Article April 14, 1906 Issue

A clergyman declares that "expectancy is a therapeutic...

Alfred Farlow

Boston Times

A clergyman declares that "expectancy is a therapeutic agent" employed in Christian Science healings, and that "there is no necessity of going outside the church to find it, for it is practised more or less by all physicians." With all due respect for the clergyman who makes this assertion, we must insist that he has grossly misapprehended both the teaching and practice of Christian Science. Expectancy is a step in the right direction, but before our critic has practised Christian Science healing many years he will learn that something stronger than expectancy is needed to obtain the grand results of the Christian Scientist. Christian Science heals by a clear, positive realization of the divine presence. When in the Christian Scientist's prayer or meditation God becomes to him infinitely great, his troubles, however great they may have been, sink into insignificance and lose their power in his consciousness, and the body responds accordingly.

We will admit that many apparent results have been obtained by mere expectancy, as well as by the projection of human thought, but such are not satisfactory and substantial, and, moreover, are very uncertain and are not accompanied with the spiritual and moral regeneration which characterizes the healings of Christian Science. It soon becomes apparent in the experience of a conscientious Christian Scientist that his cures are in proportion to his spirituality, his reliance upon the divine power; and this is positive evidence that it is God who heals in Christian Science. Even the apparent benefits of medical practice are possible because in some way the mental condition of the patient is changed, and surgical cases are always more successful when the patient is hopeful. All these well-known facts point to Mrs. Eddy's discovery that all causation is mental. We have great respect for those who, though dispensing medicine, have faith in God, but it has been demonstrated beyond cavil that those who trust God implicitly, to the exclusion of medicine, fare better than those who undertake to use both, and Christian Scientists in general testify that they fare better with Christian Science and without medicine than they ever did without Christian Science and with medicine.

Alfred Farlow.

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