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 MM.MmM>,.MLOWER 
 
GIFT OF 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 By R. O. Flower 
 
Christian Science 
 
 As a Religious Belief and a 
 Therapeutic Agent 
 
 By 
 B. O. FLOWER 
 
 Author of "The Century of Sir Thomas More," "How England 
 
 Averted a Revolution of Force." "Whittier: Prophet, 
 
 Seer and Man," Etc., Etc. 
 
 Boston 
 
 Twentieth Century Company 
 
 1910 
 
F4 
 
 Copyright, 1909 
 
 TwE]!^TiETH Century Company 
 
 Published December, 1909 
 
 Second Edition, October, 1910 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AS A RELIGION 
 
 Chapter I 
 Christ, the Sick and Modern Christianity j 
 
 Chapter II 
 
 The Master Note in the Message of Chris- 
 
 tian Science . . . • ^9 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE — A THERA- 
 PEUTIC AGENT 
 
 Chapter III 
 Christian Science and Organic Disease . 6i 
 
 Chapter IV 
 
 Medical Explanations of Christian Science 
 Cures Considered in the Light of 
 Typical Cases . -99 
 
 239181 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/christianscienceOOflowrich 
 
PREFACE 
 
 T IS only fair to Christian Science 
 and the author to say at the out- 
 set that I am not a member of 
 the Christian Science fellowship ; 
 but I am a lover of fair play and of all things 
 that make for a nobler and purer life and the 
 true happiness of the people. 
 
 Several years ago, I entertained much of 
 the popular prejudice that is usually mani- 
 fested toward new theories, discoveries and 
 truths which run counter to the popular and 
 generally accepted concepts of society. But 
 I have always made it a rule of my life to try 
 and understand a subject before attempting 
 to criticise or to influence others either for 
 or against it. I, therefore, made a personal 
 study of the subject in order to be able to 
 discuss it intelligently. 
 
 When I began my investigation, I shared 
 the general opinion that all cures that ac- 
 tually occurred were those of functional 
 troubles ; that in the presence of organic dis- 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 ease Christian Science would necessarily fail. 
 The result of my investigation was most sur- 
 prising. At every turn I was confronted by 
 cures of cases that had baffled medical treat- 
 ment, a large proportion of which had been 
 pronounced by thoroughly intelligent physi- 
 cians to be organic troubles. One case — that 
 of a lady whom I had known to have been a 
 confirmed invalid since my childhood, was 
 typical of the results being obtained on every 
 hand which could not be laughed out of court 
 as the result of imagination. Briefly, the 
 facts in this case are as follows : 
 
 For more than thirty years this lady had 
 been under the care of leading physicians in 
 prominent cities, including Evansville, In- 
 diana, St. Louis and Boston. The physi- 
 cians had all treated her for the same trouble 
 without affording any permanent relief. If 
 she walked more than six or eight blocks she 
 suffered greatly and was compelled to lie 
 down for a long time. She had suffered from 
 hemorrhages for many years, which were 
 gradually growing worse. Eight years ago 
 she was treated by a Christian Science practi- 
 tioner, and in a few weeks the hemorrhages 
 and all other symptoms of the trouble for 
 which she had been treated entirely disap- 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 peared and have never returned. She is to- 
 day in far better health, although in the 
 seventies, than I had ever known her to be 
 prior to her treatment by Christian Science. 
 
 I cite this case merely because my intimate 
 acquaintance with the party enabled me to 
 know the absolute facts regarding her con- 
 dition during this long period of time, al- 
 though it is not nearly so remarkable as 
 many other cures which will be noticed fur- 
 ther in this volume. 
 
 I soon found that I had to revise my opin- 
 ions and theories in regard to the cures being 
 made by Christian Science. 
 
 Furthermore, my investigation revealed 
 another fact which impressed me as of far 
 greater importance than the cures, and that 
 was the value of this new religious belief as 
 a vital moral agent in a society that was be- 
 coming more and more sordid and grossly 
 materialistic. The more I investigated and 
 came into intimate touch with Christian 
 Science, the more clearly it became apparent 
 that here was a great leavening influence, 
 dominated by spiritual idealism — a living 
 faith that was completely changing the lives 
 of thousands of people. Here was a moral 
 enthusiasm such as made Primitive Christian- 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 ity such a world-conquering force. Here was 
 religious life where formerly was stagnation ; 
 and the influence on the lives of men and 
 women bore eloquent testimony as to the 
 kind of fruit the tree was bearing. Here, 
 then, were the things that aroused my deep 
 interest in Christian Science, even though my 
 personal views did not at all times agree with 
 its philosophy. 
 
 When the magazines and daily press began 
 to assail Christian Science, and the columns 
 of most of these publications were closed to 
 the other side, I felt it a simple duty, as a 
 lover of fair play and truth, to present some 
 facts on the other side. 
 
 One of the most striking phenomena pre- 
 sented at the present time is the aggressive 
 hostility of many of the most orthodox 
 Christian churches — churches whose creeds 
 hold to the plenary inspiration of the Bible, 
 and who oppose the higher criticism. These 
 denominations for the most part denounce 
 Christian Science when it insists on taking 
 seriously the injunctions of the Founder of 
 Christianity and the apostles and fathers of 
 the Primitive Church in matters that relate 
 to the healing of disease. This amazing fact 
 is so much in evidence that it seems to me to 
 call for special notice. 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 On the other hand, many orthodox church- 
 men and physicians who have been forced to 
 take cognizance of Christian Science because 
 of its amazing growth, have settled on a 
 compromise platform and are carrying on the 
 warfare from this vantage-ground. 
 
 The four chapters which constitute this 
 volume deal with the three phases of Chris- 
 tian Science teaching and practice in which 
 the general public is most deeply interested: 
 (i) Its religious precepts as reflecting or car- 
 rying forward the teaching of the Founder of 
 Christianity ; (2) the influence of its teachings 
 on the lives of its adherents; (3) Christian 
 Science as a therapeutic agent, especially in 
 reference to the cure of organic disease. 
 
 It has been my earnest desire to present 
 these vital aspects of the subject in as fair, 
 accurate and just a manner as possible, be- 
 lieving that such presentation will appeal to 
 serious-minded people and serve the ends of 
 truth. 
 
 B. 0. Flower 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 HAT we in America are living in 
 the presence of one of the most 
 remarkable spiritual movements '' 
 known to history will not be 
 questioned by any thoughtful person who is 
 cognizant of current events, where a new re- 
 ligious movement that a few years ago was 
 as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
 heeded by few, has become a great moral and 
 religious factor in the nation and the world. 
 Fifteen years ago Christian Science had no 
 church building ; today there are hundreds 
 of handsome church edifices, besides the 
 magnificent temple in Boston, which cost 
 two million dollars to erect ; while the 
 spread of the faith among the people and 
 its w^onderful influence in bringing health, 
 peace and happiness while kindling anew 
 spiritual idealism in tens of thousands of 
 hearts, speaks of the presence of a truth 
 vital to help in a world hungering and thirst- 
 ing for something better than the husks of 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 dogmatic and creedal theology and the ma- 
 terialistic externalism of forms and rites. 
 
 Nor is this all. The new truth crossed the 
 seas and has already been gladly received in 
 various quarters of the globe. Seldom in 
 history has a religious movement spread 
 so swiftly and appealed so compellingly to 
 highly intellectual and deeply earnest men 
 and women ; and the rapid growth has been 
 made in the face of a persistent campaign of 
 misrepresentation, misinterpretation and slan- 
 der rarely surpassed in the annals of spiritual 
 advance. 
 
 This fact suggests an objection constantly 
 advanced against Christian Science by those 
 who are more given to echoing the sophistry 
 of conventionalism than to thinking for 
 themselves. It is claimed that Mrs. Eddy 
 never received a university education, is not 
 what is termed a learned woman ; but this 
 is merely the repetition of an objection that 
 has been advanced time and again against 
 great moral leaders and reformers. Indeed, 
 from the standpoint of the learned Jews and 
 Romans of Jesus' day, would He not have 
 been regarded as ignorant — too ignorant, in- 
 deed, to merit serious consideration being 
 given His words on the part of those who 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 seem to imagine that scholastic learning is 
 a necessary accompaniment to a vital moral 
 or spiritual message? In the case of the 
 great Nazarene, His lack of scholastic train- 
 ing did not prevent His doing mighty works 
 or winning the heart of the people to a 
 nobler ideal of life and promulgating the 
 loftiest code of ethics the world has ever 
 known. As a matter of fact, is it not true 
 that almost every religious leader has been 
 denounced either as ignorant or as a char- 
 latan, an imposter and a dangerous charac- 
 ter? More than this. How many of these 
 have escaped being denounced as corrupt, 
 immoral and beneath the respect of those 
 who claimed to be pillars of reHgion, society 
 and the state? Look, for example, at 
 Socrates, whose lofty moral precepts have 
 been an inspiration to the high-minded for 
 over three thousand years. He was con- 
 demned to death on the charge of corrupting 
 the youths of Athens and of impiety. His 
 corruption lay in teaching them to think for 
 themselves and to think broadly and honesty. 
 We have no records that voice the charges of 
 the enemies of Jesus or the calumnies and 
 slanders that doubtless were industriously 
 circulated in regard to the Nazarene, save 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 those which incidentally crop out in the writ- 
 ings of His followers ; but from these we see 
 how He was criticized. Thus on one occa- 
 sion, it will be remembered, Jesus admitted 
 that His enemies described Him as a wine- 
 bibber and a friend of publicans and sinners, 
 or in other words, as one addicted to strong 
 drink and who associated with those whom 
 the Jews held to be the vilest members of 
 society. And we further know what all our 
 conventional leaders in press, church and 
 society would say today of the founder of a 
 religion that ran contrary to conventional 
 religious ideals, who would accept the hos- 
 pitality of a man in the social scale of the 
 publicans of Christ's time, or who would 
 permit those whom the world accounted 
 fallen women to anoint his feet and wipe 
 them with the hairs of their heads, or who 
 should be followed from town to town by 
 ignorant men and women whose former lives 
 had been admittedly questionable in charac- 
 ter. What wild hysterical cries would today 
 be raised against such a leader, especially if 
 he threatened the established religious order 
 or aroused the antagonism of a great pro- 
 fession whose members saw in the result of 
 his work and that of his followers something 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 that would seriously diminish their financial 
 revenue ! 
 
 Again, all historians know that Luther and 
 Wesley were attacked and calumniated. In- 
 deed, the persecution of religious and moral 
 leaders in the past was inevitable, because the 
 people were largely ignorant and swayed by 
 the few who claimed superior intelligence 
 and knowledge and who held places of power 
 and authority. But that the same spirit, with 
 equal virulence and malignity, should be 
 present in the twentieth century — the age of 
 democracy and enlightenment — is a crying 
 shame against which I hold that fair-minded 
 men and women should everywhere protest. 
 
 Seldom in the past has the leader of hun- 
 dreds of thousands of intelligent, truth-seek- 
 ing souls been so persistently and recklessly 
 calumniated as has the founder of Christian 
 Science. Time and again have baseless 
 slanders been completely refuted, only to be 
 reiterated with brazen effrontery by un- 
 scrupulous parties who sought to discredit 
 the message by calumniating the instrument 
 through which it had been given to the 
 world. At other times, sinister and wholly 
 unwarranted constructions have been placed 
 on simple acts, for the sole purpose of plant- 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 ing the seeds of suspicion in the public mind. 
 The story of human progress is the story 
 of the rejection of the prophet and the per- 
 secution, misrepresentation and calumniation 
 of the apostle of a new truth by conventional 
 religion and society. Yet has progress ever 
 vindicated the children of the light. No truer 
 words have been expressed by an American 
 poet than James Russell Lowell uttered when 
 he wrote : 
 
 "By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding 
 
 feet I track, 
 Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that 
 
 turns not back, 
 And these mounts of anguish number how each 
 
 generation learned 
 One new word of that grand Credo which in 
 
 prophet-hearts hath burned 
 Since the first man stood God-conquered with his 
 
 face to heaven upturned. 
 
 "For Humanity sweeps onward: where today the 
 
 martyr stands, 
 On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in 
 
 his hands ; 
 Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling 
 
 fagots burn. 
 While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe 
 
 return 
 To glean up the scattered ashes into History's 
 
 golden urn." 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 The future concerns itself little with the 
 pitiful slanders, gossip and calumny born of 
 prejudice, jealousy or hate. It is the message 
 that weighs ; its worth or worthlessness 
 counts with the civilization of tomorrow, and 
 it is safe to say that any message that has 
 been so potent as has Christian Science in 
 transforming and uplifting lives, brightening 
 and bringing peace and joy to hearts bowed 
 down with crushing grief, and light to those 
 who were wandering in the dark, will not be 
 spurned by ages in which moral idealism 
 shall count more than materialistic gratifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The campaign of slander and misrepresen- 
 tation waged against the loved and venerable 
 founder of Christian Science has happily 
 failed in its ignoble purpose. Moreover, no 
 fact is better demonstrated by the history of 
 religious and moral advance than that it is 
 the word rather than the instrument that 
 voices the word that concerns the oncoming 
 ages. The world cares little for the slander, 
 calumny or criticisms that were rife in the 
 days when her prophets and moral leaders 
 lived, nor yet for any physical or mental limi- 
 tations that might have marked these leaders. 
 The question the world will insist upon is 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 whether the message is vitally and helpfully 
 true; and if so, the generations that are to 
 come will turn in disgust from the carping of 
 the critics against the voice that has pro- 
 claimed the helpful truth to that which is 
 redemptive, vitalizing and helpful in the mes- 
 sage. Every new religious conception or 
 new interpretation of religion has met with 
 the same bitter opposition we find opposing 
 this latest religious interpretation. Always 
 has the old order attempted to suppress the 
 new voice of protest and to discredit the mes- 
 sage. The wise counsel of the great Jewish 
 Rabbi Gamaliel, uttered when the Jews 
 sought to crush out the early Christian 
 church, is as applicable today as of old, but 
 unhappily it is as little heeded as it was in the 
 earlier day. 
 
I 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AS A RELIGION 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 CHRIST, THE SICK AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY 
 
 JECENTLY a number of leading 
 monthly and daily journals have 
 devoted much space to the work 
 of some well-known clergymen 
 in Boston and Chicago in estabHshing medi- 
 co-religious dispensaries in connection with 
 their churches. Rev. Elwood Worcester and 
 his associate, Rev. Samuel McComb of Em- 
 manuel Episcopal Church of Boston, and the 
 Rev. Samuel Fallows, Bishop of the Re- 
 formed Episcopal Church of Chicago, are 
 the leading ministers engaged in the present 
 attempt to harness medicine and theology in 
 the same team. All these gentlemen have 
 been at pains to explain their method of 
 work, which has also been favorably pre- 
 sented by a leading Boston regular physician, 
 Dr. Richard C. Cabot. In every explanation 
 of their attempt to heal the sick by these 
 leading representatives of orthodox Chris- 
 tianty, the clergymen and their friends have 
 
4 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 been at great pains to make clear the fact 
 that they accept the position which the medi- 
 cal doctors are tardily admitting — namely, 
 that a certain number of functional diseases 
 may be cured by suggestion, but that the 
 methods of materia medica should be relied 
 on in all cases of organic disorders. And 
 yet, singularly enough, all these priests be- 
 long to orthodox church fellowships whose 
 historic attitude has been very clear in main- 
 taining the inerrancy of the Scriptures and 
 the Divinity of Christ. Hence the refusal to 
 accept the Bible teachings in regard to the 
 potential healing of "all manner of disease" 
 by the realization of the supremacy of the 
 spiritual over all material limitations and the 
 substitution of a theory of the possible cure 
 of a few diseases in which mental suggestion 
 is the chief therapeutic agent, throws into 
 bold relief the practical repudiation of the 
 position so strenuously maintained by the 
 churches to which they belong. For when 
 it is remembered that all the great orthodox 
 churches hold to the doctrine of the plenary 
 inspiration of the New Testament; that not 
 only their millions unquestioningly accept 
 this, but that it is in accordance with the 
 creeds and the historic position of all these 
 
AS A RELIGION 5 
 
 churches; when we further remember that 
 the churches also hold that Christ is the very 
 Son of God, never having a human father; 
 that He is the second person of the Holy 
 Trinity, the position so painstakingly taken 
 by these orthodox clergymen to show that 
 they do not believe in attempting to cure any 
 disease unless a medical doctor has declared 
 that the patient has no organic trouble, 
 serves to emphasize in a startling manner the 
 fact that modern orthodox Christians refuse 
 to accept certain things which, if their posi- 
 tion in regard to the inerrancy of the New 
 Testament and the Divinity of Christ be true, 
 must be accepted without question as binding 
 on Christians — certain facts that it is infidel- 
 ity to the teachings of the Nazarene to deny. 
 Not in years has the illogical and untenable 
 position of the great orthodox faiths which 
 hold to the dogma of the Trinity and the 
 plenary inspiration of the Scriptures been 
 thrown into such bold and startling relief as 
 since the general agitation made by the advo- 
 cates of the new union of clergymen and phy- 
 sicians in their effort to check the growth of 
 Christian Science by religio-medical substitu- 
 tion for the position taken by Jesus and the 
 Primitive Church and adhered to by the 
 Christian Scientists. 
 
6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 By this we do not wish to imply that 
 Doctors Worcester and McComb and Bishop 
 Fallows are sinners above others in this re- 
 spect ; but certain it is that their new religio- 
 medical work and the explanation of their 
 position have emphasized the fact that the 
 great orthodox churches whose millions of 
 adherents would drive from the pulpits 
 clergymen who had the temerity to deny the 
 inerrancy of the Scriptures, do not beUeve 
 the very things they claim to be the Divine 
 Word of God. 
 
 These strictures do not apply to the Uni- 
 tarians or to the comparatively few liberal 
 religious scholars whose research into the 
 genesis of the New Testament writing has 
 led them to reject the theory of the plenary 
 inspiration of the Bible and to deny the mir- 
 aculous conception and certain other parts of 
 the New Testament. These persons may 
 take the stand assumed by these clergymen 
 to whom we have referred and be consistent. 
 
 But when we confront the great orthodox 
 religious world, we find ourselves in the 
 presence of dogmas that change the whole 
 aspect of the case. The creeds or beliefs of 
 every one of the great Trinitarian churches, 
 whether Roman CathoHc, or Protestant, hold 
 
AS A RELIGION 7 
 
 that Jesus was the very Son of God, having 
 no human father ; that he is the second per- 
 son of the to many incomprehensible Trin- 
 ity; that He is divine — in fact, Deity. 
 Furthermore, the great orthodox Christian 
 churches beheve in the inerrancy of the 
 Scriptures. They accept the miraculous con- 
 ception and the miracles as truths whose 
 literal verity is not to be questioned. While 
 it follows as a necessary and inescapable 
 sequence to the dogma of the Trinity and 
 the inerrancy of the Scriptures, that the 
 words of Jesus must be accepted as the utter- 
 ances of Deity, and, of course, as absolutely 
 binding on those who accept Him as God. 
 
 Now with these facts in mind, about which 
 there is no controversy, let us look at the 
 teachings of the Great Nazarene in regard 
 to life and death, sickness and health, and 
 their necessary implications as to the su- 
 premacy of the spiritual over the physical. 
 
 Jesus, according to the testimony of the 
 authors of the Gospels, made no distinction 
 between functional and organic diseases. In- 
 deed, no fact is clearer than that to Him all 
 idea of physical causation was subordinate 
 to the idea of spiritual supremacy. He made 
 no class distinctions, such as those in the 
 
8 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 orthodox churches are today making in their 
 attempt to cure disease in what they claim to 
 be the Primitive Christian way. To Him the 
 organic disease was no less amenable to cure 
 through spiritual recognition of man's one- 
 ness with God and the dominion which He 
 beheved to be resident in the children of the 
 All- Father who had been created in the image 
 and likeness of God, when they recognized 
 or realized their own divine nature and their 
 oneness with God, than were functional dis- 
 orders. Leprosy, congenital bhndness and 
 other diseases that by no stretch of the im- 
 agination could be called "merely functional," 
 as well as the raising of those pronounced 
 by the physicians dead. Thus we find that 
 the ruler's daughter who had been laid out in 
 death, the son of the widow of Nain who was 
 being borne to the cemetery, and Lazarus 
 who had been three days in the grave, re- 
 sponded as readily to the prayer of faith and 
 understanding as did those afflicted with 
 palsy, lameness and disorders that might be 
 classed as functional. 
 
 If in the presence of these three cases of 
 death we are met with the objection that they 
 were merely instances of suspended anima- 
 tion, trance or pseudo-death ; that the doctors 
 
AS A RELIGION 9 
 
 had blundered and pronounced dead and the 
 undertakers were burying or had buried the 
 living; that these instances were merely the 
 same mistakes that physicians are liable to 
 make, the answer is that we are considering 
 this question now only from the view-point 
 of orthodox Christianity; so such excuses 
 are no excuses, for the supposed inspired 
 writers declared the persons to have died, 
 and in the case of Lazarus Jesus Himself 
 declares that he was dead. 
 
 In addition to the many detailed cures, a 
 few of which have just been cited and to 
 which we might add many more, such as the 
 cure of the woman who had had an issue of 
 blood for twelve years, and the healing of the 
 ear of the servant of the high priest, which 
 Peter had impulsively cut off, we have cita- 
 tions showing the sweeping character of the 
 cures performed by Jesus, as for example 
 when on one occasion we are told: 
 
 "And great multitudes came unto Him, 
 having with them those that were lame, blind, 
 dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast 
 them down at Jesus' feet; and He healed 
 them."* 
 
 One step further. Jesus was, according 
 
 *Matthew 15: 80 
 
lo CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 to the Gospels, crucified, pierced in the side, 
 buried, and on the third day rose from the 
 dead. No functional screen will serve here 
 to shelter those who hold to the inerrancy 
 of the Scriptures. What then? We are told 
 that Jesus was a very God ; He was the Lord 
 of Life and health, and we must not question 
 what He said or did, but that He did things 
 which it was and is impossible for His dis- 
 ciples to do. Very well. Let us advance an- 
 other step. Jesus, we are told, sent out His 
 twelve chosen students or apostles and com- 
 manded them to "heal all manner of sickness 
 and all manner of disease."* 
 
 Nor did He stop here. He further com- 
 manded them to "heal the sick, cleanse the 
 lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. "t And 
 the apostles did as commanded. 
 
 Did these grave organic and so-called in- 
 curable diseases, Hke leprosy, yield to the 
 prayer of understanding? Luke tells us that 
 "they went through the towns, preaching the 
 gospel, and healing everywhere.^J 
 
 But we are now told that the apostles were 
 peculiarly set apart by Christ for their special 
 work of furthering His church and being His 
 repersentatives when He left. To them was 
 
 *Matthew 10 : 1 tMatthew 10 : 8 tLuke : 6 
 
AS A RELIGION ii 
 
 given special power. This brings us to a 
 third consideration. 
 
