Thus far we have a part of Mrs. Eddy's portrait. Not made of fictions,
surmises, reports, rumors, innuendoes, dropped by her enemies; no, she
has furnished all of the materials herself, and laid them on the canvas,
under my general superintendence and direction. As far as she has gone
with it, it is the presentation of a complacent, commonplace, illiterate
New England woman who “forgot everything she knew” when she discovered
her discovery, then wrote a Bible in good English under the inspiration
of God, and climbed up it to the supremest summit of earthly grandeur
attainable by man--where she sits serene to-day, beloved and worshiped
by a multitude of human beings of as good average intelligence as is
possessed by those that march under the banner of any competing cult.
This is not intended to flatter the competing cults, it is merely a
statement of cold fact.
That a commonplace person should go climbing aloft and become a god or
a half-god or a quarter-god and be worshiped by men and women of average
intelligence, is nothing. It has happened a million times, it will
happen a hundred million more. It has been millions of years since the
first of these supernaturals appeared, and by the time the last one in
that inconceivably remote future shall have performed his solemn little
high-jinks on the stage and closed the business, there will be enough
of them accumulated in the museum on the Other Side to start a heaven of
their own-and jam it.
Each in his turn those little supernaturals of our by-gone ages and
aeons joined the monster procession of his predecessors and marched
horizonward, disappeared, and was forgotten. They changed nothing,
they built nothing, they left nothing behind them to remember them by,
nothing to hold their disciples together, nothing to solidify their work
and enable it to defy the assaults of time and the weather. They passed,
and left a vacancy. They made one fatal mistake; they all made it,
each in his turn: they failed to organize their forces, they failed to
centralize their strength, they failed to provide a fresh Bible and a
sure and perpetual cash income for business, and often they failed to
provide a new and accepted Divine Personage to worship.
Mrs. Eddy is not of that small fry. The materials that go to the
making of the rest of her portrait will prove it. She will furnish them
herself:
She published her book. She copyrighted it. She copyrights everything.
If she should say, “Good-morning; how do you do?” she would copyright
it; for she is a careful person, and knows the value of small things.
She began to teach her Science, she began to heal, she began to gather
converts to her new religion--fervent, sincere, devoted, grateful
people. A year or two later she organized her first Christian Science
“Association,” with six of her disciples on the roster.
She continued to teach and heal. She was charging nothing, she says,
although she was very poor. She taught and healed gratis four years
altogether, she says.
Then, in 1879-81 she was become strong enough, and well enough
established, to venture a couple of impressively important moves. The
first of these moves was to aggrandize the “Association” to a “Church.”
Brave? It is the right name for it, I think. The former name suggests
nothing, invited no remark, no criticism, no inquiry, no hostility; the
new name invited them all. She must have made this intrepid venture on
her own motion. She could have had no important advisers at that early
day. If we accept it as her own idea and her own act--and I think we
must--we have one key to her character. And it will explain subsequent
acts of hers that would merely stun us and stupefy us without it. Shall
we call it courage? Or shall we call it recklessness? Courage observes;
reflects; calculates; surveys the whole situation; counts the cost,
estimates the odds, makes up its mind; then goes at the enterprise
resolute to win or perish. Recklessness does not reflect, it plunges
fearlessly in with a hurrah, and takes the risks, whatever they may be,
regardless of expense. Recklessness often fails, Mrs. Eddy has never
failed--from the point of view of her followers. The point of view of
other people is naturally not a matter of weighty importance to her.
The new Church was not born loose-jointed and featureless, but had a
defined plan, a definite character, definite aims, and a name which was
a challenge, and defied all comers. It was “a Mind-healing Church.” It
was “without a creed.” Its name, “The Church of Christ, Scientist.”
Mrs. Eddy could not copyright her Church, but she chartered it, which
was the same thing and relieved the pain. It had twenty-six charter
members. Mrs. Eddy was at once installed as its pastor.
The other venture, above referred to, was Mrs. Eddy's Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, in which was taught “the pathology of spiritual
power.” She could not copyright it, but she got it chartered. For
faculty it had herself, her husband of the period (Dr. Eddy), and her
adopted son, Dr. Foster-Eddy. The college term was “barely three
weeks,” she says. Again she was bold, brave, rash, reckless--choose for
yourself--for she not only began to charge the student, but charged him
a hundred dollars a week for the enlightenments. And got it? some may
ask. Easily. Pupils flocked from far and near. They came by the hundred.
