CHRISTIAN " SCIENCE."

NZ Truth, Issue 65, 15 September 1906, Page 8

CHRISTIAN " SCIENCE."

Extraordinary Growth of a Superskition.

tfus't as the earth from' time to time is troubled, with violent earthquake upheavals, Shakings, rumblings, and eruptions, with -consequent unpleasant 1 meteorological ; (experiences, so the religious world is* periodically, troubled. Religion, .at 'all 1 times in,our history, has a source of turmoil ■■. and trouble at intervals. The temporarily successful factions have tried to carry oujtaii imaginary dispensation of ;the Qreatbr by slaying, or torturing, the bthei's. Qi late years, however, probably owittß to, ithe spread of education, the cult of religion seems to have taken quite a* curious turn. Men no fixed ideas of life, now^ and .kereafter,, create creeds by! the score, until' every street— if one may j^tdge: by the multitude of assembling £#acesof*the* sects— seems to have/ its>W.n.,vAs the po^tiqal astronomer wastes :— •

From my lone turret as I look around

O'er the green meadows to the ring . of 'blue, From slope, from summit, and from. half-hid vale, The . sk-*; is stabbed with dagger pointed snires. , Their pilded symbols, whirling m the wind, ' ■ , ■■•■; Their brazen tongues proclaiming; to* the world, . "Here truth is sold;, the only genuine '. /•ware 1 -" ■■•'■',..;■.•■.■■■'" "•/"•"'■■ See that it has' our trade mark! You will' buy \ Poison, instead of food, across the way. ; ••. '..,-. . "' ' " ■ The lies of : —r-',', ; This or that; each several, rianje-, . *.' The standards, blazon { and the battle- ■ cr T ■■■; .-• . ...-..■■ . :■■• ■■-

Of some trite gospel faction, and ;l ■•.a0^in;.,,,^..-.--:^-----'*"''''- ' . .' The'token of i the beast to all be- • - si*&s. ' ;-A-/-

At the present lame^Qur r ow#-cmHr i ' try _Js_; rack^d-wttli a .religious conTrover sy v/hich fills a super-heated House of Commons with headaches, and leads to red-hot speeches, which gush likje a glowing torrent here : and there all .over the country. Men are so sensitive that they are ready to split the friendship of years over the education of a street arab, or fly to the. question arena -to .'know why some irresponsible somebody had dared to 'speak of the. 1 King's attitude, to a particular religrion. " . This , sort of thing, I supposed, will ! go" on m- the rival and competitive main lines of the road to Heaven I 'until the many eccentric and daily new-borji branch tends so fop I . the traveller that, he will never reach his coveted destination—except' by accident. There is no rest for the, thinker.; The world, 'both new . and oTd. : seems to bristle with religious Edispns, ever on the way to tfi3 Patent Office, with Something; new m the way of ; . a sect." or -creed, or "a people."' One.; of the' latest, of these '.'necr-born -truths" is

THIS GROWTH OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. , ■ ,y..- s This comparatively modern cult, like oro or two others, has had to run the 'gauntlet even of the Law Courts, and it has been condemned by tho majority oJ the would as

highly dangerous a^fl ; impracticable, if not absolute idfM Still, v it must have points m it somewhere, if one may judge by the progress it has made. It is much better known m that • hotbed and nursery of new creeds, America, than m this country Some of the evidences of its i progress are teally astounding. I have before me a copy of the "Literary Digest." T : his gives a beautiful picture of a really grand and imposing; new cathedral, ljuilt at Boston i for the Christian Scientists. Some idea of the magnitude of . the sect of ! winch Mrs Mary G-. Eddy is the high ?priestess. may be gained from the fact that, the new Cathedral cost 2,000,000d015. It is one of the largest : and most expenswe ' churches raised -m America— one, belt said, that hasl been m existence fittle: more than a 'quarter of. a century. It has a memvbership of 40,000, and it will comfortably seat 5,000 people, or double the seating capacity of St. Patrick's Cathedral m New £ York. The church has the excellent 'feature that it was paid loir befdre ' it ':Mbs: dedicated, 'so that there will be; w necessity to so on begging f or "^ funds to pay the builders. The branch churches affiliated with the sect bring the total membership up to 82,000. This Cathedral is of light stone, with a^ dome over 220 ft. high, and- one of the 1 'largest organs m the world.

SOME OF THE DUPES. What a happy world it would be if there was only one religion, and .everybody belonged to, it, 'followed if and believed m it. One newspaper, known for its active hostility to the 1 sect, speaking of the inauguration of the new church, said .—

"Of the thronging; thousands who celebrated the triumph of imposture m Boston, it is not an exaggeration to say that some ought to have been m gaol, some m lunatic asylums, and the rest m some school where they /" might be taught to think stfaighter than they have yet been educated to do. '

"The, irony of fate upset an automobile load of these dupes m Boston itself on the day of the 'dedication.'

suffered fractures and contusions, manifest lesions with which hypnotic suggestion could do -nothing, but which required surgical treatment. ' But the strength of their delusion was proved by the fact that they all, with one accord, insisted that^there was nothing the matter with, them that singing 'Mrs Eddy's newest hymn,' 'Shepherd, Show Me How to Go,' would not cure. One exception there was. An unfortunate Christian Scientist was convinced, by the, protrusion of the 'bone of his leg from the flesh; that he had better go to the hospital instead of relying upon his faith to v make him whole. In consequence of his : tardy conviction that m this particular case a surgeon could do better than a 'shepherd' show him 'how to go,' he is doubtless groaned over as ' a baclcslraer m Eddyite circles. But he-will doubtless, m a merely physical sense, walk straighter hereafter for ■ having his le^ looked after by a surgeon than if he had, merely submitted- his protuding bone to 'Christian Sci-

siice,' "\ ' T This may be ■ TAKEN AS AN EXAMPLE ■of the. general public feeling of those to whom everything new m religipti is anathema; but there are noc wanting thos;.* who altogether praise it— one journal, m fact, k^hir. to the