NOTE – The following sermon was preached by J. Frank Norris on March 13, 1910. Norris had only been pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth for about five months when this sermon was delivered. It evidently created something of a stir in the community, at least judging by a few newspaper articles about it over the next few weeks. It is classic Norris, on the attack with humor and pathos. Most people that study Norris point to the end of 1910 as when he embraced a “sensationalist” preaching style. Finding a sermon like this from this early in his pastorate at First Baptist might just show that conclusion is not wholly accurate.
I had to adapt my usual process of scanning sermons to work with the images from the paper. The app I generally use for OCR didn’t like the print or scan quality. I tried to clean it up as best I could, but sure I missed some things. One thing I am not sure I got 100% right are a few of the page numbers her lists. Otherwise, it is presented as reported in the Fort Worth Record and Register, March 14, 1910.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS THE SCRIPTURES
Rev. J. Frank Norris, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Preaches a Sermon on the Cult Founded by Mrs. Eddy and Compares Its Teachings With the Doctrines of the Bible.
An Empty Record of Works of Benevolence and Charity in This Fraternal Age – Denial of the Reality of the Great Tragedy of the Cross
Following is the full text of a sermon preached yesterday morning by Rev. J. Frank Norris, pastor of the First Baptist church, on Christian Science:
“Refuse profane and old wives’ fables.” i Tim. 4-7.
I desire to be perfectly fair to Christian Science. Let us see what Christian Science is. I quote “Science and
Health, With Key to the Scriptures,” by Mrs. Eddy. This is the foundation of this cult. “Science and Health,” page 107: “In the year 1866, I discovered Christian Science or divine laws of life, truth and love, and named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine principles of scientific mental feeling.”
“Science and Health,” page 108: “Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, and a conviction antagonistic through the testimony of the physical sense? According to St. Paul, It was a gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.” (Notice whatever Paul had, she has.)
“Science and Health.” page 109: “I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason and demonstration. The revelation of Truth in the understanding came to me gradually and perfectly through the divine power.”
“Science and Health,” page 103:
- “God is all in all.
- “God is good, God is mind.
- “God, spirit, being all nothing is matter.
- “Life, God, omnipotent good, defy death, evil, sin, disease – Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God life.”
The Main Proposition
Briefly stated, the main proposition is this: Mind is the only reality, therefore, matter, sickness, death and sin are unreal. What we call sin, sickness, trouble, distress and death are only false beliefs, and it is the mission of Eddyism to destroy these false beliefs.
Let us see the good Eddyism has accomplished. “Render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar.”
- Eddyism has raised an effectual voice against the rank materialism of today that ignores the fact, “The things which are seen are temporal,” although Eddyism has gone to the ask the extreme by declaring that things which are seen are only illuslons.
- Eddyism is a protest against a form of infidelity, namely, that which denies God, but in so doing has denied
the personality of God, making Him a principle. - Eddyism emphasizes the message that God is love, even though it gives a a lop-sided emphasis.
- Eddyism honors a new the element of ancient stoicism, namely, self-mastery.
- Eddyisn calls attention to the doctrine of divine healing, although in so doing, it goes to the absurd extreme of denying use of material and human means.
Is it necessary to go off after a cult hatched in Boston, the birthplace of heresies, fads and isms. fostered by a woman, in order to get our knowledge of duty and revelation of truth? There is not one of the above named things that is not being preached in a scriptural manner by the large masses of our churches today.
My last Sunday’s sermon was to show man’s supremacy over material things, and next Sunday will be “Divine Healing and New Testament Doctrine.” The purpose of this sermon is in the most cordial spirit. I speak of my friends and neighbors, the Eddyttes, with highest esteem. I know many of them and count them among my personal friends. I am glad to see several of them in the congregation and will ask them to feel perfectly welcome to ask me any question they desire, or correct me if I fail
to quote them properly.
As Paul faced and exposed the Judaizers and Gnostics with the words, “There be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ, and though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that he has received, let him be accursed.” Gal. i. 7-9.
Even so shall I meet Eddyism, whose founder seek to add another gospel. It has been claimed that they have had a rapid growth and have attained large numbers. They will argue this as a ground for accepting their principles, but growth and numbers have nothing to do with the merits or character of the teaching. Sometimes it shows to be of the devil, Mohammedism holds the first prize in history on rapidity of growth and Buddhism the first place in the world as to numbers.
