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Show A VICTIM OF EDDYISM. We have before us a communication bearing the signature "A Christian," and sent us, ostensibly, ostensi-bly, from Albuquerque X. M., in which he praises, very generously, an article on "Eddyism," which appeared in this journal, and adds: "The writer, who has lost his wife and home through Eddy's hypnotic influence, wanted to thank the editors and publishers for exposing this fraud, and will hope to see further articles, with the request for other publications to copy, on the subject." The. communication is, as a whole, a severe denunciation de-nunciation of the methods of Eddyismj sometimes yclept "Christian Science." Whether it was intended in-tended for publication we know not, but inasmuch as it does not bear the writer's name, we are indisposed in-disposed to insert it in our columns. The writer is, evidently, a man of intelligence and education, and, withal, earnest and sincere. He certainly has our heartfelt sympathy, for no greater evil, of a purely temporal nature, can befall a man than to have his home destroyed and his heart rendered desolate of all that is most sacred and most precious in life. It is an ungrateful task to feel constantly called upon to criticise and denounce, but such is the le- gitimate province of a journal published in the interest of truth, righteousness and morality. Particularly painful is it to feel constrained to denoujice a religious system, for around such is wound the heart-strings of its devoted adherents. But it is precisely because the cult bearing the appelation of Christian Science assumes the characteristics char-acteristics of a religious system that it is fraught with much danger to society. To yield allegiance to a false system, is to abandon the truth, and this may never be done without inviting upon one's-self one's-self pernicious consequences of the gravest import. That there is in the tenets of this cult, considered consid-ered jn the abstract, much that is commendable no intelligent and fair-minded person will be disposed to dispute. The doctrine (if such it may be called) that mind exercises a potent influence over matter, and that the will of man is the supreme faculty of the sould is, when rationally accepted, an elevating, tenet, because founded upon eternal truth truth, in fact, that , rationally, the fundamental prin ciple of Christianity. But to hence conclude that man is himself the deity, and .all-sufficient for himself, him-self, is to deny all supernatural religion, and the whole system, as such, is rendered absurd, baneful and iniquitous. All that is genuinely good and true in Christian Chris-tian Science is as old as the hills; insofar as they are an essential revelation to the human race, they have been an integral part of the treasure, guarded and dispensed for nearly twenty centuries, by the depository of all divine and spiritual truth, Mother Church- It is the vaunted "new-thought" factor in the system under discussion that renders it radically unsound, ridiculous and essentially pernicious. The pride of intellect and the pride of the flesh are the ruination of the sons of men, constantly impelling impell-ing them to forsake the infinite God of truth, love and righteousness, and to fatuously pursue the idols of a perverted heart and intellect. |