The spread of the Christian Science cult is one of those movements which seem to thrive upon opposition. About the very time that orthodox enthusiasts of the stricter sort and practising physicians of almost every school are ranging themselves against the new doctrine, the exponents of the latter claim to be able to show a popular following of nearly a million disciples in the United States, with a corresponding increase of organized bodies.
Even the prosecutions in the cases of Harold Frederic and others in England appear to have no other effect than to arouse additional public curiosity. The Scientists are facing the criticisms of the orthodox in theology and medicine by a campaign of education, in which Pittsburg is incidentally included, as appears from the public lecture by Mr. Carol Norton, advertised for Carnegie Hall to-morrow evening, January 16.
Where doctors, either of religion or medicine, differ, it behooves not uninformed laymen to seem too quick in judgment. But, leaving the religious and therapeutic sides of Christian Science out of the question, the philosophic phase is sufficiently fascinating to allow very wide interest.
