THE NEW ENEMY | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · May 5, 1885

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 18

THE NEW ENEMY.

The Interior, comparing the different forms of paganism and error so rife in these days, to the sowing of tares by the enemy while men slept, speaks of the new delusion called “Christian Science” as follows:—

“But the husbandmen were never more surprised at the springing up in their fields, with a growth, of this new delusion called “Christian Science.” It seems incredible that so preposterous an idea should seize upon minds that are well disposed, and which were supposed to be reliable. It is in the same general direction as the “Faith Cure,” except that it is non-Christian—though it is very artistically sewed up in lamb-skin. One would say, in looking over its pretensions, that it is not worth giving any attention to, that it is too preposterous to be mischievous. But the fact is that it is killing churches, drawing away good people, and is being sedulously taught to children. It has this immense advantage over mere sentimental delusions, that there is a rich harvest of money in it. We hear of “practitioners” boasting of the large profits they are reaping from it. The deluded persons are mostly women. The fuel which these kinds of wild fire catch upon is abundant and increasing. Hypochondriasis, dyspepsia, nervous feebleness, and all the enervating influences which come of money, leisure, aimlessness, and any cause of melancholy, furnish it. To some extent, also, domestic trouble, bereavement, overwork, and care—anything exhausting or depressing, prepares the way for these religious delusions. Other factors in it are such “revival” performances as those of Harrison, the “boy-preacher.” Religious inebriety, such as Harrison seeks to produce, is liable to result in religious insanity, or to react into infidelity. There is no possible form of religious fanaticism, however absurd, which under such conditions would fail of rapid extension, if it were pushed by the employment of the press, and access obtained to those who are thus in a state of mental receptivity for enthusiasms.”