 Jesus did not seem to believe that any- 
 special gift of healing, such as cleansing the 
 lepers and even raising the dead, was con- 
 fined to Him or to His twelve apostles. In 
 fact, there is nothing in the teachings of Jesus 
 more explicit than that the gift of healing 
 was to be a mark of discipleship, and we are 
 taught clearly His idea that God was a God 
 of the living and not of the dead; that the 
 Lord of Life was all-powerful and that it was 
 not His will that any should suffer; that the 
 All-Father was omnipotent, omniscient om- 
 nipresent, all in all, and that those who came 
 en rapport with Him, who learned to under- 
 stand or realize their sonship with the God of 
 whom they were the reflection or image, 
 could accomplish all things and gain what- 
 soever they asked, so long as their hearts 
 were pure and they kept en rapport with the 
 Divine life or the great Source or reservoir 
 of Life and Love. For we are told that after 
 this Jesus sent out other seventy and com- 
 manded them, when they entered a town, to 
 "heal the sick that are therein."* Moreover, 
 the seventy appear to have been quite as 
 
 *Luke 10: 9 
 
12 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 successful as the twelve apostles, for we are 
 told that "the seventy" returned again with 
 joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject 
 unto us through thy name."* 
 
 Nor will it do to attempt to juggle with the 
 facts by claiming that Christ only delegated 
 this power to those with Him during His 
 earthly ministry; for His teachings and the 
 subsequent New Testament narratives and 
 injunctions, as well as the chronicles of the 
 early Church, are all against this position. 
 Moreover, what words in the Bible are 
 plainer or more explicit than these from 
 Mark, which it is represented were the final 
 injunction of Christ after His resurrection 
 and immediately before His ascension : "Go 
 yet into all the world, and preach the gospel 
 to every creature. . . . And these signs 
 shall follow them that beHeve: In my name 
 shall they cast out devils; they shall speak 
 with new tongues. They shall take up ser- 
 pents ; and if they drink any deadly thing, it 
 shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on 
 the sick, and they shall recover.^f 
 
 Again, Christ's teachings in regard to 
 prayer are equally expHcit and reveal the 
 same overmastering belief or conviction on 
 
 *Luke lO!: 17 tMark 16: 15. 17. 18 
 
AS A RELIGION 13 
 
 His part that those who came en rapport with 
 the Divine Life, with the spiritual dynamo of 
 the universe which we call God, became so 
 spiritually positive that their supremacy over 
 material limitations was absolute. On one 
 occasion He said: "Therefore I say unto 
 you, What things soever ye desire, when ye 
 pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
 shall have them."* 
 
 Again He says: "Ask, and it shall be 
 given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, 
 and it shall be opened unto you.^f 
 
 The early Church history as chronicled in 
 the Acts of the Apostles is almost as rich in 
 instances of cures of almost all manner of 
 diseases, and even of the raising of the dead, 
 as is the story of the life of Christ and His 
 earthly ministry. Thus we find, for example, 
 the case of the congenital cripple who had 
 never been able to walk a step and who was 
 daily borne to the Gate Beautiful of the Tem- 
 ple to ask alms, and whom Peter instantly 
 cured through a reaHzation of the teachings 
 of Jesus touching the supremacy of the spir- 
 itual ;t the case of Aeneas, instantly cured by 
 Peter after he had been bed-ridden for eight 
 years with palsy ;§ and the still more won- 
 
 *Mark 11 : 24 tMatthew 7 : 7 tActs 3 : 6-8 §Acts 9 : 3S, 84 
 
14 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 derful case of Tabitha, or Dorcas, who had 
 died and had been laid out in the upper 
 chamber ready for burial, when it occurred to 
 her friends to notify the apostle Peter, who 
 immediately repaired to the house of mourn- 
 ing, and in answer to his prayer she was re- 
 stored whole and well to her friends.* 
 
 Again, in the case of the man at Lystra, 
 another congenital cripple, we have the de- 
 scription of a life that had never known what 
 it was to walk, instantly, in obedience to the 
 august declaration of the Apostle Paul, leap- 
 ing and walking, to the amazement of the 
 people, who declared in their wonder that 
 the gods had come down in the likeness of 
 men.f 
 
 During the ministry of Paul in Asia, as he 
 journeyed from city to city, his demonstra- 
 tions of the spiritual power over disease 
 everywhere enabled him quickly to spread 
 the Gospel. He is related to hav€ cured vari- 
 ous diseases, and even insanity, by absent 
 treatments.^ The young man Eutychus, who 
 fell from the third loft and was taken up dead, 
 it is reported, was restored by the Apostle 
 Paul.§ 
 
 The demonstration of the power of the 
 
 *Acta 9 : S6. 39. 41 tActs 14 : 8-10 t Acts 19 : 12 §Act8 20 : 9 
 
AS A RELIGION 15 
 
 apostle's thought over the venom of the 
 viper is also described in the story of Paul 
 gathering the bundle of sticks when a viper 
 came out and fastened on his hand, but he 
 shook it off into the fire and felt no harm; 
 and when the natives beheld that instead of 
 his body swelling and his falling down dead, 
 he suffered no harm, they beUeved him to be 
 a god.* And this narration is followed by 
 the account of the cure of the father of Pub- 
 lius, the chief man of the island, who was 
 stricken with bloody flux.f 
 
 The Apostle James makes the positive and 
 unequivocal declaration that "the prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall 
 raise him up."J Here, it will be noted that 
 the supremacy of the spiritual over the 
 material limitations is as clearly stated as it 
 was in the passage from Mark, where Christ 
 is represented as commanding His disciples 
 to accompany their preaching with the heal- 
 ing of the sick, and where He distinctly de- 
 clares that the sign of discipleship will be the 
 power to demonstrate the supremacy of 
 health over disease by the appeal from mat- 
 ter to the spirit or to God. 
 
 From what we find in the Acts of the Apos- 
 
 *Acts 28: »-6 tActs 28 : 8, 9 tJames 5 : 15 
 
i6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ties and in the teachings of the New Testa- 
 ment, and from other chronicles relating to 
 the Primitive Church before it became cor- 
 rupted, it is apparent that the apostles, the 
 early preachers and the early Christians all 
 alike took Jesus seriously and did precisely 
 what He so solemnly commanded, and that 
 their power was no less potent or pronounced 
 than Jesus'. Indeed, to those who beHeve 
 in the inerrancy of the Scriptures and who 
 hold that Jesus was divine and therefore not 
 a victim of illusion, it would seem that there 
 is no escaping the conclusion that Christ 
 held that diseases of all kinds, organic no 
 less than functional, were absolutely subor- 
 dinate to spiritual domination. He knew no 
 distinction between functional and organic in 
 the treatment of disease. He did not believe, 
 as we have seen, that cures through the 
 recognition of what He believed to be the 
 omnipotent power of a God of Love, were 
 limited to any kind of disease. Furthermore, 
 He did not believe that the power to cure 
 disease or to make man recognize his spir- 
 itual supremacy or essential divinity, was 
 owing to any peculiar power resident in Him- 
 self. Indeed, He expected greater things 
 from His disciples, if they remained faithful 
 
AS A RELIGION 17 
 
 to His teachings and to the recognition of 
 the spiritual law which He held to be su- 
 preme. For He says on one occasion : "He 
 that beheveth on me, the works that I do 
 shall he do also; and greater works than 
 these shall he do."* He believed that the 
 more men came en rapport with Deity or in 
 at-one-ment with God, the greater would be 
 the recognition of their rightful power or the 
 dominion which the Creator had given to 
 man, and that with that recognition would 
 come more and more complete supremacy 
 over all physical conditions. Christ never 
 seemed conscious of any limiting laws which 
 prevented victory, save the lack of a realiz- 
 ing sense of God's power or dominion, given 
 to His children when He created them in His 
 image and likeness. Only the unbeHef in 
 spiritual supremacy, the materialistic thought 
 that environed Him, and the complete 
 dominance of sense perception that He en- 
 countered on every hand were regarded 
 by Christ as obstacles to the manifesta- 
 tion of victory over all forms of disease 
 and unhappy conditions. That He Him- 
 self felt the effect of this unbeHef born of 
 materialism, and the necessity of His at times 
 
 *John 14: 12 
 
i8 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 getting away from its deadly atmosphere, is 
 abundantly indicated in the Gospels. Thus 
 we find that in certain places Christ could do 
 no mighty works because of the unbelief of 
 the people. 
 
 Again, how real must have been His reali- 
 zation of the need of spiritual strength which 
 led Him to withdraw at night alone into the 
 mountains to pray — that is, to commune with 
 the Infinite Father and realize His oneness 
 with God. 
 
 On one occasion the disciples could not 
 cure a case of so-called obsession, or what 
 modern physicians would term insanity in a 
 violent form. Christ promptly cured the 
 case, and in answer to the disciples' question 
 as to the reason why they were unable to 
 effect the cure, Jesus did not claim any spe- 
 cial power resident in Himself, but intimat- 
 ed that He had simply gained greater power, 
 through spiritual absorption and prayer, than 
 they possessed; that is, that through prayer 
 He had come more completely en rapport 
 with the divine or spiritual reservoir of Life 
 and Love. These and other passages that 
 might be cited prove clearly that in Christ's 
 consciousness there was no question but what 
 through hoHness and spiritual supremacy 
 
AS A RELIGION 19 
 
 man could come so into oneness with God as 
 to reflect the supreme spiritual truth and 
 overcome inharmony, disease and unhappy 
 conditions incident to the material life. 
 
 Not only do the New Testament records 
 report the astonishing results following the 
 mission of the twelve and later that of the 
 seventy, in healing all manner of disease dur- 
 ing Jesus' personal ministration, but subse- 
 quent narrations, as we have seen in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, indicate clearly that Jesus 
 not only meant His disciples to continue the 
 healing, but that the early church did not 
 regard the Master's solemn declaration as 
 either visionary or untruthful, when He de- 
 clared that greater works than He had done 
 should be done by them after His departure. 
 Of these facts not only the Acts of the 
 Apostles give ample and detailed evidence, 
 but the early church fathers also clearly show 
 in their writings that for some hundreds of 
 years the healing of the sick was practiced 
 in the church. Among those who record this 
 fact or who discuss and refer to it are Justin 
 Martyr, Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, St. Augus- 
 tine, St. Jerome, St. Cyprian, and the great 
 church writer and mystic, Origen.* 
 
 *See Chapter II for quotations from the fathers. 
 
20 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 There is no shadow of doubt but that the 
 apostles, the early disciples and the Primitive 
 Church, before it became rich, worldly and 
 corrupt, took Jesus seriously and did prac- 
 tice healing in such a manner as to attract 
 the attention and win the ear of great num- 
 bers who otherwise would have been indif- 
 ferent or hostile to the new gospel. 
 
 Dr. McComb in a contribution to The 
 Century referred somewhat slightingly to 
 those who are to-day treating disease as 
 Jesus, His apostles and the early Christians 
 are represented as doing, by referring to their 
 method as one " in which men and women 
 are treated as if they were disembodied 
 spirits." "We distinguish," he continued, re- 
 ferring to himself and his theological asso- 
 ciates, " with science, between 'organic' and 
 'functional' disorders, and we believe that 
 the legitimate sphere for moral and psychical 
 methods is that of functional and not or- 
 ganic." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Worcester, rector of Em- 
 manuel Church and head of the medico-re- 
 ligious dispensary to which we have referred, 
 shows what the modern orthodox churches, 
 that have been forced to take notice of the 
 amazing growth of Christian Science, due 
 
AS A RELIGION 21 
 
 largely to the thousands of cures effected 
 after physicians had passed the death sen- 
 tence on the patients, offer in Heu of the clear, 
 positive and direct teachings of Jesus and 
 their result in His ministry and in the early 
 church, if orthodox Christianity is correct in 
 regard to the inerrancy of the New Testa- 
 ment. Dr. Worcester in the New York 
 Times recently said in referring to their 
 work : 
 
 " By turning over to doctors those persons 
 who require medical treatment we have not 
 only lost no patients, but almost all of those 
 whom we have treated ourselves have been 
 greatly benefited, and many have recovered 
 entirely. 
 
 " The functional nervous disorders treated 
 by us at Emmanuel Church include neuras- 
 thenia, hysteria, psychathenia, mild melan- 
 cholia, fixed ideas, phobias, and bad habits. 
 
 " One important part of our work has been 
 the treatment of alcoholism both in men and 
 women; also drug habits, sexual perversion, 
 etc. " 
 
 Rev. Samuel Fallows of the Reformed 
 Episcopal Church is another orthodox 
 clergyman who has come into prominence 
 by an effort to mix Christian healing with 
 
22 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 modern medical practice. In the New York 
 Herald Rev. Dr. Fallows recently said: 
 
 " My treatment is no secret. 
 
 " I first employ the psychic method — I 
 give human suggestions and persuasion. I 
 appeal to the reason, and thus encourage the 
 troubled and hopeless. I iterate and reiter- 
 ate certain common-sense ideas, until the 
 sub-consciousness of the individual before 
 me is reached. 
 
 " I used the best of Christian Science and 
 the best of materia medica. . . Linking 
 the curative principle included in Christ's 
 teachings with the best in medicine, I think 
 I have found the most hopeful of all reme- 
 dies, for hope is revived and confidence 
 restored." 
 
 Now certain facts in this connection are 
 worthy of consideration. The orthodox 
 church as such upholds the inerrancy of the 
 New Testament and claims that Christ was 
 God in human form; yet its practice clearly 
 proves that it either does not believe that 
 Christ spake wisely or truthfully when He 
 taught and commanded His disciples to cure 
 ''the lepers" and "all manner of disease," or 
 else it does not believe in the inerrancy of 
 the Scriptures. 
 
AS A RELIGION 23 
 
 If these men will come out frankly and 
 take the position of the Unitarians or that of 
 the liberal religious leaders who reject the 
 doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the 
 Scriptures, if they will say to the world that 
 they do not believe the alleged miracles were 
 ever wrought, upon which the Christian 
 faith has been so largely nourished through 
 the ages, then their stand will be consistent. 
 But all those churches which hold to the 
 divinity of Christ and the inerrancy of the 
 Scriptures, an4 refuse to accept the teach- 
 ings of the New Testament in regard to the 
 cure of disease as taught by Jesus, are dis- 
 crediting Christ and His claims by their 
 recreancy in regard to these things. 
 
 One of the many eulogistic articles that 
 have been widely circulated concerning the 
 work of Emmanuel Church appeared in The 
 Outlook. It was from the pen of Dr. Rich- 
 ard C. Cabot, the well-known Boston physi- 
 cian. At the outset the good doctor says 
 something that is eloquently suggestive as to 
 the reason that has led to this sudden har- 
 nessing together of religion and medicine by 
 the two professions that for over twenty 
 years have ridiculed Christian Science as 
 crazy idealism. He says: "Partly because 
 
24 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 the church has lost its interest in the human 
 body, and partly because the doctors have 
 lost their interest in everything else, comes 
 Christian Science, and triumphs." 
 
 Here we have the secret of this belated 
 religio-medical activity. Dr. Cabot points 
 out the fact that : "No one can be treated at 
 Emmanuel Church without the diagnosis and 
 approval of a physician. Each patient brings 
 a letter from his physician, or, if he has none, 
 is referred for examination to one of the 
 physicians of the parish, who have agreed to 
 examine, free of charge, all who apply for ad- 
 mission to the Health Class. If the patient 
 is found to have no organic disease and to 
 be otherwise suitable for psychical treatment, 
 he is then taken in charge by Dr. Worcester, 
 Dr. McComb, or one of their assistants." 
 
 Of the remedial means resorted to, "sug- 
 gestion," he observes, "is the one most used." 
 
 Dr. Cabot further states that he has studied 
 the records of the cases treated between 
 March, 1907, and November of the same 
 year, a period of seven months. He found 
 that there had been 178 cases taken. All, of 
 course, were persons whom the physicians 
 had declared to be affected merely with func- 
 tional disorders. Of this number, 82 were 
 
AS A RELIGION 25 
 
 treated for neurasthenia; 24 for insanity; 18 
 for fears and fixed ideas; 22 for alcoholism; 
 10 for sexual neuroses ; 5 for hysteria ; and 
 17 miscellaneous. Of this number, 55 ap- 
 pear to have dropped out of sight, as the re- 
 ports show that the results of the treatment 
 in these cases are unknown. Most of them 
 probably received little or no benefit, or they 
 would most likely have reported results. 
 Forty-eight were known not to have been 
 improved. Twenty-eight reported slight im- 
 provement, and 47 were much improved. 
 Thus it will be seen that 103 were either not 
 improved at all or did not see fit to report 
 results ; 28 were but slightly helped, making 
 a total of 131 ; while 47 were much improved. 
 We are glad to know that Dr. Cabot and the 
 reverend gentlemen who are at the head of 
 this movement feel much encouraged at the 
 above results following these sifted cases of 
 persons who were only suffering from func- 
 tional diseases, although to us the results 
 seem surprisingly meager. From our obser- 
 vations we are thoroughly convinced that if 
 Christian Science treatment of the sick had 
 not been far more successful, this church 
 would never have made such surprising and 
 steady gain in America; yet it must be re- 
 
26 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 membered that Christian Scientists take 
 Jesus' words and the statements given in the 
 Bible in regard to disease, quite seriously. 
 They believe He was neither untruthful nor 
 ignorant ; that He meant what He said when 
 He declared that the healing of the sick in 
 His name was one of the signs that marked 
 His discipleship. They believe the Bible 
 record of the cures made by Jesus, the apos- 
 tles, the seventy and the early Christians 
 after Christ, to be historical verities which 
 prove the truth of Jesus^ teachings in regard 
 to sickness. And to the thousands and tens 
 of thousands of persons who have been cured 
 after regular physicians have failed to benefit 
 them, and in numbers of cases after the regu- 
 lar doctor had pronounced a death sentence 
 on them, their cures, together with the new 
 exalted faith and moral enthusiasm that they 
 have derived from the new understanding of 
 the Christ truth, have led to a belief that the 
 founder of Christian Science has rediscovered 
 the truth which Jesus taught, lived, practiced, 
 and which was a priceless heritage of the 
 church before the days of Constantine, — a 
 heritage that largely explains th« rapid spread 
 of primitive Christianity. 
 
 But to return to the central thought of this 
 
AS A RELIGION 27 
 
 paper. Do the millions of orthodox Chris- 
 tians who accept plenary inspiration and the 
 Divinity of Christ, and do the ministers of 
 the churches whose creeds teach these things, 
 carry the sign that Jesus declared should 
 prove them His disciples? Do they attempt 
 to do as He solemnly commanded them to 
 do in the presence of sickness? There can 
 be but one truthful answer to this question. 
 Even those who are driven by the rapid 
 growth of Christian Science to do something, 
 adopt a method that frankly discredits Jesus' 
 theory and claim and the results that are said 
 to have followed His treatment and that of 
 His disciples. Jesus commanded the disciples 
 to heal "all manner of disease," to "cleanse 
 the lepers" and raise the dead; and if the 
 Bible report is true, the Nazarene and His 
 disciples during the life of Christ on earth 
 and after the establishment of the Christian 
 Church, did these things. Organic disease 
 was as quickly and successfully met as were 
 functional disorders, if the records of the New 
 Testament are trustworthy, and if the Bible, 
 as the great orthodox world claims, is iner- 
 rant, there can be no question on this point. 
 Hence is it not perfectly clear that the atti- 
 tude of orthodox Christianity to-day in re- 
 
28 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 gard to the treatment of the sick indicates 
 all but universal infidelity to the long-cher- 
 ished and defended theological position of 
 the orthodox churches touching plenary in- 
 spiration and the Divinity of Christ? And if 
 the Bible is to be taken as the very Word of 
 God, it necessarily must be true. If Christ 
 is the very Son of God, He would not have 
 been ignorant of the laws of life. This, it 
 seems, ought to be a very solemn thought 
 for the millions who think they believe in the 
 inerrancy of the Bible and the Divinity of 
 Christ. It may also help them to understand 
 one great reason for the astonishing growth 
 of Christian Science during the last two 
 decades. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MASTER NOTE IN THE MESSAGE OF CHRIS- 
 TIAN SCIENCE 
 
 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." 
 
 — Proverbs. 
 
 ** Voices are crying from the dust of Tyre, 
 From Baalbec and the stones of Babylon — 
 We raised our pillars upon Self-Desire, 
 And perished from the large gaze of the sun. 
 
 "Eternity was on the pyramid. 
 
 And immortality on Greece and Kome ; 
 But in them all the ancient Traitor hid, 
 And so they tottered like unstable foam. 
 
 'No house can stand, no kingdom can endure. 
 Built on the crumbling rock of Self -Desire." 
 
 — Edwin Markham. 
 
 \0 THE philosophical student of 
 history, no fact is more obvious 
 than that in proportion as a civil- 
 ization, a people or a nation is 
 dominated by moral idealism — ^by the 
 vision that gives to life a living faith, it 
 will rise, advance and become inherently 
 great. On the other hand, in proportion as 
 
30 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 the eternal moral verities fade before interest 
 in and a passion for the fleeting things of 
 sense, a civilization or people declines, al- 
 though frequently to the physical eye of the 
 casual observer the stricken victim of ma- 
 terialism or sense domination appears to be 
 entering on a period of unexampled glory, 
 power and greatness, just as one ignorant of 
 nature's phenomena might easily imagine the 
 autumnal burst of ephemeral splendor to be a 
 manifestation of life and health. 
 
 Moral idealism nourishes the soul upon the 
 eternal spiritual verities. It weaves into the 
 web and woof of life honor, integrity of 
 thought and purpose, a passion for truth, and 
 an ever-broadening love. In a word, it 
 speaks to the children of men, awakening 
 them from their absorption in fleeting sense 
 perceptions to a realization of the eternal 
 spiritual verities, Truth, Beauty and Good- 
 ness, and thus brings them en rapport with 
 the All-Life and its infinite manifestations; 
 with the Common Father and His common 
 children. 
 
 The fate of civilizations and nations in the 
 ever-recurring battle between idealism and 
 materialism is one of the most absorbing and 
 suggestive facts of history; while there are 
 
AS A RELIGION 31 
 
 few pages in the annals of the past so inspir- 
 ing as those which show how great peoples, 
 after having yielded to the lure of sense dom- 
 ination and started upon the downward slope, 
 have been arrested and rejuvenated by the 
 masterful appeal to the reason and conscience 
 side of life, which has reawakened the moral 
 idealism or spiritual enthusiasm and faith in 
 the soul of society. 
 
 Our purpose in stating this general pro- 
 position as an introduction to our considera- 
 tion of the master note in the message of 
 Christian Science, is to impress upon the 
 reader the basic truth which students of 
 human progress must keep in mind if they 
 would find the key to great idealistic or 
 spiritual movements of national and civiliza- 
 tion-wide significance, which exert a compell- 
 ing influence over the thought and life of 
 multitudes of highly intelligent men and 
 women. 
 
