 
 '* faith " again. This must certainly be a little slip, 
 perhaps due to want of care in proof-reading at the 
 beginning; and of course it was too late to correct it 
 in later editions, like the one which we have. '^ Faith," 
 except in Mrs. Eddy^ could be of no use, even to begin 
 with. 
 
 The first " tenet " is also rather astonishing. Foi in 
 it we find that '' as adherents of Truth, we take the 
 inspired word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to 
 
The Tnitli About Christian Science 215 
 
 eternal Life." But if it is sufficient, why did Mrs. 
 Eddy write Science and Health, and sell it at a price 
 so much higher than one has to pay for a fine copy 
 of the Bible? And why oblige every Scientist to read 
 it, and '' imbibe it," while leaving them free, as regards 
 the Bible, to read no more of it than she did herself? 
 Well, we have now waded through the " Recapitula- 
 tion." It seemed at first as if it was going to be a 
 sort of condensation of what had been given in the 
 book. But it is really just the same sort of thing 
 which we find in the rest of the book all through. 
 The main points could really have been given in a form 
 something like this : 
 
 1. There is nothing in the world except Mind (with 
 a big M). 
 
 2. When I say " Mind," I mean God. 
 
 3. *' Mind," or God, cannot put anything else in the 
 world. Creation is quite impossible. 
 
 4. " Mind " is sometimes written with a small m. 
 But that does not mean that there is any such thing 
 as mind, with a small m, as differing from Mind with 
 a large one. Mind (with a large M) could not create 
 such a thing; it is an error to even imagine that It 
 could. Mind with a big M is just the same as mind 
 with a small one ; only it begins with a big M. 
 
 5. In spite of what has just been stated, there is a 
 kind of mind which does exist. It is called " mortal 
 mind." It must exist, for it makes errors ; which it 
 could not make if it did not exist. 
 
 6. Of course there is no such thing as " matter." 
 It is simply an '' error of mortal mind." 
 
 7. As matter does not exist, there can be nothing 
 really the matter with it. Sickness and death are, 
 cf course, also " errors of mortal mind." 
 
21 6 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 8. There is no such thing as sin. It is a great 
 error to think so, even for a moment. Of course 
 "Mind" (with a big M) cannot sin; neither can 
 "mind" (with a small m) do so, for it is all the 
 same as " Mind " (with a big one). Not even " mor- 
 tal mind " can sin ; it can only make '' errors," and of 
 course is not to blame for them. 
 
 9. What Christ came for was to get rid of " mortal 
 mind " and all its errors. The worst of all was the 
 one about " sickness." The only way to get rid of 
 them, and of '' mortal mind " itself, is to study " Chris- 
 tian Science." But Christ Himself had only studied 
 this noble science very superficially. Mrs. Eddy was 
 the first one who really got a good grip on it. It is 
 more correctly called '' Eddian Science;" and would 
 have been so-called, only that she was so humble, and 
 also thought it would sell better under Christ's name. 
 
 10. '' Eddian Science " is not a gospel for the poor, 
 like that of Christ, but only for those who can afiford 
 to pay for it. It can only be learned from her own 
 book, which you have to buy; you can't learn it 
 thoroughly by borrowing the book. N.B. — The last 
 of these ten points is far the most important. If one 
 is a little shaky on some of the others, it doesn't make 
 so much diiTerence. But if one doesn't observe this 
 one strictly, one is liable to be excommunicated. 
 
 We must pass on now to her very remarkable 
 
 " Key to the Scriptures." 
 
 This title certainly is calculated to excite great ex- 
 pectations. Others, before Mrs. Eddy, had put out 
 similar works or, at any rate, works similar to what 
 one would suppose this to be. The learned " Cornelius 
 a Lapide " has supplied us with a commentary on the 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 217 
 
 Scriptures, giving the actual text of the books con- 
 tained in them, accompanied by most copious notes 
 and explanations, which are of great value to all stu- 
 dents of the sacred volumes. This is, of course, a 
 work which is much more voluminous than the Scrip- 
 tures themselves ; one of those which, like that of the 
 great theologian Suarez, makes us wonder how in the 
 world anyone could possibly have had time even for 
 the manual labor required for it in the very longest life. 
 And there are plenty of others, Protestant as well as 
 Catholic, which are of that class, though perhaps none 
 quite so extensive. The Heavenly Arcana of Emanuel 
 Swedenborg is perhaps the one which seems to be 
 more like than any other to that which we had a 
 right to expect from Mrs. Eddy. It is a work of great 
 ability, and has also a similar claim on our attention 
 to what she has written; for Swedenborg also was 
 supposed by himself and his followers to have a super- 
 natural illumination which would make his teachings of 
 incomparably more weight than his natural ability, 
 great as it was, could possibly claim for them. 
 
 It is indeed evident, at the first glance, that Mrs. 
 Eddy's " Key " was not intended to be, in point of size, 
 anything like those which have just been mentioned, 
 or indeed of quite the same character. And of course 
 one does not expect a key to be as big as the door 
 which it locks or unlocks. But one does expect that 
 it is going to be of practical use for the whole door, 
 not merely for a small part of it ; or that if it is a 
 key for a book, as in this case, that there it will 
 furnish some general principles which can be applied 
 to all parts of the book, to make all better understood. 
 As there are only seventy-six of her pages in it, it 
 would be admirably convenient and valuable if this 
 
2i8 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 expectation were to be realized, and all the better for 
 being so nice and small. 
 
 We have thrown out some hints in the course of 
 the remarks made on the main portion of Science and 
 Health, to which this " Key to the Scriptures " is ap- 
 pended, that any such expectations will hardly be 
 gratified. Let us now just take a good square look at 
 the '' Key." 
 
 If we do so, we may (perhaps, if not as yet 
 thoroughly familiar with the works of Prof. Eddy) be 
 astonished to find that this " Key to the Scriptures " 
 is not what we would suppose it to be at all when we 
 get beyond the title. The only Scriptures on which 
 any comment whatever is made are the first four chap- 
 ters of the book of Genesis, and then, by a sudden leap, 
 the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse (or Revela- 
 tion), and a few scattered verses from the twenty- 
 first chapter of the same. And even on these the 
 only comment made, and the only notice taken of them, 
 is in order to show that they do not mean what they 
 seem to the unbiased mind to mean very plainly, but are 
 simply dragged in to serve for notes, as it were, to the 
 far more fully inspired book. Science and Health. To 
 them, we don't know just why, one of the Psalms — 
 the twenty-third in the King James version — is added. 
 This appears, however, to be in order to put the word 
 " Love " in capitals, in place of " The Lord," and the 
 " He," subsequently referring to Him. 
 
 As to the chapters of Genesis, they are evidently 
 needed for the use of Bible readers in general, that 
 they may not be deluded by the idea that God created, 
 or could create, anything at all. That idea would, 
 of course, be fatal to the fundamental Eddian doctrine 
 that there cannot be anything in the universe except 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 219 
 
 " Mind." Anything in the Scriptures which seems to 
 be inconsistent with this is simply " the history of the 
 untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal." 
 Strangely, the writer of this book of Genesis, though 
 Mrs. Eddy confesses that the Scriptures are inspired 
 and '' very sacred," does not seem to have suspected 
 at all that it was anything at all but truth that he was 
 writing; Mrs. Eddy lays the blame of its plain state- ^ 
 ments of what, according to " Science," is false, on the 
 translators, who, she says, " entertained a false sense 
 of being." But it is quite certain that the translators, 
 who had far more reverence for the Scriptures than 
 she had and were far better linguists than she, just 
 translated correctly what they saw before them. 
 
 She can't be allowed to get out of her difficulty in 
 that way, by charging the blame on the " translators." 
 Of course she can, if she wishes, hold that the original 
 writer did not know what he was writing or had writ- 
 ten. And why not say at once that even he himself 
 " entertained a false sense of being ; " and that 
 " Mind " Itself, which inspired him to write what he 
 did, was quite willing that he should entertain this 
 false sense and did not trouble him about it, knowing, 
 of course, that Mrs. Eddy would clear it up in due 
 time. It does seem strange that " Mind " or " Love," 
 should allow " mortal mind " to be so fatally mistaken, 
 when the error could so easily have been avoided. 
 But nothing seems strange to Mrs. Eddy or her ''scien- 
 tists," which is in favor of her fads. 
 
 The other reason, of course, which is needed on 
 account of these fads, for the incautious reader of 
 these first four chapters, is that they must not be 
 allowed to deceive anyone who may still be so wicked 
 or stupid as to believe that our first parents, Adam 
 
220 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 and Eve, committed any sin of disobedience to God. 
 / The whole account of the Fall is a " myth," she says, 
 I anyway; it is " a history of error, a dream narrative." 
 \ As for sin, of course, if we are to believe her, it 
 does not exist, and never did; there never was, can't 
 be now, and never can be such thing. God, as she 
 would have us believe in telling us this dream story of 
 the Fall, was treating us as we sometimes treat chil- 
 dren when we say to them " once upon a time," etc. 
 Perhaps it may be doubted whether it is quite right 
 to tell these stories, even to children, but probably we 
 may be justified by believing that they do not take them 
 to be real accounts of fact, much more than we take 
 the ordinary novel to be so. But here we find God, 
 " Mind, Truth, and Love," to be palming off on us a 
 story which He knows Ave will take as a record of 
 fact, and which will make us (according to ]\Irs. 
 Eddy) to fall into most dangerous errors; and not 
 correcting our false impressions about it for several 
 thousand years; and then only by a really ignorant 
 woman, whom most people would hardly take seriously. 
 Of course, if she held that the story was simply one 
 got up by " mortal mind," we would only be surprised 
 that God should have allowed us to be deceived by it ; 
 and if she did not believe in God at all (it sometimes 
 seems as if she didn't) there would be nothing to be 
 surprised at, at all. But no ; she takes the story as 
 being Divinely inspired. 
 
 She makes a remark on Genesis iii. ii, 12, which 
 really fits her own exactly. '' Here," she says, '' there 
 is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or 
 indirectly, to God or good, as if He were the creator 
 of evil." This hits the nail right squarely on the 
 head. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 221 
 
 There is one idea which runs right through this 
 " Key," as through all the rest of her book, which 
 really is very hard to account for. It is, more than 
 any other, the " straw man " to whom we have so 
 often had occasion to allude. It is the " belief " 
 (which must, as we suppose, have been prevalent 
 among those whom she had happened to meet) " in 
 material life and intelligence," which she says, " is 
 growing worse at every step." It is one which the great 
 majority of Christians never even heard of. But we 
 have said, perhaps, enough about it already. " This is 
 the error," she says, "that mortal man starts materially, 
 that non-intelligence becomes intelligence." One little 
 sentence, which she seems to think will knock the 
 "inspired writer" thoroughly out, is worth quoting: 
 " If, in the beginning," she asks, '* man's body 
 originates in non-intelligent dust, and mind was after- 
 Vv'ards put into body by the Creator, why is not this 
 divine order still maintained by God in perpetuating 
 the species ? " 
 
 Well, that belief of mind being afterward put into 
 body, has been maintained, and may be by some even 
 at the present day. But it is generally recognized by 
 Christians now that the putting of mind into body 
 does occur at the very earliest moment, so .that abor- 
 tion, from that very moment, becomes simply murder. 
 
 But the astonishing and incomprehensible thing is 
 that this ignorant woman should presume to question 
 the Almighty as to why or how He dares to change 
 anything in His " divine order," at any rate without 
 asking her permission. " Who will say," she proceeds, 
 that '* minerals, vegetables, and animals have a propa- 
 gating property of their own?" \Yq\\, a good many 
 people will and do say that about vegetables and 
 
222 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 animals ; and the most orthodox Christian, who really 
 believes that God is almighty, and not under the orders 
 of Mrs. Eddy, will believe and say that God can and 
 does give that power, under His own direction, to 
 vegetables and animals, just as easily as He gives the 
 power of gravitational attraction, and many others, 
 even to minerals. 
 
 But as she seems to have entertained a suspicion 
 that some might actually hold these outrageous views, 
 she gets quite furious, and indignantly asks : " Who 
 dares to say either that God is in matter or that matter 
 exists w ithout God ? " Well, no one of course, who 
 is in terror of being excommunicated as not a genuine 
 Scientist. That would be almost as bad as not buying 
 her book, or not promoting the sale of it. But she 
 lumps two things together which are as far apart as 
 the poles. Every reasonable person believes that God, 
 that is to say His power, is in matter. No reasonable 
 person, whatever, believes that matter exists without 
 God. 
 
 There is one passage or " word " in this *' Key," that 
 is so rich that we must really quote it in full : " Ac- 
 cording to this narrative " (that of the formation of 
 woman) she says, " surgery was first performed men- 
 tally and without instruments ; and this may be a use- 
 ful hint to the medical faculty. Later in human his- 
 tory, when the forbidden fruit was bringing forth fruit 
 of its own kind, there came a suggestion of change in 
 the modus operandi — the man should be born of woman, 
 not woman again taken from man. It came about, 
 also, that instruments were needed to assist the birth 
 of mortals. The first system of suggestive obstetrics has 
 changed. Another change will come as to the nature 
 and origin of man, and this revelation will destroy 
 
TJic Truth About Christian Science 223 
 
 the dream of existence, reinstate reality, usher in 
 Science and the glorious fact of creation, that both 
 man and woman proceed from God and are His 
 eternal children, belonging to no lesser parent." 
 
 We should have thought that this was a sort of 
 labored joke, if we had not observed that Mrs. Eddy 
 never jokes, but is always in dead earnest. We have 
 indeed heard that no Christian Scientist can even see 
 a joke. Probably it is forbidden in their rules, some- 
 where, though it doesn't seem to be laid down in 
 Science and Health. This, at any rate, really is a joke, 
 even if the grave and learned Professor did not mean 
 it as such ; almost as good as the one we came across 
 not long ago about the lobster and his claw. 
 
 But here, quite near to it, is something which is 
 very far from being a joke. " That Adam," she says, 
 " gave the name and nature of animals, is solely 
 mythological and material." This is a deliberate per- 
 version of Scripture, made in order to make it tell a 
 lie. Scripture only says that the animals were named 
 by Adam. But this woman slips in the words " and 
 nature " after " the name " just to prove that Scripture 
 is solely " mythologica. ; " that is to say, that we are 
 not to take it seriously, when it doesn't s^Mt Mrs. 
 Eddy. Oh, this kind of talk is simply preposterous. 
 When I give a dog a name, am I supposed to change 
 his nature ? Even when I call Mrs. Eddy a Professor, 
 that does not make her so. But that the names given 
 to animals by Adam had any significance or connection 
 with their nature, there is no reason to suppose. 
 
 As another little slap at taking Scripture seriously, 
 Mrs. Eddy remarks that " the purpose of the Hebrew 
 allegory, representing error as assuming a divine 
 character, is to teach mortals never to believe (what 
 
224 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Mrs. Eddy says is) a lie," We have had to put in 
 the words in parenthesis, to make it clear what she 
 really means. 
 
 It is pretty hard to have patience with her un- 
 blushing and unscrupulous misrepresentations of fact, 
 made in order to get some credit for her absurd and 
 empty " science." For example, she says that " it is 
 only mortal man, and not the real man, who dies." 
 She wants to give the impression that the regular 
 Christian teaching is that the soul of man is destroyed 
 when it leaves the body, and to claim as a special 
 doctrine of Christian Science that it does not. But 
 she does this sort of thing continually. It is time 
 for us to speak a little more plainly about this sort of 
 thing than, perhaps, wx have spoken before. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy knew, when she wrote this book, that 
 orthodox Christians teach and believe that man is not 
 simply material or produced by matter ; that he is 
 created by the Almighty to know Him, love Him, and 
 serve Him in this world, and to have his true joy and 
 happiness in that knowledge, love and service in this 
 world, and if faithful unto death in these, to have this 
 joy and happiness increased inconceivably after death. 
 She knew that all Christians regard man as immortal, 
 just as truly as she ever thought of doing. She knew 
 all this because she had been taught it by her own 
 good parents ; she had never heard from them or from 
 any other Christian a single word to the contrary. 
 
 But because it would suit better her purpose of get- 
 ting up a new theory about "healing the sick," she wants 
 to make her students and her readers in general be- 
 lieve that we are simply materialists ; that we regard 
 matter as being the origin of all phenomena, and 
 even that we believe God to be a merely material 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 225 
 
 being; and that its laws, instead of being the expres- 
 sion of His holy Will and Wisdom, are, in our opinion, 
 necessary and immutable. Because we refuse to regard 
 it or anything else that He has created as essentially 
 bad and unworthy to exist, she insists that we make 
 it self-existent ; and because we will not put '' immortal 
 man " as having a being identical with that of God, 
 and as having no intelligence of life given to him by 
 his Creator, but as having been from all eternity a 
 mere reflection of God, or, if you will, an eternal 
 emanation from Him, she pretends that we do not be- 
 lieve in his immortality at all. 
 
 It is possible, indeed even probable, that this pretender 
 lo science had lost faith in real Christianity, and that 
 she had a very imperfect knowledge of even what she 
 had learned about it ; but she did know that no 
 Christian denomination holds or teaches what she 
 calumniously pretends that all Christians do. She had 
 not a very brilliant intellect, but she was not stupid 
 enough to believe her own lies. And of course that 
 makes them absolutely inexcusable. 
 
 But having determined on this programme of mis- 
 representation of the known truth, she unhesitatingly 
 perseveres in it to the end, and claims a patent on all 
 that true religion has taught from the beginning of the 
 world, as if she were the discoverer of it, in order to 
 give her own absurd vagaries the benefit of its pro- 
 tection. After getting through with the small portion 
 of the book of Genesis which she thinks can be made 
 to serve her purpose of misrepresentation, she indulges 
 in a lucubration on things in general, without any re- 
 gard whatever to anything except her own false no- 
 tions, or rather the false notions which she hopes her 
 ** students " can be induced to adopt. 
 
226 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 To illustrate more fully the falsehood which is the 
 keynote of this programme, one or two specimens may 
 be quoted, though perhaps enough have already been 
 given. 
 
