James Henry Leuba

“ God is individual, and man is his individualized idea . . . Limitless personality is inconceivable . . . Of God as person, human reason, imagination and revelation give us no knowledge.
“When the term divine Principle is used to signify Deity it may seem distant and cold, until better apprehended. This Principle is Mind, Substance, Life, Truth, Love. When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that fully conveys the ideas of God,—one Mind, a perfect Man, and divine Science.” ”

“ The similarity of the essential aspects of New Thought and Christian Science to the mystical element in Christianity is evident. Both give clear expression to the anti-isolation motive, to a dynamic belief in oneness-with-the-whole, and both feel the essence of the cosmic plasma to be love. Man is steeped in all-embracing Love. He need only place himself in unison with the everlasting, all-comprehending life-force and the fulness of life will be his. How love can be an attribute of an impersonal power does not seem to give Mrs. Eddy one moment of uneasiness. ”

“ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE; MIND CURE; NEW THOUGHT.
THE most noteworthy religious event since the Reformation is perhaps the appearance in the United States of a number of religious movements which may be grouped together under the designation of psychotherapic cults. The foremost of them is “Christian Science,” founded by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy.
I hasten to add that the value of these cults does not, in my mind, belong to their “metaphysics,” considered as a philosophical system. It is the product of ignorant and ill-trained minds. Much of it defies logic and offends common sense. ”

“ Christian Science.
It seems almost incredible that one professing to be a Christian should teach the impersonality of the divine nature. And yet this is undoubtedly what Mrs. Eddy does, and in this respect she agrees with those from whom I have just quoted. The term that she prefers as a name for the Divine Power is Principle. As synonyms she uses Life, Truth, Love, God. In the earlier editions of Science and Health, it is written that God “is not a person, God is Principle.” ”

“ In every walk of life people bear witness to the saving grace that is in Christian Science or in New Thought. The forces of a new life have welled up within them; the burdens of existence have lightened, nay, have disappeared; and now they walk through life contented, hopeful, and aggressively benevolent.
The following is an example of what people find in Christian Science apart from the cure of disease:
“I accepted Science and Health without expecting it to offer more than a human theory about life,—even the name did not lead me to expect it to be religious ”

“ These cults have proved their value by their results.
In estimating the chances of continued life of religious movements, one should bear in mind that vitally beneficial beliefs may carry a heavy load of error and even of absurdity. The Christian religion was not destroyed by the expectation of the second coming of the Lord and of the end of the world, by extravagant notions of the power of faith, by absurd or incomprehensible doctrines regarding the means of salvation, the resurrection of the body, and the like. ”

“ We see a hard-headed business man totally devoid of religious sentiment undergo a new kind of conversion which leaves him as devout and ardent as a Christian of the first century. An ailing wife or daughter whom no physician has been able to help, through some mysterious means is restored to health and happiness. ”

“ In the edition of No and Yes already quoted, she claims that “Christian Science refutes pantheism, finds Spirit neither in matter nor in the modes of mortal mind. It shows that matter and mortal mind have neither origin nor existence in the eternal Mind . ”

“ Although they usually define the aim of life in terms of power, happiness, and love, they cannot fairly be charged either with insensitiveness to moral values, or with indifference to the ethical advancement of mankind. ”

“ His view of man’s relation to that power is curious. The individual can call it into action and give it direction, “because it is in itself impersonal though intelligent.” “It will receive the impress of his personality, and can therefore make its influence felt far beyond the limits which bound the individual’s objective perception of the circumstances with which he has to deal. ”

“ They purpose to minister to those who “would exchange impotence for power, weakness and suffering for health and strength, pain and unrest for peace, poverty for fulness and plenty.” They proclaim “the birthright of every man born into the world to be physically whole and mentally happy.” ”

“ My chief effort will be to get from the writings of the leaders of these therapeutic schools a clear idea of the power with which they expect to regenerate humanity, and then to consider its adequacy. ”

“ But in them, probably because of the pressure of adverse public opinion, she insists less than at the beginning of her career upon the impersonality of Principle, and the word “person” appears more frequently. ”