CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS.

Evening Star, Issue 11678, 10 February 1902, Page 8

CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Coypright.

BERLIN, February 8. (Received February 10, at 9.6 a.m.) The Kaiser has ordered the police to tuppress the Christian Scientists’ meetings.

The above sect has come prominently before the public o! late, and the London ‘ Times ’ has deemed it worth while to public a series of articles upon it. We append i lie first of these, and propose giving the mlicrs as space permits:—Christian Science was “ HEcovered ” about thirty-five years ago by an American lady, who a few veal's later founded the religious sect which bears that name to-day. Like the numerous other movements of the kind that have appeared from time to time in the' United States, it is bused on a reading of Cbistianity which claims tlie authority of a Divine and exclusive revelation. The founder informs us in some autobiographical notes that “ from her very childhood she was impelled by a hunger and thirst after Divine things a desire for something higher and belter than matter and apart from it —to seek diligently for the knowledge of God’-—and she evidently regards herself as different from the rest of mankind. “Many peculiar circumstances.’’ she says, “ and events connected with my childhood throng the chambers of memory.” When about eight years old she repeatedly heard a voire calling her distinctly by name, three times., in an ascending scale. She thought at first it was her mother calling her, hat her mother always denied it. On one occasion a cousin who "was with her hoard it too. and thought the same, but the mother again denied it. That night the story of the infant Samuel was read to the child, and she was told to reply, when next she heard the voice ‘‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth. ‘ The voice came, but she was afraid to answer. “Afterward I wept and prayed that God would forgive me, resolving to do, next time, as my mother had bidden me. When the call came, again I did answer in the words of Samuel, but never again to the material senses was that mysterious call repeated.” It is not surprising that at linage of twelve she went through a religious crisis on admission to the Congregational Church. The doctrine of predestination troubled her precocious mind. “So perturbed was I by the thoughts aroused by (his erroneous doctrine that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me stricken with fever.” Site then prayed, and "a soft glow of ineffable joy” came over her. The fever was gone, she arose and dressed herself in a normal condition of health, at which “the physician marvelled.” la spice of these early experiences it was nut until past middle age that the great discovery was made and the long-promised mission ’begun. She* had then been twice uumied. and had gone through some domestic trouble. “It was in Massachusetts,’ C.e says, " in February. 1866. that I discovered The Science of Divine Metaphysical i L ,;lmg, which 1 afterwards named Cbrisli iu Science.” The immediate occasion was 1., >• spontaneous recovery from the effects of an internal injury caused by an accident. A 1 the time site regarded the recovery as a miracle wrought by the Divine Spirit, but afierwards found that it was “in perfect scientific accord with Divine law.’ It enabled her to understand the miraculous cures related in the New' Testament, which were of the game character, “ though unin-i-aired interpreters ignorantly pronounce t’brist’s healing miraculous instead of seeing therein the operation of the Divine law. I he assumption of superior inspiration in this remark is characteristic. Before making the discovery she had been for twenty years “ trving to trace all. physical effects to a mental cause,” aud had apparently dabbled in metaphysics, medicine, mesmerism. spiritualism, and what not. “ I sought knowledge from the different school:: —allopathy, homoeopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from various humbugs—but without receiving satisfaction.” Homoeopathy gave a Dint by teaching that the “less material medicine we have and the more mind, the better the work is done ; a fact which seems to prove the principle of mind healing.” -After her cure she Withdrew from society about three years to “ ponder her mission, to search the Scriptures, to find the Science of Mind.” The Bible was her text book: it taught her how she had been healed, and so the discovery was made. This brief amount of the origin of Christian Science will probably, without further c'rrmeiit. enable the reader to appreciate the founder's (him to the authority of a Divine revelation. By 1875 she had developed the syMcm so far as to publish, a relume called ‘Science and Health,’ which is the text bonk of the sect, and about the same time she Vegan to teach. In 1877 she married—for the third time. Her husband was a clergyman—a Mr or Dr Eddy, whose iv.me she still bears. He died in 183 d. Airs Eddy formed the first Christian Science organisation in 1876 wdth six of her pupils. In 1879 it was turned into a church, end two years later the Massachusetts Metaphysial College was established at Boston for teaching the “ science of mind-healing.” During tins time Mrs Eddy “healed, preached, and taught in a general way. ’ She lays much stress upon the healing. •' Many were the desperate cases I msiantly healed,” Some, she alleges, were ui ted’by merely reading her book- The mission appears to have been very successful in attracting attention. The church inci eased in numbers, and “ students from all in or our continent and from Europe were Hooding Lite school.” although they had to pay a fee of 300dol for a three weeks’ course. For some reason, which it is not very easy to follow, this prosperity led Mrs Eddy, who was pastor of the church and president of the college, to dissolve both. What became of the college we are not told, but according to her account the church flonrished more after it was dissolved than before. The story is curious, and the conclusion drawn frurn the experience is still more so. “It was learned,” says Mrs Eddy, “ that organisation is requisite only in the earliest periods in Christian history.” After this, continued organisati m “ retards spiritual growth and should be laid off.” It Is difficult to see how this view is to be reconciled with the very distinct organisation maintained, under Mrs Eddy’s authority, by the sect in its present comparatively extensive development. The provincial churches are all affiliated to the mother institution at Boston ; aud the authorised “ practitioners ” of Christian Science are all members of the mother church and “ amenable to its discipline. Their only authorised text books are the Bible and ‘ Science and Health,’ and the literature they distribute is confined to toe writings of Mrs Eddy and the publications of the “ Christian Science Publishing Society,” which appears to be a central organisation under Mrs Eddy’s immediate supervision. -io one can study the literature or the proceedings of the “ Christian Scientists" without very soon becoming aware that the founder’s authority is very jealously guarded. Her utterances are la»v, and none other are allowed unless they have been authorised by her. The Bible itself is only to lie interpreted in the lig.it of ‘ Science and Health,’ which jn s, co-equal with it. “Even the Scripture,” says Mrs Eddy, “ gave no direct interpretation of the scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual principle of healing, until onr Heavenly Father saw fit, through the key to the Scriptures, in ‘ Science and Health,’ to unlock this mystery of Godliness.” Perhaps the relative value of the two honks in the eyes of Mrs Eddy is more truly indicated by the fact that she prints ‘ Science and Health ’ in capital letters and “ the Bible ” or “ the Scripture” in small ones. No more absolute or unquestionable supremacy was over claimed for the Papal chair. Indeed, Mrs Eddy goes very much further. “No poison.” she says, “can compass or fulfil tin; individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the place of the author of ‘Science and Health’ (in capital letter J, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science.” The juxtaposition shows hoxv far she has progressed since the days when she was only on a level with the iirfnnt Samuel. Another passage rims thus; —“No one else can drain the cup which 1 have drunk to ths dregs, as iho discoverer and teacher cf Christian Science; neither can its inspiration be gained without tasting this cup.” There is something painfully grotesque and revolting in the appropriation by this American lady of the expression just quoted, with its sublime associations; but it is probable that the incredible arrogance re-

