The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-19

is entertained about them.
Disease 10 Mental -,.
In practicing medicine / soon fount
that there was certain mental ele'
ment in every case, and as it wa!
obvious that this element could no
be reached by any material means,
began to try to estimate just how
large a factor it was in every case
that came to me. At first / tilought
that every case was partly n1enta
and partly physical, but as time Wen
on and through practice my obserya.
ton of the mental side of the Ques-
ton became more keen, / saw thai
many types of sickness were wholly
mental, and finally came to see thai
they were all entirely So
This did not mean that / was 9
Christian Scientist-far from it!
| decided that since had to deal witt
| so large a mental Question:, which the
medical profession either wholly OF
almost wholly ignored, 1 would study
mental healing from every standpoint
from which 1t had been presented
with the idea that would find in al
literature on the subject the presen-
| tation of the same principle, and sc
lwould have broader view of the
question than any single writer, and
with this knowledge would be able to
! heal. Accordingly, ] studied every
| thing I could find, from mental thera-
peutics to Christian Science, and as
I studied I saw that all, were alike
except one, and that one was Chris
titan Science.
Chrietian Science the Remedy
Christian Science was the only one
that had so large grasp Of the all
ness of God as to refuse to dishonoI
Him by admitting that anything that
| He had made was imperfect or could
become imperfect; was sick when He
created it, or had within it any God
given quality that could allow it to
become sick, It was the only one in
which there was no compromise with
matter, and which dared to deny the
| material world, the flesh, and the
! devil, because they were contrary to
| His creative perfection; the only one
that dared to deny the actual exist
ence of anything unlike God and
| therefore the only one that offered
assurance of healing after human
hope and human will and human rea-
son had failed.
Do you suppose that when saw all
this, I accepted Christian Science? No!
Instead, for two years read every
thiBg l could find against 1t (and it
was at a time when there was much
crlticism), in the hope OF convincing
myself that 1t was not true, for 1 saw
that the spirituality of Christian Sci
ence would not mix with my profess
sion, and did not want to give UP
the practice of medicine. But the
more I read against 1t. the more be-
came convinced. Of it's truth, until
finally forsook the practice of medi-
cine and adopted that of Christian
Science.
My experience, covering a period Of
nine years in the practice of medicine,
followed by the practice of Christian
Science, has proven to me that the
results following Christian Science
treatment are incomparably better
than those following the use Of ma
teriaI means. should say that 80
per cent Of those who were success
fully treated in Christian Science
were suffering from conditions which
had either been pronounced, tncura-
BILE, or from which they had received
no relief through repeated attempts
with material means.
We need to know something about
God, however, in order to appropriate
the healing, and throughout the en-
tire teaching Of Christian Science the
necessity for spiritual understanding
is constantly insisted upon.
Spiritual Understanding Necessary
On page 4S8 of Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures Mrs.
Eddy has pointed out that the verb
believe as used in the Bible has more
the significance of understanding,
and she further explains that ''the
Scriptures often appear in our COM
mon version to approve and endorse
belief, when they mean to enforce the
necessity of understanding"
Throughout the entire teaching of
the gospels both Jesus and his dis
ciples constantly asserted that sal
walton was to come as a result Of be-
lieving,-and as a result of having
Joined to believe and have faith, but
we have generally accepted these
words in their most shallow meaning
and have thought that all that was
required of us was tacitly to believe
and We should receive all that Chris
tianity had to offer.
The Greek words for believe and
faith are from the same Greek root,
a. word which means conviction Of
truth To be convinced of truth
means to know, to understand truth.
Our dictionaries give this deeper
meaning as the one to be used in a
religious sense, but our everyday use
of the word believe in the sense Of
faith in something of the same sense
as the word hope, tends to obscure
the larger meaning Of the words.
Blind Belief insufficient
In the eleventh chapter Of the
epistle to the Hebrews, the writer,
after defining faith as "the evidence
Of things not SEEN" gives an example
of how the word is to be used, when
he says, Through faith we under
stand that the worlds were framed
by the, word of God" Now it would
manifestIy be impossible for us to.
perceive that the worlds were
anything less than spiritual under
standing.
In the third chapter Of Acts. Peter,
in his sermon on the healing Of the
lame man, describes his method by
saying And his (Christ jesus name
through faith in his name hath made
this man strong" Here the statement
Is made that healing came about
through faith, spiritual understanding
of the name OF Jesus, the Christ, but
the word name as used in the Scrip
lures had a deeper significance, than
it has in our modern times. The idea
of a name in the Hebrew language
and the Hebrew mind was not merely
that Of sound by which an object
might he designated, but that Of a
significant term which should really
indicate it's quality or nature.
This idea was so deeply imbedded
in the thought of the people of that,
time, that throughout the Cid Tesla
ment the names of various Bible
characters were changed when their
natures changed. Abram to Abra-F
ham, Jacob to Israel and later Saul to
Paul, are instances of this kind.
The Master said in his prayer to his
Father, 81 have manifested thy name
y1uta the men which thou gayest me