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PULPIT AND PRESS
BY
MARY BAKER EDDY
DISCOVERER AND FOUNDER OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND
HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
Registered
U.S. Patent Office
Published by The
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
BOSTON, U.S.A.
Authorized Literature of
THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST
in Boston, Massachusetts
_Copyright, 1895_
BY MARY BAKER EDDY
_Copyright renewed, 1923_
* * * * *
_All rights reserved_
* * * * *
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
THE DEAR TWO THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED CHILDREN
WHOSE CONTRIBUTIONS OF $4,460[A] WERE DEVOTED TO THE MOTHER'S ROOM IN THE
FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, BOSTON, THIS UNIQUE BOOK IS TENDERLY
DEDICATED BY
MARY BAKER EDDY
PREFACE
This volume contains scintillations from press and pulpit--utterances which
epitomize the story of the birth of Christian Science, in 1866, and its
progress during the ensuing thirty years. Three quarters of a century
hence, when the children of to-day are the elders of the twentieth century,
it will be interesting to have not only a record of the inclination given
their own thoughts in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but also a
registry of the rise of the mercury in the glass of the world's opinion.
It will then be instructive to turn backward the telescope of that advanced
age, with its lenses of more spiritual mentality, indicating the gain of
intellectual momentum, on the early footsteps of Christian Science as
planted in the pathway of this generation; to note the impetus thereby
given to Christianity; to con the facts surrounding the cradle of this
grand verity--that the sick are healed and sinners saved, not by matter,
but by Mind; and to scan further the features of the vast problem of
eternal life, as expressed in the absolute power of Truth and the actual
bliss of man's existence in Science.
MARY BAKER EDDY
February, 1895
CONTENTS
DEDICATORY SERMON
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXTBOOK
HYMNS
_Laying the Corner-stone_
"_Feed My Sheep_"
_Christ My Refuge_
NOTE
CLIPPINGS FROM NEWSPAPERS
CHICAGO INTER-OCEAN
BOSTON HERALD
BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE
BOSTON TRANSCRIPT
JACKSON PATRIOT
OUTLOOK
AMERICAN ART JOURNAL
BOSTON JOURNAL
REPUBLIC (WASHINGTON, D.C.)
NEW YORK TRIBUNE
KANSAS CITY JOURNAL
MONTREAL HERALD
BALTIMORE AMERICAN
REPORTER (LEBANON, IND.)
NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER
SYRACUSE POST
NEW YORK HERALD
TORONTO GLOBE
CONCORD MONITOR
PEOPLE AND PATRIOT
UNION SIGNAL
NEW CENTURY
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL
CONCORD MONITOR
PULPIT AND PRESS
DEDICATORY SERMON
BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY
First Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass.
Delivered January 6, 1895
TEXT: _They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy
house; and Thou shall make them drink of the river of Thy
pleasures._--Psalms xxxvi. 8.
A new year is a nursling, a babe of time, a prophecy and promise clad in
white raiment, kissed--and encumbered with greetings--redolent with grief
and gratitude.
An old year is time's adult, and 1893 was a distinguished character,
notable for good and evil. Time past and time present, both, may pain us,
but time _improved_ is eloquent in God's praise. For due refreshment garner
the memory of 1894; for if wiser by reason of its large lessons, and
records deeply engraven, great is the value thereof.
Pass on, returnless year!
The path behind thee is with glory crowned;
This spot whereon thou troddest was holy ground;
Pass proudly to thy bier!
To-day, being with you in spirit, what need that I should be present _in
propria persona?_ Were I present, methinks I should be much like the Queen
of Sheba, when she saw the house Solomon had erected. In the expressive
language of Holy Writ, "There was no more spirit in her;" and she said,
"Behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the
fame which I heard." Both without and within, the spirit of beauty
dominates The Mother Church, from its mosaic flooring to the soft shimmer
of its starlit dome.
Nevertheless, there is a thought higher and deeper than the edifice.
Material light and shade are temporal, not eternal. Turning the attention
from sublunary views, however enchanting, think for a moment with me of the
house wherewith "they shall be abundantly satisfied,"--even the "house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." With the mind's eye glance at the
direful scenes of the war between China and Japan. Imagine yourselves in a
poorly barricaded fort, fiercely besieged by the enemy. Would you rush
forth single-handed to combat the foe? Nay, would you not rather strengthen
your citadel by every means in your power, and remain within the walls for
its defense? Likewise should we do as metaphysicians and Christian
Scientists. The real house in which "we live, and move, and have our being"
is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite Soul. The enemy we confront
would overthrow this sublime fortress, and it behooves us to defend our
heritage.
