The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-03
The Mystic and the Charintnn.

The Mystic and the Charintnn.
Christian Science has been carefully dis
sected, analyzed, and exposed in its en-
tirety to the reading world, and the person
who has done this thing is Mrs. A. d. T.
Whitney, known for many years as writer
of charming books for girls. She is now
more than seventy years old, but her last
story, Square Pegs" shows no diminu-
ton of the delightful qualities which en-
deared her to the readers of 1--WE Girls"
and Real Folks In a little brochure
entitled THE Integrity of Christian Sci
ence" she has now clearly and convinc-
ingly explained the difference between the
thing generally known as Christian Science
and the mysticism from which such char
latans as Mrs. Eddy and DR.. Dowie borrow
some of their ideas. Mrs. Whitney has not
been In the habit of writing sermons or
moral essays, or taking any part in public
controversies. Although her imaginative
insight into the laws of soul development
has made her always something of mys
tic, and prevented her from accepting aEy
of the rigid and stereotyped forms of or
thodoxy, she has heretofore contented her.
self with allowing this insight TO guide
and enrich her literary ability, and all her
stories have been more or less character
lied by keen sense Of the relation be-
tween spiritual and natural laws. They
have been religious in the best sense of
the word, without being pious, and in them
she has shown how religion can be brought
into daily life in an ennobling and uplifting
way, without cheapening religious phrases
by making them squalid and common shib-
boleths. The tolerance, gentleness, breadth
of view, made evident in these books also
permeate the little work which she has
now brought out, and it is, altogether, the
best refutation of Christian Science which
has yet appeared.
The brief preface is worth quoting in
full, for the dignity and precision of its
language:
In the following consideration Of subject In
which much that is sure is involved with much
that is certainly open TO serious question, it is
tH likely that some of the reasonings may be
met, by those OF the special faith discussed, with
"why, that is Christian Science."
II is precisely in the hope that reality OF
Christian Science may appear which shall be SUI
fcient Of itself to repudiate any dangerous admir-
tUre OF error, that the study has been attempted.
II there Is repetition in the argument, ii is
tie inevitable recurrence Of the keynote, which
rules ard insists in every harmony.
There is a temptation to quote the
whole book-it contains only $50 pages,
and the pages are small, with wide mar
gins-but the first part Of the first chap
ter absolutely demands quotation, be-
cause II SO nicely sums up the authors
idea Of the construction Of the universe:
The two halves of the map of the world were
very pulling 10 me when was q child ! could
not by any mental stereosccpy resolve them into
. globe.
1t seems 10 me that is the way MANY persons
look at life and the truth Of living. They fatten
ii cut on to plane, and make two Level, sep
arstc rounds of it, instead of the beautiful unity
Q! sphere.
Eastern and Western they call the two halves
Of the earth Spiritual and Material they call
the two halves Of existence. out Of this
separaitress grows all mistake of distance, nom
relation. opposition.
II USED 10 seem to me that by this split map
there was only one jumping-ovor place from
round to round; at the equator twenty degrees
of longitude west from Greenwich Everywhere
else il was jumping of. Ii is apt TO seem 10 us
that there is only one jumping-ovor place from
life to life ..As far as the East is from the
WCst'' is apprehension of the states Q!
being. They are the Natural and the Spiritual
We live awhile in the one, then by narrow poiit
OF contact we pass over into the other. There
Is nc intercourse, no going back and forth Prao-
tioally, We ignore even coexistence; identity We
do not dream Of. And yet there is no particle
Of the earth no instant nor fac; of Our conscious
ness. that has not both east and west. both hIs.-
er and lower, both inner and outer, involved with
it, and in,xtricably joined in it TO one. Tn
Il
We dwell also in q round world, Of sense end soul
This is not new theory. 1t is true po-
etry, and true religion. Buddha and
Brahm stand for 1t; Mohammed preached
1t; the early Christian mystics taught it;
Goethe said it. and so did Carlyle, apd
Tennyson, and Browning. and Emerson.
God is not TO be shut out from the dullest
CONSCIOUSNESS of the lowest of creatures. At
the looms Of Time Evolution "weaves for
God the garment thou seest Him by
Without God was not anything made
which was made.
In him IVES life, and the life was the light of men
The trouble is only that God has not
been recognized as the spirit Of life, of
light, of evolution. The theologians have
been busy fattening out the world to suit |
their ideas of it, and their notions have |
so dominated the Western World, that this |
most simple and natural fact. that the !
word, the plan of development, is God. has |
been twisted into every conceivable kind |
of lie. Mrs. Whitney is. in her way. a |
poet, and the poetic temperament has al !
ways refused TO accept theological dogmas, |
but has gone straight TO the truth. II was |
perhaps, the struggle between this in |
stinctive perception of truth, and dogmatic !
decisions, which darkened the life Of the |
poet Cowper.
After her statement of positive and SIM |
pie belief. Mrs. Whitney goes on to point |
out, gently but uncompromisingly, the
error Of Christian Science.
She says:
1t bases itself on the old iallacy Of the two half
spheres, set the one against the other; the
one hidden to ignore the other; indeed, the
other totally and inconsistently denied. Here
come In false doctrine, charlatanism, aud the be-
euilnent Of the simple.
God is ALL" That is true.
''Matter Is nothing" That cannot Re true.
II it is, then Gods creation is a stupendous trick
That logic is as straight as ray of
light, or-since a ray of light is not per-
fectly straight, owing TO refraction-as in
evitable as the Rule OF Three.
The author then goes on to show that
there is no unremovable distinction between
the mortal mind" and the spiritual
mind" She admits that We may see only
the base, material aspects of the world. |
but contends that when the soul and the |
brain are in accord, We see material |
things as interpretations, explanations of |
the divine law which shapes the universe |
The former passes away, the Word, the in ]
dwelling idea. does not pass away.
Thus far her theory excludes only the
absurd and indefensible declaration that |
there is no such thing as matter. and |
that the universe is an illusion. She de-
CiAIee tudt mater eAists, WAS intended 1
to exist, and will exist, as an object les |
son. a parable for the education of the |
soul. There is some difference between |
this and the statement that the whole |
creation is a gigantic practical joke.
There is the whole OF what may be |
called Christian mysticism in the conclud- |
ing page of this chapter:
Doubtless the power Of God can 10 withou. in |
termedafes Doubtless, so far as We can follow
cause and effect he has sometimes so acted that |
We may know and believe that The power is in |