was simply a natural fulfilment of divine law--a law as operative in the
world to-day as it was nineteen hundred years ago. "Divine Science is
begotten of spirituality," she says, "since only the 'pure in heart' can
see God."
In writing of this experience, Mrs. Eddy has said:--
"I had learned that thought must be spiritualized in order to apprehend
Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the
least understanding of God in divine Science. The first must become last.
Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to a perception of
and dependence on spiritual things. For Spirit to be supreme in
demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad
with divine power. I had learned that Mind reconstructed the body, and that
nothing else could. All Science is a revelation."
Through homoeopathy, too, Mrs. Eddy became convinced of the Principle of
Mind-healing, discovering that the more attenuated the drug, the more
potent was its effects.
In 1877 Mrs. Glover married Dr. Asa Gilbert Eddy, of Londonderry, Vermont,
a physician who had come into sympathy with her own views, and who was the
first to place "Christian Scientist" on the sign at his door. Dr. Eddy
died in 1882, a year after her founding of the Metaphysical College in
Boston, in which he taught.
The work in the Metaphysical College lasted nine years, and it was closed
(in 1889) in the very zenith of its prosperity, as Mrs. Eddy felt it
essential to the deeper foundation of her religious work to retire from
active contact with the world. To this College came hundreds and hundreds
of students, from Europe as well as this country. I was present at the
class lectures now and then, by Mrs. Eddy's kind invitation, and such
earnestness of attention as was given to her morning talks by the men and
women present I never saw equalled.
MRS. EDDY'S PERSONALITY
On the evening that I first met Mrs. Eddy by her hospitable courtesy, I
went to her peculiarly fatigued. I came away in a state of exhilaration and
energy that made me feel I could have walked any conceivable distance. I
have met Mrs. Eddy many times since then, and always with this experience
repeated.
Several years ago Mrs. Eddy removed from Columbus to Commonwealth Avenue,
where, just beyond Massachusetts Avenue, at the entrance to the Back Bay
Park, she bought one of the most beautiful residences in Boston. The
interior is one of the utmost taste and luxury, and the house is now
occupied by Judge and Mrs. Hanna, who are the editors of _The Christian
Science Journal_, a monthly publication, and to whose courtesy I am much
indebted for some of the data of this paper. "It is a pleasure to give any
information for _The Inter-Ocean_," remarked Mrs. Hanna, "for it is the
great daily that is so fair and so just in its attitude toward all
questions."
The increasing demands of the public on Mrs. Eddy have been, it may be, one
factor in her removal to Concord, N.H., where she has a beautiful
residence, called Pleasant View. Her health is excellent, and although her
hair is white, she retains in a great degree her energy and power; she
takes a daily walk and drives in the afternoon. She personally attends to a
vast correspondence; superintends the church in Boston, and is engaged on
further writings on Christian Science. In every sense she is the recognized
head of the Christian Science Church. At the same time it is her most
earnest aim to eliminate the element of personality from the faith. "On
this point, Mrs. Eddy feels very strongly," said a gentleman to me on
Christmas eve, as I sat in the beautiful drawing-room, where Judge and Mrs.
Hanna, Miss Elsie Lincoln, the soprano for the choir of the new church, and
one or two other friends were gathered.
"Mother feels very strongly," he continued, "the danger and the misfortune
of a church depending on any one personality. It is difficult not to centre
too closely around a highly gifted personality."
THE FIRST ASSOCIATION
The first Christian Scientist Association was organized on July 4, 1876, by
seven persons, including Mrs. Eddy. In April, 1879, the church was founded
with twenty-six members, and its charter obtained the following June.[C]
Mrs. Eddy had preached in other parishes for five years before being
ordained in this church, which ceremony took place in 1881.
The first edition of Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health, was issued in
1875. During these succeeding twenty years it has been greatly revised and
enlarged, and it is now in its ninety-first edition. It consists of
fourteen chapters, whose titles are as follows: "Science, Theology,
Medicine," "Physiology," "Footsteps of Truth," "Creation," "Science of
Being," "Christian Science and Spiritualism," "Marriage," "Animal
Magnetism," "Some Objections Answered," "Prayer," "Atonement and
Eucharist," "Christian Science Practice," "Teaching Christian Science,"
"Recapitulation." Key to the Scriptures, Genesis, Apocalypse, and Glossary.
