Christian Science .................................................................................................................................................1

Mark Twain ..............................................................................................................................................1

PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................1

BOOK I. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ...........................................................................................................2

CHAPTER I. VIENNA 1899. ..................................................................................................................2

CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................................3

CHAPTER III........................................................................................................................................10

CHAPTER IV........................................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER V.........................................................................................................................................13

CHAPTER VI........................................................................................................................................15

CHAPTER VII .......................................................................................................................................20

CHAPTER VIII.....................................................................................................................................23

CHAPTER IX........................................................................................................................................24

BOOK II .................................................................................................................................................26

CHAPTER I ...........................................................................................................................................26

CHAPTER II ..........................................................................................................................................29

CHAPTER III........................................................................................................................................33

CHAPTER IV........................................................................................................................................35

CHAPTER V.........................................................................................................................................38

CHAPTER VI........................................................................................................................................39

CHAPTER VIII.....................................................................................................................................60

CHAPTER IX........................................................................................................................................68

CHAPTER X.........................................................................................................................................69

CHAPTER XI........................................................................................................................................72

CHAPTER XII .......................................................................................................................................72

CHAPTER XIII.....................................................................................................................................73

CHAPTER XIV.....................................................................................................................................73

CHAPTER XV......................................................................................................................................74

APPENDIX A. ORIGINAL FIRST PREFACE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH.................................77

APPENDIX B........................................................................................................................................79

APPENDIX C........................................................................................................................................79

APPENDIX D ........................................................................................................................................80

APPENDIX E........................................................................................................................................84

APPENDIX F........................................................................................................................................85

BOOK I of this volume occupies a quarter or a third of the volume, and consists of matter written about four

years ago, but not hitherto published in book form. It contained errors of judgment and of fact. I have now

Book II was written at the beginning of 1903, and has not until now appeared in any form. In it my purpose

has been to present a character portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words solely, not from

hearsay and rumor; and to explain the nature and scope of her Monarchy, as revealed in the Laws by which

This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite Cure in the mountains, I fell

over a cliff in the twilight, and broke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was

found by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest habitation, which was one of

those large, low, thatchroofed farmhouses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little

porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and cats; on the ground floor a

large and light sittingroom, separated from the milchcattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard

rose stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manurepile. That sentence is Germanic, and

shows that I am acquiring that sort of mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to

There was a village a mile away, and a horse doctor lived there, but there was no surgeon. It seemed a bad

outlook; mine was distinctly a surgery case. Then it was remembered that a lady from Boston was summering

in that village, and she was a Christian Science doctor and could cure anything. So she was sent for. It was

night by this time, and she could not conveniently come, but sent word that it was no matter, there was no

hurry, she would give me "absent treatment" now, and come in the morning; meantime she begged me to

make myself tranquil and comfortable and remember that there was nothing the matter with me. I thought

"That accounts for it; she is thinking of the boulders. Why didn't you tell her I got hurt, too?"

"I did. I told her what you told me to tell her: that you were now but an incoherent series of compound

fractures extending from your scalplock to your heels, and that the comminuted projections caused you to

"And it was after this that she wished me to remember that there was nothing the matter with me?"

"I do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with sufficient care. Did she look like a

person who was theorizing, or did she look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to the aid

It was too large a contract for the Stubenmadchen's vocabulary; she couldn't call the hand. I allowed the

subject to rest there, and asked for something to eat and smoke, and something hot to drink, and a basket to

"She said you would have these delusions, but must pay no attention to them. She wants you to particularly

Does she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her intellectual plant, such as it is?"

"There, goodnight, run along, you are a good girl, but your mental Geschirr is not arranged for light and airy

It was a night of anguish, of courseat least, I supposed it was, for it had all the symptoms of itbut it

passed at last, and the Christian Scientist came, and I was glad She was middleaged, and large and bony,

and erect, and had an austere face and a resolute jaw and a Roman beak and was a widow in the third degree,

and her name was Fuller. I was eager to get to business and find relief, but she was distressingly deliberate.

She unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled her upholsteries one by one, abolished the wrinkles with a flirt of

her hand, and hung the articles up; peeled off her gloves and disposed of them, got a book out of her

handbag, then drew a chair to the bedside, descended into it without hurry, and I hung out my tongue. She

"Return it to its receptacle. We deal with the mind only, not with its dumb servants."

I could not offer my pulse, because the connection was broken; but she detected the apology before I could

word it, and indicated by a negative tilt of her head that the pulse was another dumb servant that she had no

use for. Then I thought I would tell her my symptoms and how I felt, so that she would understand the case;

but that was another inconsequence, she did not need to know those things; moreover, my remark about how

"One does not feel," she explained; "there is no such thing as feeling: therefore, to speak of a nonexistent

thing as existent is a contradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the mind cannot feel

"It doesn't. A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of reality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot

In making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion of pain out of the mind, she raked her

hand on a pin in her dress, said "Ouch!" and went tranquilly on with her talk. "You should never allow

yourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how you are feeling; you should never

concede that you are ill, nor permit others to talk about disease or pain or death or similar nonexistences in

your presence. Such talk only encourages the mind to continue its empty imaginings." Just at that point the

Stubenmadchen trod on the cat's tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of catprofanity. I asked, with caution:

"A cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower animals, being eternally perishable, have

"She cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without mind, there is no imagination. A cat

"It is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with the cat. Because, there being no such

thing as a real pain, and she not being able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His pity

has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion usable when her tail is trodden on which,

"Peace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty and foolish imaginings are profanation

and blasphemy, and can do you an injury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that there

"I am full of imaginary tortures," I said, "but I do not think I could be any more uncomfortable if they were

"There is no occasion to get rid of them. since they do not exist. They are illusions propagated by matter, and

"It sounds right and clear, but yet it seems in a degree elusive; it seems to slip through, just when you think

"Well, for instance: if there is no such thing as matter, how can matter propagate things?"

In her compassion she almost smiled. She would have smiled if there were any such thing as a smile.

"It is quite simple," she said; "the fundamental propositions of Christian Science explain it, and they are

summarized in the four following selfevident propositions: 1. God is All in all. 2. God is good. Good is

Mind 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter 4. Life, God, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.

It seemed nebulous; it did not seem to say anything about the difficulty in handhow nonexistent matter

"Very well. Disease sin evil death deny Good omnipotent God life matter is nothing all being Spirit God

"As many as you like; it always means the same. Interchanged in any way you please it cannot be made to

mean anything different from what it means when put in any other way. Because it is perfect. You can jumble

it all up, and it makes no difference: it always comes out the way it was before. It was a marvelous mind that

produced it. As a mental tour de force it is without a mate, it defies alike the simple, the concrete, and the

"Awonderful structurecombination, so to speak, of profound thoughts unthinkable onesum"

It is true. Read backward, or forward, or perpendicularly, or at any given angle, these four propositions will

"Ahproof. Now we are coming at it. The statements agree; they agree withwithanyway, they agree; I

"3. IDEAAn image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. There it isthe whole sublime

Arcana of Christian Science in a nutshell. Do you find a weak place in it anywhere?"

"Very well There is more. Those three constitute the Scientific Definition of Immortal Mind. Next, we have

the Scientific Definition of Mortal Mind. Thus. FIRST DEGREE: Depravity I. PhysicalPassions and

appetites, fear, depraved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, disease, death."

"Every one. SECOND DEGREE: Evil Disappearing. I. MoralHonesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith,

"THIRD DEGREE: Spiritual Salvation. I. SpiritualFaith, wisdom, power, purity, understanding, health,

love. You see how searchingly and co ordinately interdependent and anthropomorphous it all is. In this

Third Degree, as we know by the revelations of Christian Science, mortal mind disappears."

"No, not until the teaching and preparation for the Third Degree are completed."

"It is not until then that one is enabled to take hold of Christian Science effectively, and with the right sense

of sympathy and kinship, as I understand you. That is to say, it could not succeed during the processes of the

Second Degree, because there would still be remains of mind left; and thereforebut I interrupted you. You

were about to further explain the good results proceeding from the erosions and disintegrations effected by

"Yes, as I was saying, in this Third Degree mortal mind disappears. Science so reverses the evidence before

the corporeal human senses as to make this scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'the last shall be first and

the first shall be last,' that God and His idea may be to us what divinity really is, and must of necessity be

"It is beautiful. And with what exhaustive exactness your choice and arrangement of words confirm and

establish what you have claimed for the powers and functions of the Third Degree. The Second could

probably produce only temporary absence of mind; it is reserved to the Third to make it permanent. A

sentence framed under the auspices of the Second could have a kind of meaninga sort of deceptive

semblance of it whereas it is only under the magic of the Third that that defect would disappear. Also,

without doubt, it is the Third Degree that contributes another remarkable specialty to Christian

Scienceviz., ease and flow and lavishness of words, and rhythm and swing and smoothness. There must be

"There is nothing in Christian Science that is not explicable; for God is one, Time is one, Individuality is one,

and may be one of a series, one of many, as an individual man, individual horse; whereas God is one, not one

"These are noble thoughts. They make one burn to know more. How does Christian Science explain the

"Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and bodyas astronomy reverses the human

perception of the movement of the solar systemand makes body tributary to the Mind. As it is the earth

which is in motion, While the sun is at rest, though in viewing the sun rise one finds it impossible to believe

the sun not to be really rising, so the body is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems

otherwise to finite sense; but we shall never understand this while we admit that soul is in body, or mind in

matter, and that man is included in nonintelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man

coexists with and reflects Soul, for the Allinall is the Altogether, and the Altogether embraces the Allone,

SoulMind, MindSoul, Love, Spirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without an equal."

"What is the origin of Christian Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it just happen?"

"In a sense, it is a gift of God. That is to say, its powers are from Him, but the credit of the discovery of the

"In 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death disappeared from the earth to return no

more forever. That is, the fancies for which those terms stand disappeared. The things themselves had never

existed; therefore, as soon as it was perceived that there were no such things, they were easily banished. The

"Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures for she explains

the Scriptures; they were not understood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus I will

"Well, it is no matter," she said. "I remember the wordsindeed, all Christian Scientists know the book by

heart; it is necessary in our practice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins thus: ' In

the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical Healing, and named it Christian Science.' And She

says quite beautifully, I think' Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are inspired with a diviner

nature and essence, fresh pinions are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves

"It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, toomarrying religion to medicine, instead of medicine to the

undertaker in the old way; for religion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of all

spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for the ordinary diseases, such as"

"I am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some way inconsistent, and"

"There are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is impossible, for the Science is absolute. It

cannot be otherwise, since it proceeds directly from the Allinall and the EverythinginWhich, also Soul,

Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is Mathematics purified from material dross and

The word flattened itself against my mind in trying to get in, and disordered me a little, and before I could

"This Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind healing, the sovereign Omnipotence

which delivers the children of men from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to."

"Every one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decayit is an unreality, it has no existence."

"My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the Mind permits no retrogression."

She was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could be no profit in continuing this part of

the subject. I shifted to other ground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science.

