The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1889-02-22
wan oaRIgTIlN sCIRNOR pELIsION.
A Dangerous Epidpmle-Tims to Put a stop
teItzA Religious Papers Views.

- ~"
A Dangerous EpIdpmls-rims to Put a stop
toItSSA Religious Papers Views,
pTesbgatqR Bupler.
Every age has its decisions and their
victims. Our own, Notwithstanding the
OF knowledge and the rapid ex,
panAion Of the gospel, is not free from
them, And whatever form they may
assume, they are not harmless. The man,
woman or community oyeTtaken by one
Of them hardly ever RECEIVERS entirely,
In spite Of all efforts TO bring them back
they are continually chasing some vision
airy project useleRsly and, we may say,
Wickedly, wearing out both their bodies
and souls to no profit, but TO the great
OF themselves and Others, The
fact that the imposition takes to itself
the name Of science and qualities that
by the word Christian, does not relieve
II. Great crimes have been perpetrated
under cover OF the word liberty, and
monstrous errors have been pFopagated
under shelter Of the words Christian and
Science,
For some time q system Of Goncen-
trated nonsense and u%nscriptural belief
has been invading one place after an
other in different parts oil the country,
calling itself "0hristlan Science" al,
though 1t really looks more like an Off
shoot OF Buddhism than anything else,
although its advocates and those who
accent Il do not know this. There lre
different schools In the propagation Of
this yagary, not agreeing in all partiCu-
lars, but they are united in one thing,
"that there is no such thing as matter,
all Is mind" They believe "that all dis
ease is an errori" that we are not sick
but think we are sick; that we do not
die but think We die. They say Of an
arm that was cut off; "That arm was
simply a reflection OF the mind, and as
you cannot destroy the mind by an am
putation, 1t remains In It's place even
after the surgeons knife has done It's
work" The following Is q succinct
statement Of their general views, as
given by their accredited writer's;
1--WE believe 1t to DO the great mission
OF our Christian Science to bring the age
out Of It's materialistlc tendency. The
age believes in the reality OF lands and
merchandise, and trusts It's five senses
to the last, We dispute the evidence Of
the senses. We plant ourselves on the
center of being and account for the eff
feet by the cause. AS long as the age
regards the human body US matter, It
Will dependon material agents like med
icine to heal It's diseases, But when 1t
recognizes that man Is but mind, the re-
Fiction OF God himself, 1t will rely on
mind TO cure mind, Strictly
speaking, there Is no such thing as dis
ease; what men imagine to be disease Is
the error OF their own minds, an illusion
with which Gods creatures cheat them.
selves, because they refuse TO come into
harmony withthe mind OF God, There.
fore tho way to deal with this illusion Is
to have the mind filed with the truth;
this occupying the mind expels error;
resist evil Nor disease) In this manner
and it will 'iiee from YOU.
The deyotpes OF this scheme 20 farther
than the "ioith.Cure' people, set aside
PRAYER, and make sin simply a disease Of
the mind. They say:
0They THE believers in faith.cure de.
pend on the faith OF the person healed,
andthereiore appeal to the sick to exer:
else faith. We depend on the faith Of
OF the person healing. The faith
healers rely much on prayer, they'plead
with God'-'wrestle like Jacob did,
We believe that God needs no persua.
sion TO induce him to heal the sick. (.
!. T. Sin Is owing TO a diseased mind,
I. II you master the thought you
then master the SIM"
Here then we get down to the founda-
ton error OF the whole miserable scheme
ii repudiates the atonement OF Christ
for sin, and the work OF the Holy Spirit
in regeneration and sanctifcatton. 1t
sin simply q mental act, and re-
coyery from II another mental act, set
ting aside the work Of Christ and also
the word Of the Holy Spirit as under.
stood by orthodox Christians. This Is
not openly declared when presenting
this misnamed Christian Science to 9th.
ers, and many who adopt II do not dose
at the beginning; but this necessarily
inheres in the whole system, Colors 1t
throughout, and is accepted In the end.
Such has been the inevitable result and
will continue to be.
The practical effects Of this mischiev-
ous system have been most injurious.
Men and women have forsaken their
churches, neglected the proper treat
ment OF their bodies when sick, have al-
their children to suffer and die
without proper nursing and medicine,
have become mental, religious and finan.
cial wrecks. Mothers aud fathers weep
because their children have become vic.
tins OF this hallucination; and sons and
experience the evil effects OF
their p~arents' being led astray. The de-
lusion Is indu%striously carried from city
to city, from town to town, and from
neighborhood to neighborhood. In Des.
Mofnes, II has almost ragged 1t has struck
Pierre, Dakota, somewhat after the fash
ion OF prairie cyclone; in Philadelphia
1t has been at work even In churches;
and this city isthreatened. Almost every.
where there may be found two or three
queer or unstable people ready to seize
upon any new scheme that presents itself
and claims to be q means for relieving
woe and removing the evils that
afllct the people at large, however, un-
supported It may be by reason, facts, ex-
perfence or revelation. Even some very
Christian people are not unfre-
uuently caughtfor a time In the meshes
such q net, and most Of them enCoun-
ter no small difficulties in extracting
Tho Boy who says eve"