Article February 9, 1907 Issue

I am not aware that any of the articles of the church to...

A. G. Frisbie

Janesville (O.) Courier

I am not aware that any of the articles of the church to which the reverend critic belongs teaches that the power of Jesus was hypnotic, nor that such an explanation of the wonderful works of the Master would be accepted by any Protestant church in Ohio, but I do know that the reverend gentleman errs most completely when he announces soberly, in addressing a class of religious seekers after truth, that "this is the way Christian Scientists perform their cures." In the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." written by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker G. Eddy, is the very plain statement (p. 101) : "The author's own observations of the workings of animal magnetism convince her that it is not a remedial agent, and that its effects upon those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death. ... In no instance is the effect of animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic." On page 102 of the same book, Mrs. Eddy says: "In Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-called mortal mind." Is it at all likely that students of Christian Science would employ in their religious healing work an agency which is so thoroughly exposed in the teaching of their Leader? The reverend doctor had not far to go in Boston to have ascertained the truth about Christian Science, and his scholars have not far to go to ascertain that their teacher is inaccurate in his summary of the healing power of Jesus of Nazareth, Christ Jesus, who said of himself and of his works, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." "I can of mine own self do nothing: . . . I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." That power to which Jesus referred so constantly as "the Father" was not hypnotic, but divine; Jesus healed by the power of Spirit, which he knew to be spiritual, even as he said to the woman at the well: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

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