How can we do this Christianly scientific work? By intrenching ourselves in
the knowledge that our true temple is no human fabrication, but the
superstructure of Truth, reared on the foundation of Love, and pinnacled
in Life. Such being its nature, how can our godly temple possibly be
demolished, or even disturbed? Can eternity end? Can Life die? Can Truth be
uncertain? Can Love be less than boundless? Referring to this temple, our
Master said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
He also said: "The kingdom of God is within you." Know, then, that you
possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can
dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this
position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? Our surety is in our
confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man's eternal
mansion. Such a heavenly assurance ends all warfare, and bids tumult cease,
for the good fight we have waged is over, and divine Love gives us the true
sense of victory. "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of
Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures."
No longer are we of the church militant, but of the church triumphant; and
with Job of old we exclaim, "Yet in my flesh shall I see God." The river of
His pleasures is a tributary of divine Love, whose living waters have their
source in God, and flow into everlasting Life. We drink of this river when
all human desires are quenched, satisfied with what is pleasing to the
divine Mind.
Perchance some one of you may say, "The evidence of spiritual verity in me
is so small that I am afraid. I feel so far from victory over the flesh
that to reach out for a present realization of my hope savors of temerity.
Because of my own unfitness for such a spiritual animus my strength is
naught and my faith fails." O thou "weak and infirm of purpose." Jesus
said, "Be not afraid"!
"What if the little rain should say,
'So small a drop as I
Can ne'er refresh a drooping earth,
I'll tarry in the sky.'"
Is not a man metaphysically and mathematically number one, a unit, and
therefore whole number, governed and protected by his divine Principle,
God? You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with
your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one
is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and
thus demonstrating deific Principle. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each of
Christ's little ones reflects the infinite One, and therefore is the seer's
declaration true, that "one on God's side is a majority."
A single drop of water may help to hide the stars, or crown the tree with
blossoms.
Who lives in good, lives also in God,--lives in all Life, through all
space. His is an individual kingdom, his diadem a crown of crowns. His
existence is deathless, forever unfolding its eternal Principle. Wait
patiently on illimitable Love, the lord and giver of Life. _Reflect this
Life_, and with it cometh the full power of being. "They shall be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house."
In 1893 the World's Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, used, in all
its public sessions, my form of prayer since 1866; and one of the very
clergymen who had publicly proclaimed me "the prayerless Mrs. Eddy,"
offered his audible adoration in the words I use, besides listening to an
address on Christian Science from my pen, read by Judge S.J. Hanna, in that
unique assembly.
When the light of one friendship after another passes from earth to heaven,
we kindle in place thereof the glow of some deathless reality. Memory,
faithful to goodness, holds in her secret chambers those characters of
holiest sort, bravest to endure, firmest to suffer, soonest to renounce.
Such was the founder of the Concord School of Philosophy--the late A.
Bronson Alcott.
After the publication of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,"
his athletic mind, scholarly and serene, was the first to bedew my hope
with a drop of humanity. When the press and pulpit cannonaded this book, he
introduced himself to its author by saying, "I have come to comfort you."
Then eloquently paraphrasing it, and prophesying its prosperity, his
conversation with a beauty all its own reassured me. _That prophecy is
fulfilled._
This book, in 1895, is in its ninety-first edition of one thousand copies.
It is in the public libraries of the principal cities, colleges, and
universities of America; also the same in Great Britain, France, Germany,
Russia, Italy, Greece, Japan, India, and China; in the Oxford University
and the Victoria Institute, England; in the Academy of Greece, and the
Vatican at Rome.
This book is the leaven fermenting religion; it is palpably working in the
sermons, Sunday Schools, and literature of our and other lands. This
spiritual chemicalization is the upheaval produced when Truth is
neutralizing error and impurities are passing off. And it will continue
till the antithesis of Christianity, engendering the limited forms of a
national or tyrannical religion, yields to the church established by the
Nazarene Prophet and maintained on the spiritual foundation of Christ's
healing.
Good, the Anglo-Saxon term for God, unites Science to Christianity. It
presents to the understanding, not matter, but Mind; not the deified drug,
but the goodness of God--healing and saving mankind.
The author of "Marriage of the Lamb," who made the mistake of thinking she
caught her notions from my book, wrote to me in 1894, "Six months ago your
book, Science and Health, was put into my hands. I had not read three pages
before I realized I had found that for which I had hungered since girlhood,
and was healed instantaneously of an ailment of seven years' standing. I
cast from me the false remedy I had vainly used, and turned to the 'great
Physician.' I went with my husband, a missionary to China, in 1884. He went
out under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. I feel the truth
is leading us to return to Japan."
Another brilliant enunciator, seeker, and servant of Truth, the Rev.
