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 Christian Seiee^^ 
 
* MAR 29 1900 * 
 
Problems of the Day 
 
 Some Latter-Day Religions. By Rev, George Hamilton 
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 An attempt to counteract the baneful efforts of the Athenian 
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 ple and that the use of means implies a want of faith, he shows to be 
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 Contents:— The History of Christian Science, by John Rothwell 
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 The Philosophy of Christian Science, bv Rev. VV. H. P. Faunce.D.D. 
 The Inherent Difficulties and Absurdities of Christian Science, by 
 Rev. J. W. Conley, D. D. Explanation of the Growth of Christian 
 Science, by Rev. L. A. Crandall, D. D. The Precursors of Ciiristian 
 Science, by Prof. Franklin Johnson, D. D. The Future of Christian 
 Science, by Rev. Benj. A. Greene, D. D. 
 
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Searchlights on 
 Christian Science 
 
 A SYMPOSIUM 
 
 £¥T^S 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Chicago : New York : Toronto 
 1899 
 
COPYRIGHTED 1898-1899 
 
 BY 
 
 GOODMAN & DICKERSON CO 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This series of articles upon Christian Science 
 first appeared in The Standard, of Chicago, 
 during the first part of the present year. The 
 original series, containing seven of the chapters, 
 was prepared at the request of the editors to 
 meet an evident demand. The choice of writers 
 and assignment of topics was purposely so made 
 as to insure a variety of method and of opinion. 
 Had it been desired to produce a systematic 
 treatise possessing entire unity and consistency, 
 the task would naturally have been committed to 
 a single writer. It was thought that the views of 
 various men, some trained as students, others as 
 practical pastors ministering to many classes, 
 would better serve the purpose. This purpose 
 was quite as much to inform The Standard's 
 readers on the tenets and usages of Christian 
 Science as to combat the new teaching. A cer- 
 tain divergence of feeling and of opinion due to 
 the different estimates of the several writers 
 is therefore not regarded as unfortunate. It 
 fairly represents the sentiment of evangelical 
 denominations toward Christian Science. 
 
 The last three articles were contributed to The 
 Standard as in some degree supplementary to 
 
Preface 
 
 the others, emphasizing phases of the subject not 
 fully treated before. Their "searchlights" are 
 directed from new angles, and illuminate some 
 untouched points. Taken as a whole, the series 
 has already proved widely useful in correcting 
 vague impressions and enabling the ordinary 
 reader, unable or unwilling to peruse ''Science 
 and Health" and the other literature of Christian 
 Science, to perceive the superficial resemblances 
 and fundamental contrasts between Mrs. Eddy's 
 doctrines and the teaching of Scripture. That it 
 may, as now published, still further direct the 
 thought of the Christian public to the true sources 
 of knowledge concerning the duty and destiny of 
 man, is the earnest hope of the authors. 
 August^ i8gg. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Its History . . . John Rothwell Slater . . 9 
 
 II. Its Theology . . Rev. H. H. Beach .... 23 
 
 III. Its Philosophy . . Pres.W. H.P. Faunce, D.D. 37 
 
 IV. Its Inherent Diffi- 
 
 culties .... J.W. Conley, D.D. ... 51 
 V. Its Growth . . . Lathan A. Crandall, D.D. 63 
 VI. Its Precursors . . Franklin Johnson, D.D. . 75 
 VII. Its Future . . . Benjamin A. Greene, D.D. 85 
 VIII. Its Errors . . . Cephas B. Crane. D.D. . 98 
 IX. Some Practical In- 
 cidents . . . . E. S. Plimpton 104 
 
 X. Its Form and Sub- 
 stance .... O. P. Gifford. D.D. . . .114 
 
Searchlights 
 
 ON 
 
 Christian Science 
 
 I 
 
 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY JOHN ROTHWELL SLATER 
 
 A religious movement which within a quarter 
 of a century has won many thousands of adher- 
 ents, without the slightest attractions in the way 
 of elaborate ritual or familiar creed, is worthy of 
 careful study. When that movement has drawn 
 many of its followers from evangelical churches, 
 including persons of unquestioned intelligence 
 and piety, such study becomes a duty. If the 
 new teaching be proved to contain elements of 
 truth which Christian people have ignored or 
 neglected, then we must correct our practice to 
 square with the truth, whether the truth be new 
 or old. If the novel doctrines prove to contain 
 fundamental errors, errors which are capable of 
 undermining Christian faith and of leading men 
 and women far from the simple gospel of the 
 New Testament, then those errors should be 
 
 9 
 
10 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 plainly pointed out. This is not persecution ; it 
 is not bigotry ; it is not intolerance. Those words 
 all imply that the critics of the new doctrine 
 desire to restrict the social or civil liberties of 
 the persons whose views they seek to refute. 
 Baptists should be the last of all people to deny 
 to any man the widest liberty of conscience and 
 belief. Unless we are to proclaim ourselves 
 narrower than our forefathers, we shall continue 
 to demand for others the same civil rights and 
 privileges that we enjoy. We shall freely admit 
 the right of the Christian Scientist to those rights 
 and to our respectful and courteous attention. 
 Where his faith touches the law of the state, we 
 shall feel at liberty to demand his obedience to 
 that law, provided we believe the law to be a 
 salutary one for the protection of society. But 
 so far as his right to hold certain doctrines, and 
 to worship after his own preference, is concerned, 
 no thoughtful citizen can entertain a doubt, and 
 no true Christian can find warrant for giving way 
 to anger or abuse. The Christian Scientist is 
 justified in complaining that the very terms in 
 which some critics denounce his belief belie their 
 profession as followers of Jesus Christ, who 
 never denounced anybody except hypocrites. 
 
 Having said so much, the writer of this article, 
 and the writers of those which are to follow, will 
 not offer apology for any criticism, however 
 severe, passed upon the teaching and the practice 
 of Christian Science, considered as a system of 
 religion, philosophy and therapeutics. In that 
 
ITS HISTORY II 
 
 aspect it is a legitimate subject of criticism; and 
 if the objections offered are based upon correct 
 statement of facts and correct principles of logic, 
 they cannot be justly regarded as the outgrowth 
 of bigotry. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF A FEW YEARS. 
 
 Christian Science has had a marvelous growth. 
 Its origin was in the year 1866, when Mrs. Mary 
 Baker G. Eddy first formulated the main doc- 
 trines which later developed into a system ; but 
 though she began teaching these doctrines in the 
 following year, it was not until the publication of 
 her text-book, "Science and Health," in 1875, 
 that any considerable number of followers was 
 attracted to the new faith. The first "Christian 
 Scientist Association" was formed in Boston in 
 1876 ; this body three years later was incorporated 
 as a church, entitled the First Church of Christ, 
 Scientist. At its organization it had but twenty- 
 six members; it has now about 1,400 resident 
 members, besides more than 10,000 non-resident. 
 The total number of Christian Scientists in the 
 United States cannot be stated exactly. There 
 are 304 chartered churches, a list of which may 
 be found in the Christian Science Journal, a 
 monthly magazine published by the parent 
 church in Boston. In addition to these there are 
 III regular Sunday services held by persons in 
 sympathy with the denomination, many of which 
 bodies will probably be organized as churches. 
 The enrolled membership of the chartered 
 
12 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 churches is stated at 70,000. Leaders of the 
 denomination claim, however, that the actual 
 number of persons who regularly attend their 
 services and accept their tenets is far in excess of 
 this figure. The estimate of Mr. Carol Norton, 
 one of the board of lecturers, who writes to the 
 Independent of January 5, 1899, is *'not less than 
 300,000 in the United States and Canada." 
 While this figure will be regarded as excessive by 
 many, there can be no doubt that Christian 
 Science is growing rapidly. Until recently the 
 Boston church was the only one with a building 
 of its own, especially constructed for it, though 
 congregations in many cities occupied rented 
 quarters in the edifices of other denominations. 
 Now, however, according to Mr. Norton, thirty 
 buildings are in course of erection. The First 
 Church of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago, dedicated 
 November 14, 1897, free of debt, a beautiful 
 marble structure, of Grecian architecture, on one 
 of the finest boulevards of the South Side, costing 
 over $100,000; and the Second and Third 
 Churches, on the North and West Sides respect- 
 ively, are planning to erect commodious and 
 elegant buildings in the near future. The 
 Second Church, of New York City, has begun the 
 erection of a house of worship near Central Park, 
 which will cost, according to the building permit, 
 $220,000. Other building enterprises might be 
 named. 
 
 The movement has grown most rapidly in the 
 large cities, where it has attracted many persons 
 
ITS HISTORY 13 
 
 of considerable means and social standing. Yet 
 it has also pushed its way into scores and hun- 
 dreds of towns and villages, where the numbers 
 may be small and the meeting-place obscure, but 
 the influence on evangelical churches consider- 
 able. Take, for instance, such a state as Iowa. 
 In Iowa Christian Science churches or congrega- 
 tions are reported in no less than thirty-four 
 cities and towns, as follows: Algona, Bunch, 
 Burlington, Carpenter, Cedar Rapids, Charles 
 City, Clinton, Council Bluffs, Creston, Daven- 
 port, Denison, Des Moines, Douds, Dubuque, 
 Estherville, Exira, Fort Dodge, Independence, 
 Keokuk, Le Mars, Marshalltown, Mason City, 
 McGregor, Missouri Valley, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, 
 Rock Valley, Rudd, Sheldon, Sioux City, Tipton, 
 Washington, Webster City, and What Cheer. In 
 fourteen other towns of the state there are Chris- 
 tian Science practitioners, who of course dissem- 
 inate more or less the doctrines by which they 
 profess to cure disease. It is evident that, if this 
 state is a fair example, the sympathizers with 
 Christian Science in the entire country must be 
 numerous, though perhaps 200,000 would be 
 nearer the truth than 300,000. 
 
 And this has been the growth of twenty years. 
 It does not fall within the province of this article 
 to discuss the reasons for this remarkable increase, 
 nor to decide whether it constitutes any serious 
 menace to orthodox Christianity, nor to predict 
 the future. A brief sketch of the first years of 
 the movement, especially of Mrs. Eddy and her 
 
14 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 relation to it, will prepare us to consider in 
 future articles questions of more vital interest to 
 Christian pastors and people. For some of the 
 facts here stated, the writer is indebted to an 
 article by S. J. Hanna in Progress, a monthly 
 magazine published by the University Associa- 
 tion, Chicago, in June, 1898, containing a brief 
 but clear account of the history and principles of 
 Christian Science by an authorized exponent. 
 Other facts have been derived from "Science and 
 Health, with Key to the Scriptures," by Mrs. 
 Mary Baker G. Eddy, the text-book of Christian 
 Science, first published in 1875, now in its one 
 hundred and sixtieth edition (of 1,000 copies 
 each). This book is chiefly an exposition of the 
 author's metaphysical system, with some practical 
 suggestions on healing, the social relations, the 
 interpretation of the scriptures, etc., but contains 
 some historical references. Other information 
 has been gained from the Christian Science 
 Journal and various pamphlets published by the 
 Christian Science Publishing Society, of Boston. 
 
 MRS. eddy's life. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's maiden name was Mary Baker. 
 She was born near Concord, N. H., her parents 
 being persons of Scotch and English extraction. 
 The date of her birth is not stated, but as she was 
 first married in 1843 it cannot be far from 1825. 
 She received an academic education, followed by 
 private study under the direction of tutors, includ- 
 ing such subjects as natural philosophy, rhetoric, 
 
ITS HISTORY 15 
 
 logic, metaphysics and the classics. While still 
 very young she united with a Congregational 
 church, and remained a member until 1879. She 
 wrote for various magazines on literary and patri- 
 otic subjects and for many years took more or less 
 part in certain philanthropic enterprises. Mrs. 
 Eddy was twice married ; her first husband was 
 Col. G. W. Glover, her second Dr. A. G. Eddy. 
 She studied homeopathy, but did not practice as a 
 regular physician. During many years, accord- 
 ing to her statement, she attempted to discover 
 the true relation between physical ailments and 
 mental conditions. In 1866, while suffering from 
 an injury supposed to be incurable — the exact 
 nature of which is not described— she applied the 
 principle which she had finally formulated as to 
 the unreality of disease and the power of 
 ** immortal mind" over the "error of mortal 
 mind" commonly supposed to be disease; and 
 the immediate cure to which she testifies led her 
 to elaborate her theories, to undertake a study of 
 the scriptures from her new point of view, and 
 finally to write "Science and Health." For the 
 instruction of others in the "principle and rule of 
 spiritual science and metaphysical healing — in a 
 word, Christian Science," she relied at first upon 
 small classes. These grew into the Massachusetts 
 Metaphysical College, incorporated in Boston in 
 1 88 1, which still trains practitioners in the 
 methods prescribed by the founder. The fees for 
 instruction were large, the revenues from the 
 sale of "Science and Health" also grew steadily, 
 
l6 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 and the movement began to assume large pro- 
 portions. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy acted as pastor of the Boston church 
 from 1 88 1 until 1895. She then retired, and now 
 lives on a fine country place near Concord, N.H., 
 retaining a certain amount of oversight in the 
 direction of the affairs of the churches through 
 her communications to the Boston church and her 
 articles in the denominational magazine. While 
 no definite limits seem to be assigned to her 
 authority in this respect, her followers almost 
 universally regard her wishes as law, and have 
 no desire to dispute her commands. She is com- 
 monly referred to among them as "mother"; but 
 there seems to be no ground for the charge some- 
 times made by critics of the sect that she either 
 claims or allows her disciples to attribute to her 
 anything even approaching divine honors. The 
 charge may have arisen from the emphasis which 
 is laid in "Science and Health" upon what she 
 calls the divine maternity, the feminine element 
 in the divine nature. 
 
 THE PROMINENCE OF WOMEN IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 In this connection a most remarkable feature of 
 the movement should be noted. It was not only 
 founded by a woman, but it has been spread 
 chiefly through the agency of women. The 
 practitioners, graduated from the training school 
 in Boston, who go all over the country to engage 
 in their occupation as healers and also to propa- 
 gate Christian Science doctrines, are nearly all 
 
ITS HISTORY 17 
 
 women. In the Christian Science Journal (for 
 December, 1898) appears a list of registered prac- 
 titioners numbering about 1,625; and of these 
 only about 290 are men, and nearly all of these 
 are the husbands of women whose names also 
 appear in the list. Most of the testimonies con- 
 cerning cures that appear in the Journal (though 
 not all) are from women. While considerable 
 numbers of men attend the church services and 
 sympathize with the movement, it may be said, 
 so far as observation goes, that they are usually 
 attracted and interested through their wives and 
 families, rather than drawn to the churches of 
 their own accord by the character of the doctrines 
 there proclaimed. Further, the men seem to lay 
 greater emphasis on the cures which they believe 
 to have been wrought by this agency than on the 
 abstract and often incomprehensible theories of 
 Mrs. Eddy's book. 
 
 CHURCH POLITY. 
 
 A brief account of the organization and form of 
 service of the Christian Science churches may 
 properly be included in this historical sketch. 
 These churches are incorporated like ordinary 
 churches, under state laws. They owe a certain 
 degree of loyalty to the parent church in Boston, 
 and contribute to the expenses of the movement, 
 but are for the most part self-governing. The 
 requirements for membership seem to be an 
 acceptance of the platform of the denomination, 
 containing a series of affirmations and negations 
 
i8 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 concerning mind, matter, truth, error, God and 
 man, and a willingness to cooperate in spreading 
 these doctrines. They certainly include an 
 acceptance of the divinity of Christ and his 
 Messiahship ; though in what sense the reader will 
 be more fully informed in later articles. Chris- 
 tian Scientists appear to lay little emphasis on 
 rites, the outward forms of which they believe to 
 be of small importance. 
 
 "Our baptism," says Mrs. Eddy, "is a purifica- 
 tion from the flesh. Our church is built on 
 Christ, the divine principle of the man Jesus. 
 We can unite with this church only as we are new 
 born of the Spirit— as we reach the life that is 
 truth and the truth that is life— bringing forth 
 the fruits of love, casting out error and healing 
 the sick. Our eucharist is spiritual communion 
 with the Father, the one Spirit. Our bread is 
 that 'which cometh down from heaven.' Our 
 cup is the cross-bearing inspiration of love — the 
 cup that our Master drank, and of which he said, 
 'Drink ye all of it.' " 
 
 Christian Science churches have no pastors. 
 The public services, usually held on Sunday 
 morning and evening, are conducted by two 
 readers, who must have had certain training in 
 the principles of the faith. Frequently one of the 
 two is a man, the other a woman. A morning 
 service in the Chicago church is somewhat as fol- 
 lows : There are several hymns, selected from the 
 hymnal published by the organization. Then one 
 reader repeats the Lord's prayer, pausing after 
 
ITS HISTORY 19 
 
 each phrase to allow the other reader to add 
 Mrs. Eddy's ** spiritual interpretation" thereof. 
 Whether this is an interpretation or not, one may 
 determine for himself by the following specimen : 
 
 Our Father, who art in heaven, 
 
 "Our Father and Mother God, all harmonious." 
 Hallowed be thy name, 
 
 "Adorable one." 
 Thy kingdom come, 
 
 "Thy kingdom is come, good is ever present and 
 omnipotent." 
 
 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 
 
 "And divine love is reflected in love." 
 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
 evil. 
 
 "And leaveth us not in temptation, but delivereth 
 us from evil, sin, disease and death." 
 
 This is the only audible prayer used by the 
 Christian Scientists. They do not believe in 
 prayer in the ordinary Christian understanding of 
 that term. After this exercise follows the 
 responsive reading of a few sentences from the 
 scriptures and "Science and Health" by the read- 
 ers and the congregation, using a printed leaflet 
 published by the denomination, in which the 
 services for all churches are the same for a given 
 Sunday. Then comes the ''sermon," which is no 
 sermon at all, but a half-hour's reading by the 
 two readers, alternating, from the Bible and 
 "Science and Health," the selections being also 
 decided by the general committee of the church 
 at the Boston headquarters. An offering is fol- 
 
20 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 lowed, not by a benediction, but by the reading of 
 the "scientific statement of being," which, as a 
 sort of brief creed, may be noted here : 
 
 '•There is no life, truth, intelligence, or sub- 
 stance, in matter. All is infinite mind and its 
 infinite manifestation, for God is all in all. Spirit 
 is immortal truth ; matter is mortal error. Spirit 
 is the real and eternal ; matter is the unreal and 
 temporal. Spirit is God, and man is his image 
 and likeness; hence man is spiritual and not 
 material." 
 
 This closes the service. In the evening, the 
 scripture selection is identical with the Interna- 
 tional Sunday-school lesson for the day. A mid- 
 week meeting is given to testimonies from 
 persons who believe themselves to have been 
 healed of disease by accepting the conception of 
 the power of mind over matter which is a part of 
 their religion. 
 
 THE CURES. 
 
