The evening times., 1898-11-26
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS.

| To the Editor -af The Times:
Your editorial the other day on the
Christian Scientists was exceedingly.
bright and entertaining, and doubtless, to
the average ireader. perfectly convincing.
Your condemnation of this fad is none too
strong. l fully agree with you that there
| is no warrant for calling the system SCI
entific,' and that there is no trace of
| common senss In the philosophy of Mrs.
Eddy" However, no one, l presume, sup
poses that this is or was ever meant to
be scientific, in the sense you mean, and
Mrs. Eddy's philosophy Is only misap-
plication of the idealism of Plato. AS
theory of existence, it is as good as any,
and as nearly susceptible of proof. In a
| final analysis, both to philosophy and sci
ence, the universe consists of sensations.
What, if anything. is back of these we
cannot know. Science has, however, OBJ
served and classified these, carefully not
ing the conditions under which they oc-
cur. their sequences and relations. While
II may not be able to account for origin
at all, it can definitely say that there is
| a system and order which is invariable.
l place the appearance called my finger
in the appearance called fire, and the SEN
sation called pain follows, and the ex-
perience of every human being, in this
respect, is the same.
The physician dropping the phiiosophic
Jarson for terms of common sense, APP
plies those drugs, (mere ideas if you in
sist on iD which an enormous amount of
experience and observation has shown
| tend TO remove the sensation of pain and
to bring back the disorganized tissues to
their normal, that is, regular and orderly.
appearance. The Christian Scientist does
! not deny these sensations-certainly the
idealistic philosophy does not, but he
fuses to see any necessary order or con-
nection between them. You may, he says,
put the appearance finger in the appear
ance fire and not experience the sensat ton
of pain. But this sensation is the one
fact in the universe absolutely demOnstra-
bic, as IL is a matter of consciousness.
1t is at this point that he runs squarely
against all reason and common sense.
The condemnation of the Christian Sci
entists. therefore is not that they receive
money for healing, but that they receive
money under false pretenseS. They do
not heal at all, and affirm that there is
nothing To heal. AS an enormous num-
| Der of the diseases which affiict man
kind are purely imaginary, the system
with these works all right. provided the
| patient can be convinced that his ills are
/ a deluSion To cure these imaginary ills
| Is just as useful to cure real ones.
! and doctors. as well as the Christian
| Scientists, do it and pocket stiff fees for
! their services. They do IT, too, fully
| realizing that it is a sort of fraud. while
| most Of the Christian Scientists. beyond
| all doubt. have deluded themselves be-
| fore they have deluded their patients
| think, also. that ii can not be shown
| that the taking of money for their serv-
| ices is wrong. provided they render any
! service Ii is quite true that Christ did
not demand fee before performing his
| so-caled miracles of healing but he did
| teach that the .laborer worthy OF his
| hire. He was. of course wholly free from
! mercenary motives, but he recognized the
! physical basis of life. His wants were of
the simplest, but such as they were we
can not well doubt that they We're sup
| piled by voluntary contributions. If the
! Christian Scientists. therefore, would ap-
ply their system to the cases where II Is
legitimatelY applicable and receive for
their service. through voluntary ConJribu-
tionS, much as is needed for their act
ual wants, nobody would have any right
to complain. But If they should concede
that their system applies only to cases
/ recognized as lima ginary by physicians
| and that they could have no influence
/ over broken bones or congested lungs.
their occupation would at once be gone
For IL man Is once convinced that he
has no disease, il does not take much
/ reasoning 30 convince him that he needs
1 no physician. H E w.