216 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE A "CRAZE"? 



Br JOSHUA F. BAILEY. 



THE impression is quite general that Christian Science is mere- 

 ly a captivating theory ; that its text-book, " Science and 

 Health," is a collection of ingenious opinions — relating mainly to 

 the cure of physical disease by imaginative means — that appeal 

 especially " to persons of a highly religious and highly emotional 

 nature." It is also confounded with "faith-cure" and "mind- 

 cure," and alleged abuses and malpractice occurring under these 

 and other irregular forms of mental healing are heralded as " an- 

 other Christian Science case." It is credited with contemning 

 observation and induction, and, by consequence, natural science ; 

 with making man " a part of God," and with various fanciful 

 pretensions about sickness and death, and the unreality of matter. 



A writer in the April " Popular Science Monthly " succeeded in 

 committing all these errors and offenses against exactness of state- 

 ment — besides others that space forbids the enumeration of — in 

 less than four pages of the " Monthly." After having in this small 

 compass misstated the doctrines and pretensions of the true school 

 of Mind-healing, demolished his own misstatements, and all the 

 false systems as well, this writer, with a strange disregard of 

 sequence, devotes six pages to argument and instance in favor of 

 mental healing, and — most surprising of all — administers what 

 Christian scientists consider a well-merited rebuke to the M. D.s 

 for not giving the public the benefits of this " pleasant and inex- 

 pensive medicine that cures in some cases where drugs fail," 

 " shortens the term of sickness and lightens its pains in many other 

 cases," and, " furthermore, has no injurious incidental effects." 



There is really no excuse for such misrepresentation of Chris- 

 tian Science ; for it has a text-book, " Science and Health," uni- 

 versally recognized as the exponent of its doctrines and methods. 

 When called in question, it is entitled to be judged on authorized 

 statements, and not on those of speculators in public credulity, on 

 newspaper gossip and public rumor. This text-book says : " Sys- 

 tems of so-called ' mind-cure ' are as truly material as the prevail- 

 ing systems of medicine. They have no relationship with Chris- 

 tian Science"; and of "faith-cure," "Faith is belief, and not 

 understanding. Belief is virtually blindness when it admits truth 

 without understanding it. If truth is admitted, but not under- 

 stood, it may be lost, and error may enter through this same 

 channel of ignorant belief." 



So far from not trusting observation and induction, " Science 

 and Health " is a record of experiments in Mind that satisfy the 