 For one instance she calmly asserts: " Vertebrata, 
 articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mortal and material 
 concepts classified and are supposed to possess life and 
 mind." Life in a certain sense, yes ; that is, that God 
 has implanted in them certain powers, and laid down 
 certain lavvS or methods of action, which He could 
 change or destroy at any moment if He should so will. 
 But as to " mind," there is not, as she would try to 
 make us believe on her word, that there is a single 
 person who has any notion at all, that any of the 
 general or species of animal life which she names 
 possess " mind " at all. To say or to imply that any- 
 one whatever supposes that they have it, is simply a 
 lie, and she must have known that it was, when she 
 wrote it. 
 
 Then again : "These false beliefs will disappear when 
 the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in 
 intelligent matter." But no one whatever has, or ever 
 had, any " belief in intelligent matter," even in that 
 small portion of it which is under the direct control 
 of the human intelligent mind. If she had found any- 
 one, as she could have easily done (for anyone what- 
 ever would do) who said that he did not believe in in- 
 telligent matter, she would have explained, " just see 
 what progress Christian Science is making even among 
 those who are not regularly studying it. Just see how 
 far the radiation of Spirit has reached already ! " 
 
 But this sort of thing is too sickening and disgusting 
 to keep on indefinitely in quoting examples of it. And 
 they are to be found in almost every paragraph. She 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 227 
 
 seems to have gone on the principle that If she threw 
 enough mud, some of It would stick. 
 
 There Is one little gem, however, which may be 
 worth while to mention, to relieve the monotony of 
 this constant and persistent falsehood. " It is related," 
 she tells us, '' that a father plunged his Infant babe, 
 only a few hours old, into the water for several 
 minutes, and repeated this operation daily, until the 
 child could remain under water twenty minutes, moving 
 and playing without harm, like a fish. Parents should 
 remember this, and learn how to develop their children 
 properly on dry land." 
 
 We should have suspected that Mrs. Eddy herself 
 intended this for a sort of irrelevant joke, if we did 
 not know that she never jokes. As for the " moral " 
 drawn from this cock-and-bull story, it would seem 
 that instead of the parents learning by it how to de- 
 velop their children on dry land, they would, on the 
 contrary, endeavor to teach them all this very valuable 
 and practical accomplishment as early as possible. 
 
 Well, let us go on now to her absurd 
 
 Key to the Apocalypse. 
 
 We see, In starting on this, why It does not begin 
 at the beginning of the book, and why It is practically 
 restricted to one chapter of it. She had already told 
 us In the part about Genesis. 
 
 " Genesis and the Apocalypse," she there remarked, 
 " seem more obscure than other portions of the Scrip- 
 ture, because they cannot possibly be interpreted from 
 a material standpoint." This seems as If she must 
 have meant from a " Christian Science " standpoint. 
 She says, it is true, that *' to the author they are 
 transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the 
 
228 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Bible." If they were, all through, so " transparent," 
 why did she keep this " deep divinity " all to herself, 
 instead of giving us a little look at it? Oh, we see. 
 It must have been because the divinity was too deep 
 for us, so we have to be contented with the shallow 
 divinity of Christian Science, which is given to us in 
 the parts which she condescends to explain. Or wait 
 a minute. We begin to see the point of this last story 
 about the baby. She must have been the baby herself, 
 and have been trained in infancy to stay in the trans- 
 parent water for twenty minutes, and afterward 
 learned to manage it for any length of time. But she 
 does not think it prudent to try any such training on 
 the rest of us ; we had better, as she says, be kept 
 on dry land. 
 
 So she begins on the Apocalypse with the first 
 shallow water she finds in it, namely the one which 
 tells about the little book, called Science and Health, 
 which is easy for us to swallow right down, if we will 
 only make a little efifort. We have already had oc- 
 casion to speak of this vision of St. John, in which 
 Eddian Science was so clearly foretold, so we need 
 not dwell on it now. This was in the tenth chapter; 
 now she goes on to the twelfth, which tells us about 
 the " woman clothed with the sun." 
 
 It is as plain as a pike-stafif that the " scientific " 
 explanation of this is that this woman was Mrs. Eddy 
 herself. She does not want to say so right out, but 
 she expects us, of course, to read between the lines. 
 " The Revelator," she tells us, " saw also the spiritual 
 ideal of a " woman clothed in light, a bride coming 
 down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love." 
 Mrs. Eddy is the spiritual idea ; she is the bride. She 
 thinks it will look better to pass it on to Christ; but 
 
The Truth About Chvisilan Science, 22g 
 
 anyone can see that it applies to her much better. Be- 
 sides, He is called in the Gospels the Bridegroom, and 
 everyone knows that in a wedding the groom cuts a 
 small figure compared with the bride. Just as Christ 
 was a very imperfect student of Science, which was 
 only fully understood by Airs. Eddy. 
 
 " As Elias," she says, '* represented the idea of the 
 fatherhood of God, which Jesus afterwards mani- 
 fested, so the Revelator completed the figure with 
 woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's mother- 
 hood." But, of course, that must also have been mani- 
 fested in somebody. And who could that somebody be 
 but Mrs. Eddy? Who would dare to say it was some- 
 body else, or that it had not yet been manifested, now 
 that Divine Science has been fully brought to light 
 in her book. Science and Health f That book contains 
 the final word of Mind to mortal man. It is, more- 
 over, far ahead of the Gospel, for no one, we believe, 
 is allowed to make any comments on it, at any rate so 
 far as she can prevent such a thing from being done. 
 For her Precursor, she seems to have selected St. 
 John the Apostle, so far as we can make out. 
 
 As for the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which, 
 we are told, " from Genesis to the Apocalypse typifies 
 sickness and death," as well as other evils (though just 
 where we are not told), he is perpetually close upon 
 the heel of harmony, and pursues with hatred the 
 spiritual idea. He also of course typifies " mortal 
 mind." In the Apocalypse he seems to have grown 
 amazingly, and becomes a " great red dragon," which 
 poor Mrs. Eddy has to tackle, as no one previously, 
 even Christ Himself, was able to prevent his growing 
 to that size. Of course, St. John, the " Revelator " or 
 Precursor, did not mean that he had got to that size 
 
J30 ^riic Truth About Christian Science 
 
 when St. John wrote the Apocalypse, but that he would 
 be when Mrs. Eddy was to appear and knock him out. 
 
 But what, more precisely, does this red dragon 
 typify or symbolize? We learn from the "Key" in 
 another place, that he symbolizes '' the belief " which 
 Prof. Eddy has got on the brain, but which can 
 l:ardly be found elsewhere, '' that substance, life, and 
 intelligence can be material." In other words he is a 
 sort of straw dragon, like the straw man, which she 
 so often fights. We can't quite see, though, how she 
 imagines him to have got so big in these recent times. 
 No sensible person, at any rate at present, believes in- 
 telligence to be material, and no religious person has 
 any idea that matter is the basis of substance or 
 life. 
 
 The dragon's ten horns, as we learn from the same 
 infallible authority, '* typify the belief that matter has 
 power of its own ;" but no one who believes in God 
 at all has any such idea as that. Mrs. Eddy, however, 
 never knew very much about Christianity, and seems 
 to have soon forgotten what little she had learned. 
 
 These horns, she tells us, also typify the belief that 
 ** by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Com- 
 mandments can be broken." \\q can't quite get rid of 
 the belief that the Commandments not only can be, but 
 that they sometimes have been broken, and even by 
 Mrs. Eddy herself; since one of them is " Thou shalt 
 not bear false witness against thy neighbor." But we 
 never came across the idea that an evil mind must be 
 in matter, for this breaking to be done. We had the 
 impression that an evil mind was enough, all by itself. 
 But perhaps Mrs. Eddy thinks that to break them, one 
 needs some " matter " to do it with ; so that she is 
 fairly safe, as long as she does not believe that there 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 231 
 
 is any such thing; for then it is no matter what 
 she does. 
 
 Well, it is not worth while to bother any longer with 
 this absurd " Key." Of course it is vain to show its 
 absurdities up to those who have made up their minds 
 to take Mrs. Eddy as the great prophet, for whom the 
 world has been waiting all this time; but those who 
 have not yet surrendered their reason to her delusions 
 may perhaps be warned against doing so while there 
 is yet time; and it would seem that enough has been 
 already said for that purpose. 
 
 In concluding this examination of what may be 
 called the theoretical part of the book, which probably 
 has not been very attentively studied even by its most 
 thorough '' students," it seems hardly necessary to say 
 much about what the author gives us for a " glossary " 
 to it. Still, there are some points or definitions in 
 it which may show up her defiance of Scripture 
 and the old solid Christian faith even more plainly. 
 
 It is strange to observe the malice which she has 
 accumulated against poor Adam our first parent, and 
 the vials of wrath which she pours forth on his de- 
 voted head in this '' glossary." Here is the definition 
 of him in Eddian Science. 
 
 The meaning of Adam, it seems, is " Error ; a 
 falsity ; the belief in 'original sin,' sickness, and death ; 
 evil ; the opposite of good — of God and His creation ; 
 a curse ; a belief in intelligent matter " (the irrepressible 
 straw man again), " finiteness, and mortality; 'dust to 
 dust;' red sandstone" (why such a special spite 
 against this, any more than other kinds of stone?) 
 " nothingness ; the first god of mythology, not God's 
 man, who represents the one God, and is His image 
 and likeness " (though that is precisely what the Scrip- 
 
232 Tlic Truih About Christian Science 
 
 ture tells us Adam was) ; '' the opposite of Spirit and 
 His creations " (though the Scripture expressly tells 
 us that God created him) ; "that which is not the image 
 and likeness of good, but a material belief, opposed to 
 the one Mind, or Spirit." Well, she goes on with more 
 of the same blasphemous raving, but this is perhaps 
 enough; but there is a little group of straw men 
 at the end, at which she charges full tilt, like Don 
 Quixote against the windmills. 
 
 '' The name Adam," she says in her blind and un- 
 reasoning fury, " represents the false supposition " 
 (made by nobody) " that Life is not eternal, but has 
 beginning and end ; that the infinite enters the finite " 
 (repeating her materialistic and spatial ideas, which 
 she simply cannot shake off) ; " that intelligence enters 
 into non-intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material 
 sense; that immortal Mind results in matter, and 
 matter in mortal mind ; that the one God and creator 
 entered what He created, and then disappeared in the 
 atheism of matter." One can just see her when writ- 
 ing this insane paragraph, grinding and gnashing her 
 teeth at her own wild imaginations. Well this is 
 enough to effectually prevent, it would seem, anyone 
 who has any knowledge of real Christian teaching 
 from reading any further. 
 
 It is amusing, however, to find that the " serpent " 
 does not catch it quite so badly as " Adam." " The 
 first audible claim," we are told, " that God was not 
 omnipotent." But if this is enough to constitute a 
 '' serpent," it would seem that Mrs. Eddy herself must 
 be a kind of serpent, as she tells us that God is not 
 omnipotent ; not even powerful enough to create any- 
 thing outside of Himself. 
 
 It is also a funny departure from the usual practice 
 
TJic Truth About Christian Science 233 
 
 of glossaries or dictionaries to find the same word 
 defined in two entirely different ways. " Believing," 
 for instance, is defined as " firmness and constancy," 
 and also as " moral thoughts, illusion." One would 
 think that the latter definition would suffice ; for any 
 sort of believing is, we have understood, entirely in- 
 consistent with Christian Science. A Christian or 
 " Eddian " Scientist does not believe ; he knows every- 
 thing. He isn't omnipotent, of course, for we are 
 distinctly told that even " Mind " is not that, as we 
 have just noted ; but he is omiscient, at any rate ; 
 he is all right, as far as '' knowing " is concerned. 
 
 Well, it would be too tedious to take up all these 
 funny definitions, or even any considerable number of 
 them. There are some few which have a glimmering 
 of reason or truth in them, but the great majority of 
 them are just of the same kind as the above. They 
 appeal to a sense of humor, and are fine illustrations 
 of wild Eddian vagaries ; as anyone can see at a 
 glance ; but then we must remember that they are not 
 meant for the public, but for the kind people that 
 are built on those lines. There is quite a temptation 
 for the rest of us to amuse ourselves with them to a 
 moderate extent, for they really are as good as a 
 farce ; but we can't keep up the farce all the time, as 
 a real genuine Eddian does.' 
 
 So at last we can pass to the final chapter, which 
 is entitled 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 Fruitage. 
 
 Surely it is about time, after all the flowerage with 
 which the book so far has been filled, to get to some 
 fruitage. One is naturally anxious to know what it 
 
234 ^^^^ Truth About Chrisiian Science 
 
 is going to be. It is evidently intended to give prac- 
 tical proofs of the efficacy of Eddian Science, or to 
 show to us the glorious fruits that are gathered by 
 the Eddian tree. And we find, in fact, that it alleges 
 quite a number of '* cures ; " of " healings of the 
 sick," which Eddian students have accomplished. 
 
 But right at the start, a weighty consideration un- 
 avoidably suggests itself to the reader. For these 
 cures are given as being cures of real physical and 
 material ailments or diseases. But if we have learned 
 anything from the whole gospel of the '' Science," it 
 is that there are no such diseases ; that there are merely 
 errors or illusions of " mortal mind." In other words, 
 these diseases were merely imaginary; and anyone 
 who thought he was suffering from any of them was 
 merely a hypochondriac, or, as the French say, a 
 nialade imaginaire ; there was nothing really the mat- 
 ter with him at all. He had a more vivid imagination 
 than most people have to imagine the disease and by 
 this same vivid imagination he was able to imagine 
 that it was no longer there. 
 
 Well, it is certainly a valuable art (or science, if you 
 will) to be able to control the imagination so thor- 
 oughly. But it isn't '' Eddian " Science. You can't 
 say that there was not and could not have been any- 
 thing really the matter, and then triumphantly assert 
 that there really ivas something the matter, and prove 
 by the testimony of the material senses (which, by the 
 way, ^Irs. Eddy says are always erroneous), that this 
 something really was cured. If you feel sure that 
 you were cured by Eddian Science, it follows that you 
 can't possibly believe in any such Science for the 
 future. Your cure, if it was really a true one, knocks 
 Eddyism right on the head. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 235 
 
 Poor Eddy herself got you into this scrape by 
 foolishly and needlessly denying the reality of matter, 
 and, of course, of all material disease. If she had 
 only had sense enough to acknowledge the reality of 
 matter, and been content to prove the control of mind 
 (with a big M if you like) over it, she would have 
 been all right. But no ; she must needs, in misguided 
 zeal for her nonsense, put her foot right down deep 
 in it, away up to the knee ; and there it has got to 
 stay. Too late to take it out now. 
 
 Let us, then, proceed to take a look at some of the 
 " cures," but remember, please, that the more genuine 
 they seem tO' be, the more thoroughly Eddyism is re- 
 futed by them. The only way in which that noble 
 science can possibly score is by the getting rid of 
 some " error of mortal mind." The patient thought 
 that there was something the matter with him, and 
 finds out that really there wasn't, except that he was 
 mistaken; he was, in fact, just the same before the 
 " cure " as he is after it. Of course there is no need 
 to get testimony to a thing like that. The cure was 
 simply a change of his state of mind, and his word 
 is quite enough for that. 
 
 To make it clear, however, that we are not shutting 
 our eyes to evidence, and refusing obstinately from 
 hatred or prejudice to look at the cases, let us take 
 some of them in detail. One is entitled " A Case of 
 Mental Surgery." It seems to have been furnished 
 by a lady, but we are not sure ; indeed in some ways 
 it looks as if it was a mere man who was the suf- 
 ferer, particularly, because of the office work of which 
 it tells us ; but, on the whole, the lady hypothesis is 
 the more probable, and we shall adopt it. It tells 
 us that ** in May, 1902, going home for lunch, on a 
 
236 Tlie Truth About Christian Science 
 
 bicycle, I was thrown from the wheel, and falling on 
 my left side with my arm under my head, the bone 
 was broken about half-way between the shoulder and 
 the elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay still in 
 the dust, declaring the truth, and denying that there 
 could be a break or accident in the realm of divine 
 Love, until a gentleman came to assist me, saying he 
 thought I had been stunned." 
 
 Now let us look at the facts thus far presented. 
 It really seems to the outsider that both the sufferer 
 and the assisting gentleman w^ere right in their diag- 
 nosis of the case; the form.er on theoretical grounds, 
 the latter on those of observation. No examination 
 seems to have been made, of either a professional or 
 amateur character. As to the place of the supposed 
 fracture, that was only determined, it would seem, 
 from the pain being apparently located there. 
 
 To resume the narrative : " I was only two and a 
 half blocks from home, so I mounted my wheel again, 
 and managed to reach it." 
 
 This again seems to confirm the diagnosis thus far 
 made. It is, perhaps, true that an expert cycHst 
 might be able to mount a wheel w^ith a broken arm, so 
 that this of itself is not absolutely fatal to the reality 
 of the injury. 
 
 On her getting home, the scientific character of the 
 lady came out very strongly. She made no attempt 
 to fix up the (imaginary) arm in any way, but simply 
 asked her (imaginary) little boy to bring our 
 (imaginary) textbook. The arm, boy, and textbook, 
 couldn't, of course, have been composed of " matter " 
 in any v^ay ; for matter, as all scientists know, has no 
 real existence. 
 
 To continue : '' He " (the purely spiritual little bo; ) 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 2^y 
 
 " immediately brought Science and Health, which I 
 read for about ten minutes, when all pain left." 
 
 The evidence, so far, seems to the wicked scoffer 
 to be quite clear, and to the effect that there was 
 nothing the matter but a slight bruise, which ceased 
 to be painful after a few minutes. She was only 
 " about a half an hour late in returning to the office, 
 this being my only loss of time from work." 
 
 She " said nothing to her family of the accident." 
 But some friends were apparently told about it later, 
 and '' claimed," on good grounds, it would seem, 
 " that the arm had not been broken, as otherwise it 
 would have been impossible for me to continue my 
 work without having it set, and carrying it in a sling 
 until the bone knit together." But, of course, the 
 patient, being a real scientist, would listen to no such 
 nonsense as having "a bone knit together;" it could 
 no more knit together than it could knit a stocking. 
 
