Description of the Latest and Most Remarkable of Boston's Remarkable Productions.
A Revival of the Primitive Christian Method of Curing Diseases, and the Science of the Process.
Some eighteen years ago, a thoughtful woman, with an independent and original mind which could not be limited to the conclusions of other minds, following the line of investigation in homeopathy, experimenting with doses of pure water when a favorite remedy was expected by the patient, and gaining exactly the desired result; in other cases bringing her mind to bear on the disease, and restoring the patient to health, unaided by drugs or the imagination—gradually became convinced that the power of mind over matter was an almost undiscovered and a wholly incalculable force. Later, she received injuries by an accident which the attending physician decided must be fatal, within three days from which she rose well in a single moment.
"For three years" she says, "I sought day and night for the solution of the problem: How was I cured? I searched the Scriptures, read nothing else, not even a newspaper, kept aloof from society, and gave all my time and energy to finding a rule for that demonstration. I knew its principle was God, and thought it was done according to primitive, Christian healing by a certain action of mind on the body, through a holy, uplifting faith; but I wanted to find the science that governed it."
This she has discovered and demonstrated by the healing of hundreds of people, many of whom have been pronounced incurable by the best physicians.
This woman is Mary B. G. Eddy, founder, and President of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Columbus Avenue, Boston, pastor of the church connected with the college, author of "Science and Health," which has reached the sixth edition—editor of a newspaper, etc.
These people claim to be strict followers of Jesus Christ, whose command to "preach the gospel" they say, rests no more bindingly upon his disciples than the command to "heal the sick." Perhaps I can best give an idea of the methods employed by these "metaphysicians" by relating my own experience, under the treatment of Mrs. C. E. Choate of Boston.
I had been confined to my bed three months, suffering from a chronic disease of several years' standing. For six weeks I had not been able to sit up long enough to have my bed made, and had not had my hair dressed in that time. I turned in bed with difficulty, and was obliged to be with my limbs drawn up and my back bent like a bow. I suffered constant pain, pain, excessive nervousness and mental depression. Hearing of Mrs. Choate, through one of her patients, my friends called her.
She took her seat a little distant from my bed-side, and told me to tell her all about myself. Then, without commenting on my condition she continued silent some fifteen minutes. During the week that passed before the next visit, I felt a change in my mental condition; the clouds lifted, and there was light. Before the third visit I was able to throw aside my bromide and fall into a sweet, natural sleep, feeling that the everlasting arms were around me. I could also sit in my chair for half an hour, and fixing my thought intently on the Omnipotence of God, and on my relation to the all-Good, all-Beautiful, all-Enduring, returned to my bed refreshed, in spite of the pain which still continued. At the fourth visit she said I must leave my room before she came again.
This seemed the hardest task ever set before me, but when I demurred, as I did with flowing tears, she said: "You can do it. It was never intended that a woman or man should lie in bed month after month: you are merely the slave of a belief: you must walk into the next chamber before I make another visit. It is the belief that you cannot walk, and your fear of the consequences, that alone prevent your walking."
At this visit—like all other visits—Mrs. Choate did not touch me, even to shake hands in coming and going, but sat a little distance from me, insisting on the great realities of harmony and the divine Spirit, her face all aglow with the conviction that God is and man is His idea. The third day after this visit, when the family were at dinner in the evening, and I alone in my chamber, I felt a strong desire to leave my bed and walk. Trembling and tottering, bent like an old woman, bearing part of my weight on my hands as I leaned on the furniture, I walked partly around my room and back to the bed, where I fell completely exhausted, but triumphant. This effort increased the weakness and pain in my back so much that I dared not make the attempt again until the very day that I expected Mrs. Choate. Then with two canes, bent and tottering, I managed to get to the door of the room, but there met the herculean task of turning the door handle and getting my heavy feet over the threshold. I could not bear my weight on one cane and open the door with the free hand, but had to support myself against the door frame, take both hands to open the door, resume my cane, and drag my feet, which grew larger and larger at every step, over that mountain of a threshold. That accomplished I sank into the first chair and wondered how I was to get back. Determined not to call for help, I stumbled and tugged at my task until, I reached my bed, with tears of pain blinding my eyes, for every step had been an exquisite torture. I said to myself "I shall not soon try this again: it is too costly an experiment."
About four hours afterward, feeling that I must be sitting up when Mrs. C. came, I was assisted to my easy chair, being unusually weak and lame from the walking. When I told her of the painful and difficult experiment she made no comment, except to congratulate me, and gently remarked: 'You will not need your canes again." I looked at her in amazement, and considering the remark too unfeeling to deserve a reply kept silent, and in the half hour's conversation that followed, the words did not occur to me. When she had gone and I was still sitting in my chair talking with my husband on the philosophy of "mind over matter," I suddenly found myself walking in the centre of the room, erect and unassisted, and broke off a sentence to cry out, "Oh, see what I am doing!" I made a tour of the room two or three or four times and sank into my chair, overcome with wonder and delight. My husband said, when he saw me rise from my chair quickly and easily he dared not speak, lest calling my attention to myself the spell would be broken and I should fall to the floor. But the "spell" was not broken, for I left my bed in the night to see if I had lost the power to walk, and returned "praising and giving thanks," as did the multitudes in the days of miracles. My canes were needed no more in walking about the house, but I used them in my first effort to walk on the ground. In order to test my new strength, that evening, I tried opening the door and walking over the threshold, and accomplished the feat with perfect ease. Strange to say, Mrs. C.'s remark, "You will not need your canes again," did not occur to me until the next day. When I subsequently told her the above incident she smilingly remarked that it was "a complete demonstration of the science." These Christian Scientists declare that "miracles are but phenomena not understood, and which their Principle explains."
Malden, Mass.
