Article December 5, 1908 Issue

To the Christian Scientist the healing of physical disease...

Frederick Dixon in—Richmond England.

Richmond and Twickenham Times

To the Christian Scientist the healing of physical disease is only an incident in a struggle with everything that is unlike God. Christian Science is the attempt to give back to the world to-day that supreme consciousness of God—that is. of truth—which made the first century of the Christian era the age of miracles. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is the persistent effort to realize this truth, and to abide in the full consciousness of its power to free the world from the fetters of sorrow, and sickness, and sin, that constitutes praying without ceasing. "The prayer," writes Mrs. Eddy, in the opening words of Science and Health, "that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." As man succeeds in praying this prayer he is enabled to do the works which Jesus said could be done by all those who believed in him; and there comes to him "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

The exact position occupied by healing in the teaching of Christian Science may be seen from this, and it will be found to be the exact position given to it in the teaching of Jesus. When, however, our critic went on to declare that as a result of this teaching people "were dying all around," she committed herself to a statement which she made no attempt to prove, and which is absolutely untrue; in a word, she assumed the entire premises, and naturally ended by begging the entire question. If a patient dies under Christian Science treatment, there is no person legally authorized to give a certificate, an inquest follows, and the principal witness is a medical man, who is ipso facto a disbeliever in Christian Science treatment. This method was pursued quite recently with regard to homeopathy, and with results very similar to those which to-day take place when Christian Science treatment is called in question. As the practice of homeopathy spread, however, the process of baiting grew less and less popular. To-day thousands of homeopathic practitioners are giving certificates instead of being hounded through the police courts.

Again, by what process of logic does the critic arrive at the conclusion that the death of a patient under Christian Science treatment is a disaster due to the failure to call in an ordinary medical practitioner? To prove her statement more than the merest obiter dictum she would have to show the percentage of deaths under Christian Science treatment in comparison with those under ordinary medical practice, and even this would leave out of sight the important fact that a very large percentage of the cases treated in Christian Science have previously been reported as incurable or hopeless by the physicians in attendance, and have been brought to Christian Science only for that reason. The medical profession contains many hundreds of brilliant and devoted workers, but certain members would give proof of greater generosity and wisdom if they displayed less alacrity to go into the witness-box and affirm their ability to have succeeded in a few instances where Christian Science treatment has failed, seeing that people are dying by hundreds under ordinary medical treatment in precisely similar conditions.

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