tenth story and if your mind assured you, you would not be injured. You could get up and run home! Of course, to be wholly consistent with her de lusion, you could just imagine the building was not there—or even that you were not there! It would be all the same, if you are a Christian Sci entist. Mrs. Eddy deals with the healing of the blind man: “ In the passages recording Jesus’ proceedings with the blind man (Mark 8) he is said to have spat upon the dust . . . So . . . Jesus expressed contempt for the belief of material eyes as having power to see . . . To suppose that Jesus did actually anoint the blind man’s eyes with his spittle, is absurd” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 170). Thus she calls God a liar for here is what it says in Mark 8:22-25: “ . . . They bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” Yet Mrs. Eddy claimed the Bible was her “ only authority” ! Here are some additional state ments in regard to sickness and the body which show to what lengths this kind of thinking can lead: “ If the Science of Life were under stood, it would be found that . . . matter has no sensation. Then the human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster’s claw—not with an artificial limb, but with a genuine one” (S & H, p. 489, lines 3-8). “Your body would suffer no more from . . . wounds than the trunk of a tree you gash . . . were it not for mortal mind” (S & H, p. 392, 74th ed.). “You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests, through inflammation and swelling, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil” (S & H, p. 153, lines 15-19). In The First Church of Christ, Sci entist, and Miscellany, (pages 341- 346) there is an extract of an inter view with Mrs. Eddy, reported in the New York Herald of May 1, 1901.
One question asked her was, “ Do you reject utterly the bacteria theory of the propagation of disease?” “ Oh,” with a prolonged inflection, “ entirely. If I harbored that idea about a dis ease, I should think myself in danger of catching it.” Catching what, if there is no dis ease? On page 229 of Miscellaneous Writ ings, she states: “ People believe in
infectious and contagious diseases . . . This mental state prepares one to have any disease . . . If he believed as sincerely that health is catching when exposed to contact with healthy people, he would catch their state of feeling.” “Nothing but mortal belief, mis named man, says, ‘Matter has intelli gence and sensation; nerves feel; brains think and sin; the stomach can make a man cross; limbs can cripple and matter kills him,” (5 & H, p. 26, 28th ed.). Here is a question that was asked and answered by her in her Miscel laneous Writings (p. 334): “Why do Christian Scientists treat disease as disease when there is no disease? This is done only as one gives the lie to the lie; because it is a lie, without one word of Truth in it. You must find error to be nothing: then, do you handle it in Science . . . just reduce this falsity to its proper de nomination, and you have done with it.” If one can accept one who would write a statement like that as “ the voice of Truth to this age,” then he is indeed not only blinded by Satan, but he is no longer able to think ra tionally. Mrs. Eddy and her followers have taken advantage of one of the most moving needs of man—physical dis ability and disease— and have turned thousands from Christ by a promise of deliverance. But keep in mind, my friends, the fact a system can heal is no proof that it is from God. I verily believe that a large percentage of the Christian Science healings are fakes—but even the others that ap pear to be actual healings from actual diseases—are not to be wondered at in view of 2 Thess. 2:9,10: “ . . . with all power and signs and lying won ders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” A healing that is based upon the denial of Jesus Christ is not a healing from God and one had better suffer pain even unto death, if God is not pleased to deliver one from it than to turn for health to an emissary of Satan, a Christian Science healer. The devil can work miracles, and in the last days these miracles will in crease. END. NEXT MONTH Christian Science, Death and Resurrection
LOUIS T. TALBOT A b o n t th e A u th o r A ustralian-born Dr. Louis T. Talbot has for years been one of America’s strongest pro claimed of evangelical Chris tianity. He is a noted writer (10 books; numerous pamphlets and magazine articles), pastor (for 20 years at the Chinch of the Open Door in Los Angeles) and educator (long-time presi dent, now chancellor, of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and Talbot Theological Semi nary). Dr. Talbot and his research ers have made a wide study on cults and false religions. For years he has presented his illus trated sermons on this subject to audiences the world over. Just completed this summer, this series represents years of work. It is believed to be the most complete and certainly the most up-to-date work on the subject.
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