 Intelligent Christian Scientists estimate the 
 proportion of their number attracted to the sub- 
 ject and convinced by personal knowledge of 
 physical cures as three-fourths of the whole. In 
 other words, the remarkable book of Mrs. Eddy, 
 whose obscurities, absurdities and self-contradic- 
 tions must be evident to any educated reader not 
 blinded by an unreasoning credulity, is not respon- 
 sible for the wonderful growth of Christian 
 Science. A few minds here and there, especially 
 those easily mystified by abstract terms and the 
 
ITS HISTORY 21 
 
 artful use of capital letters, have been converted 
 solely through this book, without reference to its 
 practical application. But the great majority 
 have, either before becoming acquainted with 
 "Science and Health," or during its study, 
 learned of persons being suddenly and strangely 
 released from the grasp of some chronic and 
 severe disease while under the care of Christian 
 Science practitioners. They have witnessed the 
 swift transformation of an apparently helpless 
 rheumatic or paralytic patient into an active and 
 cheerful person. Or in their own bodies they 
 have felt such changes, after proving for months 
 or years the powerlessness of drugs to effect a 
 radical cure. Let us be prepared to admit that 
 great numbers of such cures have occurred. To 
 attempt to break down the evidence on which 
 they rest would be, in many cases, a waste of 
 time; though certainly many persons have sup- 
 posed themselves to be cured when they were 
 really only temporarily relieved of pain; and 
 many others have testified to wonderful cures of 
 ailments which never existed save in their own 
 imagination — such as certain cases of * 'nervous 
 prostration," and similar ill-defined maladies 
 which, any good physician knows, often need no 
 cure save the firm resolution of the patient to 
 throw away pills and powders, get out of doors, 
 and take some interest in life. But cures have 
 been wrought, and apparently in not a few cases 
 where according to ordinary views of physiology 
 the mind is not a controlling factor. This is the 
 
22 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 fact which Christian Scientists rely upon as their 
 unassailable defense. To their minds it proves 
 that disease is merely an illusion, an "error of 
 mortal mind," that matter has no existence, that 
 the whole fabric of crude philosophizing com- 
 pounded by Mrs. Eddy from various ancient and 
 modern idealists and from a method of scriptural 
 exegesis more fantastic than that of Origen or the 
 Talmud, is infallibly true. This is the most 
 stupendous non sequitur in the history of de- 
 lusions. 
 
II 
 
 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN 
 SCIENCE 
 
 BY REV. H. H. BEACH 
 
 •'Spiritual Science," *' Mental Science," "Mind 
 Cure, ' ' and similar cults — suckers on the thrifty- 
 stock of Christian Science, condemned and anath- 
 ematized by the Boston people — are outside the 
 scope of this paper. 
 
 Inasmuch as Christian Scientists frequently 
 accuse their critics of misunderstanding their 
 system and of garbling quotations from their 
 writings, we are compelled both to prove our 
 points by quotations and to quote whole sentences 
 where only parts are relevant. We also preserve 
 their capital initials, a harmless cipher by which 
 the initiated distinguish the divine. The num- 
 bers refer to pages of the fifty-third edition of 
 "Science and Health," unless otherwise ex- 
 plained. 
 
 SOURCES OF DOCTRINE. 
 
 Doubtless Mrs. Eddy is the source of Christian 
 Science ; though she claims to have found much 
 of it in the Bible. She says: "In following 
 these leadings of Scientific revelation, the Bible 
 
 23 
 
24 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 was my only text-book. The Scriptures were 
 illumined, reason and revelation were reconciled, 
 and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was 
 demonstrated" (page 4). How thoroughly she 
 searched the scriptures may be inferred from her 
 comments, as, for instance, the following: "Jesus 
 said of Lazarus: 'He is not dead, but sleepeth.' 
 He restored Lazarus by the understanding that 
 he had never died, not by an admission that his 
 body had died and then lived again. Had Jesus 
 believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his 
 body, he would have stood on the same plane of 
 belief with those who buried the body; and he 
 could not therefore have resuscitated it" (page 
 241). We hardly need to refresh our recollection 
 of John 11: 13, 14, to feel that there is a mistake 
 somewhere: "Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, 
 but they thought that he had spoken of taking 
 rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly : 
 Lazarus is dead." 
 
 Like Swedenborg, Mrs. Eddy finds the spiritual 
 sense of scripture by correspondences. Her cor- 
 respondences are not the same as Swedenborg's, 
 but equally wonderful. Adam is error; angels, 
 messages, not messengers; burial, annihilation; 
 Dan, animal magnetism; Gihon, the rights of 
 woman acknowledged — morally, civilly, socially; 
 Euphrates, Divine Science encompassing the 
 universe and man; and Holy Spirit, Christian 
 Science. New Jerusalem, also, is Divine Sci- 
 ence. For a specimen, she reads, ''Forgive us our 
 debts as we forgive our debtors," as "Truth will 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 25 
 
 destroy the claims of error' ' (page 322). Nor does 
 she leave her pupils to wander about without a 
 guide and lost in this Brobdingnag country, but 
 gives them a "Key to the Scriptures," in which, 
 at Genesis 2 : 6, she says: "The continued account 
 [of the creation] is mortal and material." "The 
 history of error or matter, if veritable, would set 
 aside the omnipotence of Spirit ; but it is the false 
 history in contradistinction from the true" (page 
 502). Such jugglery is a confession of judgment. 
 The Bible does not teach Christian Science; Mrs. 
 Eddy is the source; she admits that she has 
 written all of it in one book, "Science and 
 Health"; the whole Euphrates flows in this one 
 channel. However, before we congratulate our- 
 selves too heartily on finding all in one book, we 
 should see the book. "Science and Health" may 
 be scientific, but is hardly "knowledge duly 
 arranged." Confusion, instead of humility, justi- 
 fies the statement which its author somewhere 
 makes, that Christian Scientists have "religious 
 tenets" but not "doctrinal beliefs." 
 
 DOCTRINE OF GOD. 
 
 Begging Mohammed's pardon, there is no God 
 but "Principle," "Mind," "Love," and Mrs. 
 Eddy is its, his, her, prophet: "God is the Prin- 
 ciple of Christian Science" (page 7). "The 
 Principle of Divine Metaphysics is God" (page 5). . 
 "God is divine Principle, Supreme incorporeal,' 
 Being, Mind, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love" (page! 
 449)- 
 
26 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 •*God is all" (page 7). The allness of I Cor. 
 15:28 — *'that God may be all" — is order; but 
 Christian Science "allness" is substance and self- 
 hood. _ It blasphemously confuses finite souls with 
 God: "The term souls or spirits is as improper 
 as the term gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity, 
 and nothing else. There is no finite soul or 
 spirit" (page 450). "Divine Metaphysics, as 
 revealed to my understanding, shows me that all 
 is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotent, omni- 
 present, omniscient, — having all power, all pres- 
 ence, all Science" (page 171). "The Scriptures 
 say that God is all-in-all. From this it follows 
 that nothing possesses reality or existence except 
 Mind, God" (page 226). "The world believes in 
 many persons; but if God is personal, there is 
 but one person, because there is but one God" 
 (page 498). _ 
 
 Since Mrs. Eddy raises the question of person- 
 ality, we press it: is her god a person? Here she 
 retreats into the mists of Hamilton's philosophy 
 of the Unconditioned and answers: "If the term 
 personality as applied to God, means infinite per- 
 sonality, then God is personal Being — in this 
 sense, but not in the lower sense" (page 10). 
 But even Mrs. Eddy's self-consciousness is too 
 strong for imagination and reverses the alter- 
 native : she assumes that we are persons, and this 
 god only a medical prescription. Hence a 
 patient, writing of Mrs. Eddy, says: "Her cures 
 are not the result of medicine, spiritualism or 
 mesmerism, but the application of a Principle 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 27 
 
 that she understands" (page 87). The gender of 
 this supreme being is, on the whole, feminine: 
 **We have not as much authority, in Divine 
 Science, for considering God masculine, as we 
 have for considering him feminine, for love 
 imparts the highest idea of Deity" (page 498). 
 
 T here is no personal trinity: "The theory of 
 three persons^ in one God (that is, a personal 
 Trinity, or Tri-unity) suggests heathen gods, 
 rather than one ever-present i am" (page 152)./ 
 **Life, Truth and Love constitute the triune God, 
 or triply divine Principle. They represent a; 
 Trinity in unity, three in one, the same in' 
 essence, though multiform in office: God the; 
 Father; Jesus the type of Sonship, Divine,- 
 Science, or the Holy Comforter" (page 227). 
 
 The Christology of the Bible is the chief differ- 
 entiating factor of Christian theology — "Hereby 
 know ye the Spirit of God : every spirit which 
 confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is 
 of God; and every spirit which confesseth not 
 Jesus is not of God : and this is the spirit of the 
 antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; 
 and now it is in the world" (I John 4: 2, 3). As 
 Ithuriel touched the toad "squat close to the ear 
 of Eve," and Satan started up "discovered and 
 expressed, ' ' so touch Christian Science with this 
 verse of "celestial temper," and see what starts 
 up. It appears in such statements as the follow- 
 ing: "Wearing in part a human form (that is, as 
 it seemed to mortal view), being conceived by a 
 human mother, Jesus was the mediator between 
 
 l^' 
 
28 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 ' Spirit and the flesh, between Truth and error" 
 (page 2ii). "Flesh" is "an illusion" (page 565). 
 It is too evident that Christian Science denies 
 
 i Jesus Christ having come in flesh. 
 
 It may be seen that Jesus Christ was a Christian 
 Scientist, since Mrs. Eddy, referring to herself, 
 says: "So far as her knowledge of this matter 
 extends no other person has ever given Christian 
 Science to the world; but to those natural Chris- 
 tian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to Jesus 
 the Christ, God certainly revealed its Spirit, if not 
 the absolute letter" (page 467), But he was not 
 las far advanced as he might have beeiv for, 
 again, referring to him, Mrs. Eddy says: A* Had 
 wisdom characterized all his sayings, he would 
 not have prophesied his own death and therefore 
 hastened it. 'J^ ("Miscellaneous Writings," six- 
 teenth edition, page 84.) He was, it is allowed, 
 begotten by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit 
 is Christian Science, and his conception was 
 natural: "Miracles are impossible in Scienc.e, 
 and here it takes issue with popular religions" 
 (page 249). "The illumination of Mary's spiritual 
 sense put to silence material law, and its order of 
 generation, and brought forth her child by the 
 revelation of Truth, demonstrating God as the 
 Father of men" (page 334). "The time cometh 
 when the spiritual origin of man, the Science 
 which ushered Jesus into human presence, will be 
 understood and demonstrated" (page 221). 
 "Until it is learned that generation rests on no 
 sexual basis, let marriage continue, and let us 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 29 
 
 permit no such disregard of law as may lead to a 
 worse state of society than now exists" (page 274). 
 The burial of Jesus was his annihilation; he 
 ceased forever to exist: "The Invisible Christ 
 was incorporeal, whereas Jesus was a corporeal or 
 bodily existence. This dual personality of the 
 seen and the unseen, the Jesus and the Christ, 
 continued until the Master's ascension; and then 
 the human, the corporeal concept, or Jesus, disap- 
 peared ; while the invisible, the spiritual idea, or 
 the Christ, continued to exist in the eternal order 
 of Divine Science, taking away the sins of the 
 .world, as the Christ had always done, even before 
 the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes" 
 (page 229). 
 
 DOCTRINE OF MAN. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy distinguishes "man," "immortals" 
 and "mortals" from each other. 
 
 "Man" has always been and will never cease to^ 
 be, and beside him there is no other. He is the j 
 genus of which "immortals' ' and other divine ideas 
 are species and individuals, the product of a final 
 synthesis and the grandest achievement of realism. 
 He is God's compound and infinite idea or reflec- 
 tion, and, like an individual "immortal," is, also, '■■ 
 the mirror that reflects : "Separated from man, who , 
 expresses it, Spirit" — God — "would be a nonen- j 
 tity. Man divorced from Spirit would be equally a j 
 nonentity; but there is, there can be, no such j 
 division, for man is co-existent with God" (page 
 461). In short, this "man" is to this god as a - 
 
30 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 \ construction company to a railroad — identical for 
 ' profits, but distinct for losses. 
 
 ''Immortals" are the individual ideas, mirrors 
 and reflections of the god. The "reflection' ' notion 
 seems to be a misuse of the "brightness" of Heb. 
 1:3. Every "immortal" has always been and 
 will never cease to be, and is absolutely per- 
 fect. They are the triumph of idealism. On 
 the one hand they are the stuff that "man" is 
 made of, and on the other the doubles of "mor- 
 tals." 
 
 "Mortals," or "mortal mind," in the nomencla- 
 ture of Christian Science, are simply human 
 . Y beings, as we know ourselves and others — body, 
 
 I \ ■ soul and spirit : "Mortals will disappear, and im- 
 , ^\ ^ mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the 
 \\ 'only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not 
 s\ \ %' fallen children of God. They never had a perfect 
 ^^\ I state of Being, which may subsequently be re- 
 ' ' ' gained. They were from the beginning of mortal 
 history, conceived in sin and brought forth in in- 
 iquity. Mortals are material falsities. In the words 
 of Paul, they are without hope and without God 
 in the world. They are errors, made up of sin, 
 sickness and death, which must disappear to give 
 place to the facts which belong to immortal man" 
 (page 460). "Temporal life is a false sense of 
 existence" (page 16). "Think of thyself as the 
 orange just eaten, of which only the pleasant idea 
 is left" (page 257). 
 
 Unlike Frankenstein's creature, all of Mrs.\ 
 Eddy's men and women have good characters — or ^ 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 31 
 
 no characters: "Sin and mortality" are "nativei 
 nothingness" (page 177). "A wicked man isi 
 little else than a creature of error" (page 185). * 
 
 This anthropology is materialism reversed but 
 not converted, for to say that matter is mental is 
 practically the same as to say that mind is 
 material: *' Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the 
 least material form of human consciousness — the 
 material thought essence, which forms the link 
 between matter and mortal mind" (page 189). 
 Matter is the "lower substratum" of mortal mind 
 (page 93). "The fading forms of matter are the 
 fleeting thoughts of the human mind" (page 160). 
 "Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter 
 is true, except that matter is unreal, and is there- 
 fore a belief, which has its beginning and ending" 
 (page 173). 
 
 As a cap-sheaf tenet, we are all insane: "There 
 is a universal insanity, which mistakes fable for 
 fact throughout the entire round of the material 
 senses; but this general craze cannot, in a 
 spiritual diagnosis, shield the individual case from 
 the special name of insanity. Those unfortunate 
 people who are committed to insane asylums 
 are only so many well-defined instances of the 
 baneful effects of illusion on mortal minds and 
 bodies" (page 406). It is hardly to be won- 
 dered at. 
 
 As the limits of this paper preclude extended 
 comments, we must trust that these vices of the 
 mind are monsters of "so frightful mien as to be 
 hated" need "but to be seen"; but we cannot 
 
32 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 refrain, here, from_calHnj[_^tten^i^^ toa fatal gap 
 in the system. It lies between "mortals" and 
 * 'immortals." "Mortals," though, like lago's 
 purse, ** something, nothing," are bad, and so 
 cannot have sprung from the ** immortals," or 
 from the "man" or from the god. This is a 
 fundamental tenet: *'It_i^ self-evident that this 
 Mind, or Divine Principle, can produce nothing 
 /unlike Itself — Himself, Herself" (thirtieth edi- 
 ,V' tion). What has produced mortals? In what 
 do they inhere? Perhaps it is a case of spon- 
 taneous combustion. There is neither source nor 
 support for them: "The immortal never produces 
 the mortal, and Good cannot result in evil" 
 (page 173). The earth rests on the elephant, and' 
 the elephant stands on the turtle. Mrs. Eddy 
 may go on shoring up the system, but when she 
 stops the whole structure falls in ruins. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 
 
 Full Christian Science salvation is a repentance 
 from the nothingness of mortal beliefs to the 
 somethingness of divine ideas. Jesus attained it. 
 When his disciples thought his body was lying 
 pale and cold in Joseph's tomb, he was only hid- 
 ing there, studying Christian Science: "The 
 lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge 
 from his foes, and a place in which to solve the 
 great problem of Being" (page 349). Every one 
 will, eventually, reach it: "The dream that 
 matter and error are something, must yield to 
 reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold 
 
 ^^' ^ ^' 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 33 
 
 its nothingness, and sickness and sin will disap- 
 pear to their vision" (page 293). 
 
 But neither salvation nor anything else is 
 effected by supplicatory prayer: "God is not 
 influenced by man" (page 313). "Who would 
 stand before a blackboard and pray the principle 
 of mathematics to work out the problem? The 
 rule is alread)^ established, and it is our task to 
 work out the solution. Shall we ask the^ divine 
 Principle of all goodness to do his own work? 
 That work was finished long ago ; and we have 
 only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to 
 receive the blessing" (page 308). Nor is one 
 saved by a vicarious atonement: "Final deliver- 
 ance from error — whereby we rejoice in immor- 
 tality, boundless freedom and sinless sense — is 
 neither reached through paths of flowers, nor by 
 pinning one's faith to vicarious effort" (page 499, 
 thirtieth edition). The means of salvation are 
 suffering and science, church life and metaphys- 
 ical practice: "Either here or hereafter, suffering 
 or Science must purge man of false illusions 
 about life and mind, and cleanse him of material 
 sense and self" (page 482, thirtieth edition). 
 "The followers of Christ must drink his cup for 
 centuries to come" (page 483, thirtieth edition). 
 "Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of 
 materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, 
 man will reopen with the Key of Science, the 
 gates of Paradise, which human beliefs have 
 closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, 
 pure and free, not needing to consult almanacs 
 
34 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 for the probabilities of Life, or to study brain- 
 ology in order to learn how much of a man he is" 
 (page 63). 
 
 But five dollars' worth of metaphysical practice 
 is better than a one-hundred dollar order on an 
 idealized ''immortal," and healing is the principal 
 part of salvation. Indeed, one might think it the 
 whole, for Mrs. Eddy says: "The term Christian 
 Science was introduced by the author to designate 
 the Scientific system of Metaphysical Healing" 
 (page 1 7). The instruments of this spiritual surgery 
 are thought-suggestion and will-pressure. When 
 the practitioner invades the sick man's common- 
 sense, either honestly through the gate, by spoken 
 word, or burglariously over the wall, by silent, 
 present or absent treatment, the resultant trouble 
 is called ''chemicalization": "Disease is a fear, 
 expressed not so much by the lips as in the func- 
 tions of the body" (page 372). "The author 
 never knew a patient who did not recover when 
 the fear of the disease was gone" (page 376). 
 "Destroy fear, and you end the fever" (page 375). 
 "Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never 
 reduce inflammation; but the Truth of Being, 
 whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring 
 relief" (page 373). "Explain audibly to your 
 patients (as soon as they can bear it) the utter 
 control which Mind holds over the body" (page 
 415). "If the case is that of a young child or an 
 infant, it needs to be met mainly through the 
 parents, silently or audibly on the strictest rules 
 of Christian Science" (page 411)- "It is more 
 
ITS THEOLOGY 35 
 
 difficult to make yourself heard mentally when 
 others are thinking about your patients, or con- 
 versing with them" (page 422). ''Like Jesus, 
 the healer should speak to disease as one having 
 authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false 
 evidences of the corporeal senses, and assert its 
 claims over mortality and sickness" (page 393). 
 Mrs. Eddy appeals to the recovery of the sick to 
 prove that Christian Science is true, but unfor- 
 tunately admits that "the symptoms of disease" 
 may be relieved by deception and error: 
 "Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not contain- 
 ing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve 
 the symptoms of disease" (page 397). 
 
 LAST THINGS. 
 
 Natural death is but a mortal illusion, and may 
 be foHoweTBy ahTfrtermedtatB S^^^^^ 
 the earthly condition. The coming of Christ is an 
 awakening from the mortal dream that sin and 
 sickness are realities; but neither Christ nor 
 other ' ' Immortal ' ' ever returns to earth. There is 
 nQ_finalJjMgment,^and God will never ^umsh 
 sinners. The saved condition~~tEe grand con- 
 sumTnatron7 is a sublime lonesomeness: "Would 
 existence be to you a blank without personal 
 friends? Then the time cometh when you will be 
 solitary, left without sympathy and alone; but 
 the human vacuum is to be filled with divine 
 Love" (page 162). 
 
 The theology of Christian Science^ taken as a 
 whole, is doubtless a kind of pantheism. The 
 
36 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 mortal-immortal-man-goddess is all. But what 
 kind of a creatm'e is she? We discern her chief 
 features clearly enough. Disclaiming ridicule, 
 that which is specially the god is the intelligence ; 
 "man" is the whole form — muscles, tissues, in- 
 teguments; ''immortals" are innumerable arms, 
 reaching out forever into imdiscovered spaces; 
 and "mortals" are grotesque shadows of all that 
 is tangible, specters of Brocken, on a background 
 of mist. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN 
 SCIENCE 
 
 BY PRES. WILLIAM H. P. FAUNCE, D. D. 
 
