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thus conceived, ineptly styling it an "immaculate Christ is the Holy Ghost! ''Jesus demonstrated conception" not understanding the si^pification of Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea this term, but intending to convey the idea that her of God — ^the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing child was an instance of genesis without physical the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all generation. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, ioas truth/'

crucified, died, and was btaried. , ... He shall come As for the Holy Catholic Church Mrs. Eddy's to judge the livina and the dead. It must be re- ideas on this point are clear from the unchristian membered that Christian Science holds that pain, and uncatholio church which she took the trouble suffering and sin are "mortal mind,'' error, unreality, to found. The Communion of Saints is rejected, a "delusion," "nothing." "The only reality of sin too, whether in this world or in the next since the .... is the awful fact that unrealities seem real only reality is God. Prayer is useless, for Mrs. to human belief until God strips off their dis- Eddy says, "Prayer is unnecessary, as the All guises." "In Christian Science the fact is made has already decreed what is good for us," and, "a obvious, that the sinner and the sin are alike noth- mere request that God will heal the sick has no ingness." "God never made man capable of sin. power to gain more of the divine presence than .... Man is incapable of sin. .... For he derives is always at hand." Yet we are told that Christian his essence from God, and does not possess a single Scientists heal sickness through prayer, a prayer or underived power." Hence according to this however of "affirmation," for "the prayer that heals teaching Christ could not and did not miffer; He the sick is an absolute understanding of God." could not and did not atone for our sins. Yet What Mrs. Eddv taught on the forgivenese of sins inconsistently as ever, Mrs. Eddy in other passases is clear from her treatment of Christ and the declares that "the atonement of Christ reconcfles Atonement, while the resurrection of the body and man to God, not God to man," for "to remit the the eschatological doctrine of life everlasting have penalty due to sin [which she claims does not also been touched upon in the same connection, exist] would be for Truth to pardon error"; and The sacraments naturally are rejected by Mrs. "Sin is not forgiven; we cannot escape its penalty. Eddy but a word is necessary on her treatment of .... Suffering [which is unreality] for sin is all marriage to which she devotes a chapter of "Sci- that destroys it." Whichever passages we take as ence and Health." Marriase, because its very her real interpretation we jSnd that she has rejected nature would seem to give the lie to her denials the central doctrines of Christianity. Nor did of matter, Mrs. Eddy publicly characterized as Jesus die for death, too, is unreal and non-existent: "fl!ynon3rmou8 with legalised lust" ("C. S. Journal/' "Wh^n you waken yourself out of the belief that Jidy, 1906). Inferentially she declares in "Miscel- all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual laneous Writinflp9" that there will come a time when power to reproduce the presence of those who have marriage will be prohibited in Christian Science, thought they have died-— but not otherwise." How- "Until Time matures human srowth, marriage and ever, within the tomb, Mrs. Eddy says, our Savior progeny will continue unprohibited in Christian solves the problem of being and through this Science. We look to future generations for ability solution He later appears to His disciples: "The to comply with absolute Science when marriage lonely precincts of the tomb save Jesus a refuge shall be found to be man's oneness with God. To from His foes, a place in which to solve the great abolish marriage at this period and maintain moral- problem of being. His three da3rs' work in the ity and generation woula put ingenuity to ludicrous

sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time shifts [it certainly woyldl] yet t|iis is possible in

He met and mastered on the basis of Christian Sci- Science, though to-dav it is problematic." In "Sci- ence, the power of mind over matter, all the claims ence and Health" she states, "Proportionally as of medicme, surgery, and hygiene." Apparently human eeneration ceases, the imbroken links of she intends to teach in this passaee that Jesus eternal harmonious being will be discerned, and was alive in the tomb: incidentally we denies His man not of the earth earthly, but co-existent with omniscience for He had to seek a refuge in which to God, will appear."

solve the problem of being! The Resurrection, then, ^ It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on the did not take place since Jesus did not really die, immoral tendencies apparent throughout the teach- and the Ascension Mrs. Eddy explains away by ings of Christian Science, apart from their evident teaching that He merely rose above the material denial of all Catholic dogma. Freedom of the will senses of His disciples, as her own disciples will is denied for man is but a reflection of God. Sin be able to do when they conquer "mortal mind." furthermore is unreality, and hence there can, "In His final demonstration, called the Ascension, according to Mrs. Eddy, be no such thing as im- He rose above the physical knowledge of His morality and therefore there is no means afforded disciples, and the material senses saw Him no against the onslaughts of temptation. Finally, if more." The Last Judgment Mrs. Eddy relegates not directly, at least indirectly, the evils of birth also to the realm of unreality by teaching that control are inculcated in her teaching on marriage the next world is merely a state in which sense when she teaches that "a wife need not esteem the knowledge, pleasure and pain will have disappeared privilege of becoming a mother,'* and that children and there will be no personality or existence apart are "errors."

from God. This denial of the Last Judgment is As for the cures which Christian Science purports merely another aspect of her Pantheism (although to perform, a lengthy discussion is out of place she strenuously denied that her e^ystem was Pan- here. That some cures are performed is unques- theistic). tionable, but they must be attributed to "laith

I believe in the Holy Ghost. As stated above healing," or susgestion, despite the deniab of Mrs. Mrs. Eddy denies the Trinity and hence the Eddy that such factors enter in. Some, too, may divinity of the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, be providential cures permitted by God to those In one place she identifies the Holy Ghost with who approach Him in good faith, even though they "divine Science" (i. e.. Christian Science 1) She be in error. Officially, however, the fundamental says, "In words of St. John: 'He shall give you point on which Mrs. Eddy based her teaching on another Comforter, that he may abide with you this question is that the miracles of Christ were forever.' This Comforter I undf^rstand to be divine mere natural phenomena within the control of Science." Yet in another passage we are told that anyone who rises above "mortal mind," and that