The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-03-23

would bring his knowledge of physical
science up to date he would find many
of the obstacles to his understanding
of Christian Science would disappear.
Anyone whose confidence in the re-
liaility of the testimony of the physi-
like as is that of the Bishop, and who
postulates his argument for the exist
ence of matter as noumenon, or reality,
thereon, is hardly to be taken serious
ly. Except for the fact that the Bis
hop insists so strongly upon his his
torical independence of the Anglican
Church from that of Rome should be
inclined to believe that he was a
spiritual descendant, at least of those
learned theological scientists, who
nearly three hundred years ago de-
nounced from the pulpits the Copper
mean theory and forced Calico on
Bonded knees to abjure the doctrine of
the revolution of the earth; a doc
trine purely heretical, conducive to
immortality and contrary to the evil
dence of the senses which daily and
of course infallibly declared that the
earth did not move and that the sun
did industriously rise and set; just as,
l suppose, the Bishops senses, like
those of the rest of us, declare today,
though whether he is consistent
enough to believe them in this respect
do not know.
The Bishop always seems especial
ly peeved at Christian Science for at
tempting to rob him of his physical
body, being evidently quite unaware
of the fact that the natural scientists
have long since committed that afro
cious act of grand larceny upon his
sacred person. When the atomic
theory came in, matter except as a
working hypothesis went out, for even
the Bishops senses could never show
him an atom; and when atoms gave
way to lions" of electricity as the
fundamental element, any chance
that the Bishop may have had to re-
cover the body testified to by the
senses vanished forever, and not
Christian Scientist connected with the
outrage.
With all this, however, though it
removes from the field of discussion
one of the Bishops NEST persistent
causes of hostility to Christian Science
the latter has nothing directly to do.
The methods and results of natural
science are induc+ive, and while they
dissipate the phenomenon of matter
which to the Bishops senses seems
so real, and resolve all things into
forces, the latter are themselves but
phenomena, and lack an ascertainable
cause. Christian Science on the other
hand, is deductive; to the Christian
Scientist God is Spirit" and they
that understand him as well as they
that worship him must do so in spirit.
That God is Spirit" is to the Chris
tian Scientist not the end but the
beginning of his research and his rea-
soning; it is the axiom, or Iself-evident
truth of his science. 1t is also self
evident to him that God is good" 1t
is also self-evident that Creation is
after his kind" in other words, that
as men do not gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles, so Spirit does not
create it's opposite, a phe nomenon call
ed matter, nor does Good produce Evil,
and that since there was but one Great
or these appearances do not exist as
facts.
This, in a word is the basic thought
of the book, Science and Health, which
the Bishop says no one can under
stand: this is the basis of the Chris
ton Science doctrine of the non
existence of matter as a reality, and
except as sense phenomena, of the
pleasures of sin and the pains of sick
ness and death. Christian Science
does not teach that matter, sin, sick
ness, suffering and death are not real
to the senses, but like natural science,
though for a different reason, it
teaches that they are but appear
ances. Unlike natural science, how
ever, it is based upon reality, and
is not experimentally searching for
one.
In the light of this explanation the
Bishops statement that the reason
there are not more adherents to Eddy
ism is that there is only a certain per
cent of people in the world who can
be made to believe that something is
not when it is there before their eyes"
! seems like a violation of the spirit of
Pauls injunction to Timothy to avoid
vain babbling," this being portion
of the text upon which his discourse
YVES based.
shall not burden you or your read
with any extended discussion of Mrs.
Eddy's life and character. The Bis
! hops charges against her are but a