 All persons familiar with the intellectual life 
 of our time are conscious of a wave of "new 
 thought" now sweeping over this country. This 
 thought assumes Protean forms, and manifests 
 itself in a mass of literature of all shades from the 
 sublime to the ridiculous. The_ing^emen.t has^a.. 
 two-fold origin. _0n the one hand, it comes from 
 the German idealism of Hegel and Fichte, which 
 (mediated by Thomas Hill Green) has at last 
 filtered down through all the strata of society and 
 reached the average man. On the other hand, it 
 comes from contact with the religions of the 
 Orient, and a new appreciation of their mystic 
 peace and brooding calm. 
 
 A foretaste of this **new thought" appeared in 
 the New England Transcendentalism of fifty 
 years ago; it achieved its brightest literary 
 expression in Emerson, and its passing embodi- 
 ment in the Brook Farm experiment. But that 
 movement was chiefly confined to New England. 
 The present movement — a reaction from the 
 deistic view of the world which has long pervaded 
 
 37 
 
38 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 both science and theology — covers the entire 
 country, and is putting forth a quantity of litera- 
 ture of whose extent few are aware. The philos- 
 ophy underlying the whole is optimistic and 
 idealistic, and often claims and produces large 
 results in bodily healing. Mrs. Eddy is only one 
 — the most successful one — of scores of teachers 
 in this country who are now insisting on the 
 power of thought to change life, and the imma- 
 nence of God in such a sense that pain and grief 
 and sin can be practically ignored. 
 
 A CRUDE IDEALISM. 
 
 Most of these teachers are destitute of philo- 
 sophical training, and are putting forth crude 
 systems more wonderful than Joseph's coat which 
 was 7iot "of many colors." "They have been at 
 a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps." 
 They strongly antagonize each other, and unite 
 only in antagonizing both materialism and 
 scholastic orthodoxy. Oriental importations, the 
 flotsam and jetsam of the Parliament of Religions, 
 wander through the country, unfolding outworn 
 theories of the Orient as the latest fad of the 
 Occident. Indian Swamis enter Boston parlors 
 and instruct companies of adoring women in the 
 science of mist and moonbeams. Some of Mrs. 
 Eddy's pupils, weary of her personal control, 
 have revolted and set up schools of their own. 
 "Metaphysical healing" is largely practiced in the 
 eastern states by those who utterly reject Chris- 
 tian Science. On a much higher intellectual level 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 39 
 
 are the books of Dr. Dresser, Ralph Waldo Trine 
 and Henry Wood, all having an extraordinary 
 sale, all insisting that "there is nothing either 
 good or bad but thinking makes it so," all giving 
 an idealistic and spiritual interpretation of the 
 universe, and all succeeding in lifting from scores 
 of weary souls a burden of care and fear and pain 
 which we have been taught is inalienable from 
 human life. All of these teachers unite in reject- 
 ing the eighteenth-century conception of God as 
 an "absentee," or as an "occasional visitor," or 
 as a "magnified Lord Shaftesbury"; and when 
 they are theists in any real sense, affirm that 
 God is immanent in the human soul, and that if 
 we will but "practice his presence" we shall be 
 delivered from all the ills consequent on faith in 
 a distant deity. We may at least rejoice that the 
 tendencies of our time are no longer toward dis- 
 belief in a spiritual world. So far has the pendu- 
 lum swung, that the same popular literature 
 which, thirty years ago, was trying to believe 
 that "thought is a secretion of the brain," now 
 gravely affirms that the brain is a figment of 
 thought ! 
 
 What, now, is the particular phase of this 
 thought embodied in "Christian Science"? The 
 history of the movement has been given in a 
 previous article. We are concerned now only 
 with its philosophy, which is most certainly a rare 
 collection of shreds and patches. Among the 
 many notions inconsistently united we may dis- 
 tinguish a few dominant thoughts. 
 
40 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 1. The idealistic conception of matter. A 
 modern teacher has called Christian Science "an 
 incomplete misconception of Berkeleyanism. " 
 But good Bishop Berkeley's faith in Christianity 
 was not hindered in the least by his philosophic 
 explanation of the material universe. In order 
 to combat atheism and materialism, he asserted 
 and believed that the apparently external world 
 exists only in our own idea, and that minds alone 
 have real existence This is a philosophic view 
 which will always have its advocates, and need 
 not be discussed here. All human beings must 
 act as if matter did exists and the speculative 
 denial has little influence on life. If the Chris- 
 tian Scientist wishes to build a house, he must 
 treat bricks, mortar and timber just as every 
 other man treats them, even though he honestly 
 believes that the bricks are all in his own brain. 
 Only in the treatment of the human body does 
 the idealism have practical consequences. If a 
 man believes that his body is the pure expression 
 and even the creation of mind, he will certainly 
 endeavor to shape and control that body mainly 
 through the maintenance of m.ental conditions. 
 
 2. A monistic conception of God and his world, 
 ever verging into pantheism. The publication of 
 Dr. Strong's "Ethical Monism" was one of the 
 most significant events in the history of Christian 
 thought in this countr3\ It showed how great is 
 the present reaction from a mechanical and 
 external theology, and how even the thinkers who 
 have stood most stoutly for the reality of the soul, 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 4I 
 
 of sin, and of redemption, are now passionately 
 demanding some unifying conception of the 
 world-order. Dr. Strong is abundantly able to 
 safeguard his monism; but Mrs. Eddy goes 
 straight over into the camp of those who deny 
 personality to God, and all real freedom and 
 responsibility to man. She explicitly denies that 
 God is personal. Her denial is meant as a pro- 
 test against anthropomorphism ; but it goes so far 
 as to make God a metaphysical abstraction or 
 principle. 
 
 DENIES DIVINE PERSONALITY. 
 
 A young man recently came to me who had 
 gone through Christian Science into Atheism. I 
 asked him to describe the path he had passed over. 
 He answered: "The Christian Science teacher 
 began by thoroughly persuading me that God is 
 not personal, but is pure 'Principle.' After some j 
 months I accepted that, and then I said to myself : - ^ 
 *What is a principle? Does it have real exist- 
 ence? Is it an entity or reality?' I soon saw 
 that a 'principle' is simply an idea of my own 
 mind, and when the Scientist dissolved my God 
 into 'principle' I ceased to believe in any God 
 whatever. I now believe simply in myself." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy answers the question, "What is 
 God?" as follows: "God is divine Principle, 
 supreme incorporeal Being, Mind, Spirit, Soul, 
 Truth, Love." At the head of this confusing list 
 of alleged synonyms she puts Principle, as being 
 the most thoroughly de-personalized term, and 
 
42 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 hence best suited to her purpose. But let us ask 
 
 her to define more closely. Does her God possess 
 
 . consciousness, will, purpose? Is he so like to the 
 
 I noblest earthly father that our highest name for 
 
 |him is Heavenly Father, and that we can com- 
 
 jmune with him, pray to him? To all this Mrs. 
 
 j Eddy must answer, No. To her God one must 
 
 i' not pray, for that would be to acknowledge him 
 
 ; as personal. While one might in an unwary 
 
 moment call her God "Father," yet that term is 
 
 omitted from her definition of God. Her God is 
 
 ** Being," but being need not be conscious of its 
 
 ■own existence, or of ours. Her God is Truth; 
 
 I but truth is destitute of volition or affection for 
 
 I man. Her God is Life; but life in moss and 
 
 I tree is unconscious and unintelligent. Her God 
 
 I is Love ; but not the love which can answer any 
 
 'request for aid. Her God is Mind, Spirit, Soul, 
 
 provided that we interpret those words as syn- 
 
 jonyms of unconscious "principle." 
 
 ELASTIC TERMS. 
 
 ' Much of the success of Christian Science is due 
 
 f'to the fact that its vague phraseology is equally 
 acceptable to the evangelical Christian and to the 
 
 1 atheist. The average Christian, approaching the 
 Christian Science creed on one side, hears that 
 
 I God is "Spirit, omnipresent and eternal," and at 
 once accepts the teaching. The atheist, coming 
 up on the other side, hears that the only God is 
 "principle, truth, harmony," and he can accept it 
 without the slightest change of position. I would 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 43 
 
 not charge conscious duplicity upon Christian Sci- 
 ence teachers. But I do know that they will say 
 to the simple-minded Christian: "We of course 
 believe in prayer, and we use the Lord's prayer 
 at every service ;" while to the antagonist of Chris- 
 tianity they will say: "You know in what sense we 
 believe in prayer — it is by affirming Principle. ' ' 
 
 When Mrs. Eddy in her reaction from deism 
 joins Theodore Parker in denying personality to 
 God, she makes her capital blunder out of which 
 all other blunders spring. She thinks personality 
 means limitation and corporeality. But Dr. 
 Martineau has well said : "You cannot deny God's 
 personality without sacrificing his infinitude : for 
 there is a mode of action — the preferential— ih& 
 very mode which distinguishes rational beings — 
 from which you exclude him." Since Mrs. 
 Eddy's deity is incapable of preferring and will- 
 ing and seeking moral ends and communing with 
 his children, since he is less than personal^ he is 
 less than the Christian God, the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 3. Of course such a faith must issue in' optim- 
 ism. Pain vanishes, since God is incapable of 
 pain, and God is the only reality. Mrs. Eddy is 
 as contemptuous toward pain as was Marcus 
 Aurelius when he wrote: "Do not suppose you 
 are hurt and your complaint ceases. Cease your 
 complaint and you are not hurt." Indeed, her 
 steadfast denial, i. e., her determination to 
 ignore, has close affinity with ancient stoicism. 
 There is nothing new under the sun. The 
 
/ 
 
 y 44 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Emersonian oracle has long been telling lis that 
 *'good is positive, evil only privative" ; Browning 
 has long been crying, "All's right with the 
 world. ' ' But what the stoics and the poets have 
 always affirmed as ideally true, Christian Science 
 turns into bald prose propositions, telling us that, 
 by refusing to think of the ills that flesh is heir to, 
 we may destroy their phantasmagorial existence. 
 Still further goes this optimism. It denies that 
 sin exists, save in our thought of it, i. e., in 
 ** mortal mind." It declares that "man is 
 incapable of sin, sickness and death, inasmuch as 
 he derives his essence from God, and possesses 
 not a single original, or underived, power." 
 Here again we are misled by alleged synonyms. 
 Certainly man has no "underived" power; but 
 has he no "original" power? Has he no power 
 to originate action, to determine some events, to 
 choose between good and evil? If not, we are 
 landed at once in the pantheism where good and 
 evil coalesce in universal being. The Christian 
 church has always believed in a God not to be 
 identified with his own creation, a God distinct, 
 though not separate from his children, a God with 
 
 power 
 
 "To create man, and then leave him 
 Able, his own word saith, to grieve him." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy denies that man is able to grieve 
 
 God, both because God is incapable of grief or any 
 
 other emotion, and because all human sin is 
 
 apparent only, and in reality does not exist. 
 
 \ Such teaching is exceedingly perilous to the 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 45 
 
 "j moral life. It coincides with the teaching of the 
 English Antinomians of the seventeenth century, 
 who affirmed that "the feelings of conscience, 
 which tell them that sin is theirs, arise from a 
 want of knowing the truth. ' ' In the view of Chris-7 . 
 tian Science, since man is incapable of sin, con-/ .^ 
 viction of sin is a dream, and redemption from it/ v. 
 an impossibility. Christ therefore is the "Way J '^ 
 shower," no longer himself the Way. When a( 
 leading Christian Scientist said to me: "Mrs." 
 Eddy is the way to God," I answered, "I thought 
 Christ was the Way." "But Christ, you know, 
 is dead," she answered, "and Mrs. Eddy is now 
 alive." "But Mrs. Eddy must soon die, and who 
 then will be the way?" "Well, we do not think 
 that Mrs. Eddy will — what you call die; we 
 expect she will — dissolve — into — the life of the 
 universe!" Could optimism further go? Yet 
 men call this age — the age of Keely and Mrs. 
 Eddy — a materialistic age ! 
 
 TWO TRUTHS AFFIRMED. 
 
 Let me now mention briefly some of the strong 
 and the weak elements in this strange Christian 
 Science creed. 
 
 It is strong in its clear realization of the imma- 
 nence of God. God is not only "in his heaven," 
 but God is in his world. The average Christian 
 church is still shy of the doctrine of the Holy 
 Spirit, leaving that to Northfield and Keswick, 
 and believes only in a far-away deity who occa- 
 sionally has interfered with his world to work a 
 
46 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCB 
 
 miracle. The average Christian church believes 
 in an inspiration which ceased about loo A. D., 
 and miracles which ceased about 300 A. D., and 
 in an interpretation of the Bible which makes it 
 the story of what was but no longer is. Christian 
 Science affirms that God is as near his world 
 to-day as in any age, and performing all the 
 wonders now that he ever performed. In this it 
 agrees with the Roman Catholic Church, and is a 
 standing reproach to Protestant unbelief. 
 
 Christian Science has undoubtedly gotten hold 
 of a great truth in its affirmation that the best 
 way to heal the body is through the mind. The 
 principle which underlies all these various forms 
 of healing, "metaphysical," ** mental," "faith," 
 or "Christian Science" healing, is the same, as 
 Dr. Buckley has clearly shown, or Mr. Hudson in 
 his "Law of Psychic Phenomena." If we 
 believe that the mind is more than the body, and 
 that all our minds are in contact with the infinite 
 Mind, why should we not, when afflicted with 
 bodily disorder, go first, not to the druggist, but 
 to some friend of strong mental and spiritual 
 powers? If we believe in prayer, why should we 
 not pray to that Spirit in which we "live and 
 move and have our being"? Medicine has long 
 treated the mind through the body; now let it 
 show as much zeal in treating the body 
 through the mind. It is for this reason that Prof. 
 James, of Harvard University, has recently 
 defended the Christian Scientists against the 
 enaction of an oppressive law by the Massachu- 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 47 
 
 setts Legislature — not because he can accept their 
 bizarre philosophy, but because he believes that 
 the power of the mental over the physical life is 
 greater than any accredited philosophy has been 
 willing to admit, and that the possession of a 
 medical diploma does not entitle any man to a 
 monopoly of healing. 
 
 The weakness and danger of Christian Science 
 are to be found, especially, in the following 
 points: 
 
 I. In a quite unwarranted use of the Bible, j 
 Mrs. Eddy professes greatest attachment to the 
 scriptures, and her followers are constant readers 
 of the Bible. Yet she selects only certain por-J 
 tions of the Bible, and commends those portions \ 
 only when interpreted allegorically and arbi- 1 
 trarily. Thus, in commenting on Gen. 2 : 7, she 
 mildly queries: ''Is it the truth? or is it a lie, 
 concerning man and God? It must be the latter, 
 for God presently curses the ground." Mr. 
 Ingersoll, in elucidating the "Mistakes of Moses," 
 never condescended to such language. But not 
 content with the charge of falsehood, she pro- 
 ceeds to a little exegesis of her own. In order to 
 prove that "Adam" is merely a name for the 
 "matter" which opposes "mind," she suggests to 
 her obedient followers a short and easy method 
 with the skeptics: "Divide the name Adam into 
 two syllables, and it reads, a dam or obstruc- 
 tion." And the book which contains this sample 
 of exegesis is supposed to be addressed to sane 
 men and women ! 
 
4S SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 . The Bible flames from beginning to end with a 
 
 \ passion for righteousness, and an indignation 
 
 I against iniquity. To say that man is "incapable 
 
 1 of sin" is to stultify the noble army of martyrs, 
 
 to discredit all the prophets and apostles, and to 
 
 ; make the life and death of Christ farcical. Men 
 
 ^may believe that sin is temporary, that at last God 
 
 shall be all in all, and still follow the Christ. But 
 
 to say that man is "incapable of sin" is to rob 
 
 man of real freedom and responsibility, and make 
 
 Christ only a "Way-shower" instead of the Way. 
 
 2. Another danger lies in a dissolving of God 
 \ into a misty, tmconscious abstraction. In her 
 
 attempt to get rid of anthropomorphism Mrs, 
 Eddy denies personality. But John Fiske has 
 truly said: "We are bound to conceive of the 
 Eternal Reality in terms of the only reality that 
 we know, or else refrain from conceiving it under 
 any form whatever." To ascribe human weak- 
 ness and limitation to God, is indeed an error and 
 a folly. But all the objects we know are either 
 persons or things. Which is Mrs. Eddy's God? 
 Does she believe in the thingness of God, or the 
 personality of God? The answer of her books is 
 clear — she believes in the thmgness of God, in a 
 Substance like that of Spinoza, incapable of pur- 
 pose, choice, or consciousnesSj a Being whose 
 shadowy self is best described as ''Principle." 
 
 MONEY IS NOT DESPISED. 
 
 3. A danger in this movement, which perhaps 
 has not yet developed, is the confusing of moral 
 
ITS PHILOSOPHY 49 
 
 distinctions through the denial of the reality of 
 evil I gladly bear witness to the personal 
 nobility and high-mindedness of many Christian 
 Scientists. I rejoice to find beauty in lives 
 whose creed I cannot accept. Yet the Scientists 
 are often sorely put to it to explain how Mrs. 
 Eddy could charge each pupil $300 for twelve 
 lessons, or what she does with the vast revenues 
 which constantly come into her hands. The 
 usual explanation is that any sum is small in 
 comparison with the benefits received, and that 
 *'all that a man hath will he give for his life. " In 
 absolute religious despotism, combined with 
 belief that one is "incapable of sin," however we 
 may explain the words, danger always lurks. 
 The latest step in this line, and perhaps the most 
 surprising, is the publication in the Christian 
 Science Weekly for January 19 of the following 
 card concerning "Christian Science Souvenir 
 Spoons": "On each of these most beautiful 
 spoons is a motto in bas-relief, that every person 
 on earth needs to hold in thought. Mother 
 requests that Christian Scientists shall not ask to 
 be informed what this motto is, but each Scientist 
 shall purchase at least one spoon, and those who 
 can afford it, one dozen spoons, that their families 
 may read this motto at every meal, and their 
 guests be made partakers of its simple truth. 
 (Signed). Mary Baker Eddy." Probably one 
 outside the mystic circle should not "ask to be 
 informed" as to the price of these precious 
 spoons; nor as to the object of the sale; nor as to 
 
50 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 the proceeds of the sale, if every Scientist of the 
 300,000 claimed in this country were to purchase 
 one or one dozen; nor as to the results if "every 
 person on earth" should seek after this talismanic 
 motto, nor whether the "Christian Science 
 Souvenir Company" is identical with the "Church 
 of Christ, Scientist." But even one outside the 
 circle may think, and marvel, and wonder if all 
 the followers of the "Mother" will approve. 
 •'Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the 
 spirits whether they are of God. ' ' 
 
IV 
 
 THE INHERENT DIFFICULTIES OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY J. W. CONLEY, D.D. 
 
 The one who undertakes to point out the inher- 
 ent difficulties of Christian Science is likely to 
 be told that he has entirely failed in understand- 
 ing- the subject discussed. His unspiritual and 
 material view of things has blinded him to the 
 merits of the case, and has led him to see diffi- 
 culties where none really exist. But Christian 
 Science must meet the difficulties in the minds of 
 thoughtful, intelligent people in some other way 
 than by charging lack of mental acumen or of 
 spiritual apprehension. However difficult it may 
 be to get at the meaning of many of Mrs. Eddy's 
 ambiguous statements, still it is not a very diffi- 
 cult matter to understand the principles involved 
 in her teachings. Many who have been favorably 
 impressed by Christian Science through its more 
 attractive features have never seriously consid- 
 ered the inherent difficulties of the system. 
 