 But at last one of her friends invited her to visit 
 the office of a physician (not a metaphysician), where 
 they were experimenting with an (imaginary) X-ray 
 machine. " The physician was asked to examine my 
 left arm to see if it differed from the ordinary. On 
 looking through it, he said, 'Yes, it has been broken, 
 but whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and 
 you will never have any further trouble from that 
 break.' " 
 
 This is really the only scrap of evidence to show 
 that the arm had been broken at all. But the doctor, 
 naturally, did not want to doubt the lady's word, as 
 to what had been the case, and had not had any op- 
 portunity to look at the arm before. On being asked 
 if he could tell where the break had been, he '' pointed 
 out the place as being slightly thicker at that point." 
 
238 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 For all that he could tell, it might have always been 
 that way. 
 
 In this case, then, it seems as if Eddian Science 
 was right or nearly right. There was not much the 
 matter to begin with, and what little was the matter 
 could well afford to treat surgery, even of a mental 
 kind, v/ith proper contempt. It was a case, apparently, 
 of the *' kiss the place and make it well " order, 
 such as we were all familiar with in childhood. 
 
 There are a few other " cases " which seem to be 
 somewhat in the " surgical " order, perhaps the 
 strongest one is one entitled " Fibroid Tumor Healed 
 in a Few Days." The patient who writes about this — 
 apparently another lady — says, to begin with : 
 
 '' I w^as afflicted with a fibroid tumor which weighed 
 not less than fifty pounds." 
 
 It is not explained how she found out how much this 
 tumor weighed. As we are told that it did not come 
 out all at once, so that it could be separately weighed, 
 as it might have been if removed by an operation, 
 there seems to be no way of determining this inter- 
 esting point, unless the lady was weighed before she 
 started to read Science and Health, and again after the 
 cure was completed. It is not stated how long the in- 
 terval was between these two events ; we are only told 
 that the tumor " began to disappear at once." But when 
 did it finish disappearing? It strikes us that this is 
 rather an important point. And then how was it as- 
 certained that the tumor was " fibroid ? " \Yq are 
 not told that any doctor examined it ; nothing is said 
 even about an X-ray in this case. And no doctor 
 seems to have even said that such w^as his opinion. 
 
 And indeed there seems to be no evidence, expert, 
 or otherwise, that it was a tumor of any kind. Boil 
 
The Triifh About Christian Science 239 
 
 the evidence down, and it seems to be simply (if not 
 mere guess work all the way through) that the lady 
 lost fifty pounds, or thereabout, in some indeterminate 
 time. The present writer has known of a case in 
 which an adult person gained eighty pounds in a year, 
 advancing from one hundred and thirty pounds to two 
 hundred and ten. He afterward lost it in about the 
 same length of time ; but nobody imagined that there 
 had been any tumor. The proof of it, as given in 
 this case, seems to rest simply on " a continuous 
 hemorrhage for eleven years " of the eighteen years in 
 which the " tumor " was growing. But on Eddian 
 principles, an apparent increase or decrease of 
 weight would amount to nothing, anyway. There 
 could not be any real weight in matter, as it 
 has no real existence. Mind is the only thing that 
 could possibly have any weight, or anything else. We 
 are rather astonished that Mrs. Eddy allowed an 
 account so obviously heretical as this to be put into 
 her book. 
 
 We read, by the way, in another case, that a lady 
 gained forty pounds in three months by simply read- 
 ing Science and Health. In the case of our own 
 friend, just mentioned, the increase in weight, it is 
 true, was only half as rapid, being only eighty pounds 
 in a whole year. And, strange to say, he never read 
 Science and Health at all. 
 
 Here is a case which really should be quoted, and in 
 it the opinion of the home doctor and also of a 
 specialist is given: "My eyes were very bad. so that 
 I sat in a darkened room for weeks together, most of 
 the time in bed under opiates. The home doctor and 
 a specialist said the disease of the eyes could not be 
 cured, though they might help me for a while, and the 
 
240 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 doctor said if I took cold I would become totally 
 blind. Isly suffering was beyond telling. A clergy- 
 man called almost every day, and sat by my bed and 
 wept, and my good, kind doctor shed tears many times." 
 
 It would seem from this account as if the clergyman 
 and the doctor perhaps had an idea that weeping and 
 shedding tears might by the exercise of their own 
 eyes, help those of the patient ; otherwise it might 
 seem more appropriate to say some prayers or give 
 some drugs. But it does look as if they had given 
 up the case, from a spiritual as well as a material 
 point of view, and took to weeping as a sort of last 
 resort. It is, however, quite rare to find either a 
 clergyman or a doctor who has tears so completely at 
 command. But the weeping, as it would seem, also 
 failed. Nothing proved to be of any use except 
 Christian Science, by which the lady was *' healed in- 
 stantaneously." But it is not stated what the disease 
 was. Perhaps it was a constant weeping, and that 
 Vv^eeping had been tried as a sort of homoeopathic treat- 
 ment. But the cheering up given by Christian Science 
 (which certainly does have that effect) turned out to 
 be the thing. 
 
 Doctors do sometimes take matters too seriously ; 
 there is no doubt of that. A good friend of ours said 
 that he had been told by a doctor that if he sneezed, 
 he might become totally blind. (This is like what we 
 just had, in the last case. This was a gloomy pros- 
 pect; for one can't sometimes, help sneezing.) But 
 that was a good while ago, and his eyes are, we under- 
 stand, as good as ever, though that isn't saying much. 
 And this one never tried Christian Science either. 
 
 It might be worth while to get up a list of people 
 who had been '' cured " without doing anything at all; 
 
TJie Truth About Christian Science 241 
 
 and also (even more important) of cases where even 
 Christian Science failed to cheer them sufficiently. A 
 good many Scientists, beside Mrs. Eddy, have, we 
 fancy, died since her book was given to the world. 
 Statistics on this point would be interesting. And this 
 is a more important point than might at first appear. 
 For in ordinary cases of miracles or supernatural 
 cures, they are ascribed by Christians generally to a 
 special interposition of God, which can seldom be 
 expected ; but Christian Science ought to work, as it 
 professes to be a regular science, every time. It just 
 works according to the regular nature of " Mind ; " 
 and that should be always the same. So it is the 
 failures of it, not the successes, which should be looked 
 on as extraordinary. 
 
 Another investigation, which would also be desir- 
 able, if it was possible, would be to find out how many 
 sick people have been cured by ordinary medical treat- 
 ment. According to the principles of Eddian Science, 
 no effect whatever ought to be produced by such treat- 
 ment. But, in point of fact, it would undoubtedly be 
 found that, as a rule, it is successful. The failures in 
 it are usually due to the difficulty of determining just 
 what is the matter^ especially when there are several 
 organs out of order, and what helps one may harm 
 another; or sometimes that there isn't much of any- 
 thing the matter at all. Of course, there are cases 
 which have got beyond the reach of medicine, or were 
 so from the beginning; since for many diseases no 
 natural remedy has yet been ascertained; especially 
 for those unavoidably connected with old age. No 
 natural means for prolonging life forever has yet or 
 ever will be discovered. 
 
 But if we were to compare the number of cases wdiich 
 
242 The Truth About Christian Scien 
 
 ce 
 
 have been cured, or the ultimate failure certain in 
 every case averted for a very long time, by medical 
 science, with those w^hich even seem to be due to 
 Eddian Science, there is no manner of doubt that the 
 former number would be overwhelmingly greater 
 than the latter. And yet this latter pseudo-science 
 would have us shut off the aid of true and genuine 
 medical science, so immensely effectual in practice, in 
 order to give a chance for Eddyism to work. 
 
 This is a very grave and serious charge made by 
 common sense and by genuine Christian faith against 
 Eddyism. All real Christians know perfectly well 
 that God may, if it be His holy Will, cure by super- 
 natural means where natural ones, dependent on His 
 laws for matter which regularly work, will fail. And 
 we do not wait till it has been proved that they are 
 going to do so. As soon as any disease is really 
 serious, we ask Him at once to come to the help of 
 the natural means which He Himself has established. 
 And we do so more urgently, if it seems that they are 
 going to be insufficient. But we do not " tempt '' or 
 try Him, by throwing away the gifts which He has 
 given us. Nor do we neglect ordinary precautions 
 against the natural effect of the laws which God Him- 
 self has made for matter, by yielding to the idea, 
 which according to the Scripture Satan himself 
 suggested to Our Lord, that the angels " shall bear 
 thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a 
 stone." 
 
 Nobody, then, who has faith in God, objects to 
 Eddyists, when they feel a reasonable and Christian 
 confidence that God (or "Mind" as it is their fad 
 to call Him) will help them, and especially that He 
 will do so supernaturally when His natural means do 
 
TJic Truth About Chrisfian Science 243 
 
 not suffice. And we know, from the long experience 
 of all human history and particularly from the two 
 thousand years of Christianity, that He has done so 
 all along, and continues on innumerable occasions to 
 do so, right up to the present time ; and often, im- 
 mensely often, in a most phenomenal way. No one, 
 who is in possession of the facts of the case, has any 
 idea that " the age of miracles has passed ; " we see 
 too many of them continually, and in the annals of 
 the Church they are recorded by the thousand. Those 
 of us who are Catholics expect them, and take them 
 almost as a matter of course, on occasions when the 
 glory of God seems to specially call for them. If 
 *' Scientists " would only look at those, for instance, 
 worked at Lourdes, or at those recorded in the pro- 
 cesses of canonization of the Saints, they would 
 see how insignificant, both in number and in char- 
 acter, their own " cures " would appear. But we 
 ask for them that God may be glorified before and 
 among men, not that we may be relieved from the 
 suffering which our sins deserve. And the nearer, 
 spiritually, we may be to God, the more clearly does 
 this former motive stand out in our minds. 
 
 The mercy of our good God, however, is so great 
 that He does not insist on our emphasizing this right 
 motive all the time, but is willing to show His mercy 
 and His power on many occasions as a reward for 
 faith in Him, however imperfect that faith may be, 
 or however selfish our motives. Even if we have a 
 notion that we have discovered a new " science," by 
 which we have Him at command as it were, and can 
 draw on Him to any extent whenever we wish, He 
 may help us, especially in an unbelieving age like 
 this, in order to inspire confidence in Him, when such 
 
244 T^^^ Truth About Christian Science 
 
 confidence, and even faith of any kind, has been lost 
 by so many. If *' Eddian Science," false as it ob- 
 viously is to all reasonable persons, brings anyone 
 back, even a step, in the right direction, toward true 
 faith, He may sometimes allow it to succeed, as long 
 as the success is not asked for as a formal endorse- 
 ment of it. *' Half a loaf," even for the good God, 
 may be " better than no bread." If we depend on 
 His help, however mistakenly, He may be willing to 
 give it, as being better than not to depend on it at 
 all; and may also bring us to look for it where it 
 can be found so much more abundantly. 
 
 But, in itself, to look for it simply because God 
 is able to give it, is really the same as it would 
 be to go to a railway station to buy a ticket, having 
 left all our money at home. To the poor, who have 
 no money, such a favor might be granted ; but to ask 
 for a ticket, gratis, just on general principles of 
 " love," would not usually be a success. Use what 
 money you have to spare, first, would be the more 
 reasonable rule, however philanthropic the ticket- 
 seller might be. 
 
 But to return from this digression to the actual 
 cases that we are examining. In many of them we 
 find that a considerable amount of money had actually 
 been expended or, at any rate, a considerable effort 
 had been made for a cure by using material means 
 for that end, before resorting to the help of so-called 
 *' Christian Science." 
 
 What we chiefly miss in these cases is a testimonial 
 from the doctor himself, over his own signature, as to 
 the natnre of the disease which is reported as having 
 been cured. Of course, Christian Scientists them- 
 selves are not very particular on this point, and would 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 245 
 
 not value such testimonials if they were obtained, for 
 (if they have become thoroughly and interiorly per- 
 suaded of the truth of the theoretical part of ^Irs. 
 Eddy's science) they are perfectly sure that there could 
 not possibly have been any real material body at all for 
 the disease to exist in, so that whatever name the doc- 
 tors chose to give to it would not be of the slightest 
 importance. All doctors, as well as the unprofessional, 
 are, of course, from a " scientist's " standpoint, the vic- 
 tims of innumerable errors of mortal mind; and any 
 classifications which they may make of them have ab- 
 solutely no scientific value. The patient's own judg- 
 ment of any such error is just as good as that which 
 any doctor can form ; and indeed better, for he knows 
 the symptoms himself so much better than he can 
 describe them. 
 
 Still, it is told to us in many of the cases what 
 the doctor (or perhaps several doctors) said was the 
 nature of the disease ; but, after all, this is only 
 second-hand evidence, and the doctor (whose name, 
 so far as we are aware^ is never given) does not stake 
 his professional reputation on it in the mind of the 
 public. But, all the same, it would have been satis- 
 factory to people in general to have a first-hand state- 
 ment from the doctor in charge, such as the doctors 
 at Lourdes are usually quite ready to give. Though 
 firmly believing in the regular operation of natural 
 laws, the Christian doctor does not necessarily shut 
 his eyes to the possibility of the supernatural, and does 
 not think that the natural would be disproved by it. 
 And a good many of his patients have the same rea- 
 sonable opinion. 
 
 But we fully appreciate the difficulty in the cases of 
 Christian Science. It is quite awkward for a doctor 
 
246 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 who still believes in the reality of matter, and of his 
 own material science, and does not believe in miracles, 
 to testify to what is understood as completely wreck- 
 ing his science. The best thing, perhaps, left for him 
 would be to give up his profession and his business, 
 and become a " scientist " and a " practitioner " him- 
 self. But that would be quite a drawback to the value 
 of his testimony, among those who are not yet 
 Eddians, and for whose sake, principally, it is needed. 
 So, on the whole, we don't wonder that the testi- 
 monials are not forthcoming. But we will try to 
 get what we can in this line. 
 
 We have already gone over some of the cases of 
 " fruitage." Perhaps the best way will be to take 
 them up in order with some brief remarks on each, 
 and a little more on some of them. It may be noted, 
 once for all, that in no case is the name of the doctor, 
 or the full name even of the patient, given. 
 
 Case I. — ''Cancer Healed." To this there is no 
 medical testimony as to its being cancer at all. The 
 statement to that effect is simply from the patient. 
 The only thing about doctors is, 'T had tried five of 
 our local physicians, but with no relief, in fact I be- 
 came much worse. I consulted a noted physician in 
 Albany three times and used the medicines which he 
 prescribed." Usually, in a case of real cancer, an 
 operation has been considered the only effectual 
 remedy. So it would seem that the dectors did not 
 consider it as being such. 
 
 Case 2. — " Astigmatism and Hernia Healed." In 
 this case no doctor appears at all. 
 
 Case 3. — " Substance of Lungs Restored." In this 
 the only medical statement, as given second-hand by 
 the patient, is that '' my lungs were like wet paper, 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 247 
 
 ready to tear at any time." But no name was given, 
 it would seem, to the disease which produced this 
 strange state of things. 
 
 Case 4. — This is the one about the *' fibroid tumor," 
 which is the second one described at length, just now. 
 
 Case 5. — " Insanity and Epilepsy Healed." The 
 doctors in this case have receded quite into the dis- 
 tance; but as the patient tells us that she was at one 
 time an inmate of an insane asylum, it would seem 
 that some physician must have had something to do 
 with putting her there. It is also stated that while 
 there, she had a number of '' bilious attacks " and that 
 no less than six doctors ( !) pronounced them in- 
 curable. But somehow she got hold of Science and 
 Health, and some five years later she was let out of 
 the asylum. At one time, it is stated that she was 
 " pronounced dying," in an epileptic fit, by the " doc- 
 tor in charge." From this last phrase it looks as if that 
 was when she was at the asylum. She had " had no 
 fit or symptoms of any since the first week in May, 
 19 14. She was given her liberty from the asylum 
 five months after this." This really does not look like 
 a very convincing case. 
 
 Case 6. — " A Case of Mental Surgery." This has 
 already been given. It was the first on which com- 
 ment was made. 
 
 Case 7. — " Cataract Quickly Cured." It is a man 
 who comes to the front this time. But even he only 
 speaks vaguely of " many doctors," who called the 
 disease " iritis and cataract." It appears that he was 
 cured in the end by reading Science and Health, for 
 no less than four hours together, one evening. He 
 says that for some time previously he " could not read 
 longer than a few minutes at a time, otherwise they " 
 
248 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 (his eyes) *' would smart severely." He does not, 
 however, tell us the interval since the last occasion 
 when they smarted severely and this four hours 
 " stunt." After this, on the next day, the disap- 
 pearance of the cataract was noted, not by a doctor, 
 but by the wife of the patient. We are not told how 
 long it was since a doctor or even his wife had last 
 seen it. 
 
 Well, we don't scoff at this altogether ; but it would 
 be more conclusive if the facts just mentioned as 
 omitted had been given. One ought to be rather 
 particular about details, when it is claimed that sore 
 eyes were cured by reading a book for four hours 
 (from 7 till II p. M.) by gas-light. And it is strange 
 that the patient's wife made no objection to his trying 
 this rather dangerous experiment, and that neither one 
 was thinking of watching it during its progress. To 
 the profane outsider it would seem that the eyes must 
 have improved somewhat before it began. 
 
 Case 8. — " Valvular Heart Disease Healed." In this 
 there is no attempt to prove by medical testimony that 
 there was any such disease at all. Of all diseases this is 
 one of the hardest to be sure of for the unprofessional. 
 And, moreover, it often improves by generally improving 
 physical conditions. The present writer knows some- 
 thing about it, haying had it, according to medical 
 testimony, for about ten years. The only proof given 
 of it in this case were " extreme nervousness, weak- 
 ness, dyspepsia, and insomnia," neither of which he 
 has suffered from at all, except from the third for 
 a short period. 
 