William R. Alger of Boston, signalled me kindly as my lone bark rose and
fell and rode the rough sea. At a _conversazione_ in Boston, he said, "You
may find in Mrs. Eddy's metaphysical teachings more than is dreamt of in
your philosophy."
Also that renowned apostle of anti-slavery, Wendell Phillips, the native
course of whose mind never swerved from the chariot-paths of justice,
speaking of my work, said: "Had I young blood in my veins, I would help
that woman."
I love Boston, and especially the laws of the State whereof this city is
the capital. To-day, as of yore, her laws have befriended progress.
Yet when I recall the past,--how the gospel of healing was simultaneously
praised and persecuted in Boston,--and remember also that God is just, I
wonder whether, were our dear Master in our New England metropolis at this
hour, he would not weep over it, as he wept over Jerusalem! O ye tears! Not
in vain did ye flow. Those sacred drops were but enshrined for future use,
and God has now unsealed their receptacle with His outstretched arm. Those
crystal globes made morals for mankind. They will rise with joy, and with
power to wash away, in floods of forgiveness, every crime, even when
mistakenly committed in the name of religion.
An unjust, unmerciful, and oppressive priesthood must perish, for false
prophets in the present as in the past stumble onward to their doom; while
their tabernacles crumble with dry rot. "God is not mocked," and "the word
of the Lord endureth forever."
I have ordained the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures," as pastor of The First Church of
Christ, Scientist, in Boston,--so long as this church is satisfied with
this pastor. This is my first ordination. "They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of
the river of Thy pleasures."
All praise to the press of America's Athens,--and throughout our land the
press has spoken out historically, impartially. Like the winds telling
tales through the leaves of an ancient oak, unfallen, may our church chimes
repeat my thanks to the press.
Notwithstanding the perplexed condition of our nation's finances, the want
and woe with millions of dollars unemployed in our money centres, the
Christian Scientists, within fourteen months, responded to the call for
this church with $191,012. Not a mortgage was given nor a loan solicited,
and the donors all touchingly told their privileged joy at helping to build
The Mother Church. There was no urging, begging, or borrowing; only the
need made known, and forth came the money, or diamonds, which served to
erect this "miracle in stone."
Even the children vied with their parents to meet the demand. Little hands,
never before devoted to menial services, shoveled snow, and babes gave
kisses to earn a few pence toward this consummation. Some of these lambs my
prayers had christened, but Christ will rechristen them with his own new
name. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected
praise." The resident youthful workers were called "Busy Bees."
Sweet society, precious children, your loving hearts and deft fingers
distilled the nectar and painted the finest flowers in the fabric of this
history,--even its centre-piece,--Mother's Room in The First Church of
Christ, Scientist, in Boston. The children are destined to witness results
which will eclipse Oriental dreams. They belong to the twentieth century.
By juvenile aid, into the building fund have come $4,460.[B] Ah, children,
you are the bulwarks of freedom, the cement of society, the hope of our
race!
Brothers of the Christian Science Board of Directors, when your tireless
tasks are done--well done--no Delphian lyre could break the full chords of
such a rest. May the altar you have built never be shattered in our hearts,
but justice, mercy, and love kindle perpetually its fires.
It was well that the brother whose appliances warm this house, warmed also
our perishless hope, and nerved its grand fulfilment. Woman, true to her
instinct, came to the rescue as sunshine from the clouds; so, when man
quibbled over an architectural exigency, a woman climbed with feet and
hands to the top of the tower, and helped settle the subject.
After the loss of our late lamented pastor, Rev. D.A. Easton, the church
services were maintained by excellent sermons from the editor of _The
Christian Science Journal_ (who, with his better half, is a very whole
man), together with the Sunday School giving this flock "drink from the
river of His pleasures." O glorious hope and blessed assurance, "it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Christians rejoice in
secret, they have a bounty hidden from the world. Self-forgetfulness,
purity, and love are treasures untold--constant prayers, prophecies, and
anointings. Practice, not profession,--goodness, not doctrines,--spiritual
understanding, not mere belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence,
and call down blessings infinite. "Faith without works is dead." The
foundation of enlightened faith is Christ's teachings and _practice_. It
was our Master's self-immolation, his life-giving love, healing both mind
and body, that raised the deadened conscience, paralyzed by inactive faith,
to a quickened sense of mortal's necessities,--and God's power and purpose
to supply them. It was, in the words of the Psalmist, He "who forgiveth all
thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."
Rome's fallen fanes and silent Aventine is glory's tomb; her pomp and power
lie low in dust. Our land, more favored, had its Pilgrim Fathers. On shores
of solitude, at Plymouth Rock, they planted a nation's heart,--the rights
of conscience, imperishable glory. No dream of avarice or ambition broke
their exalted purpose, theirs was the wish to reign in hope's reality--the
realm of Love.