Growth of the Cult
The bureau of religious statistics of the United States for last year shows Eddyism to have 85,717 members, 73 per cent are women, and 688 organizations. Their manual of rules forbids any statements as to numbers. Why they do not give out numbers like other folks and let every man judge for himself? But they will grow and continue to proselyte. They are soon to build a handsome building in this city. They deny proselytizing, when only last week several of them visited members of this church who were ill and proposed Christian Science as a remedy.
I want this occasion to magnify the truth, with nothing added to it and nothing taken from it. Let truth match error and facts face falsehood. I have nothing by the kindest feeling for the Eddyites, and I am perfectly willing to let them have their free course, even as we have allowed Mormonism, spiritualism, mesmerism, and every other ism the privilege of a free race unto death.
Eddyism is not The first Boston craft: there have been many others clear on back to the days of witchcraft. Those days of ignorance God winked at, and it would seem that in this day of intelligence and enlightenment a free thinking people would no longer countenance fads which belong to the dark ages.
Undoubtedly there is something peculiar about the atmosphere around Boston. It must be filled with mental illusions.
Eddyism has delighted to pose as a martyr, thereby receiving undue sympathy. Let no hand of persecution, legislative measures or court procedure be appealed to to restrict it. I would defend them myself against persecution. The truth is mighty and will prevail! Nothing new under the sun .
I shall quote freely from “Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures,” for two reasons:
First Mrs. Eddy claims it to be divine in its revelation and authority. “Science and Health,” pages 456-457:
A Christian Scientist requires my work, “Science and Health, With A Key to the Scriptures.” for his textbook, and so do all his students and patients. Why?
- Because it is the voice of Truth to this age, and contains the full statement of Christian Science, or the science of healing through the mind.
- Because it was the first book known containing thorough statement of Christian Science, hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating this science, and registered the revealed truth uncontaminated by human hypothesis.
- Because this book has done more for teacher and student, for healer and patient, than has been accomplished by other books.
See the bold audacity of this statement:
- It Is the voice of God – “Truth” and God are Synonymous. (See “Science and Health,” page 587.)
- It contains the whole of God’s method of work. “Mind” and God are synonymous. (See “Science and Health,” page 587.
- It registered the first revelation of God, “uncontaminated by human
hypothesis.” - “Science and Health” has more power than other books, the Bible included.
“Science and Health”
Second: My second reason for quoting from “Science and Health” is be cause:
- It is used in their service and worship as the scriptures. Church Manual, page 31, says: “The first reader shall read selections from ‘Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures,'”
- Every member must accept “Science and Health” as his creed. Church Manual, pages 34-35. says: “to become a member, the applicant must be a believer in doctrines of Christian Science according to the platform and teaching contained in the Christian
Science textbook, ‘Science and Health , With Key to the Scriptures,’ by Rev. Mary Baker Eddy.” - “Science and Health” shall be the perpetual creed of the church and the world. Church. Manual, page 58: “I, Mary Baker Eddy, ordain the Bible and “Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures’ and they will continue to preach for this church and the world.”
It would be said in charity that Mrs. Eddy is very gracious to allow “the Bible” a place alongside her “The Divine Revelation.” She is almost as gracious as was Joseph Smith when he handed out his “Revelation from God” in addition to “the Bible,” which revelation allowed him to have 14,000 wives, although justice demands that we should say Mrs Eddy has not gone quite that far in the number of her husbands. However, let the veil of charity close over her personal history.
Why say so much about Mrs. Eddy? For the same reason we discuss Confucius when studying Confucianism, or Jesus when studying Christianity. Mrs. Eddy claims to be the whole works of her entire system. She does the following:
- Selects the readers of the church.
- Selects the directors of the church.
- Her orders are absolute and unchangeable on all things. (See Manual, pages 65.)
- Has absolute control over every member. (See Manual, pages 68-69.)
Another has summed up her powers thus:
Massachusetts Metaphysical College
Pastor Emeritus.
President
Board of directors
Board of education
Board of lectureships
Board of trustee
Proprietor of publishing house and periodicals
Treasurer.
