Miscellaneous Writings Part 48

The article of Professor T--, having the above cap- [1]

tion, published in _Zion's Herald_, December third, came not to my notice until January ninth. In it the Professor offered me, as President of the Metaphysical College in Boston, or one of my students, the liberal sum of one [5]

thousand dollars if either would reset certain dislocations without the use of hands, and two thousand dollars if either would give sight to one born blind.

Will the gentleman accept my thanks due to his gener- [10]

osity; for, if I should accept his bid on Christianity, he would lose his money.

Why?

Because I performed more difficult tasks fifteen years ago. At present, I am in another department of Christian [15]

work, "where there shall no signs be given them," for they shall be instructed in the Principle of Christian Science that furnishes its own proof.

But, to reward his liberality, I offer him three thou- sand dollars if he will heal one single case of opium-eating [20]

where the patient is very low and taking morphine powder in its most concentrated form, at the rate of one ounce in two weeks,-having taken it twenty years; and he is to cure that habit in three days, leaving the patient well. I cured precisely such a case in 1869. [25]

Also, Mr. C. M. H--, of Boston, formerly partner of George T. Brown, pharmacist, No. 5 Beacon St., will tell you that he was my student in December, 1884; and that before leaving the cla.s.s he took a patient thoroughly addicted to the use of opium-if she went without it [30]

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twenty-four hours she would have delirium-and in [1]

forty-eight hours cured her perfectly of this habit, with no bad results, but with decided improvement in health.

I have not yet made surgery one of the mental branches [5]

taught in my college; although students treat sprains, contusions, etc., successfully. In the case of sprain of the wrist-joint, where the regular doctor had put on splints and bandages to remain six weeks, a student of mine removed these appliances the same day and effected the [10]

cure in less than one week. Reference, Mrs. M. A. F--, 107 Eutaw Street, East Boston.

I agree with the Professor, that every system of medi- cine claims more than it practises. If the system is Science, it includes of necessity the Principle, which the learner [15]

can demonstrate only in proportion as he understands it.

Boasting is unbecoming a mortal's poor performances.

My Christian students are proverbially modest: their works alone should declare them, since my system of medi- cine is not generally understood. There are charlatans [20]

in "mind-cure," who practise on the basis of matter, or human will, not Mind.

The Professor alludes to Paul's advice to Timothy.

Did he refer to that questionable counsel, "Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake"? Even doctors disagree [25]

on that prescription: some of the medical faculty will tell you that alcoholic drinks cause the coats of the stomach to thicken and the organ to contract; will prevent the secretions of the gastric juice, and induce ulceration, bleeding, vomiting, death. [30]

Again, the Professor quotes, in justification of material methods, and as veritable: "He took a bone from the

[Page 244.]

side of Adam, closed up the wound thereof, and builded [1]

up the woman." (Gen. ii. 21.)

Here we have the Professor on the platform of Christian Science! even a "surgical operation" that he says was performed by divine power,-Mind alone constructing [5]

the human system, before surgical instruments were invented, and closing the incisions of the flesh.

He further states that G.o.d cannot save the soul without compliance to ordained conditions. But, we ask, have those conditions named in Genesis been perpetuated in [10]

the multiplication of mankind? And, are the conditions of salvation mental, or physical; are they bodily penance and torture, or repentance and reform, which are the action of mind?

He asks, "Has the law been abrogated that demands [15]

the employment of visible agencies for specific ends?"

Will he accept my reply as derived from the life and teachings of Jesus?-who annulled the so-called laws of matter by the higher law of Spirit, causing him to walk the wave, turn the water into wine, make the blind to see, [20]

the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to be raised without matter-agencies. And he did this for man's example; not to teach himself, but others, the way of healing and salvation. He said, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold." [25]

The teachings and demonstration of Jesus were for all peoples and for all time; not for a privileged cla.s.s or a restricted period, but for as many as should believe in him.

Are the discoverers of quinine, cocaine, etc., espe- [30]

cially the children of our Lord because of their medical discoveries?

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We have no record showing that our Master ever used, [1]

or recommended others to use, drugs; but we have his words, and the prophet's, as follows: "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?"

"And Asa ... sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. [5]

And Asa slept with his fathers."

Veritas Odium Parit

The combined efforts of the materialistic portion of the pulpit and press in 1885, to r.e.t.a.r.d by misrepresen- tation the stately goings of Christian Science, are giving [10]

it new impetus and energy; calling forth the _vox populi_ and directing more critical observation to its uplifting influence upon the health, morals, and spirituality of mankind.

Their movements indicate fear and weakness, a physi- [15]

cal and spiritual need that Christian Science should re- move with glorious results. The conclusion cannot now be pushed, that women have no rights that man is bound to respect. This is woman's hour, in all the good tend- encies, charities, and reforms of to-day. It is difficult [20]

to say which may be most mischievous to the human heart, the praise or the dispraise of men.

I have loved the Church and followed it, thinking that it was following Christ; but, if the pulpit allows the people to go no further in the direction of Christlikeness, and [25]

rejects apostolic Christianity, seeking to stereotype infinite Truth, it is a thing to be thankful for that one can walk alone the straight and narrow way; that, in the words of Wendell Phillips, "one with G.o.d is a majority."

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It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the pro- [1]

hibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of the world,-all unmitigated systems of crime; and it requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes. [5]

It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the people to wrench from man both human and divine rights, in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste, civil and political power. And the pulpit had to be purged of that sin by human gore,-when the love of [10]

Christ would have washed it divinely away in Christian Science!

The cry of the colored slave has scarcely been heard and hushed, when from another direction there comes another sharp cry of oppression. Another form of inhumanity [15]

lifts its hydra head to forge anew the old fetters; to shackle conscience, stop free speech, slander, vilify; to invite its prey, then turn and refuse the victim a solitary vindication in this most unprecedented warfare.

A conflict more terrible than the battle of Gettysburg [20]

awaits the crouching wrong that refused to yield its prey the peace of a desert, when a voice was heard crying in the wilderness,-the spiritual famine of 1866, -"Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." [25]

Shall religious intolerance, arrayed against the rights of man, again deluge the earth in blood? The question at issue with mankind is: Shall we have a spiritual Chris- tianity and a spiritual healing, or a materialistic religion and a _materia medica_? [30]

The advancing faith and hope of Christianity, the earnest seeking after practical truth that shall cast out