Presently the term was cut down nearly half, but the price remained as
before. To be exact, the term-cut was to seven lessons--price,
three hundred dollars. The college “yielded a large income.” This is
believable. In seven years Mrs. Eddy taught, as she avers, over four
thousand students in it. (Preface to 1902 edition of Science and
Health.) Three hundred times four thousand is--but perhaps you can
cipher it yourself. I could do it ordinarily, but I fell down yesterday
and hurt my leg. Cipher it; you will see that it is a grand sum for a
woman to earn in seven years. Yet that was not all she got out of her
college in the seven.
At the time that she was charging the primary student three hundred
dollars for twelve lessons she was not content with this tidy
assessment, but had other ways of plundering him. By advertisement she
offered him privileges whereby he could add eighteen lessons to his
store for five hundred dollars more. That is to say, he could get a
total of thirty lessons in her college for eight hundred dollars.
Four thousand times eight hundred is--but it is a difficult sum for a
cripple who has not been “demonstrated over” to cipher; let it go.
She taught “over” four thousand students in seven years. “Over” is not
definite, but it probably represents a non-paying surplus of learners
over and above the paying four thousand. Charity students, doubtless. I
think that as interesting an advertisement as has been printed since the
romantic old days of the other buccaneers is this one from the Christian
Science Journal for September, 1886:
“MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE
“Rev. MARY BAKER G. EDDY, PRESIDENT
“571 Columbus Avenue, Boston
“The collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing
includes twelve lessons. Tuition, three hundred dollars.
“Course in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lectures, and is
open only to students from this college. Tuition, one hundred dollars.
“Class in theology, open (like the above) to graduates, receives six
additional lectures on the Scriptures, and summary of the principle and
practice of Christian Science, two hundred dollars.
“Normal class is open to those who have taken the first course at this
college; six daily lectures complete the Normal course. Tuition, two
hundred dollars.
“No invalids, and only persons of good moral character, are accepted
as students. All students are subject to examination and rejection; and
they are liable to leave the class if found unfit to remain in it.
“A limited number of clergymen received free of charge.
“Largest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first
course.
“No deduction on the others.
“Husband and wife, entered together, three hundred dollars.
“Tuition for all strictly in advance.”
There it is--the horse-leech's daughter alive again, after a
three-century vacation. Fifty or sixty hours' lecturing for eight
hundred dollars.
I was in error as to one matter: there are no charity students.
Gratis-taught clergymen must not be placed under that head; they are
merely an advertisement. Pauper students can get into the infant class
on a two-third rate (cash in advance), but not even an archangel can get
into the rest of the game at anything short of par, cash down. For it is
“in the spirit of Christ's charity, as one who is joyful to hear healing
to the sick” that Mrs. Eddy is working the game. She sends the healing
to them outside. She cannot bear it to them inside the college, for the
reason that she does not allow a sick candidate to get in. It is true
that this smells of inconsistency, but that is nothing; Mrs. Eddy
would not be Mrs. Eddy if she should ever chance to be consistent about
anything two days running.
Except in the matter of the Dollar. The Dollar, and appetite for power
and notoriety. English must also be added; she is always consistent,
she is always Mrs. Eddy, in her English: it is always and consistently
confused and crippled and poor. She wrote the Advertisement; her
literary trade-marks are there. When she says all “students” are subject
to examination, she does not mean students, she means candidates for
that lofty place When she says students are “liable” to leave the class
if found unfit to remain in it, she does not mean that if they find
themselves unfit, or be found unfit by others, they will be likely to
ask permission to leave the class; she means that if she finds them
unfit she will be “liable” to fire them out. When she nobly offers
“tuition for all strictly in advance,” she does not mean “instruction
for all in advance-payment for it later.” No, that is only what she
says, it is not what she means. If she had written Science and Health,
the oldest man in the world would not be able to tell with certainty
what any passage in it was intended to mean.
Her Church was on its legs.
She was its pastor. It was prospering.
She was appointed one of a committee to draught By-laws for its
government. It may be observed, without overplus of irreverence, that
this was larks for her. She did all of the draughting herself. From the
very beginning she was always in the front seat when there was business
to be done; in the front seat, with both eyes open, and looking sharply
out for Number One; in the front seat, working Mortal Mind with fine
effectiveness and giving Immortal Mind a rest for Sunday. When her
Church was reorganized, by-and-by, the By-laws were retained. She saw
to that. In these Laws for the government of her Church, her empire, her
despotism, Mrs. Eddy's character is embalmed for good and all. I think
a particularized examination of these Church-laws will be found
interesting. And not the less so if we keep in mind that they were
“impelled by a power not one's own,” as she says--Anglice--the
inspiration of God.
