I cannot say that I have found very much sympathy on the part of husbands, even nominal Christian Science husbands, with Mrs. Eddy’s views upon the marriage relation; but I do know of many cases in which they have so influenced wives as to lead to the complete destruction of anything like real marriage.
Mrs. Eddy disapproves of marriage altogether. “These words of St. Matthew,” she says, “have special application to Christian Science, namely, ‘It is not good to marry.’”
In the first place, St. Matthew never said anything of the kind; and, in the second place, if he had said it, it would have been only so much to his discredit. No sane and sincere person has ever denounced marriage; and not only did St. Matthew not disapprove of it, but, in his Gospel, Jesus is quoted as having said: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.” And the beautiful affection of Jesus for children is sufficient evidence of his high approval of marriage.
Mrs. Eddy, having been married three or four times, now emphatically disapproves of marriage, and a marriage between Christian Scientists is decidedly objectionable. There has never been a marriage in a Christian Science church. There is no Christian Science marriage ceremony and no Christian Science official authorized to perform a marriage. The marriage relation, as such, is regarded as sensuous and impure, and the marriage of an official of the church in any part of the country would mean instant loss of power and influence together with his office and its emoluments.
“Is marriage nearer right than celibacy?” asks Mrs. Eddy. “Human knowledge inculcates that it is, while science indicates that it is not.” Science is thus distinguished from human knowledge. Mrs. Eddy’s
science is a thing imparted to her by Omniscience, and Omniscience, she says, indicates that marriage is not nearer right than celibacy. It is a part of Mrs. Eddy’s teaching and the teaching of her students, that a woman cannot be an effective healer, if she really love a man and be a true wife, and that a man cannot accomplish the best results in healing through Christian Science if he really love a woman and be a true husband.
With this objection to marriage goes also the objection to children, so that the birth of children in Christian Science families is of rare occurrence and is regarded as evidence of unspiritual living and is decidedly discrediting. “Sensual and mortal beliefs, material suppositions of life,” Mrs. Eddy calls children.
The effect of this teaching is shown in the difference between Christian Science Sunday Schools and Christian Sunday Schools. The membership of the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian Sunday Schools is about the same as their church membership; while in Christian Science Sunday Schools there is but one child for every five church members.
Mrs. Eddy’s objection to children does not appear to be to children themselves, but simply to children begotten and born as they have been from the beginning of man’s existence until now and will be until the end. It is a part of Mrs. Eddy’s inspired doctrine that, when Christian Science has made a conquest of the world and the “spiritual creation is discerned,” there will be no more marriage and the human race be propagated without regard to sex. “Until it be learned,” she says, “that generation rests on no sexual basis, let marriage continue,” and “until time matures human growth, marriage and progeny will continue unprohibited in Christian Science,” and “To abolish marriage at this period and maintain morality and generation, would put ingenuity to ludicrous shifts, yet this is possible in Science.” Insane as this teaching is, Mrs. Eddy’s alleged “intelligent” following believe it to be the teaching of Infinite Wisdom, and as such make it the desire of their lives.
Charming doctrine this for civilized people to make the regulator of their lives! Oh, charming! But Mrs. Eddy goes further and denounces marriage in the roundest and almost unprintable terms.