People who jump to conclusions are likely to fall on uncertainties. Christian Science verifies this bit of wisdom from the almanac. We have already shown that its “first fundamental proposition” so far from being a teaching of Holy Writ is thereby proved to be false. The fact may here be added that it is likewise a pure assumption. No attempt is made to defend it or support it with Scripture. Its author’s ipse dixit must be accepted as the end of controversy. “The Bible implies it,” ’tis said. Another conclusion jumped at. We challenge the statement and request the text.
“But God created man. God is spirit. Like produces like. Therefore, man is spirit.” This is the whole tenor of Science. Another assumption in the same breath with a diametric contradiction of Scripture. The assumption here is, that God can not create any substance different in nature from its own. This is certainly an unwarranted limitation of Omnipotence. The contradiction lies in the statement that man is spiritual. (See almost any page of “Science and Health,” as pp. 230, 334, 473, 509). What saith the Word? “There is a natural body.” 1 Cor. 14:44. Did Adam, as he came from the hand of His Creator, have this body? “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul.” Verse 45. This “living soul” was therefore a “natural body.”
But was not this a spiritual body? “Howbeit that was not first which was spiritual.” Verse 46. In other words, that which was first was not spiritual. It appears to us that the “Key to the Scriptures” contained in the back part of “Science and Health,” gets into a very bad dilemma on this point. For this precious key is at emphatic pains to show (pp. 508–514) that the first record of the first creation is the correct one, and that this record, Gen. 1:26–2:5, is proof that the first man was spiritual. We fear, in view of the texts we have above quoted, that this vaunted “Key” is not the “key of David.” Rev. 3:7.
Christian Science and Mysticism.
The history of these “keys” to Scripture shows them invariably to have been fashioned in the minds of mystics. Here is one, geographically near enough to the birthplace of Christian Science to be its grandparent. “By Samuel Gorton, Gent., and at the time of penning hereof, in the place of Judicature (upon Aquethneck, alias Rhode Island) or Providence Plantations in the Nanhyganset Bay, New England. Printed in the Yeere 1647.”
But let us see what this “professor of the mysteries of Christ,” as he styled himself, offered as a model for future New England keysmiths. Here is the delectable treasure: “An Incorruptible Key, composed of the CX Psalme, wherewith you may open the Rest of the Holy Scriptures; Turning itself only according to the Composure and Art of that Lock, of the Closure and Secrecie of that great Mystery of God manifest in the Flesh, but justified only by the Spirit, which it evidently openeth and revealeth, out of Fall and Resurrection, Sin and Righteousness, Ascension and Descension, Height and Depth, First and Last, Beginning and Ending, Flesh and Spirit, Wisdom and Foolishness, Strength and Weakness, Mortality and Immortality, Jew and Gentile, Light and Darkness, Unity and Multiplication, Fruitfulness and Barrenness, Curse and Blessing, Man and Woman, Kingdom and Priesthood, Heaven and Earth, All-sufficiency and Deficiency, God and Man. And out of every Unity made up of twaine, it openeth that great two-leafed Gate, which is the sole Entrie into the City of God, of New Jerusalem, into which none but the King of Glory can enter; and as that Porter openeth the Doore of the Sheepfold, by which whosoever entereth is the Shepherd of the Sheep,” etc., etc., etc. Just as this ancestor of American mysticism used an explication of the hundred and tenth psalm, as an illustration of his “incorruptible key,” so the more recent mysticism of Christian Science follows its pattern and uses the first three or four chapters of Genesis and part of Revelation; as, says the key-maker, “Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because they can not possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To the discoverer of Christian Science [Mrs. Eddy], they are transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the Bible.”
The “deep divinity” of the simple, intelligible account in Genesis is made transparent in the following manner:—
Gen. 1:—“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The Infinite hath no beginning. The word beginning is employed to signify the first, that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle—Life, Truth, and Love—is God. The universe reflects Him. There is but one Creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of Spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to immensity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.
Genesis 1:2—“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual harmony,—heaven and eternity. In this universe of truth, matter is unknown. No supposition of error enters there. Christian Science, the Word of God, saith to darkness upon the face of error, “God is All in All;” and light appears in proportion as this is understood. It reveals the eternal wonder,—that infinite space is peopled with God’s ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms.
These are but brief samples. Now if you desire to test the exceeding transparency of this elucidation, you can easily do it as follows: The first time the unfolding curiosity of your child, or of your Sunday-school class, prompts a question as to the origin of this world and its contents, just erase these quotations from Scripture and read them the remainder of this wonderfully perspicuous improvement on the sacred oracles.
The historian says of Gorton, “Lucidity,4indeed, was not one of his strong points as a writer, and the drift of his argument is not always easy to decipher.” “It is not likely that he had any distinct comprehension of his own views, for distinctness was just what they lacked.” A reading of “Science and Health” will be sufficient to convince ordinary people that Samuel Gorton was not the only sufferer from the malady of obscurity. A disciple of Gorton’s, in answering one who questioned Gorton’s inspiration, declared: “Gorton wrote in heaven, and none can understand his books except those who live in heaven while on earth.” And this is the tack taken by “Scientists” in replying to critics of their theories. “You lack the spiritual mind. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.” But just what constitutes spirituality according to the Christian Science view, seems to be something quite inappreciable, not to say incomprehensible, by any except those who by some exalted “demonstration” of Science have got higher than Paul when he went to the third heaven.
The present writer, while laying no claim to extraordinary intellect, never had much trouble in understanding what the apostle means when he speaks of the spiritual mind. Indeed, we know of numberless instances where people of the most mediocre capacity have grasped his meaning without difficulty.
We know what Theosophists mean by spirituality; it is an unfolding of the “sixth” or inner sense, which to them is the capacity to do the clairvoyant act. But the spirituality of Christian Science floors us. As near as we can get at it, we would say (humbly acknowledging our lack of inspiration) that it means the failure to accept—not the Bible—but the dogmatic idealism contained in “Science and Health.” We say, “not the Bible,” for we have had opportunity to put the thing to a practical test. Curious to know whether downright gospel piety meets the Scientists’ concept of spirituality, we put a concrete illustration to a prominent Scientist; we asked him whether his people would consider such men as John Wesley, Moody, and Spurgeon, spiritually-minded men. It is certain that the world regards these holy men as fulfilling the Biblical requirement. No one endued with the evangelical Gospel of the New Testament doubts that. But this gentleman preferred to profess ignorance of these renowned men of God rather than admit that they met the Scientists’ notion of spirituality. We mention this experience for the benefit of any that may wish to ascertain whether it is a very great disgrace not to have the ability to understand the mysticism of Christian Science.