It is a Church “without a creed.” Still, it has one. Mrs. Eddy draughted
it--and copyrighted it. In her own name. You cannot become a member of
the Mother-Church (nor of any Christian Science Church) without signing
it. It forms the first chapter of the By-laws, and is called “Tenets.”
“Tenets of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.” It
has no hell in it--it throws it overboard.
THE PASTOR EMERITUS
About the time of the reorganization, Mrs. Eddy retired from her
position of pastor of her Church, abolished the office of pastor in
all branch Churches, and appointed her book, Science and Health, to be
pastor-universal. Mrs. Eddy did not disconnect herself from the office
entirely, when she retired, but appointed herself Pastor Emeritus. It is
a misleading title, and belongs to the family of that phrase “without
a creed.” It advertises her as being a merely honorary official, with
nothing to do, and no authority. The Czar of Russia is Emperor Emeritus
on the same terms. Mrs. Eddy was Autocrat of the Church before, with
limitless authority, and she kept her grip on that limitless authority
when she took that fictitious title.
It is curious and interesting to note with what an unerring instinct the
Pastor Emeritus has thought out and forecast all possible encroachments
upon her planned autocracy, and barred the way against them, in the
By-laws which she framed and copyrighted--under the guidance of the
Supreme Being.
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
For instance, when Article I. speaks of a President and Board of
Directors, you think you have discovered a formidable check upon the
powers and ambitions of the honorary pastor, the ornamental pastor, the
functionless pastor, the Pastor Emeritus, but it is a mistake. These
great officials are of the phrase--family of the Church-Without-a-Creed
and the Pastor-With-Nothing-to-Do; that is to say, of the family of
Large-Names-Which-Mean-Nothing. The Board is of so little consequence
that the By-laws do not state how it is chosen, nor who does it; but
they do state, most definitely, that the Board cannot fill a vacancy in
its number “except the candidate is approved by the Pastor Emeritus.”
The “candidate.” The Board cannot even proceed to an election until the
Pastor Emeritus has examined the list and squelched such candidates as
are not satisfactory to her.
Whether the original first Board began as the personal property of Mrs.
Eddy or not, it is foreseeable that in time, under this By-law, she
would own it. Such a first Board might chafe under such a rule as that,
and try to legislate it out of existence some day. But Mrs. Eddy was
awake. She foresaw that danger, and added this ingenious and effective
clause:
“This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of
Mrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus.”
THE PRESIDENT
The Board of Directors, or Serfs, or Ciphers, elects the President.
On these clearly worded terms: “Subject to the approval of the Pastor
Emeritus.”
Therefore She elects him.
A long term can invest a high official with influence and power, and
make him dangerous. Mrs. Eddy reflected upon that; so she limits the
President's term to a year. She has a capable commercial head, an
organizing head, a head for government.
TREASURER AND CLERK
There are a Treasurer and a Clerk. They are elected by the Board of
Directors. That is to say, by Mrs. Eddy.
Their terms of office expire on the first Tuesday in June of each year,
“or upon the election of their successors.” They must be watchfully
obedient and satisfactory to her, or she will elect and install their
successors with a suddenness that can be unpleasant to them. It goes
without saying that the Treasurer manages the Treasury to suit Mrs.
Eddy, and is in fact merely Temporary Deputy Treasurer.
Apparently the Clerk has but two duties to perform: to read messages
from Mrs. Eddy to First Members assembled in solemn Council, and provide
lists of candidates for Church membership. The select body entitled
First Members are the aristocracy of the Mother-Church, the Charter
Members, the Aborigines, a sort of stylish but unsalaried little
College of Cardinals, good for show, but not indispensable. Nobody is
indispensable in Mrs. Eddy's empire; she sees to that.
When the Pastor Emeritus sends a letter or message to that little
Sanhedrin, it is the Clerk's “imperative duty” to read it “at the place
and time specified.” Otherwise, the world might come to an end. These
are fine, large frills, and remind us of the ways of emperors and such.
Such do not use the penny-post, they send a gilded and painted special
messenger, and he strides into the Parliament, and business comes to
a sudden and solemn and awful stop; and in the impressive hush that
follows, the Chief Clerk reads the document. It is his “imperative
duty.” If he should neglect it, his official life would end. It is
the same with this Mother-Church Clerk; “if he fail to perform this
important function of his office,” certain majestic and unshirkable
solemnities must follow: a special meeting “shall” be called; a member
of the Church “shall” make formal complaint; then the Clerk “shall” be
“removed from office.” Complaint is sufficient, no trial is necessary.