 "To me the most astounding historical 
 fact of the past twenty-five years is the rapid 
 growth of Christian Science in this nation, 
 and the permanent hold it seems to have 
 taken on tens of thousands of highly intelli- 
 gent and discriminating citizens." 
 
 The speaker was a well-known writer 
 
32 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 whose extensive travels had brought him in 
 touch with the vital life of the people in 
 various parts of the country. 
 
 "The healing part of the new faith," he 
 continued, "affords no adequate explanation 
 for this phenomenon. It doubtless is largely 
 the means of interesting very many, and per- 
 haps the greater number of those who are 
 drawn to Christian Science. Consider these 
 facts : In 1895 there was not a Christian 
 Science church building to be found any- 
 where. In a recent paper contributed to 
 The Contemporary Review by Mr. Frank 
 Podmore, he states that this new religious 
 body 'is represented at the present time by 
 over eleven hundred churches or societies. 
 . . . There are over four thousand Chris- 
 tian Science practitioners, while no fewer 
 that 440 editions of Science and Health 
 With Key to the Scriptures have been pub- 
 lished, and upward of half a million copies 
 sold.' In this country there is to be found, 
 as you know, a large number of magnificent 
 church edifices. Indeed, the property of this 
 religious body in our country is estimated at 
 between eight and ten million dollars, and 
 stately buildings are being erected all the 
 time. In Chicago alone there are five beauti- 
 
AS A RELIGION 33 
 
 ful church structures, and two congregations 
 as yet without their own buildings.* In Eng- 
 land the movement has taken a firm hold and 
 several fine edifices are owned by the Chris- 
 tian Scientists ; while its churches or societies 
 are now to be found in almost all parts of the 
 world. 
 
 "Now to say that there is no great motor 
 power behind this new religious organization 
 save the heahng of the sick, is absurd; and 
 especially is this apparent when one takes 
 into consideration the way the faith domin- 
 ates the ideals or moral impulses of its 
 disciples. Nothing is more marked about this 
 reHgious teaching than the way it seizes hold 
 of thought and imagination, frequently 
 changing the whole course of one's life." 
 
 "That is very true," I repHed. "I have 
 known not a few persons who were the slaves 
 of drink or given over to other forms of dis- 
 sipation, who through Christian Science have 
 been lifted to a noble plane and have become 
 active workers for all that is finest and truest 
 in life. Indeed, my investigation, extending 
 over many years and conducted at all times 
 with an earnest desire to be impartial and un- 
 prejudiced, has fully convinced me that the 
 
 ^At the present time there are nine congregations in Oiicago. 
 
34 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 great majority of those who accept Christian 
 Science become changed persons. They are 
 cheerful, optimistic and dominated by inspir- 
 ing and uplifting ideals. They strive to re- 
 flect love and exhibit much of that living 
 faith that marked the early Christian church." 
 
 "Exactly so," returned my friend. "And I 
 repeat, the reason for this phenomenon is 
 a baffling mystery to me. If we had here a 
 splendid ritual that appealed to the imagina- 
 tion, an elaborate and popular song service, 
 or men of eloquence who could draw great 
 audiences and hold them spell-bound, I could 
 understand its success. But the Christian 
 Science service is to me the least calculated 
 to interest and appeal to the outsider, to 'the 
 man on the street,' to use the popular saying, 
 of any church service with which I am ac- 
 quainted. Now, what is your explanation of 
 this mystery?" 
 
 "Its success, is seems to me," I replied, "is 
 to be found in its meeting the heart-hunger 
 of thousands of our people in a satisfying 
 way. The most significant fact about this 
 religious message is the power it exerts in 
 quickening the conscience or spiritual side of 
 life and bringing the believers under the 
 compulsion of moral ideahsm. In personal 
 
AS A RELIGION 35 
 
 interviews with a great number of Christian 
 Scientists and in the course of extended cor- 
 respondence in which I have sought for facts 
 and data that would enable me to com- 
 1-etently and justly judge this new religious 
 movement, in almost every instance the per- 
 sons communicated with have placed the 
 spiritual awakening that has been wrought 
 through Christian Science as incomparably 
 the greatest blessing that it has brought into 
 their lives; although in numerous instances 
 these parties, who are now in the enjoyment 
 of excellent health, had been doomed to early 
 death by medical science. 
 
 "Now let me give you a little incident that 
 will perhaps help you to understand this mys- 
 tery. When the poet Joaquin Miller was last 
 in Boston he expressed the desire to attend 
 a service at the Christian Science church. 
 He was going to leave before Sunday, so the 
 only opportunity was the Wednesday night 
 testimony or answer to prayer meeting. I 
 told him I should be glad to accompany him 
 to the service on the following evening. The 
 next day was extremely disagreeable, a cold 
 winter rain and searching wind prevailed. 
 The poet had an engagement at Harvard for 
 the afternoon, but a little after six o'clock he 
 
36 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 returned to my office and again expressed the 
 wish, notwithstanding the inclemency of the 
 weather, to go to the meeting. As we ap- 
 proached the great temple I ventured the 
 opinion that the congregation would probably 
 appear very small, owing to the fact that the 
 church seats more than five thousand persons 
 and the night was so extremely disagreeable. 
 On entering the auditorium, however, we 
 were both greatly astonished to find it almost 
 filled, excepting the upper gallery. There 
 were probably between three and four thou- 
 sand persons present. The service interested 
 the poet greatly, and when we left the build- 
 ing he expressed the pleasure he had derived. 
 
 " 'How can you account,' I said, *for that 
 enormous audience on such a night? It is 
 probable that all the other churches in the 
 Back Bay district put together did not have 
 half the number present that were at this 
 meeting/ 
 
 " 'These people,' said the poet earnestly, 
 pointing to the Christian Science church, 
 ^believe their religion. It has filled their 
 minds with a living faith, with hope and with 
 love.' 
 
 "Now," I continued, addressing my friend, 
 "this observation I believe to be the simple 
 
AS A RELIGION 37 
 
 truth, and in it I find the answer to your 
 question. Christian Science has come with 
 its message instinct with spiritual vitality at 
 an hour in our country's history when a 
 vicious opportunistic materialism is advanc- 
 ing like creeping paralysis over the body 
 politic, the business, educational and religious 
 life of the nation. Its appeal is primarily to 
 the spiritual side of life; but as with the 
 primitive presentation of the Gospel, it ac- 
 companies its appeal with the offer of present 
 relief to the sick body and fear-fettered and 
 despairing mind. While helping the diseased 
 and unfortunate, it lifts the eye from the plane 
 of sense-perception, to that of ethical ideal- 
 ism. It has in a vital way impressed again 
 the social ideals that were so boldly pro- 
 claimed by Jesus, while its philosophical con- 
 cepts not only reflect the metaphysical ideal- 
 ism of the Gospels and of St. Paul, but also 
 strikingly accord with much of the thought of 
 Plato and the greatest of the German trans- 
 cendental thinkers; and its appeal, unlike 
 those of the Greek and German philosophers, 
 has been made in language the people can 
 comprehend. 
 
 "Professor Herbert E. Cushman, Ph. D., 
 of the Chair of Philosophy in Tufts College, 
 
38 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 points out the fact that on its theoretical side 
 it has much in common with the philosophi- 
 cal concepts of St. Paul, Plotinus, Spinoza, 
 Thomas a Kempis, Luther, and even Whit- 
 man. 'It will thus be seen,' he says, *that 
 Christian Science is akin to many mighty 
 theories.' He holds that as a movement it 
 is 'not only a reaction against ecclesiasticism, 
 but as its name indicates, against materialism 
 as well. Ecclesiasticism and materialism are 
 not of necessity companions, but in the pres- 
 ent period of civilization they happen to be 
 such.' " 
 
 Very different from the broad view ex- 
 pressed by my literary friend was the confi- 
 dent opinion of another gentleman, a strong 
 upholder of orthodox religious views. This 
 person felt sure that not only was the secret 
 of Christian Science growth and influence to 
 be found in its claims in regard to the cure 
 of physical ailments, but that it was also the 
 master concern of the leader and practition- 
 ers of the movement; that the loaves and 
 fishes, or monetary return, was their chief 
 concern. 
 
 "I understand," he observed, "from per- 
 sons who I believe are thoroughly reputable 
 and in a position to know, and from sources 
 
AS A RELIGION 39 
 
 that I regard as authoritative, that the 
 claimed healing of disease and a gullible pub- 
 lic are not only the principal reasons for the 
 apparent success of Christian Science, but 
 that the money to be obtained from the treat- 
 ment of disease which they claim does not 
 exist, is the principal concern of the Chris- 
 tian Scientist." 
 
 "Your views," I replied, "are certainly 
 exactly the reverse of the clear teachings of 
 the founder of Christian Science as con- 
 stantly emphasized in Science and Health 
 and her other writings, and by the leading 
 writers, lecturers and practitioners in the 
 church. I have made a rather close study of 
 this remarkable movement for some years 
 and feel I can speak with some degree of 
 positiveness as to the convictions, teachings 
 and practice of its representative leaders. On 
 the other hand, I think I am warranted in 
 saying that your view voices the hostile, pre- 
 judiced and biased attitude of conventional 
 thought, which in all ages and lands, when- 
 ever a prophet with a new message arises, 
 seizes on some fact in the life or position in 
 the proclaimed word, and by misrepresenta- 
 tion and gross distortion conveys ideas ex- 
 actly the reverse of the truth. A striking 
 
40 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 illustration of this fact is found in the case of 
 Jesus Christ. He mingled with the poor and 
 social outcasts, in order to comfort, teach, 
 help and uplift them, to bring into their lives 
 a new, ennobling and vitalizing element, re- 
 demptive in character. And how did the 
 hostile, prejudiced and biased conventional 
 leaders use this fact? Exactly as does the 
 same element use the teachings of Christian 
 Science in regard to the heahng of disease, — 
 to mislead the public, that does not take the 
 trouble to investigate at first hand. Jesus, 
 it was claimed, was a wine-bibber and an as- 
 sociate with the lowest classes of society. 
 Now, as a matter of fact, the position of Mrs. 
 Eddy as strongly emphasized in Science and 
 Healthy and that of the authoritative writers, 
 lecturers and practitioners, in regard to the 
 healing of disease, is exactly the same as 
 that of the Founder of Christianity and the 
 Apostles, if you accept the canon of Scripture 
 as given in our Bible. The Christian Sci- 
 entists teach that the healing of all man- 
 / ner of disease is a solemn injunction imposed 
 I by Christ on all His disciples, and must be 
 observed by those who would follow Him. 
 The bodily improvement is, they hold, a re- 
 sult of the spiritual illumination or a realiza- 
 
AS A RELIGION 41 
 
 tion of the spiritual truth taught by Christian 
 Science. The healing is a direct evidence to 
 the recipient of his understanding of Divine 
 Truth. To the Christian Scientists, therefore, 
 the healing is a consequence or an incident, 
 resulting from the awakening of the sleeper 
 drugged by the lethe of sense to a realization 
 of his Divine sonship, to a recognition of the 
 true spiritual nature of man and his at-one- 
 ment with the Father. This awakening leads 
 the prodigal to return to the Father's house, 
 to turn from the husks of fleeting sense al- 
 lurements and to accept first the Kingdom 
 of God or the dominion of the spiritual. 
 Now, is not this exactly in conformity with 
 the New Testament teaching? Did not 
 Christ continually cure the sick as a means 
 of awakening them to a reaHzation of the 
 great fact voiced by Browning in the Hne, 
 'All's love, yet all's law' ? 
 
 "You," I continued, "accept the canon 
 of the New Testament as the revealed Word 
 of Deity, and in it nothing is more clearly 
 taught than that the Founder of Christianity 
 demanded that His disciples should ever ac- 
 company the proclamation of the redemptive 
 gospel of Light and Love by the healing of 
 the sick. Indeed, Christ, according to the 
 
42 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 New Testament, even went further and made 
 the startling declaration that greater works 
 than He had wrought should be performed 
 by His disciples. That the Apostles and 
 preachers of the early church took Christ 
 seriously is amply proved by the record in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter, Paul 
 and other of the great first preachers con- 
 stantly attracted the attention of the Jews 
 and Gentiles to the new evangel by the won- 
 derful cures of the sick. Nor was this all. 
 Long after the Apostles passed from view, 
 the Primitive Church, still strong in vital faith, 
 took Christ's injunction seriously and prac- 
 ticed healing, as is evidenced by the writings 
 of such early church fathers as Justin Martyr, 
 Irenaeus, St. Cyprian, Clement, Theodore of 
 Mopsueste, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. 
 Jerome, and others. 
 
 "St. Cyprian wrote : *There is no measure 
 or rule in the dispensation of the gifts of 
 heaven as in those of the gifts of earth. The 
 Spirit is poured out liberally without limits 
 or barriers. It flows without stop; it over- 
 flows without stint. By this they cleansed 
 unwise and impure souls, restored men to 
 spiritual and bodily health, and drove forth 
 demons who had made violent lodgement in 
 
AS A RELIGION 43 
 
 "And the great Origen observes that: 
 'Some give evidence of their having received 
 through their faith a marvelous power by the 
 cures they perform, invoking no other name 
 over those who need their help than that of 
 the God of all things and of Jesus, along with 
 a mention of His history. For by these 
 means we too have seen many persons freed 
 from grievous calamities and from distraction 
 of mind and madness, and countless other ills 
 which could not be cured by other men/ 
 
 "Theodore of Mopsueste wrote : 'Many 
 heathen amongst us are being healed by 
 Christians from whatever sickness they have/ 
 
 "And Clement urged his disciples to prac- 
 tice their gift of healing confidently. 
 
 "Christian Science, as did the early Chris- 
 tian church, holds the healing of the sick to 
 be a solemn and imperative command im- 
 posed upon the disciples by the Founder of 
 Christianity; but, as has been observed, it is 
 regarded as a means to the supreme end, — 
 the awakening of man from his death-like 
 slumber or the dream life of sense domina- 
 tion, to a realization of his true nature and of 
 the grandeur, the dignity, duty, responsibil- 
 ity and obligation of life. 
 
 "Here, then, is found the master note in 
 
44 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 the message of Christian Science. Its su- 
 preme appeal is to the spiritual nature. Ac- 
 cepting the Bible declaration that God is 
 Love, and that Love is the fulfilling of the 
 Law, it seeks to lift the mind from absorption 
 in self and the fleeting things of sense, to 
 thoughts of others and things permanent and 
 Hfe-giving; from egoism to altruism." 
 
 I now wish to consider the significance of 
 this idealistic message to our civilization. It 
 came at a moment when the materialism of 
 the market had already thrown its spell over 
 the imagination of our people; when money 
 madness was spreading like a deadly con- 
 tagion throughout society, touching with its 
 fatal blight government, business, society, the 
 college, and the church. 
 
 The remarkable growth of Christian Sci- 
 ence during the past fifteen years and the 
 strong and compelling power which it exerts 
 over the minds of its adherents lead me to 
 believe that in it will be found a great and 
 potent agency for the checking of the ad- 
 vance of sordid and visionless materialism 
 and reaction and the reawakening of moral 
 idealism in the heart of the people. 
 
 As was indicated at the opening of this 
 paper, history is not wanting in examples of 
 
AS A RELIGION 45 
 
 the saving influence of a strong spiritual or 
 idealistic message which meets the heart 
 hunger of a people, even after society has 
 yielded to the spell of materiaHsm and 
 egoism. 
 
 ''Looked at from a social point of view," 
 says Professor Cushman, "the Christian 
 Science movement is a social reform. It 
 represents the protest of the individual. It 
 finds its counterpart in many epochs in his- 
 tory, — as in the revolt of Luther from the 
 Roman Catholic Church, in the revolt of 
 Wesley from the English Church, and in 
 many other ecclesiastical crises. . . . The 
 individual's religious life has been starved, 
 and now we find the individual rising to a 
 full consciousness of his power. The central 
 doctrine of Christian Science, to wit: that 
 God is the real in the life of every individual, 
 although, as we shall see, it is a very old 
 doctrine, has given to the modern man a new 
 sense of his immortality and greatness." 
 
 Even more striking than the instances 
 cited by Professor Cushman, is the parallel 
 between the condition of present-day society 
 and certain marked characteristics of the life 
 of the Jews, Greeks and Romans two thou- 
 sand years ago. Indeed, so suggestive are 
 
y 
 
 46 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 some of these parallels that a glance at the 
 elder civilization at the time of the advent of 
 Christianity will help us to better understand 
 the significance of the new spiritual appeal 
 at the present crucial period in our history, 
 though we should not lose sight of the fact 
 that we today are on a much higher round of 
 the spiral ladder. 
 
 History emphasizes no more inspiring 
 truth than that, although there come from 
 time to time periods of depression and par- 
 tial eclipse, when not unfrequently nations 
 die and sometimes civilizations pass from the 
 stage, yet on the whole man is slowly but 
 surely rising. The trend of life is Godward. 
 y When the Great Nazarene proclaimed His 
 new and revolutionary gospel, which was 
 followed by the rise and rapid spread of 
 Christianity, the civilization of the Roman 
 world presented an intensely melancholy 
 spectacle. Externalism, artificiality, egoism 
 and materialism were the dominant notes of 
 life in the three great capitals of world 
 thought — Rome, Athens and Jerusalem. 
 Then through the music of life ran the note 
 of despair. Men existed rather than lived. 
 It was a period of triumphant animalism, in 
 which revolting lust and refined savagery, ex- 
 
AS A RELIGION 47 
 
 cessive wealth and abject penury, frequently- 
 made all the more hopeless and repellent by 
 sanctimonious hypocrisy, existed on every 
 side. Rome, then the throbbing heart of 
 this civilization, was given over to the lust of 
 the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of 
 life. Intellectual training without moral cul- 
 ture was a characteristic of high life. In 
 vain did the Stoics attempt to stem the tide 
 of degradation. The idle rich had long since 
 become vicious and lawless ; the idle poor had 
 become criminal and debauched. The great 
 struggling millions found life day by day 
 more hopeless and their burdens grew gradu- 
 ally heavier and heavier. Luxury existing by 
 the side of want is an unfailing sign of moral 
 disintegration. The historian Froude has 
 given us an admirable characterization of 
 the Rome of this period in the following 
 graphic words. 
 
 "It was an age of material progress and 
 material civilization; an age of pamphlets 
 and epigrams ; of salons and of dinner parties ; 
 of senatorial majorities and electoral corrup- 
 tion. The highest offices of state were open, 
 in theory, to the meanest citizen; they were 
 confined, in fact, to those who had the long- 
 est purse or the most ready use of the tongue 
 
 ^^/ 
 
48 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 on popular platforms. Distinction of birth 
 had been exchanged for distinction of wealth. 
 The struggle between plebeians and patricians 
 for equality of privilege was over, and a new 
 division had been formed between the party 
 of property and a party who desired a change 
 in the structure of society. The free cultiva- 
 tors were disappearing from the soil. Italy 
 was being fast absorbed into vast estates held 
 by a few favored families and cultivated by 
 slaves, while the old agricultural population 
 was driven off the land and was crowded into 
 towns. The rich were extravagant, for life 
 had ceased to have practical interest except 
 for its material pleasures; the occupation of 
 the higher classes was to obtain money with- 
 out labor, and to spend it in idle enjoyment. 
 " Religion, once the foundation of the laws 
 and rule of personal conduct, had subsided 
 into opinion. The educated in their hearts 
 disbelieved it. Temples were still built with 
 increasing splendor; the established forms 
 were scrupulously observed. Public men 
 spoke conventionally of Providence, that they 
 might throw on their opponents the odium 
 of impiety ; but of genuine belief that life had 
 any serious meaning, there was none re- 
 maining beyond the circle of the silent, pa- 
 
AS A RELIGION 49 
 
 tient, ignorant multitude. The whole spirit- 
 ual atmosphere was saturated with cant — 
 cant political, cant religious ; an affectation of 
 high principle which had ceased to touch the 
 conduct and flowed on in an increasing vol- 
 ume of insincere and unreal speech." 
 
 Archdeacon F. W. Farrar, in commenting 
 on the Rome of this period, says: 
 
 ''In the age of Augustus began that 'long, 
 slow agony,' that melancholy process of a 
 society gradually going to pieces under the j 
 dissolving influence of its own vices. 
 
 "The ceremonies of religion were per- 
 formed with ritualistic splendor, but all belief 
 in religion was dead and gone. 'That there 
 are such things as ghosts and subterranean 
 realms not even boys believe,' says Juvenal, 
 'except those who are still too young to pay 
 a farthing for a bath.' And yet the highest 
 title of the emperor himself was that of ponti- 
 fex maximus^ or chief priest, which he 
 claimed as the recognized head of the na- 
 tional religion. 
 
 "It was an age of the most enormous \ 
 wealth existing side by side with the most ^ 
 abject poverty. 
 

 50 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 "It was an age of boundless luxury — an 
 age in which women recklessly vied with 
 each other in the race of splendor and ex- 
 travagance, and in which men plunged head- 
 long, without a single scruple of conscience 
 and with every possible resource at their 
 command, into the pursuit of pleasure. There 
 was no form of luxury, there was no refine- 
 ment of vice invented by any foreign nation, 
 which had not been eagerly adopted by the 
 Roman patricians." 
 
 Passing eastward from Italy we find that 
 Greece at this time presented a spectacle less 
 tragic but very melancholy. Society was per- 
 meated with artificiality. There was a hollow 
 ring to conventional life on every side, but 
 there was also a deep heart-hunger for some- 
 thing better. The golden age of Pericles had 
 long since departed, and the great philoso- 
 phers whose intellects are still the wonder 
 and admiration of the world had passed away 
 to be followed by a horde of sophists who 
 were little better than sounding-boards — 
 bodies without souls — talking-machines who, 
 having little faith, hope or love, had made 
 philosophy a profession in order to enjoy life 
 at ease. Of the Grecian world of this period 
 Professor Edwin Hatch observed that it was 
 
AS A RELIGION 51 
 
 "a world which had created an artificial type 
 of life and which was too artificial to recog- 
 nize its own artificiality — a world whose 
 schools, instead of being laboratories of the 
 knowledge of the future, were forges in which 
 the chains of the present were fashioned from 
 the knoweldge of the past." 
 
 When in the earlier days moral idealism 
 swayed the Grecian world, Persia's might and 
 millions were powerless ; but after sordid ma- 
 terialism and artificiality became the domin- 
 ant note of life, Greece went down before the 
 comparatively insignificant might of Mace- 
 don. There is Httle doubt but wtect Phillip 
 and Alexander would have been as powerless 
 as Darius and Xerxes, had not the old spirit 
 of Greece given way before the growing love 
 of show and amusement. "The rich," ob- 
 serves Professor Fyffe, "grudged giving the J 
 state anything and tried to escape taxes."/ 
 After the conquest of Greece by the Macedo- 
 nians the degeneracy rapidly increased. 
 Temples were reared on every side, but re- 
 ligion gave place to a sensuous materialism 
 in the popular heart. 
 
