Christian Scientists of Syracuse Surprised at the News About Mrs. Mary
Baker Eddy, Founder of the Faith.
Christian Scientists in this city, and in fact all over the country,
have been startled and greatly discomfited over the announcements in
New York papers that Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the acknowledged
Christian Science leader, has been exalted by various dignitaries of the
faith....
It is well known that Mrs. Eddy has resigned herself completely to the
study and foundation of the faith to which many thousands throughout the
United States are now so entirely devoted. By her followers and
co-believers she is unquestionably looked upon as having a divine
mission to fulfill, and as though inspired in her great task by
supernatural power.
For the purpose of learning the feeling of Scientists in this city
toward the reported deification of Mrs. Eddy, a _Post_ reporter called
upon a few of the leading members of the faith yesterday and had a
number of very interesting conversations upon the subject.
Mrs. D.W. Copeland of University avenue was one of the first to be seen.
Mrs. Copeland is a very pleasant and agreeable lady, ready to converse,
and evidently very much absorbed in the work to which she has given so
much of her attention. Mrs. Copeland claims to have been healed a number
of years ago by Christian Scientists, after she had practically been
given up by a number of well known physicians.
"And for the past eleven years," said Mrs. Copeland, "I have not taken
any medicine or drugs of any kind, and yet have been perfectly well."
In regard to Mrs. Eddy, Mrs. Copeland said that she was the founder of
the faith, but that she had never claimed, nor did she believe that Mrs.
Lathrop had, that Mrs. Eddy had any power other than that which came
from God and through faith in Him and His teachings.
"The power of Christ has been dormant in mankind for ages," added the
speaker, "and it was Mrs. Eddy's mission to revive it. In our labors we
take Christ as an example, going about doing good and healing the sick.
Christ has told us to do His work, naming as one great essential that we
have faith in Him.
"Did you ever hear of Jesus' taking medicine Himself, or giving it to
others?" inquired the speaker. "Then why should we worry ourselves about
sickness and disease? If we become sick God will care for us, and will
send to us those who have faith, who believe in His unlimited and divine
power." Mrs. Eddy was strictly an ardent follower after God. She had
faith in him, and she cured herself of a deathly disease through the
mediation of her God. Then she secluded herself from the world for three
years and studied and meditated over His divine word. She delved deep
into the Biblical passages, and at the end of the period came from her
seclusion one of the greatest Biblical scholars of the age. Her mission
was then the mission of a Christian to do good and heal the sick, and
this duty she faithfully performed. She of herself had no power. But God
has fulfilled His promises to her and to the world. "If ye have faith ye
can move mountains."
Mrs. Henrietta N. Cole is also a very prominent member of the church.
When seen yesterday she emphasized herself as being of the same theory
as Mrs. Copeland. Mrs. Cole has made a careful and searching study in
the beliefs of Scientists and is perfectly versed in all their beliefs
and doctrines. She stated that man of himself has no power, but that all
comes from God. She placed no credit whatever in the reports from New
York that Mrs. Eddy has been accredited as having been deified. She
referred the reporter to the large volume which Mrs. Eddy had herself
written, and said that no more complete and yet concise idea of her
belief could be obtained than by a perusal of it.
(_New York Herald_, February 1, 1895.)