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{{uc|{{larger|''Valid Objections''}}{{dhr}}{{smaller|to So-called}}{{dhr}}{{xx-larger|Christian Science}}}}
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By Rev. {{uc|[[Author:Andrew F. Underhill|Andrew F. Underhill]]}}<br />
{{xx-smaller|Rector of St. John's Church}}<br />
{{fine|Yonkers, N. Y.}}
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{{bc|"Our reasonableness demands that there shall be reasonableness in the constitution of all things."{{float right|—''[[Author:John Fiske|John Fiske]]''}}}}
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{{asc|Third edition}}
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{{smaller|{{sc|New York}}<br />{{uc|The Baker & Taylor Co.}}<br />{{sc|33-37 East Seventeenth Street}}}}
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{{c|{{smaller block|{{sc|Copyright, 1902<br />by<br />[[Author:Andrew F. Underhill|Andrew F. Underhill]]{{rule|3em}}All Rights Reserved}}{{rule|3em}}''Published September, 1902''}}}}

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{{smaller block|''To The<br />{{uc|Profession of Medicine}}<br />In the United States of America''{{dhr}}{{uc|in recognition of its progressive scientific spirit and unselfish devotion to the cause of humanity}}}}
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{{x-larger|{{uc|Preface}}}}
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{{asc|To the Third Edition}}
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/begin/The wholly unlooked for success with which this little book has met in the short time elapsed since its first issue has led the writer to hope it may prove an instrument of further good in the hands of those who may have an interest in meeting the onset of the Christian Science delusion. Since its publication, early in March of this year, the first edition has been entirely exhausted, and a special edition of 120,000 copies has been purchased for distribution to the members of the medical profession, in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands. This end could never have been accomplished, had it not been for the helpful interest displayed by many prominent clergymen, physicians, and others who have written in appreciation of the writer's efforts, and have shown a strong desire to recommend this treatise as a preventive agent. The author wishes to express his deep appreciation of the help

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and encouragement thus afforded him, and to hazard the hope that the arguments set down herein may reach a still wider circle of readers, and prove of some further benefit to the cause of humanity, and sane thinking.

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{{c|{{larger|{{uc|Preface}}}}}}

Christian Science is a thing we can no longer ignore. It is a force that must be seriously reckoned with. It therefore behooves those who know what it is, who comprehend what it stands for, who perceive the pitiful results it will lead to—to expose its flagrant inconsistencies and to stimulate a more searching inquiry into its transgression of the law in the province of medical practice.

The writer, by this treatise, hopes to be of some service to that large class of people to whom the Christian Scientist is constantly making appeal, and who may not at first understand how dangerous to themselves and to civilization is this modern delusion—by giving them an exposition of what Christian Science really is, by warning them of the fallacy of its teaching, and by depicting the suffering it would cause to humanity if its practice should become prevalent.

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{{c|St. John's Rectory,}}
Yonkers, N. Y., June 15th, 1902.
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{{c|{{uc|{{larger|Valid Objections}}<br /> {{smaller|to So-called}}}}<br />{{xx-larger|{{sc|Christian Science}}}}}}

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{{ph|class=title-header|Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science}}

{{ph|class=chapter num|I.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Introductory.|level=2}}

During the history of the Church in past time, and even in our own day, various attempts have been made, by—those who have set up their own theories as gods to worship, to acquire a certain legitimacy or respectability by filching the Christian name to cover something that was entirely un-christian, or anti-christian. To-day we are being confronted with a movement of a like kind, which has been making itself felt with more or less persistency—known by the name of Christian Science.

It is sad to ponder that so many weak minds, and not a few strong ones, have

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been tainted with the flavor of this Christian Science delusion, under the supposition that it is Christian. It is woful to behold the havoc this dangerous, and now menacing, deception has already accomplished; for it is one of the severest threats that have appeared against the stability of our modern civilization; and, if not overcome, its power for evil is incalculable.

As to what Christian Science really is, it is difficult to give a definition. In [[Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures|the book]] of [[Author:Mary Baker Eddy|Mrs. Eddy]], the chief apostle and founder of the cult, it is not easy to get a clear and comprehensive idea, on account of the great obscurity of the language and the generally unsatisfactory arrangement of all the material.

However, in a more or less definite way, we learn that it is a philosophy holding entirely to a subjective theory of the umiverse; that it is a religion, whose creeds exalt the importance and all-sufficiency of self, making the subjective Ego the centre of all phenomena, equal with and not to be differentiated from God, yet claiming to be founded in the spirit and true doctrine of Jesus Christ; and that it is also a society of professional healers, who

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rely solely on the force of human psychic power, subjectively exerted and untranslated into bodily or mechanical action.

The following quotations, selected from many of a like character, will illustrate the above statement:

I. "Matter and its claims to sin, sickness, and death, are contrary to God, and cannot emanate from God." "There is no ''material'' Truth." "Spirit—the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God—is substance; that is, the only real substance." "Knowledge gained from matter, and through the material senses, is only an illusion of mortal mind . . . and symbolizes all that is evil and perishable." "Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is true, except that matter is unreal, . . ." "All that we term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in a belief in matter." "Error alone presupposes man to be both mind and matter." "The five physical senses are the avenues and instruments of human error, which correspond with it."

