Article May 2, 1914 Issue

Christian Science, as a recent clerical critic has quite truly...

Frederick Dixon—Woodford, London, England

Woodford Times

Christian Science, as a recent clerical critic has quite truly said, claims to be a restatement of the Christian religion as preached and practised in the first century of that era. For this very reason Mrs. Eddy based its requirments on the teaching of the gospel, and the gospel emphatically teaches that men not only should preach but should practise, or, as Jesus declared, that their faith should be tested by their works. It is this demand for scientific demonstration that, more than most other points, has distinguished Christian Science from the teaching of orthodox theology. It is for this reason that its opponents have so bitterly attacked the healing element, for they have seen that if the justice of the demand for healing was once admitted, it would be necessary in future for the churches to preach with "signs following" and to prove their dogmas by demonstration.

This clergyman says that Christian Science can point to some success in obscure cases, but that it has been responsible for painful failures which might have been successfully treated if well-tried means had been adopted. Now, Christian Science healing extends all around the world, and has been practised for something like half a century. In the course of this time, thousands upon thousands of cases, running into millions, must have been treated. It may be guessed what an infinitesimal percentage of these cases the critic knows anything about, yet he dismisses the whold of this healing as a few obscure cases. In plain English, he could hardly have explained more conclusively his utter inability to discuss the subject. More than this, he says that if the failures had been treated by ordinary methods, they might have been healed. They certainly might have been, but then they might not have been. The history of ordinary medical practice is not quite so scientific as to warrant its believers in concluding that any case might be healed if treated by it. It is precisely because of its innumerable failures that the sick have turned to Christian Science.

Does the reverend gentleman really believe that if the healing of the ordinary medical school had filled the world with confidence, Christian Science would ever have gained the opportunity for the demonstration of spiritual healing? It is because the world is tired of the failures of the medical schools that it is turning more and more to Christian Science. Unfortunately, in an enormous number of cases it turns for help only at the last moment, and then Christian Scientists are blamed if they are not successful. As, however, this critic says that Christian Science healing has been confined to a few obscure cases, you will perhaps allow me to quote the words of a London physician, who is probably a much better witness on this point than he is. Dr. Saleeby, lecturing not very long ago in London, declared that 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. Having quoted a case of locomotor ataxia within his own experience, Dr. Saleeby declared that in the face of such cases, it is no use to say that Christian Science is a fraud.

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