SCIENCE AND " CHRISTIAN SCIENCES 799 



being unreal, can not feel or know anything, and hence can not 

 be sick ; and mind, being divine, is perfect, and hence can not be 

 sick either. Therefore, there can be no sickness in anything, and 

 what we call sickness is only a belief — not a belief of the one 

 Divine Mind, but a belief of what she calls " mortal mind," which 

 is itself unreal. Hence, when the belief is destroyed, the disease 

 is destroyed also. She deems this theory fully verified, because, 

 proceeding in accordance with it, she states that she has " pre- 

 vented disease, preserved and restored health, healed chronic as 

 well as acute ailments in their severest forms, elongated shortened 

 limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, restored decaying bones to healthy 

 conditions, brought back the lost substance of the lungs, and 

 caused them to resume their proper functions." She asserts that 

 sin is an error of similar nature with disease, and yields to similar 

 treatment. " Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one 

 and the same thing in Christian Science." Death also is all a mis- 

 take. The doctrine is set forth very fully in Mrs. Eddy's book, 

 " Science and Health," of which over thirty thousand copies have 

 been sold. Many other books and pamphlets have been published 

 by the Christian Scientists, and they issue a number of periodi- 

 cals, the chief of which are : " The Christian Science Journal " 

 and "The Mental Healing Monthly," in Boston; "The Interna- 

 tional Magazine of Christian Science," in New York ; and " The 

 Mental Science Magazine" and "The Christian Metaphysician," 

 in Chicago. In each of these cities there are several " schools," 

 "institutes," and "universities" for the teaching of "Christian 

 Science," or "metaphysical healing," or the "science of spirit," 

 or " Christian pneumatopathy," or essentially the same thing by 

 some other name ; and there are one or more such institutions in 

 a number of other cities. 



The two parts of the name " Christian Science " indicate that 

 the doctrine has a mixed character. As to the genuineness of its 

 Christianity, the doctors of divinity are best qualified to judge ; 

 the religious side of the subject lies outside the domain of sci- 

 ence, and will not be treated here. I will only say that the garb 

 of religion has often been a convenient cloak for fraud and delu- 

 sion. But Mrs. Eddy calls her system of healing a science. If 

 it really has the character of a science, it will endure all the 

 tests that a genuine science will endure. If Christian Science is 

 true, not only should cures always result when its precepts are 

 followed, but, when a part of the theory is disregarded, failure 

 should be sure to result. Any mental healer who tried to cure 

 disease without denying that disease exists, or without denying 

 that matter exists, or without asserting that all mind is one, 

 should meet with discomfiture and defeat. In the case of a 

 genuine scientific doctrine, such as the law of gravitation, any 