The Christian Scientists do not accept the belief we call spiritualism.
They believe those who have passed the change of death are in so entirely
different a plane of consciousness that between the embodied and
disembodied there is no possibility of communication.
They are diametrically opposed to the philosophy of Karma and of
reincarnation, which are the tenets of theosophy. They hold with strict
fidelity to what they believe to be the literal teachings of Christ.
Yet each and all these movements, however they may differ among themselves,
are phases of idealism and manifestations of a higher spirituality seeking
expression.
It is good that each and all shall prosper, serving those who find in one
form of belief or another their best aid and guidance, and that all meet
on common ground in the great essentials of love to God and love to man as
a signal proof of the divine origin of humanity which finds no rest until
it finds the peace of the Lord in spirituality. They all teach that one
great truth, that
God's greatness flows around our incompleteness,
Round our restlessness, His rest.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
* * * * *
I add on the following page a little poem that I consider superbly
sweet--from my friend, Miss Whiting, the talented author of "The World
Beautiful."--M.B. EDDY.
AT THE WINDOW
[Written for the _Traveller_]
The sunset, burning low,
Throws o'er the Charles its flood of golden light.
Dimly, as in a dream, I watch the flow
Of waves of light.
The splendor of the sky
Repeats its glory in the river's flow;
And sculptured angels, on the gray church tower,
Gaze on the world below.
Dimly, as in a dream,
I see the hurrying throng before me pass,
But 'mid them all I only see _one_ face,
Under the meadow grass.
Ah, love! I only know
How thoughts of you forever cling to me:
I wonder how the seasons come and go
Beyond the sapphire sea?
LILIAN WHITING.
April 15, 1888.
* * * * *
[_Boston Herald_, January 7, 1895]
[Extract]
A TEMPLE GIVEN TO GOD--DEDICATION OF THE MOTHER CHURCH OF CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE
NOVEL METHOD OF ENABLING SIX THOUSAND BELIEVERS TO ATTEND THE
EXERCISES--THE SERVICE REPEATED FOUR
TIMES--SERMON BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY, FOUNDER OF THE
DENOMINATION--BEAUTIFUL ROOM WHICH THE CHILDREN
BUILT
With simple ceremonies, four times repeated, in the presence of four
different congregations, aggregating nearly six thousand persons, the
unique and costly edifice erected in Boston at Norway and Falmouth Streets
as a home for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and a testimonial to
the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, was
yesterday dedicated to the worship of God.
The structure came forth from the hands of the artisans with every stone
paid for--with an appeal, not for more money, but for a cessation of the
tide of contributions which continued to flow in after the full amount
needed was received. From every State in the Union, and from many lands,
the love-offerings of the disciples of Christian Science came to help erect
this beautiful structure, and more than four thousand of these contributors
came to Boston, from the far-off Pacific coast and the Gulf States and all
the territory that lies between, to view the new-built temple and to listen
to the Message sent them by the teacher they revere.
From all New England the members of the denomination gathered; New York
sent its hundreds, and even from the distant States came parties of forty
and fifty. The large auditorium, with its capacity for holding from
fourteen hundred to fifteen hundred persons, was hopelessly incapable of
receiving this vast throng, to say nothing of nearly a thousand local
believers. Hence the service was repeated until all who wished had heard
and seen; and each of the four vast congregations filled the church to
repletion.
At 7:30 a.m. the chimes in the great stone tower, which rises one hundred
and twenty-six feet above the earth, rung out their message of "On earth
peace, good will toward men."
Old familiar hymns--"All hail the power of Jesus' name," and others
such--were chimed until the hour for the dedication service had come.
At 9 a.m. the first congregation gathered. Before this service had closed
the large vestry room and the spacious lobbies and the sidewalks around the
church were all filled with a waiting multitude. At 10:30 o'clock another
service began, and at noon still another. Then there was an intermission,
and at 3 p.m. the service was repeated for the last time.
