The Washington times., 1927-11-09
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a CCORDING to statistics published
~ by Mary Baker Eddy in 1885, Chris
tian Science under legitimate organi-
cation had proved so effective within the
circle of her five thousand students, nearly all
of whom were middle aged, that only four
teen deaths occurred in period of nearly
thirty years, less than one-half of one per
cent.
At the time of Mrs. Eddy's decease in
1910, there were 462 persons officially listed
in The Christian Science Journal as holding
the degrees of G. S. B. and G. S. d. They
were by no means all Mrs. Eddy's elderly
students, but the graduates of the Meta
physical College, the majority of them under
fifty, many of them young, active and Wig
orous Christian Scientists, in the full bloom
of life. In less than seventeen years more
than sixty per cent of them died. Of the
remainder many still officially listed as prac-
titionerS and teachers of Christian Science
have become partly or wholly incapacitated
Some are carefully guarded to prevent their
physical or mental conditions from becoming
known.
Over two hundred Christian Scientists
passed away in Brookline, Massachusetts,,
during the first five years of the operation
of the Christian Science Benevolent ASsocia-
ton Sanatorium (1919-1924). A very sub
stantial proportion of them were practitioners
we'll known members of the church, many
holding degrees from the Metaphysical Col
lege. Three-fourthS of them died in the
official institution and the remainder in pri-
vate overflow hospitals" or homes. This
mortality exceeds the total number of deaths
for the same period in the three largest and
nationally known Brookline medical hos
pitfalls. These facts were concealed by omit
ting from death certificates the name of the
institution in which decease occurred-a vio-
lation of the rule of the Brookline municipal
authorities.
There is a simple scientific ex-
PLANTATION for both the former
increase in longevity and the
present appalling mortality.
Mrs. Eddy taught that the mind of an
individual affects his body for good or i'll.
She also taught that the individual mind is
influenced by the convictions of the ma jority
in any circle within which he is bound. Death
is caused by majority of human beliefs that
man must die, and change in general belief
will cause a change in human experience.
She therefore formed community within
which the fears and false convictions of the
world at large were reduced to such degree
that unprecedented health and longevity re-
suited to its members. She bound her fol-
lowers together by Manual covenant, not
only to support her discovery of spiritual law,
but to provide an atmosphere conducive to
steady spiritual growth and new embodiment.
She planned thus to advance them step by
step above the level of mistaken human be-
liefs by obtaining their support of successive
discoveries of spiritual facts. The Manual
contract was so worded that upon Mrs.
Eddys REIMBURSEMENT of the first office of
Leader, or upon the discovery of the next
fundamental fact of existence, resignation of
the entire membership was impelled, to be
followed by reconstruction of the organiza-
ton on the basis of the new discovery.
But not single member discovered in