 And yet here, in the midst of a life so char- 
 acterized by insincerity, so essentially super- 
 ficial in character, were numbers of men and 
 
52 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 women who thirsted for something which 
 their hollow education, their shows, games 
 and amusements, their multitudinous temples 
 and elaborate ceremonialism, signally failed 
 to supply. There was a deep heart-hunger 
 for something real and sincere, something 
 which possessed the power of restoring faith, 
 awakening hope and kindling that compre- 
 hensive love which extends to all sentient 
 beings, and marks the zenith of lifers aspira- 
 tions as boldly as sensualism marks its nadir. 
 This feeling was seen on every side. We are 
 told that the Apostle Paul found a temple 
 dedicated to the "unknown God." What 
 could be more pathetic? 
 
 Leaving Greece, we enter the Palestine of 
 the period. Here it is noticeable that reHgion 
 had degenerated into soulless formalism, and 
 theology concerned itself with the outside of 
 the cup of Hfe. The phylacteries were en- 
 larged and the prayers lengthened. The 
 deep, earnest cry of faith was drowned by the 
 self-adulation of the pompous Pharisee or the 
 jangling voices of warring sects. The Sad- 
 ducees sat in high seats and scoffed at the 
 dream of a future life. Ecclesiasticism and 
 materialism were enthroned in the temple. 
 The people were expected to regard rigidly 
 
AS A RELIGION 53 
 
 the outward form and narrow dogma of sect 
 and race. They were taught to hate the 
 Samaritans as idolaters and perverters of the 
 truth rather than love them as brothers, who, 
 if erring, were brothers still. The masses 
 were in intellectual bondage to those who 
 taught conventional religion with their 
 mouths, whilst their lives perpetually con- 
 tradicted all that was vital or uplifting in reli- 
 gion. Moreover, the yoke of a foreign gov- 
 ernment weighed on the nation and the peo- 
 ple were compelled to bear a crushing load 
 imposed on them by the merciless rapacity 
 of extortioners who, under the cloak of the 
 law, robbed the poor of well-nigh all but their 
 daily bread. 
 
 At this time, when vital faith had flown, 
 when hope was dying and love was withering 
 like a canker-eaten flower, there came out 
 of a little obscure village in GaHlee a serene 
 soul, whose inner nature was nourished by a 
 great and abiding faith in the ultimate tri- 
 umph of good ^ and in the reaHty of a Divine 
 Father, who was Spirit and who radiated the 
 light of Truth, whose name was Love, and in 
 whom we live, move and have our being. 
 This lofty soul felt what only the most spirit- 
 ual and sensitive natures are capable of ap- 
 
54 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 predating the weight of the people'^s mis- 
 eries. Nor was this all: He possessed that 
 energizing faith in the divinity of man which 
 rendered it possible for him to rise above 
 savagery, greed and sensual joys ; His brain 
 was aflame with Love ; a great hope filled His 
 heart; the dream of a universal brotherhood 
 based on the Golden Rule dwelt in His mind, 
 as an ideal haunts the brain of a sculptor un- 
 til he yields to his impulses and gives it ex- 
 pression. He was philosopher enough to 
 realize that if His ideal was to take posses- 
 sion of the hearts of others something more 
 than theory must be manifested. His life 
 was the expression of His dream. His words 
 and deeds carried with them a potency which 
 boldly contrasted with the perfunctory teach- 
 ing of the conventional religionists of His 
 time. His lofty faith and overmastering pas- 
 sion for justice, the ever-present sympathy 
 for those sinned against, and His potent 
 power in the presence of disease, born of 
 faith and understanding, spoke of something 
 which answered the heart cry of the loftiest 
 and most divine emotions known to life. His 
 dream was the noblest that has ever haunted 
 the brain of man — the ideal of a redeemed 
 humanity, brought en rapport with God or 
 
AS A RELIGION 55 
 
 the Cosmic Mind, and forming a brotherhood 
 cemented by all-encompassing love and made 
 strong by a living faith and never-vanishing 
 hope. 
 
 The Serene Dreamer alarmed respectable 
 conventionalism in church and state, with the 
 usual result, — persecution, false witness, and 
 in His case, the martyr's crown. But the 
 message once given could never die. It met 
 the heart-hunger of the age. Its great lumin- 
 ous truth, — the reality of the Divine Life, the 
 All-Father, whose essence was Love, the 
 sonship of man, the brotherhood of the chil- 
 dren of men — from glittering generalities, 
 these things became life-governing convic- 
 tions. The strong faith, the great hope, the 
 radiant love which characterized His life and 
 teachings, fired the hearts of those who dwelt 
 with Him. They tried to return to their nets, 
 but were impelled to higher duties. He who 
 is touched by the divine flame cannot again 
 find contentment on the self-plane. The 
 peace which comes from doing good, the 
 great calm of the soul which is known only to 
 those who make the great renunciation, and 
 devote thought, deed and life to truth, justice 
 and love, forever closes the gate of life 
 against sordid greed, selfish gratification and 
 
56 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 pseudo pleasures which characterize the life 
 of the unawakened spirit. And so these once 
 simple-hearted fishermen became torch-bear- 
 ers of Hfe in the hour of humanity's night. 
 They carried throughout Palestine, Greece 
 and Italy the gospel of faith, hope and love, 
 and this light from the East revived the 
 divine in the hearts of the despairing. 
 
 Returning to our age, while it is freely ad- 
 mitted that great and beneficent advance 
 has been made during the past two thousand 
 years, we cannot blind ourselves to the fact 
 that the past fifty years have witnessed a de- 
 cided sweep away from the idealism of the 
 early years of our history and an advance of 
 materialistic-concepts to a commanding place 
 in the thought-world of the Republic. 
 
 As Christianity came to a world under the 
 spell of materialism, concerned with the shell 
 and ignoring the vital spirit, — a society given 
 over to egoism, self-desire and sensuous 
 allurements, so Christian Science has come 
 at a time when our society was fast coming 
 under the death-dealing spell of the material- 
 ism of the market, the sordid, selfish, egoistic 
 and mammon-worshiping influence which 
 ends in spiritual death; and by reawakening 
 faith in the hearts of the people, — a living 
 
AS A RELIGION 57 
 
 faith in a living God, by lifting the thought 
 from the transient, sordid, egoistic and ma- 
 terialistic ideals that are threatening to en- 
 slave the nation and centering man's thought 
 on the eternal moral verities, it is not only- 
 transforming the lives of thousands, but is 
 making each one thus brought under the 
 compulsion of moral idealism a diffusive cen- 
 ter radiating the light, the faith and the love 
 that are life-sustaining elements of civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
II 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE A THERAPEUTIC 
 AGENT 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND ORGANIC DISEASE 
 
 O ONE who has carefully studied 
 the phenomenal spread of Chris- 
 tian Science during the past 
 twelve years, since the first church 
 was dedicated, nothing is more significant 
 than the rapid shifting of ground on the part 
 of physicians and conventional critics in re- 
 gard to the curing of the sick. At first there 
 was general incredulity expressed and very 
 positive denials of the claims were made by a 
 large proportion of those who think along 
 conventional and scholastic lines. 
 
 Later, when a grudging admission was 
 forced in regard to cures, owing to the large 
 number of cases in which healing was claimed 
 and the unanswerable character of the evi- 
 dence, it was urged that the people cured 
 were for the most part ignorant, over-credu- 
 lous or neurotic characters, long the victims 
 of imaginary diseases, but that no well-de- 
 fined cures of persons really ill could be ad- 
 duced. ., ^ 
 
 01 
 
62 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Unhappily for its critics, investigation re- 
 vealed the striking fact that a very large pro- 
 portion of those who had accepted Christian 
 Science after they had been cured by it were 
 persons of prominence in public, professional, 
 educational and business life ; persons of far 
 more than ordinary intelligence and in many 
 instances individuals who by special training, 
 such as judges, for example, were accustomed 
 to close and logical reasoning and the weigh- 
 ing of evidence in a critical manner. More- 
 over, it was apparent on personal investiga- 
 tion that a very large proportion — probably 
 seven-tenths, of the Christian Science fellow- 
 ship had come into the church through being 
 healed after orthodox medical treatment had 
 been long and faithfully, but fruitlessly, tried. 
 
 Since the volume of evidence relating to 
 remarkable cures wrought under Christian 
 Science treatment has grown so great that it 
 is no longer possible for persons having any 
 regard for their reputations to deny the facts, 
 certain physicians and clergymen have been 
 forced again to shift their ground. They now 
 admit what can no longer be ignored, but in 
 Heu of the denials of yesterday they now ad- 
 vance the claim that while functional diseases 
 may be and are being cured by Christian 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 63 
 
 Science, no organic disease can be thus suc- 
 cessfully met. 
 
 It is our purpose in the present paper to 
 examine this claim and in so doing we shall 
 cite the testimony of men who, even in the 
 eyes of the medical fraternity, must be re- 
 garded as having the training and practice 
 that would render them competent to diflfer- 
 eniate between functional and organic dis- 
 ease ; men who through medical training and 
 wide or extensive practice in the treatment 
 of the sick according to the orthodox sys- 
 tems, are certainly entitled to the serious at- 
 tention of those who beHeve that only 
 regularly-educated medical doctors are com- 
 petent to determine when a disease that is 
 killing a patient is functional or organic. 
 
 Clergymen, editors and doctors have re- 
 cently appeared in print, assuming almost as 
 dogmatic an attitude as that taken by the 
 critics ten years ago, who ridiculed the claim 
 that any disease could be cured by Christian 
 Science. 
 
 Perhaps the most distinguished of these 
 recent critics is Dr. Richard C. Cabot, the 
 well-known Boston physician and instructor 
 in the Harvard Medical School. In a late 
 issue of one of the popular magazines this 
 
64 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 physician undertakes to examine Christian 
 Science cures with a view to showing that 
 though "most Christian Science cures are 
 probably genuine . . . they are not cures 
 of organic diseases." 
 
 Dr. Cabot, in common with many physi- 
 cians and other critics of Christian Science, 
 makes much of the inabihty of the sick to 
 judge of what is affecting them and their 
 equal inability to correctly understand or re- 
 port the opinions given by their physicians. 
 Now while it is right and proper to make a 
 certain degree of allowance for ignorance on 
 the part of the sick in regard to the exact 
 character of their diseases, and perhaps for 
 carelessness or mendacity in reporting the 
 opinions given by their family physicians or 
 the doctors who have treated their cases and 
 failed to cure their ailments, it is quite possi- 
 ble that too much emphasis is placed on this 
 alleged ignorance and loose thinking on the 
 part of the patients by the critics of Christian 
 Science ; while, on the other hand, it is im- 
 portant to remember that the physicians who 
 are so ready to discredit the testimony of 
 thousands and tens of thousands of persons, 
 many of whom are men and women of very 
 superior intelligence, who have been cured by 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 65 
 
 Christian Science, are themselves largely dis- 
 qualified for passing on the evidence in a 
 thoroughly judicial spirit. 
 
 And in saying this, it is not necessary to 
 maintain that the doctors in question are in- 
 tentionally dishonest or unfair. They have, 
 however, been thoroughly educated to believe 
 exactly the opposite of what the Christian 
 Science philosophy teaches. Not only has 
 their scholastic training taught them to re- 
 gard with intolerance and contempt theories 
 which claim that disease can be cured by 
 means other than what are known as ma- 
 terial, but their practice naturally fortifies the 
 teachings which they have accepted as true. 
 They are day by day administering medicine ; 
 their position is emphatically the materialis- 
 tic as opposed to the mental. Theoretically 
 they are at one pole, the Christian Scientists 
 at the other. And all students of history and 
 human life know full well how difficult it is 
 for even the broadest-visioned thinker to rise 
 superior to prejudice, when he is viewing 
 something that he has always regarded as 
 the antithesis of the truth. The mental eye 
 becomes accustomed to seeing things in a 
 certain light. Change the focus, and every- 
 thing appears distorted. The old Cretan who 
 
66 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 for thirty years was imprisoned in a dark 
 cave, when dragged into the glorious sunlight 
 shrieked in agony, declaring that the sunlight 
 poisoned him. So it is perfectly obvious that 
 persons whose education, environment and 
 daily practice are opposed to a certain theory, 
 are to a great degree incapacitated from 
 fairly, judicially or competently judging such 
 a theory. 
 
 There is a further factor entering into the 
 case, in so far as the physicians are con- 
 cerned, which in many instances doubtless 
 tends to bias judgment, and that is the bread- 
 and-butter consideration — the circumstance 
 that the livelihood of the physician and the 
 success of the medical schools are measur- 
 ably threatened by the rise and rapid growth 
 of a new and successful method of cure. The 
 bitter opposition which confronted Hahne- 
 mann, following his wonderfully successful 
 treatment of typhoid fever, became so intense 
 that he was compelled to leave Leipsic; and 
 all persons familiar with the history of medi- 
 cal advance know full well how bitterly the 
 schoolmen have fought every innovation that 
 came from without. 
 
 During the past fifty years, or since the 
 age of consolidation and the growth of mon- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT dy 
 
 opolies and trusts, the medical profession has 
 been the most active of all professions in its 
 attempt to gain legal protection that would 
 grant it a monopoly in the treatment of the 
 sick. 
 
 Herbert Spencer, in Social Statics, aptly 
 touches on this aspect of the matter — the 
 motive of gain. After pointing out the anal- 
 ogy between the would-be medical hierarchy 
 and that of the church in earlier days, when 
 she arrogated to herself the right to compel 
 men to beHeve whatever she deemed the 
 truth, or suffer torture and death for refusing 
 to conform to her demands, he says : 
 
 "Moved as are the projectors of a railway, 
 who, whilst secretly hoping for salaries, per- 
 suade themselves and others that the pro- 
 posed railway will be beneficial to the public 
 — moved as all men are under such circum- 
 stances, by nine parts of self-interest gilt over 
 with one part of philantrophy — surgeons and 
 physicians are vigorously striving to erect a 
 medical establishment akin to our religious 
 one."* 
 
 Now when this motive — the bread-and- 
 butter phase of the question — is added to the 
 other even stronger influence — that of preju- 
 
 *Social Statics, p. 409 
 
68 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 dice, environment, education and practice, is 
 it not clear that even if doctors desired to be 
 fair and just, yet they cannot be expected to 
 be unbiased in their views? Though, as we 
 have already observed, it is not necessary to 
 hold that a physician who opposes Christian 
 Science is consciously influenced in a domin- 
 ant way by his desire to protect his practice 
 or to further the interests of the school in 
 which he is a professor ; nor is it necessary to 
 claim that he is consciously the slave of pre- 
 judice and preconceived ideas; yet certain it 
 is that in a large number of cases these 
 things, and especially the education, practice 
 and prejudice, incapacitate doctors from im- 
 partially judging the question of cures pro- 
 duced in a way which, according to their 
 books, is as absurd and impossible as was the 
 Copernican theory ridiculous and impossible 
 to the scholars who all their lives had taught 
 the theories of Ptolemy. And it is very im- 
 portant to keep this fact in mind when con- 
 sidering physicians' criticisms of Christian, 
 Science. In some respects it would seem 
 that the doctors were peculiarly well fitted to 
 consider the question, but in equally marked 
 respects they are of all persons the least able 
 to rise above prejudice and become wisely 
 judicial. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 69 
 
 Dr. Cabot, in the opening page of his 
 paper, says : 
 
 "In my own personal researches into 
 Christian Science 'cures,' I have never found 
 one in which there was any good evidence 
 that cancer, consumption, or any other or- 
 ganic disease had been arrested or banished. 
 The diagnosis was usually made either by 
 the patient himself or was an interpretation 
 at second or third hand of what a doctor was 
 supposed to have said." 
 
 Let us hope that the good doctor does not 
 belong to the class that are blind because 
 they will not see, or that class of spiritually 
 bHnd and deaf referred to by the Great 
 Nazarene in one of his parables, when He 
 said, "Neither would they be persuaded if 
 one came from the dead." 
 
 That Dr. Cabot finds it difficult to fit his 
 theory to the facts, in the presence of all the 
 evidence with which he has been confronted, 
 is indicated by the labored way in which he 
 prefaces his discussion, when describing 
 functional and organic diseases, and the many 
 loopholes he leaves for escape in the event 
 that cures exhibiting conditions that are sup- 
 posed to be characteristic of organic troubles 
 
70 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 *.' 
 
 are adduced. To appreciate this fact, we 
 need only peruse his words, as follows : 
 
 "I have never seen any reason to believe 
 that lies were told by the persons concerned. 
 Their claims were the result of mistake or 
 intellectual mistiness, and not of intentional 
 deception. The cures no doubt took place 
 as they asserted, but they were not cures of 
 organic disease. Now, before going further, 
 something must be said in explanation of the 
 terms 'organic' and 'functional.' By organic 
 disease is meant one that causes serious, 
 perhaps permanent, deterioration of the tis- 
 sues of the body; by functional disease is 
 meant one due to a perverted action of ap- 
 proximately normal organs. Functional dis- 
 eases are no more imaginary than an un- 
 governable temper of a balky horse is im- 
 aginary. They are often the source of acute 
 and long-continued suffering ; indeed, I be- 
 lieve that there is no class of diseases that 
 give rise to so much keen suffering; but still 
 they do not seriously damage the organs and 
 tissues of the body. Organic disease, on the 
 other hand, may run its course accompanied 
 by much less suffering, but the destruction of 
 tissue is serious, perhaps irreparable. The 
 sharpness of this distinction between organic 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 71 
 
 and functional troubles is somewhat blurred 
 by the fact that a functional or nervous af- 
 fection, such as insomnia, may lead, both 
 directly and through loss of appetite, to a 
 loss of weight or to a considerable deteriora- 
 tion in the body tissues. Here we have what 
 might be called organic disease produced by 
 functional disease. . . We must also rec- 
 ognize the fact that there are a few rare dis- 
 eases which we cannot certainly assign either 
 to the organic or the functional class. Yet 
 despite these reservations, the distinction 
 which the words indicate is still a clear one 
 in the vast majority of cases." 
 
 Personally, we believe that the alleged ig- 
 norance of the thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands of patients who have been cured by 
 Christian Science, after long and faithful trial 
 of other means has proved entirely futile, is 
 being largely overworked by the physicians. 
 Thus, for example, the Christian Science 
 Committee in New York has a record of 
 11,244* cures that have been wrought by 
 Christian Science in the Empire State. A 
 large number of these have been, according 
 to the testimony of thoroughly intelligent 
 men and women and their declaration as. to 
 
 ♦See Broadtoay Magazine^ November, 1907 
 
^2 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 the diagnosis of the physicians, such organic 
 diseases as cancer, tuberculosis of the lungs, 
 Bright's disease of the kidneys, etc. New 
 York is under a strict medical law which has 
 enabled the regular schools to drive out ir- 
 regular medical practitioners, and yet, ac- 
 cording to the statements of hundreds of 
 well-known citizens of New York who have 
 been cured by Christian Science, the physi- 
 cians who previously treated them diagnosed 
 their diseases as organic. And what is true 
 of New York is true of various other states. 
 
 Moreover, Christian Science practitioners 
 with whom we are well acquainted — men and 
 women of fine education, high-minded, con- 
 scientious and intellectually brilliant, inform 
 us that it has been their experience in the 
 treatment of disease, that organic troubles 
 yield quite as readily as functional disorders. 
 Personally, we believe that the evidence ob- 
 tainable would amply disprove the claims of 
 the physicians before any unprejudiced or 
 impartial tribunal. 
 
 But since the physicians lay so much stress 
 on the testimony of their own schoolmen; 
 since they would have us believe that only 
 those who have been trained by an education 
 in medical colleges and by long years of prac- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 73 
 
 tice are competent to authoritatively differ- 
 entiate between organic and functional dis- 
 eases, we at the present time shall devote our 
 attention to the testimony of physicians on 
 this point ; and in the first instance we desire 
 to call the reader's attention to some facts 
 presented by Dr. W. F. W. Wilding, a mem- 
 ber of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
 England, of the British Medical Association, 
 the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers 
 of Health, and of the Licentiate Royal Col- 
 lege of Physicians of London, England. 
 Surely this man ought to be competent to 
 diagnose disease to the satisfaction of his 
 medical brethren, and his testimony therefore 
 has peculiar interest and value in this con- 
 nection. In giving the story of his own per- 
 sonal observation and experience in regard 
 to the cure of organic disease by Christian 
 Science treatment. Dr. Wilding says: 
 
 "My father had been suffering for many 
 years from an internal trouble, culminating 
 in a serious attack of hemorrhage, and while 
 contemplating an operation, he was per- 
 suaded to try Christian Science first, with the 
 result that the operation was never required. 
 He was completely healed in a few days' 
 treatment. The report of this heaHng raised 
 
74 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 such a bitter feeling of resentment in me 
 that I think I should have been more pleased 
 if the cure had failed, for I then deemed 
 Christian Science to be quackery. 
 
 "However, some months later came my 
 extremity, when medicine failed to check my 
 daughter's headlong passage to her grave. 
 . . . The disease my daughter was suf- 
 fering from was tuberculosis, in both hip 
 joints, and also consumption of the lungs. 
 For the diseased joints she had been kept 
 rigidly bandaged down to an iron frame 
 reaching from the shoulders to the ankles, 
 holding the body firmly fixed in the prone 
 position. This was the usual surgical appli- 
 ance for double hip-joint disease. Life in 
 the open air and residence in a pure atmos- 
 phere and all other means to combat the 
 scourge were tried, and yet at the age of 
 nearly eight years she had wasted down to 
 less than thirty pounds, i. e., to the weight of 
 an average child of two years; in fact, to Jess 
 than her own weight at two years of age." 
 
 Dr. Wilding then describes how he placed 
 his daughter, who was then very near to 
 death, under Christian Science treatment, a 
 treatment that resulted in "transforming the 
 whole outlook for my daughter. The ma- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 75 
 
 terial shackles were at once discarded and 
 the child began to walk without suffering 
 pain. 
 
 "From that day, six and a half years ago, 
 she has gone on improving, without any set- 
 back and without spending an hour in bed 
 through sickness. The joints became free, 
 the stiffened limbs supple, and the wasted tis- 
 sues were steadily and regularly rebuilt, until 
 she is now one of the most healthy girls in 
 her school, never ailing, never absent, always 
 able to take her part with other girls, both 
 in school and out of school. She has not one 
 symptom of disease about her. 
 
 "In my practice were several patients suf- 
 fering from organic incurable disease ; some 
 of them in their helpless condition decided to 
 try Christian Science. One young man had 
 suffered for about two years from traumatic 
 disease of the knee-joint. This joint was 
 very much enlarged and the various com- 
 ponent parts were little else than a mass of 
 pulpy swelling. The surgeons in the infirm- 
 ary he was attending, told him that the only 
 cure was excision of the whole joint, bringing 
 the healthy upper and lower parts of the limb 
 together and letting them unite, leaving him 
 
76 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 with a leg shortened by several inches and 
 stiff. We, surgeons, considered this course 
 as a practical success, but the patient felt he 
 would Hke to keep his whole limb, and there- 
 fore turned to those who held out hope to 
 him. He consulted a Christian Science prac- 
 titioner and was absolutely healed there and 
 then. I myself personally examined this 
 joint the day before and the day after his 
 healing, and can testify to the condition and 
 to the complete healing resulting from one 
 Christian Science treatment. 
 