II. "The Science of Being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect . . ." "A decided error is the belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holiness and unholiness, min-

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gle in man . . ." "So long as we believe that soul can sin, or that immortal soul is in mortal body, we can never understand the Science of Being." "The Divine Ego, or individuality, is all-inclusive Being." "According to Christian Science, man is as perfect as the Mind which forms him." "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."

III. "It is not Scientific to examine the body, in order to ascertain if we are in health . . . ; because this is to infringe upon God's government." "The remote cause of all disease is mental." "Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it." "Realize that the evidence of your senses is not to be accepted in the case of sickness, any more than in the case of sin." {{" '}}Agree to disagree' with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether cancer, consumption, or small-pox." "You command the situation, if you understand that mortal existence is a state of self deception, and not Truth of Being." "The only effect produced by medicine is dependent on mental action."

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{{ph|class=chapter num|II.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Is Christian Science Christian?|level=2}}

Let us see. According to the chief apostle of this cult, the central truth around which the whole system revolves, is the principle that the only real thing which exists in the whole universe is mind or spirit. Everything objective is an illusion. Matter is nowhere really present as an actual substance. Material phenomena, so called, have no being save as projections of the mind. There is no world outside of consciousness. Everything we see is merely the product of our thought. External agencies are imaginary, not real. The earth, as it is known to you and me, dies and actually passes away, when we "shuffle off this mortal coil"; for it never has been, save as a conception mirrored in the mind. Hence, things as concrete are unthinkable. The properties of matter are non-existent. Weight and heat and cold, affinity, attraction and repulsion, length and breadth, bulk and size, quality and quantity, as attributes of a created sub-

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stance external to consciousness, are an impossibility. Pleasure and pain, then, as the result of anything exterior to the mind, are simply not. There is no such thing as physical disease, defect, or shortcoming. Imperfection, as we suppose we see it in Nature and man, manifested to the outward senses, is contrary to reason. It is defective thought on our part that makes this illusory image. Everything is perfect; nothing is wrong or out of gear—we simply imagine it so. Sin, actively considered, is defective thought—not a moral and physical action or state, limited in time and space. It is a mere phantasma, that can be dissipated by simply conceiving that it is non-existent.

And thus, through the whole category, we find the same intangible, indefinite, and nebulous optimism which takes account of no obligation to things objective, save to ignore them, and puts all realities alone in the realm of the subjective consciousness.

But this consciousness, as philosophers know, does not exist or come into development until an adequate series of impressions from tangible objects without have become recorded in sensation and retained in memory; nor is thought

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possible without an objective something on which to exercise it.

Now, all this system is as far from the ideas which underlie the teachings of Jesus as is the orbit of the earth from the furthest fixed star. It only accounts for half of the world, for half of man, and involves itself in every contradiction and absurdity. Furthermore, the belief in it is a bar to all progress, to all incentive for physical and energetic action. It superinduces a lazy and contented calm which allows the world and all things in it to drift.

Christ directed men to recognize the reality of pain and sin, and to take measures with His help to prevent, avoid or overcome them. He bade men to analyze the defects of the world, and of the then civilization, and to conserve and build up the means to remedy them. His religion has not fostered a nest of lazy, inactive dreamers; but has developed an aggressive, disciplined, and energetic Church Militant. The end of the Christian is not an absorption into an unconsciousness of realities, but an eternal realization of the best God has made, and a conscious communion with Him forever.

If Christian Science be Christian,

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what has it to say of Christ's coming into the flesh? If mind be all, why this necessity? Was this astounding fact of history a mere mental chimera, or was it a real objective occurrence, attested by the physical senses, and worthy of actual belief? If not the latter, any myth ingeniously devised would suit or serve humanity as well. What is the meaning of Christ's sufferings? Were they real or were they merely vain shadows? And was He an incarnation of error?

What becomes of the significance of the cross? Of the laying down of the divine life, of the Resurrection and Ascension, if men's wills are entirely the masters of their own fates and can reason away all things deadly, sinful or destructive? These Christian conceptions must, then, be worthless; for they are absolutely antagonistic to any philosophy which rests its fundamental belief on a structure of intangibilities. They cannot form any part of it.

What place is found for the Christian Sacraments which are woven in the very fiber of the genius of Christianity? Why an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, if there be none but subjective actualities? Can

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that be entitled to the name of Christian which controverts these visible aids, ordained and established in the holiest solemnity by the Master himself? The attempt to filch the term Christian in order to cover beliefs so foreign to the whole Christian spirit is nothing more than fraudulent and shameless.

But the gravest error and the most un-Christian peculiarity of Christian Science reside in the fact that they place the center of the universe in the soul of each individual, thus making an innumerable number of centers, which is impossible, and fostering a sort of serene contentment of selfishness, which is everywhere in antagonism with the progress of the race. In the prefatory quotations to Mrs. Eddy's book, the most important excerpt reads: "I, I, I—I itself, I—the inside and outside, the what and the why, the when and the where, the low and the high—all I, I, I—I itself, I."

Instead of all things meeting in and emanating from God, and instead of man as one of the many instruments of God's purposes, subject to His will, and created for His glory, we find the soul of man containing all realities and all pos-

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sibilities—in short, the creature placed in the position his Maker should hold and practically identified with Him. The absurdity and evil influence of such a belief must surely be obvious, when carefully considered; and would certainly be more so if any large portion of humanity were controlled by its force.

