|How, then, explain the remarkable growth of Christian Science? But
the imposing edifices, the prosperous looking disciples, the number
of automobiles in front of their churches, prove only that Christian
Science is fashionable--that is all. The question we are discussing is
not Is Christian Science fashionable, but Is it true? Does the rapid
growth and wealth of Mohammedanism, for instance, with its Alhambra
and Alcazar, its illustrious and extensive conquests, prove its Divine
origin? Does the progress of Mormonism, which reared a great city as if
by magic in the Western wilderness, prove Mormonism to be of God? The
Catholic Church at one time owned everything in Europe and ruled every
one. To her belonged all the wealth, the culture, the art, and the power
of Christendom. Yet Christian Scientists do not consider the Catholic
Church Divine. Why should the rapid spread of one creed surprise us any
more than that of another?
Moreover, it takes less courage to follow the crowd than to resist it.
The crowd picks up the weak and carries them along. Was it not Horace
Walpole who said, "The greater the imposition the greater the crowd"?
What Matthew Arnold said of the multitude in England is true also of
the American multitude: "Probably in no country is the multitude more
unintelligent, more narrow-minded, and more passionate than in this. In
no country is so much nonsense so firmly believed." Alas, that is true
of the multitude in every country.
Again, the faith habit is an older heredity, exerting upon us the
accumulated force of thousands of years, while the inquiry habit is too
recent an acquisition to have much force upon the generality of peoples.
That is another explanation of the greater popularity of dogma, which
requires only belief, and the comparative unpopularity of a movement
which demands individual thinking. "Superstition," as Goethe says, "is
so intimately and anciently associated with man that it is one of the
hardest things to get rid of." The only progress most people are capable
of is to part with one superstition for another. The Pope is given up
for Mrs. Eddy, but the idea of an infallible teacher to tell us what to
believe is not outgrown. The keys of heaven and hell placed in the hands
of the Vicar of Christ provoke scepticism in a Christian Scientist,
but he accepts without the shadow of a doubt the key to the Scriptures
delivered to Mrs. Eddy.
But how account for the presence of so many judges and lawyers among
the converts of Christian Science? And how account for the judges and
lawyers who are not Christian Scientists? It was not so long ago when
judges condemned innocent women as witches, and sentenced them to be
tortured to death. Did that make witchcraft a fact, or can it be quoted
to justify the belief in witchcraft? The late Chief Justice of the
United States was a Catholic. What does that prove?