The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories eBook

The above equipment is excellent, admirable, powerful, but not perfect.  There is yet another detail which is worth the whole of it put together —­and more; a detail which has never been joined (in the beginning of a religious movement) to a supremely good working equipment since the world began, until now:  a new personage to worship.  Christianity had the Saviour, but at first and for generations it lacked money and concentrated power.  In Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science possesses the new personage for worship, and in addition—­here in the very beginning—­a working equipment that has not a flaw in it.  In the beginning, Mohammedanism had no money; and it has never had anything to offer its client but heaven—­nothing here below that was valuable.  In addition to heaven hereafter, Christian Science has present health and a cheerful spirit to offer—­for cash—­and in comparison with this bribe all other this-world bribes are poor and cheap.  You recognise that this estimate is admissible, do you not?

To whom does Bellamy’s ‘Nationalism’ appeal?  Necessarily to the few:  people who read and dream, and are compassionate, and troubled for the poor and the hard-driven.  To whom does Spiritualism appeal?  Necessarily to the few; its ‘boom’ has lasted for half a century and I believe it claims short of four millions of adherents in America.  Who are attracted by Swedenborgianism and some of the other fine and delicate ‘isms?’ The few again:  Educated people, sensitively organised, with superior mental endowments, who seek lofty planes of thought and find their contentment there.  And who are attracted by Christian Science?  There is no limit; its field is horizonless; its appeal is as universal as is the appeal of Christianity itself.  It appeals to the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest, the vain, the wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the coward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the freeman, the slave, the adult, the child; they who are ailing, they who have friends that are ailing.  To mass it in a phrase, its clientele is the Human Race?  Will it march?  I think so.

VII

Remember its principal great offer:  to rid the Race of pain and disease.  Can it do it?  In large measure, yes.  How much of the pain and disease in the world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then kept alive by those same imaginations?  Four-fifths?  Not anything short of that I should think.  Can Christian Science banish that four-fifths?  I think so.  Can any other (organised) force do it?  None that I know of.  Would this be a new world when that was accomplished?  And a pleasanter one—­for us well people, as well as for those fussy and fretting sick ones?  Would it seem as if there was not as much gloomy weather as there used to be?  I think so.

In the meantime would the Scientist kill off a good many patients?  I think so.  More than get killed off now by the legalised methods?  I will take up that question presently.