Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/373

Rh be vaccinated, and see that your mind is in such a state that by your prayers vaccination will do the children no harm. So long as Christian Scientists obey the laws, I do not suppose their mental reservations will be thought to matter much. But every thought tells, and Christian Science will overthrow false knowledge in the end.”

“What is your attitude to science in general? Do you oppose it?” “Not,” with a smile, “if it is really science.”

“Well, electricity, engineering, the telephone, the steam engine — are these too material for Christian Science?”

“No; only false science — healing by drugs. I was a sickly child. I was dosed with drugs until they had no effect on me. The doctors said I would live if the drugs could be made to act on me. Then homœopathy came like blessed relief to me, but I found that when I prescribed pellets without any medication they acted just the same and healed the sick. How could I believe in a science of drugs?”

“But surgery?”

“The work done by the surgeon is the last healing that will be vouchsafed to us, or rather attained by us, as we near a state of spiritual perfection. At present I am conservative about advice on surgical cases.”

“But the pursuit of modern material inventions?”

“Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. They light the way to the Church of Christ. We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us.”

We talked on many subjects, some only of which are here touched upon, and her views, strictly and always