Again, in the realm of conduct and ethics, as well as in philosophical fundamentals, the practice of Christian Scientists does not coincide with the teachings of the Master. According to their strict theory no physical care is to be given to the sick; nor is sympathy, as we understand it, to be offered to the afflicted. Even the knowledge of disagreeable things is to be avoided. He who suffers is to be told that he doesn't suffer, and not for a moment to confess to himself that he can suffer. What he takes for bodily suffering is nothing but mental error.

Thus, in one sweep, is the parable of the Good Samaritan done away with: and the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side exalted. Humanitarianism and altruism have no place; for, if there be no sorrow or pain, except such as we make or undo for ourselves in our thought, what need then, as the true

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Christian thinks, of that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin?

We who believe in the love and power of the Son of God, and in His reality as a person beyond and above us, are taught that no man is all sufficient unto himself; that the finite mind cannot contain the infinite God and all the wondrous works he has fashioned in furthering his purposes; that material things are realities; and that, in so far as we recognize the proper sphere to which we belong, and in it labor, forgetful of self and looking to the author of our being—not shirking the burdens He places upon us, but looking with confidence to the better life: thus far, we are doing better than by attempting to ignore facts that are, and by fancying an unreal world that passes when our bodies have mingled with the dust.

To follow Christ, and do His work here, looking the actual situation in the face, acknowledging the pain and the sorrow, bearing the burden of the cross as men, bravely—upholding it, realizing it, without attempting to explain it away—this is truly Christian; but the other is not.

Further, on the doctrinal side, Christian Science is in direct antagonism with

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nearly all the statements of the Apostle's creed.

It denies the reality of the world, the handiwork of the Creator, by saying that "matter is the error of mortal mind," and therefore denies God as the Creator of the world as it is. It practically denies the doctrine of the Incarnation, by assuming that all bodily forms are the outcome of error, distorted mind, and so forth. It subverts the doctrine of the Trinity, as the Church has always held it; and substitutes for it a shadowy nothing. It says there will be no Judgment. It flouts the sanctity of the Church, refuses to acknowledge the Church's mission to the world, and would wish to destroy that institution. It opposes the belief in pardon and the forgiveness of sins and condemns the desire to receive such pardon; and says, moreover, that "the abiding consciousness of wrong-doing tends to destroy the ability to do right"; and, last of all, it will not accept credence in death and the resurrection.

In view of all these facts, what is there in Christian Science that is even remotely Christian?

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{{ph|class=chapter num|III.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Is Christian Science Scientific?|level=2}}

Christian Science has laid claim to being scientific. Is it so? The definition of science is: "Knowledge gained by systematic observation, experiment and reasoning; knowledge, co-ordinated, arranged, and systematized." Does Christian Science, as shown in its theory and practice, come within the scope of this definition? Let us see.

First of all, the foundation of this so-called science is a sweeping assumption, not a deduction from facts gathered and systematized; and it is an assumption that appears on the face of it to be contrary to the common experience and universal beliefs of mankind. An assumption, in the face of what appear to be contrary facts, must, if it shall bear the scientific test, be upheld by proofs which possess more weight than theseeming contradictions. But Christian Science brings forward none of these. Its basic doctrine, that the universe is

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entirely subjective, that mind is its only constituent, and that there is no such thing as matter objectively considered, the Christian Scientists themselves do not attempt to justify, except by assuming it, and by pointing to the fact of certain cures accomplished without the aid of drugs.

Then, by a curious fallacy of reasoning, they proceed, by teaching that because some cases of disease are perceived to get well without the use of drugs, therefore all cases may be thus cured; since the reality of mind and the unreality of matter are demonstrated in the instances where such recoveries have taken place. But, on the other hand, they involve themselves in a very curious inconsistency, when, by denying the efficacy of medicines to heal, they cannot escape the surety that in certain doses drugs which are poisons, in every instance without exception, if partaken of, whether consciously or unconsciously, will surely kill.

Are these drugs then, manifestations of mind? Or will the Christian Scientists confess that they are simply matter? Again, in proof of their theories, they are not willing to submit to any test of their science which shall be scientific

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and acceptable to all men. The person whose science tells him that two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen mingled together constitute what is known as water, is willing upon all occasions, and in every situation, to put it to the test; and if there were any case in which the truth of his proposition were denied by the circumstances, he would think it time to revise or modify his theory.

Not so the Christian Scientist, who thinks his own imperfect intuitions have reached the absolute standard of truth. If you ask him to make fair trial of the efficacy of his practice, in cases where the injury or lesion is seen to have been produced by some mechanical agency, he will refuse to submit to such a test in his own person, or he will beg the question in the case of a fatality, by simply saying that the thought of the injured person was in some way defective, and therefore no cure could ensue. He will not admit, although by actual experience in millions of cases, and by knowledge gained through systematic observation he is constantly instructed of the fact, that the body and physical pain are realities whose treatment must be pursued with real and physical remedies, as well as with suggestions that

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stimulate the mind. Nor will he perceive that disease and pain may proceed from external material causes over which the mind does not, and cannot possibly have, any appreciable control.

He is like a person who would weigh all the water in the world, and because there is so much of it would assume that there cannot possibly be any land. He has apprehended in a dim way a certain part of the truth; but, by assuming that he has apprehended it all, he is led into the gravest and most serious errors. Having attempted to go one step on the road, and assuming that his science is complete, he discards the scientific habit, and hence he finds no further entrance into the realms of knowledge than the distance penetrated in his ''a priori'' assumption.