Clerk.
Proprietor of the teachers
Proprietor of the missionaries.
Proprietor of the readers.
Dictator of the service.
Sole voice of the pulpit.
Sole proprietor of the Sanhedrin.
Sole proprietor of the creed.
Indisputable autocrat of the branch churches, with their life and death in her hands.
Sole thinker for the First church and the others.
Sole and infallible expounder of doctrine in life and in death.
Fifty-handed god of ex-communication – with a thunderbolt in each hand.
Appointer and installer of the pastors of all churches.
Perpetual pastor – Universal Science and Health.
“The Comforter.”
The latest hymn coronation is:
All hail the founder of Eddy’s name
Let prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown her queen of all.
The Four Realities
Try Eddyism on the four common realities – matter, sin, and death.
- Eddyism denies the reality of matter,
“Science and Health.” page 287: “Matter is neither a thing nor a person.”
“Science and Health.” page 277: “Matter is an error of statement: is a human concept – sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.”
“Science and Health. ” page 372: “What you call matter was originally error in solution.”
“Science and Health,” page 591: “Matter is an illusion.”
“Science and Health. 480: “The nothingness of matter is recognized.”
No need to multiply quotations, there is no dispute on the fact that Eddyites claim matter is an “illusion,” a mental “concept,” “nothingness,” “false belief.”
Now let us apply this “Key to the Scriptures” to the Bible:
“In the beginning God created heavenly illusions, and earthly illusions, and the earthly illusion was without form and void: and a dark illusion was upon the illusive face of the deep illusion, and the spirit principle moved upon the illusive face of the water illusion,
“And the God principle said: ‘Let there be light illusion,’ and there was light illusion, and the principle saw the illusion that it was good: and divided the former illusion from the latter illusion; and the great It called the former illusion day, and the latter illusion It called night, and the evening the morning illusion were the first-day illusion, and this God principle said: ‘Let the earth bring forth illusions yielding seed illuslons and fruit tree illusions, yielding the illusion called fruit, after his kind, and It said ‘Let the earth illusion bring forth the living creature illusion after their kind,’ and it was so, and the God principle, said, ‘Let us make a man illusion after our image, to be a reflection of our image.’
See how the Key fits Noah’s enterprise:
“God commanded Noah to build an ark of nothingness, made of a mental concept called gopher wood, and gather into it the nothingness of every creature for he was going to send upon the earth illusion a floor error, and all the inhabitant illusions, save eight illusions will have the false belief that they have been destroyed by the floods of nothingness.”
Apply her Key to the savings of Jesus, whose personality she denies, and hear Him speak through his Bostonian divorced female interpreter:
“Behold the nothingness of the lilies of the field. Not one sparrow illusion falls to the ground without your father, who is not longer your father, but the great It principle of discarded Grecian Pantheistic idealism.” “He commanded the 5,000 masculine illusions to sit down on the grass illusion and took from the little boy illusion some bread illusion and fave to the multitude illusions, who had a false notion they were filled, and twelve basketfuls of illusions were left over from that memorable day, which was after all, merely an illusion of the gospel writer who mistook a real miracle for a false belief.”
All Imagination
All that we see, hear, taste, smell and feel ls not real, it is only Imaginary. There are no street cars out there, only some mental concepts, which we ride on and pay our money to. There is no courthouse and jail yonder – only illusions. That is what the criminal would have it to be; but those of us who love that humble place called home, honor that aged saint we call mother, cherish her whom we call wife, and esteem her whom we call daughter. Yea, as long as manhood prizes sacred home and tender womanhood we are glad there are real courthouses and jails, that the objects of our love are not left to the merciless caprices of the lawless fiend who is guided only by “false beliefs.-“
Now if my Eddyite friend, sincere and honest as I know you are, should in any wise become offended at me today, I beg you to know that the preacher preacher of this hour has no real existence: that this large audience is an “Illusion;” that the sweet melody of of that organ is a “false belief;” that this magnificent building is a magnificent “nothingness,” and that the theme today, “Christian Science Exposed,” is only an “illusion” exposed.
Let Kepler and Newton be gone. In fact, did they have a real existence, anyhow? If the teachers in our public schools shout teach that there is no mathematics, no applied science, no chemistry, the result to the scholars would be intellectual disintegration and disaster. Eddyism is doing that very thing. It teaches all this, by and through this fundamental proposition that there is no matter and matter does not exist.
