The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-20

Judge Arnold. of the Common Pleas
Court of Philadelphia, has refused a
charter TO the First Church of Christ,
Scientist christian Science) of that
city on the ground that Christian Sci
ence is a business rather than a reli-
gion and that his court has not the
right TO charter a business concern. In
his opinion Judge Arnold quotes from
Mrs. Eddy's own writings to the effect
that her book, Science and Health,
With Key to the Scripture" is the on
~ proper text book to be used, and
that "it shall be the duty of all
Christian Scientists to circulate and
sell as many of these books as they
can. If a member of the First Church
of Christ, Scientist, shall fail to obey
this injunction it will render him liza
bic to lose his membership in this
church" The quotation is from an ar
ticle signed by Mrs. Eddy and pub
lished in the Christian Science Journal
of March, 1897.
The book referred to is copyrighted
and the copyright is owned by Mrs.
Eddy and those Immediately connected
with her in the management of Chris
tan Science. 1t is asserted, on the au-
thority of a recent Boston investigator,
that in its ordinary form the book
costs Mrs. Eddy about 50 cents. 1t
sells for SO. And, according to the
foregoing, every Christian Scientist
must become an earnest but unpaid
agent for it's sale, on pain of losing
membership in the church for failure.
In the opinion of Judge Arnold, then,
the establishment exists chiefly for the
purpose of selling Mrs. Eddy's book,
al a profit of 500 per cent. That is,
indeed, a healthy profit, and the income
from it must be very large, seeing that
the membership of the Christian Sci
ence Church now numbers hundreds of
thousands.
The Boston investigator referred to
above, a lawyer of the name of Pea
body, a year or so ago found that the
sale of books was not the only money
gion. In 1881 Mrs. Eddy established
a college of metaphysical healing"
A course of the science of healing in
this college consisted of twelve les
sons, for which a charge of $500 was
made In seven years there were 1900
Christian healers" graduated from
this college, at $500 each, representing
an income to the school of $780, 900. In
1888 the course was reduced to seven
lessons and the price raised to $500;
and the mill is still grinding out
"healers" and taking in the coin. Nor
is this all, according to Mr.. Peabody.
Every Christian Scientist, wherever he
or she may be, is expected to send 81
every year to the Mother Church." in
which Mrs. Eddy governs absolutely.
What this income is can only be APP
proximated, but it must be quite large.
With the sale of the 500 per cent.
books, the college and the 81 volunteer
Offering" therefore, Christian Science
must be a good thing. from a financial
point of view, for it's founder and her
co-workers of the inner circle. Mr. Pea
body says that while Mrs. Eddy adj
mitted the receipt of large sums of
money, she declared that she gave the
most of it away; but he was not able
to discover any of the beneficiaries.
In connection with the ruling of
Judge Arnold, that Christian Science
is a business, a money-making enter
prise, it is of interest to recall that
not a great while ago another Phila-
delphia judge, Judge Pennypacker, now
a candidate for Governor refused to
charter a Christian Science church on
the ground that it was an institution
for the practice of medicine or the art
of healing without the practitioners
having the necessary license or quail
fications required by law.