Article April 2, 1910 Issue

The report of a recent discussion by physicians, ministers,...

George Shaw Cook—Oak Park, III.

Oak Leaves

The report of a recent discussion by physicians, ministers, and others of "Faith-healing from a Medical Standpoint," which was published in Oak Leaves, contains some statements about Christian Science which I desire the privilege of correcting. Christian Science is quite different from what is ordinarily known as faith-healing and is also distinctly unlike mental suggestion. Failure to make the proper distinction between Christian Science Mind-healing and the various forms of so-called "mind-cure" is doubtless responsible for some of the mistaken assertions attributed to some to those who spoke on the occasion referred to above.

One speaker is reported to have declared that the "alleged cures of organic trouble" by Christian Science "are not cures, but only give the sufferer courage to ignore his trouble." That is not true of Christian Science practice. Mental suggestion, or mesmerism, may do no more than make the patient temporarily ignore pain and disease, or make him believe for the time being that he is not sick, while the operator really believes that he is so, though arguing to the contrary. That is, the operator in mesmeric treatment may try through will-power or mental suggestion to make his subject believe something which he himself does not believe. It should be readily seen that such methods cannot effect permanent cures and that they cannot and do not heal what is termed organic disease.

That Christian Science has healed many cases of so-called organic disease in what is commonly regarded as its incurable form is a matter of record. The record of these cures is made up of testimony such as is admissible in courts of law and has stood the scrutiny of those who are disposed to be skeptical. Names of reliable persons living in Chicago and elsewhere who have been thoroughly and completely healed by Christian Science of diseases which had been previously diagnosed as organic by reputable physicians, will be furnished to those who are sincerely desirous of knowing the facts. The reason why Christian Science has succeeded in many cases when other means have failed, is that the treatment in Christian Science depends upon the power of God, divine Mind, to destroy human ills according to a demonstrable law which is available to mankind in every hour of need. This law of divine intelligence, when correctly understood and faithfully applied, will cure disease in all of its forms. That Christian Scientists occasionally fail in the application of Christian Science to the healing of disease, is due mainly to the fact that they have only begun to understand the Principle thereof and to apply it correctly.

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