Article January 12, 1924 Issue

The teachings and practice of Christian Science, as set...

Charles E. Heitman, Committee on Publication for the State of New York,—New York

Musical Observer

The teachings and practice of Christian Science, as set forth in the writings of its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, are directly the opposite of those employed in suggestive therapeutics. The latter, as an example, are based wholly upon the belief in many minds and in the power of one so-called mind over another; whereas Christian Science teaches that there is but one Mind, infinite and divine, called God, even that Mind which, according to the Scriptures, "was also in Christ Jesus." Christian Science does not heal by means of psychotherapy or autosuggestion; and no more does it require the constant repetition of specially formulated phrases by those who turn to it for help. In fact, it specifically prohibits the use of formulæ and classifies all forms of suggestions as activities of the carnal mind, of which sin and its resultant states, sickness and death, are effects. Christian Science logically holds, therefore, that since the seeming cause of disease obtains in the carnal mind, which, as Paul tells us, is "enmity against God" and the source of death, its cure must come, not as practitioners of autosuggestion would have us believe through the enforcement of the corporeal will, itself a product of this so-called mind, but from the natural operation of the corrective and curative power of divine Mind in human consciousness, before which all phases of sin and disease yield as readily and inevitably as darkness gives way to light.

The Christian Scientist, striving to emulate the example of Christ Jesus, earnestly prays, "Not my will, but thine, be done," realizing that blessings are obtainable only by full and complete submission to the will of God. Furthermore, the primal object of treatment in Christian Science is to improve the individual morally and spiritually; while suggestive and hypnotic methods of mental healing have no religious element, but look merely to physical betterment.

In drawing a distinction between the operation of Christian metaphysics, as taught and practiced by her, and the various systems of mental therapy based on a belief in the power of human will, Mrs. Eddy has stated the case most clearly in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 144): "Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned. Willing the sick to recover is not the metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but is sheer animal magnetism."

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