 Case 9. — " The True Physician Found." In this 
 case we are informed by the patient that " for seven- 
 teen years, I had suffered from indigestion and gastri- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 249 
 
 tis in the worst form, often being overcome from a 
 seeming pressure against the heart. I had asthma for 
 four years, also had worn glasses for four years. It 
 seemed to me that I had swallowed every known 
 medicine to relieve my indigestion." It may be that 
 this last was the principal cause of the trouble. We 
 quite agree with Prof. Eddy that this promiscuous 
 drugging, especially with patent or advertised medi- 
 cines, is one of the most dangerous " errors of mortal 
 mind," and likely to lead to many others. 
 
 Finally this patient (a man also this time) got hold 
 of Mrs. Eddy's " grand book," and " was completely 
 healed of all my physical ailments in about two weeks 
 time." He also tells us : " I have used no medicines 
 from that day to this, and with God's help, and by 
 the wonderful light revealed to me through the read- 
 ing of Mrs. Eddy's book, I never expect to again." 
 And then, inadvertently, he lets what may be the cat, 
 after all, out of the bag, " I used to smoke eight or ten 
 cigars a day." It would seem that this, on top of all 
 the drugging, might be quite sufficient to account for 
 all the symptoms, unless one had a remarkably good 
 constitution. No regular doctor appears in this case 
 at all. 
 
 It is rather amusing to find this gentleman quoting 
 in the end the proverb " Physician, heal thyself," as 
 if it was a recommendation given by Our Lord to 
 those who were hearing Him, and in favor of *' Chris- 
 tian Science." He just calls it a '' Scripture saying," 
 without stopping to look at the context. 
 
 Case 10. — " Cancer and Consumption Healed." 
 In this we learn (from the patient herself, not 
 from any physician) that she " was a great sufferer 
 for many years from internal cancer and consump- 
 
250 TJic Truth About Christian Science 
 
 tion." She says, indeed, that she was treated by the 
 best physicians in New York, Minneapolis and Duluth, 
 and was finally given up as incurable." But it is not 
 alleged that these physicians said that she had " in- 
 ternal cancer and consumption." There are cases 
 which are incurable because the notions of the patient 
 about them are incurable. But she seems finally to 
 have shaken them off by means of Mrs. Eddy's book. 
 It is undoubtedly good for such cases. The '' patient " 
 seems to have really had a very good constitution, for 
 she tells us that she had a painless childbirth ; it seems 
 to have occurred when she had got " Science " well 
 soaked into her system, and the mistaken idea about 
 " cancer, etc.," thoroughly eliminated. 
 
 Case II.— "A Remarkable Case." This one does 
 seem more remarkable than the usual kind, because 
 the trouble which was cured, that of a little boy (we 
 are not told the precise age), and because he did not 
 read Science and Health himself; his mother read it 
 for him, and much of the time, as it appears, just 
 silently to herself. She had some difficulty in getting 
 the book, it seems, naturally enough not caring to buy 
 such an expensive one, if she could get a loan of it 
 from somebody ; and as she was not yet in the church, 
 she was not obliged to buy it. She says : " I never 
 saw anyone part so reluctantly with a book as my 
 friend " (presumably a regular member of the church) 
 " did with her copy of the textbook." This confirms 
 the idea we have had, that lending it must be against 
 the rules ; but if we are mistaken we shall be glad to be 
 corrected. Perhaps it is only that every " Scientist " 
 is under an obligation to read a definite amount of 
 the " textbook " daily, like that of a priest to say his 
 office every day from his breviary; so that it would 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 251 
 
 not be convenient to let it go altogether for twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 The lady read the book, we are told, '' silently and 
 audibly, day and night," and though she ** could not 
 seem to understand it, yet the healing commenced to 
 take place at once." This matter of not " understand- 
 ing " the book is really mysterious ; we meet with 
 similar statements now and then. But perhaps it is 
 meant that she could not understand how it could be 
 a Christian book, the difficulty in doing so would be 
 easily understood, since it contradicts the Bible and 
 the plain teachings of Christ and His Apostles on 
 almost every page, as we have already seen. 
 
 " About this time," she tells us, '' we decided to 
 move to the West." It is stated that " throughout the 
 journey, we were the only ones in our car who did 
 not get train-sick." Rather a sickly car, it seems. Get- 
 ting " train-sick," one would think, would be more 
 extraordinary than not getting so. The present writer 
 has crossed the continent back and forward four times, 
 and never met with anyone who was *' train-sick." 
 But perhaps, on this occasion, the train pitched and 
 rolled more than usual. Immediately after this it is 
 stated thiat " the child's limbs grew perfectly straight, 
 he ate anything he wanted, and for years he has been 
 a natural, healthy child in every way." 
 
 If his limbs were crooked before beginning the 
 journey, and grew perfectly "straight before finishing 
 it, that certainly would be well worth mentioning. But 
 it appears that even before starting on the journey, he 
 was " playing and romping about the house as any 
 child should ; " and that for years he has been all 
 right. There seems to be nothing conclusive to show 
 that he did not just naturally outgrow his complaints. 
 
252 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 The lady proceeds to her own case, which seems to 
 have been chiefly one of trouble with her eyes. " One 
 of the leading oculists in Boston told her that her 
 eyes 'were in a dreadful condition/ and that she would 
 always need to wear glasses." Almost needing to wear 
 glasses does not seem to indicate any " dreadful condi- 
 tion " of the eyes. Of course the lady's age is not 
 stated. But the present writer had to begin wearing 
 glasses at the age of forty, about the usual age for be- 
 ginning, and has worn them for some thirty years 
 since ; gradually, of course, having to make them 
 stronger for reading purposes. This is just the normal 
 course of things, from the gradual flattening of the 
 lens of the eye. Sometimes, however, there is a 
 recovery for a time ; and of late, for quite a number 
 of years, the change for the worse may almost cease. 
 
 At the end of this testimonial, vague and non-medi- 
 cal as it is on the whole, we find, however, what is 
 certainly a startling statement. It is that " teeth have 
 been restored, and facial blemishes removed, un- 
 consciously, simply by reading Science and Health." 
 What is meant by teeth being ''restored?" Does it 
 mean that teeth which had absolutely gone have come 
 back? If so, it should have been stated more un- 
 equivocally. But if it means restored to comparative 
 usefulness, the present writer can testify to that, and 
 has not had a toothache for many years ; and long 
 before reading Science and Health at all. So we 
 would like to have more detailed accounts on this 
 matter. On the whole, however, we will confess that 
 this case is beyond the average, quite considerably. 
 It is, comparatively, a " remxarkable " one. 
 
 Case 12. — " Intense Suffering Overcome." This 
 case the doctors seem to have diagnosed as one of 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 253 
 
 sciatic rheumatism ; another one " examined my 
 heart and claimed that it was weak, and that I was 
 liable to pass on at any time from heart trouble." 
 Another one " said there would have to be an opera- 
 tion which would include the exposing and scraping 
 of the sciatic nerve." 
 
 We know, personally, of a case in which this last 
 process was recommended. But it was not actually 
 performed. The patient got better, and the trouble 
 did not last very long. But we are sure that he never 
 read Science and Health at all. He had all his life 
 occasional attacks of rheumatism, once at least of the 
 *' inflammatory " sort, and very severe. But of late 
 he has had less than previously. Science and Health 
 doesn't seem to have been needed. 
 
 Case 13. — This is another case of " sciatic rheuma- 
 tism." But in this no doctor comes to the front at 
 all. It seems to be that of a lady, as most of them 
 are ; but we are not sure ; we will assume it, anyway, 
 since she seems to have consulted principally with her 
 sister. She thought she had Bright's disease, also. 
 She " had never joined any church, and thought it 
 now too late, as I would have to wait six months on 
 probation, and I would be dead before that." 
 
 Her sister, she tells us, was already a '' Scientist," 
 and on making inquiries the patient " soon found that 
 it was just what I had been looking for." She " com- 
 menced reading Science and Health, also the New 
 Testament." Strangely, she does not seem to have 
 noticed the incompatibility of the two. But then she 
 was not looking for religion, but only to get physi- 
 cally all right. She discovered what all Christians 
 were already aware of, that " God as revealed by 
 Christ Jesus can do everything, that He made 
 
254 ^^^^ Truth About Christian Science 
 
 everything that was made" (though Science and 
 Health denies this), "that He can and does heal the 
 afflicted ; " and this well-known truth cheered her so 
 much that the diseases troubled her no more. 
 
 As a testimony to the distinctive teachings of 
 " Eddian Science," this really doesn't seem to amount 
 to much. That would have told her that God's om- 
 nipotence was in no way needed, and that there really 
 was no such thing as " sciatic rheumatism " at all. 
 Indeed in almost all the cases the patients seem to 
 have got hardly any hold of this glorious '' Science," 
 but to have had simply a faith in ordinary Christian 
 teaching, and to have fancied that Christians did not 
 hold or teach it. 
 
 Case 14. — " Grateful for Many Blessings." In this 
 case, again, the doctors seem to recede into the back- 
 ground, though not disappearing altogether. She (or 
 he perhaps) ascribes a painful back to some (of course 
 needless) operation, and at the end the patient *' had 
 doctored with three of the best physicians in Seattle, 
 but none could give me relief." The present writer 
 hates to say anything against the climate of Seattle, 
 for he really thinks it is very nice, but it was there 
 that he had the worst case in his life of what might 
 be called " catarrh of the throat," which this patient 
 seems to have had there. It may have happened that 
 some other climate was better for that trouble. But 
 no ; we are assured that it was " Christian Science," 
 we don't know just where. It began, though, with the 
 " painful back." 
 
 Case 15. — This, for a change, is that of a "min- 
 ister's son." His trouble was being a neurasthenic. 
 He was " constantly taking medicine for eight years," 
 and " had eleven physicians attending him," when he 
 
Tlic Truth About Christian Science 255 
 
 called in Dr. Eddy and her Christian Science, and 
 presumably dropped the others, and also the " very 
 many patent medicines " which he had been taking, 
 on which in the month or so previous he had spent 
 no less than eighteen dollars. This- was certainly 
 going the patent medicine business some. It was 
 probably on the sly, for the eleven physicians would, 
 we should think, have objected. 
 
 This seems to be a pretty clear case of " too many 
 cooks spoiling the broth." The cooks being dis- 
 charged, and Science and Health being substituted, 
 before he had half finished the book he " was eating 
 everything that anyone does." He read the book, 
 curiously enough, " eleven times straight ahead " 
 (once to counteract the effects of each physician), 
 " and many times skipping about." Not, you under- 
 stand, skipping about on his feet, but on the book. 
 In this case a good big dose of the book seems to 
 have been needed ; and no wonder. 
 
 Case 16. — " Many Ills Overcome." In this case the 
 lady tells us that she " has received much help, 
 spiritually and physically, through Christian Science." 
 One of the troubles was that she could not sleep ; but 
 " trouble of every kind disappeared before I had read 
 Science and Health through." We are beginning to 
 understand now why it seems to take so long, usually, 
 to finish the book ; it must be that one goes to sleep. 
 And really that is quite natural. There are so many 
 things in it that are repeated over and over. Really, 
 when we have the condensation of it at the end of our 
 " Recapitulation," there is not much of anything else. 
 This is confirmed by the statement that her husband 
 " was healed of the tobacco habit of fifty years stand- 
 ing by reading Science and Health/' One couldn't 
 
256 The TniiJi About Christian Science 
 
 smoke and read Science and Ileatih at the same time, 
 you see. 
 
 Case 17. — "A Helpful Healing." In this case, 
 another lady tells us that " I was healed of neuralgia 
 of the stomach, from which I had suffered from a child. 
 As I grew older, the spells became more frequent 
 and more severe ; the only relief physicians could 
 give me was by hypodermic injections of morphine. 
 Finally after each spell, I would be prostrated for a 
 day or two with the after effect of the morphine. 
 I was entirely healed of this trouble through the 
 study of Science and Health/' 
 
 In spite of all this, however, she seems to have 
 been much alarmed at the idea of trying it on her 
 children. She says : " I think I never realized what 
 fear meant till I began to try and put into practice 
 my understanding of Christian Science for my chil- 
 dren." It really seems strange this talk one meets with 
 so often about " understanding of Christian Science." 
 It seems quite easy to understand it; it simply con- 
 sists in being quite sure that there is nothing what- 
 ever the matter with anyone who seems to be sick. 
 But putting it into practice does often seem, and 
 actually is, rather difficult. 
 
 The first time she realized this was in something 
 which seemed to her to be " a severe case of croup 
 for my little boy." But she made up her mind that 
 it had got to be " science " for him, kill or cure ; and 
 didn't know quite how to go to work. So she just 
 picked up the book and began to read aloud. While 
 doing so, a text occurred to her (Heb. iv. 12), which 
 doesn't seem to have any connection with Christian 
 Science. That seemed to help the child at once ; 
 and it is to be hoped that she also prayed, as any 
 
The Truth ^Aboiit Christian Science 257 
 
 ordinary good Christian would. Well, it does seem 
 that the cure of the croup — if croup it was — might be 
 ascribed to the real word of God and prayer ; but we 
 can't see what Christian Science had to do with it, or 
 why it is put on this list. 
 
 Case 18. — " Relief from Many Ills." Here again, 
 we find that in the case of the school teacher who 
 contributes it, deafness, etc., " has been overcome by 
 an enlarged understanding of God's word, as ex- 
 plained by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health." But 
 we don't understand what is meant by this " en- 
 larged " understanding. It would seem to be rather 
 contracted than enlarged, as the Scripture in Mrs. 
 Eddy's book is very limited in amount, and is only 
 commented on at any length in her " Key " to parts 
 of two of its books, and there chiefly to perverting 
 their plain sense, or explaining it away. 
 
 Case 19. — " Health and Peace Attained." This 
 really doesn't seem to be much of a case. The patient 
 had been treated by eminent physicians for " heredi- 
 tary consumption " (we didn't know there was a 
 special '* hereditary " kind), "torpid liver, and many 
 other diseases." From an orthodox Protestant he 
 finally became " a follower of Voltaire, Tom Paine 
 and Ingersoll." But it doesn't make much difference 
 what he was in that way. He read Mrs. Eddy's book 
 from Tuesday to Friday, and then (what was of more 
 importance) prayed, and arrived at the orthodox con- 
 clusion " that there is one Fatherhood of God, and 
 one brotherhood of man," which he must have be- 
 lieved before, if he had been any kind of an " ortho- 
 dox Protestant." But he did not get as far as the 
 " motherhood," or any distinctively Eddian doctrine. 
 His health, however, improved. But we don't see 
 
2S8 The Truth 'About Christian Science 
 
 what right Mrs. Eddy has to this case, or in fact why 
 she put it in. We are not told even that he became 
 a *' Scientist." 
 
 Case 20.—** Health and Peace Gained." This gen- 
 tleman had been " drawn to Christian Science by a 
 relative whose many afflictions had given place to 
 health and harmony." After a while (time not 
 exactly stated) he got rid of asthma (another " heredi- 
 tary " case) and neuralgia in an aggravated form, and 
 gave up tobacco and liquor. Not a word, in this case, 
 about doctors, or medical treatment of any kind. Not 
 much of a case, it must, we think, be admitted. 
 
 Case 21. — ''Consumption Quickly Cured." This 
 case is a better one than those which we have been 
 having lately. It is given to us by a gentleman who 
 narrates the healing of his wife of " what the doctors 
 called consumption in its last stages." What precisely 
 the doctors called " consumption " is not stated, and 
 of course the names of the doctors are not given. 
 But so far as they recommended anything it seems to 
 have been a " higher, drier climate, and when she 
 would be at her worst to give her something to quiet 
 her." And at last she became so much worse that 
 he called in a doctor again. He says that this doctor 
 also diagnosed the case, but it does not say that he 
 also called it " consumption." But at any rate, he 
 agreed with the advice of the others in ordering "some 
 morphine tablets to make her rest." Two had been 
 given, apparently, without any good effect, and " just 
 before the time to give her another " she called me 
 to her bedside and said, " Don't give me any more of 
 that stuff, for it does me more harm than good ; " so 
 the husband obediently put them at once into the fire. 
 
 Next day a Christian Science lady called and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 259 
 
 loaned to the patient a copy of Science and Health. 
 The patient read it from ten o'clock till dinner was 
 called. She then ate a hearty dinner, the first in about 
 three days ; having, as it would seem, made up her 
 mind that there was nothing the matter with her, 
 after all ; and then read the book " two hours a day 
 for eight days, and was healed." Three months after- 
 ward it was found that she had gained forty pounds 
 in weight. 
 
 Now if this patient really had pulmonary consump- 
 tion this case was certainly one answering to the 
 title, " Consumption Quickly Cured." But there is 
 just where the doubt comes in. The lady seems to 
 have eaten a " hearty dinner " three days before she 
 got the book ; and that is not usual with patients " in 
 the last stages of consumption." 
 
 So the evidence does not seem quite as conclusive 
 as one might be inclined to think. It looks more like 
 a nervous or imaginary trouble. We do not read even 
 that the doctors prescribed any medicinal treatment ex- 
 cept " something to quiet her." The husband, it is 
 true, " had tried everything that he could get in the 
 way of materia medlca;" but he does not say that 
 the doctors had prescribed this treatment. It would 
 be likely, it would seem, to aggravate the case, and to 
 be evidence of rather a strong constitution in the 
 patient. So we are obliged to drop this promising 
 case for want of sufficient evidence. 
 
 Case 22. — "A Profitable Study." This seems, in 
 one way, even stronger than the last. The phy- 
 sicians ventured on the statement " that one lung was 
 gone, and that the other was afflicted with tubercu- 
 losis ; " and the patient " tried every remedy that they 
 had suo^sfested." At last she tried " Christian 
 
 •tsi)' 
 
26o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Science." This of course, if the lady thoroughly ab- 
 sorbed its teachings, showed to her clearly that the 
 doctors had been mistaken, and the idea that she ever 
 had any lungs was merely " an error of mortal mind." 
 So of course she realized that she could not have 
 even one lung left, whether " afflicted with tubercu- 
 losis " or not. 
 