To say that one thing is a gas, another is a salt; that one is a fluid and another a solid, etc. is like following Alice in Wonderland. As there is not matter, there can be no chemical processes on substance. If there is no matter there can be no mathematics, no addition, no minus and plus, no multiplication and division, no weight, density, form, ratio or proportion. There can be no construction, no relation of part to part, no distance, no transit from that distance, no constructive means of locomotion, and we are plunged into an irretrievable mental and moral bankruptcy – the whole universe is a lie and a deception!
Let the one true scientist of all the Ages come forth from her Bostonian recluse and speak ex-cathedra as the voice of God, for no doubt, when she dies, if she ever does, wisdom will die with her. Science and Health, 113: “The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion, e.g. “There is no pain in truth, and no truth in pain; no nerve in mind, and not mind in nerve; no matter in mind, and no mind in matter; no matter in life, and no life in matter; no matter in God and no God in matter.”
What a wonderful scientific fact! Let’s carry her rule a little further:
“There is no pocket in my money, no money in my pocket; no head in my brain, no brain in my head; no liver in my gall, no gall in my liver; no head on my hair, no hair on my head; no mouth in my teeth, no teeth in my mouth; no head in my sense, no sense in my head.”
Denial of Sickness
The second common fact or reality which is denied by Eddyism is sickness, disease and suffering.
“Science and Health,” 393: “Have no fear that matter can ache and swell.” 393: “no real disease.” 375: “Change the mental state and chills and fever disappear.” 376: “If the body material it cannot suffer from a fever.” 379: “Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the body by mortal mind.”
“Science and Health,” 393: “Man is never sick”
“Science and Health,” 402: You say that accidents, injuries and disease kill men, but this is not true.”
“Science and Health,” 421: “There is no disease.”
“Science and Health,” 154: Smallpox, cholera, etc., are not contagious, only in the mind.”
Just here I am reminded of a man who went to a Christian Science healer complaining that he was in great suffering:
She says: “You are not sick.”
He says: “But I am”
She says: “You only imagine that you are.”
He says: “The imagination hurts mighty bad.”
She says: “What do you imagine is the matter with you?”
He says: “I imagine I have a bad case of smallpox.”
And in an, imaginary short time of about half a second he was alone in the room, the nearest window being minus its lower sash.
“There are no accidents.” The avalanche in Wellington, Wash., which destroyed two trains, steam locomotives and motors, and which killed 100 people, was not an accident: it was only a “mental concept” of the newspaper reporters. The 30,000 brave sons wounded and dying on Gettysburg field had false beliefs about the three days’ battle which was waged between Lee and Meade.
Eddyism claims that tuberculosis is not real, hence all, this campaign for cleanliness and restrictive laws is foolish.
See how her key fits the healing work of Jesus: When Jesus healed the leper he destroyed the false belief in the leper’s mind that he had leprosy. When he healed the Centurion’s servant of palsy, he simply destroyed the false belief in the mind ot the Centurion, for the servant had no disease. When he commanded Peter’s wife’s mother to arise from her fever, he practiced a deception on those simple-minded people in making them think he had cured a real case of fever. The blind man who came to him crying: “Thou son of David,” was in error when he thought he was blind, and Jesus removed the error. The Syro-Phoenician mother prostrate before the master importuning, for her daughter was sick and Jesus destroyed this “false belief.” The practical result of such doctrine is destructive tn the extreme, Leon Czolgosz denied the reality of all things – law, God, punishment – and with the concealed hand of an assassin smote America’s foremost and beloved citizen!
“Science and Health,” page 117: Strychnine and Arsenic are hot deadly poisons; only thinking so makes them so. There is a doctor in Kansas City who is charged with destroying a whole family by “thinking” according to Eddyism, and the chemist’s examination disclosed not the poison, but “mental concepts” of the murderer, and should he dangle at the end of the rope he should console himself; it is only an “illusion.”
Mind Controls the Body
Every sane man believes that the mind has power over the body. Every up-to-date physician appeals to the mental state for assistance in the patient’s recover. Many of our ills are only imaginary. I cured a deacon of mine once by having him stop telling ne he was feeling bad.
