Article February 17, 1917 Issue

In the opening sermon of a revival meeting a bishop is...

James D. Sherwood

Dallas (Texas) Dispatch

In the opening sermon of a revival meeting a bishop is reported to have said, "Christian Scientists do not pray; they merely practise autosuggestion and self-hypnotism." When reading this statement I wondered where he got his information, since there is nothing printed in any authorized Christian Science literature or said by Christian Scientists themselves that would justify any such conclusion. The fact is, Christian Scientists pray continually, and their prayers are answered. In Christian Science practice it is through prayer that the sick are healed and sinners reformed; but the use of hypnotism or a resort to mental suggestion is the very opposite of Christian Science practice.

The Christian Scientist avails himself of the divine Mind in his ministry, and through prayer he demonstrates that God is a very present help in times of trouble. The Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, begins with the chapter on Prayer, and the first few lines read as follows: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." In the Preface of the same work, on page xi, Mrs. Eddy writes: "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or 'God with us,'—a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, 'To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.'"

There is an entire chapter in Science and Health that is devoted to showing the baneful effects of hypnotism upon the victim and upon the perpetrator, and there is absolutely no point of agreement between Christian Science practice and the use of mesmerism.

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