Article January 11, 1913 Issue

The reference to Christian Science, in the address by...

Frederick Dixon—London, England.

Hackney and Stoke Newington Recorder

The reference to Christian Science, in the address by Dr. Saleeby, printed in your issue of the 1st inst., is instinct with the fairness which has characterized every utterance of his upon the subject which I ever recollect to have seen. Christian Science has, of course, been through the usual deluge of abuse which human fear or stupidity rains on every new movement. It has, I believe, been my fate to read them all, from the breathless homiletics of Canon Eyton, in the Westminster Gazette, to the bloodcurdling utterances of Mr. Paget, hurled from the seclusion of the platform of diocesan congresses.

Out of the welter of this "hare-brained chatter of irresponsible frivolity," the voice of Dr. Saleeby has always sounded a note of strident common sense. I have a suspicion that he has even sometimes met a clergyman whose sermons have not invariably reformed sinners, and perhaps a doctor whose prescriptions have not always healed the sick; and having, as I am sure he has, a sense of humor, has been convulsed by the incongruous immodesty of two critics uniting to wage a "furious hating attack," in the name of Christianity, on Christian Science. Perhaps, too, he reads the papers, and remembers the case of the little shopkeeper recently sent to prison, in Bavaria, for wrapping a herring in a journal containing a picture of a saint.

Dr. Saleeby bears generous witness to the healing capacity of Christian Science. Still, though he has his quiet chuckle over the twentieth-century Johns of Gaddesden and Torquemadas, he says distinctly that Christian Sciencer is like medicine, only half a truth. What I imagine him to mean is that a judicious blending of mental and physical healing would constitute ideal medical practise. By mental treatment I think he means some form of mental suggestion. Now, I admit that you can mix ordinary medical practise with suggestion, though if you are wise you will not, but I deny that you can mix it with Christian Science. Why I say that you will not employ mental suggestion in any case if you are wise, is this. If mental suggestion can be used for supposed good, it can equally be used for deliberate evil. If it can be used openly, with the permission of the patient, it can as easily be used secretly, without the knowledge of the victim. In a word, it is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and, as Jesus himself declared, you cannot gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles; the supposititious good which occurs can only be a degree of evil.

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