New-York tribune., 1905-11-26
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
Bishop of London as Faith Header
He Talks of "a Gigantic Heresy."
London. November is.


mans pulpit at ST. Mary's and not evading the
responsibility of tackling wine bibbing and IN
temperance with as much readiness and
source the New-Zealand blacks displayed in
routing the university football team at the
Rugby game. Now he has appeared at the
Church House. Westminster. and has described
Christian Science as "a gigantic heresy with an
element of truth" One undertaking required as
much hardihood as the other, for while conserva-
tive oxford. nurtured and bred on the traditions
of benevolent paternal government within the
quadrangles resents with old fashioned bigotry
and exclusiveness the notion that the under
graduates can do much that is amiss when there
are many watchful guardians and mentors Of
gilded youth. London is the natural home OF
fads heresies. religions and independent
thought, and demands liberation of opinion and
practices inaIienable right. The Bishop,
stalwart he is among English prelates. needs
to be brave and self-possessed when he throws
down the gauntlet within a single fortnight in
the stronghold OF lost causes and in the metro
politan market place Of new ideas: and
worked preate he is with the supervision
OF the greatest diocese in the Anglican
munion he must also contrive TO find leisure for,
keeping in touch with all that is going on in the
world wonderful man is the Bishop of Lon
don when he stands in the pulpit command
ing figure like Phillips Brooks, and almost as
fluent and certainly as earnest and SINCERE: and
even more resourceful is he in the keenness
with which he watches the signs of the times
and the trend OF current thought
Now. what is his method in dealing with the
Christian Scientists. who have become a power
ful body in London with as many recruits from
the Established Church as from the free
churches? 1t is the exceedingly practical one
of showing that he himself in an emergency
can do what they say they are able to accom-
StrengtheDfn0 fty
power even to the point of recovery from critical
Illness. He did not mention names nor exhibit
convalescents as the Christian Scientists are in
the habit OF doing at their meetings in Sloane
Terrace and elsewhere; but neither his sincerity
nor his accuracy could be questioned when he
related his success in their own field of opera
tions. A clergyman's wife, as he told the story.
had the appalling prospect of undergoing an
operation within two days which might cost her
life itself; and the surgeons were helpless be-
cause she was in state of mental and moral
collapse. He spent half hour with her and
two days afterward she walked from her room
to the operating table without a culver and sub
seQuently recovered from the shock and re-
gained her health When the surgeons asked
whence had come this sudden access of strength,
she said that the Bishop had done what none Of
then could do. The Bishops own explanation
was simply this: That to her innermost being.
where the faith and the hope and the courage
had died down and crumbIed away he had
brought with divine help that reinvgoration
which she needed; that her faith. hope and
courage had returned; and that she had become
again the Christian woman, who could look
death and trial in the face. The moral which
he drew from this striking example of the re-
action of faith and mind upon the bodily condi-
ton of the patient was this: I'VE ought to ap-
proach our sick persons with far more faith
than we have done; ought to pray for their
recovery with greater earnestness and hope:
and we. the clergy. ought to lay hands upon
them with more expectation that they will re-
cover" Westminster congenal quarter
for this episcopal declaration. for Archdeacon
Wiberforce. in the fantastic sham-classic
Queen Anne Church behind the Deans Yard has
made practice of having the sick in the parish
prayed for by every Sunday, and has es-
tablished something like prayer gauge such
as Professor TyndaI called for nearly forty
years ago
The Christian Scientists cannot. however.
claim the Bishop Of London as a convert to
their tenets. He admits what one of the most
eminent practitioners recently conceded in d
presidential address before a medical conference
the effect produced upon bodily conditions by
mental invigoration and the renewal of hope;
but he does not dismiss the doctors from the
door of the sick room. In his address at the
Notwithstanding the power that put into
the woman's soul, he thought of suggest
ing that she should decline to go through the
operation which essential to her cure. He
warned those who considered themselves en-
dowed with gifts of healing that they must
not attempt to exercise their powers apart from
the medical profession. They must help the
doctors in strengthening the resources OF the
patient, but never think of dispensing with
their services There something absolutely
true in the effect of mind upon body. and it
lay at the basis he said, of the success and
prevalence of Christian Science. But out OF
this truth. he added. had come a gigantic her
esy Having opened the door Cautiously to
faith healers, he closed 1t with a bang to keep
out dangerous "heretics." The bishop empha-
sized word by repeating it several times.
I'VE have to learn from heresies to-day hs
remarked, ''as have learned from them in
times past; there is not single heresy that
has ever existed that is not recalling the Church
to some forgotten truth, and every keresy lives
upon the truth which 1t contains" After so decis-
i've repudiation OF Christian Science, the leaders
Of that energetic and tireless body of propa-
gandists cannot do more than reproach him for
standing the threshold of their faith closing
his eyes and turning his back But he has. at
least earned the gratitude of the doctors by
telling them that he looks upon their healing
art as q sacred thing.
Yet the medical profession may not like the
idea of partnership with priest or parson-
They may prefer the services Of trained hospi-
tai nurses, who follow orders implicitly and
do not allow unnecessary talk in the sick room
They may not welcome the suggestion that the
clergy and parish workers are to concern them