Christian science and kindred superstitions

Front matter

il M%

CHRI STIAN

SCIENCE

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction, by Rev. J. Herndon Garnett 9

I. Different Schools 13

Preface

There has been considerable interest developed in the last few years in Christian Science and other schools of thought that profess to heal disease, and there are a growing number of people who are allying themselves to these teachings because they or their friends have been cured of imaginary or real sicknesses. The same therapeutic principle runs through all of these various teachings, however differently they may seem to present it. There is very little vital and logical connection between the teachings and efforts to heal. Especially is this so in Christian Science. The utilization of a great truth in all these systems of healing we endeavor to develop and illustrate in this work, which contains the results of much research and original thought.

I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to A. T. Schofield, M. D., Thomson Jay Hudson, LL. D., H. M. Dexter, D. D., J. M. Buckley, D. D., The Arena, Mark Twain, L. A. Cranidall, D. D., Rev. D. B. Cheney, William A.

7,

8 Preface.

Purington, and many other writers for some suggestions, illustrations and incidents. It has been my purpose to give a plain, comprehensive statement of the whole question as discussed by Christian Scientists and show the real Therapeutic principle that is utilized in the effort of these different schools to heal disease. It has also been my desire to expose the fallacies of Christian Scientists and incidentally those of similar, but to a certain extent, different schools. Justification for the plain language and forcible terms used will be found in the tendencies and teachings, especial of Christian Science. There is but one desire in my heart, and that is to know the truth and disseminate it.

C. F. WINBIGLER.

Philadelphia, Pa.

INTRODUCTION,*

"Christian Science" is thirty-two years old. It was discovered in January, 1866, by Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy, President of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. In 1876 the Christian Scientist Association was organized, and three years later " a mindhealing church, without creeds, called the church of Christ." Of this Association of course Mrs. Eddy was the organizer, and of this church she became pastor. Ten years later Mrs. Eddy saw her church with an assistant pastor, her college flourishing with charges for tuition of over $100 per week, and sixty-six female and twenty-nine male practitioners in the United States. Colleges and institutions also are announced for the principal sections and centers of the North.

" Christian Science " teaches that " the only realities are the divine mind and its ideas." That mortal mind ("mortal views") produces all the organic and animal actions of the mortal body. It teaches that " matter and io Introduction.

mortal body are the illusions of human belief." Sickness is a " dream of falsity." Sin is, because of a universal mental illusion and error. God "_is principle and is the only substance." " Man was and is the idea of God, therefore, mind can never be in man."

The following in part is a prayer offered for a dyspeptic, taken from a text book on Mind Cure, issued by the President of the New York School of Primitive and Practical Christian Science. It is too readable to be omitted: " Holy Reality! We believe in thee, that thou art everywhere present. We really believe it. Blessed Reality! We do not pretend to believe, think we believe, believe that we believe. We believe. Believing that thou art everywhere present, we believe that thou art in this patient's stomach * * * that thou art the sole, only Reality of that stomach. Heavenly, Holy Reality, we will try not to be such hypocrites and infidels, as every day of our lives to affirm our faith in thee, and then immediately begin to tell how sick we are, forgetting that thou art everything and that thou art not sick and therefore that nothing in this universe was ever sick, is now sick or can be sick. * * * We know. Father and Mother of us all, that there is no such thing as a really diseased stomach, that the disease is the carnal mortal mind given over to the world, the flesh and the devil. * * * Lord help us to be-

Introduction. n

lieve that all evil is utterly unreal; that it is silly to be sick, * * * atheism and denial of God to say, ' I am sick.' "

This is the " feminine fad " which my gallant friend exposes and combats in the pages of this work. This book, I believe, will have a wide reading. It is a popular treatment of a perplexing theme. Extensive reading and familiarity, not only with " Christian Science " but also with kindred subjects, are manifest throughout. The work has been well done. The positions taken are fair to all concerned, and the citations made are from standards.

The undersigned will be grateful if a word from him serves to call special attention to the book. He can but regard it as most timely. This " Science," falsely so-called, is an enemy both to Christian truth and to Christian churches considered as redemptive agencies. To make God a principle, and to reduce sin to an error, is to lead men, not into heresy, I would say, but into the most profound and far-reaching untruth.

J. HERNDON GARNET.'

CHAPTER I*

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS.