"Did the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and calculation, like America?"

"The comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to trivialities but let it pass. I will answer in the

Discoverer's own words: 'God had been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the reception of a final

"AllGod, Godgood, goodGod, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without equalit is

"You may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth This American lady, our revered and sacred Founder, is

distinctly referred to, and her coming prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could not

have been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually mentioning her name."

"I will quote her own words, from her Key to the Scriptures: 'The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse has a

special suggestiveness in connection with this nineteenth century.' Theredo you note that? Thinknote it

"Listen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: 'In the opening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six

thousand years since Adam, there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the present age.

"'Revelation xii. I. And there appeared a great wonder in heavena woman clothed with the sun, and the

"That is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian Science nothing can be plainer, nothing surer.

"'Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God.'

"That is Boston. I recognize it, madam. These are sublime things, and impressive; I never understood these

"'And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his

head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he held in his hand a little book.'

"A little book, merely a little bookcould words be modester? Yet how stupendous its importance! Do you

"Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and without equal it is beyond

"Hear our Founder's eloquent words: 'Then will a voice from harmony cry, "Go and take the little book: take

it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortal, obey

the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be,

indeed, sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter.'

You now know the history of our dear and holy Science, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its

discovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now; but give yourself no uneasiness I will give you

Under the powerful influence of the near treatment and the absent treatment together, my bones were

gradually retreating inward and disappearing from view. The good work took a brisk start, now, and went on

swiftly. My body was diligently straining and stretching, this way and that, to accommodate the processes of

restoration, and every minute or two I heard a dull click inside and knew that the two ends of a fracture had

been successfully joined. This muffled clicking and gritting and grinding and rasping continued during the

next three hours, and then stoppedthe connections had all been made. All except dislocations; there were

only seven of these: hips, shoulders, knees, neck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into

their sockets with a sound like pulling a distant cork, and I jumped up as good as new, as to framework, and

I was obliged to do this because I had a stomachache and a cold in the head, and I was not willing to trust

these things any longer in the hands of a woman whom I did not know, and whose ability to successfully treat

mere disease I had lost all confidence. My position was justified by the fact that the cold and the ache had

been in her charge from the first, along with the fractures, but had experienced not a shade of relief; and,

indeed, the ache was even growing worse and worse, and more and more bitter, now, probably on account of

The horsedoctor came, a pleasant man and full of hope and professional interest in the case. In the matter of

smell he was pretty aromaticin fact, quite horsyand I tried to arrange with him for absent treatment, but

it was not in his line, so, out of delicacy, I did not press it. He looked at my teeth and examined my hock, and

said my age and general condition were favorable to energetic measures; therefore he would give me

something to turn the stomachache into the botts and the cold in the head into the blind staggers; then he

should be on his own beat and would know what to do. He made up a bucket of branmash, and said a

dipperful of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with turpentine and axle grease in it, would either

knock my ailments out of me in twentyfour hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me forget they

were on the premises. He administered my first dose himself, then took his leave, saying I was free to eat and

drink anything I pleased and in any quantity I liked. But I was not hungry any more, and did not care for

I took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other

half. The resulting experiences were full of interest and adventure. All through the rumblings and grindings

and quakings and effervescings accompanying the evolution of the ache into the botts and the cold into the

blind staggers I could note the generous struggle for mastery going on between the mash and the drench and

the literature; and often I could tell which was ahead, and could easily distinguish the literature from the

others when the others were separate, though not when they were mixed; for when a branmash and an

eclectic drench are mixed together they look just like the Apodictical Principle out on a lark, and no one can

tell it from that. The finish was reached at last, the evolutions were complete, and a fine success, but I think

that this result could have been achieved with fewer materials. I believe the mash was necessary to the

conversion of the stomachache into the botts, but I think one could develop the blind staggers out of the

literature by itself; also, that blind staggers produced in this way would be of a better quality and more lasting

For of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the imagination of

man has created, surely this one is the prize sample. It is written with a limitless confidence and

complacency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often compel the effects of eloquence, even

when the words do not seem to have any traceable meaning. There are plenty of people who imagine they

understand the book; I know this, for I have talked with them; but in all cases they were people who also

imagined that there were no such things as pain, sickness, and death, and no realities in the world; nothing

actually existent but Mind. It seems to me to modify the value of their testimony. When these people talk

about Christian Science they do as Mrs. Fuller did: they do not use their own language, but the book's; they

pour out the book's showy incoherences, and leave you to find out later that they were not originating, but

merely quoting; they seem to know the volume by heart, and to revere it as they would a Bible another

Bible, perhaps I ought to say. Plainly the book was written under the mental desolations of the Third Degree,

and I feel sure that none but the membership of that Degree can discover meanings in it. When you read it

you seem to be listening to a lively and aggressive and oracular speech delivered in an unknown tongue, a

speech whose spirit you get but not the particulars; or, to change the figure, you seem to be listening to a

vigorous instrument which is making a noise which it thinks is a tune, but which, to persons not members of

the band, is only the martial tooting of a trombone, and merrily stirs the soul through the noise, but does not

The book's serenities of selfsatisfaction do almost seem to smack of a heavenly origin they have no

bloodkin in the earth. It is more than human to be so placidly certain about things, and so finely superior,

and so airily content with one's performance. Without ever presenting anything which may rightfully be

called by the strong name of Evidence, and sometimes without even mentioning a reason for a deduction at

all, it thunders out the startling words, "I have Proved" so and so. It takes the Pope and all the great guns of

his Church in battery assembled to authoritatively settle and establish the meaning of a sole and single

unclarified passage of Scripture, and this at vast cost of time and study and reflection, but the author of this

work is superior to all that: she finds the whole Bible in an unclarified audition, and at small expense of time

and no expense of mental effort she clarifies it from lid to lid, reorganizes and improves the meanings, then

authoritatively settles and establishes them with formulas which you cannot tell from "Let there be light!" and

"Here you have it!" It is the first time since the dawndays of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing

[January, 1903. The first reading of any book whose terminology is new and strange is nearly sure to leave

the reader in a bewildered and sarcastic state of mind. But now that, during the past two months, I have, by

diligence gained a fair acquaintanceship with Science and Health technicalities, I no longer find the bulk of

P.S. The wisdom harvested from the foregoing thoughts has already done me a service and saved me a

sorrow. Nearly a month ago there came to me from one of the universities a tract by Dr. Edward Anthony

Spitzka on the "Encephalic Anatomy of the Races." I judged that my opinion was desired by the university,

and I was greatly pleased with this attention and wrote and said I would furnish it as soon as I could. That

night I put my plodding and disheartening Christian Science mining aside and took hold of the matter. I wrote

an eager chapter, and was expecting to finish my opinion the next day, but was called away for a week, and

my mind was soon charged with other interests. It was not until today, after the lapse of nearly a month, that

I happened upon my Encephalic chapter again. Meantime, the new wisdom had come to me, and I read it

with shame. I recognized that I had entered upon that work in far from the right temper far from the

respectful and judicial spirit which was its due of reverence. I had begun upon it with the following paragraph

Fissural ComplexIn this hemicerebrum, the postcentral and subcentral are combined to form a continuous

fissure, attaining a length of 8.5 cm. Dorsally, the fissure bifurcates, embracing the gyre indented by the

caudal limb of the paracentral. The caudal limb of the postcentral is joined by a transparietal piece. In all, five

additional rami spring from the combined fissure. A vadum separates it from the parietal; another from the

It humiliates me, now, to see how angry I got over that; and how scornful. I said that the style was

disgraceful; that it was labored and tumultuous, and in places violent, that the treatment was involved and

erratic, and almost, as a rule, bewildering; that to lack of simplicity was added a lack of vocabulary; that there

was quite too much feeling shown; that if I had a dog that would get so excited and incoherent over a tranquil

subject like Encephalic Anatomy I would not pay his tax; and at that point I got excited myself and spoke

bitterly of these mongrel insanities, and said a person might as well try to understand Science and Health.

[I know, now, where the trouble was, and am glad of the interruption that saved me from sending my verdict

to the university. It makes me cold to think what those people might have thought of me.M. T.]

No one doubtscertainly not Ithat the mind exercises a powerful influence over the body. From the

beginning of time, the sorcerer, the interpreter of dreams, the fortuneteller, the charlatan, the quack, the wild

medicineman, the educated physician, the mesmerist, and the hypnotist have made use of the client's

imagination to help them in their work. They have all recognized the potency and availability of that force.

Physicians cure many patients with a bread pill; they know that where the disease is only a fancy, the patient's

Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the entire thing. It seems to look like it. In old times the King cured the

king's evil by the touch of the royal hand. He frequently made extraordinary cures. Could his footman have

done it? Nonot in his own clothes. Disguised as the King, could he have done it? I think we may not doubt

it. I think we may feel sure that it was not the King's touch that made the cure in any instance, but the

patient's faith in the efficacy of a King's touch. Genuine and remarkable cures have been achieved through

contact with the relics of a saint. Is it not likely that any other bones would have done as well if the

substitution had been concealed from the patient? When I was a boy a farmer's wife who lived five miles

from our village had great fame as a faithdoctorthat was what she called herself. Sufferers came to her

from all around, and she laid her hand upon them and said, "Have faith it is all that is necessary," and they

went away well of their ailments. She was not a religious woman, and pretended to no occult powers. She

said that the patient's faith in her did the work. Several times I saw her make immediate cures of severe

toothaches. My mother was the patient. In Austria there is a peasant who drives a great trade in this sort of

industry, and has both the high and the low for patients. He gets into prison every now and then for practising

without a diploma, but his business is as brisk as ever when he gets out, for his work is unquestionably

successful and keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria there is a man who performed so many great cures that

he had to retire from his profession of stagecarpentering in order to meet the demand of his constantly

increasing body of customers. He goes on from year to year doing his miracles, and has become very rich. He

pretends to no religious helps, no supernatural aids, but thinks there is something in his makeup which

inspires the confidence of his patients, and that it is this confidence which does the work, and not some

Within the last quarter of a century, in America, several sects of curers have appeared under various names

and have done notable things in the way of healing ailments without the use of medicines. There are the Mind

Cure the Faith Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure, and the ChristianScience Cure; and

apparently they all do their miracles with the same old, powerful instrumentthe patient's imagination.

Differing names, but no difference in the process. But they do not give that instrument the credit; each sect

They all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the Faith Cure and the Prayer Cure probably

do no harm when they do no good, since they do not forbid the patient to help out the cure with medicines if

he wants to; but the others bar medicines, and claim ability to cure every conceivable human ailment through

the application of their mental forces alone. There would seem to be an element of danger here. It has the

look of claiming too much, I think. Public confidence would probably be increased if less were claimed.

The Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomachache and my cold; but the horsedoctor did it. This

convinces me that Christian Science claims too much. In my opinion it ought to let diseases alone and

The horsedoctor charged me thirty kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact, I doubled it and gave him a shilling.

Mrs. Fuller brought in an itemized bill for a crate of broken bones mended in two hundred and thirtyfour

I gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial dollars. It looks inconsistent.