vealed by these and other passages mixed with some pious phrases in ‘Retrospection on. Introspection ’ is largely responsible for ‘m success of Christian Science. The history of nil impostures, down to the scandals ox the modern money market, shows that .the more extravagant a claim is the more readily it is believed. A boaster will always find admirers, and tbc loader be is the larger the admiring crowd, more particularly if ho believes in himself. Mrs Eddy certainly believes in herself, and her admiring crowd is considerable, though not quite so large as it is made to appear, in a recent number of her magazine, tLe ‘ Christian Science Journal,’ the following sentences occur:—“ Mary Baker Eddy s a Religionist, a Reformer, a Philanthropist, the Herald of the healing Truth that ,'s reaching around the globe and touching to life and health and peace, myriads of W fellow-beings. . . . The mighty religious Reformation which God, through Mary Baker Eddy has inaugurated is an established fact. It is moving forward with increasing acceleration, and no power on earth is sufficient to stay its mighty strength.” These hyperbolical remarks give an exaggerated impression of the movement, which is still a small affair nonpareil, for instance, with the Salvati >n Army, though it has been longer before tiie world. The. number of provincial churches affiliated to the mother church at Boston is about 480, and there are in addition some 170 places where services are held but no church has yet been established. The number of authorised “practitioners” of Christian Science on the list is between 3,000 and 4,000, and the total membership mas to about. 22.000. -This refers to full members and does not include an indefinite number of persons who attend services and are otherwise, more or less interested in Mrs Eddy's doctrines. Naturally the great bulk of Christian Scientists, as they call themselves, are Americans. Of the 480 churches, all but a score or so are in he United Suites, where they seem to be widely spread. New York supports five, Buffalo, Chicago, and Philadelphia have four each, but for the most part they ere scattered about singly in a large number of towns. Outside the United States he country most affected is Canada, where some dozen churches have been established. In Europe, London, Edinburgh, Paris. Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden have a church apiece, and services arc also held in Manchester and Cambridge. The church ?n Loudon is a small affair, and the total number of “ practitioners in the United Kingdom does not reach fifty.