CHRISTIAN SCIENCE by J. E. F.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 14, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 49.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

By J. E. F.

How Does It Stand as Related to Bible Truth?

THE world is full of sickness, and in “Christian Science” is said to be found the panacea for all these ills. But false Christs and false teachers were to arise, said Jesus. Therefore false Christianity and “science falsely so called” must be expected and avoided.

“Christian Science,” when weighed in the balances of God’s word and of reason, is found wanting. Yet cures are performed. The devil, who, according to prophecy, is yet to make fire come down from heaven, can perform wonderful cures. A hypnotist may convince a patient whose ills are largely imaginary, that the disease is gone, and hence be regarded as a benefactor.

But let us examine the fundamental principle of this cult. To be fair, and to state the matter exactly, we quote from Mrs. Eddy: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite mind, and its infinite manifestation, for God is All in All; Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is real and eternal; matter is unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.”

We are told that in that single paragraph, we have “one of the most comprehensive systems of philosophy ever presented to the world.”

STRIKES AGAINST FUNDAMENTALS

Here at the very start, this system strikes at the fundamental principle of the religion of the Bible; namely, the glorious and comforting truth of a personal God. We have no longer the God who created the universe, and who sits on high, ruling and loving His subjects; for according to this doctrine, God is diffused throughout all. He is now everywhere in general, and nowhere in particular. In other words, we now have the god of pantheism. Thus “Christian Science” proves its nativity to be of the far East, whence comes not only this doctrine, but also its twin sister, theosophy.

ARE THERE NO POISONS OR DISEASES?

But coming back to the subject of sickness and healing, we read the astounding statements, from Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Science and Health,” that there is no real disease anywhere (page 188); that man is never ill (page 393); that disease is nothing but fear (page 493); that illness and sin are only illusions (page 495); that hay fever is nothing but profane fancy (page 175); that there is no danger from infectious diseases (page 174); that less thought should be given to sanitary subjects (page 175); that poison is not poisonous, only the belief is poisonous (page 177); that there is no such thing as growing old (page 245); that mind can conquer death (page 393); that when a man dies, he does not die; death is “only a seeming disease caused by a majority of human beliefs” (page 164); that any material evidence of death is false (page 584).

THE BOIL A PAINFUL BELIEF

Now to give a concrete illustration of all this in Mrs. Eddy’s own words: “You say a boil is painful, but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests through inflammation and swelling a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil. Now demonstrate mentally to your patient a high attenuation of truth and it will cure the boil.” — Page 153.

Can anything be more ridiculous or unscientific? What a lively imagination Job must have had to think he was afflicted with boils, when he might just as well have known they did not hurt, for according to the above, it was all in his mind!

And in harmony with these irrational statements is another from Mrs. Eddy: “If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the study of Christian Science and the spiritualization of thought, this alone would usher in the millennium. Constant bathing and rubbing of the body to alter the secretions, or to remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle, receive a useful rebuke from Jesus’ precept, ‘Take no thought for the body.’”

FALSELY USING CHRIST’S WORDS

Here we submit that we have a direct insult to the Saviour in the false employment of His words, used out of their sense and connection, and here is also an insult to the Maker, who instituted the laws of nature which call for the bath and the use of natural methods as curative agents. He has taught the birds to bathe, and the savage knows enough to “remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle.”

No wonder Mark Twain said of Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely this one is the prize sample.” And another says truly of “Christian Science” that it is “philosophical anarchy, concealed beneath confusedness of thought and ambiguity of words.”

J. E. F.