Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-01-31
VOLUME XXXI.--NUMBER 10.
BROADBRIM'S LETTER.
From our New York Correspondent.

IGtsSeu tnc WlnuOW WHICH has caused IL
profound sensation in certain quarters
OF the city. A few months ago a
young girl came to New York on n
visit to her aunt. She had been a
school teacher at home, but her health
failing she was compelled to abandon
her school and come to the city for
rest. Her aunt with whom she made
her home was convert to Christian
science, and she persuaded her niece
that there was really nothing the
matter with her, that her sickness was
only u matter OF the imagination,
nothing more and that as soon as she
fully realized that fact the disease,
whatever it was, Gf there was any
such thing as disease), would take
wings to itself and fly away. In order
to fully disabuse her mind of the hal
lucination that she had anything the
matter with her they compelled her
to get up at five o'clock in the morn
ing, light the fires, scrub the floors on
her knees, wash off the sidewalks, and
give other evidences of freedom from
all imaginative superstition. A strict
course of diet was prescribed of a
character so light that two weeks
old chicken would have died on it.
Meat was forbidden, tea and coffee
were tabooed, butter was prohibited,
and the poor creature, under the in
fluence of her scientific aunt, fingered
on till Sunday when, starved to death,
she passed away. The day before her
death she lit the fires and prepared
the breakfast for the entire family.
This and the death of a young lady on
Ma'ison Street, Brooklyn, the week
before under precisely similar circum-
stances, set me thinking. l had in
vestigated the Faith Curists when
Jansen and Olsen were tried and inn
prisoned in Brooklyn for denying
medical aid to persons dying in their
houses, and could not see particle
of difference between the ignorant
Faith Curists and the Scientific Christ
ians. / don't like to be thought ignO-
rant ON any subject, and won't be if l
have a chance to investigate it, and as
it is a matter which at the present
time excites a very great interest in
certain quarters l thought l would
find out if possible the difference be-
tween the two. The faith cure is very
easily understood, the theory being
that the Lord made us, We are his
fcfedtd!es;- n ne did not wxnt-us to be
sick we would not be sick, and if he
did want us to be sick all the powers
of earth could not help us. If he
wanted us to live we would live, and if
he wanted us to die we would die. In
fact it was little short of sacrilege to
attempt to interfere with the will OF
the Almighty. Now, this is no new
doctrine; it is the fatalism of the Mus
sulman, old as Mahomet, whose fol-
lowers say to-day, "Allah wills it."
This is the beginning and the end.
But it antedates Mahomet. Away
back in the musty pages of the Va
das, heavy with the CRIME of centu-
ries, the same inflexible law prevails.
God wills it."
But what is the difference between
this aad Christian science? "Ah,
there's the rub" l tried to think; l
couldn't. tried to analyze; I Icouldn't.
So, as / wished to understand it, l
thought 1 would consult one deep in
the mysteries of the new revelation
which professed to be several millions
OF miles in advance of the Faith Cure.
Madam L. is a professional scientist.
1t was to her that Miss B. was taken
who died last week. She has explored
its mysteries as far as human in
vestigation can possibly 60 and is en-
rapport with the inhabitants of the
other world and knows all about the m.
She is hardly thirty and fair to look
upon, of commanding presence, al
most six feet high, turning the scale
at two hundred, yet sweetly womanly
withal, with large melting blue eyes
and voice tuned low and sweet. She
is just such an angel as any ordinary
mortal would be happy to meet here
and be content with the society of
forever hereafter. Two dollars and
half was the consultation fee, but
that was a mere bagatelle for the So
luton of the most abstruse scientific
problem of the age. Having laid
down my two dollars and a half,
which was Immediately covered by a
paper weight, the doctor looked at
me serenely and said, Proceed, sir,
what is it you wish to know?" 81
wish to know, DOCTOR" I replied, the
difference between Christian science
and Faith Cure" "Oh, my dear sir"
she said, "thcre is not the slightest
resemblance between them. One has
blind belief in the supervising power
OF the Almighty, the other scars into
the empyrean immensity, and holds a
spiritual communion with the super
nal powers of the Infinite. The one
means ignorance, the other intelli-
gence; the one means light, and the
other darkness, hyperborean, impene-
trable, vast, unfathOmable, never end
ing. Let me explain. The spirit, or
as you would say the life of the man,
is the crystallized essence of the Inf
mite. This ethereal and purified con-
centration is not created, is not born
it always existed, and will always exist
for it contains within ilseli the vital.
lied powers OF indestructibility which is
i The primary and distinguishing charac-
terls;ic Of the Infinite himself, OF
which inan is indissolubly a part.