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles;

it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and

Those of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there, are nevertheless, no doubt, insane in

one or two particulars. I think we must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthyminded. I think

that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as regards that one thing, our minds are perfectly

sound. Now there are really several things which we do all see alike; things which we all accept, and about

which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are outside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level;

that the sun gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six times six are thirtysix, that

two from ten leaves eight; that eight and seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed

about; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value, because they make an infallible standard

of sanity. Whosoever accepts them him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the working

essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we know to be wholly insane, and qualified for

Very well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled to go at large. But that is concession

enough. We cannot go any further than that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man is

insanejust as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was. We know exactly where to put our finger

That is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful and unblessed Presbyterian, examine the

Koran, I know that beyond any question every Mohammedan is insane; not in all things, but in religious

matters. When a thoughtful and unblessed Mohammedan examines the Westminster Catechism, he knows

that beyond any question I am spiritually insane. I cannot prove to him that he is insane, because you never

can prove anything to a lunaticfor that is a part of his insanity and the evidence of it. He cannot prove to

me that I am insane, for my mind has the same defect that afflicts his. All Democrats are insane, but not one

of them knows it; none but the Republicans and Mugwumps know it. All the Republicans are insane, but only

the Democrats and Mugwumps can perceive it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries

are insane. When I look around me, I am often troubled to see how many people are mad. To mention only a

The Atheist, The Theosophists, The Infidel, The Swedenborgians, The Agnostic, The Shakers, The Baptist,

The Millerites, The Methodist, The Mormons, The Christian Scientist, The Laurence Oliphant Harrisites, The

Catholic, and the 115 Christian sects, the Presbyterian excepted, The Grand Lama's people, The Monarchists,

The Imperialists, The 72 Mohammedan sects, The Democrats, The Republicans (but not the Mugwumps),

The Buddhist, The BlavatskyBuddhist, The MindCurists, The FaithCurists, The Nationalist, The Mental

Scientists, The Confucian, The Spiritualist, The Allopaths, The 2000 East Indian sects, The Homeopaths, The

But there's no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all insane; each in his own way; insane as to his

pet fad or opinion, but otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable towards one

another's lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief the Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not

believe as I do; but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he insane from his point of

view, and his point of view is as authoritative as mine and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass

farthing. Upon a great religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head in the world is worth the

same as the opinion of the brightest head in the worlda brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is

simple. The affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative opinion of his stupid neighbor

no decision is reached; the affirmative opinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the

negative opinion of the intellectual giant Newmanno decision is reached. Opinions that prove nothing are,

of course, without value any but a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth of the

unpalatable proposition just mentioned above that, in disputed matters political and religious, one man's

opinion is worth no more than his peer's, and hence it followers that no man's opinion possesses any real

value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around it: all opinions upon these great subjects are

It is a mere plain, simple factas clear and as certain as that eight and seven make fifteen. And by it we

recognize that we are all insane, as concerns those matters. If we were sane, we should all see a political or

religious doctrine alike; there would be no dispute: it would be a case of eight and sevenjust as it is in

heaven, where all are sane and none insane. There there is but one religion, one belief; the harmony is

Under protection of these preliminaries, I suppose I may now repeat without offence that the Christian

Scientist is insane. I mean him no discourtesy, and I am not chargingnor even imaginingthat he is

insaner than the rest of the human race. I think he is more picturesquely insane than some of us. At the same

time, I am quite sure that in one important and splendid particular he is much saner than is the vast bulk of

Why is he insane? I told you before: it is because his opinions are not ours. I know of no other reason, and I

do not need any other; it is the only way we have of discovering insanity when it is not violent. It is merely

the picturesqueness of his insanity that makes it more interesting than my kind or yours. For instance,

consider his "little book"; the "little book" exposed in the sky eighteen centuries ago by the flaming angel of

the Apocalypse, and handed down in our day to Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, of New Hampshire, and translated

by her, word for word, into English (with help of a polisher), and now published and distributed in hundreds

of editions by her at a clear profit per volume, above cost, of seven hundred per cent.!a profit which

distinctly belongs to the angel of the Apocalypse, and let him collect it if he can; a "little book" which the

C.S. very frequently calls by just that name, and always enclosed in quotationmarks to keep its high origin

exultantly in mind; a "little book" which "explains" and reconstructs and newpaints and decorates the Bible,

and puts a mansard roof on it and a lightningrod and all the other modern improvements; a "little book"

which for the present affects to travel in yoke with the Bible and be friendly to it, and within half a century

will hitch the Bible in the rear and thenceforth travel tandem, itself in the lead, in the coming great march of

"Hungry ones throng to hear the Bible read in connection with the text book of Christian Science, Science

and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. These are our only preachers. They are the

Is that picturesque? A lady has told me that in a chapel of the Mosque in Boston there is a picture or image of

Mrs. Eddy, and that before it burns a neverextinguished light. Is that picturesque? How long do you think it

will be before the Christian Scientist will be worshipping that picture or image and praying to it? How long

do you think it will be before it is claimed that Mrs. Eddy is a Redeemer, a Christ, and Christ's equal?

How long will it be before they place her on the steps of the Throne beside the Virginand, later, a step

higher? First, Mary the Virgin and Mary the Matron; later, with a change of precedence, Mary the Matron

and Mary the Virgin. Let the artist get ready with his canvas and his brushes; the new Renaissance is on its

way, and there will be money in altarcanvasesa thousand times as much as the Popes and their Church

ever spent on the Old Masters; for their riches were poverty as compared with what is going to pour into the

treasurechest of the Christian Scientist Papacy byandby, let us not doubt it. We will examine the

financial outlook presently and see what it promises. A favorite subject of the new Old Master will be the

first verse of the twelfth chapter of Revelationa verse which Mrs. Eddy says (in her Annex to the

Scriptures) has "one distinctive feature which has special reference to the present age"and to her, as is

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,"

Is it insanity to believe that Christian Scientism is destined to make the most formidable show that any new

religion has made in the world since the birth and spread of Mobammedanism, and that within a century from

If this is a wild dream it will not be easy to prove it so just yet, I think. There seems argument that it may

come true. The Christian Science "boom," proper, is not yet five years old; yet already it has two hundred

It has its start, you see, and it is a phenomenally good one. Moreover, it is latterly spreading with a constantly

accelerating swiftness. It has a better chance to grow and prosper and achieve permanency than any other

existing "ism"; for it has more to offer than any other. The past teaches us that in order to succeed, a

movement like this must not be a mere philosophy, it must be a religion; also, that it must not claim entire

originality, but content itself with passing for an improvement on an existing religion, and show its hand

Next, the power and authority and capital must be concentrated in the grip of a small and irresponsible clique,

Next, as before remarked, it must bait its hook with some new and attractive advantages over the baits offered

by its competitors. A new movement equipped with some of these endowmentslike spiritualism, for

instance may count upon a considerable success; a new movement equipped with the bulk of themlike

Mohammedanism, for instance may count upon a widely extended conquest. Mormonism had all the

requisites but one it had nothing new and nothing valuable to bait with. Spiritualism lacked the important

detail of concentration of money and authority in the hands of an irresponsible clique.

The above equipment is excellent, admirable, powerful, but not perfect. There is yet another detail which is

worth the whole of it put together and more; a detail which has never been joined (in the beginning of a

religious movement) to a supremely good working equipment since the world began, until now: a new

personage to worship. Christianity had the Saviour, but at first and for generations it lacked money and

concentrated power. In Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science possesses the new personage for worship, and in

additionhere in the very beginninga working equipment that has not a flaw in it. In the beginning,

Mohammedanism had no money; and it has never had anything to offer its client but heaven nothing here

below that was valuable. In addition to heaven hereafter, Christian Science has present health and a cheerful

spirit to offer; and in comparison with this bribe all other thisworld bribes are poor and cheap. You

To whom does Bellamy's "Nationalism" appeal? Necessarily to the few: people who read and dream, and are

compassionate, and troubled for the poor and the harddriven. To whom does Spiritualism appeal?

Necessarily to the few; its "boom" has lasted for half a century, and I believe it claims short of four millions

of adherents in America. Who are attracted by Swedenborgianism and some of the other fine and delicate

"isms"? The few again: educated people, sensitively organized, with superior mental endowments, who seek

lofty planes of thought and find their contentment there. And who are attracted by Christian Science? There is

no limit; its field is horizonless; its appeal is as universal as is the appeal of Christianity itself. It appeals to

the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest, the vain, the

wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the coward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the

freeman, the slave, the adult, the child; they who are ailing in body or mind, they who have friends that are

ailing in body or mind. To mass it in a phrase, its clientage is the Human Race. Will it march? I think so.

Remember its principal great offer: to rid the Race of pain and disease. Can it do so? In large measure, yes.

How much of the pain and disease in the world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then kept

alive by those same imaginations? Fourfifths? Not anything short of that, I should think. Can Christian

Science banish that fourfifths ? I think so. Can any other (organized) force do it? None that I know of.

Would this be a new world when that was accomplished? And a pleasanter onefor us well people, as well

as for those fussy and fretting sick ones? Would it seem as if there was not as much gloomy weather as there

In the mean time, would the Scientist kill off a good many patients? I think so. More than get killed off now

At present, I wish to ask you to examine some of the Scientist's performances, as registered in his magazine,

The Christian Science Journal October number, 1898. First, a Baptist clergyman gives us this true picture

of "the average orthodox Christian"and he could have added that it is a true picture of the average

"He is a worried and fretted and fearful man; afraid of himself and his propensities, afraid of colds and fevers,

"The average Christian Scientist has put all anxiety and fretting under his feet. He does have a victory over

He has put all anxiety and fretting under his feet. What proportion of your earnings or income would you be

willing to pay for that frame of mind, year in, year out? It really outvalues any price that can be put upon it.

Where can you purchase it, at any outlay of any sort, in any Church or out of it, except the Scientist's?

Well, it is the anxiety and fretting about colds, and fevers, and draughts, and getting our feet wet, and about

forbidden food eaten in terror of indigestion, that brings on the cold and the fever and the indigestion and the

most of our other ailments; and so, if the Science can banish that anxiety from the world I think it can reduce

In this October number many of the redeemed testify and give thanks; and not coldly, but with passionate

gratitude. As a rule they seem drunk with health, and with the surprise of it, the wonder of it, the unspeakable

glory and splendor of it, after a long, sober spell spent in inventing imaginary diseases and concreting them

with doctorstuff. The first witness testifies that when "this most beautiful Truth first dawned on him" he had

"nearly all the ills that flesh is heir to"; that those he did not have he thought he had and this made the tale

about complete. What was the natural result? Why, he was a dumppit "for all the doctors, druggists, and

patent medicines of the country." Christian Science came to his help, and "the old sick conditions passed

away," and along with them the "dismal forebodings" which he had been accustomed to employ in conjuring

But I am not astonished, for from other sources I know what must have been his method of applying

Christian Science. If I am in the right, he watchfully and diligently diverted his mind from unhealthy

channels and compelled it to travel in healthy ones. Nothing contrivable by human invention could be more

formidably effective than that, in banishing imaginary ailments and in closing the entrances against

subsequent applicants of their breed. I think his method was to keep saying, "I am well! I am

sound!sound and well! well and sound! Perfectly sound, perfectly well! I have no pain; there's no such

thing as pain! I have no disease; there's no such thing as disease! Nothing is real but Mind; all is Mind,

AllGood GoodGood, Life, Soul, Liver, Bones, one of a series, ante and pass the buck!"

