St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-24


consumption, rheumatism, scarlet fever,
spinal complaint, nervous disorder, there
appears to have been no genuine scientific
test of the system. There is testimony in
abundance, radical, positive and .undOubt-
eddy honest, firm people who claim to have
been cured by the new agency OF organic
diseases of long standing, but Investigation
develops so many weak or incredible points
that close analysis is
ALMOST ALWAYS UNsATIsFAC Glory
in it's results. Illustrations might be de-
tailed by the score, but take single, we'll
authenticated case: A prominent dentist
of this city fell and severely injured his
knee. He sent for a surgeon of good re-
pute, who examined the limb and diagnosed
a fracture, saying that he could plainly de-
tect the grating of the broken edges Of the
bone against each other. The patient was
properly treated, and was advised to recon-
cle himself to several weeks confinement
But yielding to the opportunities of his
wife he allowed her to call in mind-cure
practitioner. The mental healer treated
the injured man according to the
tenetS of the new school, try
ing to persuade him that he was
not really hurt Finally he induced him to
get up and walk, which he did, with diff
Guilty at first but soon with comparative
ease. The dentist the next morning strobe
into the office of the surgeon who had first
attended him, causing the doctor for mo-
ment to think he saw a ghost. This case is
naturally reckOned great triumph of men
tai healing over Old-fashioned methods.
The old school surgeon, OF course, simply
acknowledges that his diagnosis was wrong
and says that the gentleman sustained only
a strain of the knee joint.
Until recently the popular excitement on
the subject had not been utilized for fraud
ulent purposes by professional imp0stors.
There have been instances, however, within
a few months of gross SWindling Of the
credulOus by professional quacks, who find
it profitable just now to put ON the mind
cure mantle. A case in point occurred re-
Gently. An ignorant humbug, who is get
ting rich out of the mental healing craze,
was called to treat the wife of wealthy
gentleman. She was suffering from cancer
and the disciple of mind-cure guaranteed
that he would cure her. Presently the pa
tient died. But the mind-cure man per-
suaded the husband that he had succeeded
in partially curing the cancerouS trouble
when death supervened, caused by consump-
ton. Accordingly bill for $4,000 was
sent in, and the husband finally paid SO, 600.
For several weeks past, as stated at the
outset, the religious revolution involved in
the new departure has Overshadowed the
consideration of the physical phenomena in
the public mind. The theological innova-
tions are confined to the creed of the Chris
tan scientists, who constitute the largest
division of the mind-cure host. They make
the principles of a new religion indispen-
sable in their
THEORIES OF MENTAL HEALING.
They are led by Mrs. Eddy, the high
priestess of the whole movement.
She claims to be the founder of the
science, though rivals deny it, and her
account of the divine origin of the
faith is worth mentioning. In 1866, ac-
cording to her story, she fell accident1y
upon the sidewalk and suffered spinal in
jury and paralysis, which physicians de-
clared would result fatally in few hours.
Her pastor called to see her just before the
end was apparently at hand She begged
him to return in the afternoon, but no one
believed she would then be living. BY rev.
elation from heaven at that time Gods
actual relation towards her and towards the
human race was made clear, and she re-
allied that her disease was but an error,
which when supplanted by the truth
would disappear. By the light of
her new knowledge she brought
herself, through mental process, into a
proper attitude toward Jehovah, and when
the clergyman entered few hours later
expecting to comfort her bereaved family,
she met him at the door. Ever since Mrs.
Eddy rose she has had the power of healing
others as she was herself healed. The
creed which she has formulatedas the basis
Of her new system is peculiar theological
mixture. But as Prof. Stacy Fowler re-
Gently said in diSmiSSing the subject, eff
they heal people will not stick at q Ques-
ton of theology; if they heal they will car
ry the day, and they ought to-" Hence it
is that Hawthorne hall, where the Chris
tan Scientists worship, is thronged for an
hour before the time of service each
Sunday. So eager are people to hear, that
after the standing room is all
taken they crowd around outside the doors
where they catch only an occasional word
OF two. The service consists of ordinary
devotional exercises. preceding a sermon by
Mrs. Eddy, But the creed she teaches is so
blindly and illOgically presented, is so full
of manifest inconsistencies that it would be
an impossible task to describe it even in
outline. God is an infinite mind; matter
isnothing. Personality is the embodiment
of mind. Forgiveness of sin means de-
struction of sin''-these are ideas gained by
listening to one of Mrs. Eddy's rambling
talks. The Rev. A. j. Gordon, D..
D., prominent Baptist clergyman
who has studied the books of the
Christian Scientists thoroughly and talked
with all the leaders, pronounces their creed
mixture of Pantheism and Buddhism.
The delusion, he says, is most insidious
The large use of the Bible, the strenuous
demand for holiness and self-abnegation in
the disciples, the results apparently effected
in the ministry to the sick-these are very
powerful considerations for attracting con-
verts. So
HUNDREDS OF YOUNG LADIES
especially are drawn into the system under
the impression that they are getting some
finer quality of Christianity. DR.. Gordon
predicts that this is not the final issue. If
the body is only phantom and
the flesh only shadow, by
and by some very practical sinners
will take refuge under the system and i'll
sist that the sins of the body and the trans
gresSiOns of the flesh are harmless, since
they are only the phantom of a phantom,
and the shadow of shadow. DR.. Gordon
regards the whole system as sort of
witches caldron. in which every conceivable
heather and Christian heresy is seething
and simmering to produce the subtle es-
sence called mental medicine" On the
other hand the Rev. o. p. Clifford, another
Baptist clergyman of equal standing, and
several other prominent ministers, defend
the Christian Scientists and indorses much
of their philosophy, while admitting that
much more of it is unntelligible.
But the clergy as whole now regard the
subject with grave apprehension, and on all