Editorial November 23, 1912 Issue

NOT MORTAL, BUT IMMORTAL MIND

Archibald McLellan

Most of us can remember the time when for a physician to admit that Christian Science had healed any one of any disease was an unheard-of thing. This period was followed by one in which it was somewhat grudgingly admitted that Christian Science might and possibly did cure nervous or "imaginary" diseases, and to this second period succeeded a third, in which even those diseases which are believed to be more deeply seated than the nervous and imaginary kind were acknowledged to have been healed. In this latter period the tendency to credit these cases of healing to the use of hypnotism has been quite marked, and one of the latest evidences of this is a statement in the address delivered by an English physician a short time ago, as reported in the Stoke Newington Recorder.

It is true that this gentleman did not call the method which he supposed was employed hypnotism, but rather "the influence of the mind upon the body." This, however, is simply a detail, because it is quite evident from the context that he was talking, not about immortal divine Mind, synonymous with God as used in Christian Science, but about that changing finite sense which Paul called the carnal mind and which Mrs. Eddy has defined as mortal mind. Even with this misapprehension of Christian Science in his thought, it is of interest to note that this physician was not in the least backward in giving credit to Christian Science for its healing work.

We quote from the Recorder's report of his address as follows: "But the doctors were coming to see that the Christian Scientists had got hold of an important part of the truth, in proof of which there were cases, too numerous to be denied, where doctors' methods had failed and Christian Science had actually cured the patient." He also cited the healing of a case of locomotor ataxia which had come into his own experience, and "in the face of cases like that, apparently incurable in many instances," he said, "it was of no use to say the thing was a fraud." This statement from a physician of admitted standing in his profession adds one more to the already long list of medical men who have become impressed with the efficacy of Christian Science through being brought into direct contact with its work, and not a few of them to the extent that they have embraced its teachings.

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