I do not mean that that was exactly the formula used, but that it doubtless contains the spirit of it. The

Scientist would attach value to the exact formula, no doubt, and to the religious spirit in which it was used. I

should think that any formula that would divert the mind from unwholesome channels and force it into

healthy ones would answer every purpose with some people, though not with all. I think it most likely that a

very religious man would find the addition of the religious spirit a powerful reinforcement in his case.

The second witness testifies that the Science banished "an old organic trouble," which the doctor and the

He calls it his "claim." A surfaceminer would think it was not his claim at all, but the property of the doctor

and his pal the surgeonfor he would be misled by that word, which is ChristianScience slang for

"ailment." The Christian Scientist has no ailment; to him there is no such thing, and he will not use the

hateful word. All that happens to him is that upon his attention an imaginary disturbance sometimes obtrudes

This witness offers testimony for a clergyman seventy years old who had preached forty years in a Christian

church, and has now gone over to the new sect. He was "almost blind and deaf." He was treated by the C. S.

method, and "when he heard the voice of Truth he saw spiritually." Saw spiritually? It is a little indefinite;

they had better treat him again. Indefinite testimonies might properly be wastebasketed, since there is

evidently no lack of definite ones procurable; but this C. S. magazine is poorly edited, and so mistakes of this

The next witness is a soldier of the Civil War. When Christian Science found him, he had in stock the

Indigestion, Rheumatism, Catarrh, Chalky deposits in Shoulderjoints, Armjoints, Handjoints, Insomnia,

Atrophy of the muscles of Arms. Shoulders, Stiffness of all those joints, Excruciating pains most of the time.

These claims have a very substantial sound. They came of exposure in the campaigns. The doctors did all

they could, but it was little. Prayers were tried, but "I never realized any physical relief from that source."

After thirty years of torture, he went to a Christian Scientist and took an hour's treatment and went home

painless. Two days later, he "began to eat like a well man." Then "the claims vanishedsome at once, others

more gradually"; finally, "they have almost entirely disappeared." And a thing which is of still greater

valuehe is now "contented and happy." That is a detail which, as earlier remarked, is a ScientistChurch

specialty. And, indeed, one may go further and assert with little or no exaggeration that it is a

ChristianScience monopoly. With thirtyone years' effort, the Methodist Church had not succeeded in

And so the tale goes on. Witness after witness bulletins his claims, declares their prompt abolishment, and

gives Mrs. Eddy's Discovery the praise. Milkleg is cured; nervous prostration is cured; consumption is

cured; and St. Vitus's dance is made a pastime. Even without a fiddle. And now and then an interesting new

addition to the Science slang appears on the page. We have "demonstrations over chilblains" and such things.

It seems to be a curtailed way of saying "demonstrations of the power of ChristianScience Truth over the

fiction which masquerades under the name of Chilblains." The children, as well as the adults, share in the

blessings of the Science. "Through the study of the 'little book' they are learning how to be healthful,

peaceful, and wise." Sometimes they are cured of their little claims by the professional healer, and sometimes

A little FarWestern girl of nine, equipped with an adult vocabulary, states her age and says, "I thought I

would write a demonstration to you." She had a claim, derived from getting flung over a pony's head and

landed on a rockpile. She saved herself from disaster by remembering to say "God is All" while she was in

the air. I couldn't have done it. I shouldn't even have thought of it. I should have been too excited. Nothing

but Christian Science could have enabled that child to do that calm and thoughtful and judicious thing in

those circumstances. She came down on her head, and by all the rules she should have broken it; but the

intervention of the formula prevented that, so the only claim resulting was a blackened eye. Monday morning

it was still swollen and shut. At school "it hurt pretty badlythat is, it seemed to." So "I was excused, and

went down to the basement and said, 'Now I am depending on mamma instead of God, and I will depend on

God instead of mamma.'" No doubt this would have answered; but, to make sure, she added Mrs. Eddy to the

team and recited "the Scientific Statement of Being," which is one of the principal incantations, I judge. Then

"I felt my eye opening." Why, dear, it would have opened an oyster. I think it is one of the touchingest things

in childhistory, that pious little rat down cellar pumping away at the Scientific Statement of Being.

There is a page about another good childlittle Gordon. Little Gordon "came into the world without the

assistance of surgery or anaesthetics." He was a "demonstration." A painless one; therefore, his coming

evoked "joy and thankfulness to God and the Discoverer of Christian Science." It is a noticeable feature of

this literaturethe so frequent linking together of the Two Beings in an equal bond; also of Their Two

Bibles. When little Gordon was two years old, "he was playing horse on the bed, where I had left my 'little

book.' I noticed him stop in his play, take the book carefully in his little hands, kiss it softly, then look about

for the highest place of safety his arms could reach, and put it there." This pious act filled the mother "with

such a train of thought as I had never experienced before. I thought of the sweet mother of long ago who kept

things in her heart," etc. It is a bold comparison; however, unconscious profanations are about as common in

the mouths of the lay member ship of the new Church as are frank and open ones in the mouths of its

Some days later, the family libraryChristianScience bookswas lying in a deepseated window. This

was another chance for the holy child to show off. He left his play and went there and pushed all the books to

one side, except the Annex "It he took in both hands, slowly raised it to his lips, then removed it carefully,

and seated himself in the window." It had seemed to the mother too wonderful to be true, that first time; but

now she was convinced that "neither imagination nor accident had anything to do with it." Later, little

Gordon let the author of his being see him do it. After that he did it frequently; probably every time anybody

was looking. I would rather have that child than a chromo. If this tale has any object, it is to intimate that the

inspired book was supernaturally able to convey a sense of its sacred and awful character to this innocent

little creature, without the intervention of outside aids. The magazine is not edited with highpriced

Among other witnesses there is one who had a "jumping toothache," which several times tempted her to

"believe that there was sensation in matter, but each time it was overcome by the power of Truth." She would

not allow the dentist to use cocaine, but sat there and let him punch and drill and split and crush the tooth, and

tear and slash its ulcerations, and pull out the nerve, and dig out fragments of bone; and she wouldn't once

confess that it hurt. And to this day she thinks it didn't, and I have not a doubt that she is ninetenths right,

and that her Christian Science faith did her better service than she could have gotten out of cocaine.

There is an account of a boy who got broken all up into small bits by an accident, but said over the Scientific

Statement of Being, or some of the other incantations, and got well and sound without having suffered any

Also, there is an account of the restoration to perfect health, in a single night, of a fatally injured horse, by the

application of Christian Science. I can stand a good deal, but I recognize that the ice is getting thin, here. That

horse had as many as fifty claims; how could he demonstrate over them? Could he do the AllGood,

GoodGood, Good Gracious, Liver, Bones, Truth, All down but Nine, Set them up on the Other Alley?

Could he intone the Scientific Statement of Being? Now, could he? Wouldn't it give him a relapse? Let us

There is plenty of other testimonies in the magazine, but these quoted samples will answer. They show the

kind of trade the Science is driving. Now we come back to the question, Does the Science kill a patient here

and there and now and then? We must concede it. Does it compensate for this? I am persuaded that it can

make a plausible showing in that direction. For instance: when it lays its hand upon a soldier who has

suffered thirty years of helpless torture and makes him whole in body and mind, what is the actual sum of that

achievement? This,.I think: that it has restored to life a subject who had essentially died ten deaths a year for

thirty years, and each of them a long and painful one. But for its interference that man in the three years

which have since elapsed, would have essentially died thirty times more. There are thousands of young

people in the land who are now ready to enter upon a lifelong death similar to that man's. Every time the

Science captures one of these and secures to him lifelong immunity from imaginationmanufactured

disease, it may plausibly claim that in his person it has saved three hundred lives. Meantime, it will kill a man

[NOTE.I have received several letters (two from educated and ostensibly intelligent persons), which

contained, in substance, this protest: "I don't object to men and women chancing their lives with these people,

but it is a burning shame that the law should allow them to trust their helpless little children in their deadly

hands. "Isn't it touching? Isn't it deep? Isn't it modest? It is as if the person said: "I know that to a parent his

child is the core of his heart, the apple of his eye, a possession so dear, so precious that he will trust its life in

no hands but those which he believes, with all his soul, to be the very best and the very safest, but it is a

burning shame that the law does not require him to come to me to ask what kind of healer I will allow him to

"We consciously declare that Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, was foretold, as well as its

author, Mary Baker Eddy, in Revelation x. She is the 'mighty angel,' or God's highest thought to this age

(verse 1), giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible in the 'little book open' (verse 2). Thus we prove

that Christian Science is the second coming of ChristTruthSpirit." Lecture by Dr. George Tomkins,

There you have it in plain speech. She is the mighty angel; she is the divinely and officially sent bearer of

God's highest thought. For the present, she brings the Second Advent. We must expect that before she has

been in her grave fifty years she will be regarded by her following as having been herself the Second Advent.

She is already worshiped, and we must expect this feeling to spread, territorially, and also to deepen in

Particularly after her death; for then, as any one can foresee, Eddy Worship will be taught in the

Sundayschools and pulpits of the cult. Already whatever she puts her trademark on, though it be only a

memorialspoon, is holy and is eagerly and gratefully bought by the disciple, and becomes a fetish in his

house. I say bought, for the Boston ChristianScience Trust gives nothing away; everything it has is for sale.

And the terms are cash; and not only cash, but cash in advance. Its god is Mrs. Eddy first, then the Dollar.

Not a spiritual Dollar, but a real one. From end to end of the Christian Science literature not a single

(material) thing in the world is conceded to be real, except the Dollar. But all through and through its

The Dollar is hunted down in all sorts of ways; the ChristianScience MotherChurch and BargainCounter

in Boston peddles all kinds of spiritual wares to the faithful, and always on the one conditioncash, cash in

advance. The Angel of the Apocalypse could not go there and get a copy of his own pirated book on credit.

Many, many precious Christian Science things are to be had there for cash: Bible Lessons; Church Manual;

C. S. Hymnal; History of the building of the MotherChurch; lot of Sermons; Communion Hymn, "Saw Ye

My Saviour," by Mrs. Eddy, half a dollar a copy, "words used by special permission of Mrs. Eddy." Also we

have Mrs. Eddy's and the Angel's little BlueAnnex in eight styles of binding at eight kinds of warprices;

among these a sweet thing in "levant, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, round corners, gold edge, silk

sewed, each, prepaid, $6," and if you take a million you get them a shilling cheaper that is to say, "prepaid,

$5.75." Also we have Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, at 'andsome big prices, the divinity circuit style

heading the exertions, shilling discount where you take an edition Next comes Christ and Christmas, by the

fertile Mrs. Eddya poemwould God I could see it! price $3, cash in advance. Then follow five more

books by Mrs. Eddy, at highwayman's rates, some of them in "leatherette covers," some of them in "pebble

cloth," with divinity circuit, compensationbalance, twinscrew, and the other modern improvements; and

ChristianScience literary discharges are a monopoly of the MotherChurch Headquarters Factory in Boston;

none genuine without the trademark of the Trust. You must apply there and not elsewhere.

