A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land
_Motto upon the cover of the "Christian Science Sentinel"_
At the June communion of the Mother Church, 1895, a telegram from Mrs.
Eddy was read aloud to the congregation, in which she invited all
members who desired to do so to call upon her at Pleasant View on the
following day.[1] Accordingly, one hundred and eighty Christian
Scientists boarded the train at Boston and went up to Concord. Mrs.
Eddy threw her house open to them, received them in person, shook
hands with each delegate, and conversed with many. This was the
beginning of the Concord "pilgrimages" which later became so
conspicuous.
After the communion in 1897, twenty-five hundred enthusiastic pilgrims
crowded into the little New Hampshire capital. Although the Scientists
hired every available conveyance in Concord, there were not nearly
enough carriages to accommodate their numbers, so hundreds of the
pilgrims made their joyful progress on foot out Pleasant Street to
Mrs. Eddy's home.
Mrs. Eddy again received her votaries, greeted them cordially, and
made a rather lengthy address. The _Journal_ says that her manner upon
this occasion was peculiar for its "utter freedom from sensationalism
or the Mesmeric effect that so many speakers seem to exert," and adds
that she was "calm and unimpassioned, but strong and convincing." The
_Journal_ also states that upon this occasion Mrs. Eddy wore "a royal
purple silk dress covered with black lace" and a "dainty bonnet." She
wore her diamond cross and the badge of the Daughters of the
Revolution in diamonds and rubies.
In 1901[2] three thousand of the June communicants went from Boston to
Concord on three special trains. They were not admitted to the house,
but Mrs. Eddy appeared upon her balcony for a moment and spoke to
them, saying that they had already heard from her in her message to
the Mother Church, and that she would pause but a moment to look into
their dear faces and then return to her "studio." The _Journal_
comments upon her "erect form and sprightly step," and says that she
wore "what might have been silk or satin, figured, and cut _en
traine_. Upon her white hair rested a bonnet with fluttering blue and
old gold trimmings."
The last of these pilgrimages occurred in 1904, when Mrs. Eddy did not
invite the pilgrims to come to Pleasant View but asked them to
assemble at the new Christian Science church in Concord. Fifteen
hundred of them gathered in front of the church and stood in reverent
silence as Mrs. Eddy's carriage approached. The horses were stopped in
front of the assemblage, and Mrs. Eddy signaled the President of the
Mother Church to approach her carriage. To him, as representing the
church body, she spoke her greeting.
The yearning which these people felt toward Mrs. Eddy, and their
rapture at beholding her, can only be described by one of the
pilgrims. In the _Journal_, June, 1899, Miss Martha Sutton Thompson
writes to describe a visit which she made in January of that year to
the meeting of the Christian Science Board of Education in Boston. She
says:
"When I decided to attend I also hoped to see our Mother....
I saw that if I allowed the thought that I must see her
personally to transcend the desire to obey and grow into the
likeness of her teachings, this mistake would obscure my
understanding of both the Revelator and the Revelation.
After the members of the Board had retired they reappeared
upon the rostrum and my heart beat quickly with the thought
'Perhaps _she_ has come.' But no, it was to read her
message.... She said God was with us and to give her love to
all the class. It was so precious to get it directly from
her.
"The following day five of us made the journey to Concord,
drove out to Pleasant View, and met her face to face on her
daily drive. She seemed watching to greet us, for when she
caught sight of our faces she instantly half rose with
expectant face, bowing, smiling, and waving her hand to each
of us. Then as she went out of our sight, kissed her hand to
all.
"I will not attempt to describe the Leader, nor can I say
what this brief glimpse was and is to me. I can only say I
wept and the tears start every time I think of it. Why do I
weep? I think it is because I want to be like her and they
are tears of repentance. I realize better now what it was
that made Mary Magdalen weep when she came into the presence
of the Nazarene."
_Mrs. Eddy's Last Class_
After the pilgrimages were discouraged, there was no possible way in
which these devoted disciples could ever see Mrs. Eddy. They used,
indeed, like Miss Thompson, to go to Concord and linger about the
highways to catch a glimpse of her as she drove by, until she rebuked
them in a new by-law in the Church Manual: "_Thou Shalt not Steal_.
Sect. 15. Neither a Christian Scientist, his student or his patient,
nor a member of the Mother Church shall daily and continuously haunt
Mrs. Eddy's drive by meeting her once or more every day when she goes
out--on penalty of being disciplined and dealt with justly by her
church," etc.