There is something very sweet and juvenile and innocent and pretty about
these little tinsel vanities, these grave apings of monarchical fuss and
feathers and ceremony, here on our ostentatiously democratic soil. She
is the same lady that we found in the Autobiography, who was so naively
vain of all that little ancestral military riffraff that she had dug up
and annexed. A person's nature never changes. What it is in childhood,
it remains. Under pressure, or a change of interest, it can partially or
wholly disappear from sight, and for considerable stretches of time, but
nothing can ever permanently modify it, nothing can ever remove it.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
There isn't any--now. But with power and money piling up higher and
higher every day and the Church's dominion spreading daily wider and
farther, a time could come when the envious and ambitious could start
the idea that it would be wise and well to put a watch upon these
assets--a watch equipped with properly large authority. By custom, a
Board of Trustees. Mrs. Eddy has foreseen that probability--for she is
a woman with a long, long look ahead, the longest look ahead that ever a
woman had--and she has provided for that emergency. In Art. I., Sec.
5, she has decreed that no Board of Trustees shall ever exist in the
Mother-Church “except it be constituted by the Pastor Emeritus.”
The magnificence of it, the daring of it! Thus far, she is:
The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus; President;
Board of Directors; Treasurer; Clerk; and future Board of Trustees;
and is still moving onward, ever onward. When I contemplate her from
a commercial point of view, there are no words that can convey my
admiration of her.
READERS
These are a feature of first importance in the church-machinery of
Christian Science. For they occupy the pulpit. They hold the place
that the preacher holds in the other Christian Churches. They hold that
place, but they do not preach. Two of them are on duty at a time--a man
and a woman. One reads a passage from the Bible, the other reads
the explanation of it from Science and Health--and so they go on
alternating. This constitutes the service--this, with choir-music. They
utter no word of their own. Art. IV., Sec. 6, closes their mouths with
this uncompromising gag:
“They shall make no remarks explanatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time
during the service.”
It seems a simple little thing. One is not startled by it at a first
reading of it; nor at the second, nor the third. One may have to read it
a dozen times before the whole magnitude of it rises before the mind.
It far and away oversizes and outclasses the best business-idea yet
invented for the safe-guarding and perpetuating of a religion. If it had
been thought of and put in force eighteen hundred and seventy years ago,
there would be but one Christian sect in the world now, instead of ten
dozens of them.
There are many varieties of men in the world, consequently there are
many varieties of minds in its pulpits. This insures many differing
interpretations of important Scripture texts, and this in turn insures
the splitting up of a religion into many sects. It is what has happened;
it was sure to happen.
Mrs. Eddy has noted this disastrous result of preaching, and has put up
the bars. She will have no preaching in her Church. She has explained
all essential Scriptures, and set the explanations down in her book. In
her belief her underlings cannot improve upon those explanations, and
in that stern sentence “they shall make no explanatory remarks” she has
barred them for all time from trying. She will be obeyed; there is no
question about that.
In arranging her government she has borrowed ideas from various
sources--not poor ones, but the best in the governmental market--but
this one is new, this one came out of no ordinary business-head, this
one must have come out of her own, there has been no other commercial
skull in a thousand centuries that was equal to it. She has borrowed
freely and wisely, but I am sure that this idea is many times
larger than all her borrowings bulked together. One must respect the
business-brain that produced it--the splendid pluck and impudence that
ventured to promulgate it, anyway.
ELECTION OF READERS
Readers are not taken at hap-hazard, any more than preachers are taken
at hap-hazard for the pulpits of other sects. No, Readers are elected by
the Board of Directors. But--
“Section 3. The Board shall inform the Pas. for Emeritus of the names
of candidates for Readers before they are elected, and if she objects to
the nomination, said candidates shall not be chosen.”
Is that an election--by the Board? Thus far I have not been able to
find out what that Board of Spectres is for. It certainly has no real
function, no duty which the hired girl could not perform, no office
beyond the mere recording of the autocrat's decrees.
There are no dangerously long office-terms in Mrs. Eddy's government.
The Readers are elected for but one year. This insures their
subserviency to their proprietor.
Readers are not allowed to copy out passages and read them from the
manuscript in the pulpit; they must read from Mrs. Eddy's book itself.
She is right. Slight changes could be slyly made, repeated, and in time
get acceptance with congregations. Branch sects could grow out of these
practices. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race, and how far to trust it. Her
limit is not over a quarter of an inch. It is all that a wise person
will risk.
Mrs. Eddy's inborn disposition to copyright everything, charter
everything, secure the rightful and proper credit to herself for
everything she does, and everything she thinks she does, and everything
she thinks, and everything she thinks she thinks or has thought or
intends to think, is illustrated in Sec. 5 of Art. IV., defining the
duties of official Readers--in church:
“Naming Book and Author. The Reader of Science and Health, with Key
to the Scriptures, before commencing to read from this book, shall
distinctly announce its full title and give the author's name.”