One hundred dollars for it. And I have a case among my statistics where the student had a three weeks' course

In order to force the sale of Mrs Eddy's BibleAnnex, no healer, MetaphysicalCollegebred or other, is

allowed to practice the game unless he possesses a copy of that book. That means a large and constantly

augmenting income for the Trust. No C.S. family would consider itself loyal or pious or painproof without

an Annex or two in the house. That means an income for the Trust, in the near future, of millions; not

No member, young or old, of a branch ChristianScientist church can acquire and retain membership in the

MotherChurch unless he pay "capitation tax" (of "not less than a dollar," say the ByLaws) to the Boston

Trust every year. That means an income for the Trust, in the near future, oflet us venture to saymillions

It is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will be ten million Christian Scientists, and three

millions in Great Britain; that these figures will be trebled in 1930; that in America in 1920 the Christian

Scientists will be a political force, in 1930 politically formidable, and in 1940 the governing power in the

Republicto remain that, permanently. And I think it a reasonable guess that the Trust (which is already in

our day pretty brusque in its ways) will then be the most insolent and unscrupulous and tyrannical

politicoreligious master that has dominated a people since the palmy days of the Inquisition. And a stronger

master than the strongest of bygone times, because this one will have a financial strength not dreamed of by

any predecessor; as effective a concentration of irresponsible power as any predecessor has had; in the

railway, the telegraph, and the subsidized newspaper, better facilities for watching and managing his empire

than any predecessor has had; and, after a generation or two, he will probably divide Christendom with the

The Roman Church has a perfect organization, and it has an effective centralization of powerbut not of its

cash. Its multitude of Bishops are rich, but their riches remain in large measure in their own hands. They

collect from two hundred millions of people, but they keep the bulk of the result at home. The Boston Pope of

byandby will draw his dollarahead capitationtax from three hundred millions of the human race, and

the Annex and the rest of his bookshop stock will fetch in as much more; and his Metaphysical Colleges, the

annual Pilgrimage to Mrs. Eddy's tomb, from all over the worldadmission, the ChristianScience Dollar

(payable in advance) purchases of consecrated glass beads, candles, memorial spoons, aureoled

chromeportraits and bogus autographs of Mrs. Eddy; cash offerings at her shrine no crutches of cured

cripples received, and no imitations of miraculously restored broken legs and necks allowed to be hung up

except when made out of the Holy Metal and proved by fireassay; cash for miracles worked at the tomb:

these money sources, with a thousand to be yet invented and ambushed upon the devotee, will bring the

annual increment well up above a billion. And nobody but the Trust will have the handling of it. In that day,

the Trust will monopolize the manufacture and sale of the Old and New Testaments as well as the Annex, and

raise their price to Annex rates, and compel the devotee to buy (for even today a healer has to have the

Annex and the Scriptures or he is not allowed to work the game), and that will bring several hundred million

dollars more. In those days, the Trust will have an income approaching five million dollars a day, and no

expenses to be taken out of it; no taxes to pay, and no charities to support. That last detail should not be

No charities to support. No, nor even to contribute to. One searches in vain the Trust's advertisements and the

utterances of its organs for any suggestion that it spends a penny on orphans, widows, discharged prisoners,

hospitals, ragged schools, night missions, city missions, libraries, old people's homes, or any other object that

I have hunted, hunted, and hunted, by correspondence and otherwise, and have not yet got upon the track of a

farthing that the Trust has spent upon any worthy object. Nothing makes a Scientist so uncomfortable as to

ask him if he knows of a case where Christian Science has spent money on a benevolence, either among its

own adherents or elsewhere. He is obliged to say "No" And then one discovers that the person questioned has

been asked the question many times before, and that it is getting to be a sore subject with him. Why a sore

subject? Because he has written his chiefs and asked with high confidence for an answer that will confound

these questionersand the chiefs did not reply. He has written again, and then againnot with confidence,

but humbly, nowand has begged for defensive ammunition in the voice of supplication. A reply does at

last come to this effect: "We must have faith in Our Mother, and rest content in the conviction that whatever

She does with the money it is in accordance with orders from Heaven, for She does no act of any kind

That settles itas far as the disciple is concerned. His mind is satisfied with that answer; he gets down his

Annex and does an incantation or two, and that mesmerizes his spirit and puts that to sleepbrings it peace.

Through friends in America I asked some questions, and in some cases got definite and informing answers; in

other cases the answers were not definite and not valuable. To the question, "Does any of the money go to

charities?" the answer from an authoritative source was: "No, not in the sense usually conveyed by this

word." (The italics are mine.) That answer is cautious. But definite, I thinkutterly and unassailably

definitealthough quite ChristianScientifically foggy in its phrasing. ChristianScience testimony is

generally foggy, generally diffuse, generally garrulous. The writer was aware that the first word in his phrase

answered the question which I was asking, but he could not help adding nine dark words. Meaningless ones,

unless explained by him. It is quite likely, as intimated by him, that Christian Science has invented a new

class of objects to apply the word "charity" to, but without an explanation we cannot know what they are. We

quite easily and naturally and confidently guess that they are in all cases objects which will return five

hundred per cent. on the Trust's investment in them, but guessing is not knowledge; it is merely, in this case,

a sort of nine tenths certainty deducible from what we think we know of the Trust's trade principles and its

Sly? Deep? Judicious? The Trust understands its business. The Trust does not give itself away. It defeats all

the attempts of us impertinents to get at its trade secrets. To this day, after all our diligence, we have not been

able to get it to confess what it does with the money. It does not even let its own disciples find out. All it says

is, that the matter has been "demonstrated over." Now and then a lay Scientist says, with a grateful exultation,

that Mrs. Eddy is enormously rich, but he stops there; as to whether any of the money goes to other charities

or not, he is obliged to admit that he does not know. However, the Trust is composed of human beings; and

this justifies the conjecture that if it had a charity on its list which it was proud of, we should soon hear of it.

"Without money and without price." Those used to be the terms. Mrs. Eddy's Annex cancels them. The motto

of Christian Science is, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." And now that it has been "demonstrated over," we

find its spiritual meaning to be, "Do anything and everything your hand may find to do; and charge cash for

it, and collect the money in advance." The Scientist has on his tongue's end a cutanddried,

Bostonsupplied set of rather lean arguments, whose function is to show that it is a Heavencommanded

I have no reverence for the Trust, but I am not lacking in reverence for the sincerities of the lay membership

of the new Church. There is every evidence that the lay members are entirely sincere in their faith, and I think

sincerity is always entitled to honor and respect, let the inspiration of the sincerity be what it may. Zeal and

sincerity can carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and sword, and I believe that

the new religion will conquer the half of Christendom in a hundred years. I am not intending this as a

compliment to the human race; I am merely stating an opinion. And yet I think that perhaps it is a

compliment to the race. I keep in mind that saying of an orthodox preacherquoted further back. He

conceded that this new Christianity frees its possessor's life from frets, fears, vexations, bitterness, and all

sorts of imaginationpropagated maladies and pains, and fills his world with sunshine and his heart with

gladness. If Christian Science, with this stupendous equipmentand final salvation addedcannot win half

I think the Trust will be handed down like Me other Papacy, and will always know how to handle its limitless

cash. It will press the button; the zeal, the energy, the sincerity, the enthusiasm of its countless vassals will do

The power which a man's imagination has over his body to heal it or make it sick is a force which none of us

is born without. The first man had it, the last one will possess it. If left to himself, a man is most likely to use

only the mischievous half of the forcethe half which invents imaginary ailments for him and cultivates

them; and if he is one of thesevery wise people, he is quite likely to scoff at the beneficent half of the force

and deny its existence. And so, to heal or help that man, two imaginations are required: his own and some

outsider's. The outsider, B, must imagine that his incantations are the healingpower that is curing A, and A

must imagine that this is so. I think it is not so, at all; but no matter, the cure is effected, and that is the main

thing. The outsider's work is unquestionably valuable; so valuable that it may fairly be likened to the essential

work performed by the engineer when he handles the throttle and turns on the steam; the actual power is

lodged exclusively in the engine, but if the engine were left alone it would never start of itself. Whether the

engineer be named Jim, or Bob, or Tom, it is all onehis services are necessary, and he is entitled to such

wage as he can get you to pay. Whether he be named Christian Scientist, or Mental Scientist, or Mind Curist,

or King'sEvil Expert, or Hypnotist, it is all one; he is merely the Engineer; he simply turns on the same old

The ChristianScientist engineer drives exactly the same trade as the other engineers, yet he outprospers the

Is it because he has captured the takingest name? I think that that is only a small part of it. I think that the

The Christian Scientist has organized the business. Now that was certainly a gigantic idea. Electricity, in

limitless volume, has existed in the air and the rocks and the earth and everywhere since time began and

was going to waste all the while. In our time we have organized that scattered and wandering force and set it

to work, and backed the business with capital, and concentrated it in few and competent hands, and the results

The Christian Scientist has taken a force which has been lying idle in every member of the human race since

time began, and has organized it, and backed the business with capital, and concentrated it at Boston

headquarters in the hands of a small and very competent Trust, and there are results.

Therein lies the promise that this monopoly is going to extend its commerce wide in the earth. I think that if

the business were conducted in the loose and disconnected fashion customary with such things, it would

achieve but little more than the modest prosperity usually secured by unorganized great moral and

commercial ventures; but I believe that so long as this one remains compactly organized and closely

Four years ago I wrote the preceding chapters. I was assured by the wise that Christian Science was a fleeting

craze and would soon perish. This prompt and allcompetent stripe of prophet is always to be had in the

market at groundfloor rates. He does not stop to load, or consider, or take aim, but lets fly just as he stands.

Facts are nothing to him, he has no use for such things; he works wholly by inspiration. And so, when he is

asked why he considers a new movement a passing fad and quickly perishable, he finds himself unprepared

with a reason and is more or less embarrassed. For a moment. Only for a moment. Then he waylays the first

spectre of a reason that goes flitting through the desert places of his mind, and is at once serene again and

ready for conflict. Serene and confident. Yet he should not be so, since he has had no chance to examine his

The impromptu reason furnished by the early prophets of whom I have spoken was this:

"There is nothing to Christian Science; there is nothing about it that appeals to the intellect; its market will be

restricted to the unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not think."