 I. The infallibility of Mrs. Eddy may wel]_ 
 claim attention first. While there are several 
 new schools of Christian Science which do not 
 accept the leadership of Mrs. Eddy, these are not 
 
 51 
 
53 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 properly Christian Science. If Mohammedanism 
 should give up Mohammed and the Koran, it 
 might still retain some features of the old system, 
 but it v/ould cease to be Mohammedanism. Mrs. 
 Eddy clairns^ that to her alone in modern times 
 has been given the revelation of tFe Truth. She 
 says: ** God had been graciously fitting me, dur- 
 ing many years, for the reception of a final 
 revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific 
 Mind-healing." The book ** Science and Health" 
 is a setting forth of this "final revelation" of the 
 "Absolute Principle." To her has been made 
 known the true gospel which has been hidden for 
 centuries. In her address, read at the dedication 
 of the First Christian Science Church in Chicago 
 in 1897, she says: "It is authentically said that an 
 expositor of the dates of Daniel fixed the year 
 1866 or 1867 for the return of Christ — the return 
 of the Spiritual Idea to the material earth or 
 antipode of heaven. It is a marked coincidence 
 'that those dates were the first two years of my 
 discovery of Christian Science." Here she evi- 
 dently claims that she represents the second com- 
 ing of Christ. The way in which her followers 
 regard her is set forth in the following statement 
 explanatory of the fact that instead of having 
 preaching in their services, they have extracts 
 read from Mrs. Eddy's writings: "The canonical 
 writings, together with the word of our text-book, 
 corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in 
 their spiritual import and application to all ages, 
 past, present and future, constitute a sermon 
 
ITS INHERENT DIFFICULTIES 53 
 
 undivorced from truth, tincontaminated and 
 unfettered by human hypotheses, and authorized 
 by Christ. " Her infallibility is of a most extraor- 
 dinary character. She speaks the final word 
 upon the whole range of human thought. She 
 has discovered the Final and Absolute Principle. 
 There can be nothing beyond. To depart from 
 her teachings is, to use her own words, to "adopt 
 and adhere to some particular system of human 
 thought." The general acceptance of such an 
 infallibility would stop all independent thinking, 
 and put an end to all human progress. 
 
 2. A second difficulty is the denial of the testi- 
 mony of the senses and of the reality of matter. 
 Mrs. Eddy declares, "Nothing we can say or 
 believe regarding matter is true except that 
 matter is unreal." She defines matter as "that 
 which mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and 
 smells only in belief." "[Christian] Science 
 reveals material man as a dream at all times, and 
 never as the real Being." "The material senses 
 testify falsely. " "The material atom is an out- 
 lined falsity of consciousness." "[Christian] 
 Science and material sense conflict at all points 
 from the revolution of the earth to the fall of a 
 sparrow." Scores of similar quotations might 
 be given. The whole material universe, from 
 remotest star to minutest atom, is a strange, inex- 
 plicable, complicated delusion. It is the product 
 of the "mortal mind," and the "mortal mind" it- 
 self is defined as a " solecism in language, " " some- 
 thing untrue and unreal. " Sun, moon, and stars, 
 
54 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 changing seasons, waving forests, broad rivers, 
 majestic mountains, verdant landscapes, blooming 
 flowers, singing birds, ripening harvests, are all a 
 delusion. The psalmist was blind and misled 
 when he wrote, "The heavens declare the glory 
 of God." And again, when he said, ''When I 
 consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the 
 moon and the stars which thou hast made, ' ' he 
 was like a man talking in his sleep. This atti- 
 tude toward matter and the testimony of the 
 senses is more serious than at first it may appear. 
 It means that it is folly to study astronomy, 
 geology, chemistry, physiology, biology or any of 
 the sciences which have contributed so marvel- 
 ously to the progress of this age. Such studies 
 only tend to more hopelessly involve man in the 
 bondage to that which is fundamentally false. 
 Christian Science is really a call to close all our 
 laboratories and all schools of scientific research. 
 Already in a number of instances, Christian 
 Scientists have requested that their children be 
 excused from studying physiology in the public 
 schools. This is in entire harmony with their 
 faith. But the same principle that calls for the 
 rejection of physiology will, when fully and con- 
 sistently applied, reject all scientific study. Mrs. 
 Eddy says: "If half the attention given to 
 hygiene were given to the study of Christian 
 Science and its elevation of thought, this alone 
 would usher in the millennium." 
 
 But this rejection of the testimony of the senses 
 means universal skepticism. The one indivisible 
 
ITS INHERENT DIFFICULTIES 55 
 
 mind communicates with the material world and 
 also with the spiritual. On the one hand it 
 affirms the reality of objects and things, on the 
 other of thoughts and ideas. If all is a delusion 
 on one side, what possible ground have we for 
 believing in the affirmations of the same mind on 
 the other side? The logical conclusion, from the 
 rejection of the testimony of the mind respecting 
 the senses, is to reject all its testimony and to 
 believe that nothing is real, and that existence 
 itself is 
 
 A DREAM WITHOUT A DREAMER. 
 
 3. Several serious difficulties present them- 
 selves in connection with the healing of disease. 
 It is urged that all suffering originates in the 
 mind. There is no objective disorder, because 
 there is no object to be disordered. The entire 
 conception of material existence is that it is evil 
 and evil only. It is regarded as a delusion, but it 
 is the reverse of good. Mrs. Eddy declares: 
 "The only conscious existence in the flesh is 
 error of some sort, sin, pain, death." Note care- 
 fully this statement — "the only co?iscious exist- 
 ence in the flesh" is utterly bad — "sin, pain, 
 death." 
 
 Here is a pessimism equal to that held by 
 Schopenhauer. Everything in the material 
 world is the direct opposite of good. Humanity 
 is one great disease. It is a contradiction of 
 terms to speak of physical health, for the body 
 itself is wholly and irremediably evil. You can- 
 
56 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 not cure the body, for the body is incurable; it is 
 from its very nature "sin, disease, death." We 
 are told that the way to get rid of a pain in the 
 head is to insist that there is no such thing as 
 pain. Why not be consistent and insist that there 
 is no such thing as the head? The real trouble is 
 not that we have supposed that there is a pain, 
 but that we have been deluded into believing 
 that there is a head to have a pain. Here is 
 a fundamental inconsistency in the Christian 
 Science treatment of disease. Disease is simply 
 a symptom. Why treat symptoms? V/hy not 
 think truth respecting the body, and cast off at 
 once this wretched pest-house of pain, this 
 disease-infected delusion? The difficulty is not 
 that there is a pain here, and a pain there, but 
 that there is a material body at all. Here is the 
 root of the whole trouble. The weakest point 
 logically in Christian Science is right here where 
 it claims to be strongest. It does not apply its 
 fundamental principle in treating disease. Its 
 cures must find some explanation aside from the 
 application of a principle which is never really 
 applied. 
 
 A somewhat extended quotation will prepare 
 the way for another difficulty: 
 
 "If a dose of poison is swallowed through mis- 
 take and the patient dies, even though physician 
 and patient are expecting favorable results, does 
 belief, you ask, cause this death? Even so, and 
 as direct! V as if the poison had been intentionally 
 taken. In such cases a few persons believe the 
 
ITS INHERENT DIFFICULTIES 57 
 
 potion swallowed by the patient to be harmless, 
 but the vast majority of mankind, though they 
 know nothing of this particular case and this par- 
 ticular person, believe the arsenic, the strychnine, 
 or whatever the drug used, to be poisonous, for 
 it has been set down as poison by mortal mind. 
 The consequence is that the result is controlled by 
 the majority opinion outside and not by the infini- 
 tesimal minority of opinion in the sick chamber." 
 And yet elsewhere in direct contradiction to 
 this she declares: ''Homeopathic remedies, some- 
 times not containing a particle of medicine, are 
 known to relieve symptoms of disease. What 
 produces the change? It is the faith of 'mortal 
 mind.' " But here evidently it is the minority 
 inside and not the vast majority outside that does 
 the work. If the minority could make helpful 
 medicine out of unmedicated pills, why could not 
 a minority make poison harmless? There must 
 be something wrong here somewhere. Then, 
 too, there are many mind cures, hypnotic cures, 
 spiritualistic cures, and the like. These Mrs. 
 Eddy maintains are effected by the belief or 
 power of "mortal mind." Here also it would 
 seem that the minority has in some unaccountable 
 way caught the majority napping. 
 
 WHY NOT HEAL ALL DISEASES? 
 
 Still another difficulty is met with in connection 
 with the work of healing. Why do some diseases 
 yield to Christian Science treatment much more 
 readily than others? A careful statement of the 
 
58 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 principle upon which these cures are based will 
 show the inconsistency here. ''Immortal Mind" 
 is universal and real, as "mortal mind" is limited 
 and unreal. To cure disease "Immortal Mind" 
 must assert the unreality of the affirmations of 
 "mortal mind." "Mortal mind" says, "I am sick." 
 "Immortal Mind" says, "There is no such thing 
 as sickness, it is all a delusion," and since 
 "Immortal Mind" is infinitely superior to 
 "mortal mind," the supposed sickness vanishes. 
 Such being the case, it follows that healing is not 
 in any way due to faith in the divine mercy and 
 power, nor is it a question of magnetism, hypno- 
 tism, or the power of mind over matter; it is 
 simply accepting and thinking the truth. This 
 being true, there is no place whatever for any 
 distinction as to diseases; one ought to yield as 
 readily as another. When Copernicus discovered 
 the right principle of the universe the big planets 
 fell into line just as readily as the little ones. If 
 Christian Science is all it claims to be, it ought to 
 be able to set a broken bone and restore lost 
 teeth, just as readily as to cure a nervous head- 
 ache. Again, if Christian Science has indeed dis- 
 covered the great underlying principle for the 
 banishment of disease, its work of healing ought 
 to show a marked superiority over every other 
 method for the treatment of the suffering. But 
 the fact is that all of its works are readily paral- 
 leled by other schemes for healing without 
 imedicine, and seem to have the same character- 
 istics and limitations that these have. 
 
ITS INHERENT DIFFICULTIES 59 
 
 4. Another serious difficulty is the origin of 
 evil. The simple fundamental principles are as 
 follows: "God is all, God is good, hence all is 
 good." There is absolutely nothing outside of 
 God or good. And yet somewhere, somehow, a 
 vast and awful delusion sprang up which has 
 filled the world with groans and sighs and sins. 
 In commenting upon Gen. 3:4, 5, Mrs. Eddy 
 says: "This myth represents error as always 
 asserting its superiority over truth, giving the lie 
 to Divine Science, and saying through the 
 material senses, 'I can open your eyes, I can do 
 what God has not done for you.* " One writer 
 has very pertinently said, "While Mrs. Eddy 
 smuggles in the fact of the fall, she gives no 
 rational account of it." She attempts to explain 
 it in the following: "The history of error is a 
 dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no 
 intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and 
 the dream are one, for neither is true or real." 
 But if we grant this, the difficulty is not met. 
 The dream itself is a fact, a horrible, protracted 
 nightmare. "God is all, and all is good;" 
 whence then this awful dream of evil? Man is 
 not responsible for it, for he is simply an idea of 
 the Divine Mind. He is a part of God, of the 
 universal good. He has no independent person- 
 ality or power. Call evil a dream, a delusion, a 
 fancy, anything you please, still it remains a fear- 
 ful fact in human experience. It may be urged 
 that other systems of thought have serious trouble 
 in accounting for evil. But the difference is this, 
 
6o SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 they adopt principles that recognize the possibility 
 and power of evil, while Christian Science by its 
 fundamental principles excludes all possibility of 
 evil in any form whatever. There is no place 
 logically in this system for even a dream of evil. 
 
 THE TREATMENT OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 5. The treatment of scripture is another diffi- 
 culty of large proportions. Mrs. Eddy claims to 
 be a firm believer in the Bible. She declares 
 "Divine Science derives its sanction from the 
 Bible." "The Bible has been my only text-book. 
 I have no other guide in the strait and narrow 
 way of this science. " She makes frequent quota- 
 tions from the scriptures, not always accurate, 
 however, as the following example will show: 
 "Jesus said of Lazarus, 'He is not dead, but sleep- 
 eth. ' He restored Lazarus by the understanding 
 that he never died, not by an admission that his 
 body had died and then lived again." Now the 
 fact is, Jesus never used the above language of 
 Lazarus. He said first, "Our friend Lazarus 
 sleepeth;" but when the disciples misunderstood 
 him he said plainly unto them, "Lazarus is dead." 
 
 Her interpretations of scripture have no regard 
 whatever for the ordinary meaning of words or 
 for the generally accepted laws of language. The 
 comment on Gen. 1:20 is a fair sample of her 
 method. "To mortal mind the universe is liquid, 
 solid and aeriform. Spiritually interpreted, rocks 
 and mountains stand for the solid and grand 
 ideas of truth. Animals and mortals meta- 
 
ITS INHERENT DIFFICULTIES 6l 
 
 phorically present the gradations of thought, ris- 
 ing in the scale of intelligence taking form in 
 masculine and feminine ideas. The fowls which 
 fly above the earth, in open firmament of heaven, 
 correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and 
 above corporeality, to the understanding of their 
 incorporeal and divine Principle. " Such handling 
 of scripture undermines all sane use of language, 
 and makes the Bible capable of teaching any 
 vagary that may enter the mind of man. But 
 worse than this, she really denies all the great 
 doctrines of the Bible. Resurrection means 
 **Spiritualization of thought." "Holy Ghost 
 means Divine Science." "Baptism is purifica- 
 tion by Spirit, submergence in truth." '*Angels 
 are God's thoughts passing to man." "Truth 
 bestows no pardon upon error." "We cannot 
 escape the penalty due for sin." "The theory of 
 three persons in one God suggests heathen gods 
 rather than the one ever-present i am." "Life, 
 Truth, and Love constitute the triune God or 
 triply divine Principle." "Every mortal must 
 learn that there is no power in evil." And thus 
 she goes on until the whole gospel structure is 
 utterly undermined. 
 
 There is space simply to mention other grave 
 difficulties. Mrs. Eddy constantly misrepresents 
 current philosophic and scientific thought respect- 
 ing the nature of matter. No one believes that 
 matter is "a creator" or is in itself "sentient." 
 A system that makes all sin an illusion seems to 
 undermine all moral distinctions. There has not 
 
62 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 yet been time to see what the fruitage in this 
 respect will be. 
 
 The personality of God and also of man as nni- 
 iVersally understood by Christendom is denied. 
 jGod is Principle and not person, and man is an 
 idea of God, and Jesus Christ was simply "the 
 highest human corporeal concept of the divine 
 idea." His divinity was essentially the same as 
 jthat of every man. Christian Science dethrones 
 the divine Christ. There is no place left for the 
 ixercise of the mercy of a loving personal Father. 
 An absolute all-embracing Principle is supreme. 
 Of necessity, this system becomes practically 
 prayerless. Mrs. Eddy declares: "God is not 
 influenced by man." She argues against 
 audible prayer: "We must close the lips and 
 silence the material senses." In fact, there is no 
 place for what is ordinarily understood by silent 
 prayer. "The habitual struggle to be always 
 good is unceasing prayer." And she adds: "He 
 who is immutably right will do right without 
 being reminded of his promises." All this is 
 directly contrary to the frequent Biblical 
 examples of and exhortations to prayer. 
 
 Christian Science is a strange mixture of 
 theosophy, idealism, pantheism and Sweden- 
 borgianism, with a thin veneering of professed 
 science and Christianity, and must certainly be 
 greatly modified or utterly break down under the 
 weight of its inherent and insuperable difficulties. 
 
V 
 
 EXPLANATIONS OF THE GROWTH OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY LATHAN A. CRANDALL, D.D. 
 
 In every discussion of Christian Science this 
 question is sure to be asked: "How do you 
 account for its growth?'* It is not necessary to 
 repeat the statistics presented by Mr. Slater in the 
 first article of this series, in order to show ^that 
 this question is a most natural one. Here is a 
 religious sect which hardly had an existence 
 twenty years ago, now numbering its followers 
 by hundreds of thousands. The great majority 
 of these have come out from evangelical churches, 
 and, however indifferent they may have been in 
 their former church relations, they seem now to be 
 possessed by a consuming zeal. Costly houses of 
 worship are erected, and paid for with astonish- 
 ing ease. Services, which to an outsider seem 
 absolutely wanting in attractiveness, are attended 
 by great numbers of people, and that not once or 
 twice only, but regularly, month after month, and 
 year after year. The strength of Christian 
 Science is greater than can be measured by count- 
 ing the number of communicants. In many 
 evangelical churches may be found those who, 
 without changing their church relationship, have 
 fully accepted the teachings of Mrs. Eddy. Still 
 
 63 
 
64 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 others are "tossed to and fro," having gone a 
 considerable distance toward accepting this new 
 faith, but not being, as yet, fully persuaded. 
 
 The desire for some explanation of this remark- 
 able growth is increased as we note the enormous 
 inherent difficulties of Christian Science. The 
 tax upon credulity necessary to believe that 
 Joseph Smith told the truth as to the manner in 
 which he received the Books of Mormon, is small 
 compared with that required to accept the dogmas 
 of Mrs. Eddy. To believe that neither the beef- 
 steak which you buy, nor the range upon which it 
 is broiled, nor the platter upon which it rests, nor 
 the mouth into which it is put have any reality, 
 causes a mighty strain upon faith. To many, the 
 fact that Mrs. Eddy is enthroned as a female 
 pope, whose slightest wish is law, and whose dicta 
 are never questioned and from which no appeal 
 is possible, is in itself sufficient reason for reject- 
 ing the whole system. Yet, despite the dictator- 
 ship of Mrs. Eddy, and with full knowledge of the 
 fact that acceptance of Christian Science theories 
 involves the denial of the constant evidence of 
 their senses as well as what seems to be the plain 
 teaching of the Bible, thousands of honest and 
 fairly intelligent people are yearly added to the 
 already large number of those who look to Mrs. 
 Eddy as an infallible guide. 
 
 HALF-TRUTHS HELP TO EXPLAIN GROWTH. 
 
 It is much easier to ask for an explanation of 
 this strange stampede than it is to give one that 
 
ITS GROWTH 65 
 
 shall be satisfactory. One who can trace and lay 
 bare for inspection all the subtle and eccentric 
 workings of the human mind, who cannot only 
 resolve a belief into its causative influences, but 
 follow the gossamer thread which ties together 
 effect and cause, must be endowed with almost 
 supernatural ability. Some are disposed to say 
 that we have entered a cycle of intellectual dis- 
 turbance, such as has been illustrated in the rise 
 and spread of Fourierism, Spiritualism, Miller- 
 ism, or Mormonism, and to give over any further 
 attempt at explanation. This is an easy but not 
 altogether satisfactory way of disposing of the 
 question. Are there not certain facts related to 
 this movement which throw light upon its 
 development? To search for these facts is the 
 purpose of this paper. 
 
 At the very outset of our inquiry, let us frankly 
 acknowledge that Christian Science is not a sys- 
 tem of unmixed error. Nothing is gained by 
 refusal to credit our opponents with that which is 
 their due. As followers of Jesus Christ we must 
 give assent to some of the things which Christian 
 Science teaches. Patience, unselfishness, purity o0, 
 heart, brotherliness, love and hopefulness do not 
 cease to be virtues because Mrs. Eddy empha- 
 sizes them. When she urges upon her followers 
 the very choices and aims and activities which have 
 formed the themes for Christian sermons and 
 dissertations for eighteen hundred years, we can 
 hardly inveigh against this part of her teaching. 
 However false we may consider the fundamental 
 
66 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 proposition, '*God is all," in the sense in which 
 Mrs. Eddy uses it, still we must confess that it 
 barely escapes being a fair expression of that 
 growing belief in the immanence of God which is 
 so marked a feature of the Christian thinking of 
 to-day. To another fundamental, ' * God is good, ' ' 
 we can only object that it is a weak dilution of 
 the nobler declaration that "God is Love." It is 
 often said concerning Christian Science that 
 **what is true is not new, and what is new is not 
 true." Granted; but that does not dispose of the 
 truth which it contains or rob it of power over 
 human hearts. To say that this is the work of 
 the devil, who is sharp enough to know that 
 unmixed error would not be one-half as useful to 
 him as a compound in which truth is an ingredi- 
 ent, is to substitute assertion for argument, and 
 utterly fails to satisfy candid minds. Explain it 
 as we will, truth is found in this new faith and 
 has its power over the souls of men. 
 