Many of the supposed cases of healing by their healers are like the man who passed by a healer’s door as he went to and from his work limping. One day she noticed that he did not limp, but walked erect, and she called him in and congratulated him upon the fact that he could no walk as other men and informed him that she had been giving him an “absent treatment.” He told her he was much obliged for her interest, but informed her, that on the day before his new cork leg arrive, which was an inch longer than the old one, therefore he could walk perfectly.
“Science and Health,” pages 154-165: For a mother to say to her child, “You are not hurt, so do not think so,” Last week, out there at Arlington, a little girl was burned horribly and lingered for twelve hours. Who would have been so heartless as to have stood beside that mother as she poured out her heart in grief looking into the face of her dying child and suggested that she tell her child, “You are not hurt, so do not think so”?
A short time ago I saw a Main street car run over a little 7-year-old boy, cutting off his limbs and mangling his body, and the little 12-year-old sister standing near by was unable to help. A great crowd of men rushed to the scene and picked up the dismembered little fellow, but an Eddyite would say, “My son, you are not hurt, so don’t think so.”
Recently one of the lawyers of this city told me of the death of his daughter and of her sever suffering. The tender-hearted father’s grief was uncontrollable as he called back her words: “Papa, I am suffering so much,can’t you help me?” Yet an Eddyite would tell him, “Your daughter never suffered: it was only a false belief.” A few days Ago I was called into a humble home to comfort a young father and mother while their baby was in the death throes of a terrible spasm. The neighbors were there and every heart went out in sorrow and sympathy, yet Eddyism says nothing was really the matter with the child. A mother In Texas telegraphed her husband in New Haven: “Come home; baby is dying.” In three days he saw the little white casket containing their only little angel. But an Eddyite would tell that mother: “Your baby was never sick,” Stand at the mouth of burning Cherry mine and behold that more than thousand orphans and widows crying, “Oh, papa!” “Oh, husband!” Yet an Eddyite would go to the disconsolate home of those humble miners and say; “He does not suffer, he has not body which can burn.”
Heartless Philosophy
It is said that Christian Science “makes one so happy,” driving away one’s fears and sorrows, Analyze it and you will find it to be the most cold and heartless philosophy. For one, I do not want the privilege of weeping with those who weep to be taken from me. Our Lord went with the two sisters over their dead brother. He wept with the widow who had lost her only son. He wept over the scattered and shepherdless multitude, He wept over the doomed and sinning city. He wept in Gethsemane for the world’s sins.
“Did Christ o’er sinners weep, and
shall our cheeks be dry?
Let floods of penitential grief burst
forth from every eye.”
This is a day of brotherhoods, from the hod carrier to the banker. Men are organized for each other’s protection and for fellow sympathy, but Eddyism laughs it all to scorn. Eddyism is a paralysis of all the sweet humanities, of all the helpful amenities of mortal love. It enables the wife to look with unmoved calmness while her husband tosses in the throes of fever, and says in even speech, “He does not suffer,” for there is no matter which fever can burn – nay, the truth is he does not actually have a body at all. “It enables us to stare at each other like cold marble as we stand over the ‘vacant chair.'” It enables men and women to walk amid sorrow and trouble and shed no tears because they deny the existence of sorrow, of sin, of woe, of death.
It is true that in this busy life a kind and sympathetic word, spoken at the right moment, has helped men and women to stand stead fast in the hour of trial. It is true, that the clasp of the hand has helped many a weak soul to fight another battle. It is true that the spirit of sympathy and fellowship with another’s sorrow has sweetened the bitterness of that hour, and has enabled him to sing his song of hope in the night of despair, and go forward to a better day: but this system, this professed religion, this Christian Science, paralyzes all of that. It denies the right of any human heart to have sympathy or consideration for another’s pain or woe. It teaches that to speak a word of sympathy, to let fall a tear, to weep with those who weep, to own and try to bear the burden of another which another feels, is to sustain that “false belief” that men and women do have cares and sorrows, or such things as heartaches and pain.
Some Questions Unanswered
I sent the following questions to the head of the Christian Scientists of this city. I did so upon his invitation and the assurance that they would be answered. I was promised a direct answer to each question.
