The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-30
'KN FI|IH EXAMINED
Christian Science as Beheld
By SkepticaI Eyes.
REORGANIZATION OF NAMES
And Bishop Berkeley Is AIIeg-
ed of the Cult.
lE-fNCARNATION OF NAMES

New York, June Z-The Evening Pest
has the following: Every observant
scholar Is well aware that there is not a
cult or an outgrown creed embedded in the
past which is not liable at any moment to
spring into flame. These revivals are not
unlike the bubonic plague in their deadly
irreIevance. The world in general has lost
Us susceptibility to their influence, but
they act in special districts with virulence.
Just so we saw, not long ago, Theosophy
| come smillngly up in aesthetic circles, and
our advanced daughters, with much
straining, give their internal consciousness
to reincarnations, very much as their sis
| tiers in Paris have since given themselves
| to isis worship These old germs appear
l to lie hidden in the racial soil, blding their
time.
As I was in Boston while there was
convocation of Christian Scientists, at
| tended the ecclesiastical function, and
what was my establishment to find on the
advanced platform, rugged out in a dress
coat, my old friend Mani of Persia. He it
dk-B SURF SlOuEu. 4@lGiC SOutO NC I'LL HES
take in that familiar expression of Mani
chaeism, and that absolute disregard of
time and place so like the serenity of the
Cardiff giant. 1t reminded me, curiOusly
enough, OF a cabinet seance in which ones
great-grandfather materializes, along with
Moses and Methuselah In quick changes.
felt sure that Zoroasster and Mthras and
Chrisna himself were waiting behind the
curtain somewhere, or hanging limp on
peg, to be animated as the spirit moved
them
But was mistaken To my astonish-
nlent, Mani introduced to US our old ortho-
dox friend, Bishop Berkeley of ClOyne, in
side curls and taiior-made skirts. speaking
in low treble and insisting that he wss
Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy. And here my
establishment reached its climax when
found that everybody believed that it was
Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, and refused to
recognize the Bishop or his idealism at all.
When you find yourself in such company,
It Is neither polite nor practical to antag-
onize your friends. They have barred OPP
position with the lain of religion, and the
least you can do is to take off your hat
and try 20 get their point of view. I was
told that must hold Mary Baker G. Eddy
in thought / endeavored TO do so, but 1
must confess that her claim to have in
vented the Berkelean idealism and to have |
revealed as 'tGod-given truth" reminded |
me OF those jugglers who. when they |
make a pudding in a hat, claim to do it by |
virtue of Soiomens seal
Mary Baker G. Eddy herself endeavored |
to assist US in the feat Of holding her in |
thought" by sending TO the couvocatlon an
epistle, which was read TO us IN true apos- |
tolic style as an inspired and apocalyptic |
dispensation. It,, -. - - |
Beloved" It said. with gracious. pontif-
cal air, that which purifies the affections
strengthens them. That which refines |
humbles, exalts and commands Obedi- |
ence gives courage, devotion, attainment. |
o, how is man, seen through the lens OF |
spirit, enlarged. and how couuterpoised his /
origin from dust, and how he presses to |
his original never severed from spirit"
There was half an hour of these delight /
full and unassailable pladtudes. curling /
themselves at measured leng his, into |
rhapsJdical apostrophes and lever pressing |
on to spirit" To my untempered realism, |
it was so like the prophecy of the trance |
speakers in its cloudy opulence Of phrase
and triteness, that found 1t difficult to |
differentiate Mary Baker G. Eddy from |
Dis Debar or the astral Blavatsky. But |
the assembly accepted the ministration |
with a hushed reverence. The most insip- /
Id truisms fell like the gentle dew. When
ever the good the true, and the beautiful, /
maundered in commonplace. something OF |
the hidden depths was stirred, and when |
it was over, one young woman whispered |
to me with a quavering voice. at Is an |
Eldolon." So you see that one Philistine
does not count where so many innocents |
can successfully hold Mary Baker G. |
Eddy in thought
What especially interested me, not alone |
in the function, but in the credo and the
propaganda, was the undeniable feminln-
fly Of 1t all. 1 followed it patiently and
respectfully. bent at It's alter. touched ell
bows with the priests. partook Of it's i'm
palpable eucharist, and sat uncovered In |
SITS chamber Of healing. and above all else,
there shone out in its genesis, its method, |
and its puorpose, the female prius Not /
only was the initial impulse feminine. but |
it's collective attitude wears the same
grace. Its mouthpeces are, for the most
part, women. No other intellectual dis
turance has so plainly chosen the limos Of
least resistance, lodging the positive
No where in its doggnas or devices is there
room for the masculine concept or the
masculine procedure It has incarnated
and elevated as own host, and called it
Mother" Round that sacred emblem,
have been attracted the tender sentiment
tahties. the untUtored susceptib.lliies. the
invaiidism, and the hildishnesss Of the
community. There Is constant admis-
sion, on its Sdolatrous side, that lis alb
stractions and idealty could not be held
together without a concrete embodiment
Hence. the feRowcraft Mother"