 It seems quite probable that at the present time 
 some become Christian Scientists because it is the 
 fashion. It is an age of fads, and this fad is just 
 now the popular one. It is quite the proper thing 
 in some cities to be an avowed believer in the 
 new cult. In Chicago, for example, the congre- 
 gation which meets in the building recently 
 erected for the First Christian Science Church 
 is not only large but well-dressed. It has in it 
 many men and women of wealth and social stand- 
 ing. That this has its influence upon some is 
 evident from the remark made by a Chicago 
 
ITS GROWTH 67 
 
 Scientist while visiting in a small Illinois village. 
 •*I should not care," said she, "to be a Christian 
 Scientist in a small town!" However, this does 
 not explain the early growth of Christian Science, 
 and this motive is probably not consciously pres- 
 ent in any large number of cases to-day. 
 
 THE FASCINATION OF DOGMATIC STATEMENT. 
 
 The satisfaction which multitudes seem to feel 
 in submitting to the authority of Mrs. Eddy, 
 makes it probable that the same cause which 
 takes some people into the Roman Catholic 
 Church accounts in a measure for the growth of 
 Christian Science ; viz. , a desire to have trouble- 
 some questions settled for them. The fact that 
 Mrs. Eddy demands unquestioning acceptance of 
 her interpretations of scripture and unhesitating 
 obedience to her wishes, while repelling some, 
 undoubtedly attracts others. For not a few, 
 independent investigation has no charm. Inveigh 
 against dogmatism as we will, it has ever been 
 and is now one of the most potent factors in the 
 religious world. The average man is impressed 
 with any statement made frequently and with 
 vigor. No inconsiderable number of people in 
 any given community will yield themselves will- 
 ingly to the guidance of one who claims to know 
 all about everything. Only a small number of 
 people care to work out their own beliefs by 
 difficult intellectual and spiritual processes; it 
 is vastly easier to get them ready made and 
 at second hand. This fact has had not a little 
 
68 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 to do with the rapid spread of Mrs. Eddy's dog- 
 mas. 
 
 The fact should not be overlooked that few 
 ( intelligent and careful students of the Bible have 
 'become Christian Scientists. The writer does 
 not personally know of one such instance, neither 
 has he ever heard of one. If it be urged that 
 clergymen are among the number of those who 
 accept Mrs. Eddy's teaching, it may be said in 
 reply that not all ministers are Bible students. 
 It would be well-nigh impossible for one familiar 
 with the principles of interpretation and who has 
 made a patient and prayerful study of the Bible, 
 to accept the fantastic exegesis of Mrs. Eddy. 
 One often hears the declaration from disciples of 
 Mrs. Eddy, *' The Bible is a new book to me." 
 No doubt this declaration is true. The Bible of 
 the fathers disappears under the skillful manipula- 
 tion of Mrs. Eddy, and that which takes its place 
 is most fearfully and wonderfully new. But it is 
 new to many of those who join the ranks of the 
 Christian Scientists because, although Christians, 
 they have not been Bible students. Despite the 
 sermons which they have heard and the Sunday- 
 schools which they have attended, it remains a 
 sad fact that multitudes of church members know 
 comparatively little about their Bibles. They 
 have given little or no time to independent and 
 thorough study of the word of God. We are not 
 trying to locate the blame, but to state a fact. 
 Such people fall easy victims to the biblical 
 prestidigitator. Mrs. Eddy juggles with words. 
 
ITS GROWTH 69 
 
 makes an innocent term like "Euphrates" 
 mean ''Divine Science encompassing the universe 
 and man," dissects Adam into "a dam, an obstruc- 
 tion," and the credulous spectator believes that 
 this sleight-of-hand performance is a divine 
 revelation. Christian Science would never have 
 become what it is if the members of our churches 
 had been intelligent and thorough students of the 
 Bible. 
 
 THE CURES CONVERT. 
 
 But Christian Science converts because it cures. 
 All the other factors in its growth put together 
 are insignificant when compared with this. It is 
 safe to say that 90 per cent, of all Christian 
 Scientists are such because they have had per- 
 sonal knowledge of cures wrought by Science 
 healers. A study of "Letters from Those 
 Healed," found in the "Miscellaneous Writings" 
 of Mrs. Eddy, reveals the fact that it was not the 
 self-evident truth of the theories contained in 
 "Science and Health" which brought about the 
 conversion of these people, but relief from 
 physical maladies. One witness states that she 
 bought a copy of "Science and Health," and at 
 first it was like Greek to her ; she could under- 
 stand only a little of it. By persistent reading 
 she was cured of her malady. A gentleman testi- 
 fies that he had been held in bondage many years 
 by "beliefs of consumption, dyspepsia, neuralgia, 
 piles, tobacco and bad language." He procured 
 a copy of "Science and Health," and, he says, 
 "after some days' reading I was affected with 
 
70 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 drowsiness followed by vomiting. This lasted 
 several hours; when I fell into a sleep and awoke 
 healed." Any one who has attempted to read 
 the text-book of Christian Science will be fully 
 prepared to credit the testimony of this witness 
 as to the drowsiness and nausea. It is doubtful 
 if Mrs. Eddy would have a dozen followers in the 
 entire world were her theories not buttressed by 
 cures wrought. 
 
 The fact that Christian Science sometimes fails 
 in attempts to heal, and the other fact that cures 
 are sometimes claimed where none have been 
 wrought, do not prove that all the cases of 
 alleged healing are spurious. People whose hon- 
 esty is unquestioned, and whose intelligence 
 makes them competent witnesses, declare that 
 they have been healed of serious maladies under 
 Christian Science treatment. As an example of 
 the experiences through which some have passed, 
 the writer submits the testimony of a personal 
 friend, a sincere and intelligent woman. She 
 says: "I had been ill for several weeks, and under 
 the care of a physician. As I was growing worse 
 all of the time, some of my friends urged me to 
 call in a Christian Science healer. I protested 
 vigorously, as I had no faith in the system. The 
 mere thought of employing such an agency was 
 so distasteful that I spent nearly half a day in 
 tears. When I finally yielded to the solicitations 
 of my friends I told the healer who visited me 
 that I had no confidence in her ability to help me; 
 yet after one treatment I arose from my bed, 
 
ITS GROWTH 71 
 
 and have not been ill since." This lady is now 
 an ardent Christian Scientist, and her case is 
 duplicated over and over again. 
 
 Christian Scientists themselves point to the 
 cures wrought as establishing the validity of their 
 claims. It is not often that one of them will con- 
 sent to discuss the philosophical propositions of 
 Christian Science, considered in and of them- 
 selves. They rest their case not upon argument, 
 but upon so-called "demonstrations." "By their 
 fruits ye shall know them" is the one answer to 
 all objections urged against the theories which 
 they accept. Their reasoning seems to be that if 
 Christian Science cures disease then its theories 
 must be true ; Christian Science does cure disease ; 
 therefore its theories are true. If we admit 
 the major premise, we must accept their con- 
 clusion ; for that diseases have yielded to Chris- 
 itan Science treatment in multitudes of instances, 
 is as well established as that quinine is service- 
 able as a febrifuge. 
 
 THE REAL BASIS OF THE CURES. 
 
 Having come upon the explanation — in large 
 part at least — it remains to explain the explana- 
 tion. How are these cures wrought? Mrs. Eddy 
 says that the only true thing which can be said 
 about matter is that it is unreal. It necessarily 
 follows that disease is also unreal. If the body is 
 a "misstatement of mind," the disease can be no 
 more than a state of mind. Eradicate the belief 
 from the mind, and you have effected a cure. 
 
72 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 This is mind-cure pure and simple, however much 
 Mrs. Eddy and her followers may protest against 
 this explanation of their work. Every intelligent 
 physician will admit that the mind powerfully 
 affects the body, both in inducing disease and 
 remedially. While there are some things that the 
 mind cannot do, such as giving sight to one born 
 blind, or setting a dislocation, or replacing a limb 
 that has been amputated, it seems quite certain 
 that its range of influence is much wider than has 
 generally been recognized. The mind affects not 
 only the nerves, but the circulatory system and 
 the secretions, and has been known to effect 
 changes in tissue and in structure. Many a man 
 needs only to be told that he looks ill to feel so ; 
 while a firm persuasion that we are not sick, or 
 that the remedies employed will certainly prove 
 effective, is of larger therapeutic value than many 
 bottles of patent medicines. 
 
 The discussion of the different phases of mind- 
 cure, and of the systems which employ this 
 agency, is beyond the scope of this article. The 
 study of mesmerism, magnetism, clairvoyance, 
 telepathy, mental and metaphysical healing, sug- 
 gestion and auto-suggestion, hypnosis and 
 autohypnosis belongs to the department of 
 physiological psychology. It is sufficient for our 
 present purpose to call attention to the fact that 
 so far as any of these agencies are employed in 
 healing disease, their potency depends upon 
 securing certain mental conditions. When these 
 mind-conditions have been induced, physical 
 
ITS GROWTH 73 
 
 results follow in many — but not all — cases. 
 Christian Science as a therapeutic agent must 
 take its place with other systems which heal 
 disease without the use of drugs. 
 
 The assumption that cures establish theories 
 falls to the ground when we consider the number 
 of conflicting theories which would be proved 
 true were this contention well founded. In the 
 city of Chicago is a physician who claims to heal 
 by a process of "vitalization." His avowed 
 theory is that magnetic currents having healing 
 properties flow from his body to the bodies of his 
 patients. He furnishes numerous testimonials 
 from reputable people who swear that they have 
 been healed by him. That he does perform some 
 cures cannot be doubted. Do these cures prove 
 that his theory of **vitalization" and magnetic 
 currents is true? Dr. Dowie, of faith-cure fame, 
 holds that there is a real body and real disease, 
 and that God heals in answer to prayer. Mrs. 
 Eddy declares that neither body nor disease have 
 any real existence. Both perform cures. Are 
 both sets of theories true? That can hardly be, 
 since they are mutually contradictory. Christian 
 Science is only one of many systems which under- 
 take to heal disease without the use of drugs. Its 
 cures are no more real or more wonderful than 
 those wrought at Lourdes or by Schlatter, or by 
 Mental Science. They all have a common 
 method, differing only in 'details. Thousands of 
 people believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to 
 the maidens in the grotto at Lourdes. They 
 
74 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 believe this because they have found health 
 through prayer offered in this grotto. Other 
 thousands believe all the absurd and self-contra- 
 dictory declarations made by Mrs. Eddy, because 
 they have been healed by Christian Science treat- 
 ment. So great is man's longing for physical 
 health, so keen the gratitude of those who have 
 been physically benefited, that it is doubtful if the 
 time ever comes when men will refuse to accept 
 theories, however fantastic, if presented to them 
 interwoven with healing of bodily maladies. 
 

 VI 
 
 THE PRECURSORS OF CHRISTIAN 
 SCIENCE 
 
 BY FRANKLIN JOHNSON, D.D. 
 
 The writers who have preceded me in this series 
 of articles have made it clear that Christian Sci- 
 ence is a species of pantheism. All the historic 
 systems of pantheistic philosophy, therefore, are 
 its precursors. But some of these systems are 
 more nearly related to it than others. 
 
 TWO SORTS OF PANTHEISM. 
 
 It is not easy for any pantheist to regard both 
 God and the universe as simple, sincere and hon- 
 est. It is the tendency of pantheism in every 
 form to find illusions where the more sober phi- 
 losophies find substantial reality. The fact that 
 some pantheists have resisted the tendency does 
 not disprove the existence of it, since the great 
 majority of their fellows have been swept away 
 by it. Either matter and motion are the chieTl 
 realities, and all lofty conceptions of God are 1 
 illusions, even though innate in the human mind ; ' 
 or God is the only reality, and material things are 
 illusions in a greater or less degree. These are 
 the two extremes between which the pendulum of . 
 pantheism ever swings. The chief systems ol-^ 
 
 75 
 
76 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 pantheistic thought which have disturbed the 
 church have tended to the second of these 
 extremes, and Christian Science is now to be 
 added to their number. 
 
 Indeed, Mrs. Eddy expressly repudiates 
 pantheism in the first of these two forms, as in 
 the following sentences: *'It is pantheistic to sup- 
 pose that brains are intelligent, or, in other 
 words, that Mind is material. Pantheism is 
 neither Christian nor scientific. The belief that 
 Mind is a product of matter is absurd." "The 
 false doctrine of pantheism that God, or Life, is 
 in or of matter." This materialistic type of 
 pantheism is the only one of which Mrs. Eddy 
 seems to have heard. It is evident from these 
 quotations that when she condemns pantheism 
 she thinks only of the materialistic extreme, and 
 not the idealistic, of which her system of thought, if 
 it may be called a system, is a confused example. 
 
 The pantheistic systems with which I have 
 classed Christian Science had their parentage 
 in India, the native home of all hilosophy. 
 Brahmanism, the oldest philosophy in the world 
 — especially as interpreted by the Vedantic school 
 of philosophical and religious teachers — is the 
 earliest precursor of Christian Science. This 
 statement I shall now justify by pointing out 
 several prominent traits of family resemblance. 
 
 MATTER AN ILLUSION. 
 
 The first is the denial that matter really exists, 
 which, as the reader already knows, is one of the 
 
ITS PRECURSORS 77 
 
 fundamental doctrines of Christian Science. **In 
 the Vedantic school," says Davies, in the intro- 
 duction to his translation of the "Bhagavad 
 Gita," "all bodily forms or material existences 
 are mere illusion, a temporary appearance, like 
 an image of the moon in water, with which it has 
 pleased the One Sole Being to veil for a time his 
 purely spiritual nature." "The difficult, or 
 rather impossible problem of the origin of matter 
 and of existing forms is set aside by the mere 
 negation of matter." 
 
 SIN AN ILLUSION. 
 
 A second trait of family resemblance is found 
 in the teaching of the two systems concerning 
 deliverance from imperfection. It can hardly be 
 said that sin, in our sense of the word, is recog- 
 nized in Brahmanism ; but imperfection and 
 wretchedness are recognized, and a remedy for 
 them is provided. As they spring wholly from 
 ignorance, the remedy is knowledge. When a 
 man knows perfectly that all material things are 
 illusions, and that he himself is Brahma, his long 
 journey of successive transmigrations comes to an 
 end, and he enters upon eternal quiescence. 
 Christian Science seems to speak more distinctly 
 of sin, because our age is one in which sin is 
 recognized by millions of earnest persons, and is 
 mourned and hated far more bitterly than are 
 mere imperfection and wretchedness. But Chris- 
 tian Science speaks of sin only to pronounce it an 
 illusion. As Brahmanism knows no real sin, so 
 
78 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Christian Science knows no real sin; and as 
 Brahmanism provides no better remedy than 
 knowledge for human imperfection and wretched- 
 ness, so Christian Science provides no better' 
 remedy than knowledge for the illusion of sin. 
 1 We need but to perceive that sin does not exist in 
 (order to conquer it. Like disease, it disappears 
 when we deny it a place among the realities of 
 existence. 
 
 PAIN AND DEATH ILLUSIONS. 
 
 A third trait of. faniilyLresemblance is found in 
 the denial of the reality of pain and_death_com- 
 mon to Brahmanism and Christian Science, 
 The author of the '*Bhagavad Gita," though he 
 does not hold the doctrine of illusion in its 
 extremest form, yet denies that the body is 
 sufficiently real to enable any one to kill an 
 enemy or to be killed by an enemy. He repre- 
 sents Krishna as exhorting a warrior to enter into 
 battle because he can neither give nor receive 
 any injury. The soul is the man. "He who 
 deems this to be a slayer and he who thinks that 
 it can be slain, are both undiscerning: it slays 
 not, and it is not slain." The **Bhagavad Gita" 
 is a poem, indeed, and some one may object that 
 it is wrong to press its language into the mold of 
 a literal interpretation. On the contrary, while 
 it is a poem, it professes to teach a philosophy. 
 The passage which I have quoted is no mere 
 poetic interpretation of our mortality, like the line 
 in which Longfellow assures us that 
 
ITS PRECURSORS 79 
 
 "There is no death, what seems such is transition." 
 
 It asserts what the author regards as a sober 
 truth, and is employed as the basis of an argu- 
 ment. The body is a mere garment, with no 
 organic relation to the soul ; it is put on at what 
 we call birth, and put off at what we call death, 
 but the man is not born, nor does he die. 
 "Wherefore, fight, O son of Bharata." 
 
 This sounds quite like the declaration of Mrs. 
 Eddy that "there is no birth or death; there is no 
 suffering; it is only the counterfeit of man— the 
 mortal mind— that undergoes these illusions." 
 
 THE DEIFICATION OF MAN. 
 
 A fourth trait of family resemblance is the 
 identification of the human soul with God, and 
 hence the deification of man. We meet this first 
 in Brahmanism, and last in Christian Science. 
 The devotee of the Vedantic system of religion 
 "must notice the illusory character of all that 
 seems to exist, or all that is besides the absolute 
 spirit, and thereby be in a position to say, I am 
 Brahma, the unchanging, pure, intelligent, free, 
 undecaying, supreme joy, eternal, secondless." 
 The reader has already learned with what bold- 
 ness Christian Science essays this leap from the 
 creature to the Creator of all. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF THESE VIEWS. 
 
 I do not find all the details of Christian Science 
 in Brahmanism, the earliest school of panthe- 
 istic thought of which we have any knowledge ; 
 
8o SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 but, as we have seen, its fundamental assump- 
 i tions are there. The person who accepts these 
 ^ may apply them in various ways. The devotees 
 of Christian Science go further than the most dar- 
 ing of their precursors when they apply them to 
 the healing of disease. The Hindu pantheist, 
 denying the reality of the body, denied, as a 
 logical necessity, the reality of pain and death, 
 but it did not occur to him that the steadfast 
 denial was a means of recovery from the unreal 
 pain and of escape from the unreal death. This 
 last step in the process was reserved for Mrs. 
 Eddy. But the Hindu pantheists made an 
 approach to it. There is a large class of Brah- 
 mans who are called Yogis, because they practice 
 Yoga, a combination of ascetic tortures and medi- 
 tation. One of their sacred exercises is said by 
 them to be ''highly beneficial in overcoming all 
 diseases." But it is a mere posture, and the man 
 who assumes it does not attempt to overcome 
 disease by arguing in his mind that there is no 
 ^ disease. Many of the Yogis have gone very far 
 I in showing the supremacy of the mind over the 
 I body. Monier Williams, in his "Indian Wisdom," 
 describes their achievements as follows: "We 
 read of some who acquire the power of remaining 
 under water for a space of time quite incredible ; 
 of others who bury themselves up to the neck in 
 the ground or even below it, leaving only a little 
 hole through which to breathe; of others who 
 keep their fists clenched for years till the nails 
 grow through the back of their hands ; of others 
 
ITS PRECURSORS 8i 
 
 who hold one or both arms aloft till they become 
 immovably fixed in that position and withered to 
 the bone ; of others who roll their bodies for thou- 
 sands of miles to some place of pilgrimage; of 
 others who sleep on beds of iron spikes ; of others 
 who chain themselves for life to trees; and of 
 others, again, who pass their lives, heavily 
 chained, in iron cages." These and a thousand 
 other forms of self-torture are practiced with but 
 little appearance of pain. The denial of the 
 reality of the body must have encouraged these 
 ascetic rigors. It is somewhat remarkable that 
 the Yogis did not take one further step, and try to 
 find in their theories and usages a means of dissi- 
 pating disease; though, being acute reasoners, it 
 is no wonder that they failed to stumble into the 
 absurdity of Mrs. Eddy, and to teach that cures 
 are wrought by the steadfast denial that there is 
 anything to cure. 
 
