Page:Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science (1902).pdf/50

 means such a state is actually brought about—simply by the refusal to be burdened with things troublesome—by the deification of selfishness, by the banishment of sympathy, by the refusal of the principle which bids us to bear one another's burdens—the principle upon which all society and civilization are based.

Happiness born of such fundamentals as this cannot but be transient—is of the very essence of evil, and is absolutely impossible, even for a short while; except in the case where the individual, by reason of his wealth, has all the material wants—of his nature supplied, and can afford to be independent of the sympathy of his fellow men. Christian Science, therefore, has been, and is, a religion only for the well-to-do; it has no message for the poor and afflicted, no care for the sick, except to tell them that they do not suffer; it has founded no charitable institutions; it maintains no free hospitals, but demands, and wrests payment of the "Almighty Dollar" for all the boons its priests and priestesses and divine healers may confer—shamelessly opposed to Christian Altruism, flying in the face of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and striking down the divine principles of pity, mercy and unselfishness!