Article February 7, 1914 Issue

Neither Mystical nor Miraculous

WILLIAM D. MC CRACKAN, M.A.

Step by step hostile criticism has receded before the irrefutable evidence of the healing power of Christian Science. It is quite common today to hear or to read the admission that the cures effected by Christian Science can no longer be denied. This admission, however, is apt to be followed by an attempt to account for the cures on so-called psychological grounds, to refer to them as resulting from the action of one human mind upon another. The statement is then frequently added that such healing is neither mystical nor miraculous, but scientific and rational.

Christian Scientists heartily agree with the wording of this last statement, while they repudiate the mistaken supposition that the human mind is a healer. Among the definitions for mystical given in Webster's dictionary is the word "unknowable," and as an explanation of the word miraculous we find, "performed by supernatural power." The fact that Christian Science can be studied and is being practised by growing multitudes, proves that its results are not unknowable, not above or beyond law, but in accordance with the immutable law of God.

Throughout her writings Mrs. Eddy clearly indicates the rational nature of Christian Science, and by connecting the word Science with Christianity she has once for all dissipated the supposition that spiritual understanding is supernatural or mystical. She writes, "Science dispels mystery and explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the realm of mysticism" (Science and Health, p. 80). The critics, then, who insist that the cures effected by Christian Science are neither mystical nor miraculous, are right so far as the actual wording of their comments is concerned, but they are mistaken if they suppose that these cures can be accounted for on the basis of sense-testimony or so-called physical law. The whole of Christian Science lies outside of material sense or physique, both as to its actual teaching and its modus operandi. It is absolutely metaphysical. Mrs. Eddy defines Christian Science "as the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony" (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1).

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