The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-31
Miss Brookins Reviewed.
,e Editor of The Journal.

To the Editor of The Journal
AS one OF your numerous SUBSCRIBERS,
j was interested in your verbatim report
of Miss Mary Brookins' lecture on Chris
tan Science"
With a great deal of that lecture, every
Christian agrees but what is true in it
lis not new. For 1000 years the Christian
church has been teaching that God is
Love and that Christ is Truth and that
his chief aim is the complete salvation
of man; not his soul only, but his body
as well. But when Miss Brookins tries to
define Truth she is not only utterly
at sea, and at variance with the facts
S Of experience, but she also contradicts
herself.
For instance, in one part of the lecture,
she describes Truth as knowledge and
knowledge as Truth. Her words are:
THE only thing that can be known is
Truth Now, that is correct. We may
think that we know things, but unless
our belief or thinking is true, it is not
knowledge.
But when the lady goes on to define
Truth, she is lost in a maze. ''Truth," she
+ says, lis God, is spirit And again:
'.All will admit that God is Truth as the
Scriptures declare"
Then she makes this astounding and
absurd assertion: ''It is plain that the
physical senses do cognize matter"
Notice that word "cognize." To cognize
d tlllIlS ~ W hllO" q IllAl13, L11CA 0AOl Q
our senses do know better. But Miss
Brookins says: 1--WE can only know
Truth Hence, from her own assertions,
matter is Truth, for "our own senses do
II coSnize matter
But notice her deplorable contradict
ton. She goes on to say: "But as they
(our senses) know nothing of God, Truth,
> then it cannot be that matter is Truth,
but quite the opposite; therefore matter
+ is unreal"
Did ever sensible person put forth a
more ridiculous proposition In a more
self con Trajectory assertion? I know Of a
philosophy that says that matter in its
primary condition was spiritual and that
matter in it's ultimate condition will be
4 spiritual, but to assert that what my
'senses do cognize'' to the matter is unreal
a. phantom, a nothing, is to reduce man
himself in his present state to a nonenity,
an Illusion, a fraud. But how people Of
3 apparent common sense can swallow this
u is one Of the mysteries that cannot solve
of s.Christian Science to make all people
believe that their belief in material ex-
5stence is entire illusion The material
III eyes with which we see matter are
Illusions; our material ears with which we
believe we hear our friends speak ano
sing are illusions. And this thing which
i believe is my body is an Illusion. What
a fraud Of a world to live in! Everything
sbut something we never see or feel OF
handle is unreal
Let no one think, by this last sentence
that I am an infidel I am a profound
believer in God, in Jesus, in the souls o.
men, and have given my life to preach
ing His word to men; but faith ir
God rests on a conviction that this beau
4 ltiful and orderly material world and bod.
II live in are not Illusions but facts o.
truths of God. But Miss Brookins is surel!
aware of the existence of large mum
Der of people who say: Because our physi
ftca1 senses do not ''cognize' God, there
fore, God himself is unreal. These PEG
lple base truth on what Christian Science
asserts is an Illusion. But to the ma
Ejority of people, both schools are eX
i ttrenlists and dangerous
\ But here is another wonderful bit o
1 sophistry. Miss Brookins says: "Th
scriptures say that God made man il
his image. Is God made Of matter?'
Therefore man is not material!
But read in my Bible also that Coz
..formed man of the dust Of the ground.
Was this dust real? Miss Brookins woul,
answer, in order to be consistent-"No.'
Matter Is an illusion-there is no matter
Hence God took an illusion and made mai
an illusion, and man has been an illusion
ever since! Indeed, this Is wonderful
But somehow, when my head aches can
not believe it an Illusion. And when m.
"a teeth trouble me, I cannot go to slee]
believing they are illusions. Facts Of ex
s. perienoe, unless that also is a fraud
tell me that this material world is a yer,
real thing, and I am glad to think that tn
majority of men still and will forever re
gard Truth as that which is in harmon
with facts. Henry Lewis,
Baptist Minister.