Christian Scientists, you have planted your standard on the rock of Christ,
the true, the spiritual idea,--the chief corner-stone in the house of our
God. And our Master said: "The stone which the builders rejected, the same
is become the head of the corner." If you are less appreciated to-day than
your forefathers, wait--for if you are as devout as they, and more
scientific, as progress certainly demands, your plant is immortal. Let us
rejoice that chill vicissitudes have not withheld the timely shelter of
this house, which descended like day-spring from on high.
Divine presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every heart in this house.
Speak out, O soul! This is the newborn of Spirit, this is His redeemed;
this, His beloved. May the kingdom of God within you,--with you
alway,--reascending, bear you outward, upward, heavenward. May the sweet
song of silver-throated singers, making melody more real, and the organ's
voice, as the sound of many waters, and the Word spoken in this sacred
temple dedicated to the ever-present God--mingle with the joy of angels and
rehearse your hearts' holy intents. May all whose means, energies, and
prayers helped erect The Mother Church, find within it home, and _heaven_.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXTBOOK
The following selections from "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures," pages 568-571, were read from the platform. The impressive
stillness of the audience indicated close attention.
_Revelation_ xii. 10-12. And I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of
our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and
night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the
death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil
is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that
he hath but a short time.
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and magnify the Lord of
Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder
song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer
and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and
Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by
which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error,
is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly interprets God as divine
Principle,--as Life, represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by
the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period,
here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a
power opposed to God.
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many," is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of the
supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know
that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness. He that
touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,
and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,--in a sweet and certain sense
that God is Love. Alas for those who break faith with divine Science and
fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are
dwellers still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surging sea
of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the drowning wave.
What must the end be? They must eventually expiate their sin through
suffering. The sin, which one has made his bosom companion, comes back to
him at last with accelerated force, for the devil knoweth his time is
short. Here the Scriptures declare that evil is temporal, not eternal. The
dragon is at last stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods of
torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon sin's obduracy.
_Revelation_ xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast
unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the
man child.
The march of mind and of honest investigation will bring the hour when the
people will chain, with fetters of some sort, the growing occultism of this
period. The present apathy as to the tendency of certain active yet unseen
mental agencies will finally be shocked into another extreme mortal
mood,--into human indignation; for one extreme follows another.
_Revelation_ xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be
carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the
dragon cast out of his mouth.
Millions of unprejudiced minds--simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers,
athirst in the desert--are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give
them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences.
What if the old dragon should send forth a new flood to drown the
Christ-idea? He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again sink
the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night. In this age the
earth will help the woman; the spiritual idea will be understood. Those
ready for the blessing you impart will give thanks. The waters will be
pacified, and Christ will command the wave.
When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should know the great benefit
which Mind has wrought. They should also know the great delusion of mortal
mind, when it makes them sick or sinful. Many are willing to open the eyes
of the people to the power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are
not so willing to point out the evil in human thought, and expose evil's
hidden mental ways of accomplishing iniquity.
Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary to ensure the avoidance
of the evil? Because people like you better when you tell them their
virtues than when you tell them their vices. It requires the spirit of our
blessed Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk human displeasure for
the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of
the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the foe? If so, listen and
be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards who
have seen the danger and yet have given no warning.
At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know
thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over
evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The
cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.
HYMNS
BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY
[Set to the Church Chimes and Sung on This Occasion]
LAYING THE CORNER-STONE
_Laus Deo_, it is done!
Rolled away from loving heart
Is a stone.
Joyous, risen, we depart
Having one.
_Laus Deo_,--on this rock
(Heaven chiselled squarely good)
Stands His church,--
God is Love, and understood
By His flock.
_Laus Deo_, night starlit
Slumbers not in God's embrace;
Then, O man!
Like this stone, be in thy place;
Stand, not sit.
Cold, silent, stately stone,
Dirge and song and shoutings low,
In thy heart
Dwell serene,--and sorrow? No,
It has none,
_Laus Deo!_
"FEED MY SHEEP"
Shepherd, show me how to go
O'er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow,--
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
Thou wilt bind the stubborn will,
Wound the callous breast,
Make self-righteousness be still,
Break earth's stupid rest.
Strangers on a barren shore,
Lab'ring long and lone--
We would enter by the door,
And Thou know'st Thine own.
So, when day grows dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart,
Till the morning's beam;
White as wool, ere they depart--
Shepherd, wash them clean.
CHRIST MY REFUGE
O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain.
And wake a white-winged angel throng
Of thoughts, illumed
By faith, and breathed in raptured song,
With love perfumed.
Then his unveiled, sweet mercies show
Life's burdens light.
