That the progress of Christian Science as a cult is interesting...

The Wilmington (Del.) Journal

That the progress of Christian Science as a cult is interesting churchmen as well as the doctors, was brought to mind by an address at the dinner of the Church Club of Delaware, on Thursday evening. With rapt attention every word of the speaker was drunk in, showing that interest in the Christian Science movement is widespread.

What will be the attitude of the Church towards this cult, was the perplexing question asked by the speaker, and he left it to his hearers to give the answer. The religionists are at a disadvantage compared with the doctors in dealing with the subject. As the speaker said, the enthusiasm and the vast number of men—intelligent persons, too—at the Christian Science meetings in the larger cities are dominating features. It may be remarked that there is no complaint among the Scientists, so called, that the pleasures of golf, of Sunday sports, or materialism draw the attention of men from their religious duties. The complaint of the Protestant churches is of this lack of interest in church work on the part of men and of the steady growth of materialism. And yet the Scientists gather them in, as even our own community testifies.

Various remedies, with some of which the Church Club speaker did not appear to be familiar, have been suggested in the circles of his own church. For instance, in a diocese of California the clergy propose to bring into more general use the practice of unction for the sick; and those who administer this as a sacrament in that church contend that the good in Christian Science is provided for in the ancient customs of the Church, which have been abandoned by perhaps all the branches of the Christian Church, excepting the Roman Catholic, the eastern, and a small percentage of the Anglican body. The restoration of this custom would make a combination of religious, spiritual, mental, and bodily treatment which seems to be desired.

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