The evening times., 1899-11-10
Christian Science.


The Christian Scientist has not yet been
| deported, and a story of his doings which
comes from Chicago indicates that the
| fong- suffering people of that city ought
to be ready to undertake his suppress
sion. four year-old child died of
cancer and tuberculosis, from which it had
suffered for three years without medical
attention. the parents being Christian Sci
! entists. The parents were called to ac-
count. and told the jury that they had re
sorted to prayer
The spectacle of that frail infant slowly
dying of two of the most painful diseases
which can attack the human frame, while
its parents, refusing all medical aid offered
up prayers for its cure, would be absurd il
it were not intensely pitiiul. The little
thing could probably not have been cured
in any event, but its sufferings might at
any rate have been alleviated by means
would have been called in had one of the
parents been subject TO the disease which
attacked the little one. for the person who
can, with mistaken faith that nothing is
the matter with him, endure the agonies of
death from cancer must have some of the
stoicism OF the aboriginal Indian, singing
his death-song at the stake. The sturdy
pionesrs who settled this country regarded
Indian tortures of women and children as
signs that the aborigines were not civilized
or Christian. II has remained for the mod
ern American, two hundreds and fifty years
later, to assert that the tormenting of chill
dren is a function of advancing civilization
and Christianity
There should be no lodging of this ques-
tion under mistaken idea OF the ne
cessity of tolerance \ religion which
menaces the public health and causes the
painful death of babes needs the attention
of the police As has been pointed out be-
fore in these columns. people who do not
believe that smallpox. scarlet fever, and
diphtheria are diseases at all are liable
to transmit the ailments TO other people
on occasion. and there is no way of guard
ing against their misehievous influence if
OF public safety. Such persons have no
more right 10 disregard the quarantine es-
tahlishsd br ,.oTnu,un c,nS.nt in .,,cb cau,,
and send their children to school 10 give
the scarlet fever infection to other chill
dren. than they would have to sit at their
windows and fire shotgun into the school
yard while the pupils were gathered there.
They might not believe that the shotgun
would hurt anybody: but it would. for all
that; and the police would not receive their
excuse
The state Of the ease. briefly. is this:
The Christian Scientist should be required
to cali a physician when members of his
family are ill with any contagious disease.
or seriously i'll from any cause: he should
be required to follow the instructions of
the physician in the case of small chill
dren. and he should be made to conform to
quarantine regulations If grown person
prefers to endure the torments OF sciatica
rather than ask physician TO relieve him,
that is his business. and if he gets any
fun out of it he may for all that the pub
lie will care about him. But children !
should not be subjected to treatment of |
If necessary. to cover such cases. Failing /
to comply with these common sense rules, |
the offender should be promptly taken to |
Jail. He can comfort himself with the re- |
flection that he is not really in jail if he |
does not think SO.