Pulpit and Press (6th Edition) - Mary Baker Eddy
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.
We kiss the cross, and wait to know
A world more bright.
And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
We see Christ walk,
And come to us, 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,--
Some offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.
NOTE.--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 on earth as 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 daring
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 Professor 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 founders "our prayer in stone." It is located
at the intersection of Norway and Falmouth streets on a plot of
triangular 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 120 feet in height
and 21-1/2 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 fireproof as is conceivable. The principal features are the
auditorium, seating 1,100 people and capable of holding 1,500; 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
impaneled. A sunburst in the centre of the ceiling takes the place of
chandeliers. There is a disc of cut glass in decorative designs covering
144 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
paneled 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
rennaissance 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 aeolian attachment, and cost $11,000. 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 800 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 xi: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 $221,000, exclusive of the
land--a gift from Mrs. Eddy--which is valued at some $40,000.
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, Browning,
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 leper, 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 4,000 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 200,000 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 $200,000, 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 Moore
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 unfrequently 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 text-book. 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."
Mrs. Eddy came to perceive that Christ's healing was not miraculous, but
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 homeopathy, 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.