 But the worst is yet to come. After getting over 
 her trouble, she says, " I feel absolutely certain that 
 I have two sound, healthy lungs now." That is to 
 say, " I feel absolutely certain that Christian Science 
 is all humbug. For of course we learn from this 
 science that matter does not exist. To take just one 
 passage of Science and Health at random, we find that 
 " the objects cognized by the physical senses have not 
 the reality of substance. They are only what mortal 
 belief calls them. Matter, sin and mortality lose all 
 supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, 
 as mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance and 
 intelligence." This was really too bad to give Chris- 
 tian Science such a blow in the face, when it had 
 done her so much good. 
 
 Case 2^. — " Healed of Infidelity and Many Physical 
 Ills." In this case as to the infidelity part, it seems 
 to have been cured, not by Science and Health, but 
 by the New Testament. As for " the disease with 
 which I had been troubled for years," we learned that 
 it tormented me worse than ever for about six months, 
 as if trying to turn me aside, but I lost all fear of it. 
 We don't quite see how he '' can honestly say that 
 Science and Health was my only healer, and it has 
 been my only teacher," when there is so little of the 
 New Testament in it, and so much in the New Testa- 
 ment which is dead against it. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 261 
 
 Case 24. — " Diseased Eyes Cured," has already been 
 discussed before going through this regular enumer- 
 ation. 
 
 Case 25.—" The Textbook Healed Me." No details 
 are given in this, so we may omit it. It only says 
 that " I had been under the care of a physician much 
 of the time," that " different opinions were given by 
 them," and that I was healed through reading Science 
 and Health unth Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 Case 26. — " Obstinate Stomach Trouble Healed." 
 There is hardly anything about the " case " in this. It 
 only says: " I had suffered for years from an obstinate 
 form of stomach trouble, and that after three or four 
 months study I realized that the stomach trouble was 
 gone." 
 
 Case 27. — " Dyspepsia Quickly Healed." This again 
 doesn't seem to be a very strange one. The cure seems 
 to have been chiefly accomplished by " ignoring en- 
 tirely the most rigid kind of diet." The present writer 
 had a case in his own person, in which the cure re- 
 sulted, apparently, by ignoring rigid rules of diet, tak- 
 ing more active and varied physical and mental exer- 
 cise, and learning to smoke. 
 
 Case 28. — " After Twenty Years Suffering." In this 
 case the doctor, it is true, diagnosed it as " spinal 
 trouble, originating from a bad fall." But no doctor 
 seems to have been called in at the time of the fall. 
 It may have been spinal trouble, but it reminds one 
 somewhat of an obstinate case of " hysteria " which 
 we met with in the course of our experience, in which 
 the girl could not be persuaded to get out of bed. But 
 in this case Christian Science produced the desired 
 effect. The doctor, in the case just mentioned, thought 
 an alarm of fire might be a good thing. 
 
262 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 One curious thing in this account is especially 
 worthy of notice. The writer, in conclusion, says : " I 
 have grown to thank God with deepest sincerity that 
 one brave woman was found pure enough to bring 
 forth this Christ-healing again, to remain forever 
 among men, and save suffering humanity from all 
 disease and sin." Of course this was written before 
 the death of Mrs. Eddy. But the confidence that the 
 writer seems to have had that Mrs. Eddy was " to 
 remain forever " seems to indicate that she wa's not 
 deficient in the faith which, after all, is required for 
 this special kind of " science." 
 
 Case 29. — *' From Despair to Hope and Joy." This 
 one, in the patient's own mind, was certainly an ex- 
 traordinary one. " From childhood," she says, *' I was 
 always sick, never knew one hour of rest, and was 
 under the doctor's care most of the time." She never, 
 it would seem, slept, even when in bed. She tells us: 
 " I grew steadily worse, until at last I was obliged 
 to keep my bed for nearly three years — a great suf- 
 ferer. My ailments were, it seemed, all that flesh is 
 heir to, and were called incurable by the doctors, viz., 
 Bright's disease, and many others " all, of course, " in 
 the last stages. My case was known among physicians, 
 many of whom were prominent specialists, as a most 
 extreme one." However, relief was at hand. " The 
 little book was handed me at this hour of great need. 
 I read it, and read it again, and soon found myself 
 growing stronger, then I kept on reading, and was 
 perfectly healed of all my supposedly incurable 
 diseases." 
 
 Of course, as in all the other cases, we do not learn the 
 name of a single one of these physicians and specialists. 
 Probably they could not make out what was really the 
 
The Trnih About Christian Science 262, 
 
 matter with her ; anyway, the idea which she had, that 
 there was something the matter with her, was pro- 
 nounced as incurable by the doctors. But she learned 
 from the " little book " that there really was nothing 
 the matter with her ; and we should think might have 
 learned that at the very first reading. At last she 
 believed what the little book said, and of course got 
 well right away. 
 
 Case 30. — " Truth Makes Free." In this case the 
 subject of the cure was the " son of a physician, a 
 graduate in pharmacy, and an ex-druggist ; " not three 
 different people, but all three combined in one. In 
 spite of these safeguards, however, he had suffered 
 from catarrh and sore throat for thirty years ; " and 
 in the last five" (of the thirty) "were added several 
 others, including dyspepsia and bronchitis, and a loss 
 in flesh of sixty pounds." All these troubles were 
 cured " through the spiritual understanding of Chris- 
 tian Science, the result of about six weeks study." 
 
 *' When I learned," he says, " that Jesus' mission 
 of healing sickness as well as sin did not end with His 
 short stay upon earth, but is practical in all ages, my 
 joy was unbounded." One hardly sees why it took 
 him so long to learn this, as all Christians have always 
 believed it; only they have usually believed that such 
 healing is mainly accomplished by prayer, rather than 
 by reading a book, and studying on it ; and have not 
 been sure that it would be attained every time, but 
 that, on the contrary, bodily ills would not be cured 
 when the cure would be unfavorable to spiritual in- 
 terests; or, in other words, that Christian healing is 
 not a " science," but a special and supernatural gift 
 from God. Indeed he tells us that his study was 
 " prayerful," and that may have helped in the cure, 
 
264 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 which does not seem to have been a phenomenal 
 one. 
 
 Case 31. — '' Deaf Ears Unstopped." This lady states 
 that she " was healed of hereditary deafness and 
 catarrh of the head, simply through reading the book, 
 Science and Health." We do not know exactly what 
 " hereditary " deafness is, or how it differs from the 
 ordinary kind ; or what is the difference between 
 catarrh of the head and a persistent *' cold in the 
 head." Rut she had not read fifty pages before she 
 was all right, and '' never had a return of the ail- 
 ment." ■ Those first fifty pages are mostly about what 
 the book calls *' Prayer," which certainly ought to 
 help ; but the book says, as it would seem, that prayer 
 chiefly consists in '' denying sin and pleading God's 
 allness." This is somewhat mysterious, but would 
 seem to mean that there is no sin, and nothing what- 
 ever except God, as this is the regular Eddian doctrine. 
 But perhaps, even at this early stage, one might grasp 
 the idea that deafness and catarrh of the head were 
 only wild delusions, and "' deny " them both. Most 
 people cannot get on so far as soon as that ; and even 
 if they did, the delusions would probably go on, all 
 the same. But a real, thorough Scientist pays no at- 
 tention to the testimony of the material senses, as we 
 know ; he only regards what ought to be, not what 
 actually is. So even his testimony as to " cures " is 
 not so very convincing. If one ought to be well, one 
 is. So, after all, these testimonies as to " cures " may 
 be really only to the effect that at the time at which the 
 testifiers say they were cured, they had made up their 
 minds that they ought to have been, or must have been. 
 She gives another rase, appended to this, of a little 
 girl of three who had met with some accident, and 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 265 
 
 this same lady, her mother, thought the child had dis- 
 located her shoulder. The little girl cried, of course, 
 a great deal. After a while the pain subsided ; and 
 about four hours later " she was playing out doors as 
 though nothing had ever happened." There is not a 
 scrap of evidence from any physician or surgeon that 
 there had been any dislocation at all. 
 
 Case 32. — " Saved from Insanity and Suicide." The 
 lady who narrates this had a daughter who had been 
 '' given up by materia medica to die of lingering con- 
 sumption." Probably she means given up by the doc- 
 tors. " My own condition seemed even more alarm- 
 ing," she says, " as fnsanity was being manifested, and 
 rather than go to an insane asylum it seemed to me 
 the only thing to do was to commit suicide." She does 
 not seem to have been very firmly grounded in Chris- 
 tianity. However, her doctor tried to persuade her 
 to undergo an operation as a means of relief ; not for 
 insanity, but for various other diseases. 
 
 But she concluded to try insanity in a milder form, 
 that of Science and Health; like getting vaccinated to 
 avoid the smallpox. So she started in with the chapter 
 on " Prayer." She says : '' I did not at that time sup- 
 pose it possible for me to remember anything I read, 
 but I felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power, 
 and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what 
 I so much needed — a present help in time of trouble." 
 There seems to be no reason why she could not have 
 found this to be stated as the case in any ordinary 
 Christian book. But, strange to say, '' before that 
 chapter on 'Prayer' was finished" (which would take, 
 we should think, at most sixteen minutes, as there are 
 only sixteen pages of it), though she seems to have 
 got no good from it herself other than as above stated. 
 
266 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 her " daughter was down stairs eating three meals a 
 day, and daily growing stronger. Before I had 
 finished reading the textbook she was well, but never 
 having heard that the reading of Science and Health 
 healed anyone, it was several months before I gave 
 God the glory." All her own ailments, she tells us, 
 " left me, all but the headaches ; they were less fre- 
 quent, until at the end of three years the fear of them 
 was entirely overcome." 
 
 She concludes with something even more remark- 
 able. It is the case of '' an unhappy woman who was 
 about to separate from her husband." She was asked 
 if she did not love her husband. She replied, "No; 
 when I married him I did, but not now." One would 
 expect that she would have been told to be faithful to 
 him, and get along as well as she could. But what 
 was she told ? She was told that " God made man in 
 His image and likeness, and that He " (God) " is per- 
 fect ; " and that she should " go home and see only 
 God's perfect man ; you don't need to love a sinful 
 mortal such as you have been looking upon." 
 
 Most people would think that the old-fashioned ad- 
 vice given by Our Lord, '' Love your enemies : do 
 good to them that hate you," would have been more 
 Christian than this; especially as there seems to have 
 been nothing specially objectionable in the poor hus- 
 band. And St. Paul insists strongly that husbands 
 should love their waives; and what is sauce for the 
 gander would be specially in order for such a goose, 
 as this one seems to have been. But no ; instead of 
 regular Christianity, we must have such '* scientific " 
 twaddle as this " case " gives us. We have quoted 
 it rather at length, as it is such an exceptional com- 
 bination of superstition and pseudo-spirituality. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 267 
 
 Case 33. — " Stomach Trouble Healed." This is the 
 case of a traveling salesman, who says : " It was a 
 common occurrence for me to have to call a physician 
 to my hotel to administer morphine for an acute form 
 of this disease." 
 
 It is a curious thing that however inefficacious drugs 
 may seem to be, morphine seems always to work, as in 
 Cases ly and 21. In this one we learn: '' I had tried 
 many physicians and most of the usual remedies during 
 these years of suffering, without any good result." 
 These " usual remedies " evidently do not include mor- 
 phine. What the stomach trouble was we do not learn; 
 but as far as we are informed, it seems to have been 
 simply a stomachache. It must have been rather 
 severe to call for morphine. No particulars are given 
 of the healing, except, that " as a last resort, 
 I decided to try Christian Science, and I was healed " 
 (that is to say, did not have any more stomachaches) 
 " by reading Science and Health with Key to the 
 Scriptures/' by Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 Case 34. — " Freed from Many Years of Suffering." 
 This is another case of stomachache. Also bladderache 
 and corns. Rheumatism and grip every winter. Also 
 a growth on both eyes, which " caused my eyes to 
 be inflamed nearly all the time." It was called 
 " cataract," but whether so called by the doctors we 
 are not informed. Of course there is no medical cer- 
 tificate. In spite of the inflamed eyes, this patient was 
 able to read Science and Health, and '' was healed 
 in a short time by reading this work." 
 
 Case 35. — " Relief from Intense Suffering." In this 
 case no one seems to have been sure what was the 
 matter ; " one physician diagnosed the case as a dan- 
 gerous kidney disease, and said that no medicine could 
 
268 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 help me, but that I must undergo a surgical operation." 
 Another doctor " made an examination and diagnosed 
 the difficulty as something different, but quite as 
 serious." At last she promised to read Science and 
 Health, and " on Sunday morning I sat down to read 
 it. When I reached the place where Mrs. Eddy says 
 she found this truth in the Bible, I began comparing 
 the two books." We are not told what particular truth 
 she is referring to. It is evident that most of the 
 teachings of Mrs. Eddy could not be found anywhere 
 in the Bible. ''I read passages" (she says, but does 
 not say in which book) '* which looked very reasonable 
 to me, and I said to myself this is nearer to the truth 
 than anything I have ever seen." Neither the Bible 
 nor Mrs. Eddy, it would seem, were exactly right, but 
 somewhere near. But at last she " felt " that she was 
 healed, but '' read on and was certainly healed ; " and 
 tells us that " eight days after the healing I did my 
 own washing." Six weeks later she had another ex- 
 amination by her former physician, and he said the 
 trouble was certainly gone, and that God had healed 
 her. She seems to think this a clear testimony to the 
 efficacy of Science and Health, as if no one had 
 imagined that God had healed, or did at any rate heal 
 any one nowadays, till that book was published. 
 
 Case 36. — " Gratitude for Many Blessings." This 
 patient first heard of Christian Science about 
 fifteen years ago, and then was told of the book 
 by a friend. The patient said to the friend : 
 *' If that is a key to the Scriptures, I must have it." 
 It would seem that it must have been rather a shock 
 to find that the book was not such a " Key " at all, 
 but only some rather surprising explanations of five 
 or six chapters out of the whole Scriptures. However, 
 
TJic Truth About Christian Science 269 
 
 in spite of this obvious deficiency, it " illumined the 
 Bible with a glorious light, and I began to understand 
 some of the Master's sayings," that is, it would seem, 
 to understand that some of the plainest statements 
 made by Him were very far from being true. 
 
 This patient did not have any serious disease, so 
 far as is stated, but thought that there were many phy- 
 sical troubles, not, however, as would appear, enough 
 to bother a doctor about. But it became evident by 
 simply reading Science and Health that '' I had no 
 disease — I was perfectly free." This glorious truth 
 was only imperfectly apprehended by the patients in 
 the cases thus far; they clung to the belief that they 
 had been sick, at any rate. 
 
 Case 37. — " Gratitude for Moral and Spiritual 
 Awakening." The awakening in this case seems to 
 have been chiefly the discovery that a habit of almost 
 incessant smoking could be and actually was broken 
 up by Mrs. Eddy's book, and that the desire for 
 drink also yielded to it. " I wish to say here, that I 
 received all these benefits before I had gained much 
 understanding of what I was reading." From the way 
 in which the patients in these cases often speak of 
 the book, one would think it was a very profound 
 and abstruse one. We don't remember that any great 
 point is m.ade in it about smoking or drinking. The 
 general directions given in it are rather of the go- 
 as-you-please character. It proved to be, it seems, 
 quite a help to him in his business. This is, perhaps, 
 not very wonderful. Mrs. Eddy had certainly a good 
 head for business, and knew very well how to make 
 money. But to acquire skill in this hardly seems to 
 be exactly " a moral and spiritual awakening." 
 
 Case 38. — "Hereditary Disease of the Lungs Cured." 
 
270 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 In this case the patient says that consumption was 
 hereditary in our family; but it is not stated that she 
 had it herself. She had, however, severe stomach 
 trouble of over eight years standing, and wore glasses 
 for fourteen years. She does not state definitely that 
 she was cured of any of these things ; the " spiritual 
 unfolding and uplifting " was '* the pearl of great 
 price." It does seem rather ungrateful to grumble in 
 this way about the great price which one has to pay 
 fbr " our textbook." 
 
 Case 39. — '' Textbook Appreciated." This is even 
 a more vague case than the last. It is really only a 
 sort of advertisement of the book. Strange to say it 
 tells us that '' the honest study of this book, in con- 
 nection with the Bible, will enable one to 'prove all 
 things.' " The impression we have got from it is rather 
 that you have got to take Mrs. Eddy's word for all 
 things, and not try to prove them at all. 
 
 Case 40. — " Rupture and other Serious Ills Healed." 
 This old lady says: '' I was so absorbed in the study 
 of this 'little book,' that I was healed, not only of 
 the rupture, but also of other troubles — inflammatory 
 rheumatism, catarrh, corns and bunions." This case 
 seems rather comical. Wonder if the old lady had all 
 these troubles at the same time. 
 
 Case 41.— "Mother and Daughter Healed." The 
 trouble with the mother was constipation, for which 
 she had been " taking medicines every day for twenty 
 years." Cured by reading the textbook for three days ! 
 It is not told us what was the matter with her little 
 daughter, but she was healed of something, anyway. 
 
 Case 42. — " Liver Complaint Healed." The only 
 symptom which we can find in this case was a number 
 of " odd looking spots/' a few of which first appeared 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 271 
 
 on one arm, but afterward they spread round quite 
 generally. Various physicians were called for a cure, 
 but finally the patient was pronounced so full of 
 medicine that the last one was afraid to have her take 
 any more. The first one had said that the spots were 
 '' liver spots." We have never heard of these. The 
 opinions of the other doctors are not given. The 
 patient seems at last to have given up worrying about 
 them, and started to read Science and Health. When 
 she had read about half of the book, and it occurred 
 to her to look for the spots, she could not find them. 
 The medicines, perhaps, had worked them out of her 
 system. This is not claimed as a very strong case; 
 but now we come to 
 
 Case 43. — " A Convincing Investigation." In this 
 case, however, though the father of the patient was 
 a physician, and her mother had the same disease 
 (whatever it was) herself, the father does not seem 
 to have been able to give it a name. But he had 
 sensible views about giving too much medicine, and 
 thought it was better to have some pain than to keep 
 dosing all the time. At last some one told her about 
 Christian Science. " I replied," she tells us, " that 
 I believed God could heal, but that I had no faith in 
 the healing of Christian Science, but would like to 
 investigate its theology, as it might aid in giving one 
 some clue to the meaning of life. For three years I 
 had searched the works of the most scientific writers 
 to find the origin of life; many times I would think 
 I had traced it to the beginning, but it would elude 
 my grasp every time." 
 
