Article March 13, 1915 Issue

I have read with interest the account in The Scotsman of...

E. M. Ramsay—Edinburgh, Scotland

The Scotsman

I have read with interest the account in The Scotsman of the address on "Ghosts" delivered by a clergyman in the United Free Assembly Hall. As he introduced some remarks on the subject of Christian Scientists, I should like to say a few words in explanation of our position.

The reverend gentleman said that the mistake of the clergy was in working away from the doctors; the mistake of Christian Scientists was the same. Let them work in harmony with the medical men. To this we reply that the work of Christian Scientists cannot fail to help the doctors. We do not believe that illness is a necessity, that it is ordained of God, or that any form or case of disease can be rightly named incurable. We believe that it is the duty of all men to manifest universal kindness, brotherliness, generosity, courage, serenity, hope, and faith in good; and we are learning how to manifest these qualities to a degree beyond that to which we had attained individually before we became students of Christian Science. The mental attitude of Christian Scientists would necessarily be helpful to a doctor and his patients.

In the matter of psychology, we are ourselves convinced that so-called psychic power is a material force, and therefore as much of a reality as any other form of matter. We believe that it differs from what are ordinarily regarded as material agencies, not so much in nature as in density, as a gas differs from a solid body. But we are equally convinced that a great chasm separates it from the spiritual force of prayer as practised by our Lord and his disciples. We recognize that a man may be a student of psychology and also a professing Christian and devout church-member, just as a skilful surgeon may also be a devout churchman; but, as no one would be prepared to assert that a man who was not a Christian could not be a competent surgeon, so we know that psychic power, mesmerism, hypnotism, are cultivated and practised among non-Christian races to a degree beyond anything known to the West.

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