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- Lucifer, vol. 3, no. 14, October 1888, pp. 164-168
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Title for references: Gestefeld U.N. - Christian Science
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"Christian Science"
Lucifer’s criticism of the statements of “Christian Science,” as contained in a published course of “Lessons,” begins with an objection to the name after a fair digest of the “Lessons” themselves.
This objection is the one most frequently made, not only by those who are aware of the sublime teaching of eternal principles long before what is called Christianity was heard of, but by those who profess to be the keepers and guardians of the statements of the Nazarene; and which, misunderstood and adulterated with misconceptions of the Old Testament, are accepted by those who think through others, as truth absolute.
But theological Christianity and scientific Christianity are widely different. The one is dogma; the other, fact. The one is accepted without knowledge, and faith is the only requisite to salvation through it. The other requires understanding, abjures belief and furnishes proof to him who understands.
The objection to the name “Christian,” as coupled with “Science,” would be valid if by the term were meant theological or ecclesiastical Christianity. But if – as is claimed – the statements of Jesus of Nazareth were scientific statements; if their inner significance was a logical deduction from a universally, if unconsciously, accepted premise; if they are – as is seen when understood – an advance upon the statements of the world’s teachers; carrying to a probable conclusion what they had approached; if his teachings, together with the Old Testament, are a presentation of the law of laws; then the terms “Christian” and “Science” are not incongruous, but form a unity expressive of the fact that “Christian Science” is not one among other sciences; but is the science of sciences; is the embodiment of manifestation whose many forms constitute the sciences, the philosophies, the religions of mankind.
Instead of being the “Buddhist,” or the “Yoga” science, it is the science of those sciences individually and collectively. It reveals what they conceal.
Lucifer suggests “Yoga Science” as the best name of all, because its aim “is pre-eminently to attain union with the Universal Spirit.” If this is true, a foundation statement of “Yoga Science” must be, non-union of man with the Universal Spirit. But a foundation statement of “Christian Science” is man’s unchangeable and indestructible union or one-ness with spirit itself.[1] Not something which has been or will be, but everlasting is; and consciousness of that which is, is what is to be attained by him.
This is what Jesus taught; is the underlying substance of the “Sermon on the Mount”; is the interior meaning of the four gospels. “Divine” or
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“Christian Science” is what is therein expressed; and it is the essence of all sciences. Those who do not find it there will naturally demur to the statement; it does not follow that others have not.
There is not an affirmation or denial made as a statement of Christian Science which was not made by Jesus, whose work it was thus “to save the world from original sin,” for that sin was ignorance; and every such affirmation and denial was made from a perception of the truth of Being instead of from a sense of being. And only as those who heard grew gradually to perceive their real selves while still in the consciousness of a seeming self, could they, in their turn, deny the latter with its environments to be the Truth of Being; while they affirmed that truth which they perceived and which was true in itself, though not yet a fact to consciousness.
“To deny disease and evil is to fly in the face of fact, and encourage the unwary mystic to ignore instead of killing his sinful nature,” says Lucifer. Christian Science does not teach ignoring of disease and evil. It teaches emphatically recognition of them; but recognition of the truth about them; not that recognition which is an acceptance of their claim to be what they seem to be. We deny that a counterfeit dollar is a dollar. We deny its claim to be such. We declare it to be a falsity and affirm the genuine to be the only dollar. Recognition of the truth about the counterfeit dollar is a necessity to the understanding of its nature. Denial of its claim to be what it seems to be, is necessary to the putting it out of circulation. To ignore its claim would be to leave it unmolested. The denial is the direct result of the perception of its nature, and necessitates action against it.
The denial of diseases and evil is an essential part of the work of redemption from them. Not one jot or tittle of the work which we have to do for our selves is hidden or prevented by the teachings of Christian Science. On the contrary, it lays bare the work and the way to do it as no philosophy or science has yet done; and the healing of disease simply is but a fragment of the mighty work whose outcome is consciousness of our real selves; our oneness with the Infinite Spirit. Who works to this end through “Christian Science” has a principle by which to walk and work which is the clue in the labyrinth of mysticism where so many, in seeking a way out, but cross and recross each other’s paths. The mazes and windings of this labyrinth are marvellous; and the man who has wandered from one to another till he knows them all, has a fund of knowledge which is as marvellous as the region from which he gathered it, but it is not knowledge of the way out.
The question “Is it true that all our diseases are the result of wrong belief,” would more completely embody the teaching of Christian Science if “wrong” were omitted. Belief is considered the opposite of understanding; and the question can only be answered by each one for himself, from the latter standpoint. All outward evidence seems to disprove the statement. If one makes no attempt to study the science of mathematics himself, he is dependent upon some one who has done so, and in none of his affairs involving mathematical calculation, does he know why the result is as it is. A would-be student of the science, who rests upon the statements of his teacher, believing what he is told, will never be a mathematician, will never be able to gain the correct
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answer to his problem and know that it is correct. He accepts the statements as made for the time being only; working out for himself the why and wherefore of them. He must understand before he can be a mathematician. Having reached that point, perceiving the principle of the science, he knows that all mathematical problems are forms which express the principle. He knows that any error in the answer to the problem is the fault of the worker of it, and is not there as a legitimate part of the problem, and he knows too that only by strict adherence to and following of the principle can he detect and destroy the error. He does not declare – if he is wise – that because he discerns what a mistake is, he is beyond the possibility of making one.