 THE PEDIGREE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 But, after all, is there anything more than a 
 series of accidental analogies to connect Hindu 
 pantheism with Christian Science? Is the one 
 the precursor of the other historically and 
 genetically? It is probable that Mrs. Eddy never 
 heard of Hindu pantheism ; yet it is also probable 
 that it has descended to her by a long and 
 circuitous route. 
 
 Pantheism was a well-known feature of early 
 Greek speculation. But Greek pantheism tended 
 to atheism, or at least to the identification of God 
 
82 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 with the material universe. If carried out con- 
 sistently it would make the material universe the 
 reality, and reduce all lofty conceptions of God 
 to illusions. This is the exact reverse of the 
 Hindu tendency. It was not the materialistic 
 Greek pantheism that the early church found 
 most troublesome; it was the Hindu pantheism, 
 imported from India, and mixed with other ele- 
 ments. Nor has the Greek type of pantheism 
 given much trouble to the church in her subse- 
 quent history; it has always been the Hindu type 
 with which she has had her chief contention. 
 
 Hindu pantheism was brought into contact with 
 early Christianity by the Neo-Platonists. "The 
 philosopher Numenius," writes Moller, "a fore- 
 runner of Neo-Platonism proper, sought to 
 gather together the religiously valuable wisdom of 
 different peoples, of the Indian Brahmans, the 
 Jews, the Persian Magi, and the Egyptians." 
 Ever since that time this philosophy of the Brah- 
 mans has continued to confront Christianity, for 
 though it has often been subdued, it has 
 never been wholly destroyed, and has been 
 able on several occasions to muster mighty 
 forces and deliver great battles. The last 
 serious combat with it took place as recently 
 as the time of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. Its 
 chief distinguishing features have always been its 
 assertion of the more or less illusory character of 
 material things, its tendency to overlook or to 
 deny sin, and its deification of man. 
 
 Neo-Platonism, borrowing one of its chief 
 
ITS PRECURSORS 83 
 
 features from Brahmanism, affirmed, says Uhl- 
 horn, that "matter is the negation of being." 
 This borrowed doctrine would have led, of itself, 
 to a shallow doctrine of sin. But, borrowing 
 another feature from the Persian dualism, Neo- 
 Platonism affirmed that this "negation of being" 
 is essentially evil, and the source of the evil which 
 afflicts the soul, and it arrived thus at its shallow 
 doctrine of sin by a more circuitous route. Sin 
 being a thing of the body, the soul can break 
 away from it by ecstasy or by death. Moreover, 
 as sin is only a thing of the body, there is the less 
 reason to hesitate to regard the soul as strictly a 
 divine essence. When Plotinus was dying he said 
 calmly to his friends: "I am struggling to liber- 
 ate the divinity within me." In this manner the 
 three chief features of Hindu pantheism reap- 
 peared in Neo-Platonism. Their reappearance in 
 the German schools of pantheism need not be 
 illustrated, since those schools are so recent and 
 so well known. 
 
 Though these features, as we have seen, reap- 
 pear once more in Christian Science, it is not 
 necessary to suppose that Mrs. Eddy studied any 
 of the systems from which her theories are bor- 
 rowed. Indeed, her book is so chaotic, so full of 
 whimsies, caprices, and impossibilities of thought, 
 as to render her entire ignorance of all systematic 
 philosophy apparent. Had her mind been bal- 
 anced and chastened by reading any treatise on 
 philosophy, however poor, it would have been 
 saved from the thousand-fold confusions into 
 
,84 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 which it has fallen. Nor is it difficult to see how 
 Christian Science has been derived from its 
 precursors by an unconscious process. 
 
 New England has long been hospitable to 
 speculations of various kinds. She was unusually 
 hospitable to the transcendentalism of Schelling 
 because it was recommended to her by Emerson 
 and others of her most famous and most beloved 
 sons. Thus for many years before Mrs. Eddy 
 wrote, there was much pantheistic mist and haze 
 floating in the air about her, and she breathed it 
 in her childhood. Later, Boston took up the 
 study of theosophy, and came into contact with a 
 form of Indian thought in which pantheistic ele- 
 ments had a place. These influences, affecting 
 even the newspapers, and through them the whole 
 population, were not unfelt by the founder of 
 Christian Science. Her mind, ingenious though 
 uninstructed, quick to seize a plausible thought, 
 though unable to distinguish the merely plausible 
 from the true, or to connect a series of thoughts 
 in logical sequence, gathered from the atmosphere 
 the few truths and the many errors, crudities, 
 absurdities, and impossibilities which appear in 
 her teachings. A few leading doctrines may be 
 traced through them, and these enable the student 
 of them to recognize them as a species of panthe- 
 ism. But along with these there is so much of 
 inconsistency, of self-contradiction, and of folly, 
 that the sober reader becomes bewildered, like 
 one who walks in a maze. 
 
VII 
 THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY BENJAMIN A. GREENE, D. D. 
 
 It has a future. How far into the years it will 
 project itself, how widely and thoroughly it may 
 spread, no one can predict. This much can be 
 said, and ought to be said, to some who treat the 
 whole question with explosives of disgust : it has 
 a future because it has a vigorous, phenomenally 
 growing present, because, at the heart of this 
 growth, disagree and dissent as we may, there is 
 forcefully evident profound conviction, sincere 
 reverence, such a sense of discovery and victory 
 in daily experience as to make many lives radiant 
 with joy and hope. We judge the future by what 
 the present holds. 
 
 ACCELERATING MOMENTUM. 
 
 Letters of inquiry sent to persons outside of 
 Christian Science circles, in eighteen represent- 
 ative cities of our country, bring back word that 
 it is still making headway, and in most places 
 with a greatly accelerated momentum. This 
 testimony is confirmed and very largely supple- 
 mented by official publications, weekly and 
 monthly, which I have carefully read. In New 
 York State they claim that the number was 
 doubled last year. In 1867 Mrs. Eddy had one 
 pupil. To-day we find in the "Directory of 
 
 85 
 
86 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Christian Science Practitioners" over 2,000 names 
 with city and street address. Every state in the 
 union is found there, also Canada, England, 
 Scotland, France, Germany, and Hawaii and 
 China. The text-book, "Science and Health," 
 has gone through 160 editions, and the call is for 
 more. Three weeks ago Mr. Kimball claimed in 
 his Chicago lecture that Christian Scientists had 
 nearly 2,000,000 instances of healing. Make such 
 allowances as the most skeptical insist upon ; even 
 then you have a bulky, vigorous fact striding 
 to-day where it was creeping only yesterday. It 
 has emerged from the silence of contempt. 
 Editors, ministers, medical clubs, legislatures, 
 give it attention. Such an aggressive force is 
 bound to project itself yet further. It has a 
 future. 
 
 A FEW PARTICULAR FEATURES. 
 
 The uniform report is that their services show a 
 happy and contented company. Something gives 
 them joy. Not many houses of worship have 
 been built; but when they build, they dedicate 
 free of debt. It takes conviction to use the 
 pocketbook in that way. The Sentinel and the 
 Journal give in every issue a large number of 
 letters. Hard-headed business men, as well as 
 women and farmers, open their hearts in testi- 
 mony ; specify as to the healing that has come to 
 their home, sagacity and poise to their business 
 management, and spiritual calm to their minds ; 
 and then give name, city, street, number. Just 
 such testimonials are coveted by materia medica 
 
ITS FUTURE 87 
 
 and orthodox churches. They are willing wit- 
 nesses, and zealous in distributing literature. In 
 all this we must admit "promise and potency" for 
 the future. 
 
 THE USE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Though this is eclectic, fragmentary, and, now 
 and then, flagrantly absurd, still there is a vital 
 joining upon underlying principles; namely, the 
 divine immanence, the communion of man with 
 the Infinite, casting out fear through love, gaining 
 peace through staying the mind on God, divine 
 power and promise to heal all manner of 
 diseases. In the last particular they claim a 
 fidelity to scripture superior to that of their critics. 
 They claim to demonstrate the truthfulness of 
 their position in that they do actually cure disease 
 without the use of drugs. Leaving the nature of 
 the cures until later, let it be noted that Christian 
 Science insists on keeping its teaching blended 
 with Bible teaching. The mind comes in contact 
 sympathetically with some of its vitalizing truths. 
 Such buttressing gives strength that promises 
 endurance. Even the novel interpretation 
 awakens interest in the Bible never dreamed of 
 before. Bringing great truths to bear upon 
 every-day worries, fears, ailments, and securing 
 thereby quiet of mind and health, invests that 
 interpretation, in spite of all imperfections, with a 
 glory it will be hard to dissipate. Let the man 
 who applies the whole scripture to his whole self 
 cast the first stone. 
 
S8 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 THE LARGE, WAITING CLIENTAGE. 
 
 There is no fact more evident than that of the 
 misery and restlessness of mankind through 
 disease. How many million dollars are paid 
 annually for patent medicines to heal ** chronic 
 lingerings," and that, too, after other millions 
 have already been paid to physicians! If there 
 be such a thing as "the law of supply and 
 demand," here is a condition of things that will 
 continue to make large demands. And among 
 the people there seems to be a sort of hygienic- 
 messianic expectation. Some are looking for 
 deliverance through a discovery of microbes; 
 others for telepathic channels through which the 
 health of God may surge in upon the ills of man. 
 Christian Science is in search of the man who has 
 tried physicians, baths, travel, climate, and tried 
 in vain. And when healing comes in the last 
 resort, the mind is in a receptive mood for what- 
 ever teaching accompanies it. Especially the 
 idea of union with the Infinite, bringing calm, 
 trust, hope, and power over bodily conditions, is 
 a revelation, a joy. Many cling to that, are made 
 staunch converts. The accession of happy con- 
 verts makes the future sure. 
 
 THE FASCINAIION OF A SENSE OF POWER. 
 
 When homeopathy first came, mothers, not a 
 few, provided themselves with a little book and a 
 box of bottles filled with tinctured pellets. There 
 was a font of healing on the bureau in the bed- 
 room. A kind man would sometimes have an 
 
ITS FUTURE 89 
 
 assortment of vials in his pocket, and, as he 
 dropped into the village homes, finding sickness 
 there, would administer relief. The conscious- 
 ness that he carried with him remedial forces had 
 a fascinating power over his mind, and this, 
 joined with his benevolence, kept him for some 
 time at his philanthropic work. Here it is not 
 pellets in the vest pocket, but thoughts in the 
 mind. "What!" says a man, *'can I, by holding 
 my mind in a proper attitude toward the truth, by 
 opening my soul to the incoming infinite love and 
 power, become a channel of health to humanity 
 around me?" "Yes," says Christian Science, and 
 the marvel of that possibility is still in the 
 ascendant. 
 
 THE SIDE WHERE CONVERTS MAKE THEIR APPROACH 
 
 is the one I have thus far dwelt upon. Deter- 
 mination to look facts in the face, facts that are 
 drawing men to-day, and to be candid in the 
 statement of them, is absolutely essential to fair 
 treatment and a satisfactory judgment with re- 
 gard to the future. To approach Calvinism on 
 the side of Servetus, or Puritanism on the side of 
 Salem witchcraft, would be hardly fair. Nine- 
 tenths of Christian Scientists confess they were 
 drawn to the movement through physical benefit 
 gained. 
 
 THERE IS ANOTHER SIDE. 
 
 The metaphysical theory as to the unreality of 
 matter and disease and pain is like the bitterness 
 of the physician's pill. Christian Scientists swal- 
 low it. They do not care to argue at that point. 
 
90 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 As a leading judge of Chicago recently said: "I 
 do not know that we can explain that; but so 
 long as Christian Scientists give to humanity 
 health and hope, you church people ought not to 
 fight them." I most heartily agree with him, if 
 by that term, fight, he means feelingless, pebble- 
 wit flings, poisoned-arrow dartings of speech, 
 vituperative slow-fire, thumb-screw charges of 
 devilish machinations. But I do not agree with 
 him if it means an unquestioning capitulation to 
 all the claims and theories of Mrs. Eddy. 
 Thoughtful discrimination is an alphabetic virtue 
 in listening to any human teacher. Even God 
 himself says, "Come, let us reason together." 
 
 THE NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL ATMOSPHERE 
 
 which has favored the growth of Christian Science 
 will continue to favor it. A growing conviction 
 as to the power of mind over bodily conditions is 
 "in the air." Christian Science did not create 
 this conviction. Hypnosis, faith-cure, mind-cure, 
 had also been emphasizing it. They all felt the 
 breath of a common evolutionary process. This 
 psychological condition, while fostering the 
 growth of Christian Science, shows it unmistak- 
 ably to be one of a class (for its cures are cer- 
 tainly duplicated in other schools), and, therefore, 
 discloses 
 
 A SWARMING BROOD OF RIVALS. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy claims the Bible as her only source 
 of knowledge, and yet frankly confesses that her 
 "favorite studies were natural philosophy, logic 
 and moral science." The anthem of Emerson's 
 
ITS FUTURE 91 
 
 "Over-Soul" had been reverberating through 
 New England for twenty-five years. The very 
 year she began, 1866, was the year Dr. P. P. 
 Quimby died, the man whose original contribu- 
 tions in this line form the basis of such work as 
 Horatio W. Dresser gives us in *'The Power of 
 Silence." Indeed, from time immemorial, the 
 marvelous power of mind over body has been 
 acknowledged. "A merry heart doeth good like 
 a medicine." "It is part of the cure to wish to 
 be cured." " 'Tis the mind that makes the body 
 rich. ' ' Surely Solomon, Seneca, Shakespeare had 
 inklings. Physicians who use drugs, include, in 
 proportion to their good sense, mental conditions 
 in diagnosis and treatment. Psychologists have 
 found, in hypnotism, an open door into this whole 
 wide realm. Common humanity has made it com- 
 mon talk for ages, *'If you charge a man's mind 
 with good news and good cheer, you aid digestion, 
 quicken circulation, begin to build physique over 
 again." This thought has had currency; but it 
 was in nickels and dimes. What has long been 
 needed is larger pieces ; halves and "cart-wheels, ' ' 
 $5 gold pieces and bank notes with two or three 
 figures on them. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Thoughts are vital forces. Truth is thought- 
 force bringing freedom. Words are "storage 
 batteries." "The Kingdom of God is within 
 you," and connected by spiritual telephone with 
 the King eternal. In his presence is fullness of 
 
92 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 life. These are the quickening revelations now 
 whispering their way into larger and larger 
 acceptance. In such literature as "Ideal Sug- 
 gestion," "In Tune with the Infinite," "The 
 White Cross Library/* we have a new phar- 
 macopoeia widening out into the future. Chris- 
 tian Science will undoubtedly share largely in 
 this expansion. It must be given credit for dar- 
 ing to thrust the larger pieces of currency into the 
 broadest circulation thus far. 
 
 Christian churches will be made to feel this call 
 to give the power of God a broadening application 
 to our incarnate life. What psychologists are 
 saying with united emphasis, what mental healers 
 are now actually proving, will come with cumu- 
 lative urgency, and demand that we bring out a 
 class of scripture long time held in abeyance, and 
 give it current hygienic value. "The prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick." God shall quicken our 
 mortal bodies, while they are alive, through the 
 divine tonic of his Spirit's indwelling. Not that 
 disease and death will be banished, not that physi- 
 cians and surgeons will become anachronisms, 
 but the ills of flesh may be forced into diminished 
 area and the glory of the Christian's final victory 
 be preceded by anticipatory thrills of triumph. 
 Daily living will be more of a victory and less of 
 a defeat. When this comes true. Christian Sci- 
 ence will find one of its largest tributaries cut off, 
 and the church of Christ, more potent by reason 
 of added and emphasized truth, will have become 
 the better prepared for new triumphs. 
 
ITS FUTURE 93 
 
 DISINTEGRATING INFLUENCES ALREADY AT WORK. 
 
 Growing up around the "Mother Church" in 
 Boston are schools of healing which retain the 
 impersonal elements and ignore Mrs. Eddy. All 
 through the country, in larger centers, this is the 
 case. In Chicago "The Exodus Club" has for its 
 chief lecturer Mrs. Gesterfeld, who was formerly 
 Mrs. Eddy's "star-pupil," so President Trude told 
 me. Jane W. Yarnall writes a book, taking the 
 same ground. In Washington, many persons 
 retain church membership and practice what they 
 term "applied Christianity." These are only 
 straws in the wind. From words of complaint, 
 scattered through Christian Science literature, 
 charging plagiarism and ingratitude, and from 
 the more rigid restrictions put upon the public 
 meetings, it is evident that the disintegrating 
 process is already seriously felt, and what it 
 threatens is more seriously feared. The Come- 
 outers say that 
 
 MRS. EDDY CLAIMS TOO MUCH FOR HERSELF 
 PERSONALLY. 
 
 While acknowledging her as a discoverer, they 
 think that truth, "broad as the cosmos," cannot 
 "be so compressed as to flow only through one 
 channel." Christian Science is "autocratic, 
 rather than democratic"; "polity and ritual in 
 every detail are shaped and directed by a single 
 will." And the spirit of all this an "outsider" 
 easily discovers in reading Mrs. Eddy's works, 
 e. g. "There is only one Christian Science, as 
 there is only one Truth." "The wise Christian 
 
94 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 Scientist will commend students and patients to 
 the teachings of 'Science and Health' and the 
 healing efficacy thereof, rather than try to center 
 interest on himself. " " TJie Bible and my books 
 mislead no one.'' The sermon on Sunday is 
 made up entirely of extracts from her writings 
 and quotations from scripture. There are no 
 lecturers recognized except those appointed and 
 absolutely governed from headquarters. She 
 out-popes the pope. Recently she ordered Dr. 
 Geo. Tompkins from the lecture platform to the 
 more private sphere of healing, and he meekly 
 states his acquiescence in public print. A 
 humbler instance of submission came out in the 
 Christian Science Weekly last November, in con- 
 nection with the question whether clippings could 
 be read in the Wednesday evening meeting. A 
 "reader" had severely chided a person for doing 
 that. If it be contrary to Mrs. Eddy's wish, this 
 person wrote to the editor, he would **beg her 
 pardon and promise never to do it again. ' ' When 
 Mrs. Eddy dies, who will inherit her claims to 
 infallibility? Will not that event precipitate the 
 process of disintegration? 
 
 THE "unreality" HANDICAP. 
 
 I. As to matter. Idealism may do for theoret- 
 ical discussion, but take it out into work-a-day life, 
 it will not work. Mrs. Eddy insists, for the mil- 
 lionth time, that "matter is unreal" ; "knowledge 
 gained through the material senses is ojily 
 illusion,'' Stab a man; red blood flows; death 
 
ITS FUTURE 95 
 
 robs a family of support. Illusion ! People may 
 swallow that absurdity because of physical benefit 
 gained; but, in the long run, common sense will 
 resume operation. It is sure to resume when the 
 practical Yankee instinct recovers and gets back 
 of the perception which enables them to see that 
 Mrs. Eddy makes the very shrewdest use of the 
 material printing-press for the advocacy of her 
 unreal "unreality," and counts on good eyeball 
 vision to take the message in. Jupiter sometimes 
 nodded. And even now some are sorry to see 
 that their ideal leader allowed herself to be caught 
 nodding in that she sanctions the embossing 
 of her features on a silver spoon and urges each 
 one of the 300,000 disciples to purchase at least 
 one material souvenir at $4 apiece, and where 
 they can, to take a dozen for the use of visiting 
 friends. The "unreality" theory is not essential 
 to the cures. Those who reject or abandon that 
 phase of "The Science of Being," and yet hold to 
 principles common to several schools, still succeed 
 in mental therapeutics. Even "Father John," of 
 the Russian Church, is to-day healing with extraor- 
 dinary success. People run out to meet him as 
 they ran to meet Paul at Ephesus. He is the 
 sainted miracle-worker of Kronstadt. This tying 
 up of healing power with the "unreality" theory 
 reminds me of a woman I once knew who 
 thoroughly searched the Bible with a view to suc- 
 cessful defense of the doctrine of the sleep of the 
 dead. Because she had spiritual quickening 
 through contact with much Bible truth in pro- 
 
96 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 longed study, she attributed it to that particular 
 doctrine, and hence that doctrine must be true. 
 