'Christian Science. Mrs. Mary Mason Baker Glover Patterson Eddy claims to be the discoverer of this remarkable system of teaching, in which there is a denial of matter and Sickness as " delusions of mortal mind." " Divine Mind " is all that really exists and it cannot get sick. The system is Idealistic Pantheism. The form of treatment is audible or silent mental suggestion denying " sickness, disease and death," and affirming health, ease and life. There are several different schools, the leading one being the Eddyites.

Faith Healing. This system of teaching is very old and has had many followers among Catholics and Protestants. Rev. W. E.

Boardman, who had a " Nursery of Faith " in the north of London which he called " Bethishan"; Dr. Charles Cullis of Boston, who

13!

"had a horq,e for consumptives; Rev. r K. B. Simpson of New York, who has every Friday meetings for healing the siek; Rev. John A. Dowie of Chicago, who has a great Zion hotel, are the chief exponents of this school. The last two are living and make healing by faith and prayer and often anointing with oil a prominent feature of their public teachings and practice. They do not deny the existence of sickness and disease, but claim that they are of the devil. Aside from anointing with oil and praying they look upon the use of medicines as sinful and the manifestation of unbelief. There are some differences in the teachings of some of the prominent leaders, but they can be properly included under the general appellation of Faith Healers.

Mind and Mental Cure or Healing. The general claim made by this school is that mind causes all disease, and, therefore, mind alone can cure disease. The practitioners are permitted to give " careful nursing " and exercise their common sense in the use of natural means, such as water, food, air and exercise, •etc. There is much sound reason in their claim, but that mind produces all disease cannot be proven. They do not and cannot cure all diseases.

Ideal Suggestion. This school is represented by Henry Wood, Dr. Dresser and Ralph Waldo Trine. They do notjigree in aU jthe

Different Schools. 13

essentials of their teachings, but generally there is enough in which they agree to class them together. They believe that mind is the only real thing in this universe and that matter is illusive if not an illusion. Ideal suggestion, they claim, will keep the mind supreme over feelings and everything else that seems lo exist.

Murphyism and Absent Treatment. These are related by virtue of the fact that suggestion is the leading feature of both. The claim is made that thought can travel and affect another who is in a passive, expectant attitude and thus receive healing, and by aid of suggestions, given by letter or printed sheet, followed by the afflicted, disease is removed and health restored. Murphy, claims to have great magnetic power.

There are other phases of these leading schools, practised largely by charlatans and quacks, for the money which they thus easily get from gullible and credulous people. The last named school has much of the spirit of charlatanry in it.

These systems have one truth of value running through them which I shall present in a succeeding chapter, and their agreements and disagreements can be presented in a few sentences.

All, except Faith Healing, agree in the supremacy of mind, in the influence of the mind on the body, in denying disease and in affirming health. Faith Healing affirms disease and sickness as actual facts and asserts that they can be cured by Scriptural meafrs, such as anointing with oil and the prayer of faith. Some of the other leading systems affirm the unreality of disease and sickness, and affirm the presence of health. It is not the purpose here to discuss these systems further, but only to present them thus briefly, so that the reader may intelligently follow us in the discussion.

Chapter II. Unscientific And Unchristian

Some one was kind enough to send me a copy of The Christian Science Journal recently, in which is an article on " Opposition to Christian Science " underscored with pencil lines. The article is headed with Gamaliel's advice to the persons who were opposing and persecuting the apostles. If any one will take the trouble to look at the passage of Scripture cited (Acts 5: 34-42), he will probably find something very instructive. Gamaliel speaks of different persons, and it is very probable that this so-called Christian Science is a representative of Theudas, "giving himself out to be somebody," who was afterwards destroyed and whose followers were dispersed and came to naught, and were left to follow some other mvstical vision or visionary; or it may represent "Judas of Galilee," "who drew away people after him," who " also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad." It is more likely that this late religious fad represents and is represented by Theudas and Judas, than that the apostles are the representatives of this mongrel, unscientific, Buddhistic teaching. I infer this from its teachings and its fruits. The apostles, according to Acts 5 : 42, " ceased not to teach and preach Jesus as the Christ;" (not "the principle of the man Jesus ") according to this article under review.

It is my intention to fairly represent the teachings of Christian Science and give citations and applications of these teachings, so that any one can see what he is accepting when he takes this school of thought to be the exponent of his r religious faith and practice. There is a great truth in " Christian Science," but unfortunately it is buried under false teaching, which must be removed, before that truth can stand out prominently to bless the world.