There was scarcely even a minor variation in the exercises at any one of
these services. At 10:30 a.m., however, the scene was rendered particularly
interesting by the presence of several hundred children in the central
pews. These were the little contributors to the building fund, whose money
was devoted to the "Mother's Room," a superb apartment intended for the
sole use of Mrs. Eddy. These children are known in the church as the "Busy
Bees," and each of them wore a white satin badge with a golden beehive
stamped upon it, and beneath the beehive the words, "Mother's Room," in
gilt letters.
The pulpit end of the auditorium was rich with the adornment of flowers. On
the wall of the choir gallery above the platform, where the organ is to be
hereafter placed, a huge seven-pointed star was hung--a star of lilies
resting on palms, with a centre of white immortelles, upon which in letters
of red were the words: "Love-Children's Offering--1894."
In the choir and the steps of the platform were potted palms and ferns and
Easter lilies. The desk was wreathed with ferns and pure white roses
fastened with a broad ribbon bow. On its right was a large basket of white
carnations resting on a mat of palms, and on its left a vase filled with
beautiful pink roses.
Two combined choirs--that of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of New
York, and the choir of the home church, numbering thirty-five singers in
all--led the singing, under the direction, respectively, of Mr. Henry
Lincoln Case and Miss Elsie Lincoln.
Judge S.J. Hanna, editor of _The Christian Science Journal_, presided over
the exercises. On the platform with him were Messrs. Ira O. Knapp, Joseph
Armstrong, Stephen A. Chase, and William B. Johnson, who compose the Board
of Directors, and Mrs. Henrietta Clark Bemis, a distinguished elocutionist,
and a native of Concord, New Hampshire.
The utmost simplicity marked the exercises. After an organ voluntary, the
hymn, "_Laus Deo_, it is done!" written by Mrs. Eddy for the corner-stone
laying last spring, was sung by the congregation. Selections from the
Scriptures and from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," were
read by Judge Hanna and Dr. Eddy.
A few minutes of silent prayer came next, followed by the recitation of the
Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian
Science textbook.
The sermon prepared for the occasion by Mrs. Eddy, which was looked forward
to as the chief feature of the dedication, was then read by Mrs. Bemis.
Mrs. Eddy remained at her home in Concord, N.H., during the day, because,
as heretofore stated in _The Herald_, it is her custom to discourage among
her followers that sort of personal worship which religious teachers so
often receive.
Before presenting the sermon, Mrs. Bemis read the following letter from a
former pastor of the church:--
"To Rev. Mary Baker Eddy.
"_Dear Teacher, Leader, Guide_:--'_Laus Deo_, it is done!' At last
you begin to see the fruition of that you have worked, toiled,
prayed for. The 'prayer in stone' is accomplished. Across two
thousand miles of space, as mortal sense puts it, I send my hearty
congratulations. You are fully occupied, but I thought you would
willingly pause for an instant to receive this brief message of
congratulation. Surely it marks an era in the blessed onward work
of Christian Science. It is a most auspicious hour in your
eventful career. While we all rejoice, yet the mother in Israel,
alone of us all, comprehends its full significance.
"Yours lovingly,
"LANSON P. NORCROSS."
* * * * *
[_Boston Sunday Globe_, January 6, 1895]
[Extract]
STATELY HOME FOR BELIEVERS IN GOSPEL HEALING--A WOMAN OF
WEALTH WHO DEVOTES ALL TO HER CHURCH WORK
Christian Science has shown its power over its students, as they are
called, by building a church by voluntary contributions, the first of its
kind; a church which will be dedicated to-day with a quarter of a million
dollars expended and free of debt.
The money has flowed in from all parts of the United States and Canada
without any special appeal, and it kept coming until the custodian of funds
cried "enough" and refused to accept any further checks by mail or
otherwise. Men, women, and children lent a helping hand, some giving a
mite and some substantial sums. Sacrifices were made in many an instance
which will never be known in this world.
