The Florence daily tribune., 1899-04-04
:. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE"
From The Scientific Arena
ny TUr EnrroR.


all is mind and there is no body,
and mind is spirit, why is there
any necessity for food, driuk. sleep.
cleanliness aud the performance
of other necessary functions of the
body? Certainly spirit does not
need these gross and material sat
isfactions. What a revolution
Christian Science should mabtA
our methods of clothing. if indeed
there is any necessity for such a
covering of an unreal and only i'm
aginative body by an imaginary
idea which vocal clothes, lnher
book, Mrs. Eddy states a case
where physician ordered more
covering to be placed on a woman
lying ON bed who complained of
being cold So soon as the regu-
lar doctor left the room. Mrs. Eddy
took away the covering. assuring
the patient Tint it was useless, AZ
her feeling of cold was purely i'm
aginative. 1t Mrs. Eddy follows
her own teaching she certainly dis
dains sealskins or winter wrap
pings If we could SEQ her on
some bleak, wintry day walkin
the streets of Boston in light
summer dress we might then be-
lieve hat she was insane enough
to accept her own teaching.
Mrs. Eddy might be tested in
this and many other ways to see if
her practice was according to her
preaching. | wonder if she is so
satisfactorily convinced of the un-
reality of pain that she would per-
NIT her friends to stick pins into
her flesh at their pleasure without
any complaint?
Would she taste aloes and sugar
with perfect indifference? Would
the vaporings of delicate French
perfumery and sulphuretted hy-
drogen be equally agreeable to her
olfactories?
These are not quibbling ques-
tions, but are asked in sober earn
estness, and justitiable by her
teaching that there is no such
thing ns discord, sin, error, pain
or unhappiness.
When she blandly assures her
patient who has had his leg frac-
tured by railroad accident that
he is not-suffering pain, she surely
ought not to complain about the
pricking of few pin prods Yet
we venture to say that if Mrs Ed
dy's luxurious home in Boston
were visited, she would be found
surrounded by luxuries, minister
ing to her comfort in taste, smell,
touch, sight and hearing, which
she can very well afford from the
million or more in dollars which
she is reputed to have gathered.
One might 90 Oh indefinitely
opening up the Rbsurdiiies of this
system of healing, but the few
common hints already given are
suggestive enough. We are sur
prised and amused when we read
of the old Sophists who would
learnedly harangue the multitude
with the sole purpose of proving
that white was black, or pain was
pleasure, or cold was heat, or pow
erty was wealth. or vice versa. and
it is exceedingly amusing to have
something of the same type of
sophistry practiccd upon us today
by Mrs. Eddy and her followers,
were it not for the shame Of the
matter which preys upon the sor-
rows and despondencies of the sick
and afflicted, and the hypocritical
blasphemy of the system which
operates itself under the name of
Christ Tor mercenary motives.
Christian Science claims many
cures, and unquestionably many
of the testimonials are genuine,
but let us remember that in an
cient Egypt the heather priests
were the doctors. and their meth