The system of teaching called " Christian Science " is a piratical system and unfortunately it is " neither Christian nor science." If it confined itself in trying to cure disease there would be no necessity for this or any other review of its pretensions and teachings, but it claims to teach theology — the only true theology, as well as science and Christianity. Its very pretensions, much more its teachings, call for an examination at least.

There is a reason why the "clergy, press and people will not have this false teaching to rule over them." The reason or reasons will be given in this review of the article referred to above as well as of Christian Science in general as taught by Mrs. Eddy, et al.

" The advent of Christian Science meets the same opposition and persecution as did the advent of the teachings of Jesus, the Christ." What an infinite difference there is between those teachings. To bring down Christ's teachings into such a comparison is very much like comparing a magnificent landscape to a malarial swamp. Of course reasonable, healthy people would oppose the latter because it produces sickness and death, whilst some persons perhaps could not appreciate the former because their aesthetic natures were not developed. The causes of opposition are very different in respect to Christ's teachings and the teachings of Christian Science.

The language used by Mrs. Eddy, the mother of Christian Science, and her followers, is so very nebulous, ambiguous and mystical that the ideas play " hide and seek " with you. Language and ideas to them are what objects were in the quick nimble hands of Herrmann, the magician. Now they are here — now they are not. This is a remarkable feature about Mrs. Eddy's use of language. There is also a learned profundity that makes her thoughts as clear as a fog-bank. Is it any wonder that scholars and scientists declare her teachings unscientific? Is it astonishing that men who know something of the teachings of Christianity and also of the teachings of Mrs. Eddy, pronounce her teachings not Christian? The reader, we think, will also pronounce them unchristian as he sees them in citation further along.

Christian Science is unscientific because it practically takes issue with Science — its true meaning and its methods. Prof. Huxley says : " By Science I understand all knowledge which rests upon evidence and reasoning." This is a true, clear and comprehensive definition of science. It is the sum total of our knowledge which comes to us through the senses and our reason. If something tangible, material cannot affect the senses through which we are related to the external world, then we have no place for evidence and reasoning, which are the two channels of scientific investigation, and, therefore, we can have no basis for reasoning. The Christian Scientist would be just as bad off in this regard as anybody else. Hence the denial of these foundations of scientific knowledge leaves the teachings of Christian Science also in the condition of being unscientific.

Mrs. Eddy's dictum that " matter will be finally proven to be nothing but a mortal illusion, wholly inadequate to affect man through its supposed organic action or existence" would destroy her own process of reasoning and ability of receiving and giving testimony, as well as the foundations of science. Her effort to heal people and the testimony of the results, which she is so quick to receive and utilize, would all be impossible.

Berkeley taught that a material world does not exist. Mrs. Eddy teaches that matter does not exist. Then what are our scientists investigating, and what have they been seeking for all these years? What did Bacon, Newton, Galileo, Herschel, Faraday, Huxley, and multitudes of others investigate, and what are the laws which they claim to have discovered and announced? What are the instruments used by them and by others — microscopes, telescopes, spectroscopes, hammers, scalpels, knives, etc., etc. ? What are they used upon and what are they, in themselves, if matter is nothing but " mortal illusions " ? The experience of all sensible, normally organized and reasonable people is against Mrs. Eddy's statement that matter does not exist. The universal experience and action of mankind are opposed to that statement. It is needless, in view of these facts, to farther prove that Mrs. Eddy's declaration, which is the fundamental thought of her teaching, is unscientific. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus — False in one (point), false in all.

Christian Science is not only unscientific, but it is also unchristian. A Christian is a believer in and a follower of tjhe Lord Jesus Christ. He believes that Christ is God manifest in the flesh (i Tim. 3: 16; John 1: 1-5, 14). Other Scriptures affirm the same things. Here is a solemn warning to which Mrs. Eddy and others would do well to give heed (1 John 4:1-3.) " Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of God : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." Had Mrs. Eddy read the Scriptures honestly she never would have said : " God cannot become finite and so be limited within material bounds." How does she know all this ? Paul says : " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man, and being in fashion as a man, he humbled (emptied) himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." This statement and Mrs. Eddy's does not agree. Who revealed to Mrs. Eddy that God cannot limit himself and manifest himself as man or in the flesh? The Bible declares that he has done so, and Science and Health says he has not done so. Which one are we to accept? I will take the Bible. When Mrs. Eddy says that " God is not a person who can say I " or be addressed as " Thou " she practically denies that Christ is divine and condemns his prayer in John xvii. She also denies that Christ is God manifest in the flesh, or in a physical body, when she says : " That God is a corporeal being nobody can affirm." On pages 377, 378 and 393 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy positively and repeatedly denies the existence of a personal God. Her teachings concerning Jesus are that he is a man, while Christ is the divine principle of the man. This divine principle, however, is common to all men, according to her system. Hence, Jesus is simply and solely a perfect man, yet no more perfect than is every man in his essential being. The only difference is he exemplified the divine principle more fully than others in his life. This is a most refined and subtle denial of the true divinity of our Saviour. (Ibid., pp. 408, 501, 530.)