 "A patient had been under my care, more 
 or less, for over six years, suffering from or- 
 ganic disease of the valves of the heart, 
 steadily growing worse most of the time. 
 The last attack had nearly proved fatal. This 
 was another case of rapid healing when 
 Christian Science was tried. One day she 
 was going about in a bath-chair, the next 
 working hard from early morning in her own 
 cottage home." 
 
 At the time Dr. Wilding made this state- 
 ment, the woman had been in the enjoyment 
 of perfect health for six years, working hard 
 every day. 
 
 Dr. Wilding, after observing that he could 
 cite numerous other cases of similar healing 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT y^ 
 
 of organic troubles, gives the following in- 
 teresting case which came under his personal 
 observation a year and a half after he had 
 become convinced of the power of Christian 
 Science to cure all manner of disease. Every 
 step of the following case, he declares, 
 "passed under my personal observation." 
 
 "The patient suffered for twenty years 
 from a form of paralysis and most of the time 
 losing more and more control of her Hmbs, 
 the latter eight years being completely par- 
 alyzed in the lower limbs, and partially in the 
 arms, and she was so helpless that others had 
 to carry her downstairs to her couch or bath- 
 chair in the morning, and upstairs to bed at 
 night, when she was even well enough to 
 leave her bed at all. 
 
 "The attending medical man at this period, 
 when asked his opinion of the future progress 
 of the disease, repHed plainly in effect, that 
 there was no hope of any cure, but a very 
 grave fear that she would steadily grow- 
 worse and that a fatal termination in the near 
 future was not at all improbable — and then 
 he followed this up with a strong recom- 
 mendation to her to try Christian Science, 
 because he had known of a case in his own 
 practice of partial spinal paralysis being 
 healed by this treatment. 
 
78 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 "The patient, after consulting with her re- 
 latives and also with the one healed by Chris- 
 tian Science, to whom her doctor had re- 
 ferred, applied for Christian Science treat- 
 ment. 
 
 "During the first treatment given, the 
 Christian Scientist had the joy of witnessing 
 the active return of movement in the par- 
 alyzed limbs, at first in an involuntary and 
 uncontrollable swinging of the legs under 
 the bed clothes. There had been no move- 
 ment of these limbs for nearly eight years. 
 In the early morning after the Scientist's 
 visit, which had been paid in the evening, the 
 patient made her sister get up, light the gas 
 and help her out of bed, saying she 'felt sure 
 she could walk.' She arose and walked 
 around her bed. Their great joy may be 
 imagined. 
 
 "The healing was so rapid that in two or 
 three days she was able to go out, walking 
 about the town." 
 
 We next invite the attention of our readers 
 to some extremely interesting and valuable 
 data furnished by another physician, whose 
 thorough medical education, experience as 
 instructor in a leading medical college, prac- 
 tice in one of the largest hospitals of the con- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 79 
 
 tinent, and extensive private practice render 
 him especially well qualified, from a regular 
 view-point to accurately diagnose disease. 
 Moreover, the special cases here given can- 
 not fail to command the consideration of un- 
 biased and thoughtful people, because, in ad- 
 dition to the opinions of an eminent expert 
 diagnostician, the general facts observable 
 by lay attendants and friends who were cog- 
 nizant of them are substantiated by affidavits 
 from these parties. Before giving this report, 
 however, a few words in regard to Dr. 
 Edmund F. Burton, who furnishes this data, 
 will be interesting. 
 
 Dr. Burton graduated from the Rush 
 Medical College of Chicago, Illinois. He 
 served an interneship of eighteen months in 
 Cook County Hospital of Chicago. After his 
 interneship he was appointed a member of 
 the surgical consulting staff of the same hos- 
 pital. He was also appointed instructor in 
 the Rush Medical College. Both these posi- 
 tions he held until he was compelled to leave 
 the north on account of the rapid inroads 
 made upon his health by tuberculosis of the 
 lungs. He first went to Arizona, and later 
 to Los Angeles, California. While in Arizona 
 he served as Acting Assistant Surgeon of the 
 
8o CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 United States Marine Hospital Service. In 
 reporting on his condition after the develop- 
 ment of consumption, prior to his leaving 
 Chicago, Dr. Burton says : 
 
 "1 was obliged, on account of tuberculosis 
 of the lungs, to abandon my medical practice 
 in Chicago and go to Arizona, where it was 
 hoped, against expectation, by those who ad- 
 vised this move that the disease might be 
 overcome ; but the prognosis was that I would 
 not live more than a few months. I myself 
 had discovered accidentally the presence of 
 the disease more than a year before the time 
 of leaving Chicago, but had delayed following 
 the advice which I would have given to any 
 one else, partly with the hope that I could 
 overcome the trouble without the aid of a 
 more favorable climate and partly through 
 dread of the life at a consumptive resort. 
 However, during the last two months preced- 
 ing my leaving for Arizona the hemorrhages 
 became so frequent and profuse that it was 
 no longer possible for me to go on with my 
 work, and I accepted what seemed to be the 
 inevitable. During the year previous to my 
 leaving Chicago I had been depending upon 
 alcohol and opium in different forms to con- 
 trol as far as possible the symptoms of the 
 lung trouble." 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 8i 
 
 Later, Dr. Burton, as have so many physi- 
 cians in like condition, resorted to cocaine 
 to stimulate the faculties drugged and 
 drowsed by morphine, in order to enable him 
 to continue his practice. Finally the stomach 
 refused to assimilate food, and there was 
 added to other troubles a complete nervous 
 break-down. The doctor's Hfe was despaired 
 of. So certainly, indeed, did death in the 
 near future appear inevitable, that a local 
 hospital refused to take the patient, and 
 preparations were being made to remove the 
 supposedly dying man to a state institution. 
 There was a period of unconsciousness, re- 
 ports Dr. Burton, of more than forty-eight 
 hours, after which a "number of physicians 
 who had known me for several months, in 
 consultation pronounced me incurable, and 
 told my friends that I had from a few days to 
 a few weeks to live. A private sanitarium 
 to which my wife applied refused to admit 
 me on account of the hopelessness of the 
 case. . . . 
 
 "During the evening following this ver- 
 dict a lady suggested with much trepidation 
 the advisability of calling a Christian Science 
 practitioner, and my wife consented that this 
 be done, not with a feeling that anything 
 
82 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 could be accomplished, but in the same spirit 
 of desperation in which any other harmless 
 although probably useless thing would have 
 been allowed. A practitioner came and re- 
 mained with me three hours. At the end of 
 the first hour I was sleeping quietly, and 
 when I woke about eight o'clock in the morn- 
 ing it was with a clear mind and the absolute 
 conviction, which has not changed since, that 
 I was free and well. I asked what had been 
 done for me, insisting that a radical change 
 had taken place in my physical and mental 
 condition. Naturally the conviction that I 
 had been healed came very slowly to those 
 about me, and it was months before it was 
 fully acknowledged, but to me there was 
 such a mental change that from the first 
 there was no room for doubt. There is no 
 need here to give figures, although I shall 
 be glad to do so privately to any one, physi- 
 cian or layman, but I will say that so far as 
 I know there is no instance in medical litera- 
 ture of the recovery of any one taking the 
 amount of these drugs which I was taking up 
 to the time referred to. And to one who 
 knows the state of the nervous system and of 
 the digestive organs which exists in such 
 cases, it is stating it mildly to say that the 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 83 
 
 most remarkable feature of the cure was 
 that there was no period of convalescence. 
 From the time of my waking on the morning 
 following the treatment there was no ner- 
 vousness or twitching, sleep was natural and 
 quiet, appetite healthy, digestive functions all 
 in good working order, and mind clear and 
 composed. The same afternoon I drove my 
 automobile for two hours without weariness 
 or excitement of any kind. During the fol- 
 lowing thirty days I gained thirty pounds in 
 weight. Within ten days of the time that I 
 was pronounced incurable, I undertook a 
 most arduous trip across the Nevada desert, 
 where unusual endurance and physical 
 strength were absolutely necessary, and I 
 found that I had an abundance of both. 
 Moreover, from the day of the treatment to 
 the present time [a period of over six years] 
 there has never been any desire for alcohol, 
 opium in any form, cocaine, or any other 
 stimulant or drug. 
 
 "Two months later I was able to lay aside 
 glasses, which I had been obliged to wear 
 constantly for several years on account of 
 compound astigmatism, and my vision since 
 has been such that there has been no need 
 
84 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 to use them. About the same time and with- 
 out any feeling of inconvenience I was able 
 to abandon the habit of smoking, which I 
 acquired in early boyhood and with which I 
 had had many a hard and unsuccessful 
 struggle. 
 
 "I was forced by my own healing to the 
 conclusion that there was a power in Chris- 
 tian Science of which I had never taken ac- 
 count. My own changed condition convinced 
 me that there was something in the system, 
 and I was determined to find out what it was, 
 although I had no thought at that time that 
 it could take me out of my profession." 
 
 Last winter a magazine published a paper 
 from the pen of Dr. Burton, in which, after 
 giving a detailed statement of his wonderful 
 cure, he cited some remarkable cases that had 
 come under his own observation, involving 
 the cure of organic troubles through Chris- 
 tian Science. This article called forth the 
 following letter from one of the leading Bos- 
 ton physicians : 
 
 ''Dear Dr. Burton : 
 
 "i. What was the 'broken bone restored 
 to normal condition and function within a 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 85 
 
 few hours'? (Midwestern, February, 1908, 
 p. 98). 
 
 ''2. What was the patient's name and ad- 
 dress ? 
 
 "3. To what witnesses can you refer me on 
 this case ? Will you give me similar informa- 
 tion regarding the 'congenital deformity' in 
 a child five years? (See same reference.) 
 
 "What are the names and addresses of the 
 'best medical talent' who diagnosed the case 
 of cancer referred to in the next sentence of 
 the article referred to ? 
 
 "If we can all of us get proof of these 
 statements we must all become Christian 
 Scientists. It seems to me therefore only 
 fair that you should let us have the proof of 
 these facts, and I hope that you will be will- 
 ing to oblige me in this matter." 
 
 In reply to the above, Dr. Burton wrote at 
 length. That portion of the letter bearing 
 on the cases in question we reproduce in full, 
 together with the statements and affidavits 
 of outside parties cognizant of the facts in- 
 volved. 
 
 ' 'My Dear Doctor : 
 
 "Replying to your favor, would say that I 
 am glad to give you the information for which 
 
86 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 you ask. . . . You may be sure, how- 
 ever, that I appreciate your inability to un- 
 derstand such healing, in surgical cases 
 especially, but to refuse to believe on testi- 
 mony even where one fails to understand is 
 not the position of investigators to-day. 
 
 "The ^broken bone restored to normal con- 
 dition' was in the arm of my wife. There was 
 fracture of the olecranon and backward dis- 
 location of the elbow joint. The examination 
 was made by myself about an hour after the 
 accident, and was made most carefully, since 
 it was my wife's desire that the healing should 
 be left to Christian Science, and I made sure 
 of the condition to be met, from a surgical 
 standpoint. I might refer you to Drs. Frank 
 Billings, J. B. Murphy and James Nevins 
 Hyde of Chicago, with whose names you are 
 familiar, and who will, I think, tell you that 
 my diagnosis of such a case can be relied upon 
 — at least they will agree that it could be re- 
 lied upon before I became a Christian Scien- 
 tist, and there is nothing in that teaching to 
 lead one to have less regard for the truth 
 than otherwise. 
 
 "As witness of the accident and its results, 
 I refer you to Mr. and Mrs. Tully Marshall, 
 who can be reached at the Astor Theatre, 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 87 
 
 New York, and Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Clawson, 
 Pacific Electric Building, Los Angeles. 
 
 "There was no manual reduction of the dis- 
 location or fracture and no dressing or splint 
 of any kind applied. Thirty hours later there 
 was no sign of dislocation or fracture, Mrs. 
 Burton dressed her own hair and fastened — 
 in the back — her waist, using the hand of the 
 injured arm, and was about her usual occu- 
 pations, went bathing in the surf and used 
 the hand and arm freely. There was never 
 at any time enough swelling to be noticed 
 without comparison with the other arm, al- 
 though there was slight discoloration for sev- 
 eral days. 
 
 "The second case referred to was that of a 
 child in whom there was such deformity as 
 to prevent action of the digestive tract with 
 anything like normality. There never was an 
 action of the bowels up to the time of her 
 healing. Water was forced into the lower 
 bowel and simply ran out without any sign 
 of the slightest bowel action. She was never 
 able to nurse, and a few drops of milk at a 
 time were swallowed with pain and difficulty, 
 and there was complaint of pain in the stom- 
 ach and bowels always. At the time of her 
 healing she could take a small glass of milk 
 
88 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 in an hour. One five-minute treatment re- 
 sulted in entire removal of all these troubles, 
 and she has eaten, digested her food and 
 evacuated her bowels normally ever since. 
 Her mother is Mrs. William Johnson, Holly- 
 wood, California. 
 
 "The case of cancer referred to is Mrs. 
 Belt, Bellevue Terrace Hotel, Los Angeles. 
 The healing was done in November, 1906. 
 Her brother, through whom it was done, is 
 Mr. W. S. Alexander, 121 West First street, 
 Los Angeles. The case had been diagnosed 
 by several physicians and at the time referred 
 to was in charge of Dr. Barton Dozier, 412 
 Grant Building, Los Angeles. There were 
 all the classical symptoms and signs of inop- 
 erable carcinoma of the stomach. She was 
 believed by two nurses in charge of her at the 
 Clara Barton Hospital, this city, to have died 
 and such notation, together with the hour of 
 death, was made by the head nurse. Her 
 brother refused to accept this verdict and 
 continued with Christian Science treatment, 
 with the result that she was restored to per- 
 fect health, left the hospital in a carriage in 
 a few days, and is to-day a normally healthy 
 woman." 
 
 Mr. Tully Marshall, who at the time of 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 89 
 
 making this statement was leading man at 
 the Astor Theatre, New York City, in an 
 affidavit dated New York, March 30, 1908, 
 says : 
 
 "During the summer of 1907 my wife and 
 I were visiting in CaHfornia, and on the first 
 day of July of that year were bathing in the 
 surf with some friends at Ocean Park, Cali- 
 fornia. My sister-in-law, Mrs. Alberta N. 
 Burton, wife of Dr. Edmund F. Burton of 
 Los Angeles, was bathing with us on that 
 occasion. 
 
 "The surf was unusually rough, and in 
 battling with the waves my sister-in-law was 
 thrown violently, being struck suddenly by a 
 more than usually heavy wave. She instinc- 
 tively threw out her left arm to save herself, 
 and in falling struck heavily on this arm. 
 
 "My wife and I went to her assistance and 
 helped her to our house where on examina- 
 tion it was found that her left arm was rap- 
 idly swelling, the pain also being most in- 
 tense. She was unable to raise the arm at all. 
 I could see plainly that the elbow was dislo- 
 cated, although I did not know at the time 
 that the elbow joint could only be thrown out 
 in the manner which I have described by the 
 breaking ofif of a hook-like bone which forms 
 part of the socket. 
 
90 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 "Within an hour after the accident, Dr. 
 Burton took the case and treated it through 
 Christian Science. While the severe pain was 
 not relieved at once, the patient was able to 
 sit up and eat her dinner, and moreover, slept 
 quietly that night from eleven o'clock until 
 the following morning. 
 
 "Within three days my sister's-in-law arm 
 was, to all intents, well, and she went with us 
 to a picnic, and went in bathing again with us. 
 
 "In less than a week she was able to play 
 on the piano (of which she is an enthusiastic 
 devotee), and was able to dress herself com- 
 pletely without assistance and to attend to all 
 her daily affairs as usual. 
 
 "During this period the arm was discolored 
 (inside particularly) from the wrist nearly to 
 the shoulder, the darkest patches being near- 
 est the elbow where the ligaments had been 
 torn loose. This discoloration disappeared 
 within a few days from the time of the acci- 
 dent and the arm was as well as the other, in 
 every respect, the healing being complete. 
 
 "It seems only fair to add that I have been 
 since told by surgeons that with the best 
 surgical attention such a fracture leaves a 
 more or less stiffened arm, but in this case 
 there were no such effects. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 91 
 
 ''I wish to reiterate that I was not only 
 present at the time of the accident, but that 
 subsequent thereto my sister-in-law was un- 
 der my close and (it must be confessed) 
 skeptical observation, as my wife and I were 
 then living in the same house with her. 
 
 "At that time I was disposed to criticise 
 the methods employed to relieve my sister- 
 in-law, feeling convinced that the bone should 
 be set or the arm at least bandaged, and car- 
 ried in a sling as is usually done in such cases. 
 However, in this instance, the results dis- 
 armed all criticism, the healing being com- 
 plete.'' 
 
 Mrs. Marion Marshall, in an affidavit made 
 the same day, says she has read her hus- 
 band's statement, is familiar with all the facts 
 set forth in his affidavit and declares that the 
 same are true of her own knowledge. 
 
 The statement made by Mrs. Alice Higgin- 
 botham Johnson, of Hollywood, California, 
 in respect to the second case, that of a child, 
 cited by Dr. Burton, declares that her daugh- 
 ter from birth "showed evidence of an ab- 
 normality in the digestive tract, manifested 
 by great difficulty in swallowing, signs of 
 pain in the stomach and bowels, and lack of 
 bowel movement. Swallowing seemed to be 
 
92 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 accompanied by pain in the throat and was 
 frequently impossible, the food not being 
 passed at all, but lodging in the mouth or 
 throat and ejected later or at once. A glass 
 of milk fed her with a spoon required from 
 one to two hours to be swallowed, even up 
 to the time when she was relieved of the con- 
 dition in September, 1907. 
 
 "In September, 1907, she received a single 
 treatment from a Christian Science practi- 
 tioner. This was followed at once by the dis- 
 appearance of all of these conditions. Bread 
 and milk were swallowed freely within a few 
 minutes; the bowels moved naturally within 
 a few hours, and the pain in the stomach dis- 
 appeared. She has been in normally good 
 health and condition since that time." 
 
 Mrs. Johnson's account of her daughter's 
 healing is attested by the child's grand- 
 mother, Mrs. J. I. Shackelford. 
 
 The confirmatory evidence in the case of 
 Mrs. Belt who was healed of cancer, is ex- 
 ceedingly interesting. 
 
 Mrs. Ollie Malone makes the following 
 explicit statement, dated Los Angeles, Cali- 
 fornia, March 26, 1908: 
 
 "I hereby certify that I was a special nurse 
 at the Clara Barton Hospital in the city of 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 93 
 
 Los Angeles at the time Mrs. Mary A. Belt 
 was brought there as a patient on or about 
 the first of November, 1906. She was almost 
 continually vomiting and suffering; was un- 
 able to eat or sleep or retain anything on her 
 stomach for several days. Her stomach was 
 very much bloated, and she had been there 
 suffering in that way for four or five days ; 
 phlegm, similar in appearance as soap-suds, 
 at times almost filling her mouth and nos- 
 trils. This slightly mingled with blood from 
 the nose. Her ankles had both turned dark, 
 indicating that congestion had set in, and we 
 were not expecting her to live through the 
 night. 
 
 "About this time she was treated through 
 Christian Science. Her brother, Mr. W. S. 
 Alexander, remained at the hospital with her 
 practically all the time, day and night, for 
 five days. (I understand there were two other 
 Christian Scientists treating her.) She ap- 
 peared to rest easier and not suffering so 
 much pain soon after she was receiving Chris- 
 tian Science treatment, and I think it was the 
 second or third night after she was taking 
 Christian Science treatment, she appeared to 
 have expired. 
 
 "I was unable to locate any pulsation. 
 
94 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 This was about twelve o'clock at night. I 
 immediately looked up the head nurse, and 
 she came to the room with me. She called 
 Mrs. Belt and then tried to locate her pulse. 
 In the meantime her mouth had come open 
 and the jaw turned slightly to one side, every 
 symptom and indication that death had taken 
 place, and the head nurse, in my presence, 
 recorded her death. 
 
 "It was then that Mr. Alexander, her 
 brother, stooped in front of her, and, placing 
 his hands to each side of her head, he called 
 her by name, 'Mary,' the second time, and 
 she opened her eyes, and breathed a natural 
 breath, and that morning she turned over on 
 her stomach and had a sleep for the first 
 time while she was at the hospital. Within 
 a few days she left the hospital, and I regard 
 it as miraculous and the most wonderful case 
 of healing through prayer. 
 
 "I am not a Christian Scientist, and have 
 told others of this wonderful case of healing, 
 which I could never have believed had I not 
 witnessed the same with my own eyes." 
 
 Mrs. Belt's brother, J. B. Alexander, who 
 is not a Christian Scientist, in a statement 
 dated Los Angeles, California, April i, 1908, 
 confirms the account of Mrs. Belt's suffering 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 95 
 
 and the characteristic symptoms of her case 
 and relates how, after her failure to improve 
 under the hospital treatment, she asked her 
 brother, Scott Alexander, for Christian 
 Science treatment. Mr. J. B. Alexander's 
 statement continues: 
 
 "Her improvement seemed slow. A couple 
 of days after she had asked for Christian 
 Science treatment, when I called by as usual, 
 it seemed to me there was then no hope for 
 her. She conveyed to me the idea that she 
 expected soon to expire, and had grasped 
 my hand, but my brother Scott assured us 
 both that all would be well, and I was much 
 impressed with the firmness of his statement. 
 
 "The next morning I called by I noted a 
 marked improvement, and learned that she 
 had for the first time in several days had 
 sleep. She soon began to eat and relish her 
 food, and within a few days left the hospital 
 very happy. She soon regained the flesh she 
 had lost, and we all recognized the fact that 
 she has been healed through Christian 
 Science treatment. 
 
 "I am not a member of the Christian 
 Science church, although the religion appeals 
 to me as beautiful and consistent with the 
 Scriptures." 
 
96 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Mrs. Belt's own affidavit goes into detail as 
 to her experiences and conditions prior to 
 her healing by Christian Science and dwells 
 at length on her condition before and after 
 taking Christian Science treatment. She nar- 
 rates how, just before the cure, "the phlegm, 
 like foam, filled my mouth and nostrils, min- 
 gled with blood, and I observed one of my 
 ankles quite dark and blue, and asked the 
 nurse, how I had hurt my ankle. I then ob- 
 served the other ankle was also dark, and 
 asked her what caused that. Then I told her 
 it was congestion that had set in, and she 
 stated, 'Never mind about that.' ... I 
 felt that death was near, and told my brother, 
 even if I died, I felt that my soul had been 
 saved. I don't just remember what expres- 
 sions my brother made, but he would never 
 admit that I would die. He would tell me 
 that life was spiritual and eternal, that in 
 God, in Spirit, we move and live and have 
 our being, and similar statements. 
 
