CHAPTER XI EDDYISM, COMMONLY CALLED “CHRISTIAN SCIENCE” BY. REV. MAURICE E. WILSON, D. D., DAYTON, OHIO One of the keenest observers of America has made the remark that “the reason so many new isms are constantly springing up is because the old Gospel is so hard to live.” People are looking for a comfortable life here, and an easy way to heaven. They are scanning earth and sky for a royal road. The fight with sin which the Gospel demands is a fierce and bitter fight; and many men and women are anxiously searching for a way of escape, desiring to be “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease.” This desire lies at the basis of Eddyism. Its fundamental principle is that sin and sickness have no real existence. They may be banished by a process of thought. There is no mat ter; mind is everything. And, in proportion to the progress of the individual in this creed, all disagreeable and unpleas ant things vanish. Mrs. Eddy’s basic propositions are four in number, and are thus expressed in her own words: “First, God is all in all. Second, God is good, good is mind. Third, Spirit, be ing all, nothing is matter. Fourth, Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God, Life” (p. 113, “Science and Health”).* Unconscious of the absurdity of the thing, she placidly tells us that since these statements may be read back- ♦N ote : All quotations from “Science and Health” in this article are from the Edition of 1903. 149
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