The board of directors of the Eddyites refused to answer my questions. The following evasive letter was received:
First Church of Christ Scientist, 502 Lamar Street – Fort Worth, Texas, March 10, 1910 – Rev. J.F. Norris, Pastor First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas – Dear Sir: The list of questions prepared by you has been referred to the board of directors of First Church of Christ Scientist, Fort Worth.
The whole truth concerning Christian Science can be found in our textbook, “Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy, a copy of which, we understand, you have procured from our librarian.
(Signed by the Clerk.)
Let the public pass upon the reason why my questions , so simple that a child can answer then, were refused answer.
The Eddyites will answer this sermon, that is, they will try to do it. Now I ask you all to bear witness to the fact that they will never give a direct answer to my questions, and common fairness demands that they undertake to do what their president agreed to do at first. They will have many imported lecturers to beguile the people with the “old wives’ tables,” but not one of them will answer my questions. Speaking of lecturers, especially female lecturers, I want to say In behalf of honest womanhood that there are two things I don’t want my daughter to do – to ride astride horse and be a peripatetic lecturer before the footlights, and as an ardent prohibitionists, I say, let the men do that, too. When you hear one of them proclaiming his beliefs, rather his “false beliefs,” ask him why they do not answer the question asked by the pastor of the First Baptist church.
Before giving the question I sent them, I want to call your attention to a statement in this letter. An official statement from the board of directors:
The whole truth (not a part of it) concerning Christian Science can be found in our text book – “Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy.”
Here, for one time, they told the “whole truth” without evasion, equivocation or reservation. Ask me concerning my faith as a Baptist, and my answer bill be: “It is found in the scriptures, with nothing added thereto and nothing taken therefrom.”
Oh, my friends, the old book, the same yesterday, today and forever, the only revealed word of God, not plus anything by Mrs, Eddy or anybody else, written by holy men of old, from Moses to Paul, is good enough for me. It was good enough for my sainted mother, for the faith of her life and the hope In her death. It has been good enough for the saints and martyrs of the ages and is good enough for this sinning, suffering, dying world today. Let those who claim to have the “whole truth” from some other source than the scriptures heed the terrible warning that whosoever shall add to God’s book or take from it shall be under His eternal curse. A man or woman who undertakes to change that word one jot or title should tremble as an unforgiven sinner standing in the flaming presence of the jury and holy God.
Ask a Confucianist if he believes in the golden rule and he will not evade you by saying. “I believe in the writings of Confucius,” but will answer, “Yes.” Ask any Catholic if he believes in the infallibility of the pope and he will not answer you, “I believe what the Catholics believe,” but will answer, “Yes.” Ask me If I believe In the deity of Jesus Christ and I will not answer you by saying, “I believe what Baptists hold,” but will say plainly, “Yes.”
When a defendant on the witness stand refuses to answer simple questions in a direct manner the jury is convinced of his guilt by his evasiveness. And the Eddyites, by refusing to answer the following direct questions, confess themselves hopelessly condemned:
The Questions Asked.
- Has Eddyism built an orphanage? If so, give name and address.
They cannot answer “Yes” and they dare hot answer “No.” If they answer “Yes” they know it is untrue. If they answer “No” this philanthropic age will condemn them and all their smiling incantations about “truth and love” will be like sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.
- Has Eddyism built a home for the aged and helpless? If so, give name and Address.
Yet the churches – the very institutions Eddyism seeks to destroy – throughout the land have provided food, raiment and shelter for the aged and helpless. Eddyism would coldly say, “No suffering for the penniless old man.”
- Has Eddyism built one institution for the blind, deaf and dumb? If so, give name and address.
- Has Eddyism built one hospital anywhere in the world to take care of the wounded and dying of the land? If so, give name and address.
Last year there were 52.000 accidents and deaths caused by the railroads, mines and otherwise. Eddyism, instead of helping one of the poor, wounded fellows, would tell him he is “all mistaken; there are no accidents.”
- Does Eddyism do charity work by giving bread to the hungry thousands And clothing to the naked? If so, give name of your official who has same in charge
Yet Eddyism claims to have “the whole truth” and counts that great army of unselfish ministers and Christians who are trying to help the friendless and penniless man as ignoramuses.
