Mary Baker Eddy - Pulpit and Press
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Mary Baker Eddy >> Pulpit and Press
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So, when day grows dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart,
Till the morning's beam;
White as wool, ere they depart--
Shepherd, wash them clean.
CHRIST MY REFUGE
O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain.
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.
I kiss the cross, and wake to know
A world more bright.
And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, 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;
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.
NOTE
BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY
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 in earth, as it is
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 during 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 Prof. 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 Founder, "Our prayer in stone." It is located at the intersection of
Norway and Falmouth Streets, on a triangular plot of 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 one hundred and twenty feet in
height and twenty-one and one half 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 fire-proof as is conceivable. The principal features
are the auditorium, seating eleven hundred people and capable of holding
fifteen hundred; 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" impanelled. A
sunburst in the centre of the ceiling takes the place of chandeliers. There
is a disc of cut glass in decorative designs, covering one hundred and
forty-four 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
panelled 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 Renaissance
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 eleven thousand dollars. 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 eight hundred 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 ii. 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 two hundred and twenty-one
thousand dollars, exclusive of the land--a gift from Mrs. Eddy--which is
valued at some forty thousand dollars.
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, Bowring, 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 lepers, 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 four thousand 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 two hundred thousand 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 two hundred thousand dollars, 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 More 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 infrequently 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 textbook. 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 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.
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