The herald., 1921-01-20

ignored il and turned instead 10 pUIe.
ly spiritual means Could Jesus in
his wisdom consistently have chosen
an unscientitic, and hence untrue.
method with which 10 prove his Won
derous power TO heal? Moreover, Jesus
was not alone in his Christian prtc.
tice. The Bible is full of the teaching
and practice Of spiritual healing bu,
you will search its pages in vain for
an authentic case of healing by ma
terial means. Even so today material
medicine fails 10 qualify. II is not the
Christ method OF healing. Nothing Spir-
itual can come out of wholly ma
terial system. and material medicine
is such. Indeed, not one spiritual quail
ity does il embOdy in its theory or
require in its practice. The very study
of material medicine leads one away
from the spiritual Who has ever
found soul or spirit in the dissectiug
room, on the operating table. or un-
der the microscope? ! am aware that
many noble men and women. true
Christians, are in the medical prOies
sion. To them all honor and respect.
For it is obvious that these are such,
not because OF, but in spite Of, their
professional training.
If you were to ask any medical en-.
thuSiaSt to name the greatest sCien-
tlilc achievement OF the age, doubt
less he would say: preventive med
icine. Now with that Christian Sci
ence agrees, but points out that, since
anything, TO be medicine. must first
no nl :.
tai, not material. Therefore preuyen-
tive medicine begins with Mind. Mrs.
Eddy was the first in this age To pro-
claim and to demonstrate that health
| is a state of Mind, not Il state OF mat
, ter; that to produce and maintain a
well body, ii is necessary first to have
| sound mind. She taught that all
slcknes is based in thOught-eOntammi
nation, that people who think cleanly
and correctly live that way and are
propOrtiOnately immune from disease.
She taught true sanitation to be clean
illness of mind and body, true hygiene
TO be morality, true physiology to be
spirituality. These she recognized to
constitute public health. As for So
called communicable diseases, Mrs.
Eddy required strict obedience to quar-
antine regulations, respecting not only
the law of the land, but public senti.
ment also. Nevertheless, she knew
that the only real germ is the germ
of spiritual Truth, which when cul-
| tured in human consciousness, never
| ceases its growth till the whole lump
of mortal thought is spiritualiZed and
| mans true self-hOod appears. This
| germ is highly infectious and contagi-
Gus, yet it produces, not disease, but
/ health, not discord, but harmony, not
death, but life.
But you say, how can one question
| the germ theory of disease when one
may readily see the actual germ under
the microscope? The germ theory is
not provable by the microscope any
more surely than a mirage of the
desert would be established as reality
because seen through a telescope.
Neither magnifying nor minimizing
error can make it true.
AS to the germ theory of disease,
there has arisen the usual failure OF
the doctors to agree. A famous mill
tary surgeon recently is reported to
have said that the more bacteria one
breathed the less liable one would be-
COME to disease, because of the immun-
ity established through the system
becoming accustomed to foul condi-
tions. In other words, to become i'm
mune from disease, get on familiar
terms with disease germs. Familiar
ity with bacteria, it seems. breeds not
only contempt but immunity. Neverthe-
less, such immunity is not material
after all, but mental. That would
seem to be borne out by the fact that
physicians rarely take the diseases
with which they are thrown. (They
almost never take their own medi-
cine.)
Again, class of Investigators, num-
bering representatives of the Public
Health Service, and many scientists
from our great universities, enter a
complete denial of the germ theory
substituting therefor the worm the
ory. These scientists aver that so.
called germ diseases are in reality
worm diseases and already the lengthy
list of vegetable bacteria is paralleled
by replacer set of animal worms.
There would seem to be small choice
between benig consumed by germs or
eaten by worms, but this innovation in
medical theories presents another re-
alignment of the medical kaleidos-
cope.
The facts are that just as the atomic
theory gave place to changing thought,
embodied in the theory that matter is
electricity or holes in the ether, and
thus prefigured further and more near
ly final theories, so has the germ the
ory of disease begun to disintegate,
under the restiveness of the material
scientists thirst for ultimate knowl
edge. A short time ago it was consid
cred folly to challenge the germ the
ory. Today, we have actually arrived
at it's breaking up. There are large
and growing numbers of the medical
faculty who boldly disclaim that bac
terra have anything more than pos
5 sibly helpful role to play in disease
e BY these authorities disease germs are
Y regarded as merely scavengers, which
i are usually present for a wholly be
: nign purpose Writing recently II
> The Medical Record, one Of the mos
: prominent surgeons in America an
@ | I'd RI Tho Qarn