Eddyism, Commonly Called “Christian Science” 151 quence, as if they had been shaken up in a bag and drawn out by a blind man. Rather than offend the logical sense of the reader, I shall offend the book itself, and selecting a few of these topics consider them in their proper order. “ god ” What does Mrs. Eddy teach concerning God? Well, for one thing, that God is not a person. He is “Principle” ; and of the same impersonal character as the “principle of mathe matics.” That is her own analogy—“the principle of mathe matics.” This statement is iterated and re-iterated with in tense positiveness. God, moreover, is the only Principle. Mrs. Eddy denies that she is a pantheist. This at first is most astounding; but when we turn to her definition of pantheism we understand her denial. Pantheism, she tells us, is “a belief in the intelligence of matter” (p. 129, “Science and Health”). Since waters began to run, the world never heard so wonderful a definition of pantheism. Even Spinoza himself was not a pantheist according to this interpretation of the word. But inasmuch as in Eddyism “there is no matter”, and “mind is everything”, and “there is no mind but God”, sensible people can reach only one conclusion. We have here out and out pantheism. The author tells us, “There is but one I or Us.” “But one I or Us” ! Mrs. Eddy declares that Christian Science completely cleansed her mind of all such trivial things as grammar. I t certainly looks so. Again, we are told that “God is the only Ego.” Perhaps the adherents of this cult believe its founder when she denies that she is a pantheist, but nobody else believes her. The God of Eddyism is hopelessly entangled in the meshes of His own creation. He is imprisoned as the sap is imprisoned in the tree.
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