[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE HERALD.]
CONCORD, N.H., February 4, 1895.--The article published in the HERALD on
January 29, regarding a statement made by Mrs. Laura Lathrop, pastor of
the Christian Science congregation, that meets every Sunday in Hodgson
Hall, New York, was shown to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the Christian Science
"discoverer," to-day.
Mrs. Eddy preferred to prepare a written answer to the interrogatory,
which she did in this letter, addressed to the editor of the HERALD:
"A despatch is given me, calling for an interview to answer for myself,
'Am I the second Christ?'
"Even the question shocks me. What I am is for God to declare in his
infinite mercy. As it is I claim nothing more than what I am, the
discoverer and founder of Christian Science, and the blessing it has
been to mankind which eternity enfolds.
"I think Mrs. Lathrop was not understood. If she said aught with
intention to be thus understood, it is not what I have taught her, and
not at all as I have heard her talk.
"My books and teachings maintain but one conclusion and statement of the
Christ and the deification of mortals.
"Christ is individual, and one with God, in the sense of Divine
Principle and its compound divine idea.
"There was, is and never can be but one God, one Christ, one Jesus of
Nazareth. Whoever in any age expresses most of the spirit of Truth and
Love, the Principle of God's Idea, has most of the spirit of Christ, of
that Mind which was in Christ Jesus.
"If Christian Scientists find in my writings, teachings, and example a
greater degree of this spirit than in others, they can justly declare
it. But to think or speak of me in any manner as a Christ, is
sacrilegious. Such a statement would not only be false, but the absolute
antipode of Christian Science, and would savor more of heathenism, than
of my doctrines.
"MARY BAKER EDDY."
(_The Globe_, Toronto, Canada, January 12, 1895.)