Christian Scientists not only say that they can effect cures of disease and
erect churches, but add that they can get their buildings finished on time,
even when the feat seems impossible to mortal senses. Read the following,
from a publication of the new denomination:--
"One of the grandest and most helpful features of this glorious
consummation is this: that one month before the close of the year every
evidence of material sense declared that the church's completion within the
year 1894 transcended human possibility. The predictions of workman and
onlooker alike were that it could not be completed before April or May of
1895. Much was the ridicule heaped upon the hopeful, trustful ones, who
declared and repeatedly asseverated to the contrary. This is indeed, then,
a scientific demonstration. It has proved, in most striking manner, the
oft-repeated declarations of our textbooks, that the evidence of the mortal
senses is unreliable."
A week ago Judge Hanna withdrew from the pastorate of the church, saying he
gladly laid down his responsibilities to be succeeded by the grandest of
ministers--the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
This action, it appears, was the result of rules made by Mrs. Eddy. The
sermons hereafter will consist of passages read from the two books by
Readers, who will be elected each year by the congregation.
A story has been abroad that Judge Hanna was so eloquent and magnetic that
he was attracting listeners who came to hear him preach, rather than in
search of the truth as taught. Consequently the new rules were formulated.
But at Christian Science headquarters this is denied; Mrs. Eddy says the
words of the judge speak to the point, and that no such inference is to be
drawn therefrom.
In Mrs. Eddy's personal reminiscences, which are published under the title
of "Retrospection and Introspection," much is told of herself in detail
that can only be touched upon in this brief sketch.
Aristocratic to the backbone, Mrs. Eddy takes delight in going back to the
ancestral tree and in tracing those branches which are identified with good
and great names both in Scotland and England.
Her family came to this country not long before the Revolution. Among the
many souvenirs that Mrs. Eddy remembers as belonging to her grandparents
was a heavy sword, encased in a brass scabbard, upon which had been
inscribed the name of the kinsman upon whom the sword had been bestowed by
Sir William Wallace of mighty Scottish fame.
Mrs. Eddy applied herself, like other girls, to her studies, though perhaps
with an unusual zest, delighting in philosophy, logic, and moral science,
as well as looking into the ancient languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Her last marriage was in the spring of 1877, when, at Lynn, Mass., she
became the wife of Asa Gilbert Eddy. He was the first organizer of a
Christian Science Sunday School, of which he was the superintendent, and
later he attracted the attention of many clergymen of other denominations
by his able lectures upon Scriptural topics. He died in 1882.
Mrs. Eddy is known to her circle of pupils and admirers as the editor and
publisher of the first official organ of this sect. It was called the
_Journal of Christian Science_, and has had great circulation with the
members of this fast-increasing faith.
In recounting her experiences as the pioneer of Christian Science, she
states that she sought knowledge concerning the physical side in this
research through the different schools of allopathy, homoeopathy, and so
forth, without receiving any real satisfaction. No ancient or modern
philosophy gave her any distinct statement of the Science of Mind-healing.
She claims that no human reason has been equal to the question. And she
also defines carefully the difference in the theories between faith-cure
and Christian Science, dwelling particularly upon the terms belief and
understanding, which are the key words respectively used in the definitions
of these two healing arts.
Besides her Boston home, Mrs. Eddy has a delightful country home one mile
from the State House of New Hampshire's quiet capital, an easy driving
distance for her when she wishes to catch a glimpse of the world. But for
the most part she lives very much retired, driving rather into the country,
which is so picturesque all about Concord and its surrounding villages.
The big house, so delightfully remodelled and modernized from a primitive
homestead that nothing is left excepting the angles and pitch of the roof,
is remarkably well placed upon a terrace that slopes behind the buildings,
while they themselves are in the midst of green stretches of lawns, dotted
with beds of flowering shrubs, with here and there a fountain or
summer-house.
Mrs. Eddy took the writer straight to her beloved "lookout"--a broad piazza
on the south side of the second story of the house, where she can sit in
her swinging chair, revelling in the lights and shades of spring and summer
greenness. Or, as just then, in the gorgeous October coloring of the whole
landscape that lies below, across the farm, which stretches on through an
intervale of beautiful meadows and pastures to the woods that skirt the
valley of the little truant river, as it wanders eastward.