But this assumption is scientifically fallacious, as may be readily seen. To conceive that all perceptions and objective phenomena are the creations and products of mind, is to assume that consciousness and idealization are states existing prior in time to the objective phenomena supposed to surround us. If mind in the world and in the human being is the all, then it must have within it, ready made, the ideal conceptions of each

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of the so-called material forms of nature from the beginning. Mind, then, within itself, must be the perfect embodiment of all facts and all possibilities of the universe. It precedes all things that seem; and from it all things are projected. It apprehends them subjectively before it creates them objectively.

But is this true? The facts we are able to glean show us that the very reverse is the case. Ideas do not appear in our consciousness until extraneous things have produced upon us sensations which in their turn give rise to the intellectual conceptions of the objects that produce them. No human mind can conceive of a flame, for instance, until the sensation of light from without has been produced upon it. Nor can any conception of darkness dwell in our consciousness until the outward senses have experienced the actual absence of light.

The growth of perception in infants will very soon show how the development of the mind takes place through sensations from without—that the intellectual faculties are not the force from which all things have their being, but that they are the product of growth, produced to a large extent by the environment in which God has set them. In

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children a day or more old the mind can hardly be said to have dawned. These beings cannot think; they simply feel and in a dim way receive sensations. Their motions do not even have the power of co-ordination. The instinct for food, which is even present in the very lowest forms of life, is the only marked development.

It is only as the experiences the infant has been subjected to accumulate, and the sensations it has received have been recorded in memory, that the apprehension even of its own identity, the realization of self, at length ensues. It may well be remembered that very young children but seldom, in the beginning, refer to themselves as "I," even though they see the example set to them by their parents. They usually speak of themselves in the third person, that is—objectively; as, for example, "Baby wants this," or "Tommy sees that."

The conscious subjective mind is a late development resulting from the feelings aroused by impulses from without. The mind can conceive no abstract ideas until many concrete actualities have made their impression upon it. For instance, the concept of space cannot be imagined without reference to some

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actual unit of measurement, as a foot, a yard, a mile. A child's mind has no abstract notion of color in the beginning. It is only when the sensations of many colors have been felt, and the differences in these sensations have gradually been perceived, that the intellectual conception of the different shades, as ideas, is at last attained. It is well known that a child must have lived a number of months before it can distinguish the most diverse shades.

This process of impression and sensation, with the establishment of the intellectual images these feelings give rise to, and the emotions of pleasure or pain that ensue, followed by a determination to perform some act in accordance with the pleasure or the pain—produces the development of the mind. There are four constituents: Perception or Sensation; Intellect, or the creation of the mind-image suggested by the sensation; Emotion, or the reflex feeling occasioned by the image; and Will, or the resolve to act. As [[Author:William Alexander Hammond|Dr. Hammond]] puts the illustration: "A person walking in the street sees a man on the opposite side of the way—this is Perception; he recognizes him as a friend—Intellect; he feels joy at the encounter{{upe}}

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—Emotion; he determines to go across and speak to him—Will."

If the Christian Science position were true, the whole sequence of mind development as we actually know it, would be absolutely reversed, which is contrary to the facts—and therefore absurd. A person, in order to experience each sensation, would have to exert will in order to do so; and no sensation could be received without the exertion of the will. Our own knowledge will tell us how silly is such a notion; for many sensations come to us aside from our own volition; as, for instance, the heat and cold that are due to the weather; the painful feelings we possess through the unkindness of our fellow men; the comfort or discomfort that is present on account of our surroundings; the pain of diseases which ensue from the presence of some specific germ which causes irritation in the tissues; and so on.

While the Will, the conscious and sub-conscious Mind, may do much to call up or to banish the ideas and emotions resultant from sensations, or combinations of sensations, already once felt, they cannot, in the beginning, produce these primary feelings. And, while the Will and the conscious and sub-conscious

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Mind may produce, or allay symptoms of disorder in the human body which fall under a certain category, they themselves are not responsible for all disorders, nor is disorder in itself a mere condition of the mind. It is a physical state produced by a physical derangement.

It is well known that sudden or continued emotions produce a decided effect upon the body. Anger causes us to tremble and to experience unwonted sense of heat. Fear makes the extremities to grow cold. Shame causes us to blush. Merriment brings about a certain physical convulsion called laughter. Worry causes a general depletion of the vitality. But none of these things produce typhoid fever, or diphtheria, or small-pox, or a broken leg, or the wound from a sword thrust or a Mauser bullet. And none of these will effect a cure of such specific injuries; although our state of mind, by rendering the functions of our organism harmonious, may do much to assist such a cure.

''The point where Christian Science has duped its votaries is this: It has confused the category of diseases that are present through an emotional or nerve-disturbing cause with the category of diseases that are present through external''

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''causes; and it has placed all manifestations of pain and sickness under the former.''

Physicians recognize the effect of the mental state upon the development of illness; and, like true scientists, they give it its value and relegate it to its proper place. They, furthermore, classify certain affections under the head of mental, emotional, nervous, hysterical, etc.; and in their practice they treat such disorders, when recognized, by a method of moral suasion, nervous shock, and hypnotic suggestion.