 "When I became unconscious, or after I 
 had expired, I do not know for how long, 
 when I became aroused, or awoke from that 
 condition, I felt and knew that I was healed. 
 Such a change had taken place, and I was 
 made exceedingly happy. I was thirsty and 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 97 
 
 hungry and asked for water. My brother 
 told me that life was spiritual and not to 
 care to eat or drink with the thought before 
 me, that it was necessary for health and 
 strength, but that I would soon have a natural 
 appetite, and I could then eat and drink 
 whatever I cared for, and it would not hurt 
 me. I then told him I wished for a drink of 
 water, which was given me, and I asked for 
 an apple. A half of an apple was found, 
 which I relished, and I turned on my stomach 
 and had a sweet sleep for the first time for 
 about nine days. The next morning my 
 brother brought me a lot of figs and grapes 
 and I had other things to eat, and on that day 
 I sat up in a chair part of the day. The next 
 day I walked about the place, and that even- 
 ing I had a hearty meal, including corn bread 
 and breakfast bacon, and the next day, with 
 others of the family and friends went up into 
 the roof-garden. The following day, my 
 brother called by with a carriage for me, and 
 we enjoyed a long drive. 
 
 "I had been reduced in weight to 105 
 pounds. Within a few months I regained 
 my normal weight of about 145 pounds." 
 
 It was our purpose to cite a number of fur- 
 ther interesting and important cases given by 
 
98 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 other physicians, and testimony from promi- 
 nent or well-known individuals relating to 
 cures where the facts in evidence leave no 
 doubt as to the organic character of the dis- 
 eases cured. Lack of space, however, renders 
 this impossible at the present time; but the 
 clear, explicit and unequivocal testimony of 
 the distinguished English physician and sur- 
 geon and that of the American physician 
 whose medical education and ability were sig- 
 nally recognized by his professional brethren 
 when he was made instructor in his alma 
 mater and appointed on the staff on one of 
 the largest hospitals in the country, rein- 
 forced as is this last testimony by the sworn 
 affidavits of reputable citizens as to the facts 
 observable by those in attendance on the 
 patients, is entitled to far more consideration 
 from impartial truth-seekers than the opin- 
 ions of doctors who have made but superficial 
 investigations and who have started out with 
 the conviction that no organic disease could 
 be cured by Christian Science. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MEDICAL EXPLANATIONS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 CURES CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT 
 
 OF TYPICAL CASES 
 
 INCE we founded The Arena in 
 the autumn of 1889, to the pres- 
 ent time, during the years when 
 this review was under our edi- 
 torial management, we do not call to mind 
 more than three instances where a paper ap- 
 pearing in our pages called forth more favor- 
 able letters or inquiries than were eHcited by 
 our contribution in the November Arena 
 of 1908 on " Christian Science and Organic 
 Disease." Many valued friends called at the 
 office to discuss its contents, and from 
 Canada and various parts of the Republic 
 came letters expressive of new and gen- 
 eral interest in the subject and asking for 
 further facts, which we intimated could be 
 given in substantiation of the claims made. 
 Perhaps the general tenor of these letters and 
 conversations with interested parties can best 
 
loo CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 be summed up in the following expressions 
 by two of our readers. 
 
 One friend said : " Until reading your 
 paper in The Arena for November, I had un- 
 hesitatingly accepted the position which the 
 medical profession and most writers in the 
 magazines and newspapers have assumed 
 when discussing cures said to have been made 
 by Christian Science practitioners, — namely, 
 that the diseases were not correctly diag- 
 nosed ; that though in many cases there may 
 have been no intention on the part of the 
 patient to deceive or falsify, the conclusions 
 were due to loose thinking or ' intellectual 
 mistiness ' ; that though in many instances the 
 cures, as Dr. Cabot observes, doubtless took 
 place, * they were not cures of organic dis- 
 ease.' I accepted without question the opin- 
 ion of Dr. Cabot when he said, ' In my own 
 personal researches into Christian Science 
 '^ cures," I have never found one in which 
 there was any good evidence that cancer, 
 consumption, or any other organic disease 
 had been arrested or banished.'* Faulty or 
 incompetent diagnosis was in my judgment 
 the first explanation of the apparent cures 
 of organic disease by Christian Scientists. 
 
 *Dr. Cabot in JfcC^ure's Magazine : quoted in Chapter III 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT loi 
 
 Secondly, I believed that the persons making 
 the statement, while probably usually sin- 
 cere and in a general way good people, were 
 chiefly ignorant and over-credulous, many of 
 them prone to exaggeration, and not a few 
 desiring to pose and attract attention, — some- 
 thing very common at the present day, when 
 sensationalism is rampant. In the third place, 
 I believed that whatever real cures had been 
 accomplished under Christian Science treat- 
 ment were clearly due to suggestion, not in 
 nature different from that practiced by physi- 
 cians who employ hypnotism, though in the 
 case of Christian Scientists, of course, the 
 end was attained without hypnosis. Your 
 paper, containing as it did the deliberate testi- 
 mony of two eminent diagnosticians, one an 
 Englishman and the other an American, and 
 both men who had been signally honored 
 while actively practicing medicine, instantly 
 arrested my attention. The views of these 
 men certainly merited respectful considera- 
 tion as expert opinions ; and the amazing 
 character of the cures they recorded, together 
 with the clear and logical manner in which 
 the material was presented, has compelled 
 me to revise my opinions. So far as they 
 went, the cases as presented in the Novem- 
 
I02 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ber Arena seemed to be unanswerable; but 
 in the presence of a world-entrenched skep- 
 ticism and with the medical profession as 
 a whole, and the clergy, practically a unit in 
 opposing the conclusions that logically fol- 
 lowed the facts presented, it occurred to me 
 that the cause of truth would be greatly fur- 
 thered if you should give us other cases that 
 would tend to confirm the positions taken in 
 your paper on ^Christian Science and Organic 
 Disease,' and thus further break down the 
 prejudice born of long-accepted and rarely- 
 questioned views." 
 
 The other friend also urged us to give 
 additional cases, because, as he pointed out, 
 there is a vast amount of literature emanating 
 from the other side, and even the position 
 of the leaders of the widely-discussed Emman- 
 uel movement is in perfect harmony with the 
 conventional medical contention that no or- 
 ganic disease can be cured by methods other 
 than those practiced by the medical fraternity. 
 
 The importance of the subject, the general 
 interest in our previous paper, and the rea- 
 sons urged by our friends, have led us to 
 conclude that a further citation of typical 
 cases might be helpful in stimulating that 
 thorough investigation which truth challenges 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 103 
 
 and which all theories, opinions or truths not 
 generally accepted must encounter before 
 the barriers of prejudice, conservative 
 thought and preconceived ideas are broken 
 down. We therefore invite our readers' at- 
 tention to a further examination, in which the 
 three popular views advanced by the medical 
 profession and the critics of Christian Science 
 will be considered in the light of certain facts 
 which will tend to test their validity and 
 answer the question as to w^hether they are 
 sufficient to explain the vast and rapidly 
 growing volume of alleged cures of persons 
 on whom, in many instances, physicians have 
 passed the death sentence. 
 
 The three principal replies or explanations 
 vouchsafed when claims of cures of organic 
 disease are made by friends of Christian 
 Science, may be briefly summed up as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 (i) Inaccurate or faulty diagnosis, made 
 by the patients instead of by competent phy- 
 sicians. 
 
 (2) That those making the claims or re- 
 markable cures were persons of unschooled 
 minds, not trained to sift evidence or to con- 
 sider matters judicially; that they were fre- 
 quently not only unscientific in their pro- 
 
104 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 cesses of reasoning, but over-credulous and 
 prone to exaggeration. 
 
 (3) Where cures were effected, they have 
 been of merely functional disorders and have 
 been the result of suggestion, essentially sim- 
 ilar in character to that employed by hypno- 
 tists, though the results were obtained with- 
 out throwing the subject into a sleep. 
 
 With these explanations in mind, we invite 
 the readers' consideration to the detailed his- 
 tory of a case that in many respects is the 
 most notable instance of cure in the annals of 
 modern heaHng, — a case rendered doubly 
 valuable as an illustration because of the sup- 
 posed incurable character of the disease and 
 the fact that from the view-point of materia 
 medica the question of diagnosis leaves noth- 
 ing to be desired. The history of the case 
 by the physician in Chicago, up to the time 
 when Christian Science stepped in, is on 
 record in probably the most authoritative 
 regular medical journal in the New World; 
 while the story of the rescue of the medically- 
 doomed invalid from darkness and despair, 
 from untold agony and impending death, to 
 perfect health under Christian Science, is 
 here given as narrated by the husband of the 
 patient as clearly and comprehensively as the 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 105 
 
 downward course of the unfortunate woman's 
 health under the care of eminent medical men 
 was given by one of their own number. 
 
 In the Journal of the American Medical 
 Association for July 27, 1907, is found the 
 following paper which we republish entire 
 because of the importance of the facts in con- 
 nection with the question we are now consid- 
 ering. The paper is contributed to the 
 /oufnal by James B. Herrick, M. D., of Chi 
 cago, Illinois. 
 
 " The following case is reported because it 
 is, I believe, the first instance recorded of 
 recovery from generalized blastomycosis. It 
 is worthy of note also that the patient was a 
 woman and of the better class. Blastomy- 
 cosis in women is apparently a rarity. The 
 patient was under the care of Dr. A. C. 
 Garvy, with whom I saw her many times. 
 This preliminary report is made with the 
 kind consent of Dr. Garvy, who will later 
 present a more detailed history of the case. 
 It should encourage one in the persistent 
 treatment of blastomycosis even of the gen- 
 eralized type, as it shows that a certain per- 
 centage, probably a small one, may terminate 
 in healing. 
 
 ''History — The patient was Mrs. O., 24 
 
io6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 years of age, for at least 15 years a resident 
 of Chicago, of healthy, well-to-do parents, 
 and with no severe preceding illness except 
 the usual diseases of childhood, and nervous 
 disturbances, largely hysterical, in 1899. She 
 had been married eighteen months and was 
 the mother of a healthy child three months 
 old, which she was nursing at the time she 
 was taken ill. 
 
 " April 24, 1904, the illness began, to quote 
 her own words, ' with spots like hives and 
 pains like rheumatism/ The first lesions 
 were noticed over the left gluteal region. 
 There was no fever at first, at least none that 
 attracted attention, and the general health 
 was not impaired for several weeks. The 
 illness lasted for two years, and during this 
 time there were seventy-nine distinct lesions. 
 These varied in size from those i cm. in 
 diameter to areas 8 cm. or more broad. They 
 started as slightly reddish or purplish spots, 
 showing through the skin or felt deep in the 
 subcutaneous tissue. They gradually became 
 more prominent, somewhat hard and tender, 
 and a pseudo fluctuation or a genuine fluctu- 
 ation appearing, the lesions would break 
 through the skin, discharging a thick, yellow- 
 ish pus, or they would be opened by the phy- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 107 
 
 sician ; in a few instances spontaneous resolu- 
 tion without rupture occurred. After the 
 evacuation of the pus a somewhat indolent 
 granulating ulcer would be left, and there was 
 often an extensive undermining of the skin, 
 with burrowing of the pus. This was par- 
 ticularly marked over the left gluteal region 
 where the deep situation of the abscess and 
 its great size necessitated a drainage opera- 
 tion under anesthesia, which was done by 
 Dr. J. B. Murphy, May 12, 1905. This 
 abscess had its origin in the deeper struc- 
 tures, apparently in the pelvis. The lesions 
 in some instances, as on one of the fingers, 
 destroyed the bone. On healing they left 
 comparatively slight scars that in their 
 parchment-like feel somewhat resembled 
 those of lues. Lues in the husband as well 
 as in the patient were carefully excluded. 
 
 ''^Course of the Disease — The general 
 condition of the patient during the two years 
 of illness varied very materially. Most of the 
 time there was a slight temperature, with 
 occasional exacerbations, when it would 
 reach 102° or 103°. The pulse was generally 
 rapid, a hemic murmur present and the spleen 
 palpable. Early in the illness there was a 
 cough, and Dr. Garvy thought he detected 
 
io8 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 signs of slight consolidation at the right 
 apex. When I saw her I could make out no 
 evidence of pulmonary lesion; at this time 
 there was no cough. The urine showed an 
 occasional trace of febrile ( ?) albumin. There 
 was marked loss in weight and a secondary 
 anemia. The hemoglobin at one time was as 
 low as 50 per cent. ; an increase in the leuco- 
 cytes was commonly present. At the time 
 of the operation by Dr. Murphy the condi- 
 tion was so aggravated that it was thought 
 she would die upon the table. There was 
 generally more or less disturbance of the 
 stomach. At times the pain was extreme and 
 the patient was always decidedly neurotic and 
 even hysterical. This interfered very much 
 with her sleep. 
 
 "^ Treatment — The medication consisted 
 of iodide of potassium, often in increasingly 
 large doses. This seemed to benefit her de- 
 cidedly, but there was never a complete heal- 
 ing of all the lesions and the iodide often had 
 to be stopped because of gastric distress oc- 
 casioned by its prolonged use. The sulphate 
 of copper was tried internally and locally, but 
 with very doubtful benefit. Tonics and seda- 
 tives were given as indicated, the latter being 
 of necessity used with a free hand. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 109 
 
 ' ''Recovery. — In February, 1906, the 
 patient left for California, weighing about 
 100 pounds instead of her original 130 pounds 
 or more. There were still thirty-one sores on 
 the body. The patient became quieter and 
 less nervous, lived much of the time out of 
 doors, began to sleep well, to improve as re- 
 gards appetite, and there was soon a very 
 decided tendency to healing of the sores. No 
 medicine was taken after March 23, 1906. In 
 August, 1906, the last sore had disappeared. 
 I have seen the patient several times since 
 and she is apparently, at the date of this writ- 
 ing, July 12, 1907, in perfect health. She 
 writes me under recent date. — ' I am better 
 now than I have ever been in my whole Hfe, 
 and can endure anything and never have an 
 ache or pain.' 
 
 '-^Diagnosis — The diagnosis of blastomy- 
 cosis was made, not only on the clinical 
 symptoms, including the naked eye appear- 
 ance of the lesions and the exclusion of other 
 diseases, tuberculosis, syphiHs, etc., but by 
 the microscopic examination of the pus from 
 the wounds with a cultural development of 
 the blastomyces. The culture experiments 
 were made by Dr. Oliver Ormsby. The 
 patient was seen at various times by Drs. 
 
no CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 James Nevins Hyde, Joseph Zeisler and J. B. 
 Murphy. They agreed in the diagnosis of 
 generalized blastomycosis." 
 
 Here we have contributed, by a high medi- 
 cal authority, the history of this remarkable 
 case of a supposed incurable ailment; the 
 terrible progress of the disease ; the apparent 
 approaching fatal termination ; the statement 
 of recovery, carrying a wholly inaccurate im- 
 pression, it being an example of Hamlet with 
 the Prince left out; and the diagnosis of the 
 case. The latter is so complete that it ought 
 to leave no doubt in the mind of the medical 
 profession as to the accuracy of the diagnosis, 
 if any faith is ever to be placed in medical 
 diagnosis. 
 
 Now comes the history of the cure ; and in 
 passing let us say that this article was pre- 
 pared by Mr. David Oliver of Chicago, the 
 husband of the patient whose case has been 
 so carefully diagnosed, to be published in a 
 magazine that had printed an article from an 
 eminent doctor in which he claimed that 
 Christian Science had never cured a case of 
 organic disease ; but the magazine refused to 
 publish this plain statement of facts. It was 
 later given by Mr. Oliver for publication in 
 the Christian Science Sentinel. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT iii 
 
 "The writer begs to take issue with a state- 
 ment which appeared several months ago in 
 one of our leading magazines, in which a 
 doctor claimed that in his personal research 
 into Christian Science cures he had never 
 found one case in which there was any good 
 evidence that cancer, consumption, or any 
 other organic disease had been arrested or 
 banished, and that the diagnosis was either 
 made by the patient himself, or was an inter- 
 pretation at second hand of what a doctor 
 was supposed to have said. The writer has 
 not made a personal research, but has come 
 ' face to face ' with a case of so-called organic 
 disease, which he is fully convinced was cured 
 in Christian Science, in spite of any opinions 
 which may be held by physicians and others 
 to the contrary. 
 
 " An article appeared in the American Med- 
 ical Association Journal, under date of July 
 2y, 1907, which gave a complete statement of 
 the case to which reference is made. By way 
 of explanation it may be said that according 
 to medical opinion blastomycosis is a so- 
 called organic disease, as unsightly as leprosy 
 and as painful as any form of rheumatic 
 trouble known to sufifering mortals. To im- 
 press one with the severity of this case, it 
 
112 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 may be noted that the knife was used some 
 eighty odd times, and that up to the present 
 time there has never been a positive cure of 
 such a case known in the history of medicine. 
 It may also be of interest to know that the 
 patient suffered from this terrible disease 
 for over two years, and was treated by a num- 
 ber of eminent physicians, and that they 
 agreed upon the diagnosis of the case as 
 given in the medical journal already named. 
 The writer of this testimony is the husband 
 of the patient, and the facts herein related 
 can be substantiated by any of the medical 
 doctors who attended the case. The article 
 referred to would give one the impression 
 that the ' out-of-door ' life in sunny California 
 had a decided tendency toward the healing of 
 this case, but the facts are that the weather 
 during the patient's stay in California was 
 rainy and disagreeable, which confined her to 
 the house during her entire stay, with the ex- 
 ception of a few hours which were spent upon 
 the porch. 
 
 " The patient was taken ill the latter part 
 of May, 1904, and was not able to leave her 
 bed except for a short period until taken to 
 California in February, 1906. Upon her ar- 
 rival in Los Angeles, she was refused admis- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 113 
 
 sion to all hotels, hospitals, and sanitariums, 
 nor was it possible to lease a house after the 
 owner has ascertained the nature of the 
 disease. At last, as a final resort, it became 
 necessary to purchase a house for her shelter. 
 A remarkable coincidence happened in the 
 purchase of that house. After being turned 
 from door to door, it certainly seemed a mira- 
 cle to have the owner of that house recom- 
 mend Christian Science, though she herself 
 was not a Scientist. Like all others who 
 have had to be driven into the acceptance of 
 the truth, my wife scorned the idea of being 
 cured in Christian Science, until she was told 
 point-blank by her Los Angeles physician 
 that her place was at home, where she could 
 ' die among her friends.' Then came the reso- 
 lution to accept the truth, and she did so 
 right there and then. The physician was dis- 
 missed in the forenoon and a Christian 
 Science practitioner called in the afternoon. 
 Up to that time the patient had had little or 
 no natural sleep during the entire illness, and 
 had, during the past several weeks, retained 
 none of her food. At this time she weighed 
 less than ninety pounds, her normal weight 
 being over one hundred and thirty. The 
 rapidity of her progress under Christian Sci- 
 
114 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ence treatment was almost phenomenal and 
 unless substantiated by responsible people 
 would certainly sound mythical, or, to put it 
 stronger, like a downright falsehood. 
 
 " March 28, 1906, was the last day that the 
 physician called, and the first day of the 
 Christian Science treatment. It may seem 
 past belief, but after the first treatment in 
 Science the patient drank two cups of coffee 
 and ate several doughnuts and a plate of 
 baked beans for her evening meal. She then 
 slept after seven o'clock the next morning, 
 and without the usual ' capsule,' too. Within 
 a month she returned to Chicago, and al- 
 though able to walk but little, showed rapid 
 daily progress under treatment by a Christian 
 Science practitioner in that city. In July of 
 the same year she had regained her normal 
 weight, and could walk and stand as much 
 physically as she could prior to her illness. 
 To-day she is the same, after having spent 
 the past year in a trip around the world with- 
 out a sign of the aches and pains which 
 usually accompany such a feat. 
 
 " It is well worth one's while to take the 
 time to think of what Christian Science did in 
 this case. Those who read this article 
 carefully will see that Christian Science ac- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 115 
 
 tually put life into a human being who had 
 been as it were at death's door for more than 
 a year." 
 
 Let the candid truth-seeker consider this 
 case in connection with the persistent claims 
 of the medical profession in general, that 
 there never has been a case of organic dis- 
 ease cured by Christian Science; and in this 
 connection also let him call to mind the de- 
 tailed account of cures of organic disease as 
 given by Dr. W. F. W. Wilding, Member of 
 the Royal College of Surgeons of England 
 and of the British Medical Association, and 
 by Edmund F. Burton, M. D., formerly mem- 
 ber of the surgical staff of the Cook County 
 Hospital of Chicago and instructor in the 
 Rush Medical College. These two scholarly 
 physicians, whose eminent ability won them 
 such high honors and the confidence of their 
 brethren when they were medical practition- 
 ers, surely are entitled to be regarded as 
 thoroughly competent diagnosticians; and 
 they, it will be remembered, gave detailed 
 accounts of cures wrought by Christian 
 Science in many cases, among which were: 
 
 (a) Tuberculosis of both hip joints and 
 consumption of the lungs, with the patient, 
 a child of eight years, reduced to thirty 
 
ii6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 pounds in weight. (This case was Dr. Wild- 
 ing's own little daughter.) 
 
 (b) Traumatic disease of the knee joint, in 
 which the joint was greatly enlarged "and the 
 various component parts were little else than 
 a mass of pulpy swelling." 
 
 (c) Organic disease of the valves of the 
 heart. 
 
 (d) Paralysis of twenty years' standing. 
 
 (e) Broken bone restored to normal con- 
 dition without aid of surgical treatment. 
 
 (f) Cancer of the stomach; patient in ad- 
 vanced condition; death considered immi- 
 nent* 
 
 All these cases, it will be remembered, are 
 reported by persons whose medical education 
 and training entitle them, even from a medi- 
 cal view-point, to the position of experts as 
 diagnosticians ; while in the case of Mrs. 
 Oliver, according to the Journal of the 
 American Medical Association three eminent 
 medical diagnosticians examined her case 
 and passed on it. 
 
 Now if it can be proven that one clearly 
 defined case of organized disease has been 
 cured by Christian Science, the claim of Dr. 
 Richard Cabot and the medical profession in 
 
 *See Chapter III 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 117 
 
 general, that organic disease cannot be cured 
 by this system of healing, falls to the ground. 
 We hold that if medical testimony is worth 
 anything, if the slightest reliance is to be 
 placed on the diagnosis of eminent and hon- 
 ored physicians, the case of Mrs. Oliver, 
 taken together with those of Dr. Wilding and 
 Dr. Burton, proves not only the possibility 
 but the fact that organic disease has been and 
 is being cured by Christian Science. 
 