- There have been several epidemics in this country by way of smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria and bubonic plague since Eddyism started. Will you name one epidemic stopped by Eddyism?
Mrs. Eddy has much to say as to the doctor, but I call your attention to these facts: there was a time when smallpox was dreaded like death in this country. In Philadelphia In 1871 and 1872 thousands lost their lives and $22,000,000 of property was destroyed. Yet the skilled doctor has made smallpox a thing of the past. There was a time when yellow fever swept through the land, leaving its trail of death. In 1878 it invaded 132 cities and destroyed 16,000 people, with a financial loss of $100,000,000; yet the skilled doctor has made yellow fever a thing of the past. There was a time when every home trembled at the shadow of diphtheria, but the skilled doctor has reduced, in this generation, the mortality 50 per cent.
- You claim that Christian Science is the mind of God and can overcome all things hurtful. Could you have prevented the Galveston storm from destroying thousands of lives?
- If there no such thing as real danger, why did Mrs. Eddy have an engine go before her train the last time she went out from Boston and one just behind her? Was it to protect her? If so, to protect her from what?
- Mrs. Eddy claims to have done surgery. Will you give me one real case of broken bone healed by your church in Fort Worth?
- Eddyism denies the reality of pain and aches. Then why do your members frequent the dentist’s chair like other folks? When the dentist extracts your tooth, does he extract a real tooyh or a mental “illusion”?
- Eddyism claims to have all power over all afflictions. Will you give me one case of real blindness, where the eyes were totally out, that has been restored in Fort Worth?
- Eddyism claims to have all power over death. Can you give me once case in Fort Worth or elsewhere where Mrs. Eddy or any of her followers have raised the dead back to life?
A Secret Trust
Why doesn’t Eddyism answer? Yet this same Eddyism will horde millions gathered from the annual payments of the Eddyites all over the country into a powerful and secret trust at Boston, which trust never issues a public financial statement of its disbursements. This too, in the face of the fact that men from Rockefeller with his $500,000,000 down to the honest day laborer are striking, planning, building and giving to meet the happy demands of a practical gospel. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the host of these, ye have done it unto Me.” I don’t agree with the doctrines of the Salvation Army, but I am their friend, the friend of any man or institution which undertakes to life up fallen humanity, but I could never give my support to that scheme which enriches itself on the credulity of a misguided people, establishing no charity work, no relief work, no rescue work, not hospital work, no philanthropic institution for helping poor, suffering, bleeding, broken and dying humanity. “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Proselyte Rather Than Do Charity
The Eddyites will compass land and sea to make one proselyte. They have no extended hand for the slum, for the tenement distract, for the debauched, for the downtrodden, but will flood the homes of the suffering rich with their seductive literature which, like Mrs. Pinkham’s patent medicine pills, promises a speedy and wholesale cure for every ill from a nightmare to a broken neck. Their lecturers deal in the most beautiful and meaningless platitudes on the platform, while their
“healers” deal in the most real coin of the realm, they having paid Mrs. Eddy $900 for the full course of a few lectures on how to conjure and mesmerize the unwary. They dare not come in the open, but like Judas Iscariot, they go in the name of “Truth and love,” with “Hail Master” on their lips, and sell His blood not for thirty pieces of silver, but for hoarding millions in a secret Boston trust.
Denial of Sin
3 Christian Science denies the reality of sin. Is it not rather singular that the devil would use a woman in the first place to seduce man into sin by getting him to believe there was no real sin, and just penalty attached thereto, and in these latter days a woman should proclaim this same awful lie?
Science and Health, page 536: The illusion of sin.
Science and Health, page 205: The nothingness and unreality of evil.
Science and Health, page 311: Sin exists so long as the illusion of mind in matter remains. It is a sense of sin and not a sinful soul which is lost.
Science and Health, page 310: If soul could sin, spirit soul would be flesh instead of spirit. It is the belief of flesh and of material things which sins. If soul sinned, soul would die.