The mind is known to have an effect on the nerves; for they are each a part of the same sensory process; and the vaso-motor system of nerves is known to surround the muscular tissue of the blood vessels and to control the supply of blood throughout the whole human organism. Hence, if the nervous system be disorganized through emotion, worry, hysteria, the normal flow of the nourishing blood to the various parts of the body is disturbed, and we get the phenomena of congestion or anzmia, either an inflammation or a starving of a part. A contented mind, therefore, induces health; while a discontented mind is more likely to produce the opposite. Emo-

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tional and hysterical natures are more prone to disease than those that are rational. And under hysteria as a cause we may find symptoms which for a time simulate the likeness of many known diseases that spring from external agents.

But so deceptive are these symptoms, sometimes, that frequently the physician is misled, and attributes them to the disease which they merely bear likeness to.

It is the patients suffering from this class of diseases, whose cases have been misapprehended by the doctor (for our medical men are sometimes fallible), who make the chief capital in trade for the Christian Scientists. One cure of a hysteric will outweigh a hundred failures of their mummery in organic ailments; and people flock to the quack because of the wonder of his miraculous power. Yet reputable physicians are accomplishing these same cures day by day in their practice; and because they make no mystery of them, and refuse to call them save by their rational name, no alarming wonder ensues.

''The objection to the Christian Science practitioner is that he ts uneducated in the laws of physiology, pathology,—and the diagnosis of disease.'' He refuses

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to gather, compare, systematize and analyze facts, or to deduce any system of knowledge from them. His is the same diagnosis and the same remedy for all ailments, no matter what their source or present development; and, therefore, ''his pseudo-science is based on the deification of ignorance.'' His attitude reminds one somewhat of our dear old friend, Gil Blas, who practiced the system of medicine taught by his famous master, Dr. Sangrado. Each patient was copiously bled and deluged with draughts of hot water, no matter what the nature of his disease. If he recovered, in spite of this heroic treatment, master and disciple extolled the wonderful efficacy of their system. But if he died, the friends and relatives were suavely told that the fatality was due to the fact that the sufferer had not been bled enough, and that the quantity of hot water swallowed should have been considerably increased. This method would seem to have been no more scientific than that of Christain Science.

The whole progress of the world has been accomplished by patient and unceasing endeavor, by study, and comparison, and sifting, and selecting. When the world has departed fram these

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methods, the result has always been disaster, suffering, and anguish. Sober judgment in all the affairs of life leads to contentment and happiness; while unbridled emotion and imagination, unrestrained by the appreciation of realities, lead to the very opposite. It is in this latter direction that Christian Science tends; for it is the product of a misdirected emotional state. It is not even remotely scientific; and it is devoid of common sense.

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{{ph|class=chapter num|IV.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Systematic Knowledge Versus Speculation.|level=2}}

When the writer of the [[Book of Proverbs]] said: "The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness," he uttered a truth, alas! the world has been but too slow to realize. It is only within the last four hundred years that the application of this has begun to be fully appreciated, and that the philosopher has endeavored to confine his speculations to facts, instead of fancies. We have arrived at the understanding that we must examine and weigh actualities, in order to attain to truth. We must see, and touch, and handle; we must patiently observe, and tabulate our observations, and then draw our conclusions—not jump at them in mere blind ignorance.

It is an axiom, that anything may be proved by a gratuitous assumption of premises. The most ridiculous systems

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may be built upon a false postulate, provided the latter be granted; and untold harm may ensue to humanity by the following out of such unscientific conclusions.

The peoples who have enjoyed the highest mede of prosperity and moral development have been those who have possessed the largest ownership of the practical faculty—those who have seen things as they actually are, and have dealt with them accordingly. The dreamy and contemplative peoples, whose philosophy emphasizes the subjective side of man, have developed a civilization in which gross superstitions, moral degradation, slavery, cruelty, and disregard of human life are the most prominent features.

The history of Eastern peoples, in contrast with the recorded development of the nations of Europe and the West, brings out this fact with startling force. The difference, in energy and power of organization, between examples of these two widely divergent types, is a verity only too apparent. On the one hand is progress, on the other stagnation and decay. On the one hand is freedom, on the other slavery and oppression. On the one hand is enlightenment, on the

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other the darkest superstition and ignorance. On the one hand is individualistic development, on the other individualistic decadence. On the one hand are hopefulness and faith, and initiative towards the future, on the other idle, ruminative reflection within the past.

In short, the philosophy which fosters the habit of ignoring the outside world and dwelling continuously upon the thoughts and images raised by our own consciousness, is in the end entirely subversive of all vigorous action. Individuals or peoples whose habits are formed under such an ideal rapidly deteriorate and become inefficient. Man was put into the world to act and to do; not merely to think and to dream.

The mind was given to direct the energies, not to be exercised in shadows of actions within itself. The efferent nerves are a part of the machinery nature has given us to put thought into some active accomplishment; and the neglect of them means the weakening of the whole mental process. If there is, and has been no objective reality for them to act upon, how shall we account for their presence and function in the human organism? Our sight and hearing and touch were accorded by an in-

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telligent Creator, that we might perceive and understand the properties, qualities, and differences of objects beyond ourselves; and that wonderfully adaptive piece of mechanism, the human hand, was evolved, that we might seize hold of material things, make them subservient to will and purpose, and thus help to fulfil the intent of God to make us masters of the world.

Action in life, as Demosthenes asserted in respect of oratory, is an all essential factor. To ignore our relations and obligations in material things is the beginning of death. To moon and to dream, and nothing further—is to drift, unconscious of the tide that sweeps us, until the force of Nature's might, gathering behind, o'erwhelms us in destruction.