They called that a reason why the cult would not flourish and endure. It seems the equivalent of saying:

"There is no money in tinware; there is nothing about it that appeals to the rich; its market will be restricted to

It is like bringing forward the best reason in the world why Christian Science should flourish and live, and

That reason was furnished me by the complacent and unfrightened prophets four years ago, and it has been

furnished me again today. If conversions to new religions or to old ones were in any considerable degree

achieved through the intellect, the aforesaid reason would be sound and sufficient, no doubt; the inquirer into

Christian Science might go away unconvinced and unconverted. But we all know that conversions are seldom

made in that way; that such a thing as a serious and painstaking and fairly competent inquiry into the claims

of a religion or of a political dogma is a rare occurrence; and that the vast mass of men and women are far

from being capable of making such an examination. They are not capable, for the reason that their minds,

howsoever good they may be, are not trained for such examinations. The mind not trained for that work is no

more competent to do it than are lawyers and farmers competent to make successful clothes without learning

the tailor's trade. There are seventyfive million men and women among us who do not know how to cut out

and make a dresssuit, and they would not think of trying; yet they all think they can competently think out a

political or religious scheme without any apprenticeship to the business, and many of them believe they have

actually worked that miracle. But, indeed, the truth is, almost all the men and women of our nation or of any

other get their religion and their politics where they get their astronomyentirely at second hand. Being

untrained, they are no more able to intelligently examine a dogma or a policy than they are to calculate an

Men are usually competent thinkers along the lines of their specialized training only. Within these limits

alone are their opinions and judgments valuable; outside of these limits they grope and are lost usually

without knowing it. In a church assemblage of five hundred persons, there will be a man or two whose trained

minds can seize upon each detail of a great manufacturing scheme and recognize its value or its lack of value

promptly; and can pass the details in intelligent review, section by section, and finally as a whole, and then

deliver a verdict upon the scheme which cannot be flippantly set aside nor easily answered. And there will be

one or two other men there who can do the same thing with a great and complicated educational project; and

one or two others who can do the like with a large scheme for applying electricity in a new and unheardof

way; and one or two others who can do it with a showy scheme for revolutionizing the scientific world's

accepted notions regarding geology. And so on, and so on. But the manufacturing experts will not be

competent to examine the educational scheme intelligently, and their opinion about it would not be valuable;

neither of these two groups will be able to understand and pass upon the electrical scheme; none of these

three batches of experts will be able to understand and pass upon the geological revolution; and probably not

one man in the entire lot will be competent to examine, capably, the intricacies of a political or religious

scheme, new or old, and deliver a judgment upon it which any one need regard as precious.

There you have the top crust. There will be four hundred and seventy five men and women present who can

draw upon their training and deliver incontrovertible judgments concerning cheese, and leather, and cattle,

and hardware, and soap, and tar, and candles, and patent medicines, and dreams, and apparitions, and garden

trucks, and cats, and baby food, and warts, and hymns, and timetables, and freightrates, and summer

resorts, and whiskey, and law, and surgery, and dentistry, and blacksmithing, and shoemaking, and dancing,

and Huyler's candy, and mathematics, and dog fights, and obstetrics, and music, and sausages, and dry goods,

and molasses, and railroad stocks, and horses, and literature, and labor unions, and vegetables, and morals,

and lamb's fries, and etiquette, and agriculture. And not ten among the five hundredlet their minds be ever

so good and brightwill be competent, by grace of the requisite specialized mental training, to take hold of a

The whole five hundred are thinkers, and they are all capable thinkers but only within the narrow limits of

their specialized trainings. Four hundred and ninety of them cannot competently examine either a religious

plan or a political one. A scattering few of them do examine boththat is, they think they do. With results as

If the four hundred and ninety got their religion through their minds, and by weighed and measured detail,

Christian Science would not be a scary apparition. But they don't; they get a little of it through their minds,

more of it through their feelings, and the overwhelming bulk of it through their environment.

Environment is the chief thing to be considered when one is proposing to predict the future of Christian

Science. It is not the ability to reason that makes the Presbyterian, or the Baptist, or the Methodist, or the

Catholic, or the Mohammedan, or the Buddhist, or the Mormon; it is environment. If religions were got by

reasoning, we should have the extraordinary spectacle of an American family with a Presbyterian in it, and a

Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Buddhist, and a Mormon. A Presbyterian family does not

produce Catholic families or other religious brands, it produces its own kind; and not by intellectual

processes, but by association. And so also with Mohammedanism, the cult which in our day is spreading with

the sweep of a worldconflagration through the Orient, that native home of profound thought and of subtle

intellectual fence, that fertile womb whence has sprung every great religion that exists. Including our own;

The language of my quoted prophets recurs to us now, and we wonder to think how small a space in the

world the mighty Mohammedan Church would be occupying now, if a successful trade in its line of goods

had been conditioned upon an exhibit that would "appeal to the intellect" instead of to "the unintelligent, the

The Christian Science Church, like the Mohammedan Church, makes no embarrassing appeal to the intellect,

Provided. Provided what? That it can secure that thing which is worth two or three hundred thousand times

more than an "appeal to the intellect"an environment. Can it get that? Will it be a menace to regular

Christianity if it gets that? Is it time for regular Christianity to get alarmed? Or shall regular Christianity

smile a smile and turn over and take another nap? Won't it be wise and proper for regular Christianity to do

the old way, Me customary way, the historical waylock the stabledoor after the horse is gone? Just as

Protestantism has smiled and nodded this long time (while the alert and diligent Catholic was slipping in and

capturing the public schools), and is now beginning to hunt around for the key when it is too late?

Will Christian Science get a chance to show its wares? It has already secured that chance. Will it flourish and

spread and prosper if it shall create for itself the one thing essential to those conditionsan environment? It

has already created an environment. There are families of Christian Scientists in every community in

America, and each family is a factory; each family turns out a Christian Science product at the customary

intervals, and contributes it to the Cause in the only way in which contributions of recruits to Churches are

ever made on a large scaleby the puissant forces of personal contact and association. Each family is an

agency for the Cause, and makes converts among the neighbors, and starts some more factories.

Four years ago there were six Christian Scientists in a certain town that I am acquainted with; a year ago

there were two hundred and fifty there; they have built a church, and its membership now numbers four

hundred. This has all been quietly done; done without frenzied revivals, without uniforms, brass bands, street

parades, corner oratory, or any of the other customary persuasions to a godly life. Christian Science, like

Mohammedanism, is "restricted" to the "unintelligent, the people who do not think." There lies the danger. It

makes Christian Science formidable. It is "restricted" to ninetynine onehundredths of the human race, and

must be reckoned with by regular Christianity. And will be, as soon as it is too late.

There were remarkable things about the stranger called the ManMystery things so very extraordinary that

they monopolized attention and made all of him seem extraordinary; but this was not so, the most of his

qualities being of the common, everyday size and like anybody else's. It was curious. He was of the ordinary

stature, and had the ordinary aspects; yet in him were hidden such strange contradictions and disproportions!

He was majestically fearless and heroic; he had the strength of thirty men and the daring of thirty thousand;

handling armies, organizing states, administering governmentsthese were pastimes to him; he publicly and

ostentatiously accepted the human race at its own valuation as demigodsand privately and successfully

dealt with it at quite another and juster valuationas children and slaves; his ambitions were stupendous,

and his dreams had no commerce with the humble plain, but moved with the cloudrack among the

snowsummits. These features of him were, indeed, extraordinary, but the rest of him was ordinary and

usual. He was so meanminded, in the matter of jealousy, that it was thought he was descended from a god;

he was vain in little ways, and had a pride in trivialities; he doted on ballads about moonshine and bruised

hearts; in education he was deficient, he was indifferent to literature, and knew nothing of art; he was dumb

upon all subjects but one, indifferent to all except that onethe Nebular Theory. Upon that one his flow of

words was full and free, he was a geyser. The official astronomers disputed his facts and deeded his views,

and said that he had invented both, they not being findable in any of the books. But many of the laity, who

wanted their nebulosities fresh, admired his doctrine and adopted it, and it attained to great prosperity in spite

JANUARY, 1903. When we do not know a public man personally, we guess him out by the facts of his

career. When it is Washington, we all arrive at about one and the same result. We agree that his words and his

acts clearly interpret his character to us, and that they never leave us in doubt as to the motives whence the

words and acts proceeded. It is the same with Joan of Arc, it is the same with two or three or five or six others

among the immortals. But in the matter of motives and of a few details of character we agree to disagree upon

Napoleon, Cromwell, and all the rest; and to this list we must add Mrs. Eddy. I think we can peacefully agree

as to two or three extraordinary features of her make up, but not upon the other features of it. We cannot

peacefully agree as to her motives, therefore her character must remain crooked to some of us and straight to

No matter, she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In several ways she is the most

interesting woman that ever lived, and the most extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the

same may be said of its chief result. She started from nothing. Her enemies charge that she surreptitiously

took from Quimby a peculiar system of healing which was mindcure with a Biblical basis. She and her

friends deny that she took anything from him. This is a matter which we can discuss byandby. Whether she

took it or invented it, it was materiallya sawdust mine when she got it, and she has turned it into a

Klondike; its spiritual dock had next to no custom, if any at all: from it she has launched a worldreligion

which has now six hundred and sixty three churches, and she charters a new one every four days. When we

do not know a personand also when we dowe have to judge his size by the size and nature of his

achievements, as compared with the achievements of others in his special line of businessthere is no other

way. Measured by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years since the world has produced any one who could

Figuratively speaking, Mrs. Eddy is already as tall as the Eiffel tower. She is adding surprisingly to her

stature every day. It is quite within the probabilities that a century hence she will be the most imposing figure

that has cast its shadow across the globe since the inauguration of our era. I grant that after saying these

strong things, it is necessary that I offer some details calculated to satisfactorily demonstrate the proportions

which I have claimed for her. I will do that presently; but before exhibiting the matured sequoia gigantea, I

believe it will be best to exhibit the sprout from which it sprang. It may save the reader from making

miscalculations. The person who imagines that a Big Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite

mistaken. It is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it hasn't a detectible quality in it

that entitles it to attention, or suggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of sprout Mrs. Eddy

From her childhood days up to where she was running a halfcentury a close race and gaining on it, she was

She is the witness I am drawing this from. She has revealed it in her autobiography not intentionally, of

courseI am not claiming that. An autobiography is the most treacherous thing there is. It lets out every

secret its author is trying to keep; it lets the truth shine unobstructed through every harmless little deception

he tries to play; it pitilessly exposes him as a tin hero worshipping himself as Big Metal every time he tries to

do the modestunconsciousness act before the reader. This is not guessing; I am speaking from

autobiographical personal experience; I was never able to refrain from mentioning, with a studied casualness

that could deceive none but the most incautious reader, that an ancestor of mine was sent ambassador to

Spain by Charles I., nor that in a remote branch of my family there exists a claimant to an earldom, nor that

an uncle of mine used to own a dog that was descended from the dog that was in the Ark; and at the same

time I was never able to persuade myself to call a gibbet by its right name when accounting for other

ancestors of mine, but always spoke of it as the "platform"puerilely intimating that they were out lecturing

It is Mrs. Eddy over again. As regards her minor half, she is as commonplace as the rest of us. Vain of trivial

things all the first half of her life, and still vain of them at seventy and recording them with naive

satisfactioneven rescuing some early rhymes of hers of the sort that we all scribble in the innocent days of

our youthrescuing them and printing them without pity or apology, just as the weakest and commonest of

us do in our gray age. Moreshe still frankly admires them; and in her introduction of them profanely

You note it is not a shade above the thing which all human beings churn out in their youth.