Otherwise the congregation might get the habit of forgetting who
(ostensibly) wrote the book.
THE ARISTOCRACY
This consists of First Members and their apostolic succession. It is a
close corporation, and its membership limit is one hundred. Forty will
answer, but if the number fall below that, there must be an election, to
fill the grand quorum.
This Sanhedrin can't do anything of the slightest importance, but it
can talk. It can “discuss.” That is, it can discuss “important questions
relative to Church members”, evidently persons who are already Church
members. This affords it amusement, and does no harm.
It can “fix the salaries of the Readers.”
Twice a year it “votes on” admitting candidates. That is, for Church
membership. But its work is cut out for it beforehand, by Art. IX.:
“Every recommendation for membership In the Church 'shall be
countersigned by a loyal student of Mrs. Eddy's, by a Director of this
Church, or by a First Member.'”
All these three classes of beings are the personal property of Mrs.
Eddy. She has absolute control of the elections.
Also it must “transact any Church business that may properly come before
it.”
“Properly” is a thoughtful word. No important business can come before
it. The By laws have attended to that. No important business goes before
any one for the final word except Mrs. Eddy. She has looked to that.
The Sanhedrin “votes on” candidates for admission to its own body. But
is its vote worth any more than mine would be? No, it isn't. Sec. 4, of
Art. V.--Election of First Members--makes this quite plain:
“Before being elected, the candidates for First Members shall be
approved by the Pastor Emeritus over her own signature.”
Thus the Sanhedrin is the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. She owns it.
It has no functions, no authority, no real existence. It is another
Board of Shadows. Mrs. Eddy is the Sanhedrin herself.
But it is time to foot up again and “see where we are at.” Thus far,
Mrs. Eddy is:
The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus, President;
Board of Directors; Treasurer; Clerk; Future Board of Trustees;
Proprietor of the Priesthood: Dictator of the Services; Proprietor of
the Sanhedrin. She has come far, and is still on her way.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
In this Article there is another exhibition of a couple of the large
features of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable make-up: her business-talent and her
knowledge of human nature.
She does not beseech and implore people to join her Church. She knows
the human race better than that. She gravely goes through the motions of
reluctantly granting admission to the applicant as a favor to him. The
idea is worth untold shekels. She does not stand at the gate of the fold
with welcoming arms spread, and receive the lost sheep with glad emotion
and set up the fatted calf and invite the neighbor and have a time. No,
she looks upon him coldly, she snubs him, she says:
“Who are you? Who is your sponsor? Who asked you to come here? Go away,
and don't come again until you are invited.”
It is calculated to strikingly impress a person accustomed to Moody and
Sankey and Sam Jones revivals; accustomed to brain-turning appeals to
the unknown and unendorsed sinner to come forward and enter into the
joy, etc.--“just as he is”; accustomed to seeing him do it; accustomed
to seeing him pass up the aisle through sobbing seas of welcome, and
love, and congratulation, and arrive at the mourner's bench and be
received like a long-lost government bond.
No, there is nothing of that kind in Mrs. Eddy's system. She knows that
if you wish to confer upon a human being something which he is not sure
he wants, the best way is to make it apparently difficult for him to get
it--then he is no son of Adam if that apple does not assume an interest
in his eyes which it lacked before. In time this interest can grow into
desire. Mrs. Eddy knows that when you cannot get a man to try--free of
cost--a new and effective remedy for a disease he is afflicted with, you
can generally sell it to him if you will put a price upon it which he
cannot afford. When, in the beginning, she taught Christian Science
gratis (for good reasons), pupils were few and reluctant, and required
persuasion; it was when she raised the limit to three hundred dollars
for a dollar's worth that she could not find standing room for the
invasion of pupils that followed.
With fine astuteness she goes through the motions of making it difficult
to get membership in her Church. There is a twofold value in this
system: it gives membership a high value in the eyes of the applicant;
and at the same time the requirements exacted enable Mrs. Eddy to keep
him out if she has doubts about his value to her. A word further as to
applications for membership:
“Applications of students of the Metaphysical College must be signed by
the Board of Directors.”
That is safe. Mrs. Eddy is proprietor of that Board.
Children of twelve may be admitted if invited by “one of Mrs. Eddy's
loyal students, or by a First Member, or by a Director.”
These sponsors are the property of Mrs. Eddy, therefore her Church is
safeguarded from the intrusion of undesirable children.
Other Students. Applicants who have not studied with Mrs. Eddy can get
in only “by invitation and recommendation from students of Mrs. Eddy....
or from members of the Mother-Church.”
