CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 211 



THE GEAIN OF TEUTH IN THE BUSHEL OF CHEISTIAN 



SCIENCE CHAFF 



By CHARLES CLARENCE BATCHELDER 



fcfc ~YT'THEEE there is smoke, there must be some fire," is a proverb 



V V which may justly be applied to the claims made by Christian 

 Science, for it is hardly fair to a large number of educated men and 

 women to jeer at them as the victims of the absurd delusion that they 

 have been cured of non-existent maladies. Not only can they produce 

 well attested cases of undisputed cures of distinct diseases, without 

 the use of medicines, but similar results occasionally occur at Lourdes 

 and elsewhere, and, in fact, have taken place in unbroken succession 

 throughout the centuries ever since the Temple Cures of Ancient 

 Egypt. Though the facts are too well established to be denied, we may 

 yet question the explanations they give of the cause and method, 

 especially when we find that the Pagan idolatry of the priests of 

 Ammon-Ea produced the same effect as the Pantheistic philosophy 

 which Dr. Quimby and Mrs. Eddy adapted from Hindu sources. For 

 though the charge of Pantheism is violently repudiated, it is even 

 more authoritatively affirmed by the statement " God is All, and All 

 is God." 



Now while the philosophy is not convincing to the ordinary reason- 

 ing mind, a study of the methods of Christian Science can not fail to 

 command admiration, not only on account of the efficient financial 

 management, but also for the clever use of the most effective methods 

 of mental healing. The fact that these procedures were discovered 

 empirically does not distinguish them from the systems of the recog- 

 nized medical schools, for the uses of most drugs were found in the 

 same way. 



It is also not just to accuse the " healers " of being quacks and 

 charlatans, for, though there may be exceptions, it seems well estab- 

 lished that sincerity on the part of the operator is usually essential to 

 produce that conviction in the patient which is absolutely requisite for 

 all cures of this nature in every age and time. In other words, the 

 christian scientists are perfectly right in saying that " faith," con- 

 viction, belief, are necessary to produce the desired result, and that 

 doubt in the patient, or among those present, is likely to prevent suc- 

 cess. The reasons for this will be apparent later. 



The opponents of this system affirm that most of the diseases in 

 question are only imaginary, and do not really exist. Though we 