You would not think that in a little wee primerfor that is what the Autobiography isa person with a

tumultuous career of seventy years behind her could find room for two or three pages of padding of this kind,

but such is the case. She evidently puts narrative together with difficulty and is not at home in it, and is glad

Vivid? You can fairly see those trees galloping around. That she could still treasure up, and print, and

manifestly admire those Poems, indicates that the most daring and masculine and masterful woman that has

appeared in the earth in centuries has the same soft, girlygirly places in her that the rest of us have.

When it comes to selecting her ancestors she is still human, natural, vain, commonplaceas commonplace

as I am myself when I am sorting ancestors for my autobiography. She combs out some creditable Scots, and

labels them and sets them aside for use, not overlooking the one to whom Sir William Wallace gave "a heavy

sword encased in a brass scabbard," and naively explaining which Sir William Wallace it was, lest we get the

wrong one by the hassock; this is the one "from whose patriotism and bravery comes that heartstirring air,

'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.'" Hannah More was related to her ancestors. She explains who Hannah

Whenever a person informs us who Sir William Wallace was, or who wrote "Hamlet," or where the

Declaration of Independence was fought, it fills us with a suspicion wellnigh amounting to conviction, that

that person would not suspect us of being so empty of knowledge if he wasn't suffering from the same

"claim" himself. Then we turn to page 20 of the Autobiography and happen upon this passage, and that hasty

"I gained bookknowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as familiar

with Lindley Murray's Grammar as with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every

Sunday. My favorite studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral Science. From my brother A1bert I

You catch your breath in astonishment, and feel again and still again the pang of that rebuke. But then your

eye falls upon the next sentence but one, and the pain passes away and you set up the suspicion again with

"After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had gleaned from schoolbooks vanished

That disappearance accounts for much in her miscellaneous writings. As I was saying, she handles her

"ancestral shadows," as she calls them, just as I do mine. It is remarkable. When she runs across "a relative of

my Grandfather Baker, General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame," she sets him down; when she finds

another good one, "the late Sir John Macneill, in the line of my Grandfather Baker's family," she sets him

down, and remembers that he "was prominent in British politics, and at one time held the position of

ambassador to Persia"; when she discovers that her grandparents "were likewise connected with Captain John

Lovewell, whose gallant leadership and death in the Indian troubles of 172225 caused that prolonged

contest to be known historically as Lovewell's War," she sets the Captain down; when it turns out that a

cousin of her grandmother "was John Macneill, the New Hampshire general, who fought at Lundy's Lane and

won distinction in 1814 at the battle of Chippewa," she catalogues the General. (And tells where Chippewa

was.) And then she skips all her platform people; never mentions one of them. It shows that she is just as

Yet, after all, there is something very touching in her pride in these worthy smallfry, and something large

and fine in her modesty in not caring to remember that their kinship to her can confer no distinction upon her,

whereas her mere mention of their names has conferred upon them a faceless earthly immortality.

When she wrote this little biography her great lifework had already been achieved, she was become

renowned; to multitudes of reverent disciples she was a sacred personage, a familiar of God, and His inspired

channel of communication with the human race. Also, to them these following things were facts, and not

She had written a Bible in middle age, and had published it; she had recast it, enlarged it, and published it

again; she had not stopped there, but had enlarged it further, polished its phrasing, improved its form, and

published it yet again. It was at last become a compact, grammatical, dignified, and workmanlike body of

literature. This was good training, persistent training; and in all arts it is training that brings the art to

perfection. We are now confronted with one of the most teasing and baffling riddles of Mrs. Eddy's

How is it that a primitive literary gun which began as a hundredyard flintlock smoothbore

muzzleloader, and in the course of forty years has acquired one notable improvement after

anotherpercussion cap; fixed cartridge; rifled barrel; efficiency at half a mile how is it that such a gun,

sufficiently good on an elephant hunt (Christian Science) from the beginning, and growing better and better

all the time during forty years, has always collapsed back to its original flintlock estate the moment the

Something more than a generation ago Mrs. Eddy went out with her flint lock on the rabbit range; and this

"After his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians, we discovered that the Principle

of all healing and the law that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and

You will notice the awkwardness of that English. If you should carry that paragraph up to the Supreme Court

of the United States in order to find out for good and all whether the fatal casualty happened to the dead

manas the paragraph almost assertsor to some person or persons not even hinted at in the paragraph, the

Supreme Court would be obliged to say that the evidence established nothing with certainty except that there

The context thinks it explains who the victim was, but it does nothing of the kind. It furnishes some

guessingmaterial of a sort which enables you to infer that it was "we" that suffered the mentioned injury, but

if you should carry the language to a court you would not be able to prove that it necessarily meant that.

"We" are Mrs. Eddy; a funny little affectation. She replaced it later with the more dignified third person.

The quoted paragraph is from Mrs. Eddy's preface to the first revision of Science and Health (1883).

Sixtyfour pages further alongin the body of the book (the elephantrange), she went out with that same

flintlock and got this following result. Its English is very nearly as straight and clean and competent as is the

English of the latest revision of Science and Health after the gun has been improved from smoothbore

"Man controlled by his Maker has no physical suffering. His body is harmonious, his days are multiplying

instead of diminishing, he is journeying towards Life instead of death, and bringing out the new man and

crucifying the old affections, cutting them off in every material direction until he learns the utter supremacy

In the latest revision of Science and Health (1902), the perfected gun furnishes the following. The English is

clean, compact, dignified, almost perfect. But it is observable that it is not prominently better than it is in the

"How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing out life and hastening to death, and at the same time we

are communing with immortality? If the departed are in rapport with mortality, or matter, they are not

spiritual, but must still be mortal, sinful, suffering, and dying. Then wherefore look to themeven were

communication possible for proofs of immortality and accept them as oracles?"Edition of 1902, page

With the above paragraphs compare these that follow. It is Mrs. Eddy writingafter a good long twenty

years of penpractice. Compare also with the alleged Poems already quoted. The prominent characteristic of

the Poems is affectation, artificiality; their makeup is a complacent and pretentious outpour of false figures

and fine writing, in the sophomoric style. The same qualities and the same style will be found, unchanged,

unbettered, in these following paragraphsafter a lapse of more than fifty years, and afteras

1. "What plague spot or bacilli were [sic] gnawing [sic] at the heart of this metropolis . . . and bringing it [the

heart] on bended knee? Why, it was an institute that had entered its vitalsthat, among other things, taught

games," et cetera.C.S. Journal, p. 670, article entitled "A Narrativeby Mary Baker G. Eddy."

2. "Parks sprang up [sic] . . . electriccars run [sic] merrily through several streets, concrete sidewalks and

3. "Shorn [sic] of its suburbs it had indeed little left to admire, save to [sic] such as fancy a skeleton above

This is not EnglishI mean, grownup English. But it is fifteenyear old English, and has not grown a

month since the same mind produced the Poems. The standard of the Poems and of the

plaguespotandbacilli effort is exactly the same. It is most strange that the same intellect that worded the

simple and selfcontained and cleancut paragraph beginning with "How unreasonable is the belief," should

in the very same lustrum discharge upon the world such a verbal chaos as the utterance concerning that

plaguespot or bacilli which were gnawing at the insides of the metropolis and bringing its heart on bended

knee, thus exposing to the eye the rest of the skeleton breathing slowly through a barren breast.

The immense contrast between the legitimate English of Science and Health and the bastard English of Mrs.

Eddy's miscellaneous work, and between the maturity of the one diction and the juvenility of the other,

suggestscompelsthe question, Are there two guns? It would seem so. Is there a poor, foolish, old,

scattering flintlock for rabbit, and a longrange, centredriving, uptodate Mausermagazine for

elephant? It looks like it. For it is observable that in Science and Health (the elephantground) the practice

was good at the start and has remained so, and that the practice in the miscellaneous, outside, smallgame

I wish to say that of Mrs. Eddy I am not requiring perfect English, but only good English. No one can write

perfect English and keep it up through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done. It was approached in

the "well of English undefiled"; it has been approached in Mrs. Eddy's Annex to that Book; it has been

approached in several English grammars; I have even approached it myself; but none of us has made port.

Now, the English of Science and Health is good. In passages to be found in Mrs. Eddy's Autobiography (on

pages 53, 57, 101, and 113), and on page 6 of her squalid preface to Science and Health, first revision, she

seems to me to claim the whole and sole authorship of the book. That she wrote the Autobiography, and that

preface, and the Poems, and the Plaguespot Bacilli, we are not permitted to doubt. Indeed, we know she

wrote them. But the very certainty that she wrote these things compels a doubt that she wrote Science and

Health. She is guilty of little awkwardnesses of expression in the Autobiography which a practiced pen would

hardly allow to go uncorrected in even a hasty private letter, and could not dream of passing by uncorrected

in passages intended for print. But she passes them placidly by; as placidly as if she did not suspect that they

were offenses against thirdclass English. I think that that placidity was born of that very unawareness, so to

speak. I will cite a few instances from the Autobiography. The italics are mine:

"I remember reading in my childhood certain manuscripts containing Scriptural Sonnets, besides other verses

[On page 27.] "Many pale cripples went into the Church leaning on crutches who came out carrying them on

It is awkward, because at the first glance it seems to say that the cripples went in leaning on crutches which

went out carrying the cripples on their shoulders. It would have cost her no trouble to put her "who" after her

"cripples." I blame her a little; I think her proofreader should have been shot. We may let her capital C pass,

but it is another awkwardness, for she is talking about a building, not about a religious society.

"Marriage and Parentage "[Chapterheading. Page 30]. You imagine that she is going to begin a talk about

her marriage and finish with some account of her father and mother. And so you will be deceived. "Marriage"

was right, but "Parentage" was not the best word for the rest of the record. It refers to the birth of her own

child. After a certain period of time "my babe was born." Marriage and MotherhoodMarriage and

MaternityMarriage and ProductMarriage and Dividendeither of these would have fitted the facts and

She is speaking of her child. She means that a guardian for her child was appointed, but that isn't what she

"If spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is lost, and the argument with its rightful

We shall never know why she put the word "correspondingly" in there. Any fine, large word would have

electroincandescentlyoligarcheologicallysanchrosynchro stereopticallyany of these would have

Yet she says she forgot everything she knew, when she discovered Christian Science. I realize that noumenon

is a daisy; and I will not deny that I shall use it whenever I am in a company which I think I can embarrass

with it; but, at the same time, I think it is out of place among friends in an autobiography. There, I think a

person ought not to have anything up his sleeve. It undermines confidence. But my dissatisfaction with the

quoted passage is not on account of noumenon; it is on account of the misuse of the word "silenced." You

cannot silence portraiture with a noumenon; if portraiture should make a noise, a way could be found to

silence it, but even then it could not be done with a noumenon. Not even with a brick, some authorities think.

