Article August 17, 1918 Issue

Christian Scientists in general will be glad to note in the...

Albert F. Gilmore

Lynbrook (N. Y.) New Era

Christian Scientists in general will be glad to note in the article "Mental Therapy Gaining," published in a recent issue, that intelligent discrimination is made between Christian Science healing and hypnotic suggestion as therapeutic agents. Too often has Christian Science been confused, by the uninformed, with hypnotism, mesmerism, and other so-called methods of mental therapy. Christian Science goes to the root of discord to destroy in human consciousness the false beliefs that are its occasion, externalized in the body as diseases of various types; and these false beliefs disappear through the understanding of God, and of man as His perfect creation. Thus it will be readily seen that this healing process depends not at all upon the exercise of human will or upon any hypnotic or mesmeric influence.

The intimation that Christian Science has been losing ground is quite contrary to the facts. At the Annual Meetings of The Mother Church in 1916 and 1917, there has been reported successively the greatest growth in the history of the movement. The demands for Christian Science literature have never been so great as they are at present. The United States Government has recently appointed Christian Science chaplains in both the Army and the Navy. The legislature of New York has unanimously enacted a law for the organization and government of Christian Science churches; and four new organizations of this denomination have recently been formed in this state. In brief, the movement was never so prosperous as it is at the present time. That the membership is no longer published is quite true; but for a very different reason than the one assigned. In the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 28) Mrs. Eddy says: "Christian Scientists shall not report for publication the number of the members of The Mother Church, nor that of the branch churches. According to the Scripture they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people."

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