I kiss the cross, and wake to know
A world more bright.
And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, and tenderly,
Divinely talk.
Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock,
Upon Life's shore;
'Gainst which the winds and waves can shock,
Oh, nevermore!
From tired joy and grief afar,
And nearer Thee,--
Father, where Thine own children are,
I love to be.
My prayer, some daily good to do
To Thine, for Thee;
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.
NOTE
BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY
The land whereon stands The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,
was first purchased by the church and society. Owing to a heavy loss, they
were unable to pay the mortgage; therefore I paid it, and through trustees
gave back the land to the church.
In 1892 I had to recover the land from the trustees, reorganize the church,
and reobtain its charter--not, however, through the State Commissioner, who
refused to grant it, but by means of a statute of the State, and through
Directors regive the land to the church. In 1895 I reconstructed my
original system of ministry and church government. Thus committed to the
providence of God, the prosperity of this church is unsurpassed.
From first to last The Mother Church seemed type and shadow of the warfare
between the flesh and Spirit, even that shadow whose substance is the
divine Spirit, imperatively propelling the greatest moral, physical, civil,
and religious reform ever known on earth. In the words of the prophet: "The
shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
This church was dedicated on January 6, anciently one of the many dates
selected and observed in the East as the day of the birth and baptism of
our master Metaphysician, Jesus of Nazareth.
Christian Scientists, their children and grandchildren to the latest
generations, inevitably love one another with that love wherewith Christ
loveth us; a love unselfish, unambitious, impartial, universal,--that loves
only because it _is_ Love. Moreover, they love their enemies, even those
that hate them. This we all must do to be Christian Scientists in spirit
and in truth. I long, and live, to see this love demonstrated. I am seeking
and praying for it to inhabit my own heart and to be made manifest in my
life. Who will unite with me in this pure purpose, and faithfully struggle
till it be accomplished? Let this be our Christian endeavor society, which
Christ organizes and blesses.
While we entertain due respect and fellowship for what is good and doing
good in all denominations of religion, and shun whatever would isolate us
from a true sense of goodness in others, we cannot serve mammon.
Christian Scientists are really united to only that which is Christlike,
but they are not indifferent to the welfare of any one. To perpetuate a
cold distance between our denomination and other sects, and close the door
on church or individuals--however much this is done to us--is not Christian
Science. Go not into the way of the unchristly, but wheresoever you
recognize a clear expression of God's likeness, there abide in confidence
and hope.
Our unity with churches of other denominations must rest on the spirit of
Christ calling us together. It cannot come from any other source.
Popularity, self-aggrandizement, aught that can darken in any degree our
spirituality, must be set aside. Only what feeds and fills the sentiment
with unworldliness, can give peace and good will towards men.
All Christian churches have one bond of unity, one nucleus or point of
convergence, one prayer,--the Lord's Prayer. It is matter for rejoicing
that we unite in love, and in this sacred petition with every praying
assembly on earth,--"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is
in heaven."
If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I
predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land,
and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian
Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name. Christ will give to
Christianity his new name, and Christendom will be classified as Christian
Scientists.
When the doctrinal barriers between the churches are broken, and the bonds
of peace are cemented by spiritual understanding and Love, there will be
unity of spirit, and the healing power of Christ will prevail. Then shall
Zion have put on her most beautiful garments, and her waste places budded
and blossomed as the rose.
CLIPPINGS FROM NEWSPAPERS
* * * * *
[_Daily Inter-Ocean_, Chicago, December 31, 1894]
MARY BAKER EDDY
COMPLETION OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST,
BOSTON--"OUR PRAYER IN STONE"--DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST UNIQUE
STRUCTURE IN ANY CITY--A BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE AND ITS
FURNISHINGS--MRS. EDDY'S WORK AND HER INFLUENCE
Boston, Mass., December 28.--_Special Correspondence_.--The "great
awakening" of the time of Jonathan Edwards has been paralleled during the
last decade by a wave of idealism that has swept over the country,
manifesting itself under several different aspects and under various names,
but each having the common identity of spiritual demand. This movement,
under the guise of Christian Science, and ingenuously calling out a closer
inquiry into Oriental philosophy, prefigures itself to us as one of the
most potent factors in the social evolution of the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. History shows the curious fact that the closing years
of every century are years of more intense life, manifested in unrest or in
aspiration, and scholars of special research, like Prof. Max Muller, assert
that the end of a cycle, as is the latter part of the present century, is
marked by peculiar intimations of man's immortal life.