“Christian Scientists,” like all mankind, are engaged in working out the problem of Being, in making a fact to consciousness that which seems but an abstraction; the true ones do not for a moment claim that because they – as they think – discern the nature of disease, they will never more manifest any appearance of it. Lucifer asks “Are there not among the renowned teachers of the new science, who are themselves afflicted by disease, often incurable, by pain and suffering?” And the answer is frankly given – yes. There are Christian Scientists who manifest in their own persons a contradiction to statements they make. Does this fact alter for one moment the truth of the statements if they be true? Is that a just conclusion which says: “What you say cannot be so, because I see in you something that contradicts it”
A teacher of mathematics tells his student that two and two are four. The student may see him dealing with another and making two and two five, in his calculations. If he does not understand for himself why and how two and two are four, he will say: “What you told me cannot be true because you are making five out of two and two.” If he does understand the four to be a manifestation of the principle of the science, he will not be affected in the least by what he sees in his teacher; he will know where the error lies, but only such an one can know.
On the other hand, many Christian Scientists afford proof – to those to whom such a fact is proof – of the efficacy of the understanding of the science, by a change in physical conditions which appears wonderful.[2] Many, as is known to the writer, both by personal experience and some years of close observation, have exchanged suffering long continued, both mental and physical – the latter in many forms pronounced incurable by the medical fraternity – for comparative freedom from pain and disease, and the ability to meet and discharge the everyday duties which were formerly almost entirely suspended. But the only proof which really is proof, is a matter of one’s own consciousness. The outer, seen of many, is as variously pronounced upon. The inner is known to one’s self.
To perceive the direct connection between a certain form of physical disease and the mental state manifest therein – as quoted by Lucifer – seems to the author of the “Lessons” unlikely in the present stage of the development of the science; and something which all Christian Scientists should be slow to do. Statements which are more the result of enthusiasm than sound deductions from a given premise, are justly open to criticism and least able to withstand it.
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The future of Christian Science does not and cannot depend upon its method of treatment of disease as practised by the few for the many, though the favourable results so gained are the “signs” which naturally draw those who receive them to a consideration of the method which has furnished them. The understanding of the science in their turn reveals its preventive value and exemplifies the old adage “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Lucifer asks for “the guarantee, the hall-mark of the true Christian Scientist by which he can be known to the unwary.” There is none. Is there any hall-mark by which a mesmerist can be known to those ignorant of mesmerism? One by which a book-keeper can be known to do his work honestly? Lucifer says truly, “If this, like other spiritual things, can only be spiritually discerned, the patient must be equal to the healer and will have no need of him.” This is exactly what Christian Science teaches; that every man is his own best physician. He must administer that truth which heals to himself. Unable to do so, he is as approachable by one kind of an influence as another. Having this ability, he grows gradually able to detect the nature and quality of every influence, and to ward off those which assimilate with personal man.
One who understands mathematics can reckon up his accounts himself. One who does not, must depend upon some one else to do it for him; and because he is so dependent, he is in danger of being cheated. He is freed from that danger only by gaining the necessary understanding for himself.
Suppose a friend to be suffering intensely from information received of the death of an absent loved one; and you discovered that the information was false; that the supposed dead still lived. You would state that fact to your friend, accompanied with proof that what you said was true. Her suffering would disappear. Why? Because the truth itself, not you, had overcome and dispelled it. She would not think that the loved one was alive simply because you thought so. But a mesmerist would make her think a certain one was dead whom she knew to be alive before she was subjected to his influence; because while under it, she unconsciously ceases to think for herself and thinks only what he wills her to think. No will power is employed in the first instance except the impulse of good-will to help one in affliction to see the truth which dispels suffering. In the second, domination or control of what one thinks regardless of truth or falsity is gained by the person exerting his will to that end.
The one is white magic; the other black. The one is a treatment according to Christian Science; the other is mesmerism. The one manifests the power of Truth; the other, the power of belief. The one, the self-lessness of Truth; the other, the all-self of the human mind.[3]
The article, “Let every man prove his own works,” in Lucifer No. 3, closes with an excellent analysis of a Theosophist. A parallel statement would be, He who does not declare and maintain his divine right to think for himself; he who does not unceasingly strive to discern the truth for its own sake; he who does not as unceasingly desire that that truth shall be made manifest regardless of gain or loss to himself; he who does not help to that result by unselfish effort for others; he
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who is not ever ready to rob evil of its power by speaking the word of truth; by helping others to see and speak in their turn; by comforting the sorrowing; by aiding the weak; by charity for all and malice toward none; he who does not rigorously refrain from mentally influencing another so as to cause action on his part through other than his own will, is no Christian Scientist.
Footnotes
- ↑ Facts are against this assumption. Were the “Union” universal there could be no evil, no disease or suffering in this world. – [Ed.]
- ↑ No such “proofs” afforded by the adepts of “Christian Science” here: not in London at any rate. “Physician, heal thyself.” . . . . – [Ed.]
- ↑ This is against all the teachings of Occultism, and is an arbitrary assumption, showing that the writer knows nothing of either white or black magic. To help anyone with a cancer on the nose to fancy he has no cancer, can only be done through mesmerism, or hypnotism, although the operator may call it as he chooses. – [Ed.]