CHRISTIAN SCIENCE is neither Christian nor scientific. No lengthy argument is necessary to prove this; a brief examination of the history and doctrines of the movement will suffice.
The originator of this curious cult was an American woman, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, who was born in New Hampstead in 1821. Of a highly-strung nature, she possessed a fertile imagination and was subject to delusions. She called her first husband, who was a bricklayer, “The Colonel”; and her third husband, who was a sewing machine agent, she styled “The Doctor.” In about 1861, when feeling unwell, she consulted a Mr. Quimby who practised a system of mental healing. When this man died, he left manuscripts which prove conclusively where Mrs. Eddy found her religious cult. Yet, in her text book, “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,” she boldly claimed: “No human tongue or pen taught me the Science.” She even claimed that the Book of Revelation foretold both her coming and her discovery of a new revelation from Heaven. The credulity of her followers may amaze us; but it is surely matched by that of the Mormons who believe that their “Prophet,” Joseph Smith, translated “The Book of Mormon” from golden plates unearthed under angelic guidance.
Mrs. Eddy’s movement spread with such wonderful rapidity that by 1909 there were 1,100 Christian Science churches throughout the world, and, in America alone, over 4,000 Christian Science practitioners practised her system of mental healing for curing physical diseases. The absurd length to which she was encouraged to go is well illustrated in her statement: “It is but just to say that the author has already in her possession well-authenticated records of the cure, by herself and her students through mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebrae.”
To understand the doctrines of Christian Science we must remember that the system is founded on the fallacy that matter and evil do not exist; only spirit exists. That is why The Christian Science Journal of December, 1939, declared, “War is an evil; therefore it is unreal.”
Here is what Mrs. Eddy teaches on various fundamentals of the Christian faith:—
1—”God is a divine principle.” It does not seem to have occurred to her that no rational being would, or should, pray to a principle.
2—”Myth,” “Falsity” and “Legend” are her definitions for the Creation story.
3—”Christ is the divine idea of God.”
4—Referring to the words of Christ about “another Comforter,” she declares, “This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.”
5—”Suffering, sinning and dying beliefs are unreal.”
6—”Man is incapable of sin, disease and death.”
7—”Paul writes: ‘For if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the (seeming) death of his Son’ . . .” Note the daring interpolation of the word “seeming” to suit her argument against the reality of death.
Need it cause surprise, then, that Christian Science has no place for the Sacraments or Salvation or Final Judgment; or that one of its chief exponents, Mr. Edward Kimball, uses a capital “L” for leader when referring to Mrs. Eddy, but a small “l” for the pronouns for Christ.
Nor is Christian Science scientific. Despite the results it obtains by exercising the power of mind over matter, its faith-cures and the curious calm it produces are common to many religious cults, and can easily be explained by those who have studied psychology. In fact, a well-known Indian Christian, Pundita Ramabai, states that it is an old Indian philosophy which “has wrecked millions of lives and caused inmeasurable suffering and sorrow in my land.”
Like many other systems of error, Christian Science is noted for the zeal of its protagonists. In a recent issue of The Christian (London), a writer charged Christian Science with “treating pain as a delusion and sin as a mere bogey.” The Christian Science Committee on Publications immediately protested and declared that sin was like a mistake in Mathematics; it had no reality!
But, it may be objected, Christian Science works chiefly among the middle and upper classes, and, therefore, few Free Presbyterians are in danger from its virus. The answer is: No one is immune; its literature is distributed free; its churches—there are three of them in Glasgow—its practitioners and nurses are regularly advertised; college and university students and others come in contact with its cultivated devotees; and Christian Science Societies have already been formed in Oxford and Cambridge universities.
An excellent booklet, The Snare of Christian Science, by Rev. E. L. Langston, M.A. (World’s Evangelical Alliance, price 1d.) may be recommended as an antidote. There is every justification for the serious warning given by the Rev. Dr. Riddle, now editor of World Dominion: “It is a snare against which Christian people need constantly to be on their guard.”—M. G.