 2. As to sin. In "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy 
 speaks of the ^'illusio7i which calls sin real, 
 Q.n6. ina7t a sinner yieeding a Savior.'" She began 
 with the unreality of disease. She would drive 
 the thought of disease out of mind, insist on 
 letting the health- thought come in, fill her, and 
 deny the intruder right of place. In stress of 
 battle, there at that victorious point, she thought 
 she had a revelation of a wide-reaching principle. 
 *'Godis All; God is Good;" therefore, "there is 
 no such thing as disease or evil," both are 
 "illusions." Danger here for the future. Con- 
 ditional sentences may be thrown in freely; posi- 
 tive injunctions to be kind, just and pure may be 
 added; but that underlying principle of the 
 "unreality of evil" plunges a dagger through the 
 Bible doctrine of a man's individual accountability 
 and lets out the very heart-blood of Christ's dis- 
 tinctive teaching. To see what might be the 
 worked-out results of that teaching in remote 
 time and place, we have only to turn to history 
 and read of Antinomian license. The opposite 
 extreme, holding true now, as I have been told, 
 in isolated instances, goes to show just that weak- 
 ness of extremes which warns of a possible pen- 
 dulum swing later. 
 
 HOW SHALL WE TREAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE 
 FUTURE? 
 
 Treat it kindly as you would a brother. Face 
 all the facts. Frankly acknowledge every iota of 
 
ITS FUTURE 97 
 
 good. Just as frankly call attention to what you 
 sincerely believe to be error and danger. To 
 ignore it, boycott it, set yourself dogmatically 
 against it, saying it is nothing but a tissue of 
 deception, is as unreasonable as you try to make 
 out Christian Science to be. The ordinary church 
 member with his worry and fear, with a religion 
 that does not give him a baptism of strength and 
 joy to-day, with lips unable or unwilling to wit- 
 ness for the divine power, may learn a very useful 
 lesson from Christian Scientists. *'Tell how great 
 things the Lord hath done for you." Mrs. Eddy 
 may claim, as she does, that she "introduced the 
 first purely metaphysical healing since the apostles' 
 day," that scripture itself *'gave no scientific 
 basis for demonstrating spiritual principle until 
 the Heavenly Father saw fit in 'Science and 
 Health' to unlock the mystery of godliness." But 
 she is mistaken. She is human, and she shows 
 her frailty as did Luther when he said that the 
 Epistle of James was an epistle of straw, as did 
 Miller when he fixed upon 1843 for the second 
 coming of our Lord. Gautama was human. 
 Mohammed was very human. Both of these sys- 
 tems have lasted through centuries. Mrs. Eddy 
 says: "Centuries will elapse before the topics of 
 'Science and Health' are sufficiently understood 
 to be fully demonstrated." Her name may 
 ascend and find place amid the century constella- 
 tions. But I have my doubts. 
 
VIII 
 THE ERRORS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY CEPHAS B. CRANE, D.D. 
 
 Few of the readers of The Standard could be 
 more interested than myself in the foregoing able 
 articles upon Christian Science. I was living in 
 Boston, which was then her city, when Mrs. Eddy 
 began to attract public attention to herself and to 
 her system. At a later period v^e both had our 
 homes in Concord, N. H., where I often saw her 
 in her daily drives, and where I became some- 
 what acquainted with the story of her life and 
 achievements. 
 
 It is plain that the writers of the articles sought 
 to be fair, even generous, in their estimate of 
 Christian Science. They showed the chivalric 
 spirit which ought always to characterize men 
 when they pass judgment upon the achievements 
 of women. I cannot see how Mrs, Eddy, or any 
 of her followers, can bring a charge of injustice 
 or harshness. All that is true and good in Chris- 
 tian Science was warmly commended. Probably 
 I am not the only reader of the articles who 
 perceived, or imagined, that the writers did not at 
 all points agree in the interpretation of the 
 system. But this is not at all to their discredit. 
 
 98 
 
ITS ERRORS ggr 
 
 The fault is with the system. It is not self- 
 consistent, and it is nebulous. The scientific and 
 philosophical and theological language of it is to 
 an amazing degree indefinite and elusive. There 
 is constant contradiction in terms. Familiar 
 words are charged with unfamiliar meanings. 
 The thoughtful and well-instructed reader is per- 
 plexed that he cannot get out of the fog into clear 
 air. He is baffled at every turn. Emerson is 
 sometimes called obscure, for the reason that he 
 leaves the reader to supply the minor connective 
 sentences. But no most accomplished reader can 
 supply the minor connective sentences of the 
 text-book of Christian Science. There is a per- 
 petual to and fro movement between what 
 appears to be logic and what is sentimentalism 
 and mysticism. If it were either logical or 
 rhapsodical or apocalyptic, one might get at the 
 gist of it. But the trouble is that it is a com- 
 pound of all that these adjectives signify. For- 
 midable postulates are verified by fancy and 
 emotion. It is vain for one who is balked by an 
 apparent conclusion to go back to discover the 
 premises. The premises are not there. The 
 conclusion is an affirmation without visible sup- 
 port. So one reads on, every moment more 
 hopelessly bewildered. 
 
 The palpable truth in Christian Science is that 
 what the uninitiated multitude call the body is to 
 less or greater degree affected by the mind. 
 Many pains and aches vanish at once when we are 
 made to believe that there is no cause nor reason 
 
loo SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 for them. I have more than once had such 
 deliverances when my doctor has told me that 
 nothing ailed me. Indeed, only last week I 
 delivered a man in precisely this way. Hysterics 
 and hiccough can be abolished by an imperative. 
 It is perfectly true that certain states of the body 
 are determined by certain states of the mind. 
 But this is no new discovery. The doctors have 
 helped patients wonderfully by bread-pills, and a 
 few drops of water disguised under the cloak 
 of a harmless essence. If they say bread-pill and 
 pure water, their prescription fails; but if they 
 say pa7iis pilula and aqua pura^ the prescription 
 works like magic. As to the more obstinate evils 
 of ulcer and cancer and a broken leg — but that is 
 another story. 
 
 The exhortation to trust and serenity, con- 
 stantly given by the hierophants of Christian 
 Science, and usually obeyed by the neophytes, is 
 accounted a praiseworthy exhortation. But trust 
 and serenity, if they rest upon a false foundation, 
 are pathetic. "I am perfectly well," said a 
 yoimg woman to me at our seaside hotel, who 
 was constantly reading the text-book of Christian 
 Science, and who kept her neighbors awake in the 
 night with her distressing cough. Poor girl! 
 She returned to her home in California to die. 
 Trust and serenity are really admirable only when 
 they are warranted by the facts in the case. 
 Otherwise, they awaken in us an unspeakable pity. 
 
 Christian Science claims to be a science, a 
 philosophy and a theology. In my judgment it is 
 
ITS ERRORS loi 
 
 no one of them. As a science it begins by mak- 
 ing all other sciences, particularly the physical 
 sciences, preposterous. For according to it, since 
 matter is an illusion, and all is mind, astronomy, 
 geology, botany, paleontology, medicine, are 
 baseless. The men of eminence in these sciences 
 waste their time upon "chimeras ruminating in a 
 vacuum." Nor can the Christian Scientist save 
 himself here by classing himself v/ith accredited 
 spiritual monists. For the clear-eyed monist, 
 even though he affirms mind to be the one and 
 only substance, does not dream of saying that the 
 ordered phase of being to which we give the name 
 of matter is an illusion. He calls it a reality. 
 There may be two spiritual systems, the one as 
 real and permanent as the other. The triangle is 
 an idea, and the circle is an idea, but neither can 
 abolish the other. 
 
 Meanwhile, how can there be mental science 
 when personality, even the personality of God, 
 vanishes into the impersonality of a principle? 
 Or how can there be mental science when the 
 axiomatic first truths upon which all science must 
 build are flatly denied? 
 
 Christian Science is not a philosophy. It is 
 subjective idealism gone mad. Professor Bowne, 
 of Boston University, and Professor Royce, of 
 Harvard University, are both eminent exponents 
 of philosophical idealism. They construe what 
 we call matter in terms of mind. But they would 
 never dream of calling that system of things, that 
 established and permanent order, to which we 
 
102 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 give the name of matter, an illusion. They 
 stoutly affirm its reality. They bid us respect 
 it, and conform our action to it. They eat and 
 drink, knock out the stones that get wedged in the 
 shoes of their horses, send for the doctor and take 
 his medicine, without a spasm of uneasy feeling 
 that they are contradicting their own philosophy. 
 But when the Christian Scientist does these things 
 he practically abjures his philosophy. Why eat 
 and drink if you have no body with a hungry and 
 thirsty stomach? Why knock out the stone under 
 your horse's foot when there is no stone and you 
 have no horse? Why take medicine, when disease 
 is an illusion? True, the Christian Scientist 
 refuses the medicine, even if he has to die for it. 
 But why does he not also refuse the butcher's 
 meat and the bread? Why does he not allow his 
 foolish horse to go on limping under the delusion 
 that he has a stone under his hoof? In theory he 
 denies the existence of what goes by the name 
 of the material world; in practice he respects it 
 as fully as do all the rest of us. Of what value 
 is that philosophy to which the conduct of life 
 cannot possibly conform? 
 
 Christian Science is not a theology. How can 
 it be a theology, when God is in one sentence 
 falteringly named a person, and in the next sen- 
 tence stoutly affirmed to be a principle? Person 
 or principle — which? Speak plainly, my friend, 
 that we may know ** where we are at. " It is clear 
 that here our friend is floundering in the slough 
 of a misunderstood pantheism. 
 
ITS ERRORS 103 
 
 The theology of Christian Science, in its effort 
 to be true to its idealistic philosophy, has the 
 temerity to pronounce sin an illusion. That 
 surely is an astounding assumption. But philo- 
 sophical idealism does not require that one thus fly 
 in the face of things. Professors Bowne and 
 Royce blister sin with fierce invectives. They 
 deny that it is an illusion. They affirm its reality, 
 its punishableness, man's need of deliverance 
 from it. 
 
 On the whole, I should say that Christian Sci- 
 ence ought to go to school. Let it take a 
 thorough course, under competent teachers, in 
 physical science, philosophy, and theology, and it 
 will slough its absurdities, become conformable 
 to reason and faith, and become capable of being 
 fairly understood by the average man. 
 
IX 
 
 SOME INCIDENTS OF PRACTICAL 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY E. S. PLIMPTON 
 
 In the previous articles a most generous attitude 
 has been maintained towards Christian Science. 
 Curative results have freely been granted, and 
 the successes claimed have not been disputed. In 
 fact, one of the greatest reasons for its spread has 
 been given: "It cures!" Indeed, this is cited as 
 the cause. But in all fairness may not another 
 reason be stated? It pays. ' 
 
 IT IS PROFITABLE. 
 
 While hesitating to make the charge that selfish 
 considerations are consciously paramount, is it 
 possible that any system shall be exceedingly 
 remunerative to its promoters and they be v^holly 
 uninfluenced by this profit? I have before me the 
 Christian Science Sentinel, the great organ of the 
 system, published in Boston, dated February i6, 
 1899. In this paper nine columns are devoted to 
 the recital of the history of the litigation, in v/hich 
 Mrs. Eddy is the complainant, of the violation of 
 her copyright of the book "Science and Health," 
 and of other of her v^ritings, and a copy of the 
 
 104 
 
SOME PRACTICAL INCIDENTS 105 
 
 court decree granting her a perpetual injunction 
 in the case is given. The copyright is thus sus- 
 tained, and she is sustained in her claim of 
 exclusive right of publication and sale and the 
 consequent profit therefrom. 
 
 That this is no valueless decree is shown by the 
 accompanying price list of her works, among 
 which "Science and Health" is quoted at $2.75 
 per copy for twelve or more copies to one address, 
 or $3.18 singly. This is for the cloth edition. 
 Since books of equal volume, style of binding and 
 paper are freely on sale at 75 cents, there is left a 
 matter of $2 or so to the credit of the copyright. 
 In the publication of 160,000 copies at this rate 
 the profit is clearly enormous. 
 
 But this is not the sole source of income, for 
 other publications are sold in lesser number but 
 with corresponding margin of profit. Also, to all 
 this must be added the substantial fees charged 
 for teaching. These are all Mrs. Eddy's own 
 personal property. 
 
 The class-teaching may have ceased, but the 
 books are a veritable mine of wealth. No wonder 
 she protects them even by law, and no copy can 
 ever reach an ignorant world except through the 
 channel of her copyright. But this "Science and 
 Health" is accepted and used as a companion to 
 the Bible. Think of a royalty on every copy of 
 the Word of God! Think, too, of the vast differ- 
 ence in price. A full, complete copy of the one 
 may be had for 25 cents; of the other with far less 
 volume the cost is $2.75. Most surely were the 
 
io6 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 air that we breathe and by God's free bounty- 
 have in abundant supply, subject to such man or 
 woman's control, every inhalation would be 
 taxed. 
 
 IS A SOURCE OF PROFIT TO OTHERS. 
 
 That the teaching of Christian Science as well 
 as its practice is profitable is seen by this illustra- 
 tion, which is only one of multitudes of instances, 
 and I will. here state that no incident but those 
 personally known to the writer will be cited. 
 
 A merchant gave up a paying business to 
 become a teacher of Christian Science. This 
 was some years ago when teaching was popular. 
 He went to Boston and took a course of lessons 
 from Mrs. Eddy herself, at the regular price of 
 $300 for twelve lessons. He then returned home, 
 secured classes numbering in some cases as high 
 as twenty, at $50 for the twelve-lesson course. 
 Thus six pupils pay his own tuition, and the 
 remainder of receipts is largely profit. In their 
 turn these pupils become, or seek to become, 
 teachers and practitioners, the former at $5 per 
 pupil, and the latter at $1 to $2 a treatment. The 
 money profit is great, if at all successful, and 
 both this success and profit are contingent upon 
 the spread of the desire for instruction or treat- 
 ment. Thus, a strong motive exists for diligent 
 promotion of the doctrine. 
 
 Has this motive been without effect? The 
 writer's experience has been that those practition- 
 ers of the system who hold to it most firmly are 
 
SOME PRACTICAL INCIDENTS 107 
 
 of the class of persons that we recognize as being 
 thrifty, able to make the most of what comes in 
 their way. Again I ask, is the fact of profit with- 
 out its influence? Is not the world full of 
 examples of the promotion of that which promises 
 returns of great profit to the promoters? May 
 not, indeed, the question of profit compete with, 
 if not overshadow, other incentives? In what 
 feature of this phase of the question is there 
 harmony with the command of Jesus: '* Freely ye 
 have received, freely give"? 
 
 But it may be said, "We give adequate 
 returns for our teaching and our treatment. 
 People need not come to us ; we do not compel 
 them." But is not the promise of healing to one 
 in suffering in some degree a compulsion? I 
 know of no class of practitioners who are so 
 profuse in such promises. Moreover, there is 
 always a hazy mystery maintained that of itself is 
 exceedingly fascinating. It partakes of the 
 mystery that describes the drugs of a prescription 
 in an unknown tongue, or that adds to the awe 
 of a religious service by reciting it in Latin. 
 Clothed in verbiage and vaguely worded ambi- 
 guity, its power is great. 
 
 FAILURE FREQUENT. 
 
 But these promises are not always fulfilled. I 
 could mention instance after instance within my 
 own knowledge. One or two of these may be 
 given. A woman with a diseased finger that per- 
 sistently resisted medical effort was told that it 
 
io8 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 must be amputated. The surgeon came from a 
 distance to operate, but a Christian Science prac- 
 titioner, on hearing of his coming, went to the 
 home of the poor woman and so worked upon her 
 as to gain her refusal to submit, and the surgeon 
 went home without doing the work. The Chris- 
 tian Science woman assured the patient that she 
 could and would restore the hand and save her 
 finger, and at once began treatment that went on 
 for some weeks, the disease in the meantime 
 constantly spreading until at last a greater part 
 of the hand was involved, and the surgeon was 
 again sent for and left her but the small stub of 
 a hand, which then healed and saved her the loss 
 of her arm. This poor remnant of a hand I have 
 more than once seen. 
 
 Again, the two most prominent women who 
 teach and practice Christian Science in this com- 
 munity are both widows within a year from this 
 date. But the strangest part of all is the com- 
 placency with which a death under Christian 
 Science treatment is viewed by those in charge. 
 Surprise, grief, regret seem utterly absent, as 
 possibly they may well be, for death is unreal, and 
 there is no cause for grief, for he has only 
 *' passed on." 
 
 STRIKES AT COMMON SENSE. 
 
 A young lady, a teacher in our city schools, had 
 a boil upon her fair cheek. As it inflamed and 
 grew, it attracted much notice, and the more so 
 because it so disfigured her beauty. She, when 
 
SOME PRACTICAL INCIDENTS 109 
 
 Spoken to, declared it was not a boil ; it was but 
 the "belief of a boil," therefore she allowed it to 
 take its course unmolested except by the "nega- 
 tion" that she and her friends brought to bear 
 upon it. But the boil flourished, attested her 
 sense of its presence by the tears which the pain, 
 in spite of her, would cause, it being so near her 
 eye, suppurated, scabbed, and dried up all 
 untouched, and left a purple spot as a protest 
 against neglect. 
 
 WEAKENS VERACITY. 
 
 A merchant whose word had never been ques- 
 tioned, bargained to exchange with another cer- 
 tain real estate. The other party offered to make 
 a payment at the time which should bind the 
 bargain, but was assured that his word was good, 
 and that each could trust the other to fulfill his 
 part. After some days it was known that the 
 merchant had sold his land to still another man. 
 At once the first party went to him, and having 
 learned the truth, remonstrated. "But," said the 
 merchant, "you can't blame me, I got $200 
 more." "But you gave me your word." 
 "Well," impatiently, "there isn't anything that's 
 real." This man was and is a Christian Science 
 man. What becomes of business integrity with 
 such views of obligation? 
 
 WOULD DESTROY SCIENTIFIC SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 A daughter was taken from our city school 
 because physiology and hygiene are in the course 
 of study. For months she had no instruction, but 
 
no SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 later was sent where, by payment of tuition, such 
 study could be avoided. Such a course is the 
 legitimate fruit of the denial of disease or disa- 
 bility, and the consequent rejection and disuse of 
 surgical or medical skill. One cannot fail to 
 wonder what course of treatment would be 
 adopted in case of a cinder in the eye. Would it 
 be left to stay or come out, as the case might be? 
 Or, if it were too deep ever to come out or to be 
 gotten without instruments adapted to the pur- 
 pose, would they be used? 
 
 A poor drunken young man, whose parents 
 lived on one of my farms, had a cancer on his 
 cheek. It was malignant and corrupt. On a hot 
 summer day he lay in a drunken stupor and the 
 unprotected sore was covered with flies. Mag- 
 gots, too, were rolling and tumbling over each 
 other in plain sight and also deep down in the 
 flesh. If this young man in his desperate condi- 
 tion were placed under Mrs. Eddy's treatment, 
 v/hat would she do? Nay, if he were her own son, 
 and there are many as wayward sons of as noble 
 mothers, what would she do? Would the harm- 
 less, at least to the feasting vermin, negation or 
 demonstration satisfy her mother-heart? Would 
 it any mother's heart? 
 
