Article December 1, 1928 Issue

The fairness of the article on "The Psychology of Health,"...

Ralph W. Still, Committee on Publication for the State of Texas,—Alpine

Industrial News

The fairness of the article on "The Psychology of Health," which appeared in a recent issue of the News, is commendable. However, references to Christian Science therein convey impressions that are, in some respects, erroneous, and call for correction. It is stated, for example, that "there have been many cures of nervous and similar troubles by Christian Science and other faith-cure methods that are little short of miraculous." But such assertions may imply that Christian Science is efficacious only in certain types of disorders, and is merely a faith cure, whereas neither inference is correct. That Christian Science is effective in healing every type of disease is an established fact, the healing of the most inveterate, organic, even so-called incurable disease conditions being attested by its record of a half century of practice. Indeed, the membership of the Christian Science church throughout the world is largely made up of those who have been thus healed, many or most of them having failed in their efforts to find relief or cure elsewhere.

Many disinterested, competent observers have noted this healing of obdurate ills through Christian Science. J.B.S. Haldane, one of the foremost physicists of our day, has spoken of Christian Science as "so often therapeutically successful." Also, medical men of note have admitted the healing power of Christian Science, an utterance of Dr. Charles Hunter, medical instructor at the University of Manitoba, being typical. Dr. Hunter said, in part, "Christian Science had helped many persons suffering from diseases, which to the medical practitioner, had defied diagnosis, ... furthermore, had brought relief to individuals who were victims of some organic disorder." As to the question of there being a similarity between Christian Science and what is known as "faith cure," here confusion exists in the minds of many uniformed persons. Furthermore, Christian Science is confounded by many with autosuggestion, psychology, mental science, Couéism, "mind over matter," and other systems of cure having an hypnotic basis, or which employ the so-called human mind as a factor in the curative effort. But faith cure and Christian Science are dissimilar in that faith cure, per se, relies on a mere blind faith in God, whereas Christian Science is based on an actual understanding of Him, and on a scientific utilization of the divine power. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has this to say regarding faith, in her work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 297): "Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine." Christian Science is not a "mind over matter" philosophy or cure, but a purely spiritual, or metaphysical, Mind-cure, the capitalization of the word "Mind" denoting that the term is a synonym for Deity. Hence Christian Science is a God-cure. It is the understanding of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," and is utilized to the destruction of physical as well as mental and moral ills.

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