The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-07-01
Open the door

It will make the halls of the heart so fair
That angels may enter unaware.
ODen the door.
WHAT A PASTOR SEES OF CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE.
"Why don't you put into print your
own experience with this thing -
was the question addressed to me re-
Gently by Bible-class teacher who
had been asked certain questions
about Mrs. Eddy's cult the Sunday
before. "We laymen see its beauti-
full edifces and hear its marvellous
claims, but we know little or nothing
as to its real history. Tell US what
you have learned from actual contact
with it, and it will help u.s." Per-
haps so. But I have long since come
to the conclusion that people who
will not believe their own eyes and
ears and nerves will not believe
another's words. Nevertheless, a
real experience with nothing exten-
uated and nothing set down in malice
may help keep some young person
from falling into the pit.
When the fad first began to attract
attention, as in duty bound I set out
to learn what this strange thing might
be, I procured Mrs. Eddy's preten-
tious books upon Science and Health,
or the Key to the Scriptures" and
having been a student of philosophy
for years, it did not take me long to
discover that Mrs. Eddy had made
the same blunder which every tyro in
philosophy makes by assuming the
non-existence of matter. This was
her "great discovery !" She was too
ignorant ever to have heard of Berk-
ley, and to have read Turgot's His
tory of Philosophy, in which her
hypothesis is ridiculed a hundred
years ago as "the first guess of every
beginner" was beyond her powers.
1t was the same old Suicidal sys-
tem," in which, if you grant the
premises, you destroy the conclusion.
So, after little laugh, dropped it,
thinking people were too sensible, too
we'll educated to be humbugged by
it. But was mistaken, as it proved.
began to hear that this and that
one had been infected with it, and an
ubiquitous reporter asked me on the
street one day why did not ''go for
it, from the pulpit. I told him that
"the people who accepted it were, so
far as knew them, good Christians,
even if their creed was pagan and I
did not wish to root up the wheat
with the tares. The next daya good
parishioner. widow, met me and
said, $50 you called me pagan to
the reporter yesterday" Quite
the contrary" was my answer. "I-
said your creed was pagan, but you
were not" 'I am what my creed is, /"
she hotly retorted. II doubt it,"
said I. "Now let US look at the
matter squarely. Does God love 7"
"Most assuredly," was the response,
''that is the fundamental article of
our creed" every good," I said,
"that is Christian. Now let US take
one step more. Is God person !"
"By no MEANS" came the instant re-
ioinder. "Well, that is paganism,"
I said. "Will you as next step
kindly tell me how anything without
personality loves?" That finished
the conversation. She chad not got
so far as that" And she never got
much farther, because soon after that
having started a blister upon one heel
by long walk on hot day she re-
peated the walk the next day to prove
that her heel itself was all in her
imagination. Naturally, she then
had proud flesh in the sore. The
third day, to make the evidence con-
elusive, she repeated her tramp, and
she died Of blood poisoning week
or two later. I buried her with
Christian rites, for despite her suici-
dal folly, her heart was right toward
God.
About the same time I was called
upon to bury a prominent business
man who had been stricken suddenly,
who died before he had time to ar
range his affairs or ever to tell his
family in what condition they would
be found. His widow, confirmed
invalid for many years." whom he
had carried to and from her lounge
whenever she wished to be moved,
was laid upon the sofa to listen to the
services which / conducted. / re-
member that / said to myself at the
time that the healthiest looking wo-
man in the room was the same "con-
frmed invalid" Well, the investi-
CATION of his affairs after the funeral
showed him hopelessly and irretrieva-
bly, bankrupt. There was absolutely
no one to whom the widow might
turn for assistance. 1t was case of
either fish or cut bait" Thereupon
she was carried to the train. She
was brought before ''healer," F." and,
of course, came back inside of three
weeks we'll p She is now, next to
Mrs. Eddy, perhaps the most famous
expounder of the new cult in the
States. Had her husband left a for
tune, she would probably be in bed
yet. A great many people find they
can walk when there is nobody ready
to carry them.
A young couple whom had mar
ried came to me some three years
later in great distress. Their only
baby, a beautiful boy, had died.
They were followers of Mrs. Eddy,
and declined to talk about the case /;
but with tears implored me to off,
ciate at the simple funeral. Of course,
l assented. But confess was sur
prised upon going to their apartments
to find nobody in the room where the
little white casket lay. The mistress
of the manse walking beside me, went
to her bier and looked upon the lovely
baby features. She turned to me
"a