 Nor is this all. Many of the cases which 
 we are about to cite as illustrative of the 
 other contentions advanced by critics of 
 Christian Science, by virtue of their circum- 
 stantial character will impress all intelligent 
 truth-seekers, not bhnd because they will not 
 see, as extremely valuable as corroborative 
 evidence of the fallacy of the claim of faulty 
 diagnosis accounting for seeming cures of 
 organic disease by Christian Science practi- 
 tioners. 
 
 Turning from the examination of the ques- 
 tion of diagnosis, we come to notice the sec- 
 ond claim advanced when cures are cited by 
 patients who have been restored to health 
 after placing themselves under Christian 
 Science treatment. A few years ago it was 
 very common, when these alleged cures were 
 
ii8 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 mentioned, to hear them promptly dismissed 
 with the confident declaration that the per- 
 sons making such claims of cures were ignor- 
 ant, credulous, and often not over-conscien- 
 tious, or persons easily influenced by what 
 others told them. And to-day the claim is 
 constantly made that those who report their 
 cures are not persons whose minds are 
 trained to weigh evidence, to judge and dis- 
 criminate; that they are over-credulous and 
 therefore little weight is to be placed on their 
 testimony. 
 
 Before examining this very common and 
 convenient explanation advanced by the 
 critics of Christian Science and those ignor- 
 ant of the facts involved, we wish in passing 
 to touch upon one phase of the question that 
 seems to have escaped the attention of those 
 who are biased in their views concerning 
 Christian Science. Quite apart from the vast 
 and rapidly growing volume of alleged cures 
 by Christian Science of serious organic dis- 
 eases, there is a mighty army of persons who 
 have been rescued from the living death ex- 
 perienced by those whose nervous systems 
 have become completely broken down and 
 who, through various forms of diseases that 
 physicians might term functional, were living 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 119 
 
 lives of such indescribable misery as to fre- 
 quently call forth the earnest prayer that they 
 might be so blessed as to die, — a great army 
 of men and women whom the medical pro- 
 fession have been powerless to cure or even 
 materially relieve, but who have been com- 
 pletely restored by Christian Science. These 
 persons, many of them distinguished in busi- 
 ness, political, professional and educational 
 spheres of activity, whose cases so long baf- 
 fled regular treatment and who from chronic 
 invalidism are today enjoying perfect health, 
 are in much the position of the blind man 
 described in the Scriptures, whose sight was 
 restored by the Great Nazarene. It will be 
 remembered that the conventional doctors 
 of the law, the chief priests, scribes and Phar- 
 isees, who represented the professional world 
 with all its prejudice and intolerance, were 
 greatly exercised by the cure. They at- 
 tempted, in the first place, to deny the validity 
 of the claim by insisting that the man was 
 not the person he pretended to be. When the 
 parents were called, however, they discom- 
 fited the critics by insisting that the man was 
 their son, who had been born blind. Next 
 the conventional critics sought to terrorize 
 the parents and the fortunate man by insist- 
 
120 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ing that the cure had not been wrought by a 
 prophet of God, because the good deed had 
 been performed on the Sabbath. The blind 
 man, however, manifested his impatience at 
 the quibbling of the schoolmen, emphatically 
 insisting on the one point that was vital in so 
 far as he was concerned : "One thing I know, 
 that whereas I was blind, now I see." So to 
 those who have been rescued from a living 
 death or brought back from the brink of the 
 grave by Christian Science treatment, after all 
 other methods had failed, the fact that they 
 are in the enjoyment of abounding health is 
 far more material to them than the question 
 whether the disease which was carrying them 
 to the grave was functional or organic. 
 
 It may be urged that persons who are suf- 
 fering from neurasthenia or general nervous 
 collapse are not in a position to judge of 
 their condition, and this is doubtless measur- 
 ably true in some cases, where the mind has 
 never been trained to rigid logical processes, 
 to weighing evidence, or to considering facts 
 in relation to other facts. But in the case 
 of scholars, lawyers, judges, and critical 
 thinkers, our observations lead us to con- 
 clude that these conditions frequently in- 
 crease the mental perspicacity. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 121 
 
 With this general observation, concerning 
 a large class of persons, many of them dis- 
 tinguished judges, lawyers, critics, authors, 
 artists and members of other professions, who 
 have been restored to lives of usefulness by 
 Christian Science, let us notice this third 
 popular claim, — that of the incompetency of 
 those who have been cured to speak truth- 
 fully and accurately in regard to their restor- 
 ation after long and faithful treatment under 
 regular physicians had proved unavailing. A 
 volume could be compiled composed entirely 
 of the statements of cures of judges, lawyers 
 and critical thinkers, or where evidence has 
 been obtained under oath and with corrobora- 
 tive facts that render the testimony unim- 
 peachable. Space, however, renders it im- 
 possible for us to cite more than a few well 
 authenticated typical cases where the facts 
 are of such a character as to entitle them to 
 the careful consideration of all earnest truth- 
 seekers. 
 
 In the first place, we desire to give the case 
 of Judge John D. Works, the eminent jurist 
 of Los Angeles, California, and in so doing 
 we confine ourselves to the evidence elicited 
 under oath on the witness stand at a trial in 
 Los Angeles, California. We do this because 
 
122 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 it cannot be claimed that such statements are 
 the garbled or colored narratives of reporters 
 or that they are the careless statements such 
 as certain physicians seem to imagine all peo- 
 ple who are not cured by the regular methods 
 are wont to indulge in when describing their 
 cures. To economize space we omit many of 
 the questions asked and condense repHes, 
 while retaining the witnesses' exact words in 
 the testimony given. 
 
 The Hon. John D. Works is one of the 
 very prominent lawyers of the Pacific coast. 
 He was for some years judge of the Superior 
 Court of San Diego County, and later one of 
 the associated judges of the Supreme Court 
 of the State. In answer to the question as to 
 his trouble and his experience in the treat- 
 ment of the same, he said : 
 
 "I had been a sufferer for many years from 
 stomach trouble mainly. I had resorted to all 
 kinds of treatment, allopathic, homeopathic, 
 osteopathic, and my condition had grown 
 steadily worse. I had lost something over 
 thirty pounds in flesh. During much of this 
 time I was taking active treatment from phy- 
 sicians for my condition, some of them at* 
 tributing it to one cause and some another 
 and directing their remedies to whatever they 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 123 
 
 conceived to be the cause of my trouble. 
 None of them seemed to do me any good. 
 Latterly, I was a sufferer almost continually 
 from headache, mostly in the back of my head, 
 which was exceedingly distressing, and to a 
 very large extent towards the last incapaci- 
 tated me for the kind of work that I had to 
 do. I was really not able to do my full day's 
 work. Generally I had to quit at three or 
 half past three o'clock, unable to finish out 
 the day's work. I had tried what I regarded 
 as thoroughly competent physicians in their 
 different schools and whom I had no doubt 
 were entirely conscientious in their treat- 
 ment. But deriving no benefit, I finally went 
 to a Christian Science practitioner and told 
 her what my condition was. She told me to 
 eat three meals a day, eat what I wanted, and 
 that she would take care of the balance. I 
 commenced to do so and I am eating my 
 three meals a day now, and suffer no dis- 
 comfort from it. I have been relieved from 
 the headaches almost entirely. I am able 
 to do my full day's work without discomfort, 
 and am benefited generally in every way." 
 
 In June of last year. Judge Works gave an 
 extended report of his cure, from which it 
 is shown that under Christian Science treat- 
 
124 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ment his various troubles steadily gave way, 
 until he came into the enjoyment of ex- 
 cellent health and regained all his lost flesh. 
 His health .has remained excellent since his 
 cure, now a period of some years. 
 
 Judge Works also described under oath 
 the cure of his wife by Christian Science, 
 after a condition of chronic invalidism ex- 
 tending over a period of more than fifteen 
 years. 
 
 During the trial at which the Judge's tes- 
 timony was given, a number of other highly 
 respectable representative citizens of Los 
 Angeles, including a number of prominent 
 business and professional men of this city, 
 also testified to cures wrought on themselves 
 and members of their families through Chris- 
 tian Science, in many instances after faithful 
 and conscientious but unavailing treatment 
 by physicians. Among those who thus testi- 
 fied were Mr. William Pridham, superintend- 
 ent of the Wells, Fargo & Company's Ex- 
 press for thirty-four years; R. P. Bishop, of 
 the firm of Bishop & Company ; W. E. Brown, 
 of the firm of Brown, Stanley & Company; 
 and Dr. A. Willis Paine. 
 
 There were among those that testified 
 some remarkable cures of patients who, ac- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 125 
 
 cording to their physicians, had tuberculosis 
 in advanced stages. One of these cases — 
 that of Mrs. Lila Young — we cite because the 
 evidence here given was under oath and with 
 the consciousness that the witness would be 
 subjected to severe cross examination; so 
 that the claim of loose or careless reporting 
 of the facts cannot be advanced. One of the 
 physicians who had pronounced Mrs. Young's 
 case tuberculosis was the eminent Dr. R. 
 Beverly Cole, one of the most famed physi- 
 cians of the Pacific coast. When he exam- 
 ined her, her case was so advanced that he 
 held out no hope of recovery for her. The 
 restoration was accomplished many years ago 
 and the patient's health has steadily improved 
 during this period. She for some years en- 
 joyed most excellent health. Here, as in 
 Judge Works' case, we condense the answers, 
 retaining in every instance, however, the 
 witness's exact words : 
 
 " I was healed of consumption. My people, 
 my mother and her family, consisting of six 
 in the family, all died with consumption, and 
 I was doctored for many years. There were 
 twelve years that I was in bed the greater 
 part of the time, and an eminent physician of 
 San Francisco was the last physician that 
 
126 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 told me — he examined my lungs and shook 
 his head and said that he didn't know what 
 to do for me. He said he knew of no climate 
 — he said, 'I can only compare you to the 
 sensitive plant; heat or cold, you will wither 
 away/ It seemed to me he explained my 
 situation better than I could And at that 
 time, there hadn't been a day, I presume for 
 more than a year, that I sat up all day. I 
 was healed by Christian Science after I had 
 no other hope." 
 
 In the cross examination Mrs. Young gave 
 the name of the distinguished physician who 
 last pronounced on her case. In reply to a 
 question, "You had consumption, did you?" 
 she replied, "The doctors said I had. Dr. 
 Beverly Cole was one of them, whom prob- 
 ably every one here knows of, as he is known 
 everywhere." 
 
 Under date of December i8, 1908, in an- 
 swer to a personal inquiry from us, Mrs. 
 Young wrote that she now weighs 150 
 pounds, and her friends are all ready to say, 
 "You don't look as though you ever had con- 
 sumption." "I have been well now for fif- 
 teen years," adds Mrs. Young. 
 
 The general interest evinced by the public in 
 well-authenticated cures, led us later to write 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 127 
 
 to several persons who were said to have 
 been cured of well-defined organic diseases 
 or troubles about the cure of which the doc- 
 tors held out no hope. We have received a 
 number of replies, in all of which the writers 
 testified to the verity of the cures ; but space 
 renders it impossible to give more than three 
 or four of these cases, and in some instances 
 we have found it necessary to abridge the 
 statements, or rather to omit those portions 
 of the reports that do not directly deal with 
 the cure of the disease or affliction under con- 
 sideration. The cases, however, are so clear 
 and detailed in character and come from per- 
 sons of such standing that they are of special 
 interest and value, not only as answering the 
 special objection we are considering, but as 
 further proving the power of Christian Sci- 
 ence to cure organic disease and afflictions 
 considered by physicians as incurable. 
 
 The first case to which we wish to invite 
 the attention of our readers is that of Mr. J. 
 J. Petermichel, Official Reporter of the Supe- 
 rior Court, Los Angeles, California, who 
 under date of December 21, 1908, writes : 
 
 "It affords me pleasure to comply with 
 your request for an account of my cure. 
 
 "The doctors pronounced my trouble, as 
 
128 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 near as I can now remember the language, 
 *Mixed tubercular infection with a combina- 
 tion of mucous, the sputum showing or indi- 
 cating cavities of long standing and tubercles 
 in large quantities/ About six months prior 
 to the time of the microscopical examination 
 of the sputum, I had partly recovered from a 
 ten weeks' illness of double pneumonia, which 
 left my lungs filled with mucous, making the 
 case a more complicated one and very diffi- 
 cult of cure. 
 
 "I had been affected for about five years, 
 the major portion of which time was spent in 
 travelling in search of a climate that would 
 be beneficial. 
 
 "The names of the doctors who treated me, 
 as far as I can now remember (I do not now 
 recall their initials, as it has been almost ten 
 years since I have given them any thought) 
 are as follows: In Chicago, Doctors Way, 
 Reynolds and Stryzowski, and one or two 
 others. Doctors Way and Stryzowski ad- 
 vised me to consult with Dr. Norman Bridge, 
 one of Chicago's noted specialists, and have 
 an examination made. Dr. Bridge, after such 
 examination, advised me to go to California, 
 although he declined to state definitely how 
 serious mv trouble was. In California I had 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 129 
 
 several physicians at the different places 
 where I located, but can now only recall Dr. 
 Bayliss of San Bernardino and Dr. Kruell 
 of Los Angeles. Dr. Kruell was my last phy- 
 sician and upon his advice a microscopical 
 examination of the sputum was made by Dr. 
 Croftan of Pasadena, who made a report sub- 
 stantially in the language hereinbefore stated. 
 Dr. Kruell told me that he had exhausted all 
 remedies known to his profession, and it was 
 his frank opinion medicine could do no more 
 for me ; he advised me to return East with 
 my family so that I could die among my 
 friends and relatives and my family could be 
 taken care of. He held out no hope and gave 
 me a month to live. About two months prior 
 to that time, Dr. Bayliss told me if I did not 
 find a climate that would benefit me I would 
 not live three months. My friends had given 
 up all hope, and as one of them expressed 
 himself some time after my cure in Christian 
 Science : 'While standing on a corner talking 
 to Petermichel, who was waiting for a car, I 
 was anxious to get him on the car as quickly 
 as possible and get him out of my sight, as 
 I was afraid he would die on my hands.' To 
 give you some idea of my condition, I might 
 state that I at that time weighed 120 pounds ; 
 
130 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 that my normal weight was i6o pounds, and 
 I now weigh over 185 pounds. I, at that 
 time, had not a pound of flesh on me, was 
 practically a walking skeleton, had reached 
 the stage where I was blue around the lips, 
 unable to walk ten feet at one effort, a per- 
 petual dry cough racking my frame day and 
 night, unable to eat or retain food, and un- 
 able to breathe without great effort, and 
 having finally given up all hope of a cure 
 and expecting any day to be my last. 
 
 "I had removed from the mountains to Los 
 Angeles with the intention of disposing of my 
 effects and taking my family East to their 
 relatives. Our neighbors on each side of us 
 were Christian Scientists and it was upon 
 their, and my wife's earnest solicitations, and 
 primarily to satisfy my wife that I was will- 
 ing to do anything to be cured, that I con- 
 sented to one week's treatment. At the time 
 the thought of God doing anything for me 
 was repugnant, as I was not of a very reli- 
 gious turn of mind, having found nothing in 
 the various religions I had investigated that 
 appealed to me; therefore having no faith 
 in God's disposition or ability to heal me. 
 At the time of engaging the treatment I in- 
 formed the practitioner that I had no faith 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 131 
 
 in the treatment and there would have to be 
 some appreciable benefit realized within the 
 week or treatment would be discontinued. 
 After the first treatment I was told to go 
 home and eat heartily of such food as I de- 
 sired and to fear no ill effects, following the 
 scriptural injunction to 'Take no thought for 
 your food/ I partook of a hearty meal, with 
 some misgivings and considerable skepticism 
 as to my ability to retain the food, but 
 strange as it may seem, no ill effects followed. 
 I enjoyed my meal and the food remained 
 on my stomach (something I had been unable 
 to do for six months) ; I spent a more restful 
 night, having some sleep and more restful 
 breathing. The first week I gained some two 
 pounds in weight, was able to be about with 
 more comfort, able to breathe with less diffi- 
 culty and at greater depth ; the cough became 
 easier and less painful; my appetite became 
 better, and, best of all, hope was renewed 
 within me and I began to see the possibility 
 of a cure, and learned that God was not only 
 able, but willing to cure me. I continued 
 under treatment with the practitioner for five 
 weeks, at the end of which time I felt I was 
 able to (with the understanding of the rules 
 of Christian Science and their application. 
 
132 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 gained from the practitioner and from the 
 study of the text-book, Science and Healthy 
 during that time) conduct my own treatment. 
 In about eight weeks after beginning the 
 treatment I was at work at my profession, 
 and have continued at work during the past 
 nine and one-half years without the loss of 
 one day on account of sickness. 
 
 "It was some two years before I regained 
 normal weight and before my friends would 
 admit that the cure was permanent, although 
 I was conscious of the healing after I had left 
 the practitioner after my last treatment, the 
 fear of the disease having been destroyed, 
 and I was conscious of the fact that I had 
 no disease and it would be only a matter of 
 the physical effects to follow. I am now 36 
 years of age, enjoying vigorous health, able 
 to work fourteen to fifteen hours a day for 
 weeks at a time, with no resultant physical 
 ill effects." 
 
 Like pulmonary tuberculosis or consump- 
 tion of the lungs, albuminuria or Bright's dis- 
 ease is considered by the medical profession 
 as not only organic but incurable. If the 
 patient whose detailed story, sent us under 
 date of January 8th from Los Angeles, Cali- 
 fornia, and given below, had applied to the 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 133 
 
 Emmanuel Church in Boston or to any of the 
 various other experiment stations where at- 
 tempts are being made to harness medicine 
 and religion, she would have been refused 
 treatment, because the attending physician 
 had pronounced her to be suffering from 
 albuminuria. The progress of this disease, it 
 will be observed from Mrs. Hebbard's report, 
 had been attended by nervous break-down 
 accompanied by such acute pain that the 
 patient was driven to morphine for relief, with 
 the dread result that the morphine habit be- 
 came fixed. Here we have four serious con- 
 ditions : albuminuria, nervous prostration or 
 nervous and mental break-down, neuralgia, 
 and the morphine habit. The almost instan- 
 taneous cure of the drug habit is certainly 
 worthy of notice, as it is usually considered 
 one of the most difficult things that doctors 
 have to contend with. The following testi- 
 mony is given by Mrs. Josephine A. Heb- 
 bard, of Los Angeles, California: 
 
 "I turned to Christian Science, hoping to 
 be healed of the drug habit. Through a 
 very severe and chronic case of kidney 
 trouble, which the attending physicians had 
 called albuminuria, and from which I had 
 suffered for over eight years, neuralgia 
 
134 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 had been superinduced, and I could only 
 find relief in morphine. I became ad- 
 dicted to the use of this drug in very large 
 doses, and in fact became so dependent on it 
 that I could not do without it. I had been 
 treated by a number of our best medical men 
 for this kidney trouble, but grew worse in- 
 stead of better. I also had a number of at- 
 tacks of nervous prostration and declared by 
 an eminent nerve specialist (Dr. Brainerd) to 
 be one of the most typical cases he had seen. 
 I seldom ate anything but raw eggs and milk. 
 At the time I turned to Christian Science I 
 weighed only ninety-seven pounds and was a 
 mental and physical wreck. One treatment 
 in Science cured me of all desire for drugs 
 and in three weeks I was a well woman. I 
 gained twenty-nine pounds in twenty-eight 
 days, and in less than three months after I 
 had commenced treatment I had gained 
 forty-three pounds. I have had my urine ex- 
 amined by two different physicians since then, 
 and the result was a healthy and normal con- 
 dition was found and no trace of any kidney 
 trouble. I have written certificates from 
 three physicians, each testifying to the firm 
 belief that I was healed from an apparently 
 hopeless condition through the application of 
 Christian Science. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 135 
 
 "I will here supply the physicians' names 
 who have treated me : Doctors H. C. Brain- 
 erd, D. C. Barber, George L. Cole, D. W. 
 Edelman, J. C. Ferbert, Merritt S. Hitt, 
 Thaddeus Johnson, Charles Taggart, and 
 O. O. Witherbee. The physicians writing the 
 certificates are Doctors Hitt, Ferbert and 
 Barber, and the papers are in the hands of 
 Mr. Frank Gale of the Christian Science 
 Publication Committee of San Francisco." 
 
 The following report is from the pen 
 of Mrs. D. W. King, of Newark, Ver- 
 mont. It has an important bearing on the 
 special points considered in this paper, be- 
 cause here it can not be claimed that the 
 diagnosis was superficial or faulty, the patient 
 having been operated upon and her hip bone 
 scraped, by reputable physicians; and it is 
 not a disease in which it will be claimed by 
 physicians and hypnotists of standing in the 
 scientific world, that hypnotic suggestion 
 could be hoped to effect a cure. 
 
 "Six years ago I was afflicted with tubercu- 
 losis of the hip, and in August of that year 
 went to the hospital at Hanover, New Hamp- 
 shire, and underwent an operation in which 
 the sore was opened and bone scraped. I re- 
 ceived the best surgical attention as well as 
 
136 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 kindest care of nurses but failed to obtain re- 
 lief, and the following spring the hip was 
 much worse and the discharge increased. The 
 next summer I had a severe stomach and 
 bowel trouble and for many weeks was not 
 expected to recover. At that time I was 
 attended by Dr. W. R. Noyes of West Burke, 
 Vermont, — now removed to Brattleboro. I 
 could take no solid food, even a few spoon- 
 fuls of broth causing great distress. The 
 condition of the hip grew much worse, with 
 constant discharge. I could walk only as I 
 used two crutches, moving but an inch at a 
 time and with much pain. 
 
 **At last my father urged me to go to St. 
 Johnsbury, Vermont, and stay with relatives 
 where I could be treated by Dr. Walter 
 Aldrich of that place, a physician of reputa- 
 tion. He, however, gave my father no hopes 
 of my recovery, as I was too weak to have 
 another operation for the hip. When I 
 begged him to do something for my stomach 
 he only shook his head and said there was no 
 help for that condition, as the sores poisoned 
 my whole system. 
 
 "My aunt, with whom I was staying, was a 
 Christian Scientist and when she saw my 
 hopelessness and despair at leaving my hus- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 137 
 
 band and three little children, for death 
 seemed inevitable, she began to tell me of 
 Christian Science; how it had healed thou- 
 sands of hopeless ones. She read the text- 
 book, Science and Health to me, and ex- 
 plained its teachings, and I forgot all about 
 the pain and distress in my stomach and at 
 the end of the afternoon remarked that I had 
 not had it and was really hungry. She told 
 me to eat what I wanted for supper and I did 
 so, among other things cheese and pickles. 
 I slept soundly that night, something I had 
 not done for two years, and from that time 
 have had no trouble with my stomach, being 
 able to eat anything I wish. I returned to my 
 home and commenced the study of Science 
 and Health with an eagerness I had never 
 felt for anything before. I had treatment 
 by a Christian Science practitioner. At the 
 end of one week the hip had begun to heal; 
 in a month the pain had entirely ceased, and 
 at the end of thirteen months the sores had 
 all healed and I have had no trouble from the 
 limb since, being able to do all my work for 
 a family of five." 
 