Other paragraphs explain how two or three other varieties of applicants
are to be challenged and obstructed, and tell us who is authorized to
invite them, recommend them endorse them, and all that.
The safeguards are definite, and would seem to be sufficiently
strenuous--to Mr. Sam Jones, at any rate. Not for Mrs. Eddy. She adds
this clincher:
“The candidates be elected by a majority vote of the First Members
present.”
That is the aristocracy, the aborigines, the Sanhedrin. It is Mrs.
Eddy's property. She herself is the Sanhedrin. No one can get into the
Church if she wishes to keep him out.
This veto power could some time or other have a large value for her,
therefore she was wise to reserve it.
It is likely that it is not frequently used. It is also probable that
the difficulties attendant upon getting admission to membership have
been instituted more to invite than to deter, more to enhance the
value of membership and make people long for it than to make it really
difficult to get. I think so, because the Mother. Church has many
thousands of members more than its building can accommodate.
AND SOME ENGLISH REQUIRED
Mrs. Eddy is very particular as regards one detail curiously so, for
her, all things considered. The Church Readers must be “good English
scholars”; they must be “thorough English scholars.”
She is thus sensitive about the English of her subordinates for cause,
possibly. In her chapter defining the duties of the Clerk there is an
indication that she harbors resentful memories of an occasion when the
hazy quality of her own English made unforeseen and mortifying trouble:
“Understanding Communications. Sec. 2. If the Clerk of this Church shall
receive a communication from the Pastor Emeritus which he does not fully
understand, he shall inform her of this fact before presenting it to
the Church, and obtain a clear understanding of the matter--then act in
accordance therewith.”
She should have waited to calm down, then, but instead she added this,
which lacks sugar:
“Failing to adhere to this By-law, the Clerk must resign.”
I wish I could see that communication that broke the camel's back.
It was probably the one beginning: “What plague spot or bacilli were
gnawing at the heart of this metropolis and bringing it on bended knee?”
and I think it likely that the kindly disposed Clerk tried to translate
it into English and lost his mind and had to go to the hospital.
That Bylaw was not the offspring of a forecast, an intuition, it was
certainly born of a sorrowful experience. Its temper gives the fact
away.
The little book of By-laws has manifestly been tinkered by one of Mrs.
Eddy's “thorough English scholars,” for in the majority of cases its
meanings are clear. The book is not even marred by Mrs. Eddy's peculiar
specialty--lumbering clumsinesses of speech. I believe the salaried
polisher has weeded them all out but one. In one place, after referring
to Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy goes on to say “the Bible and the
above-named book, with other works by the same author,” etc.
It is an unfortunate sentence, for it could mislead a hasty or careless
reader for a moment. Mrs. Eddy framed it--it is her very own--it bears
her trade-mark. “The Bible and Science and Health, with other works by
the same author,” could have come from no literary vacuum but the one
which produced the remark (in the Autobiography): “I remember reading,
in my childhood, certain manuscripts containing Scriptural Sonnets,
besides other verses and enigmas.”
We know what she means, in both instances, but a low-priced Clerk would
not necessarily know, and on a salary like his he could quite excusably
aver that the Pastor Emeritus had commanded him to come and make
proclamation that she was author of the Bible, and that she was thinking
of discharging some Scriptural sonnets and other enigmas upon the
congregation. It could lose him his place, but it would not be fair, if
it happened before the edict about “Understanding Communications” was
promulgated.
“READERS” AGAIN
The By-law book makes a showy pretence of orderliness and system, but it
is only a pretence. I will not go so far as to say it is a harum-scarum
jumble, for it is not that, but I think it fair to say it is at least
jumbulacious in places. For instance, Articles III. and IV. set forth
in much detail the qualifications and duties of Readers, she then
skips some thirty pages and takes up the subject again. It looks
like slovenliness, but it may be only art. The belated By-law has a
sufficiently quiet look, but it has a ton of dynamite in it. It makes
all the Christian Science Church Readers on the globe the personal
chattels of Mrs. Eddy. Whenever she chooses, she can stretch her long
arm around the world's fat belly and flirt a Reader out of his pulpit,
though he be tucked away in seeming safety and obscurity in a lost
village in the middle of China:
“In any Church. Sec. 2. The Pastor Emeritus of the Mother-Church shall
have the right (through a letter addressed to the individual and Church
of which he is the Reader) to remove a Reader from this office in any
Church of Christ, Scientist, both in America and in foreign nations;
or to appoint the Reader to fill any office belonging to the Christian
Science denomination.”
