East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-01-14
Tie Materialist's Dilemma.

Obviously IL SHINING, mortal man Is
a composite of water and salts, theo-
logy's plan of salvation through faith
in Christ is doomed to failure. OF the
practice of materia medica we need
say only that it has long been consid-
cred experimental. and this we fully
appreciate when the many difficulties
which confront the physician are re-
allied
The criticism Is sometimes made
that certain reported cases of healing
through Christian Science are unau-
thentic because Scientists are not ply
sicians and hence are incapable OF
diagnosing disease and determining
the actual malady from which the
patient has recovered. This criticism
is ill-advised because 1t reacts on the
critic, since the chief source OF the
physicians embarrassment lies in the
uncertainty of his diagnosis. And he
Is further baffled by the fact that the
process for successfully extracting pain
or disease from compound of water
and salts has not yet been discovered.
The dust man then is the worlds
veritable sin and disease-burdened
man. its criminal, its outlaw and yet
its prospective saint. This is the man
whom men have remanded to the
! whipping post, incarcerated in dunge-
ons. sent to the scaffold. and yet whom
they would save or heal. Who Is the
sinner? What needs salvation? What
becomes sick? What is being scourged
and spit upon? What is fit only for
"treasons, strategems and spoiis?
What is this vagabond, this monster
with hideous mien?" To whom does
| the court or executioner say: And
may the Lord have mercy on your
soul?" Physicians. lawyers. jurors,
coroners-the peers and vassals OF
mortality-solemnly answer upon oath
and according to the best of their
knowledge and belief: 1T is COM
pound of eighty-five per cent water
and fifteen per cent inorganic salts.
! 1t might not be out of place at this
point to observe that in the light OF
the chemists analysis of all materi-
ality. we are spared the pains Of en-
Caging in a controversy over the ques-
| tion of the reality or unreality of mat
ter The more advanced philosophers
agree that everything in evidence and
commonly called matter is but thought
embodied or externaliZed. ethfne
which we ourselves have constructed
more or less imperfectly. Matter
when left to the tender mercies of 1t:
'next friends" theology and materia
medica. takes It's place in the oper
grave of all nrsrtality, 'uncoffined
and unknelled," with this simple
though expressive epitaph to mark 1t.
last resting place: Dust tnothingHess)
thou art, and uIrto dust (nothing
ness) shalt thou return"
i AS the knowledge of the faulty ant
inadequate service rendered mankind
by materia medica is becoming more
widespread, need we longer wonde'
why some people prefer to entrus
themselves and their children to tn,
practitioners of Christian Science in
stead of physicians? And shall thu
rights and privileges of individuals t
exercise their choice in this direction
be denied or abridged? Is it indee'
menace to the peace and welfare o
,, the world that Christian Scientists
through inaudibIe rather than audibl
prayer, have healed thousands upo'
thousands of hopelessly sick peopk
restored the inebriate and the mental
ly deranged, opened the eyes of tn
blind, unstopped the ears of the dea
E made the dumb speak, and the lam
l walk? In the face of such phifan
D throphy as this we Of the enlightene
twentieth century witness the extra
e ordinary spectacle of the represents
e tives of certain medical schools in
: Hand whose constitution and govern
e ment pledges and guarantees its sui
S jects religious freedom, seeking to IL
d fluence and intimidate Legislator,
e and courts to enact and adjudge
e unlawful for you or me to avail ou
r selves of that prayer OF understands
n and faith which we are promised sha
ir save the sick!"