Mrs. Eddy did her last public teaching in the Christian Science Hall
in Concord, November 21 and 22, 1898. There were sixty-one persons in
this class,--several from Canada, one from England, and one from
Scotland,--and Mrs. Eddy refused to accept any remuneration for her
instruction. The first lesson lasted about two hours, the second
nearly four. "Only two lessons," says the _Journal_, "but such
lessons! Only those who have sat under this wondrous teaching can form
a conjecture of what these classes were." "We mention," the _Journal_
continues, "a sweet incident and one which deeply touched the Mother's
heart. Upon her return from class she found beside her plate at dinner
table a lovely white rose with the card of a young lady student
accompanying on which she chastely referred to the last couplet of the
fourth stanza of that sweet poem from the Mother's pen, 'Love.'
"Thou to whose power our hope we give
Free us from human strife.
Fed by Thy love divine we live
For Love alone is Life," etc.
_Mrs. Eddy and the Press_
Mrs. Eddy now achieved publicity in a good many ways, and to such
publications as afforded her space and appreciation she was able to
grant reciprocal favors. The _Granite Monthly_, a little magazine
published at Concord, New Hampshire, printed Mrs. Eddy's poem "Easter
Morn" and a highly laudatory article upon her. Mrs. Eddy then came out
in the _Christian Science Journal_ with a request that all Christian
Scientists subscribe to the _Granite Monthly_, which they promptly
did. Colonel Oliver C. Sabin, an astute politician in Washington,
D.C., was editor of a purely political publication, the Washington
_News Letter_. A Congressman one day attacked Christian Science in a
speech. Colonel Sabin, whose paper was just then making things
unpleasant for that particular Congressman, wrote an editorial in
defense of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy inserted a card in the
_Journal_ requesting all Christian Scientists to subscribe to the
_News Letter_. This brought Colonel Sabin such a revenue that he
dropped politics altogether and his political sheet became a
religious periodical. Mr. James T. White, publisher of the _National
Encyclopaedia of American Biography_, gave Mrs. Eddy a generous place
in his encyclopedia and wrote a poem to her. Mrs. Eddy requested,
through the _Journal_, that all Christian Scientists buy Mr. White's
volume of verse for Christmas presents, and the Christian Science
Publication Society marketed Mr. White's verses. Mrs. Eddy made a
point of being on good terms with the Concord papers; she furnished
them with many columns of copy, and the editors realized that her
presence in Concord brought a great deal of money into the town. From
1898 to 1901 the files of the _Journal_ echo increasing material
prosperity, and show that both Mrs. Eddy and her church were much more
taken account of than formerly. Articles by Mrs. Eddy are quoted from
various newspapers whose editors had requested her to express her
views upon the war with Spain, the Puritan Thanksgiving, etc.
In the autumn of 1901 Mrs. Eddy wrote an article on the death of
President McKinley. Commenting upon this article, _Harper's Weekly_
said: "Among others who have spoken [on President McKinley's death]
was Mrs. Eddy, the Mother of Christian Science. She issued two
utterances which were read in her churches.... Both of these
discourses are seemly and kind, but they are materially different from
the writings of any one else. Reciting the praises of the dead
President, Mrs. Eddy says: 'May his history waken a tone of truth that
shall reverberate, renew euphony, emphasize human power and bear its
banner into the vast forever.' No one else said anything like that.
Mother Eddy's style is a personal asset. Her sentences usually have
the considerable literary merit of being unexpected."
Of this editorial the Journal says, with a candor almost incredible:
"We take pleasure in republishing from that old-established and
valuable publication _Harper's Weekly_, the following merited tribute
to Mrs. Eddy's utterances," etc. Then follows the editorial quoted
above.
[Illustration: _Copyrighted, 1903, by R. W. Sears_ GREETING THE
PILGRIMS
MRS. EDDY ON THE BALCONY OF HER CONCORD HOME ADDRESSING THE PILGRIMS IN
1903. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH MADE AT THE TIME BY R. W. SEARS]
In the winter of 1898 Christian Science was given great publicity
through the death, under Christian Science treatment, of the American
journalist and novelist, Harold Frederic, in England. Mr. Frederic's
readers were not, as a rule, people who knew much about Christian
Science, and his taking off brought the new cult to the attention of
thousands of people for the first time.