She does not have to prefer charges against him, she does not have to
find him lazy, careless, incompetent, untidy, ill-mannered, unholy,
dishonest, she does not have to discover a fault of any kind in him,
she does not have to tell him nor his congregation why she dismisses and
disgraces him and insults his meek flock, she does not have to explain
to his family why she takes the bread out of their mouths and turns them
out-of-doors homeless and ashamed in a strange land; she does not have
to do anything but send a letter and say: “Pack!--and ask no questions!”
Has the Pope this power?--the other Pope--the one in Rome. Has he
anything approaching it? Can he turn a priest out of his pulpit and
strip him of his office and his livelihood just upon a whim, a caprice,
and meanwhile furnishing no reasons to the parish? Not in America. And
not elsewhere, we may believe.
It is odd and strange, to see intelligent and educated people among
us worshipping this self-seeking and remorseless tyrant as a God. This
worship is denied--by persons who are themselves worshippers of Mrs.
Eddy. I feel quite sure that it is a worship which will continue during
ages.
That Mrs. Eddy wrote that amazing By-law with her own hand we have much
better evidence than her word. We have her English. It is there. It
cannot be imitated. She ought never to go to the expense of copyrighting
her verbal discharges. When any one tries to claim them she should call
me; I can always tell them from any other literary apprentice's at a
glance. It was like her to call America a “nation”; she would call a
sand-bar a nation if it should fall into a sentence in which she was
speaking of peoples, for she would not know how to untangle it and get
it out and classify it by itself. And the closing arrangement of that
By-law is in true Eddysonian form, too. In it she reserves authority to
make a Reader fill any office connected with a Science church-sexton,
grave-digger, advertising-agent, Annex-polisher, leader of the choir,
President, Director, Treasurer, Clerk, etc. She did not mean that.
She already possessed that authority. She meant to clothe herself with
power, despotic and unchallengeable, to appoint all Science Readers to
their offices, both at home and abroad. The phrase “or to appoint”
is another miscarriage of intention; she did not mean “or,” she meant
“and.”
That By-law puts into Mrs. Eddy's hands absolute command over the most
formidable force and influence existent in the Christian Science kingdom
outside of herself, and it does this unconditionally and (by auxiliary
force of Laws already quoted) irrevocably. Still, she is not quite
satisfied. Something might happen, she doesn't know what. Therefore she
drives in one more nail, to make sure, and drives it deep:
“This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of
the Pastor Emeritus.”
Let some one with a wild and delirious fancy try and see if he can
imagine her furnishing that consent.
MONOPOLY OF SPIRITUAL BREAD
Very properly, the first qualification for membership in the
Mother-Church is belief in the doctrines of Christian Science.
But these doctrines must not be gathered from secondary sources. There
is but one recognized source. The candidate must be a believer in the
doctrines of Christian Science “according to the platform and teaching
contained in the Christian Science text-book, 'Science and Health, with
Key to the Scriptures,' by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy.”
That is definite, and is final. There are to be no commentaries, no
labored volumes of exposition and explanation by anybody except Mrs.
Eddy. Because such things could sow error, create warring opinions,
split the religion into sects, and disastrously cripple its power. Mrs.
Eddy will do the whole of the explaining, Herself--has done it, in fact.
She has written several books. They are to be had (for cash in advance),
they are all sacred; additions to them can never be needed and will
never be permitted. They tell the candidate how to instruct himself,
how to teach others, how to do all things comprised in the business--and
they close the door against all would-be competitors, and monopolize the
trade:
“The Bible and the above--named book [Science and Health], with
other works by the same author,” must be his only text-books for the
commerce--he cannot forage outside.
Mrs. Eddy's words are to be the sole elucidators of the Bible and
Science and Health--forever. Throughout the ages, whenever there is
doubt as to the meaning of a passage in either of these books the
inquirer will not dream of trying to explain it to himself; he would
shudder at the thought of such temerity, such profanity, he would be
haled to the Inquisition and thence to the public square and the stake
if he should be caught studying into text-meanings on his own hook; he
will be prudent and seek the meanings at the only permitted source, Mrs.
Eddy's commentaries.
Value of this Strait-jacket. One must not underrate the magnificence
of this long-headed idea, one must not underestimate its giant
possibilities in the matter of trooping the Church solidly together and
keeping it so. It squelches independent inquiry, and makes such a thing
impossible, profane, criminal, it authoritatively settles every dispute
that can arise. It starts with finality--a point which the Roman Church
has travelled towards fifteen or sixteen centuries, stage by stage,
and has not yet reached. The matter of the Immaculate Conception of
the Virgin Mary was not authoritatively settled until the days of Pius
IX.--yesterday, so to speak.
