Eddyism, Commonly Called “Christian Science” 159 This does not mean that the followers of Mrs. Eddy do not effect cures. They do. But just as astonishing cures, and a great many more of them, are effected by Catholic shrines all over the world—at Lourdes, for example—and by relics such as those of St. Anne in New York City. Francis Schlatter, in Denver a few years ago, and Alexander Dowie, in Chicago, probably far surpassed in this respect any single follower of Mrs. Eddy who ever coped with the ills that flesh is heir to—not even excepting the founder of the sect herself. And yet none of these other healers ever thought of denying the facts of the material world. The claims of Eddyism to cure organic diseases break down under the most elementary rules of criticism. That it does cure “functional” diseases, all will admit, for it is simply a matter of suggestion. I t never has cured, and never will cure, any diseases, except those which have been cured again and again by “mental therapeutics.” And from the works of healing in the temples of Aesculapius down to the present time, mankind has used, for better or worse, mental thera peutics. We often wonder why Mrs. Eddy and her followers are so sure that God is a physician, but are unwilling to trust Him as a surgeon. She is ready to turn over into His hands every case of stomach trouble or liver complaint; but for a broken leg or a dislocated shoulder, she wants a surgeon! I make bold to repeat that Eddyism has not one iota of evi dence to support its theory of healing; “no evidence,” as an other has said, *but would be thrown out of the lowest police court. Its cures differ neither in character nor in numbers from those effected by others, as remarked above. And all may be accounted for by the well-known fact of the influ ence of mind over mind, and of mind over body. Professor Carpenter, the English physiologist, speaking
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