 Are microbes that can be seen only with the aid 
 of a glass less real than those seen by the eye in 
 this man's cheek? If actual remedies or applica- 
 tions are used to destroy or counteract the one, 
 should they be discarded in the other? Many 
 diseases are germ diseases. But, must Christian 
 
SOME PRACTICAL INCIDENTS iii 
 
 Science ignore those other diseases whose cause 
 is vice and crime? Are the elite of diseases to be 
 reserved as its special own? 
 
 Will a demonstration tie a severed artery? 
 Will it suffice in place of the necessary severance 
 and closing of the artery at birth? But, if not, 
 then surgery is admitted, and once permitted to 
 compete for success, who has any doubt as to its 
 outcome? In a railroad accident where there 
 were the maimed, the fractured, the injured 
 externally and internally, would a detachment of 
 Christian Science healers receive a cordial wel- 
 come from the wounded and suffering if such 
 were sent on a relief train instead of surgeons and 
 actual doctors to their rescue? Why do not 
 Christian Science practitioners establish their 
 claims for relative efficiency as do other schools of 
 healing, when they, in large city hospitals, take 
 their turns of the cases of accident and disease, 
 and a careful and correct record is kept of every 
 case from the beginning to the end of it? 
 
 A FRUITLESS STRUGGLE. 
 
 An infant was sick ; a Christian Science practi- 
 tioner, a neighbor, called and offered to treat the 
 child. It was evening, and the child lay in its 
 cradle in a darkened room. The treatment 
 began. That cold, repellent look that indicates 
 the mental fight with an unseen foe, was on her 
 face. After a long time the father in his grief 
 felt that he must see his child. He went to the 
 cradle and was horrified to find his darling cold 
 
112 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 and almost stiffened in death. During nearly the 
 whole time of treatment the dear child had been 
 dead. The forbidding aspect had kept death at 
 bay not an instant, and the silent operator had 
 been treating a corpse. 
 
 THE REAL DANGER. 
 
 But the most pitiable of all, because of its far- 
 reaching consequences, is yet to be told. Eternal 
 salvation is at stake. Without faith in an 
 atoning Savior the gospel is an unmean- 
 ing word. The atonement of Christ is of no 
 avail to those who willfully reject it or know- 
 ingly and of purpose deny it. But w^ho can 
 affirm or believe in that which he declares never 
 took place, and for which there is not only no 
 necessity but no possibility? If there can be any 
 surer way to keep a soul away from its only 
 Savior than to deny that there is a Savior, and 
 to assert that by no sort of means could such a 
 Savior be needful or even possible, such way has 
 not been devised. A soul without a Savior is a 
 lost soul. 
 
 I cannot believe that Mrs. Eddy, or other 
 Christian Science teachers, realize the conse- 
 quences of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 as the atoning Savior, or the failure to accept 
 him if once made known. "He is the propitia- 
 tion for our sins. " So to interpret scripture as to 
 do away with salvation through faith in Christ is 
 to pervert, to destroy that blessed way of life, 
 than which there is no other. An ostentatious 
 
SOME PRACTICAL INCIDENTS 113 
 
 use of the Bible can make no amends for destroy- 
 ing its very essence. That soul which feels a 
 confident security for eternity because of the pos- 
 session of a certain undefined benevolence of 
 feeling toward God, which he persuades himself 
 God feels toward him, is in great danger. 
 Nowhere in his word can we find any approach to 
 the Holy One by sinful man except through a 
 Mediator. To do away with Jesus Christ as the 
 atoning Mediator is to bar the only way of access 
 to God, the Eternal. Whatever does this is fatal, 
 be it fashionable, attractive, or clothed in the 
 form and character of the great adversary of 
 human souls. It is just as deadly to go over 
 Niagara in a gilded boat as upon a raft of logs. 
 
X 
 
 THE FORM AND SUBSTANCE OF 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 BY O. P. GIFFORD, D. D. 
 
 Christian Science has a hard time getting itself 
 understood ; it has a wide hearing, but finds few 
 with understanding hearts. It stands, like the 
 temple, with its outer court of the Gentiles, court 
 of the women, court of Israel, and its holy place. 
 The outer courts are crowded, but there be few 
 who enter the holy place, and stand with the high 
 priestess face to face with the truth. There are 
 many who accept and profit by the health, few 
 who understand the science of the movement. 
 Many catch glimpses of the truth that lies like 
 the blue sky beyond the clouds, but few 
 have reached the heights and live above the 
 clouds always in the light. This difficulty of 
 understanding lies first in the form; second, in 
 the substance of Christian Science. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE FORM OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 Its form is the English language, but the words 
 are used in a foreign sense. M. Taine says of 
 *• Paradise Lost": "This Adam entered Paradise 
 via England. There he learned respectability, 
 
 114 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 115 
 
 and there he studied moral speechifying. Adam 
 is your true pater familias, with a vote, an M. P., 
 an old Oxford man, consulted at need by his wife, 
 dealing out to her with prudent measure the 
 scientific explanations which she requires." So 
 we may say of "Science and Health." It reached 
 Boston via the Tower of Babel ; it confounds a 
 fairly sensible tongue and thus confuses thought. 
 The glossary, added to the classic of ** Science and 
 Health," attempts to "elucidate the meaning of 
 the inspired writer." "It contains the meta- 
 physical interpretation of Bible terms, giving 
 their spirituaUense, which is also their original 
 meaning." It would be difficult to find in 
 another sentence metaphysical, spiritual and orig- 
 inal serving as synonyms. Such use of words 
 reminds of Hamlet and Polonius: 
 
 Ham. — "Do you see yonder cloud that's almost 
 in shape of a camel?" 
 
 Pol. — "By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, 
 indeed." 
 
 Ham. — "Methinks it is like a weasel." 
 
 Pol. — "It is backed like a weasel." 
 
 Ham. — "Or like a whale." 
 
 Pol. — "Very like a whale." 
 
 This shifting, cloud-like use of words is very 
 puzzling; it changes the frontiers of thought so 
 frequently that one scarce dares invest lest his 
 property slip from his grasp. Adam is defined in 
 this metaphysical, spiritual, original glossary to 
 mean: 
 
 "Error; a falsity: the belief in original sin, 
 
Ii6 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 sickness and death ; evil ; the opposite of Good, or 
 God, and his creation ; a curse : a belief in intel- 
 ligent matter, finiteness and mortality; dust to 
 dust; red sandstone; nothingness; the first god 
 of mythology; not God's man, who represents the 
 one God, and is his own image and likeness; the 
 opposite of Spirit and its creations: that which is 
 not the image and likeness of Good, but a material 
 belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit; 
 so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus 
 making 'gods many and lords many'; a product 
 of nothing, as the opposite of something, an 
 unreality as opposed to the great reality of 
 spiritual existence and creation ; a so-called man, 
 whose origin, substance and mind are supposed 
 to be the opposite of God or Spirit; an inverted 
 image of Spirit; the image and likeness of God's 
 opposites, namely matter, sin, sickness and death; 
 the antipodes of Truth, termed error, the coun- 
 terfeit of Life, which ultimates in death; the 
 opposition of Love, called hate ; the antipodes of 
 Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; 
 Immortality's opposite, mortality, that of which 
 wisdom saith, 'Thou shalt surely die. ' This name 
 represents the false supposition that life is not 
 eternal, but has beginning and end; that the 
 infinite enters the finite ; intelligence passes into 
 non-intelligence, and soul dwells in material 
 sense ; that immortal mind results in matter, and 
 matter in mortal mind; that the one God and 
 Creator entered what he created, and then disap- 
 peared in the atheism of matter. ' ' 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 117 
 
 Such a mosaic of words without a pattern of 
 thought bewilders. The ancients traced figures 
 of men and animals in the starry heavens, but 
 imagination fails when we try to arrange these 
 words as thus related to each other so as to form 
 a pattern of thought. With Polonius we are 
 puzzled; have we a whale, a camel or a weasel? 
 
 "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan: 
 The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 But such a man defies study, and yet this man 
 is the one most of us know most about by experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Elias is defined to be Christian Science. The 
 Holy Ghost is Divine Science. The New Jerusa- 
 lem is Divine Science. Thus we have an historic 
 character, a prophetic city and the Holy Ghost all 
 meaning the same, and that same Christian Sci- 
 ence is the modern metempsychosis, it changes 
 form so often through its strange use of words 
 that a man questions if he be not his own 
 ancestor, and may yet be his own descendant. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE SUBSTANCE OF CHRISTIAN 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 Puzzling as the form is, the substance is still 
 more baffling. It is neither gnosticism nor 
 idealism, nor pantheism, though bearing a family 
 resemblance to each in turn. It is a revelation. 
 "Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that 
 Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the 
 divine mind and idea." . . . "God, who at 
 
ii8 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 sundry times and in divers manners spake tmto 
 the fathers through the prophets, hath in these 
 last days spoken unto us by his Son." Whatever 
 truths there may have been in the broken, frag- 
 mentary revelations of the past were all gathered 
 up in the fuller revelations of the Son. But this 
 revelation of and through Christ was also incom- 
 plete. He promised another Comforter who 
 should lead into all truth. Christian Science is 
 this promised Comforter. As Christ's revelation 
 interpreted all previous revelation, so Christian 
 Science interprets Christ and previous prophets. 
 This is "a final revelation of the absolute prin- 
 ciple of Scientific Mind-healing." This final 
 revelation is of God and man and their mutual 
 relations. This revelation is that "erring, mor- 
 tal, misnamed mind produces all the organism 
 and action of the mortal body," and that "all real 
 Being is the divine Mind and idea; that Life, 
 Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-pres- 
 ent; that the opposites of Truth — called error, 
 sin, sickness, disease and death — are the false 
 testimony of false material sense ; that this false 
 sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of 
 mortal mind, which this same mind calls matter, 
 thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit." 
 
 A revelation is to be received, not reasoned 
 about; welcomed, not debated; lived, not thought. 
 This revelation gives God's point of view. Mrs. 
 Eddy stands at the center of the universe and 
 looks out. Thus standing, there is no time, no 
 succession in events, no space-relation. When 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 119 
 
 she says, "There is no matter, no sin, no sickness, 
 no death," she states what is not to God. Now 
 and then a prophet caught a glimpse of God's 
 purpose and foretold to men what was present to 
 God. Christ put God's present purpose and 
 thought into the future tense for man ; Paul saw 
 a redeemed universe as it was in God's thought, 
 but always spoke of it as in the future for man ; 
 but Mrs. Eddy, standing by God's side, deals in 
 the eternal present. To him the verb of life has 
 but one tense, the present tense. She does not 
 write God's thoughts in man's grammar, but 
 seeks to compel us to share God's thought. 
 
 A PARAPHRASE. 
 
 Picture a man standing before a large mirror. 
 To him there is nothing but himself and his image 
 or reflection. It has no meaning aside from him ; 
 its business is to reflect him. As long as he 
 stands thus before the mirror in the light, its 
 motions correspond to his motions. Suppose this 
 an eternal mirror, faced by an eternal man, cast- 
 ing an eternal reflection, then this man and his 
 reflection are all there are in the universe to him. 
 Suppose this reflection endowed with power of 
 thought, of choice, of will, suppose it to come to 
 self-consciousness, to begin to think it was some- 
 thing in and of itself. It begins to think its own 
 thoughts, to make a world for itself. The man 
 thus standing sees simply his own reflection ; to 
 him this change in the image is not real ; he sees 
 himself in the mirror, but the reflection sees itself 
 
120 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 and loses him. Whatever comes into the life of 
 this image is not real to the man, and so not 
 really real. The world of the image is but a 
 dream ; his thoughts are not real thoughts, for the 
 only reality is the man and the reflection which 
 he sees. 
 
 God is the eternal being, truth, life, principle. 
 He is conscious of himself and his idea, his 
 reflection. This idea is as eternal as he is. It 
 always was, always will be ; it has no real being 
 except as it reflects him. God is Spirit. Man is 
 God's spiritual reflection. This spiritual reflec- 
 tion came to self-consciousness, lost God-conscious- 
 ness; this loss was his, not God's. To God he is 
 still the spiritual reflection, God sees him as he 
 always has seen him. This passing phase of 
 self-consciousness is unknown to God, hence 
 unreal in any right sense. Coming to self-con- 
 sciousness, thinking himself to be a real thing 
 apart from God whose reflection he is, this idea of 
 God's began to think its own thoughts. Himself 
 a thought of God, instead of reflecting God, he 
 began to express himself. God's reflection is 
 spiritual, the real man; man's reflection is what 
 we call matter. This reflection of man's is real 
 only to himself, not real to God, so not true. The 
 spirit of man is God's thought, idea, reflection; 
 the body of man is man's idea, thought, reflec- 
 tion ; it has no reality to God, hence no reality in 
 the right sense of the word. Having thought a 
 body, man goes on to think a world to fit the 
 body, a universe as a part of the world. All that 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 121 
 
 lies within the horizon of the sense-life is the 
 reflection of mortal mind, and is unreal to God. 
 A building is the expression of mortal mind ; it is 
 in thought before it is in sight. The bricks and 
 hewn stone and shaped timber are also the 
 expressions of human thought. Bricks, cut 
 stone, hewn timber are first thought out ; but the 
 clay, the stone in the quarry, the trees on the hill- 
 side, are also expressions of human thought. 
 God thought and thinks man's spirit, man did 
 think God when he was true, now he thinks 
 matter, in many forms, and is false. He has gone 
 into the far country, is wasting his substance in 
 riotous living, is thinking in terms of wine and 
 swine. When he comes to himself he will come 
 to his father, then he will begin to live again. 
 This life in the far country is unreal, is death. 
 God sees only the son of his love, sees him 
 returning, sandaled, ringed, clothed, kissed, 
 restored. To the sculptor the only reality is the 
 form he sees in the stone ; the stone is only the 
 accident, the idea is the substance. To the artist 
 the idea in his mind is all, he does not dwell on 
 the canvas, the color, but sees all the time the 
 perfect picture. To the real thinker, language is 
 not thought of, the thought is all. Thus God 
 deals directly with the spirit of man; to him 
 matter is not, it never was the expression of his 
 thought. Thus it follows, that whatever is 
 thought or suffered in matter is unreal to God. 
 Pain, disease, sickness, death, are only human 
 experiences in a realm that has no existence to 
 
122 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 God, so they have no reality to God. These 
 experiences are real to man, when man is false to 
 God, but unreal to God because he deals only 
 with the true, the real. There is no sin to God ; 
 because sin is not in God's thought, only in 
 man's thought when he is false to God. Man as 
 God thinks him does not, cannot, sin; whatever 
 man thinks when he is false to God is not real to 
 God. So far as man reflects God he is real to 
 God; when man thinks away from God, his 
 thoughts, in terms of matter or of sin, are unreal. 
 The secret of health is in thinking God, reflecting 
 God; God's life thus possesses man's spirit, matter 
 loses its reality, sin, sickness and death disappear 
 from experience, blotted out as the clouds are by 
 the sun, or evil by good. 
 
 A lake reflects the sun, is ablaze with its glory, 
 lives in its light. Presently a mist rises from the 
 lake and shuts the sun out, the mist is more real 
 to the lake than the sun is. Instead of expressing 
 the sun, the lake now expresses itself, its own 
 expression shuts it in; shore, sky and sun are all 
 blotted out. The lake knows only itself and its 
 expression, its mist; the sun shines right on, the 
 mist disappears. The man God made reflects 
 God, man as we know him is caught in the fog of 
 his own making, in matter of his own thinking. 
 God shines right on, the mist, never real to the 
 sun, ceases to be real to the lake; the sun is 
 accepted again, the relation is restored, man 
 thinks God; sin, sickness and death disappear 
 from man as man reappears in God. 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 123 
 
 EFFECT OF SUCH ABSTRACTIONS. 
 
 This line of thought insisted upon, repeated, 
 reiterated, becomes real, takes possession of the 
 mind ; matter loses its mastery. God is realized 
 as the life of life, and God's man walks in the light 
 as he is in the light. The form, foreign English, 
 the substance, a revelation, make it hard to 
 understand Christian Science. Possibly if the 
 church were more spiritually minded, if the bride 
 of Christ were less at home with the world, if 
 Christians were leading a life that demands 
 supernatural spiritual power to account for it, 
 there would be less place in the world for theos- 
 ophy and Christian Science. 
 
 "The world is too much with us. Late and soon 
 Buying and selling we lay waste our powers." 
 
 Most of the disciples are face to face with 
 unconquered demons at the foot of the mountain ; 
 those in the transfiguring glory are content to 
 build tabernacles and abide. The cure for Chris- 
 tian Science is not alone clear thought, but a pro- 
 founder type of spiritual life. 
 
 " 'Tis life whereof the nerves are scant, more 
 life and fuller, that men want." Christ came 
 that we might have life, and have it more abun- 
 dantly, but the average church life is not an 
 abundant spiritual life. 
 
 Not a few worship at the altar of the unknown 
 God, grope after if haply they may find, do not 
 realize that God is ** nearer than thinking, closer 
 
124 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 than hands and feet"; that he is a "very pres- 
 ent help in every time of trouble"; that he is 
 the God of the body as of the spirit, of the mind 
 as of the heart. Very few of us realize with Paul 
 death to the world and life in Christ, and live the 
 life that is "hid with Christ in God." 
 There are certain 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE SCIENCE. 
 
 1. It cannot well be a science and a revelation 
 too ; the two words are mutually exclusive. Sci- 
 ence deals with truth learned by the use of human 
 powers. Revelation gives direct insight without 
 the labor of experiment. 
 
 2. Granting that Mrs. Eddy was healed directly 
 by divine power, her system of thought no more 
 explains it than thunder explains lightning. Her 
 experience of direct healing is shared by many, 
 her explanation throws no light on the fact; it 
 adds about as much to the truth as the spider's 
 web adds to the beams in the barn ; it gives her 
 mind a place to swing from, catches flying motes, 
 and in the dimness seems a part of the beam till 
 you trust your weight to it. 
 
 3. Because we do not know what matter is, it 
 does not follow that matter is not; because 
 we do not know what matter is to God, it 
 does not follow that matter is nothing to him. 
 We may presume that matter is not to God 
 what it is to man ; it is our limitation ; it may be 
 his expression, and when we have passed through 
 the caterpillar stage it may prove to be wings to 
 
ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE 125 
 
 US in turn. The egg floats and enspheres the 
 germ of life, but under the brooding warmth of 
 the bird the sea of white and yellow becomes 
 building stuff, the shell yields, a winged song 
 comes to the light, the narrow horizon of the shell 
 becomes the wide horizon of the world, giving 
 unlimited play to every power. It may well be 
 that man's spirit is but the germ in a sea of 
 matter, shelled by matter, but under the brooding 
 of the Spirit to build body and wings that shall 
 bear the singing soul aloft into an unlimited 
 future. 
 
 4. Sin is a mood of mind, a set of the will, the 
 choice of self; the act of sin is but the thunder 
 clap, the /act of sin is the lightning stroke that 
 scars and blights. Faith is a mood of mind, a 
 state of heart, a surrender of the will; the soul 
 acts as really when it acts against God as when it 
 acts with God : rebellion is as real as surrender, 
 an impure thought as real as a pure thought; 
 impurity of the heart is as real as impurity of the 
 body, and impurity of the heart is as real as 
 purity of the heart. 
 
 5. The assertion of revelation is not proof of a 
 revelation. Christ's full speech fulfilled the 
 broken speech of the prophets; if his teaching 
 had contradicted all that had gone before, it might 
 well have been challenged. This revelation (?) 
 does not explain, it contradicts what has been 
 previously given. Such a method of interpreta- 
 tion applied to law, medicine, business, literature 
 would upset the world. Alice in Wonderland 
 
126 SEARCHLIGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 
 
 stepping through mirrors would be a sane guide 
 compared to the leadings of this Wandering Jew 
 of modern literature called "Science and 
 Health.'' 
 
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