The completion of the first Christian Science church erected in Boston
strikes a keynote of definite attention. This church is in the fashionable
Back Bay, between Commonwealth and Huntington Avenues. It is one of the
most beautiful, and is certainly the most unique structure in any city. The
First Church of Christ, Scientist, as it is officially called, is termed by
its Founder, "Our prayer in stone." It is located at the intersection of
Norway and Falmouth Streets, on a triangular plot of ground, the design a
Romanesque tower with a circular front and an octagonal form, accented by
stone porticos and turreted corners. On the front is a marble tablet, with
the following inscription carved in bold relief:--
"The First Church of Christ, Scientist, erected Anno Domini 1894. A
testimonial to our beloved teacher, the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science; author of "Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures;" president of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and
the first pastor of this denomination."
THE CHURCH EDIFICE
The church is built of Concord granite in light gray, with trimmings of the
pink granite of New Hampshire, Mrs. Eddy's native State. The architecture
is Romanesque throughout. The tower is one hundred and twenty feet in
height and twenty-one and one half feet square. The entrances are of
marble, with doors of antique oak richly carved. The windows of stained
glass are very rich in pictorial effect. The lighting and cooling of the
church--for cooling is a recognized feature as well as heating--are done by
electricity, and the heat generated by two large boilers in the basement is
distributed by the four systems with motor electric power. The partitions
are of iron; the floors of marble in mosaic work, and the edifice is
therefore as literally fire-proof as is conceivable. The principal features
are the auditorium, seating eleven hundred people and capable of holding
fifteen hundred; the "Mother's Room," designed for the exclusive use of
Mrs. Eddy; the "directors' room," and the vestry. The girders are all of
iron, the roof is of terra cotta tiles, the galleries are in plaster
relief, the window frames are of iron, coated with plaster; the staircases
are of iron, with marble stairs of rose pink, and marble approaches.
The vestibule is a fitting entrance to this magnificent temple. In the
ceiling is a sunburst with a seven-pointed star, which illuminates it. From
this are the entrances leading to the auditorium, the "Mother's Room," and
the directors' room.
The auditorium is seated with pews of curly birch, upholstered in old rose
plush. The floor is in white Italian mosaic, with frieze of the old rose,
and the wainscoting repeats the same tints. The base and cap are of pink
Tennessee marble. On the walls are bracketed oxidized silver lamps of Roman
design, and there are frequent illuminated texts from the Bible and from
Mrs. Eddy's "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" impanelled. A
sunburst in the centre of the ceiling takes the place of chandeliers. There
is a disc of cut glass in decorative designs, covering one hundred and
forty-four electric lights in the form of a star, which is twenty-one
inches from point to point, the centre being of pure white light, and each
ray under prisms which reflect the rainbow tints. The galleries are richly
panelled in relief work. The organ and choir gallery is spacious and rich
beyond the power of words to depict. The platform--corresponding to the
chancel of an Episcopal church--is a mosaic work, with richly carved seats
following the sweep of its curve, with a lamp stand of the Renaissance
period on either end, bearing six richly wrought oxidized silver lamps,
eight feet in height. The great organ comes from Detroit. It is one of vast
compass, with Æolian attachment, and cost eleven thousand dollars. It is
the gift of a single individual--a votive offering of gratitude for the
healing of the wife of the donor.
The chime of bells includes fifteen, of fine range and perfect tone.
THE "MOTHER'S ROOM"
The "Mother's Room" is approached by an entrance of Italian marble, and
over the door, in large golden letters on a marble tablet, is the word
"Love." In this room the mosaic marble floor of white has a Romanesque
border and is decorated with sprays of fig leaves bearing fruit. The room
is toned in pale green with relief in old rose. The mantel is of onyx and
gold. Before the great bay window hangs an Athenian lamp over two hundred
years old, which will be kept always burning day and night. Leading off
the "Mother's Room" are toilet apartments, with full-length French mirrors
and every convenience.
The directors' room is very beautiful in marble approaches and rich
carving, and off this is a vault for the safe preservation of papers.
The vestry seats eight hundred people, and opening from it are three large
class-rooms and the pastor's study.
The windows are a remarkable feature of this temple. There are no
"memorial" windows; the entire church is a testimonial, not a memorial--a
point that the members strongly insist upon.
In the auditorium are two rose windows--one representing the heavenly city
which "cometh down from God out of heaven," with six small windows beneath,
emblematic of the six water-pots referred to in John ii. 6. The other rose
window represents the raising of the daughter of Jairus. Beneath are two
small windows bearing palms of victory, and others with lamps, typical of
Science and Health.
Another great window tells its pictorial story of the four Marys--the
mother of Jesus, Mary anointing the head of Jesus, Mary washing the feet of
Jesus, Mary at the resurrection; and the woman spoken of in the Apocalypse,
chapter 12, God-crowned.
One more window in the auditorium represents the raising of Lazarus.