A Christian believes in Christ's divinity — and the central doctrine of Christianity is the doctrine of God's incarnation in Christ, but Christian Science does not believe this, and therefore it is unchristian.

A Christian also believes that Jesus Christ made atonement for sin so that " whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." " Who his own self bear our sins in his body on the tree." The doctrine, if not the method of the atonement is presented throughout the Scriptures. Christians believe and accept it. Mrs. Eddy argues against the atonement. " The material blood of Jesus," she says, " was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin, when it was shed upon the accursed tree, than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father's business." (S. and H., p. 509.) She either does not know what the Christian teaching is concerning the blood, or else intentionally tries to deceive the reader. If the former, then she is ignorant and ought to try and inform herself. If the latter, then she is acting the part of a mountebank and a hypocrite. The " bloodshed " stands in Scripture for life offered. Let her take the Scripture idea, which is the Christian idea of atonement, and substitute it in the quoted sentence above and she will see, as will any one else who will read it with this substitution, that Mrs. Eddy utterly denies the atonement of the Lord Jesus for sin.

Christian Science also denies the necessity and experience of the new birth (John 3 : 1-16). " Man is spiritual and perfect — hence the real man cannot depart from holiness. Nor can God, by whom man was evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin." '*' Evil is an illusion, and error, and has no real basis. It is a false belief." Where is the necessity for the new birth, a leading Christian doctrine, if these things are true? The ordinances which Jesus as Lord commands are abrogated and many of the teachings of Christ are practically and theoretically denied, and in these respects Christian Science is unchristian. I shall probably have more to say about some of these things farther along.

The truth of the matter is that Mrs. Eddy T instead of 3iscovering the principles advocated in her book on Science and Health, the Christian Science Bible, has gathered them from Dr. Ouimby, Berkeley, Transcendentalism, Pantheism, Buddhism, Brahmanism and Idealism. Around and through this combination she has woven some texts of Scripture, mystically interpreted. Any one taking the time and pains can easily verify these statements. Yet she claims to be the original discoverer of these principles ! Truthfulness ought, at least, to be one of the fundamental principles of a teacher of science as well as of Christianity.

The author of this article under review, as well as Mrs. Eddy, talks about " demonstrating God " and " understanding " Him. This is one of their cardinal principles. " God is to be understood and demonstrated instead of believed and feared" (or loved?). See Science and Health, page 407. No man, according to

God's word, hath seen God at any time, cannot by searching find Him out, and only they who fear and love him can know him. Yet according to Mrs. Eddy he is not to be " believed and feared."

Mrs. Eddy does not take any pains whatever to tell us what she means by " understand and demonstrate."

I accept the statement that " the teachings of Jesus meet every human (spiritual) need." Then what is the necessity for the existence of Christian Science? There is a great difference, however, between accepting Christ's teachings and practising them, a great difference between believing his words and trusting in him as our Saviour. When I receive him I receive also eternal life, but I may believe his words and yet not have this life. Eternal life is something that I receive in Christ because he has eternal life in himself. But Christian Scientists do not believe this, for they believe Jesus was only a man, nothing more— he was God as any other man is God and not in any other sense. Mrs. Eddy even claims that his death was caused by animal magnetism. (S. and H., p. 516.) These are some of the teachings of so-called " Christian Science."

Then the writer quotes the latter part of the sixteenth chapter of Mark as a divine confirmation of what Christian Science teaches.

There is but one serious difficulty about using that Scripture as a proof of their teaching, viz. : that it is not found in the oldest manuscripts, and other manuscripts give a different ending entirely to that chapter. It is doubtless an interpolation. What becomes of the five — especially of four — of the commands in that passage as indicated by the writer, viz. : " Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils " ?

Excepting the apostles and one other person we have no accredited history of Christians casting out demons (evil thoughts as Christian Scientists unwarrantably call them) and raising the dead. There are only two cases where the apostles raised the dead according to the record.

