The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-07
HAVEN MORNING COURIER MONDAY OCTOBER oo7

draw Himself for one single instant from this universe, everything would vanish into nothingness" " But Mrs. Eddy instead of consistently attribut- ing the external universe to these di- vine forces and attributing its laws, including those of the human body, to the self-consistent wisdom and will of God, goes on to say: "The elements and functions of the physical body and physical world will change as mortal mind changes its phenomena. What is now considered the best con- dition of organic and functional 1 health in the human body will no ! longer be found indispensable thereto. | On the contrary, opposite conditions i will be found equally harmonious and ! healthgiving." That is to say, there is no external, dependable order upheld by God; what seems so is but the changing Illusion or mortal mind If the majority of human opinions only believed it, man could live without food and without air and without exercise and without lungs and without blood, Mrs. Eddy straightway forgets her one lucid interval in which she declared [ that we tread on forces, and for the most part maintains instead that we grope among Illusions.
 A true idealist like the coct Words worth accepts all the truth that Mrs. Eddy seeks to defend as to the spiritual essence of reality. Many times,' he on Immortality" while going to school have l grasped at a wall or tree to re- call myself from the abyss of idealism to reality.r
 He fe.t
 "A sense sublime
 Of something far more deeply inter- Whose dwelling is the light of setting ! suns,
 And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky and in the mind of
 But this eonsciousness only led him to be a more ar- dent lover of all the concrete forms of the physical universe. lie dld not feel himself in the midst of illu- sion from which he must withdraw to commune with abstract being" And though idealist, as he was, he recogniz- !. cd that the eye and ear half create" and half perceive" all their mighty world, he declares himself
 Well pleased to recognize In nature and the language of the The anchor cf my purest thoughts, the
 nurse,
 The g1ile t4o guardian of my heart, Of all ny merAl being
 Tn Mrs. 3la-s system, Nature and the language of the sense' are under strict taboo, For her the sum of reality Is God and His 1dea-man Nature. in- cluding mans physical nature, has no existence for the Divine Mind. anu ought 10 have none for the human mind, Shedoes not accept St. PauPs statement For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. even his eternal power and Godhead." She fancies that the Divine omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence exclude finite realities the One deniesthe many; ontology or the science of abstract being" must re- place all consideration of the concrete It is the old Hindu error again that the One and All alone is real, the many are the productof Illusion. Genuine metaphysics, as truly as genuine sci cnce, accepts the many as expressions of the One and deals with every con- crete fact as a practical reality, while believing It's essence to be spiritual, ana its meaning to be sacramental.
 Last Sunday evening, 1 am told, that the followers of Mrs. Eddy in the audi ence could be distinguished from others by the fact that when every one esc laughed they were sober. Nothing Is farther from my spirit than to make fun of a religious conviction; I have not done so; I shall not do so. But Mrs, Eddy's solemn denial of the facts of universal hurnan experience in tho name of metaphysical truth which does not changethose facts in the least is not essentially religious. at all It IS simply an intellectual blunder SC great as to be erotesque and the di- vinely given sense of the ridiculous which guards our sanity, and laughs at an absurdity, Is more religious than the absurdity itself, whatever high sanc- ton the latter may claim for itself It would be easyAto show why no real : humorlst could baa Christian Scientist The incongruitIeS of Mrs Eddys book afford too many Relements for whole some laughter
 When Mrs, Eddy, for example, tells us that in spite lof the severance of the jugular velnp life goes on un- changed we cannot kcep from wonder ing what should De done with a water pipe bursting some winters morning In the homeof disciple of Mrs. Eddy We recall that the water pipe and the jugular vein are both equally material and so, equally unreal, according to Mrs. Eddy; the water in the one Is as much of an Illusion of mortal mind as the blood in the other.
 To the true metaphysiclan, both vein and pipe are forms of divine energizing, and express In their nature and laws the self-consistent mind and will ot God; when anything is wrong with either, the true metaphyscian employs whatever means the skill of surgeon or plumber can command to make the wrong right. But Mrs Eddy, denying that God Is aware of tugular vein or ever had anything to do with such sinful Illusion, Is under compulsion of logic to hold the water pipe also as beyond the divine ken, and existing only as a false belief of mortal mind . Supposethen on a bitter morning the l water pipe bursts, and the water is flooding an upper room and beginning to loosen the plaster in the room be- low. Shall we apply the ontology of Science and Health to tho situation Let us try to realize that the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted, that science reVerses the testimony of the physical senses" and as the water , spurts in growing volume over tht room let us repeat, Matter is but a subjective state of mortal mind" Tht three great veritles of spirit, omnipo' tence, omnipresence omniscience, con tradiCt forever the belief that matter can be actual" And yet somehow tht ! dismal facts in the case remain ob l stinately the same; water waterpipe carpet and plaster may all be Illusions and the baby's head upon which q larg, l oakeof the wet plaster now falls may bt 3 an Illusion with the rest, but the baby . being taught as yet only by God ant |, not by Mrs. Eddy has not tho under 7 standing" to reslst the "clain of morta t mind and begins to cry Probably d 3 this juneture the vibrations of the ba n bys vocal chords, though these be a = unreal as it's unreal head covered witt 3 the unreal plaster will he a ''claln" to, = strong for the mothers science an, 0 without denying the divine omnipo 2 tenee or omnipresenee or omuiscience | she will undertake to be present hersel 0 where her babe needs her, and to us r what wisdom and power God has en .. trusted to hRr n roo lyp ri qht the UrrO nj