 We now invite the reader's attention to a 
 very detailed statement of a most remarkable 
 case, given by E. A. Crane, a well-known 
 
138 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 lawyer of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mr. Crane's 
 report is very long, but the case is so striking 
 in character that we feel it important to give 
 the entire statement, excepting Mr. Crane's 
 presentation of the Christian Science philoso- 
 phy as presented to him by the practitioner 
 through whom he was healed. This, though 
 interesting, is not of evidential value in the 
 present discussion, and for want of space is 
 omitted. 
 
 "I was born in A. D. 1844 at Paw Paw, in 
 this state. Lived on a farm until grown up, 
 and was naturally of a husky, healthy make- 
 up. At the siege of Atlanta, during the Civil 
 War, in which I served three years in the 
 cavalry, we were dismounted and put in the 
 trenches to support our cannon which was 
 throwing about 300 shells a minute at times. 
 The terrible concussion fairly shook the 
 earth and was very enervating. We often in 
 a lull would fall asleep and be suddenly 
 shaken by the renewing of the firing. The 
 result was that very many of the soldiers lost 
 their hearing, I with the rest; but gradually 
 the hearing of my right ear returned so it 
 was fairly good, but to my left ear it never did 
 return till the event hereinafter stated. My 
 condition in that respect was such for about 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 139 
 
 forty years that it was necessary always to sit 
 or walk on the left side of those with whom 
 conversation was to be had, and in company 
 with several to always turn my head to catch 
 the sounds with my right ear. After the war 
 Dr. N. W. Abbott, then a prominent practic- 
 ing physician in Chicago (now deceased) ex- 
 amined my ear and took me to a leading aur- 
 ist practicing in Chicago (cannot recall his 
 name) who examined me, and he said some- 
 thing was paralyzed (some part of the ear) 
 and that nothing could be done for it; and 
 nothing further was attempted. 
 
 "I have been a practicing lawyer since A. 
 D. 1873, and have enjoyed good average 
 health. In the fall of 1899 my eyelids gave 
 me some annoyance with an itching sensa- 
 tion, which was relieved from time to time 
 by the use of a little salt water, till the even- 
 ing of the 23rd day of December of that year 
 I called on an oculist practicing here (a grad- 
 uate from that department of the Michigan 
 University) and asked him to tell me what 
 caused the itching sensation. He turned 
 back each lid and applied something that 
 caused a burning sensation and which I after- 
 wards learned was nitrate of silver in solid 
 stick, and which if used at all should have 
 
140 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 been diluted several times and there should 
 have been some preparation put on the eye- 
 balls to protect them from possibility of in- 
 jury by unspent portions of the poison, 
 neither of which precautions were taken ; and 
 the result was that when the lids turned back 
 onto the eyes there was enough of the poison 
 to destroy the tops of the eyeballs. Nothing 
 could stop it till its force was spent and fur- 
 rows burned into the eyeballs till, as the doc- 
 tor advised me, it had destroyed the struc- 
 tural part of the eyeballs. My suffering was 
 intense and indescribable. The tops of my 
 eyes sloughed off, and from what others tell 
 me, what was left looked more like pieces of 
 raw beef than like human eyes. My health 
 and strength went with my eyes, till in about 
 three months I could not walk; but in time 
 the inflammation went down and physical 
 suffering ceased. I found myself then with 
 one eye destroyed. The outer coating, when 
 I first saw it, hardly had the semblance of an 
 eye. The color was between a white and yel- 
 low-white. The right eye had some color, 
 but no lustre ; but part of the cornea showed 
 and I could see sufficiently to keep on the 
 walks; could see people near me but could 
 not discern one from another till the time 
 hereinafter referred to. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 141 
 
 "I prefer not to give the name of the doctor 
 or oculist who made the mistake, unless 
 some controversy arises that seems to make 
 it necessary. He is practicing here. I have 
 forgiven him and wish the mantle of charity 
 used for his good. 
 
 "The same evening I was injured I called 
 Dr. O. A. La Crone, an oculist of good stand- 
 ing here, and he had local charge of my case 
 as long as it was in care of doctors at all. He 
 called to see me every day for many weeks 
 and encouraged me to think at first that my 
 sight would return when the inflammation 
 was gone. A small part of the time I was in 
 a hospital here kept by a Dr. Clark who is 
 still here and who I am sure examined my 
 eyes, as I think several other local doctors 
 did, among them Dr. Edward Ames, Dr. H. 
 B. Osborn, Dr. A. N. Crane, Dr. Edwards 
 and others. I think the principal doctors 
 here examined them, because when Dr. La 
 Crone came to treat me he had others with 
 him. They did not talk. I could not see 
 them, but could hear them. 
 
 "On the fifth of May, 1900, four months 
 after I was hurt, I went to Ann Arbor, Mich- 
 igan, to consult with Dr. Carew, then the 
 leader of that department in the Michigan 
 
142 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 University. He called in another member of 
 the faculty, and from what I overheard be- 
 tween them no encouragement was offered. 
 From these doctors and several others I was 
 given to understand that my left eye was de- 
 stroyed and that nothing could be expected 
 from that source. However, I then went 
 under Dr. Carew's care, also retaining Dr. 
 La Crone. Their treatment was the same, 
 but there was no improvement. On the 29th 
 of May I went to St. Louis, Missouri, to see 
 a noted oculist, whose name I have forgot- 
 ten ; but he gave me no encouragement. So 
 I returned to Chicago and was examined by 
 a couple of specialists there; have forgotten 
 their names but could get them if necessary. 
 They decided that nothing could be done for 
 the left eye and that there was but one 
 chance to improve the right eye, which was 
 by a surgical operation which they thought 
 might keep it. 
 
 "I continued treatment with Dr. Carew and 
 Dr. La Crone till July 16, 1900. About July 
 first, at request of friends, I consulted a 
 Christian Science practitioner here (now in 
 Paris, France). She gave me encouragement 
 but would not take my case unless I would 
 ^ive up the doctors, and she advised me not 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 143 
 
 to give them up as long as I had any faith 
 that they might help me. 
 
 ''About the tenth of July I wrote Dr. Carew 
 of Ann Arbor, that there was no improve- 
 ment going on in my case and had not been, 
 and asked if he could not change remedies to 
 help me. He replied that he could not — he 
 did not know anything better to recommend, 
 and then said that he considered it his duty 
 to advise me that he considered mine a very 
 serious case. This statement, with what I 
 had heard from others, convinced me that 
 there was no hope ; that I was to be blind ; 
 and the doctors, after doing the best they 
 could, had decided to let me know the worst. 
 
 "I then went to see the Christian Science 
 practitioner and engaged her to take my 
 case. This was July i6th. 
 
 "About the third meeting with the prac- 
 tioner she noticed that I was hard of hear- 
 ing, as I turned my head when she spoke to 
 me, and the cause of the loss of hearing was 
 then explained to her ; but I requested that 
 she not try to help my hearing, as it might 
 divide her powers, all of which I felt neces- 
 sary to improving my sight; but she replied 
 that I must be every whit whole." 
 
144 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 After explaining the treatment in detail, 
 Mr. Crane continues : 
 
 "The settled, fixed idea that there was no 
 help commenced to yield. I commenced im- 
 proving physically and mentally, and in about 
 ten days suddenly my hearing returned clear 
 as a bell, — much better than from the other 
 ear. I now use the 'phone receiver at the in- 
 jured ear altogether. 
 
 "There was no material improvement in 
 sight till August 17th, when suddenly my 
 sight returned. I picked up a common news- 
 paper and read out loud a whole column, and 
 that without glasses, whereas I had used 
 glasses for fifteen years. I then used to read 
 evenings to amuse my family. 
 
 "August 23rd I tested my ability to see 
 with and without glasses, and found that I 
 could see to read without them better than 
 with them, and made a note of the fact in my 
 diary. Glasses were discarded entirely for a 
 time, and till curiosity led me to view myself 
 in a glass. The sight of my eyes so fright- 
 ened me as to necessitate the return to 
 glasses. One eye was practically blank, while 
 the other had some color but no lustre or life. 
 That experiment cost me much anxiety and 
 set me back years which it has taken to over- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 145 
 
 come the fright and loss of faith. While I 
 understand why it was so, it's not easy to ex- 
 plain so others may see the logic. Since then 
 I have used glasses the same as before the 
 injury, unless I forget them, as I sometimes 
 do, and find myself reading and writing as 
 well without them as with them ; but as soon 
 as my attention is called to the fact that my 
 glasses are not on, my sight is affected and it 
 becomes necessary to put them on. My 
 sight now averages as good or better than 
 before the injury. With the left eye, that 
 was supposed to be entirely destroyed and 
 which all the doctors seemed to agree could 
 never be used, I can now read coarse print 
 without glasses. 
 
 "Dr. La Crone is now deceased, but the 
 other doctors referred to, as well as Dr. W. 
 F. Hoyt of Paw Paw and Dr. Frank Young 
 of South Haven, and no doubt others, could 
 be cited who examined my eyes, and you are 
 at liberty to refer to any of them. They may 
 not concede the cure to be the result of men- 
 tal treatment and understanding, but they are 
 all conscientious, able practitioners in their 
 line. They are all friends of mine in this 
 sense. They know me generally; they know 
 of my injury; and they know that I claim to 
 
146 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 have been cured by Christian Science princi- 
 ples; and they, or some of them, often talk 
 with me about it. I give as general refer- 
 ences almost any business man in south- 
 western Michigan, where my life has been an 
 open book. 
 
 "This letter is much longer than necessary 
 for ordinary purposes, but I have refrained 
 from permitting the facts to be published be- 
 cause so many errors usually creep into such 
 communications. The above statements are 
 easily proven by responsible, conscientious 
 people of good standing; and if something 
 may be gleaned from the mass that will be 
 helpful to others, I shall be pleased to know 
 it." 
 
 In investigating Christian Science cures we 
 have been astonished to find the great num- 
 ber of artists, sculptors, authors, as well as 
 lawyers, who have become interested in 
 Christian Science through having been cured 
 after physicians of eminence have signally 
 failed to give relief. 
 
 Among this number is Mr. Charles Klein, 
 the well-known author of The Lion and the 
 Mousey The Third Degree, The Music Mas- 
 ter, and other popular plays. He was, as he 
 himself testifies, in a condition of "incipient 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 147 
 
 melancholia/' in which he "took a saddening 
 pleasure, a morbid interest in thinking of the 
 joys of oblivion. Life had completely lost 
 its interest." Prior to this condition, he 
 had suffered for years from liver and kid- 
 ney troubles, insomnia, nervous irritability, 
 and a constant dread of something impend- 
 ing. He had consulted and acted on the 
 advice and treatment of physicians, special- 
 ists and aHenists, but all to no profit. In 
 fact, his condition grew steadily worse. At 
 this stage he was induced to try Christian 
 Science treatment, with the result, to use 
 his own words, that: "I gradually, indeed 
 almost immediately, recovered my health, my 
 peace of mind, professional and financial 
 success, and happiness far beyond my wildest 
 dream, and I have never taken a drug nor 
 consulted a physician since that hour. Under 
 Christian Science treatment all traces of kid- 
 ney disease disappeared. I suffered no more 
 from insomnia. I lost my desire for alcoholic 
 stimulants, and stomach troubles which I had 
 from boyhood, dyspepsia, nervous irritability, 
 heart, gastric and bowel ailments, all left me 
 by degrees; I had no more of those awful 
 fits of depression, and my whole life was 
 changed." 
 
148 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 One of the latest remarkable cures that has 
 been effected among our leading artists and 
 illustrators, is that of Mr. Howard Chandler 
 Christy, one of the most famous illustrators 
 of the day. In a personal letter to us, writ- 
 ten under date of November 15, 1908, Mr. 
 Christy thus speaks at length of his remark- 
 able restoration after a well-known New 
 York physician had declared that he would 
 lose his eyesight within three months. 
 
 'The trouble with my eyes," says Mr. 
 Christy, "began several years ago, before I 
 ha4 even taken so much as one drink of 
 alcohol, and was just beginning to use to- 
 bacco. My eyes were examined by Dr. Reese 
 and another doctor whose name I have for- 
 gotten and whose office is in the Arcade 
 Building, Fifth Avenue. Now, both these 
 doctors gave me good advice which I fol- 
 lowed until I saw it did not help my eyesight. 
 They both gave me little hope. Then Dr. 
 E. E. TuU said I would be totally bUnd in 
 three months' time. Then I tried William 
 Muldoon's for one month; no drink and no 
 smoking. I became strong in body, but it 
 did not help my eyes. Then I have tried 
 boxing an hour a day for six weeks at a time. 
 Thinking that a healthy body would make 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 149 
 
 healthy eyes, I tried heavy weight and mid- 
 dle weight prize fighters. My body was 
 healthy enough, but my eyes did not improve. 
 My sight became so bad that I could read 
 only the headlines of a daily newspaper ; and 
 about seven months ago (on a Monday noon) 
 I was treated by a Christian Science practi- 
 tioner. I had been very sick and my health 
 was gone. 
 
 "The first thing I noticed after the first 
 treatment was the change in my eyes. 
 Everything began to clear up. I went out for 
 a long walk, bought seats for the theatre, 
 sat down and found no difficulty in reading 
 the preface to Science and Health\2.wA several 
 pages besides. Went to the theatre that 
 night. The next day arranged to go to work, 
 and Wednesday morning I did go to work 
 and did the frontispiece for The Spitfire. 
 Then I began the illustrations for James 
 Whitcomb Riley's Home Agin With Ma, — 
 forty-two drawings in all; then six larger 
 illustrations in color for Mrs. Wilson Wood- 
 row's novel, The Silver Butterfly. I have 
 missed but one day's work since that 
 Wednesday morning I began the first draw- 
 ings, which was practically the first work I 
 had attempted for one year and a half. My 
 
ISO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 eyesight was entirely restored in two weeks' 
 time and I have been perfectly healthy, with 
 the exception of about three days' time, since 
 that first treatment. I was almost instantly 
 healed of a very bad case of grippe and lost 
 only about an hour's time, — ^just long enough 
 to go down and be treated. Then came back 
 and went to work. 
 
 "If these facts can be used to help others I 
 am only too glad to have you use them. I 
 certainly would like to do something to show 
 my appreciation for what God has done for 
 me through Christian Science." 
 
 Here we have a volume of testimony, some 
 of it given under oath, where the patients 
 knew they would be subjected to rigid cross 
 examination ; and in all instances the reports 
 bear evidence of conscientious and intelligent 
 purpose to give not only a full and truthful 
 report, but a circumstantial report calculat- 
 ed to appeal to the reason of all intelligent, 
 thoughtful and unbiased persons. In many 
 instances not only are the records of the most 
 intimate and circumstantial character, but the 
 names of the various physicians who have 
 examined and treated the patients, and the 
 reports of their diagnoses are set down, to- 
 gether with the accounts of the steady prog- 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 151 
 
 ress of the diseases under conscientious 
 medical treatment and the rapid cure of the 
 same disorders under Christian Science. And 
 yet we have only taken a few cases from a 
 great number of similar testimonials in our 
 possession, — cases that may be cited as fair- 
 ly typical of a vast volume of similar cures. 
 
 This brings us to the consideration of the 
 latest and most popular explanation advanced 
 by physicians and other critics of Christian 
 Science to account for remarkable cures that 
 have been effected under this treatment. 
 Some ministers no less than physicians are 
 insistent in their claim that Christian Science 
 cures are due wholly to suggestion. Their 
 position in this respect is clearly set forth in 
 the following words taken from an article by 
 Professor Willett, a prominent minister, in 
 The Christian Century for January 9, 1909. 
 In answer to some queries in regard to Chris- 
 tian Science, Professor Willett among other 
 things says : 
 
 "The principle which Christian Science em- 
 ploys is the simple one of suggestion. This 
 is the basis of every form of mental therapeu- 
 tics practiced to-day. . . . It is a satis- 
 faction to record the undeniable fact that 
 Christian Science, like the other forms of 
 
152 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 1 
 mental healing, has wrought great good to 
 
 many sufferers. People whom other forms 
 of treatment left without hope have been 
 quickened into new health and happiness by 
 the practice. This result is quite independent 
 of the theory of Christian Science, and would 
 be the same under any other of the forms 
 of suggestive therapeutics. Many people are 
 only mentally sick anyway. That is, they are 
 impressed with the belief that they are ac- 
 tually suffering from some malady over which 
 medicine is powerless to work healing. In 
 thousands of cases, even of acute physical 
 suffering, these maladies have been shown 
 to be purely mental and imaginary. . 
 In all these cases it is the central principle 
 of suggestion, whether employed in hypno- 
 tism, suggestion proper, or what is known as 
 re-education. Christian Science is merely 
 one of the forms of healing which make use, 
 some of them unconsciously, of this fact.'' 
 
 The above opinion admirably summarizes 
 the attitude of those who rely upon this most 
 popular of all present-day explanations of 
 Christian Science cures. It may be charac- 
 terized as the latest sheet-anchor of those 
 who are forced to recognize the healing re- 
 sults attending Christian Science practice. 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 153 
 
 These critics are most insistent in their dec- 
 laration that wherever actual cures have 
 been made, they are the result of suggestion 
 essentially similar in character to that em- 
 ployed in hypnotism, though the results are 
 obtained without the use of hypnosis. 
 
 We have during the past twenty years de- 
 voted considerable time to the study of the 
 literature of hypnotism — the writings and the 
 recorded experiences of the master psycholo- 
 gists and physicians of Continental Europe, 
 England and America, who have made ex- 
 haustive studies and extensive practice of 
 hypnotic suggestion and who are justly en- 
 titled to be regarded as authorities in this 
 department of experimental science; and we 
 do not call to mind a single instance where 
 one of these men, even among the most en- 
 thusiastic and ardent upholders of hypnotism 
 as a therapeutic agent, ever claimed that any 
 clearly-defined organic disease of the char- 
 acter, for example, of blastomycosis, tubercu- 
 losis of the hip joints, tuberculosis of the 
 lungs, Bright's disease, etc., could be cured 
 by suggestion. We have talked at length 
 with eminent regular physicians who have 
 made a special study of hypnotism and who 
 have great faith in its therapeutic value in 
 
154 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 certain cases, but in every instance they in- 
 sisted that its value lay in the treatment of 
 functional diseases ; that it could not be 
 hoped to effect a cure in any well-defined 
 case of organic disease. In no instance have 
 we found a reputable physician, no matter 
 how enthusiastic he was in his belief in the 
 value of hypnotism, who believed it could 
 cure cases where the vital organs had been 
 assailed and where physical disintegration 
 had set in; and they all agreed with the em- 
 inent and authoritative writers, that the pro- 
 vince of suggestion was restricted to func- 
 tional disorders. The regular medical pro- 
 fession and European savants whose opinions 
 are recognized as authoritative by the pro- 
 fession, are, we believe, a unit in the main- 
 tenance of this position. 
 
 With this fact in mind, let us turn to the 
 consideration of the subject in hand. Here 
 we are in the presence of cures of diseases 
 which in the opinion of high medical author- 
 ity and according to the microscope and other 
 scientific tests are unquestionably organic 
 diseases — diseases which are considered in- 
 curable in their advanced stages, and yet 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 155 
 
 which have been entirely cured by Christian 
 Science, and the patients have for years been 
 in the enjoyment of perfect health after years 
 of invalidism of the most distressing and 
 hopeless character. 
 
 Since the medical profession does not 
 claim that hypnotism can cure such organic 
 diseases as blastomycosis, tuberculosis of the 
 hip joints, consumption of the lungs, etc., one 
 such case which has been so competently 
 diagnosed as to leave no doubt as to the real 
 character of the trouble, which has been cured 
 by Christian Science treatment, causes the 
 explanation of suggestion as the rationale of 
 the cure necessarily to fall to the ground. 
 
 With the recognition of this fact, let the 
 reader return to the history of Mrs. Oliver's 
 case as given by the Journal of the American 
 Medical Association, and the cure as re- 
 ported by Mr. Oliver. Then let him read the 
 cures given by Doctors Wilding and Burton, 
 referred to in this chapter but given in detail 
 in Chapter III, after which let him peruse 
 the circumstantial testimony of Mr. J. J. 
 Petermichel, Mrs. Josephine A. Hebbard, 
 Mrs. D. W. King, Mrs. Lila Young, and 
 
156 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Mr. E. A. Crane, as given in this paper. 
 These cases render entirely inadequate the 
 explanation that in suggestion, such as prac- 
 ticed by the master hypnotists, is to be found 
 the rationale of the cures of Christian 
 Science. 
 
 We have now noticed the three master 
 claims advanced by the medical profession 
 and other critics of Christian Science to ex- 
 plain the alleged cures of organic diseases 
 and afflictions pronounced incurable or which 
 physicians had long faithfully but unsuccess- 
 fully treated. We have seen that if medical 
 diagnosis is of any value, organic disease has 
 been cured by Christian Science; that none 
 of the greatest authorities on hypnotism 
 would venture to claim that many of the dis- 
 eases that have been restored under Chris- 
 tion Science treatment could be cured by 
 hypnotic suggestion ; and we submit also that 
 the character of the testimony given is such 
 as to thoroughly discredit the claim of incom- 
 petency on the part of those giving the evi- 
 dence. Surely the facts here given — though 
 they are only a small part of the volume of 
 evidence which we hold, and but for want of 
 
A THERAPEUTIC AGENT 157 
 
 space would have given — are sufficient to 
 challenge the thoughtful consideration of all 
 earnest and high-minded lovers of the truth. 
 If human testimony is worth anything, these 
 cases, representative as they are of a vast 
 army of men and women who have been in 
 the same manner restored to health, prove 
 that Christian Science is to-day doing a work 
 for the restoration of the sick which medical 
 science and other means of relief have sig- 
 nally failed to accomplish. 
 
 And yet, that which to us is the most 
 profoundly significant feature of Christian 
 Science practice has not here been touched 
 upon, as it does not come within the scope of 
 this paper. We refer to its influence in 
 awakening the spiritual side of life or moral 
 idealism in its adherents, developing charac- 
 ter and affording moral supremacy over 
 the dominion of passion, appetite and 
 physical desire. And it is a notable fact 
 that in almost every report of cure which 
 we have received, the spiritual awaken- 
 ing which has brought the patient from the 
 bondage of sense dominion to moral mastery 
 is given precedence as the crowning result 
 
158 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 that has followed this treatment. That Chris- 
 tian Science arouses moral ideahsm in those 
 who come in a vital way under its influence 
 is abundantly proved by the life and testi- 
 mony of thousands of thoughtful people ; and 
 in an age like the present, when the material- 
 ism of the market has laid so firm a hand on 
 church, state, school and press, nothing is 
 more urgently demanded than the spiritual 
 enthusiasm that is born of moral idealism. 
 
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