To adduce what Christ says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do " as confirmation of the statements and works of Christian Scientists is to say the least illogical, and to say the most, arrant nonsense. " Greater works " has reference to quantity rather than to quality. The supreme object of Christ's coming into the world was to seek and to save the lost," and to continue that work he sent forth his apostles, who were to preach and disciple the people. The miracles of raising the dead, healing the sick, etc., were incidental to his chief work.

So were they also incidental to the chief work of the apostles who were endowed with extraordinary gifts, but whose supreme mission was to preach the Gospel and lead souls to Christ. Hence they did " greater works " than Christ, for they led thousands of people into the liberty of salvation, whereas he only gathered a comparatively meager number. Their works were " greater " in quantity but not in quality. To infer that all believers can do what the apostles did is not logical to say the least. The circumstances are different between the present and the time in which they lived. We have the complete truth of God's word ; we have facilities, appliances, etc., which they did not have. In fact there is no comparison between the peoples, conditions and circumstances of the apostles' time and ours. The promise is nowhere given in the Bible to believers, the apostles excepted, that they should have power over " sin, sickness and death " in the sense in which Christian Scientists use that phrase.

The writer says: "Evil in its manifold forms presents a problem to the world, not lending itself to easy solution." I thought there was no " evil " ? But then it is not good to make too many suggestions.

The failure of " professing disciples of Christ " to cure disease and bring back the dead is referred to as a weakness growing out of a " fundamental error " which lies at the root of human helplessness. I fear the weakness as well as the " error " will continue to exist even after so-called Christian Science has given its message and departed to the " land of illusions."

Then the claim is set up that " the Science of Being " was " discovered by one chosen of God to lead his children from sense to soul; from the bondage of sin, sickness and death to the eternal freedom of life, truth and love." A fine sounding phrase and promise with a peculiar application. In another chapter we shall consider and discuss this more at length. One conclusion has been reached thus far, viz. : that Christian Science is unscientific and unchristian.

Chapter III. Teachings Of " Healers " Unscriptural And Unreasonable

Jesus the Christ was not subject to the limitations which have been manifested in the modern healers. He " healed all manner of disease, and all manner of sickness." " They brought unto him all that were sick, holden of divers diseases and torments, possessed with devils, and those that were epileptic and palsied; and he healed them." His message to John the Baptist was, " The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up." These things were all done by the word and touch of his power instantly. The people did not have to return for several treatments paying so much for each one. The process of recovery was not protracted but was instant. The very last miracle that Jesus wrought before his death, the putting back and healing of the ear of the servant of the high priest, which Peter had cut off with his sword, could not have been done by Christian Scientists or

Teachings of "Healers" Unscriptural. 31

" Healers "of any kind. For these people to claim Christ as an example for themselves to follow and an interpolated Scripture (Mark 16: 9-20) as their authority is to say the least very illogical and weak reasoning. Then, too, why do they either ask or expect money for their treatments? They never heard of Jesus asking pay for his works. Jesus healed all diseases, why cannot they heal all manner of sicknesses ? We shall find out why when we come to the secret of their cure and their failures to cure. There is not a record of any failures on the part of Christ or of the apostles after the ascension to cure any cases brought to them. The Modern Healers do nothing more wonderful than Indians, pagans, Spiritists, hypnotists. They cannot do what Christ and the apostles did. Their cures can be duplicated by hundreds of cases in Suggestive Therapeutics, therefore they are not supernatural.

We believe in a God who can hear and answer prayer, in One whose Providence is universal and whose might is unlimited, but one who works ordinarily through the forces of nature and established laws. Prayer has a very important place in God's plan of government. We are not told in the Word of God that prayer will always secure the recovery of the sick. Paul prayed that "the thorn in the flesh " should be removed, but the answer that came back was, " My grace is sufficient for thee." The phrase in the New Testament that has a special significance is, " According to his will." If God wills to use secondary causes through which to effect cures and bring blessings to man, no one has a right to say nay. If the prayer of faith leads one who is afflicted to accept a suggested promise of God and he recovers, it is according to his will. But we have no right, neither is it reasonable to expect that any human being can know what God's will is for individual cases of sickness. We can bank on the words that "all things work together for good to them that love God," and it may be for the purpose of chastisement, discipline or for God's glory that certain things are permitted in some lives. The lives of Job and Paul, Timothy, Trophimus and Epaphrodites in the Scripture record illustrate this. It may be God's will to use a skilful physician or surgeon, or the experience of a nurse or the counsel of Christians and their prayers. He is the wise and prudent man who prayerfully follows God's leadings in his Providences.