 If instead of " searching the words of the most 
 scientific writers " she had taken one short look into 
 a ten-cent catechism, she would have found all that 
 
2']2 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 she was looking for, right away. But instead of 
 doing so, she got hold of Science and Health, and 
 found a paragraph near the middle which attracted 
 her attention. She has never been able to find it 
 again, or apparently to remember it. The advantage 
 of the catechism would have been that even a small 
 child can find there all that is needed, and as often 
 as desired ; so it would seem preferable, though we 
 would not guarantee that it would cure her of all 
 pain. We might guess that what this lady did find 
 was something to the effect that she herself was just 
 a part of '' Mind," and that as that could have no 
 pain, this idea of pain was quite out of the question. 
 So she made up her mind that it must be stamped 
 right out. 
 
 At one leap, she got far beyond Mrs. Eddy her- 
 self. We have heard that Mrs. Eddy was at one time 
 suffering from a toothache. Feeling that her science 
 might be wrecked if she should go to a dentist in her 
 own town about it, she went to another, quite a long 
 distance away, and told him she would like to have 
 him examine into it. As her portraits had been often 
 published (we have one in our own copy), the dentist 
 came forward quite pleased, and said, '* Please sit 
 down a moment, Airs. Eddy, and let me have a look 
 at that tooth." We think, but are not sure, that she 
 must have, at any rate outwardly, just denied any 
 pain (like the lady who ''broke" her arm when 
 she fell off the bicycle in our first case), and then 
 escaped as soon as possible to try her luck somewhere 
 else. We have also heard, but probably incorrectly, 
 that " Scientists," in memory of this notable event, 
 make toothache an exception to their rules, and allow 
 treatment for it. If this Hegiran change of base 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 273 
 
 is an actual historical fact, it furnishes a point of re- 
 semblance between Mrs. Eddy and her illustrious 
 predecessor Mohammed, additional to those already 
 commented on. 
 
 Case 44. — " Deafness and Dropsy Healed." This 
 patient tells us that she " had been deaf from child- 
 hood." The precise extent of this deafness is not 
 stated. Dropsy was another of her complaints. This, 
 combined with consumption, quite naturally caused 
 one doctor to say, '' It puzzles me ; I have never seen 
 such a case before as yours." But of course it could 
 not stand up against Science and Health. She got 
 a copy of this, and '' in three weeks was entirely 
 cured." On Eddian principles we also know, of 
 course, that she never had dropsy or consumption ; 
 and from the statement of the doctor the same would 
 appear probable. But any way she " felt uplifted," 
 which was the main thing. 
 
 Case 45. — " Grateful for Many Blessings." This 
 patient had for a number of years been '' a semi- 
 invalid, with no help of ever being well and strong 
 again." Indeed it did seem that there was not much 
 chance of it, for ''at the time I began the study of Chris- 
 tian Science I was taking five kinds of medicine." 
 This was not quite so bad as the case (No. 15) of the 
 minister's son, with " almost all known drugs," and 
 " very many patent medicines," but still it would be 
 likely to sicken most people. On starting in with 
 Science and Health these medicines were probably laid 
 on the shelf, and " gradually my bodily diseases left 
 me." '' In my girlhood," she says, " I had always 
 prayed to the God I held in mind, and when the 
 shadow of sickness, pain and death came into my 
 family, I prayed as only those can who know that when 
 
274 The TniiJi About Clirisfian Science 
 
 He helps not, there is none." It was after this, of 
 course, that she began on the five kinds of medicine. 
 
 The case concludes with an account of an ex- 
 perience with her daughter who came home one morn- 
 ing from her school, saying: " Mother, I have 
 measles, twenty of the girls are sick in bed, and I am 
 afraid they will put me there also." This time they 
 did not pray or give medicine, and of course did not 
 call in a doctor, but '' began immediately to do our 
 work in Science ; " just what this scientific work was 
 is not explained. When it was completed, at any 
 rate, it was evident that the notion of the girl having 
 measles was simply an " error of mortal mind." '' Her 
 face was clear, her eyes bright, and all fear was 
 destroyed. That was the end of the disease." 
 
 Case 46. — " A Joyful Experience." In this case 
 the patient had ailments of many years standing. 
 ''Chronic stomach trouble, severe eye trouble" (per- 
 haps she was even told that she might have to wear 
 spectacles), and a painful rupture of twenty-five years 
 standing, (for which, however a truss is not said to 
 have been needed). The same may be said of 
 other cases of " rupture " which are recorded in the 
 list. 
 
 She '' had entirely lost her belief in an all-merciful 
 God, and did not know where to turn for help." But 
 at last Christian Science was brought to her notice. 
 " I shall never forget," she says, " the sublime moment 
 when I perceived that a loving Father is always with 
 me." All Christians, so far as we are aware, per- 
 ceive this all the time; but they also know that the 
 Scripture tells us (Heb. xii. 6) that ''whom the Lord 
 loveth, He chastiseth, and He scourgeth every son 
 whom He receiveth." (The same is told us in Prov. 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 275 
 
 iii. II, 12.) Of course this is not in Mrs. Eddy's 
 " Key." So the Lord may, on account of their ig- 
 norance, let up on those who have never heard of it, 
 and take to " Science " instead of the Bible ; and as 
 ailments do them no good, grant that such ailments 
 may "disappear" (as in this case); and give them 
 the goods of this world, instead of another in which 
 they do not care to believe. We would recommend 
 to such the whole passage, Heb. xii. 5-11. 
 
 Case 47. — *' An Ever Present Help." This patient 
 tells us that about a year previous to writing this 
 testimonial, he began to read Science and Health, 
 " My condition," he says, '' was then very trying." 
 He had then actually worn glasses for four years. He 
 also had catarrh ; which we must say was not very 
 astonishing, for he was " an excessive smoker, using 
 tobacco in some form almost constantly." 
 
 But it was somewhat remarkable, that after read- 
 ing the book only three weeks, he ** was completely 
 healed of the tobacco habit." For the book, so far 
 as we remember, if it speaks of the tobacco habit at 
 all, certainly does not say much about it. The general 
 idea of the book is that one ought not to bother one- 
 self about such things, but to be serenely confident that 
 nothing can do one any harm, if one keeps firm in 
 the conviction that all is " Mind." Indeed it rather 
 discourages ascetic or self-denying practices of any 
 kind. But still, if one can succeed in really believing 
 that one has no body, and that there is no such thing 
 as tobacco, it would naturally follow that there was 
 no use in spending good money by pretending to buy 
 it. For money is an exception to the general Eddian 
 rule that matter has no real existence. 
 
 So, on giving up smoking, which, as he tells us. 
 
The Truth About Christian Scic 
 
 ncc 
 
 '* did not require even so much as a resolutiion (so 
 firmly he was persuaded that there is really no such 
 thing as smoking), his eyes got better (the smoke no 
 longer getting into them), and his heart became nor- 
 mal, and the catarrh disappeared. This testimonial, 
 then, seems really to be simply to the effect that when 
 one is an excessive smoker, it is good to give up smok- 
 ing, if one can only manage it. And that if Mrs. 
 Eddy's theories can be thoroughly adopted, they will 
 be a great help to this desirable end. 
 
 Case 48. — " Severe Eye Trouble Overcome." This 
 is another case of " glasses." This lady had worn 
 them for sixteen years ; why she had done so is not 
 explained. Perhaps she did not need them at all. 
 Of course specialists, as usual, were consulted. 
 " None of them held out any hope that my sight would 
 ever be restored," so that she could see all right with 
 glasses. At last after reading Science and Health, she 
 became convinced that the idea of wearing glasses was 
 an " error of mortal mind," and she laid them aside. 
 " Through an understanding of Truth," she says, " I 
 have found my sight as perfect as God gave it." We 
 don't quite understand how she found out how " per- 
 fect " that was, as " the defect had existed since in- 
 fancy." This " case," certainly, does not seem to be 
 clearly explained. They may, of course, be something 
 in it, but a statement from the " specialists " them- 
 selves would be, more even than usually, desirable. 
 One thing in the statement, as she gives it, comes out 
 plainly ; that is, that in her judgment, Mrs. Eddy is 
 right, and the Epistle to the Hebrews and book of 
 Proverbs (quoted above in Case 46) wrong. 
 
 Case 4^ — " A Testimony from Ireland." This 
 invalid, it seems, had erroneously imagined that the 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 277 
 
 Bible, in the passages just mentioned and others, was 
 the Word of God; but discovered that this was not 
 the case, but overcame this delusion on learning that 
 '' there is but one God, and that Mrs. Eddy is His 
 prophet." In this sentence, in quotation marks, we 
 have ventured to substitute *' Airs. Eddy " for '' Ma- 
 homet." 
 
 Case 50. — " The Textbook Alakes Operation Un- 
 necessary." This case seems to be simply, when im- 
 partially viewed, that the physician who advised an 
 operation was mistaken as to its necessity; and that 
 beside the trouble for which he advised it, misled 
 perhaps by her account of the " symptoms," she got 
 rid of " severe headaches," and a mysterious " stomach 
 trouble," which may have been due to too much 
 " drugging." 
 
 Case 51. — ''Kidney Diseases and Eye Trouble 
 Healed." Beside the disease mentioned in the title 
 above, the nature of which is not stated, we are also 
 told that '' my general health was very bad." But 
 *' we bought the textbook, and what a revelation it 
 was and is to us ; it is indeed the fountain of Truth." 
 When one has that, the Bible is of no use, unless in- 
 deed the small portion of it which Mrs. Eddy con- 
 descends to comment on to suit her theories. It may 
 be laid aside, like the glasses, which seem to come to 
 the front in these recent cases. Well, we must ac- 
 knowledge that the print in the " textbook " is re- 
 markably good. 
 
 Case 52 — " Disease of Bowels Healed." This case, 
 we are told, '' four physicians failed even to diagnose." 
 The last one " advised me to take no more medicine 
 for these attacks." It is possible that they may have 
 come from imprudence in eating; we know of such 
 
278 * The Truth About Christian Science- 
 
 cases, and drugs were not, and could not be, of any 
 use, but rather would make things worse. 
 
 Case 53.—'' Healed by Reading the Textbook." In 
 this the usual specialists said that " the patient was 
 in the last stages of kidney disease." What kind 
 of kidney disease we are not informed. *' Glasses," 
 of course, had also been- worn; though we did not 
 know that they were recommended for any kind of 
 kidney disease. However, we are told that '' I have 
 never had any glasses on since I first began reading 
 Science and Health, and I have not used any medi- 
 cine." So much gained, at any rate. 
 
 Case 54. — '' A Testimony from Scotland." In this 
 curious case the patient was under the impression that 
 he had '' very bad rheumatism." The doctors, it would 
 seem, also were under the same. " I suffered," he 
 tells us, " day and night, and nothing relieved me 
 until Science proved to me the falseness of this belief 
 by removing it." It is, however, remarkable that one 
 erroneous belief about it still seems to remain, that 
 medicine had been of some use ; for we learn that 
 ''I had often tried to be without it" (a particular 
 medicine that he had taken every day for ten years), 
 " but was always ill and had to return to it." 
 
 " Now," however, we are told, " I am quite free 
 from all these material laws." Still, we have an idea 
 that some day he wnll find, if he has not already found, 
 that the material law of death remains in force. This 
 case, we have assumed, is a male one. But one can't 
 always tell, for only initials are given in any of the 
 cases. 
 
 Case 55. — " Curing Better Than Enduring." This 
 one is more of a case than most of the others that 
 we have lately been looking at. We are told that ten 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 279 
 
 different physicians had pronounced it " tuberculosis," 
 but of course there is no certificate to that effect. Be- 
 side this, there was an absolute constipation. Science 
 and Health, the patient assures us, was the absolute 
 cure of both of these serious complaints. She ''ac- 
 quired a better understanding " of the book ; though 
 what there is in it hard to understand, is really a 
 mystery. But she " endeavored to put into practice " 
 what she had learned. This is another mystery; it 
 seems to mean not to put into practice the drugging 
 previously resorted to. Doing nothing at all does not 
 seem to require much " endeavor." At any rate, after 
 three months, the bowels were in better order than ever 
 before ; but she " had always suffered more or less 
 from bowel trouble." " Now," we don't know how 
 long it took, " they are normally active." " My lungs," 
 she says, " are now sound." We must confess that we 
 should like to have scientific medical certificates as to 
 the state of her lungs before the cure and afterwards. 
 Nothing is said, for instance, about the " sputa," and, 
 indeed, the patient herself only says that she had 
 " weak lungs." But we all know that the progress of 
 even real tuberculosis is sometimes arrested, and that 
 what remains of the lungs becomes sound. 
 
 Case 56. — " Severe Eczema Destroyed." This is 
 also a good case. Eczema is, no doubt, an obstinate 
 malady ; though we personally know of cases in which 
 it has been cured by prayer, in a few days, though 
 medical treatment had been fruitless. The strange 
 thing about this one is that the Bible alone did no 
 good in twenty-eight years; but Science and Health 
 ivith the -Bible obtained the result ''in less than a 
 week," 
 
 Case 57. — ''Science and Health a Priceless Boon." 
 
28o The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 Here we get back a little into the more ordinary lines. 
 The word '' priceless " seems not to be rigorously ac- 
 curate, but we will not be too critical about a little 
 thing like that. This patient had, just when we are 
 not told, " paralysis of the bowels, frequent sick head- 
 aches with unutterable agony, and my mortal career 
 was nearly brought to an end by a malignant type of 
 yellow fever." This one seems not to have been an 
 '* error," and the doctors, who probably were called 
 in, might have been given some credit for curing it. 
 But the old " glasses " come in for a word of censure. 
 The use of them " was proven needless " and they 
 were laid aside. 
 
 *' Mrs. Eddy," we are told, *' has made Scripture 
 reading a well of comfort to me. By her interpreta- 
 tion, the Svay of the Lord is made straight to me 
 and mine.' " It certainly does make the way of the 
 Lord more intelligible, if one can cut out nearly all 
 of it, and have the small remnant interpreted in a 
 sense that you fancy, which is very different from 
 the one that it naturally conveys. 
 
 Case 58. — " A Critic Convinced." This case can 
 hardly be called one of disease at all, though we are 
 told that " by the study of the book, and the resultant 
 understanding of my relation to God, I was healed of 
 a disease with which I had been afflicted from child- 
 hood." The *' relation to God " referred to must have 
 been that the patient was not created by God, but 
 was God or " Mind " (herself or himself) ; for that is 
 what the book teaches. The disease is not specified, 
 but perhaps it was simply that of getting old ; and of 
 course it became plain that this was impossible for 
 God. 
 
 Case 59.—" Born Again." This lady tells us that 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 281 
 
 ?he was " reared from childhood in an intellectual 
 atmosphere, my paternal grandfather having been an 
 orthodox minister of the old school for forty years, 
 and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the 
 truth of all tilings." Perhaps he was one of those 
 of whom St. Paul writes to Timothy, who are " ever 
 learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the 
 truth" (2 Tim. iii. 7). At any rate she also "began 
 early to ponder and to study into the meaning of 
 life," which any little catechism could have taught her, 
 and came to the conclusion that " though God probably 
 existed in some remote place, still it was impossible 
 to connect Him with my present living." This was 
 quite an original result of the pondering, hitherto not 
 reached by any Christian ; or, so far as we are aware, 
 by anyone whatever. But some " dear friend " left 
 Science and Health on the piano one day, containing 
 the well-known and universally accepted doctrine of 
 the spirituality and omnipresence of God. She '' saw 
 that she must get the right understanding of God ! " 
 
 Probably everyone of her acquaintance believed this 
 about God, but Mrs. Eddy had stated, that for the 
 establishing of health (the only important thing in life, 
 of course) one must not only believe this, but needs 
 to " understand " it. So she, " with head bowed in 
 prayer, waited with longing intensity for some 
 answer " to make her understand it. '' Plow long I 
 waited, I do not know," she says, " but suddenly, like 
 a wonderful burst of sunlight after a storm, came 
 clearly this thought, 'Be still and know that I am God' 
 (Ps. xlvi. 10. King James \>rsion). I held my 
 breath — deep into my hungering thought sank the in- 
 finite meaning of that I." Isn't this simply sickening, 
 to have all this sentimentality about a truth which we 
 
282 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 all joyfully receive, and to imagine that it was a mys- 
 terious " understanding " which Mrs. Eddy's book 
 brought to her! 
 
 Case 60. — " A Restless Sense of Existence De- 
 stroyed." This patient had lots of diseases. " Ul- 
 ceration of the stomach with kindred troubles " was 
 one; ''restless sense of existence" (a new disease) 
 another ; " agnosticism " a third. The doctors did 
 not try to treat the last two, but of course (as usual 
 in Christian Science cases) the attending physician 
 declared that on account of the first, " I could not live 
 but a short time." " But the disease was dissipated 
 into nothingness" (its original condition, probably) 
 " through Christian Science " No doctor's certificate, 
 of course. 
 
 Case 61. — " Morally and Physically Healed." This, 
 again, is a case of glasses ; which, however, the 
 patient, declined to wear, and ascribes his getting along, 
 up to date, without them, to Christian Science. He 
 was also " healed of another ailment which had been 
 with me all my life, and which was believed to be 
 inherited." We have no idea what it was. Also " pro- 
 fanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper," etc. 
 Unusually shallow water we are getting into now as 
 we get near the shore, or end of the cases. 
 
 Case 62. — " Health and Understanding Gained." 
 In this case there seems to have been nothing what- 
 ever even alleged as being the matter; it was only 
 that the gentleman was afraid that perhaps some time 
 there might be. . He thought, however, which must 
 have been quite cheering, that he " knew a material 
 remedy for every ill." He bought, however, for an 
 extra safeguard, a copy of Science and Health ; and, 
 strangely as it seems to us, " saw that if the Bible 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 283 
 
 was true, Science and Health must also be true." To 
 ourselves it seems rather the other way ; for Mrs. 
 Eddy's chief aim, in her '' Key to the Scriptures," 
 at any rate, is evidently to show that the small por- 
 tion of them to which it is applied is false ; as we 
 have already seen. 
 