But all this mooning and dreaming, this waiting for things to come out right of themselves; this neglecting to exert our personal influence; this dawdling over serious verities; this refusal to perceive evil and pain, present or to come; this banishing of the real importance of the material universe; this ignoring of the fact that the whole of human progress and happiness is due to the application of systematic knowledge to the

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various departments and conditions of life—I say, all this indefinite good-for-nothingness, is confessed to be the very basis of that pernicious, but to its own votaries precious, movement called Christian Science.

The inspiration of this delusion is from the Paganism of the East; and its exaggerated theories and its insane practices are a reversion to the religion and fetichism of primitive and uncivilized man—they are a plunge backward into the conditions of an age of barbarism. In many places in the world the spectacle may even now be witnessed of the weakness of tribes and nations possessing such a religious system and theory of life, when matched against the civilization which is the product of Christian influences. It is the same old story of inefficiency and moral uncertainty against trained experience and moral definiteness.

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{{ph|class=chapter num|V.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Results—Ethical and Moral.|level=2}}

I have already treated of the subject of Christian Science in its intrinsic aspect, as a religion and philosophy, endeavoring to show that it is neither Christian nor Scientific, and that its axioms, postulates, and propositions are false. My attempt has been to get at the essence of it, and to explain and illustrate how utterly absurd and unworthy of serious thought are its contentions. Let me now call attention to the modes of its outward manifestation; compare with them the facts of our religion and modern science, which are opposed to it; and indicate the disasters and unhappiness it would cause, if it should become generally current and allowed to prevail.

And the first fact to understand about it is that it is a serious, determined and fanatical thing—open to no argument, and resolved at all hazards upon having its way, in the face of every ob-

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stacle that civilization or the law may present.

Within the past few years it has increased more rapidly than any other organization which pretends to teach religion or advocate any particular method of healing. And unlike Spiritualism or. Theosophy, which for a time had a certain vogue, yet established themselves in no particular local habitations, it has been rapidly acquiring property, and erecting temples of brick and stone—the permanent symbols of its determination to stay. On account of this particular manifestation, it will be more difficult to check or destroy; since its votaries have succeeded in establishing its corporate life as something definite and tangible, and the value of its pecuniary holdings gives it the potent influence of wealth.

In the year 1898, it had 221 churches; in 1899, 415; in 1900, 497; in the year 1901, 600, besides many societies where no church had been built or occupied, with 12,000 ministers and healers, and 100,000 adherents. The latter figures are from [[the World's Almanac]], and probably understate the case. There has been an increase of 81 churches and societies during the past year; and, according to one reliable authority, a gain

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of 13,000 adherents. It may be seen from these facts how serious a threat it is becoming.

Broadly speaking, Christian Science has manifested itself in two principal aspects: As an organized religion, and as a practice of the art of healing. But the one thing is bound up in the other; the one is as much opposed to the whole trend of modern thought and progress as the other. Its manifestation as a religion alone is, perhaps, not so serious in its probability of harm; for, divorced from the belief in the universal healing power of mind, it has but small foundation to stand upon, or from which to appeal to its votaries. The fact remains, that a large proportion of its adherents have become so by reason of their belief that they have been cured of some bodily ill. Yet it is accomplishing a good deal of evil in the moral and spiritual sphere.

In the first place, while claiming to be the religion of Jesus, it has asserted, and is asserting, that its principles were discovered and revealed by a woman, but thirty-five years ago. By doing this, it has practically denied to the apostles, the chosen messengers of the Lord himself, the right interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus to the world; and it assails

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the historical continuity of the Church; subverts the creeds, does away with the sacraments, and undermines the whole value and authority of the scriptural narrative, which rests upon the testimony of the apostles and the Church. Again, by teaching individuals, "that man cannot depart from holiness," and "when he sins he must assert that there is no such thing as sin"—these words are quoted from "Science and Health"—it is barring the way of all moral progress; for it is only by recognizing present shortcomings, defects and needs that a better state of morals is obtained in the future. The recognition of evil in the world, or in the individual, is the spur that stimulates to the overcoming of it. Jesus Christ said: "Repent first, then follow me." "Recognize your sin and strive to be rid of it."

For the man who is entirely satisfied with himself and his condition, there is absolutely no hope of moral improvement. The effect of Christian Science on morals in general is, therefore, pernicious. But one of its most marked stimuli for evil, in particular, is in its influence upon children and the young, by teaching them as early as possible to deny and doubt the evidence of the

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physical senses, which were given by God to convey impressions to the mind, and which would not be present in the human organism unless intended for use.

It is alone through the physical senses that we know what we do know. To deny the office of these senses, and their suggestions, is to deny the fundamental possibility of truth. If your child tells you he hasn't felt what he has felt, that he hasn't seen what he has seen, that he hasn't touched what you know he has touched, you are positive that he is lying, and you think it is high time to correct or to punish him. But Christian Science does the very opposite. It distinctly and authoritatively approves of this habit of mind; and, therefore, it is fostering a rising generation, trained from the beginning in the fundamentals of hypocrisy and deceit. After several generations, what moral degeneration and turpitude must result from such perverted discipline!

