“And, as I told you, my stepsister’s first husband, Shadrach van Guelder, was afraid to be alone in the dark after that night,” concluded the Vrouw Grobelaar. “It is ill shooting baboons, Frikkie.”
“I’m not afraid,” retorted Frikkie; and the baboon in the yard rattled his chain and cursed shrilly.
ONE HUNDRED CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CURES
BY
RICHARD C. CABOT, M.D.
What are we to think of the miraculous cures reported in Christian Science “experience meetings” and in the columns of the Christian Science journals? Are we to consider them as genuine and accurate records of fact, or are we to reject them as fabrications?
It would be easy to deal with the subject by driving Christian Scientists into a corner and logically refuting their claims; for if it is true, as stated on page 120 of “Science and Health,” that “health is not a condition of matter but of mind, nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on this subject,” of course “the material senses” cannot be trusted when they testify that cancer, consumption, broken bones, or locomotor ataxia have been cured by Christian Science. There is no such thing as the diagnosis of these diseases without reliance on the testimony of “the material senses.”
But although it is easy thus to refute the Christian Scientists, such refutation satisfies no one and proves nothing except their logical bankruptcy. The victory over their weak-kneed theory is a barren one, for is it not notorious that people’s practice may be better than their theory? Skill in logic and in the accurate statement of one’s principles may be very slight, and yet the successful application of these misstated or absurd principles may be a fact and a blessing.
I shall therefore undertake to examine and to discuss Christian Science cures, not from the point of view of logic or consistency, but by a study of the written testimonials and of my own experience gained in the attempt to verify the claims of those who pronounce themselves cured.