As already noticed, the Protestants are broken up into a long array of
sects, a result of disputes about the meanings of texts, disputes made
unavoidable by the absence of an infallible authority to submit doubtful
passages to. A week or two ago (I am writing in the middle of January,
1903), the clergy and others hereabouts had a warm dispute in the papers
over this question: Did Jesus anywhere claim to be God? It seemed an
easy question, but it turned out to be a hard one. It was ably and
elaborately discussed, by learned men of several denominations, but in
the end it remained unsettled.
A week ago, another discussion broke out. It was over this text:
“Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor.”
One verdict was worded as follows:
“When Christ answered the rich young man and said for him to give to the
poor all he possessed or he could not gain everlasting life, He did not
mean it in the literal sense. My interpretation of His words is that we
should part with what comes between us and Christ.
“There is no doubt that Jesus believed that the rich young man thought
more of his wealth than he did of his soul, and, such being the case, it
was his duty to give up the wealth.
“Every one of us knows that there is something we should give up for
Christ. Those who are true believers and followers know what they have
given up, and those who are not yet followers know down in their hearts
what they must give up.”
Ten clergymen of various denominations were interviewed, and nine of
them agreed with that verdict. That did not settle the matter, because
the tenth said the language of Jesus was so strait and definite that it
explained itself: “Sell all,” not a percentage.
There is a most unusual feature about that dispute: the nine persons
who decided alike, quoted not a single authority in support of their
position. I do not know when I have seen trained disputants do the like
of that before. The nine merely furnished their own opinions, founded
upon--nothing at all. In the other dispute (“Did Jesus anywhere claim to
be God?”) the same kind of men--trained and learned clergymen--backed up
their arguments with chapter and verse. On both sides. Plenty of verses.
Were no reinforcing verses to be found in the present case? It looks
that way.
The opinion of the nine seems strange to me, for it is unsupported
by authority, while there was at least constructive authority for the
opposite view.
It is hair-splitting differences of opinion over disputed text-meanings
that have divided into many sects a once united Church. One may
infer from some of the names in the following list that some of
the differences are very slight--so slight as to be not distinctly
important, perhaps--yet they have moved groups to withdraw from
communions to which they belonged and set up a sect of their own. The
list--accompanied by various Church statistics for 1902, compiled by
Rev. Dr. H. K. Carroll--was published, January 8, 1903, in the New York
Christian Advocate:
Adventists (6 bodies), Baptists (13 bodies), Brethren (Plymouth) (4
bodies), Brethren (River) (3 bodies), Catholics (8 bodies), Catholic
Apostolic, Christadelphians, Christian Connection, Christian Catholics,
Christian Missionary Association, Christian Scientists, Church of God
(Wine-brennarian), Church of the New Jerusalem, Congregationalists,
Disciples of Christ, Dunkards (4 bodies), Evangelical (2 bodies),
Friends (4 bodies), Friends of the Temple, German Evangelical
Protestant, German Evangelical Synod, Independent congregations, Jews (2
bodies), Latter-day Saints (2 bodies), Lutherans (22 bodies), Mennonites
(12 bodies), Methodists (17 bodies), Moravians, Presbyterians (12
bodies), Protestant Episcopal (2 bodies), Reformed (3 bodies),
Schwenkfeldians, Social Brethren, Spiritualists, Swedish Evangelical
Miss. Covenant (Waldenstromians), Unitarians, United Brethren (2
bodies), Universalists.
Total of sects and splits--139.
In the present month (February), Mr. E. I. Lindh, A.M., has communicated
to the Boston Transcript a hopeful article on the solution of the
problem of the “divided church.” Divided is not too violent a term.
Subdivided could have been permitted if he had thought of it. He came
near thinking of it, for he mentions some of the subdivisions himself:
“the 12 kinds of Presbyterians, the 17 kinds of Methodists, the 13 kinds
of Baptists, etc.” He overlooked the 12 kinds of Mennonites and the 22
kinds of Lutherans, but they are in Rev. Mr. Carroll's list. Altogether,
76 splits under 5 flags. The Literary Digest (February 14th) is pleased
with Mr. Lindh's optimistic article, and also with the signs of the
times, and perceives that “the idea of Church unity is in the air.”
Now, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time,
all explanations of her religion except such as she shall let on to be
her own?
I think so. I think there can be no doubt of it. In a way, they will be
her own; for, no matter which member of her clerical staff shall furnish
the explanations, not a line of them will she ever allow to be printed
until she shall have approved it, accepted it, copyrighted it, cabbaged
it. We may depend on that with a four-ace confidence.