Now try the Key to the Scriptures: The Scriptures say: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eddyism says the “soul cannot sin and cannot die.” The Scriptures say: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Eddyism says, page 475: “Man is incapable of sin.” The Scriptures say: “If we say we have no sin, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” So far as my opinion goes, Mrs, Eddy and her followers are honest and sincere, but according to God’s word, she makes God a liar
Eddyism says: “Sin Is an illusion,” therefore the Scriptures should read: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the illusion of sin.” “He was made a sin illusion for us.” “God made His soul an offering for sin illusion.” “Christ died for our illusive sins, according to Scriptures.” “He shall bear the illusion of their iniquities.” “Christ was once offered to bear the illusions of many.” Eddyism says: “Not the soul, but the sense of sin, is lost,” therefore Jesus meant to say, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole would and lose his own sense of sin.” This completely reverses the meaning, that is, the Key does. Eddyism says: “Jesus came to seek and to save the lost from their false beliefs in sin,” when the Scriptures say: “He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Eddyism would say: “He came to save men from believing that they were lost.” The prodigal boy said: “I have sinned,” but Eddyism would say he only thought he had sinned. When David shed bitter tears over the murder of Uriah and cried out, “I have sinned,” he meant to say, “I have a false belief that I have killed a man and unlawfully taken his wife, and now, It-Principle, take away from me this false belief, for I only imagine I have committed a double crime.” I never saw a drunken husband kneel at the grave of his dear wife, whose death was caused by his dissipation, and cry out: “I have sinned against wife, home and babies, O God, forgive.” Yet Eddyism would say he only thought he had sinned, you had “false beliefs.”
Denies Death
Eddyism denies the reality of death, and says it is only an “illusion.” (See Science and Health, pages 381, 289, 430, 426, 428, 429, 75 and 44.) Science and Health, page 75,: ” Jesus said of Lazarus, ‘Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.; Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that had not died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again. Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and He could not have resuscitated it. When you can awaken yourself out of the belief that all must die, you can then reproduce the presence of those who thought they died, but not otherwise.”
Nw this is a fair example of how Mrs. Eddy uses, or rather misuses, the Scriptures, the casual reader would not think to go on and read the other Scripture following the quotation. Let us read the balance of the quotation in the eleventh chapter of John: “Then, said His disciples, ‘Lord, if he sleepeth he shall do well.’ Howbeit Jesus, spoke of his death, but they thought He spoke of his taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them, plainly, Lazarus is dead.” Why did not Mrs. Eddy quote all of this Scripture. She says that Lazarus was not dead, had not died, and yet Jesus said that he was dead. Which of the two will you believe?
Science and Health says: “His disciples believed Jesus dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive.”
Science and Health says: “Jesus’ students saw Him after his crucifixion and learned that He had not died.”
Science and Health says: “His physical condition after what seemed to be death.”
Science and Health says: “Jesus seemed to die, though flesh (His flesh) never had life.”
Christian Science takes this, the supreme illustration, the death of Christ, to show that death is not a fact, but listen what the scriptures say of His Death :
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”
He said again and again that He would die.
“This he spoke concerning His death.”
“And be killed.”
Every communion day throughout the Christian world the scriptures tell us we “show forth the Lord’s death.”
Denies the Great Tragedy
Thus Eddyism goes to that incredulous extremity of denying the reality of the greatest tragedy in the world’s history – the death of Jesus on the cross. That strange scene. The cross, the crown of thorns, the motley crowd, the jeering mob, the cruel soldiers, the shrieking demons, the darkness of hell, the absence of the sun’s light – Calvary, rayless, cheerless, lifeless, was all an illusion according to Mrs. Eddy, but according to the scriptures it was the world’s hope of redemption.
Recently I was called to the bedside of a dying gambler, 64 years old. Holding my hand in his, he said: “Young man, is there any hope for a man that has sinned as I have?” I told the poor man of one who was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. He was bruised and He was oppressed, yet He opened not his mouth, He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, he openeth not His mouth. Yet It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, who hath put Him to grief. He shall make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
When I had finished. the old man, |like the penitent one at crucifixion’s hour, whispered faintly, “Our iniquities, our transgressions,” and asked, “does that mean me?” and in that moment it see me that the very gates of heaven were ajar as the redeeming work of Christ on the cross – not the fables of Mrs. Eddy – was glorified, and a new song was Sung in the presence of the angels for a sinner had been saved by grace, through the blood of the Lamb, and on earth we struck anew the chords of melody:
Ere since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall he ’till I die.