Article April 2, 1910 Issue

There has of late swept through the country a small...

William J. Bonnin

Liverpool (Eng.) Mercury

There has of late swept through the country a small tornado of exaggerated and delirious language in reference to Christian Science, and congresses, and congregations have sat and listened while the enormities of Christian Scientist have been expatiated upon and sometimes gloated over. May I be allowed to take advantage of what appears to be a full, or a lucid interval, to make a few remarks from another point of view?

The broader spirit manifested in recent episcopal utterances has been gratifying, though to be sure it has been wrapped in abundant repudiation of the teachings of Christian Science as absurdities; still a recognition has been made of the truth that Christian Science is promulgating and of the cheering results that it achieves. The Bishop of Carlisle says that Christian Science proclaims a great truth by caricaturing it. The Archbishop of York has just said that he has "rarely met with such capacity to enter some of the deeper aspects of truth" as that of Christian Scientists he has had to do with, and that he had seen the lives of Christian Scientists tranquil, bright, cheerful. Dr. Horton has said Christian Science is a force which makes for purity, happiness, and love. All this is a great advance upon the attitude of uncompromising condemnation so long maintained, and which the works of Christian Science have rendered no longer tenable. Altogether there seems to be a consensus of opinion that Christian Science, whatever else it may achieve, is operating as a transforming and elevating force upon the lives of those who have accepted its teaching.

Now, if a caricature of truth can produce these results, the presentation of the truth itself must, a fortiori, be attended with something a great deal better. Are we entitled to ask Dr. Diggle how and by whom it should be presented that these greater benefits may be no longer withheld from society? Professor James and the pragmatists, however, would probably maintain that these results could not possibly proceed from a caricature, and those who believe that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit will find themselves forced to this admission. As a matter of fact, Christian Science is not a philosophy to be scrutinized and criticized from a distance. It is eminently a practical system, a scheme of living and thinking, and it has to be put into practice and tested before it can be fully comprehended, every bit as much as a new dish must be tasted before its savor can be known.

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