p. 38 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE by Rev. A. C. Dixon

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1893

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

By Rev. A. C. Dixon

BY THE REV. A. C. DIXON.

IN 1866 Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, of Boston, thought she discovered that " Divine Mind is the only reality," and that "matter and mortal body are the illusions of human belief." Upon this foundation Mrs. Eddy began to erect a philosophy, and to establish an institution of healing without medicine. According to her philosophy, there is no such thing as sickness. All disease is illusion. If you have a toothache, in the first place, there is really no tooth; and, in the second place, it does not ache; both the tooth and the ache are illusions of "human belief." Convince yourself that they do not exist, and you are well. Diet and exercise are of no use; medicines are hindrances, for they lead one to think of these illusory diseases.

"A Christian Scientist," says Mrs. Eddy, "never gives medicine, never recommends hygiene, never manipulates." The less one knows about the laws of health, the better. These laws are illusions, because they deal with illusive diseases. There is no attempt to influence mind by means of mind. She discards magnetism and all hypnotic influences. She simply seeks to convince sick people that they are well.

One who is not a disciple of Mrs. Eddy, is at a disadvantage, because, according to her claim, he cannot really understand the metaphysical and spiritual subtleties of her philosophy, unless he is refined enough to accept her theories. She urges her devotees not to listen to opposition. If one of them should be told that this article does not fully indorse "Christian Science," he will, of course, not read it. The great thing is to keep within the charmed circle of faith in the fact that the Divine Mind is the only reality; that matter and mortal body do not really exist.

It is evident, however, to one who reads and thinks, that "Christian Science" is neither Christian nor scientific. It is not Christian, because it denies the existence of a personal God, and that there is such a thing as sin. The Divine Mind is everywhere and everything; there is nothing else. We are a part of it. This sounds like pantheism, and was not discovered in this century. We read

much of it in the writings of pagan philosophers.

If Christianity teaches any one thing clearly, it is that sin is a tremendous fact. Jesus came to seek and save the lost; he was the "friend of sinners;" he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Calvary became a fact, because sin was a fact. Now "Christian Science" asserts that all this is a blunder. Those who think they are sinners are simply under an illusion. They may be honest in their belief, but are sadly mistaken. All men need is to be convinced that they are not sinners, and they are righteous. A more seductive fallacy was never invented; it panders to our self-righteousness, and is calculated to manufacture Pharisees by the million.

It is not scientific, because it denies evident facts, and claims for facts what universal experience proves to be false. Someone has said, "If you claim that there is no matter, it is no matter what you claim." But such a claim has a great fascination for certain mystical minds. They prefer the mysterious to the plain. The more absurd a proposition, the more likely they are to receive it. That there is matter and mortal body every scientist knows. So real, indeed, is matter that it is now well-nigh universally accepted that not one particle of it has ever been destroyed. It may change forms, but goes not out of existence. Even Christian Scientists treat their bodies as if they were real; they give them water and food, and protect them with clothing; they can be bled and bruised. Through the body they suffer pain, however vehemently they may declaim against its existence.

"She was a pretty Christian Scientist; 'There is nothing real,' said she, 'Except the soul—my body is not real;' 'And that's too bad,' thought he. 'Pain is not real—this hammock is not real, Wherein you think I sit.' Lo! as she spoke the hammock's fastening broke, And threw her out of it. "Full hard she bumped her immaterial form; Who could but sympathize? He begged that she would let a heretic Pretend to help her rise. "Then, oh! the scorn of her rejection was A something wholly real, And, oh! the limp with which she walked away, Proclaimed that she could feel."

A Christian Scientist who goes the whole length of his convictions must believe and advocate some very silly absurdities. One of them sagely tells us that alcohol intoxicates because such is the universal belief. If all men believed that alcohol nourished, like milk, we might feed our babies only on whisky; and if all men believed that milk intoxicated, it would make us drunk. If it was the universal belief that a bunion on the foot caused derangement, it would affect us like a tumor on the brain. If, on the other hand, all men agreed that a tumor on the brain simply worried you and made you feel like keeping your friends at a distance, such would be the effect. There is no such thing as cold or heat. Though every thermometer in Christendom should declare that the temperature was ten degrees below zero, it need not affect a consistent Christian Scientist; he need not change his clothing between summer and winter. One of their practicing physicians in Baltimore remarked to a friend of mine: "What a blessing it would be to the poor if they would all accept our teaching! It would save outlays in change of clothing and in fuel for the winter."

Indeed, hunger is an illusion; all that we have to do, according to this fascinating science, to save our grocery bills, is to wake up to the fact that the immaterial body does not really need immaterial food. "Besiege sickness and death," says one of their high authorities, "with these principles and all will disappear." Old age is an illusion; there need be no such thing as gray hairs and decrepitude. People lose their sight and hearing because they believe in such things. A man at ninety ought to look as if he were only nineteen. Some of them read their lectures through gold-rimmed glasses, declaring that loss of sight is an illusion. The fact that animals take cold, become intoxicated, and are affected as if they really had bodies, does not make a Christian Scientist swerve from his position. He asserts that an animal can be a sort of Christian Scientist. The horse takes cold when the blanket is left off, because there is a sort of universal horse conviction that such will take place. Dogs can get drunk on alcohol, because the dog mind has a lingering belief in intoxication.

It is now time for a definition, and the following strikes me as eminently fair:—

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IS THE ART OF MAKING SANE PEOPLE THINK AND FEEL AS IF THEY WERE INSANE.

Our lunatic asylums are full of patients who are suffering from illusions. They believe that things are not as they are. A notion seizes one that brick and stone walls are nothing, and he tries to go through them. In the effort his head is apt to yield, and for his accommodation padded walls are furnished. Others imagine that they are not human beings, but angels or demons. I have seen one who declared that she was the queen of heaven, and tried to act accordingly. If I mistake not, most cases of insanity are the result of such hallucinations.

The difference between patients in the asylum, however, and Mrs. Eddy, is this: With her it is a theory; with them it is theory and practice; they carry out their convictions. When one of them decides that clothing is not necessary, he steadfastly refuses to wear it. If he is convinced that eating is of no use, he will not eat. Mrs. Eddy, on the other hand, holds tenaciously to the theory, and practices it only so far as convenient. Her teaching is insanity reduced to a fine art, advocated in elegant language, studied by refined people, accepted by a class of metaphysical minds, and practiced fully by none of them.—The Independent.