 Case 63. — '' An Ever Present Help Found." Here 
 we find near the start the strange statement, often 
 noticeable, that '' in Mrs. Eddy's book I came across 
 a great deal of thought that was not readily under- 
 stood at the first reading." We suppose that he means 
 " swallowed," rather than *' understood." Understand- 
 ing it seems to be easy enough. But to accustom us to 
 swallow everything, however difficult, he gives us one 
 of the hardest yearns that we have yet come across. 
 He spins it out to some length, but a short abridgment 
 may suffice, so perhaps it may be well to give it, as 
 follows. 
 
 In the course of his carpenter work, he was acci- 
 dently hit by a bit of wood, and found by his hand 
 that there " were two wounds, one on the lock of the 
 jaw, and another forward, as big as a dollar, on the 
 cheek bone." Being a " Scientist," he knew that no 
 real harm could happen in the " realm of Divine 
 Love" (that is the correct phrase, we believe), so he 
 " treated " the imaginary injury in the usual " scien- 
 tific " way, and " paid no more attention to the mat- 
 ter," but, as he narrates it, '' went to bed, and slept all 
 night until near daylight, when a pain on the right 
 side awoke me." This, as we understand, was the 
 side which had not been struck by the bit of wood. 
 It would seem, then, that the bit of wood must have 
 gone right through the left cheek and also wounded 
 the right one. But he has stated that " bouncing off 
 
284 TJic Truth About Christian Science 
 
 my left cheek," it *' fell about twenty feet off on the 
 snow." It must, then, have bounced off the snozv 
 (snow is not usually so elastic) on to his right cheek. 
 This was certainly carrying oiit very literally Our 
 Lord's command '' to him that striketh thee on the 
 one cheek, offer also the other." So he found that he 
 had to " treat " the right cheek also, after which, as 
 he tells us, he '* went to sleep again." Well, this is 
 probably all right. But now comes the astonishing 
 part. He tells us : ''I never lost an hour from the 
 hurt, though I found out that my jaiv zvas broken!" 
 
 Now, my dear sir, it seems to us that you are going 
 a little too far ; rather, in fact, beyond the limit. We 
 have swallowed without a murmur the story of the 
 bit of wood C just a small wooden wedge " as he told 
 us) hitting both cheeks, the left one in two places, as 
 we have also been distinctly informed; but when we 
 are told that after the breaking of the jaw, which 
 injury no doctor seems to have even looked at, all that 
 remained to show for the accident was " a little red 
 spot on the cheek " (which of the two we don't know), 
 " and the lumps on the bone, which have long since 
 disappeared," we are obliged to say : " Tell that to 
 the marines (or other scientists) ; but don't expect an 
 ordinary matter of fact person to believe it." 
 
 Probably he had no such expectation ; for this 
 case, like all the others, was published for the special 
 edification of " Scientists," not for the vulgar herd. 
 But as it was liable to be read by anyone who could 
 afford to buy the book, or who might have succeeded 
 in getting the loan of it, it seems that it might have 
 been advisable for Mrs. Eddy to " censor " it before 
 the book appeared. And the worst of it is, that it 
 tempts one to lose confidence in the other contribu- 
 
The Triitli About Chrisfiaii Science 285 
 
 tions to " science," which otherwise might have been 
 accepted. But perhaps the idea was that they would 
 prepare us for it. 
 
 Case 64. — " Many Physical and Mental Troubles 
 Overcome." This is quite a come down from the last 
 one, though if we had not read that, it would have 
 been pretty fair. This lady tells us, after a " mental 
 conflict " so great that " she commenced reading 
 (Science and Health) in the hope of obtaining peace, 
 had a very serious eruption on her face, which had 
 been there for two years. We had consulted several 
 physicians, and used every remedy suggested to eradi- 
 cate it, but they proved useless." The last physician 
 as she tells us, as the other ones had failed, concluded 
 that it was not worth while to try, and " pronounced 
 it tuberculosis of the skin and incurable." 
 
 " A few weeks," the patient tells us, " after I com- 
 menced reading, I was amazed to see it almost healed 
 over, and to-day my cheek is perfectly smooth, while 
 the scar is disappearing." Of course, one can't get 
 any more facts in this case; because, as in all the 
 others, first-hand statements from the doctors are not 
 given. 
 
 Case 65.— ''A New Life Gained." This case is 
 simply that a young man got over the desire for liquor 
 and tobacco by " a few weeks study of Science and 
 Health, together with the Bible, and without other 
 help ; " and that " ten years have passed and these 
 appetites have never returned." But there is nothing 
 at all in the Bible against a moderate use of '' liquor." 
 if wine is included under that name; and nothing 
 whatever about tobacco. Nor does Science and Health 
 have anything particular about either. But the con- 
 tributor of this case asks : '' How can we estimate the 
 
286 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 value of a book, the study of which brings such trans- 
 formation and regeneration ? Only as we endeavor to 
 live, and strive to practice what it teaches, can we 
 begin to pay our debt to God, and to her whom He 
 has sent to make plain to human understanding the 
 life and teaching of Christ Jusus." Really, one w^ould 
 think that Science and Health, and also the Bible, were 
 mainly occupied with the subjects of liquor and 
 tobacco. Perhaps there might be a word or two, here 
 and there, about playing a game of cards, or writing 
 letters on Sunday. 
 
 Case 66. — " A Voice from England." This is rather 
 amusing, in a way. " Glasses " again appear on the 
 scene. " I obtained a copy of Science and Health, and 
 before a week had passed I realized that if God was 
 my all, I needed no glasses." The same reason would 
 seem to show that she needed no eyes. The testimony 
 of the material senses, as we know, is never of any 
 value, with or without glasses. 
 
 Case 67. — " Depraved Appetites Overcome." Here 
 again we have Christian Science alleged as a cure for 
 tobacco, either chewing or smoking, for the drink habit, 
 for profanity, and indeed everything in general. An 
 " inordinate love of money " is mentioned as one of 
 the '' lesser ills." St. Paul, however, says that " the 
 love of money is the root of all evils" (i Tim. vi. 
 10). We often notice that " scientists" are not very 
 familiar with the Bible, now that it is superseded by 
 Mrs. Eddy's book. 
 
 Case 68. — '* Catarrh of the Stomach Healed." This 
 is another rather funny case. The patient, we are in- 
 formed, when " found-" by Christian Science, was 
 " suffering from catarrh of the stomach," and also " a 
 slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen years." The 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 287 
 
 last statement there is no reason to doubt; but for 
 the first a doctor's certificate would be desirable, 
 though it is stated that " I doctored continually ;" but 
 perhaps it was on patent medicines. Finally he (it 
 was probably a male patient) got down to three slices 
 of toast, with an unknown number of cigarettes, as 
 a daily allowance. At last he happened to go to a 
 Christian Science church, and was delighted to find 
 that " so great a number actually believed that God 
 does heal the sick to-day." If he had taken trouble 
 to inquire, he could have got the same result in any 
 other church, which did not think it necessary to ad- 
 vertise their belief on this point, and which also be- 
 lieved that people really did sometimes get sick. 
 
 " I had dieted so long and sufifered so much," the 
 account continues, " that I had a morbid fear of food." 
 But when he " had reached and read, that neither food 
 nor the stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, 
 can make one suffer," he was so far gone that he 
 actually believed it. It could, of course, have been 
 easily shown up as false, by the simple experiment of 
 trying a good dose of tartar emetic; indeed even a 
 Welsh rarebit, if his stomach complaint had any actual 
 existence, would probably have been quite enough. 
 But as it was he simply took some rather light cakes ; 
 and as they proved, of course, to be all right, he was 
 encouraged to venture on a hearty dinner. 
 
 Case 6g. — " Spinal Disease Healed." All that we 
 have here is an entirely unsupported statement that 
 " I have been healed of so-called incurable spinal 
 disease of ten years' standing by studying the Bible and 
 Science and Health." Comment is quite unnecessary. 
 Case 70. — '' Many Troubles Overcome." Here we 
 have a mysterious " organic trouble," the nature of 
 
288 The l^nith 'About Christian Science 
 
 which is not explained; the usual "specialist" comes 
 in as a matter of course ; also " blurred eyesight," 
 and " fatigue." At the end we meet the startling 
 statement, that "through reading the textbook I learned 
 that God has given us strength to do all we have to 
 do." Probably it is meant, " all that He wants us to 
 do," But why go to the '' textbook " for something 
 that no one ever doubted? Besides, where is this 
 found in the "textbook?" Oh, this one is too silly 
 to go on further with. 
 
 Case 71. — " Prejudice Overcome." This case is 
 even thinner than the last. " I was healed of stomach 
 trouble, inward weakness, and bilious attacks." Also 
 of the idea that " I might have to undergo an operation 
 before I could get well; " no reason is given for this. 
 
 Case yz. — " A Convincing Testimony." Instead of 
 this being specially " convincing," as claimed, it seems 
 to be decidedly below the average. It principally 
 consists of two cases in which a baby was cured 
 simply by the mother not getting alarmed, and indeed 
 not even continuing to read to her from the textbook, 
 which the baby could not be expected to understand, 
 but by just letting her scream to her heart's content. 
 "Croup, whooping cough, tonsilitis, etc., are also 
 vaguely alleged as cured, whether by the same heart- 
 less treatment, does not appear. 
 
 Case 73. — " Healed Physically and Spiritually." 
 This case is of a very humble Tbut also as it would 
 seem a rather silly) person ; whether a man or a woman, 
 does not clearly appear. These characteristics are 
 chiefly shown in a difficulty of understanding " Chris- 
 tian Science," particularly the " scientific statement of 
 being." What first produced an effect is that the 
 patient, who had a " fear of quick consumption," after 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 289 
 
 reading the " textbook " on the way to work, and tak- 
 ing a nap instead of going out to luncheon was all 
 right. It is a pity that (he or maybe she had had no 
 opportunity of reading the true " scientific statement 
 of being " in sound philosophical works ; but of course 
 (he or she) was as badly ofif as Mrs. Eddy in that 
 way. 
 
 Naturally enough, *' eyeglasses " come to the front 
 in this case, as in .so many others. The patient's 
 father was also a patient ; patiently starving himself 
 on bran, the result of which was that " his limbs 
 seemed so cold that they were kept wrapped in 
 blankets." But he was induced by the junior patient, 
 who did not feel worthy to be a ''practitioner," and only 
 acted in that capacity because the father would have 
 no other, to read Science and Health. After doing 
 so the old gentleman made up his mind that all that 
 he needed was to have a course of good square meals, 
 instead of the bran, " ate whatever he wanted and used 
 no medicine in any form." " After two treatments, I 
 received word from him that he was healed of that 
 bondage of thirty years standing." The treat of eat- 
 ing " whatever he wanted " was probably even more 
 effective than the *' treatments." 
 
 Case 74. — " A Voice from the South." There seems 
 to be nothing substantial in this, only a value statement 
 that " through this reading my health was restored, 
 and I was healed of one disease that has been called 
 incurable by all physicians." We have another illu- 
 sion to the '' blessing of having the spiritual fact of 
 being unfolded to me." 
 
 Case 75. — " Healed After Much Suffering." 
 Strangely enough in this case " patent medicines " and 
 "one of the best sanitariums in the country" actually did 
 
290 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 some good in this case. But the really effective thing 
 was to find by reading Science and Health that the 
 " dyspepsia and nervous debility " must be " errors," 
 so, thanks to Mrs. Eddy, who really has done some 
 good in this way, they were healed in about a 
 week. 
 
 Case 76.— "Through Great Tribulations." This 
 case is mostly padding, of the usual " scientific " kind. 
 An alleged injury to the spine (no doctor mentioned) 
 and " insomnia," were the trouble. 
 
 Case yy. — " A Helpful Testimony." In this case 
 we can only find that the patient had " six years of 
 colds, suffering and coughing, and supposed consump- 
 tion." But her Eddian experience was remarkable. 
 It seems to have started with Mrs. Eddy's parody on 
 the Lord's Prayer, particularly the Father-Mother 
 part. The " truth of man's spiritual being dawned on 
 my consciousness." Good heavens, how had she been 
 brought up ? But she also learned that " she was not 
 subject to mortal laws, as I have been taught all my 
 life. I could not explain how I knew this, but I knew 
 it." Again the wise caution occurs to us, that " it is 
 better not to know so much than to know so much 
 that ain't so." If she had jumped into Niagara Falls, 
 for instance, she would have found herself " subject 
 to mortal laws," all right. But so far as we are in- 
 formed, the chief proof of her theory is that for " ten 
 years she has not had to lie down in the daytime from 
 any sickness." Isn't it astonishing that presumably 
 rational beings can write such stuff as this? 
 
 Case 78. — " Desire for Liquor and Tobacco Disap- 
 peared." There is absolutely nothing in this case, ex- 
 cept the remarkable statement that when the gentle- 
 man who gives it to us first heard of Christian 
 
The Truth "Abouf Christian Science 291 
 
 Science, " drinking and smoking were his comforters, 
 and he had no other companionship." Rather a lonely 
 life, to be drinking and smoking all by oneself all 
 the time. 
 
 " When I began to read Science and Health, I saw 
 it offered something substantial," he says. Well, that 
 is a funny idea to have of it. Drinking and smoking 
 would be more substantial, to one accustomed to really 
 intellectual occupation, than Mrs. Eddy's vagaries. 
 But it seems he gave up the substance for the shadow. 
 Drinking and smoking are not so bad, in moderate 
 limits, for serious students, especially if they are Ger- 
 man. 
 
 Case 79. — "An Expression of Loving Gratitude." 
 Well, we are getting nearer still to the shore, and the 
 water gets shallower at every step. Speaking of the 
 book, this one remarks that its originality was 
 startling, ''upsetting my preconceived opinions of God, 
 man and creation." In fact, of course, there is no 
 originality whatever in it, as it is simply a sort of 
 amateur statement of pantheism, much better ex- 
 pressed long before. Two idiotic remarks, we are 
 told, '* especially appealed to me, namely, 'the foun- 
 dation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's 
 origin,' and 'for right reasoning, there should be but 
 one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual exist- 
 ence.' " 
 
 The common teaching of logic, however, is that two 
 facts are needed before the thought, for any kind of 
 reasoning, right or wrong; that is to say two premises, 
 from which some conclusion, correct or incorrect, is 
 drawn. But this stuff is too great a strain on one's 
 patience. 
 
 Case 80. — " Healed of Bright's Disease." This 
 
292 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 gentleman tells us that on August i8, 1902, he " was 
 taken down with what three doctors pronounced 
 Bright's disease, and they stated that I would not live 
 a year, or if I did succeed in living longer, I would be 
 menially unbalanced." It seems that he really must 
 have misunderstood these doctors, for we have never 
 heard of any physician making statements like this, 
 even if they thought so, unless they wished to make 
 the patient " mentally unbalanced," and had an asylum 
 in their control, to which they v/ished to send him. 
 But nothing of the kind appears. We think then that 
 this case may be reasonably dismissed. 
 
 Case 81.— ''Fibroid Tumor Destroyed." All that 
 this amounts to is that a physician, name of course not 
 given, informed the lady that she " had a fibroid 
 tumor, wdiich required an operation." As she seems 
 to have declined the operation, it cannot be ascertained 
 whether this opinion was correct or not. But after 
 a considerable time, when visiting a sister in Chicago 
 and feeling quite well, it was determined that the 
 " tumor is gone, for God never made it." It was not, 
 however, ascertained who did make it. Like Topsy, 
 apparently, it just " growed." 
 
 Case 82. — " Light out of Darkness." This patient 
 was, it appears, " filled with fear, and bound down by 
 the false gods of this v^^orld — sin, disease and 
 poverty." We never heard these called " gods " be- 
 fore. Chronic catarrh, laryngitis and " glasses " were 
 the chief ones. They were overcome, of course, by 
 reading Science and Health; we are not told what 
 became of the sin and the poverty. But something is 
 said about having life more abundantly, so perhaps 
 the poverty, at any rate, was also " fixed up " to some 
 extent. 
 
TJic Truth About Christian Science 2g^ 
 
 Case 83. — " A Priceless Boon." We had another 
 of these, it seems to us, before. This gentleman, 
 it seems, learned through Science and Health, for 
 the first time, that man is the image and likeness of 
 God. Also of " kidney disease and rheumatism." 
 Also of a crooked finger, probably the result of the 
 rheumatism, and of a bunch in his foot. The last, 
 it seems, required '' class instruction," whatever that 
 may be. " Profanity, the tobacco habit, and a bad 
 temper," of course. 
 
 Case 84. — '' Healed of Consumption and Asthma." 
 Of course in this case as in many others, medical 
 evidence would be specially desirable, but is not forth- 
 coming. We are always somewhat puzzled as to what 
 is meant when the patient says, "1 continued to study 
 and to put into practice the teaching as best I knew," 
 for we don't see what study a shallow book like the 
 textbook requires, or what there is to " put into 
 practice," except to do nothing at all; though this is 
 a good practice, in many cases. 
 
 Case 85. — " A Grateful Testimony." This case 
 is specially interesting in one way, as indicating that 
 one of the '' gods " mentioned in No. 82, that is to 
 say, '' poverty," gets relief also, sometimes. But all 
 the three, sin, sickness and poverty, are also helped 
 very considerably in the old-fashioned Christian 
 churches, to say nothing of the synagogues, and the 
 many charitable institutions which have been inspired 
 by therii ; so that, after all, we may be able to get 
 along without this new " science " pretty w^ell ; or at 
 least do something in our own poor unscientific way, 
 for those who can't afford to get expensive books, 
 but have to be content with what they absolutely need 
 for body and soul. 
 