It pleased her to point out her own birthplace. Straight as the crow flies,
from her piazza, does it lie on the brow of Bow hill, and then she paused
and reminded the reporter that Congressman Baker from New Hampshire, her
cousin, was born and bred in that same neighborhood. The photograph of Hon.
Hoke Smith, another distinguished relative, adorned the mantel.
Then my eye caught her family coat of arms and the diploma given her by the
Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.
The natural and lawful pride that comes with a tincture of blue and brave
blood, is perhaps one of her characteristics, as is many another well-born
woman's. She had a long list of worthy ancestors in Colonial and
Revolutionary days, and the McNeils and General Knox figure largely in her
genealogy, as well as the hero who killed the ill-starred Paugus.
This big, sunny room which Mrs. Eddy calls her den--or sometimes "Mother's
room," when speaking of her many followers who consider her their spiritual
Leader--has the air of hospitality that marks its hostess herself. Mrs.
Eddy has hung its walls with reproductions of some of Europe's
masterpieces, a few of which had been the gifts of her loving pupils.
Looking down from the windows upon the tree-tops on the lower terrace, the
reporter exclaimed: "You have lived here only four years, and yet from a
barren waste of most unpromising ground has come forth all this beauty!"
"Four years!" she ejaculated; "two and a half, only two and a half years."
Then, touching my sleeve and pointing, she continued: "Look at those big
elms! I had them brought here in warm weather, almost as big as they are
now, and not one died."
Mrs. Eddy talked earnestly of her friendships.... She told something of her
domestic arrangements, of how she had long wished to get away from her busy
career in Boston, and return to her native granite hills, there to build a
substantial home that should do honor to that precinct of Concord.
She chose the stubbly old farm on the road from Concord, within one mile of
the "Eton of America," St. Paul's School. Once bought, the will of the
woman set at work, and to-day a strikingly well-kept estate is the first
impression given to the visitor as he approaches Pleasant View.
She employs a number of men to keep the grounds and farm in perfect order,
and it was pleasing to learn that this rich woman is using her money to
promote the welfare of industrious workmen, in whom she takes a vital
interest.
Mrs. Eddy believes that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and, moreover,
that he deserves to have a home and family of his own. Indeed, one of her
motives in buying so large an estate was that she might do something for
the toilers, and thus add her influence toward the advancement of better
home life and citizenship.
* * * * *
[_Boston Transcript_, December 31, 1894]
[Extract]
The growth of Christian Science is properly marked by the erection of a
visible house of worship in this city, which will be dedicated to-morrow.
It has cost two hundred thousand dollars, and no additional sums outside of
the subscriptions are asked for. This particular phase of religious belief
has impressed itself upon a large and increasing number of Christian
people, who have been tempted to examine its principles, and doubtless have
been comforted and strengthened by them. Any new movement will awaken some
sort of interest. There are many who have worn off the novelty and are
thoroughly carried away with the requirements, simple and direct as they
are, of Christian Science. The opposition against it from the so-called
orthodox religious bodies keeps up a while, but after a little skirmishing,
finally subsides. No one religious body holds the whole of truth, and
whatever is likely to show even some one side of it will gain followers and
live down any attempted repression.
Christian Science does not strike all as a system of truth. If it did, it
would be a prodigy. Neither does the Christian faith produce the same
impressions upon all. Freedom to believe or to dissent is a great privilege
in these days. So when a number of conscientious followers apply themselves
to a matter like Christian Science, they are enjoying that liberty which is
their inherent right as human beings, and though they cannot escape
censure, yet they are to be numbered among the many pioneers who are
searching after religious truth. There is really nothing settled. Every
truth is more or less in a state of agitation. The many who have worked in
the mine of knowledge are glad to welcome others who have different
methods, and with them bring different ideas.
It is too early to predict where this movement will go, and how greatly it
will affect the well-established methods. That it has produced a sensation
in religious circles, and called forth the implements of theological
warfare, is very well known. While it has done this, it may, on the other
hand, have brought a benefit. Ere this many a new project in religious
belief has stirred up feeling, but as time has gone on, compromises have
been welcomed.