0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

1	"PRAYER AND HEALING" 

  	    The article of Professor T —— , having the above cap-
 3	tion, published in Zion's Herald, December third, came
  	not to my notice until January ninth. In it the Professor
  	offered me, as President of the Metaphysical College in
 6	Boston, or one of my students, the liberal sum of one
  	thousand dollars if either would reset certain dislocations
  	without the use of hands, and two thousand dollars if
 9	either would give sight to one born blind. 
  	    Will the gentleman accept my thanks due to his gener-
  	osity; for, if I should accept his bid on Christianity, he
12	would lose his money. 
  	    Why? 
  	    Because I performed more difficult tasks fifteen years
15	ago. At present, I am in another department of Christian
  	work, "where there shall no signs be given them," for
  	they shall be instructed in the Principle of Christian
18	Science that furnishes its own proof. 
  	    But, to reward his liberality, I offer him three thou-
  	sand dollars if he will heal one single case of opium-eating
21	where the patient is very low and taking morphine powder
  	in its most concentrated form, at the rate of one ounce in
  	two weeks, — having taken it twenty years; and he is to
24	cure that habit in three days, leaving the patient well. I
  	cured precisely such a case in 1869. 
  	    Also, Mr. C. M. H —— , of Boston, formerly partner
27	of George T. Brown, pharmacist, No. 5 Beacon St., will
  	tell... you that he was my student in December, 1884; and
  	that before leaving the class he took a patient thoroughly
30	addicted to the use of opium — if she went without it

 Miscellaneous Writings --- “Prayer and Healing”                         
 page 243

1	twenty-four hours she would have delirium — and in
  	forty-eight hours cured her perfectly of this habit,
 3	with no bad results, but with decided improvement in
  	health. 
  	    I have not yet made surgery one of the mental branches
 6	taught in my college; although students treat sprains,
  	contusions, etc., successfully. In the case of sprain of the
  	wrist-joint, where the regular doctor had put on splints
 9	and bandages to remain six weeks, a student of mine
  	removed these appliances the same day and effected the
  	cure in less than one week. Reference, Mrs. M. A. F —— ,
12	107 Eutaw Street, East Boston. 
  	    I agree with the Professor, that every system of medi-
  	cine claims more than it practises. If the system is Science,
15	it includes of necessity the Principle, which the learner
  	can demonstrate only in proportion as he understands it. 
  	Boasting is unbecoming a mortal's poor performances. 
18	My Christian students are proverbially modest:  their
  	works alone should declare them, since my system of medi-
  	cine is not generally understood. There are charlatans
21	in "mind-cure," who practise on the basis of matter, or
  	human will, not Mind. 
  	    The Professor alludes to Paul's advice to Timothy. 
24	Did he refer to that questionable counsel, "Take a little
  	wine for thy stomach's sake"? Even doctors disagree
  	on that prescription:  some of the medical faculty will
27	tell you that alcoholic drinks cause the coats of the stomach
  	to thicken and the organ to contract; will prevent the
  	secretions of the gastric juice, and induce ulceration,
30	bleeding, vomiting, death. 
  	    Again, the Professor quotes, in justification of material
  	methods, and as veritable: "He took a bone from the
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- “Prayer and Healing”                         
 page 244

 1	side of Adam, closed up the wound thereof, and builded
  	up the woman."  (Gen. ii. 21.) 
 3	    Here we have the Professor on the platform of Christian
  	Science! even a "surgical operation" that he says was
  	performed by divine power, — Mind alone constructing
 6	the human system, before surgical instruments were
  	invented, and closing the incisions of the flesh. 
  	    He further states that God cannot save the soul without
 9	compliance to ordained conditions. But, we ask, have
  	those conditions named in Genesis been perpetuated in
  	the multiplication of mankind? And, are the conditions
12	of salvation mental, or physical; are they bodily penance
  	and torture, or repentance and reform, which are the
  	action of mind? 
15	    He asks, "Has the law been abrogated that demands
  	the employment of visible agencies for specific ends?" 
  	    Will he accept my reply as derived from the life and
18	teachings of Jesus? — who annulled the so-called laws of
  	matter by the higher law of Spirit, causing him to walk
  	the wave, turn the water into wine, make the blind to see,
21	the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to be
  	raised without matter-agencies. And he did this for man's
  	example; not to teach himself, but others, the way of
24	healing and salvation. He said, "And other sheep I have,
  	which are not of this fold." 
  	    The teachings and demonstration of Jesus were for
27	all peoples and for all time; not for a privileged class or
  	a restricted period, but for as many as should believe in
  	him. 
30	    Are the discoverers of quinine, cocaine, etc., espe-
  	cially the children of our Lord because of their medical
  	discoveries? 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- “Prayer and Healing”                         
 page 245

 1	    We have no record showing that our Master ever used,
  	or recommended others to use, drugs; but we have his
 3	words, and the prophet's, as follows: "Take no thought,
  	saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?" 
  	"And Asa . . . sought not to the Lord, but to the phy-
 6	sicians.  And Asa slept with his fathers." 
Read more