Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-05-02
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
Follow Your Ideals to the End.
What Is Claimed by the Adhersnts Of This
School.

School.
In q recent issue of the Boston Post,
Josephine c. Woodbury. has the following
article explanatory of the beliefs enter
tanned by Christian scientists. We give it
place in the JOURNAL as it may serve to
answer questions which have been sent US
by some of our readers relative to this sub
ject upon which we do not profess to be in
formed.
To the Editor of the Post:
Slr-Doing good is presumably the high
est achievement of humanity. To malign
and prosecute well-doers is barbaric bigotry.
Whoever helps to Christianize prevailing
systems is scientific and wise. We live in q
transition period. Public opinion is IN
travail over vital problems, and the closing
years of this wonderful century will witness
some of the most startling events in the an
nails of history.
The three most accepted powers in our
land are medicine, state, and cnurch. Not
withstanding their prestige they are neces-
sarily subjected to rigid scrutiny. White
no one denies our need of curatives, law
and religion, facts are fast educating US TO
the refusal of credit to remedies which do
not cure. We are being forced to repudi-
ate the term law when it is applied to
feebly enforced enactments oftimes placed
upon our statute books by private or party
interest. Last, but not | asst, Get Hope
herself urges US to feel that only TO be
worthy the name religion. which secures us
in happiness by first making US good.
The word does rot fully pfec.ive that
here and now are the cure for disease and
sin, and the liberty of heavenly holiness !;
but because no such satisfying sense of
deity is generally felt, IS this Il proof of
its impossibility Be the answer what it
may, invesiig ition is persistent, evidence
from hitherto unrecognized witnesses is
being weighed, and popular decisions
threaten lime-honored customs, M, dicsl
traditions, and theological platforms. Is
it not idle, therefore, for Medicine to shake
its hosry head, ominously scowling at pas
sing innovations?
First in this triple list of po:eatates, GA
len has more adherents than Scion or
Theologus. If trusted medical methods are
scientific, they will stand every test, but
the search light of progressive thought is
full upon them, and no c1ncealment or
legislation can prevent the downfall of the
unscientitic, or maintain credence in vi hat
gerry is really valuable as a preservation
of health. that element is ia no danger
, of becoming obsolete; but if time prove
method worthless, it must be relegated
to the Geht ma of such outgrown and out
worn practices as salvation, leeching and
blood-letting. Too free use of the probe and
scapel will cease when gentler methods
prove successful. No matter what benefits
are claimed through surgery, it is still
, terrible, even with the alienation of an
| aesthetics; and what invalids now endure
8 because knowing no other alternative but
: death, they will discard when relief is
J found elsewhere
AN ADMISSION OF WEAKNESS.
Fear of an opponent is an admission of
weakness. Any legal denial of the people.
right to be doctored by undiplomated prac-
titioners, if they so elect, will react upon
I regular physicians. Already the enlight-
ened public is discovering that medical
, limitation bills are not 80 much designed
to protect the masses from quackery as
, for the protection of medical monopo-
lists. Why should C mpetent physicians
! need safeguards? What do they fear? II
their intent is to relieve human suffering
why not welcome any new methods. how.
' ever cratic, and ascertain if they will &C.
3 complish the desired results? Is it not bet.
! ter to be receptive and courageous, and
, fairly observe the inevitable contest be.
t tween old and new? Truth is no longer al
, the bottom of the well, but has climbed
over the brink and knocks at the door OF
, human consciousness, inviting admission
for her benefcent power.
The second dignitary on our list is the
state, a sort of link between medicine and
church, upholding the interests of each
1t is the state which as yet refuses full
, franchise to woman, notw outstanding the
accumulated evidence that so far as she
has been allowed voice in public affairs
she has behaved decorously and acted
wisely, showing herself a genuine help
meet for man. Woman suffrage means far
,, more than the ballot. 1t is cry for equal
privileges, as children of one Father. II
man is afraid that woman will ex eed bin
in wisdom and work, his fear may be father
to his opposition; but won IN will surely
ascend the spiritual ladder if it is her divine
right. May it not be woman's province 10
restore Eden, since it is my thically record
ed that through her paradise was lost? Let
her enter the millennium if she can, since
man had the precedence and sway for ages
oAA "S J St has Aol Ills USSue
or solved the problem of happiness. Is not
the state the acknowledged director of So
,, called education? Can the state hope to
stand intract, under the forthcoming strain,
unless it maintains its own strict integrity
and high coursge? If new forces are pres 3
ing to the front, if hi -herto unrecognize ed
agents are at work, will old statutes be
founded equal to no emergencies? As the
poet says,
New occasions teach new duties;
! Time makes ancient goods uncouth;
He must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.
Each succeeding year should show an
improvement in the mentality of our law
makers. The Legislature should be made
up of men, and possibly women, who will
neither retain effete laws nor lend their
shield to selfish personal and sectional in
tents. Legislators should have the courage
of their convictions.
Shall the State continue the enforcement
Of compulsory vaccination, or shall this
I'LL