CHRISTIAN SCIENCE METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 149, 23 June 1906, Page 9

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE METHODS.

"if a Christian Scientist severed an important artery, how would you deal | with it?'' was the pointed question put ' to one of these self-styled "healers" at an inquest held this week on the body of ; a Major Whytc, who had died while unj dergoing Christian Science treatment. i The faith-healer's answer was couched ! iv the usual vague terms. "'Christian j Science treatment," he said, "puts absoj lute reliance on the omnipotence of God, j and God is a far more efficacious power I in stopping hemorrhage than any ina--1 teria-l means can be. j The cross-examination which followed j throws an interesting light on the ■ methods and beliefs of the faith-healing ' profession: — i ''Do you mean that God does not alI low man to have any control over mat- ; ter?"—"God did not create matter. God | is a spirit." i "Do you agree in broken bones being .treated by a surgeon?"—" Yes: because ; we have been so directed by the leader i of Christian Science." / I •'"'Why did you take up Christian j Science?"—" Because I am convinced that it is the most efficient healing power | and the most certain preventive of disI case in the world, and because I believe I it is the greatest moral regenerator ; since the early days of Christianity." \ Another faith-healer deposed that he wrote to Major 'Whyte promising to treat him if he would come up from Osborne to London, and was willing to j abandon all resource to materia medica. I The cros6-examination proceeded :— i ""Will you explain the meaning you atj tach to materia medica ?"—The "use of material means as a cure for disease or sickness." "What are the material means that you have in your mind?— All material I means. I hold that all material means | have in themselves no efficiency for heal- ! ing." "I should like to get a litle more closely at what you mean. Do you include food?"—"No, I do not include food. Well, ia one sense I do and in one sense 1 do I not. I do not consider food can either I hurt or cure. Food is simply a means [of satisfying a normal condition of huri- | ger." ; "What do you mean by the word ('normal?'" —"Well, when I am hungry; j I call that the normal condition of hunger." "I am afraid that doesn't, carry us much further. Do you attach any par-

ticular meaning .at all to the word i 'normal?'"—"lt may .mean the contra- ' distinction of what one .would call abnormal. It is difficult to say." "It requires a little thought, doesn't it?"—"lt does." - " j "Do you include clothes as material means?"— What for; for preserving health?" l "Yes."—"No, certainly not. Not as anything in themselves for -preservine health." , fa "Do you include lying in bed?" "Well, if an individual is unable to get up iv bed it stands to reason he must lie there." '•You mean you do include it as a material means?"—"No, I do not: not as a means in itself of healing disease." "If it -were then, why not lie in bed, when you are sick, for over? What I am anxious to find out is what meaning you attach to these things?"—" What we think about these things does not matter." "Do you include a warm temperature as a means of curing?"—"No not in itself." Witness specified other things; but included in the term materia rnedica drugs and "what we called medicines." "What"' are medicines?"—"l suppose i things that a doctor prescribes." "Do you know that? Have you ever studied the subject?"—"Oh, no, 1 have no knowledge of medicine." l "Was any payment to you ?—"Cer- ;;- tainly; my charge was one guinea a week for giving my services as a Christian Scientist." "Will you tell us what the treatment was ?"—"Prayer." "By whom?"—"By myself. Nobody else." Witness was questioned at some length as to why surgical aid was necessary for a broken bone but not for paralysis of the internal organs, and said, "It is impossible almost to explain it unless you understand Christian Science." "But why differentiate treatment of disorders?" —"Because we believe in the. wisdom of the leader of Christian Science." "Who i* that?"— Mary Baker G. Eddy, who directs that cases such as fracture of a bono should be left to the hands of a surgeon, while the scientist directs himself to destroy fear and allay pain and inflammation." "Do you treat infectious cases?"—• "Yes, certainly."' "Do you treat smallpox?"—"I would, certainly, though I have never had a case. I should take all precautions according to law as to isolation, though I do not believe that smallpox is any more -real than anything else." "Well, nothing is real, is it?"—" Truth is real." "Oh. I believe that—when we get it." (Laughter.) It is refreshing to know that the Christian Scientists still leave something for the mere doctors to do. Neverthless the I faith, according to its leading exponent lin Kngland, numbers some 1,500.000 dis--1 ciple-s throughout the world. j