Again, while the Christian Scientist appears to be dwelling here in a state of serene contentment and happiness, and many of his co-believers are pointed out as examples of what a beneficent effect the teachings of this religion may produce, it may be well to ask by what

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means such a state is actually brought about—simply by the refusal to be burdened with things troublesome—by the deification of selfishness, by the banishment of sympathy, by the refusal of the principle which bids us to bear one another's burdens—the principle upon which all society and civilization are based.

Happiness born of such fundamentals as this cannot but be transient—is of the very essence of evil, and is absolutely impossible, even for a short while; except in the case where the individual, by reason of his wealth, has all the material wants—of his nature supplied, and can afford to be independent of the sympathy of his fellow men. Christian Science, therefore, has been, and is, a religion only for the well-to-do; it has no message for the poor and afflicted, no care for the sick, except to tell them that they do not suffer; it has founded no charitable institutions; it maintains no free hospitals, but demands, and wrests payment of the "Almighty Dollar" for all the boons its priests and priestesses and divine healers may confer—shamelessly opposed to Christian Altruism, flying in the face of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and striking down the divine principles of pity, mercy and unselfishness!
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Christian Science and Christianity do not coalesce. If the former be true, then Christian ethics is false. Therefore, the triumph of Christian Science would mean the overthrow of the religion of the Master, and of the splendid morality and altruism which are the growth and offspring of it. Who can measure the catastrophe this would prove to the world? The hope swept away, which has been the stay of twenty centuries and millions of souls, where should we turn to get the courage to bear the burdens that weigh us down? And what strength greater than the power of our weakened personalities might we be able to appropriate?

The charity and love which have softened and made smooth the hard places in life would give way to a sort of deified self-complacency, ignoring the ills of others in dreaming away its own; and the personality of the divine Lord of Life, the Son of God, with all its marvelous subtlety, gentleness and majesty, would be overshadowed by the image of a sick woman whose own infirmities are a physical refutation of the doctrine which she teaches. Pray God that such disaster may never come! Can the world afford to permit it? Shall we Christians believe that it is possible?

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{{ph|class=chapter num|VI.}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Results—Physical and Hygienic.|level=2}}

From the contemplation of its manifestations as a practice of the art of healing, what results do we see awaiting us, if the ignorance of Christian Scientists should obtain the ascendency? In the first place, it will be well to understand how well qualified the professors of this cult are for practice in the cure of disease. This will give us an idea: In [[the New York Herald]] not long ago, an account was given by a woman who had attended a series of lectures delivered by one of the well known exponents of this "Science" in a neighboring city. The series consisted of eight discourses, and was attended by some forty students, each of whom received a diploma, after having paid one hundred dollars. This diploma entitled them to practice in the cure of all disease. The writer of the article I here refer to said, that at the end of the eight lessons she knew no more than she did at the beginning; for no

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clear instructions as to how to heal were given: yet she is now a graduate in the art.

Knowing these facts, need we wonder at the cases of manslaughter that continually confront us in the columns of the daily press, from the malpractice of Christian Scientists? A reputable physician must study four years in a medical school, and serve, if possible, two years in a hospital, before he is deemed competent even to begin to practice; and, frequently, he has four years of college training before taking up the study of medicine. Are such patient, dutiful men as these to be relied upon, or shall we think it wiser to place our lives in the hands of individuals who do not even know the names and location of the bones and muscles of the human body, nay, whose philosophy practically denies that there really is any body?

We see in isolated cases the havoc wrought by the practice of Christian Scientists. What would be the aggregate of fatalities, provided they were our only human helps in time of sickness? The thought is almost appalling! The few cures they now make, in cases whose origin and source are in some emotional or hysterical condition, would be swal-

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lowed up in the multitude of failures, and the memory of them drowned in the wails and cries of anguish arising from an afflicted humanity despairing of relief. The discoveries made to alleviate pain would be cast back into oblivion. The death bed of many, which now is peaceful, alleviated by the aids which modern medicine has afforded, would too often be a scene of horror; and the final struggle a spectacle of heart-rending agony. The simple operations of surgery, which now so often save, would entirely be discarded, and the anesthetics which make them painless would be flung away. The lame, the halt, and the blind would crowd upon us, and the cry of their suffering fill the open spaces of the world.

It is hardly possible for us who have lived in this enlightened age to realize what the giving up of the benefits we have attained to, through the progress of modern science, would mean. The substitution of the processes of Christian Science healing would throw us back to the conditions which exist among the lowest and most depraved of savage tribes, whose method of treating disease is exactly similar in theory to that of these modern fanatics. The practice of exor-

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cism is common to all primitive peoples. When a man is sick, they fancy this is due to the presence of some evil spirit—or, as the Christian Scientist would put it, some error of mind—and the charms and hideous noises of the witch doctor are deemed more potent than any intelligent method of treatment.

Among the Indians of the West, a common method of treating the severely ill is to chant monotonous songs and to make a great din, by beating drums and rattling gourds filled with stones, during the long hours of the day and night. This is supposed to frighten away the powers of error and to soothe the mind of the patient by taking his attention away from the thought of his malady.

But to perceive more clearly the unhappiness we would entail upon our generation by following the lead of Christian Science teaching, it will be well to consider the facts which show what our present system has done in the alleviation of suffering and the prolongation of life.

Under modern hygienic conditions, the average length of existence for an individual in England has increased to an appreciable degree in this last half

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century. And, among all the enlightened and advanced nations, the expectation of the individual for long survival is greater; since the appearance of uncheckable and epidemic disorders is less frequent, and the percentage of cures is greater.