294 ^^^^ Truth About Christian Science 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 We have now gone through all these cases of 
 "fruitage," so-called; that is to say, of practical 
 proofs of the efficacy of " Christian Science." It is 
 of course possible that in some of them the belief 
 of the patients in the power of God to heal the sick 
 without the use of drugs or surgery, which power 
 every Christian acknowledges, may have been re- 
 warded by Him ; and such a result would be specially 
 likely to occur in a materialistic age like this, when the 
 possibility of it is so generally denied, not only by 
 absolute infidels, but by non-Catholic Christians, who 
 have been brought up to believe that the '' age of 
 miracles " has passed. Even incipient faith might 
 be so rewarded. For they were not test cases, as it 
 were, in which the issue lay between Eddian ideas, 
 and normal Christian ones, or the case recorded in the 
 Third Book of Kings (First Book in the King James 
 version), eighteen chapter, where it lay between Elias 
 (or Elijah) and the prophets of Baal. Outside of 
 such test cases, miracles are not necessarily restricted 
 to the one true and complete faith, as we see, for in- 
 stance, in the casting out of the devil from the daughter 
 of the Syrophenician woman, recorded in Mark vii. 
 
 Some of the cases, however, notably the one which 
 we have numbered sixty-three, we think that most 
 readers will simply reject. To even such, however, 
 the remarks just made can still be applied. Or it is quite 
 possible that the merely natural encouragement given 
 to a patient by the Eddian idea of the non-reality 
 of the illness, may help the recovery from it, how- 
 ever real it may have been to begin with. Or, lastly, 
 in some of the cases adduced as " fruitage " in the 
 
The Tnifli About Christian Science 295 
 
 list we have gone over, it is quite probable that the 
 disease itself may have been merely imaginary; or, in 
 ether words, that the Eddian diagnosis of it as unreal 
 may have been quite correct. A physician is prac- 
 tically obliged to construct some sort of disease, if the 
 patient insists on it, answering to the symptoms given 
 to him by the patient. If he fails to do so, he is very 
 likely to be dismissed as incompetent. 
 
 Of course, as we have noticed while through 
 the cases, the vague certificates to their reality given by 
 unnamed physicians are of very little value. Their 
 professional reputation for skill or knowledge does not 
 suffer from them, as long as it is not known who 
 they were. And even if they were known personally 
 to the others who had attended the case, still no doc- 
 tor likes to say that another is absolutely incorrect in 
 pronouncing a disease as real, though he himself does 
 not believe it to be so; so that a mere agreement as 
 to its reality among those examining it does not amount 
 to very much. And it is noticeable that in some cases 
 the opinions of the doctors who had attended the 
 patient were considerably divergent. 
 
 Lastly, we may remark, as a climax, that medical 
 certificates as to the reality of a disease are in them- 
 selves rather destructive than constructive, as far as 
 Eddian Science is concerned. It can get along, really, 
 rather better without them than with them. All that 
 has any bearing on this supposed science would be 
 for the patient himself to testify that he fell sick be- 
 fore he took a course of healing by it, and that he 
 felt well after he had taken it. 
 
 But as to proving to anyone else, or even to him- 
 self, that he had been cured by it, the testimony of 
 the material senses must be resorted to. If it is 
 
296 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 alleged, for instance, that a tumor existed before, and 
 has now disappeared, no Scientist, not even the patient 
 himself, can regard this statement as reliable; for 
 every true Scientist regards this the testimony of the 
 senses as entirely deceptive. Nor does it amount to 
 anything that he feels better than he did. For 
 here is simply the testimony of the material senses 
 again. 
 
 Nor can anyone not a Scientist be at all impressed 
 in favor of Christian Science by the alleged cure. For 
 if he is to be impressed by it, it must be because he 
 still is under the delusion that there v^as some real 
 disease under which he was laboring. But as long 
 as he continues in this delusion, he cannot believe in 
 Christian Science. And if he gets over the delusion, 
 that he was sick, and becomes a Scientist, it becomes 
 impossible to prove that he was cured, by any evi- 
 dence that he can now accept, as we have just seen. 
 It is hard, then, to understand for what kind of people 
 these cures are intended to impress, or why they are 
 published at all. Certainly for none who have logical 
 minds. But there are lots of people whose minds are 
 not logical ; so there may be a good many, after all, 
 who will think them quite convincing. 
 
 We cannot conclude this review of Mrs. Eddy's 
 absurd book without briefly showing not only its 
 absurdity and illogicality, but also its destructiveness 
 to all real piety or spirituality. This has already 
 been shown, perhaps, sufficiently ; but as its impiety 
 is so much worse than its absurdity and folly, more 
 prominence should have been given to this special 
 characteristic of the book, and of the whole Eddian 
 idea. 
 
 This impiety consists, fundamentally, in its re- 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 297 
 
 garding of sin as being merely an " error of mortal 
 mind," having no real existence, instead of being, as 
 it actually is, a real and terrible disease of the pas- 
 sions and of the will. The actual fact, which one 
 does not need to be a Christian (or to believe in the 
 original sin, which is its real and original cause) 
 to recognize, is evident as a fact to all who will open 
 their eyes and see things as they actually are. Even 
 those who choose to ignore its cause, cannot ignore 
 the effect; they cannot possibly deny that in man, as 
 actually at present constituted, there is a prevailing 
 tendency to disobey the clearest commands or pro- 
 hibitions of his Creator, and made known to him by 
 his conscience. Inanimate and even brute nature con- 
 form to the laws given them by God most perfectly ; 
 man alone, of all that we see around us, rebels against 
 them. This fatal discord or want of harmony (to 
 use an Eddian term) cannot be overcome by deny- 
 ing it; indeed it cannot be overcome in any way by 
 man's unaided strength, however he may wish or 
 struggle to do so. Indeed, it will naturally not only 
 persevere, but become continually worse and worse, 
 in spite of all our efforts, unless the Almighty Him- 
 self comes to our rescue. 
 
 True religion holds that He actually has done so, 
 by means of the atonement or reconciliation made 
 by Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who as St. 
 Paul tells us, '' gave Himself for us, that He might 
 redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to 
 Himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good 
 works "(Titus ii. 14). But we have our own share 
 to do to bring about this blessed result. We must 
 believe in this Redeemer, must love Him, and con- 
 tinually pray to Him, that He will give us the 
 
298 The Truth "About Christian Science 
 
 strength to accomplish this great work which is His, 
 but with which He requires us to cooperate. The 
 true Christian Hfe is one of constant faith, and love, 
 and prayer, directed to this end. And without it our 
 Redemption will not be accomplished. 
 
 All this, however, this so-called Christian (or more 
 correctly antichristian) Science entirely denies. Ex- 
 alting itself to the throne of God, it tells us that we 
 have no need of His help; that sin is no danger to 
 us, except by our false belief in it; that if we abandon 
 this belief, sin will trouble us no more. And that 
 may be true, it may cease to trouble us ; but it will be 
 there all the same. 
 
 And it takes from us our indispensable means for 
 overcoming it. The very first step to overcoming 
 it is the confession that we are in ourselves sinners, 
 and in the power of sin, and that escape from this 
 power is impossible without the help of God. It even 
 will not allow us to ask for that help, or to ask Him 
 to " deliver us from evil," but presumptuously tells 
 us instead, in its parody on Our Lord's own prayer, 
 that '' He delivers us from sin, disease and death," 
 whether we ask Him to do so or not. 
 
 It strikes at the very root and foundation of all the 
 Christian virtues, that is to say of humility, by which 
 each one of us confesses that " I have sinned through 
 my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous 
 fault." And by striking at and demolishing this 
 foundation, it makes all building on it impossible. It 
 substitutes for it an overweening pride, which even 
 calls it a delusion to think that we are not just as 
 good as God Himself. It says a great deal about the 
 love of God for us on His part, but does not ask 
 from us any love on our part for Him ; not, at any 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 299 
 
 rate, any of the only kind of love which it becomes 
 us to show, that of the creature for the Creator, of 
 sinners for the Sinless One. It destroys all piety, 
 which cannot exist, even in the lowest degree, with- 
 out humility. 
 
 Of all the soul-destroying errors which have ever 
 come from the powers of evil on poor humanity, this 
 is the most dangerous, and the most after Satan's 
 own heart. It is the one with which he has most 
 sympathy, for it is his own fatal one of pride, and car- 
 ried to a greater development than it was ever found 
 among mankind before. 
 
 It is also most dangerous, because it has, super- 
 ficially, such an appearance of good; particularly be- 
 cause in those who are victims to its delusions, it 
 presents such a fair-seeming counterfeit of the joy 
 and peace which Christ promised to His true fol- 
 lowers. " Rejoice in the Lord always," St. Paul 
 wrote to the Philippians (Phil. iv. 4). So this false 
 encouragement which this doctrine gives to those who 
 embrace it has naturally a tendency to make them 
 always cheerful and happy. It is, of course, no won- 
 der that it should have such an effect. The idea that 
 God has nothing but good to give to us, no matter 
 whether we deserve it or not, has an effect very sim- 
 ilar to that caused to be felt by those who hold the 
 doctrine that the sure promise of eternal salvation 
 which those who have once laid hold on it by "ex- 
 periencing religion," as the phrase is, cannot in any 
 way be lost ; or the doctrine, as it is called, of inamis- 
 sible justification. This idea, as a matter of course, 
 once thoroughly adopted by anyone in his own indi- 
 vidual case, naturally tends to n^ake him content to 
 suff'er all the pains and tribulations of this life, sup- 
 
30O The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 ported by the absolute certainty that, no matter what 
 his conduct may be in this world, he is one of the elect, 
 and is sure to enter immediately after death into 
 eternal happiness, inconceivably surpassing any that 
 can be obtained here. 
 
 This sort of confidence, as is quite plain to all 
 who will look at the Scripture cannot be felt, except 
 by means of a special revelation granted to a very few. 
 Even St. Paul himself did not feel it till at the very 
 end, when his martyrdom was, as we may say, in 
 plain sight. He writes in the preceding chapter of this 
 same epistle to the Philippians: "If by any means 
 I may attain to the resurrection which is from the 
 dead. Not as though I had attained, or were already 
 perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means 
 apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ 
 Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself to have ap- 
 prehended. But one thing I do : forgetting the things 
 that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those 
 that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize 
 of the supernal vocation of God in Jesus Christ." 
 
 And again he says (i Cor. ix. 27) : '' But I chastise 
 my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest perhaps, 
 when I have preached to others, I myself should be- 
 come a castaway." 
 
 It was also at the time of his second epistle to Tim- 
 othy, iust before his death, that he ventured to say: 
 " I am even now ready to be sacrificed ; and the time 
 of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good 
 fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
 faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown 
 of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render 
 to me in that day "(2 Tim. iv. 6-8). 
 
 But we are not, just now, blaming the comparatively 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 301 
 
 reasonable assurance which the Christian may have of 
 his final perseverance^ but rather the absolutely pre- 
 sumptuous one coming from this so-called " Christian 
 Science." The Scientist, as soon as he becomes a 
 Scientist, differs widely from the great Apostle to the 
 Gentiles ; and the difference is in his own favor. St. 
 Paul does not count himself to have apprehended. 
 But the *' Scientist " has apprehended, or learned from 
 his " science," that he is really identified with God, 
 and has all the power of the Almighty at his com- 
 mand. 
 
 But there is one respect, beside, in which he differs 
 still more fatally from St. Paul. St. Paul did not 
 expect, did not even desire, to be freed from sufferings 
 in this world. But he thought these a blessing, not 
 a suffering. He exclaims : '' That which is at present 
 momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for 
 us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of 
 glory." 
 
 And it is well known that St. Paul suffered from the 
 very troubles that " Science " is so determined to free 
 us from, that is to say, from bodily diseases ; " in- 
 firmities," he calls them. But all he wants to say 
 about them is : " Gladly therefore will I glory in my 
 infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in 
 me." 
 
 The " Scientist," however, wants and expects the 
 power of Christ, and of His " science," to come to 
 his aid, not in the realm of eternity, but right here 
 and now, and for even the smallest ailments; and 
 not for the glory of God, but just simply for his own 
 personal comfort. He presumptuously imagines that 
 he has a right to it, that nothing ought to go wrong 
 " in the realm of Divine Love." If God loves me, 
 
302 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 if I am identical with God, he will say, I ought not 
 to, and shall not suffer anything at all. 
 
 And God, seeing that he is unwilling to suffer, and 
 determined not to, may perhaps free him from what 
 the saints have regarded as a blessing, and give him 
 the boon on which his heart is set. This, however, 
 only makes him all the more confident that He will 
 always do so. He ought to regard it as a sign not of 
 salvation, but of reprobation; just the same as the 
 giving of riches to those who work and labor for them 
 simply for their own sake. And the smug self- 
 satisfaction and joy which may be seen on the faces 
 of those whose desires for the happiness of this world, 
 whether it be in the way of health, riches or any- 
 thing else, are granted, are taken by themselves and 
 by others, perhaps, as indications that their religion 
 is the true one ; whereas they ought rather to have 
 an opposite meaning. 
 
 True Christian joy, however, the '' true rejoicing 
 in the Lord always " of which St. Paul speaks in the 
 words already quoted, has always its adnr'xaire of 
 sorrow. He describes it himself more fully to the 
 Corinthians : " As sorrowful," he says, " yet always 
 rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having 
 nothing, and possessing all things " (2 Cor. vi. 10). 
 
 Where does the sorrowing come in ? It comes, in the 
 first place, from the fear which can never be entirely 
 banished, that, after all, one may fail to possess God, 
 for Whom all else has been sacrificed. This promise 
 that we shall see Him as He is (i John iii. 2) will 
 hold as long as we do not forfeit it by our own per- 
 verse will; but how can we be sure that we shall 
 not? One mortal sin, unrepented, is enough to take 
 it from us ; and who can be sure that he will not 
 
The Truth About Chiisiian Science 303 
 
 fall? That was what St. Paul was afraid of, up to 
 the last moment : " lest perhaps, when I have preached 
 to others, I myself should become a castaway." 
 
 And even if we were sure of our perseverance, 
 the Scripture warns, " be not without fear about sin 
 forgiven" (Ecclus. v. 5). Even though forgiven, it 
 is still a danger to us. The same root which gave 
 rise to it, is still in force in us; it is only scotched, 
 not killed, and it is more likely to spring up again 
 in us than if it had never showed its evil head ; par- 
 ticularly if it be our ruling passion, as it is called. 
 
 But even had we risen to such a height of virtuous 
 habit that this was not to be feared, still there are 
 the sins of others, and especially those for which we 
 may be to blame, which may well cause the good Chris- 
 tian sadness and anxiety. This shadow of sin, even 
 if the reality be gone, cuts off to some extent the full 
 light of God, from our souls, as long as we remain in 
 this sinful world. And the saints feel it more than 
 any others. 
 
 This world is not, and cannot be, the place for us 
 to be thoroughly filled with joy. Every joy, even the 
 most spiritual that we can have here, is obscured, more 
 or less, by this cloud of sin which rests upon it. We 
 cannot, indeed, quite understand how, even in heaven, 
 this cloud can entirely pass away. For anyone to be 
 entirely joyful, however united with God, is not pos- 
 sible here at any rate, if he sees things as they actually 
 are. And if he is filled with joy, it is a sign that he 
 does not see things as they are, rather than that he 
 does ; a sign that he has not the true religion, rather 
 than that he has. 
 
 It is, then, in these fatal spiritual consequences, 
 which we have just considered, rather than in its 
 
304 The Truth About Christian Science 
 
 intellectual absurdities and inconsistencies, that the 
 chief objection to this false " science " lies. For it 
 may be argued that puzzles or difficulties to our poor 
 human intellect are to be expected in any religious 
 system which comes from God ; and that they actually 
 exist in the Christian doctrine as held by any of those 
 who profess it. 
 
 But with regard to these spiritual results, the light 
 which, as St. John tells us, " enlighteneth every man 
 that cometh into this world," does enable us to judge. 
 Eddyism is not above our reason, but simply contrary 
 to it. 
 
 We have, however, a more sure test of its falsity 
 than any which reason alone can give. It is the same 
 with it as with Mohammedanism, which has no mys- 
 teries to puzzle us ; but which is stamped most con- 
 clusively as false by its appeal to what is evidently 
 and unmistakably our lower nature, rather than our 
 higher. 
 
 And it is the same with Eddyism. In spite of the 
 spirituality which it claims for itself, its offering to 
 us is that of physical comfort and well-being. Physi- 
 cal, corporal happiness, not freedom from the spirit- 
 ual misery which afflicts us, is the bait which it practi- 
 cally holds out to us ; the healing of the sick, not the 
 forgiveness of sin. The latter, it is true, we are 
 assured will come together with the former, but it 
 lays little stress on it. 
 
 In addition to this fatal defect, as has been said, it 
 puts on our intellect a strain which orthodox Chris- 
 tianity does not. It requires from us the acceptance 
 of statements not beyond the reach of our material 
 intellect, but quite within it, and irreconcilable with 
 it. It is true that many, perhaps most of those who 
 
The Truth About Christian Science 305 
 
 accept it, have not thoroughly reahzed these contra- 
 dictions to our reason which it insists on ; but they are 
 plainly there, as any one can see who will take the 
 trouble to examine what has been brought out in the 
 preceding pages of this book, or who carefully will 
 read and ponder its own textbook. Science and Health. 
 
 But its greatest danger is spiritual, and in a way 
 even more important than what has just been stated. 
 It is that it fosters a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency, 
 instead of that of humility, which, hovNCver little it 
 may be put into practice, we all feel in our hearts 
 to be the foundation of all real spiritual excellence 
 and progress in true virtue. Pride, which tries to 
 raise itself to an equality with God, which refuses to 
 recognize the infinite and impassable gap between 
 the creature and the Creator, is a far greater vice 
 than sensuality, or any other which can be named. 
 And it is this Satanic vice which Eddyism endeavors 
 to graft on the natures of those who would otherwise 
 be least inclined to it. 
 
 The words of Our Divine Lord, so strongly and so 
 often insisted on by Him, that " whosoever shall exalt 
 himself shall be humbled," are the most emphatic 
 condemnation of any that can be made of this whole 
 system of so-called " Christian Science." 
 

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