In the gallery are windows representing John on the Isle of Patmos, and
others of pictorial significance. In the "Mother's Room" the windows are of
still more unique interest. A large bay window, composed of three separate
panels, is designed to be wholly typical of the work of Mrs. Eddy. The
central panel represents her in solitude and meditation, searching the
Scriptures by the light of a single candle, while the star of Bethlehem
shines down from above. Above this is a panel containing the Christian
Science seal, and other panels are decorated with emblematic designs, with
the legends, "Heal the Sick," "Raise the Dead," "Cleanse the Lepers," and
"Cast out Demons."
The cross and the crown and the star are presented in appropriate
decorative effect. The cost of this church is two hundred and twenty-one
thousand dollars, exclusive of the land--a gift from Mrs. Eddy--which is
valued at some forty thousand dollars.
THE ORDER OF SERVICE
The order of service in the Christian Science Church does not differ widely
from that of any other sect, save that its service includes the use of Mrs.
Eddy's book, entitled "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in
perhaps equal measure to its use of the Bible. The reading is from the two
alternately; the singing is from a compilation called the "Christian
Science Hymnal," but its songs are for the most part those devotional hymns
from Herbert, Faber, Robertson, Wesley, Bowring, and other recognized
devotional poets, with selections from Whittier and Lowell, as are found in
the hymn-books of the Unitarian churches. For the past year or two Judge
Hanna, formerly of Chicago, has filled the office of pastor to the church
in this city, which held its meetings in Chickering Hall, and later in
Copley Hall, in the new Grundmann Studio Building on Copley Square.
Preceding Judge Hanna were Rev. D.A. Easton and Rev. L.P. Norcross, both of
whom had formerly been Congregational clergymen. The organizer and first
pastor of the church here was Mrs. Eddy herself, of whose work I shall
venture to speak, a little later, in this article.
Last Sunday I gave myself the pleasure of attending the service held in
Copley Hall. The spacious apartment was thronged with a congregation whose
remarkable earnestness impressed the observer. There was no straggling of
late-comers. Before the appointed hour every seat in the hall was filled
and a large number of chairs pressed into service for the overflowing
throng. The music was spirited, and the selections from the Bible and from
Science and Health were finely read by Judge Hanna. Then came his sermon,
which dealt directly with the command of Christ to "heal the sick, raise
the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." In his admirable discourse
Judge Hanna said that while all these injunctions could, under certain
conditions, be interpreted and fulfilled literally, the special lesson was
to be taken spiritually--to cleanse the leprosy of sin, to cast out the
demons of evil thought. The discourse was able, and helpful in its
suggestive interpretation.
THE CHURCH MEMBERS
Later I was told that almost the entire congregation was composed of
persons who had either been themselves, or had seen members of their own
families, healed by Christian Science treatment; and I was further told
that once when a Boston clergyman remonstrated with Judge Hanna for
enticing a separate congregation rather than offering their strength to
unite with churches already established--I was told he replied that the
Christian Science Church did not recruit itself from other churches, but
from the graveyards! The church numbers now four thousand members; but this
estimate, as I understand, is not limited to the Boston adherents, but
includes those all over the country. The ceremonial of uniting is to sign a
brief "confession of faith," written by Mrs. Eddy, and to unite in
communion, which is not celebrated by outward symbols of bread and wine,
but by uniting in silent prayer.
The "confession of faith" includes the declaration that the Scriptures are
the guide to eternal Life; that there is a Supreme Being, and His Son, and
the Holy Ghost, and that man is made in His image. It affirms the
atonement; it recognizes Jesus as the teacher and guide to salvation; the
forgiveness of sin by God, and affirms the power of Truth over error, and
the need of living faith at the moment to realize the possibilities of the
divine Life. The entire membership of Christian Scientists throughout the
world now exceeds two hundred thousand people. The church in Boston was
organized by Mrs. Eddy, and the first meeting held on April 19, 1879. It
opened with twenty-six members, and within fifteen years it has grown to
its present impressive proportions, and has now its own magnificent church
building, costing over two hundred thousand dollars, and entirely paid for
when its consecration service on January 6 shall be celebrated. This is
certainly a very remarkable retrospect.
Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of this denomination and Discoverer of
Christian Science, as they term her work in affirming the present
application of the principles asserted by Jesus, is a most interesting
personality. At the risk of colloquialism, I am tempted to "begin at the
beginning" of my own knowledge of Mrs. Eddy, and take, as the point of
departure, my first meeting with her and the subsequent development of some
degree of familiarity with the work of her life which that meeting
inaugurated for me.