Since the general establishment of the system of quarantine, and the requirement of an efficient sewage system in towns and large cities, and the enforcement of sanitary plumbing laws in houses, the death rate has enormously decreased. The Plague, cholera, typhus and yellow fever, diphtheria, typhoid, consumption, and other maladies are not now the awful menace to life they were of old. The Plague, which in the past centuries devastated Europe, handing over the populations of whole cities to death and destruction, has been banished further and further East, until now it makes no serious lodgment where the proper precautions have been taken.

The virulence of this disease may be realized from the following figures: In Toulon, France, in 1721, out of a population of 250,000, 87,659 persons died. In the city of Marseilles, the year previous, forty to sixty thousand were victims. London's great plague of 1665

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carried off human beings to the number of 68,596, in a population of 460,000, out of whom two-thirds are supposed to have fled to escape the contagion. The absence of Plague has been contemporaneous with better sanitary conditions maintained in various localities, and now it is only found where lack of knowledge of modern methods is prevalent among the people. But, even in the last outbreak in India, thanks to the physicians employed by the British Government, its ravages were much less serious than heretofore.

It is known, that in tetanus or lockjaw, and hydrophobia, the employment of a specific lymph, through inoculation, has made cures possible where formerly nearly all cases proved fatal. By means of the antitoxin treatment, the mortality in that dread disease, diphtheria, has been reduced more than one-half. Antiseptic precautions in surgical cases, first introduced by the famous surgeon, Lord Lister, have almost revolutionized the statistics, making possible and successful operations that formerly could not be dreamed of—thus broadening the whole scope of surgery as a science. In the war with Spain, and in the Transvaal, this fact has been most plainly demonstrated.
{{nop}}

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From recent experiments in preventive inoculation for typhoid fever in the British Army, it has been found, that, while those who had not been inoculated showed an enormous death rate, due to the conditions of campaigning; on the other hand, those who had been inoculated were practically immune, the percentage of deaths being next to nothing.

The scourge of {{hinc|smallpox}}, which a hundred years ago swept whole communities, gave enormous numbers over to death, and disfigured the faces of nearly all who survived, has become almost a thing of past history, where vaccination is thoroughly and systematically enforced. For years, until the recent outbreak, which at no time was beyond control, and which subsided after the health authorities had put into operation their repressive measures, it has been a curiosity in Greater New York.

In cases of child-birth, by the use of anesthetics and antiseptics, the mortality is but one-fifth of what it used to be, or almost nothing. The care in preparation, and the standardizing of drugs, the inspection of milk and its sterilization, the scientific supervision of the making and distribution of foods for infants and children—have all contrib-

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uted to the checking and prevention of disease, and thus to the longer life of the individuals of the community.

These are facts which can be proved by the most competent testimony of trained minds. Into what an abyss would we be plunged, if we were to give up these hard-earned boons of years of patient investigation and labor, for the doubtful offerings of an uninformed and misguided sect of ultra-emotionalists? Can we afford to lose the priceless benefits we have attained, and are still attaining? Can we ever permit such substitution? Can we sit still and allow the profession of medicine, which contains some of the brightest intellects, the most devoted and unselfish characters, the noblest and most steadfast souls, to be assailed, to have its means of well-doing threatened; when we know it should be protected, for the sake of all it has procured for humanity? And, finally, can we continue to allow the health of the community to be menaced by the ridiculous incompetency which would overthrow these our benefactors?

Thousands and millions of bereavements would ensue, if we were to be engulfed by this insanity of Christian Science; and the headstones of those

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who are dear to us, and whom we now keep, would whiten thick the hillsides of our cemeteries, and stand in mute appeal against the inhumanity of its miserable practice. This insufferable movement, in its manifestation as a healing art or profession, is a menace to the community; it is a menace, reader, to you and to me, and to all who are dear to us; and the same law which maintains quarantine and municipal health precautions and cleanliness, because, without these, human life is sacrificed, should put down with ruthless hand the practice of this pseudo "Science" which, under a religious guise, has already committed so many shocking murders.

We can, perhaps, pass over the fact that a man is acting the part of a delusionist, if his delusion concerns no one but himself. But it becomes a more serious matter, when his aberration of mind affects the lives and happiness of others in the community, and when he is bent on hypnotizing his fellow-men to follow in his footsteps. We can, therefore, afford merely to pity the individual Christian Scientist who fondly believes he can banish all his own ailments by "silent treatment" without the aid of a physician. But when suchanone fanatically attempts

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to infect others with his delusion; when he recklessly becomes the instrument of spreading contagious diseases; and, especially, when he subjects innocent and defenseless children to the horrors of neglect, and to the miseries of pain and sickness, without attempt at intelligent alleviation—the time for pity is past; we should hold him up to the scorn and execration of all who think aright, and visit him with the penalty his wickedness deserves.

About Christian Science, like all emotional phenomena, there seems to be a mental contagion; and, before it runs its course, it will do an incalculable amount of harm. The best we who understand its real meaning and purport can accomplish is, to instruct and warn those who have not as yet been infected with its delusions, and to arouse public sentiment and the authorities against its malpractice. Then we can, perhaps, hope and believe that wisdom and common sense will prevail on the part of the majority of the community; that proselytes will cease to be obtained; and that the thing will at last die like other spasmodic and abortive frenzies./last/

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