“I am not so sure that ‘no harm’ would result from it,” the professor observed, in an inflexible voice.

“I wish you would explain what you mean, Will, and not hold yourself so obscurely aloof from the subject,” returned his wife, with unusual spirit and an unaccustomed spark in her mild eyes.  “I am not a child, to be merely told that a thing is not good for me, and consequently cannot have it.  If there is a good and sufficient reason why Dorothy shall not have Christian Science treatment, I would like to know what it is.  For eight years I, as well as my child, have been a martyr in a chamber of torture, and my burden is growing heavier than I can bear.”

Her lips quivered and her voice broke with those last words.

Her husband reached out his hand and laid it caressingly against her face, drawing her head down upon his shoulder.

“I know it, sweetheart,” he said, with tremulous tenderness, “and my own heart rebels against it every day of my life.  Perhaps I have seemed arrogant in my attitude toward what you have suggested.  I feel so.  I am utterly intolerant of Christian Science and will have nothing to do with it.”

“But why, Will?  You do not state any reason.  Why do you condemn it without a trial—­without investigation?  You know nothing about it-—–­”

“I know all I wish,” the man interrupted, with curling lips.  “I have never mentioned the fact, but I have read the Christian Science text-book and have found it to be a conglomeration of the most absurd statements, theories and contradictions it has ever been my lot to peruse.  As a matter of principle, as a Christian, I abjure its teachings, for they are diametrically opposed to my religious views; and as a D.D. and a Ph.D.  I feel that I should be subjecting myself to the rankest criticism and ridicule were I to give it countenance in any way whatsoever.  I do not stand alone in my attitude, by any means, for the book has been discussed in our Philosophical Association, which, as you well know, is composed of some of the brightest men and most profound thinkers in the State; and it was utterly repudiated and denounced as fallacious and un-Christian in its teachings, and calculated to do inestimable harm.  The idea of an obscure woman setting herself up as a reconstructor of the religious faiths of the world!  It is simply the height of presumption and absurdity,” he concluded, with considerable heat.

“But when you think of it, how much better it would be if there was only ‘one Lord, one faith and one baptism’ in the world, instead of hundreds.  How is anyone to know which is the right one?” said Mrs. Seabrook, thoughtfully.  “We claim to be Presbyterians, but we can offer no proof that our creed is better than any other, while the Christian Scientists claim that their healing proves their religion to be the Christianity taught by the Master.”

“Yes, they claim a great deal; but they want to overturn altogether too much for me to accept it,” dryly observed her husband.