MRS. EDDY
It was during some year in the early '80's that I became aware--from that
close contact with public feeling resulting from editorial work in daily
journalism--that the Boston atmosphere was largely thrilled and pervaded by
a new and increasing interest in the dominance of mind over matter, and
that the central figure in all this agitation was Mrs. Eddy. To a note
which I wrote her, begging the favor of an interview for press use, she
most kindly replied, naming an evening on which she would receive me. At
the hour named I rang the bell at a spacious house on Columbus Avenue, and
I was hardly more than seated before Mrs. Eddy entered the room. She
impressed me as singularly graceful and winning in bearing and manner, and
with great claim to personal beauty. Her figure was tall, slender, and as
flexible in movement as that of a Delsarte disciple; her face, framed in
dark hair and lighted by luminous blue eyes, had the transparency and
rose-flush of tint so often seen in New England, and she was magnetic,
earnest, impassioned. No photographs can do the least justice to Mrs. Eddy,
as her beautiful complexion and changeful expression cannot thus be
reproduced. At once one would perceive that she had the temperament to
dominate, to lead, to control, not by any crude self-assertion, but a
spiritual animus. Of course such a personality, with the wonderful tumult
in the air that her large and enthusiastic following excited, fascinated
the imagination. What had she originated? I mentally questioned this modern
St. Catherine, who was dominating her followers like any abbess of old. She
told me the story of her life, so far as outward events may translate those
inner experiences which alone are significant.
Mary Baker was the daughter of Mark and Abigail (Ambrose) Baker, and was
born in Concord, N.H., somewhere in the early decade of 1820-'30. At the
time I met her she must have been some sixty years of age, yet she had the
coloring and the elastic bearing of a woman of thirty, and this, she told
me, was due to the principles of Christian Science. On her father's side
Mrs. Eddy came from Scotch and English ancestry, and Hannah More was a
relative of her grandmother. Deacon Ambrose, her maternal grandfather, was
known as a "godly man," and her mother was a religious enthusiast, a
saintly and consecrated character. One of her brothers, Albert Baker,
graduated at Dartmouth and achieved eminence as a lawyer.
MRS. EDDY AS A CHILD
As a child Mary Baker saw visions and dreamed dreams. When eight years of
age she began, like Jeanne d'Arc, to hear "voices," and for a year she
heard her name called distinctly, and would often run to her mother
questioning if she were wanted. One night the mother related to her the
story of Samuel, and bade her, if she heard the voice again to reply as he
did: "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." The call came, but the little
maid was afraid and did not reply. This caused her tears of remorse and she
prayed for forgiveness, and promised to reply if the call came again. It
came, and she answered as her mother had bidden her, and after that it
ceased.
These experiences, of which Catholic biographies are full, and which
history not infrequently emphasizes, certainly offer food for meditation.
Theodore Parker related that when he was a lad, at work in a field one day
on his father's farm at Lexington, an old man with a snowy beard suddenly
appeared at his side, and walked with him as he worked, giving him high
counsel and serious thought. All inquiry in the neighborhood as to whence
the stranger came or whither he went was fruitless; no one else had seen
him, and Mr. Parker always believed, so a friend has told me, that his
visitor was a spiritual form from another world. It is certainly true that
many and many persons, whose life has been destined to more than ordinary
achievement, have had experiences of voices or visions in their early
youth.
At an early age Miss Baker was married to Colonel Glover, of Charleston,
S.C., who lived only a year. She returned to her father's home--in
1844--and from that time until 1866 no special record is to be made.
In 1866, while living in Lynn, Mass., Mrs. Eddy (then Mrs. Glover) met with
a severe accident, and her case was pronounced hopeless by the physicians.
There came a Sunday morning when her pastor came to bid her good-by before
proceeding to his morning service, as there was no probability that she
would be alive at its close. During this time she suddenly became aware of
a divine illumination and ministration. She requested those with her to
withdraw, and reluctantly they did so, believing her delirious. Soon, to
their bewilderment and fright, she walked into the adjoining room, "and
they thought I had died, and that it was my apparition," she said.
THE PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE HEALING
From that hour dated her conviction of the Principle of divine healing, and
that it is as true to-day as it was in the days when Jesus of Nazareth
walked the earth. "I felt that the divine Spirit had wrought a miracle,"
she said, in reference to this experience. "How, I could not tell, but
later I found it to be in perfect scientific accord with the divine law."
From 1866-'69 Mrs. Eddy withdrew from the world to meditate, to pray, to
search the Scriptures.
"During this time," she said, in reply to my questions, "the Bible was my
only textbook. It answered my questions as to the process by which I was
restored to health; it came to me with a new meaning, and suddenly I
apprehended the spiritual meaning of the teaching of Jesus and the
Principle and the law involved in spiritual Science and metaphysical
healing--in a word--Christian Science."