That is clumsy. Battles do not wage, battles are waged. Mrs. Eddy has one very curious and interesting

peculiarity: whenever she notices that she is chortling along without saying anything, she pulls up with a

sudden "God is over us all," or some other sounding irrelevancy, and for the moment it seems to light up the

whole district; then, before you can recover from the shock, she goes flitting pleasantly and meaninglessly

along again, and you hurry hopefully after her, thinking you are going to get something this time; but as soon

as she has led you far enough away from her turkey lot she takes to a tree. Whenever she discovers that she is

getting pretty disconnected, she couplesup with an ostentatious "But" which has nothing to do with anything

that went before or is to come after, then she hitches some empties to the trainunrelated verses from the

Bible, usuallyand steams out of sight and leaves you wondering how she did that clever thing. For striking

instances, see bottom paragraph on page 34 and the paragraph on page 35 of her Autobiography. She has a

purposea deep and dark and artful purposein what she is saying in the first paragraph, and you guess

what it is, but that is due to your own talent, not hers; she has made it as obscure as language could do it. The

other paragraph has no meaning and no discoverable intention. It is merely one of her Godoveralls. I

"I beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's marvelous skill in demanding neither obedience to hygienic

The word is loosely chosenskill. She probably meant judgment, intuition, penetration, or wisdom.

"Naturally, my first jottings were but efforts to express in feeble diction Truth's ultimate." Page 42.

One understands what she means, but she should have been able to say what she meantat any time before

she discovered Christian Science and forgot everything she knewand after it, too. If she had put "feeble" in

" . . . its written expression increases in perfection under the guidance of the great Master." Page 43.

It is an error. Not even in those advantageous circumstances can increase be added to perfection.

"Evil is not mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with Good. This brings out the nothingness of evil, and

the eternal Somethingness vindicates the Divine Principle and improves the race of Adam." Page 76.

This is too extraneous for me. That is the trouble with Mrs. Eddy when she sets out to explain an overlarge

exhibit: the minute you think the light is bursting upon you the candle goes out and your mind begins to

"No one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the dregs, as the discoverer and teacher of Christian

That is saying we cannot empty an empty cup. We knew it before; and we know she meant to tell us that that

particular cup is going to remain empty. That is, we think that that was the idea, but we cannot be sure. She

has a perfectly astonishing talent for putting words together in such a way as to make successful inquiry into

She generally makes us uneasy when she begins to tune up on her fine writing timbrel. It carries me back to

"Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed and stood abashed. Blanched was the cheek of pride. My heart

bent low before the omnipotence of Spirit, and a tint of humility soft as the heart of a moonbeam mantled the

earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and Calvary, spoke to my chastened sense as by the tearful lips

The heart of a moonbeam is a pretty enough Friendship'sAlbum expression let it pass, though I do think

the figure a little strained; but humility has no tint, humility has no complexion, and if it had it could not

mantle the earth. A moonbeam mightI do not knowbut she did not say it was the moonbeam. But let it

go, I cannot decide it, she mixes me up so. A babe hasn't "tearful lips," it's its eyes. You find none of Mrs.

Setting aside titlepage, index, etc., the little Autobiography begins on page 7 and ends on page 130. My

quotations are from the first forty pages. They seem to me to prove the presence of the 'prentice hand. The

style of the forty pages is loose and feeble and 'prenticelike. The movement of the narrative is not orderly

and sequential, but rambles around, and skips forward and back and here and there and yonder,

'prenticefashion. Many a journeyman has broken up his narrative and skipped about and rambled around,

but he did it for a purpose, for an advantage; there was art in it, and points to be scored by it; the observant

reader perceived the game, and enjoyed it and respected it, if it was well played. But Mrs. Eddy's

performance was without intention, and destitute of art. She could score no points by it on those terms, and

almost any reader can see that her work was the uncalculated puttering of a novice.

In the above paragraph I have described the first third of the booklet. That third being completed, Mrs. Eddy

leaves the rabbitrange, crosses the frontier, and steps out upon her farspreading biggame territory

Christian Science and there is an instant change! The style smartly improves; and the clumsy little technical

offenses disappear. In these twothirds of the booklet I find only one such offence, and it has the look of

I leave the riddle with the reader. Perhaps he can explain how it is that a persontrained or untrainedwho

on the one day can write nothing better than PlagueSpotBacilli and feeble and stumbling and wandering

personal history littered with false figures and obscurities and technical blunders, can on the next day sit

down and write fluently, smoothly, compactly, capably, and confidently on a great big thundering subject,

As for me, I have scribbled so much in fifty years that I have become saturated with convictions of one sort

and another concerning a scribbler's limitations; and these are so strong that when I am familiar with a

literary person's work I feel perfectly sure that I know enough about his limitations to know what he can not

do. If Mr. Howells should pretend to me that he wrote the PlagueSpot Bacilli rhapsody, I should receive the

statement courteously; but I should know it for awell, for a perversion. If the late Josh Billings should rise

up and tell me that he wrote Herbert Spencer's philosophies; I should answer and say that the spelling casts a

doubt upon his claim. If the late Jonathan Edwards should rise up and tell me he wrote Mr. Dooley's books, I

should answer and say that the marked difference between his style and Dooley's is argument against the

soundness of his statement. You see how much I think of circumstantial evidence. In literary mattersin my

beliefit is often better than any person's word, better than any shady character's oath. It is difficult for me

to believe that the same hand that wrote the PlagueSpotBacilli and the first third of the little Eddy

biography wrote also Science and Health. Indeed, it is more than difficult, it is impossible.

Largely speaking, I have read acres of what purported to be Mrs. Eddy's writings, in the past two months. I

cannot know, but I am convinced, that the circumstantial evidence shows that her actual share in the work of

composing and phrasing these things was so slight as to be inconsequential. Where she puts her literary foot

down, her trail across her paid polisher's page is as plain as the elephant's in a Sundayschool procession. Her

verbal output, when left undoctored by her clerks, is quite unmistakable It always exhibits the strongly

distinctive features observable in the virgin passages from her pen already quoted by me:

Desert vacancy, as regards thought. Selfcomplacency. Puerility. Sentimentality. Affectations of scholarly

learning. Lust after eloquent and flowery expression. Repetition of pet poetic picturesquenesses. Confused

and wandering statement. Metaphor gone insane. Meaningless words, used because they are pretty, or showy,

The fat volume called Miscellaneous Writings of Mrs. Eddy contains several hundred pages. Of the five

hundred and fiftyfour pages of prose in it I find ten lines, on page 319, to be Mrs. Eddy's; also about a page

of the preface or "Prospectus"; also about fifteen pages scattered along through the book. If she wrote any of

the rest of the prose, it was rewritten after her by another hand. Here I will insert twothirds of her page of

the prospectus. It is evident that whenever, under the inspiration of the Deity, she turns out a book, she is

always allowed to do some of the preface. I wonder why that is? It always mars the work. I think it is done in

humorous malice I think the clerks like to see her give herself away. They know she will, her stock of usable

materials being limited and her procedure in employing them always the same, substantially. They know that

when the initiated come upon her first erudite allusion, or upon any one of her other stageproperties, they

can shut their eyes and tell what will follow. She usually throws off an easy remark all sodden with Greek or

Hebrew or Latin learning; she usually has a person watching for a starshe can seldom get away from that

poetic ideasometimes it is a Chaldee, sometimes a Walking Delegate, sometimes an entire stranger, but be

he what he may, he is generally there when the train is ready to move, and has his pass in his hatband; she

generally has a Being with a Dome on him, or some other cover that is unusual and out of the fashion; she

likes to fire off a Scriptureverse where it will make the handsomest noise and come nearest to breaking the

connection; she often throws out a Forefelt, or a Foresplendor, or a Foreslander where it will have a fine

nautical foreto'gallant sound and make the sentence sing; after which she is nearly sure to throw discretion

away and take to her deadly passion, Intoxicated Metaphor. At such a time the Mrs. Eddy that does not

"The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olympiad. The Chaldee watched the appearing of a star; to him

no higher destiny dawned on the dome of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heavens. The meek

Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers, said, 'Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs

of the times?'for He forefelt and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by sinners.

"To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the new idea that comes welling up from infinite Truth needs

"Humility is the steppingstone to a higher recognition of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and

strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens immortal attributes,

only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled

up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of

"Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the least wisdom or experience; and they steal from their

neighbor, because they have so little of their own."Miscellaneous Writings, page 1, and six lines at top of

It is not believable that the hand that wrote those clumsy and affected sentences wrote the smooth English of

It is often said in print that Mrs. Eddy claims that God was the Author of Science and Health. Mr. Peabody

states in his pamphlet that "she says not she but God was the Author." I cannot find that in her autobiography

she makes this transference of the authorship, but I think that in it she definitely claims that she did her work

under His inspirationdefinitely for her; for as a rule she is not a very definite person, even when she seems

to be trying her best to be clear and positive. Speaking of the early days when her Science was beginning to

"The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universeold to God, but new to His

The divine hand led her. It seems to mean "God inspired me"; but when a person uses metaphors instead of

statisticsand that is Mrs. Eddy's common fashionone cannot always feel sure about the intention.

[Page 56.] "Even the Scripture gave no direct interpretation of the Scientific basis for demonstrating the

spiritual Principle of healing, until our Heavenly Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in Science

Another baffling metaphor. If she had used plain forecastle English, and said "God wrote the Key and I put it

in my book"; or if she had said "God furnished me the solution of the mystery and I put it on paper"; or if she

had said "God did it all," then we should understand; but her phrase is open to any and all of those

translations, and is a Key which unlocks nothingfor us. However, it seems to at least mean "God inspired

There was personal and intimate communion, at any rate we get that much out of the riddles. The connection

extended to business, after the establishment of the teaching and healing industry.

[Page 71.] "When God impelled me to set a price on my instruction," etc. Further down: "God has since

She was not able to think of a "financial equivalent"meaning a pecuniary equivalentfor her "instruction

in Christian Science Mind healing." In this emergency she was "led" to charge three hundred dollars for a

term of "twelve halfdays." She does not say who led her, she only says that the amount greatly troubled her.

I think it means that the price was suggested from above, "led" being a theological term identical with our

commercial phrase "personally conducted." She "shrank from asking it, but was finally led, by a strange

providence, to accept this fee." "Providence" is another theological term. Two leds and a providence, taken

together, make a pretty strong argument for inspiration. I think that these statistics make it clear that the price

was arranged above. This view is constructively supported by the fact, already quoted, that God afterwards

approved, "in multitudinous ways," her wisdom in accepting the mentioned fee. "Multitudinous ways"

multitudinous encoringsuggests enthusiasm. Business enthusiasm. And it suggests nearness. God's

nearness to his "little one." Nearness, and a watchful personal interest. A warm, palpitating, StandardOil

interest, so to speak. All this indicates inspiration. We may assume, then, two inspirations: one for the book,

The evidence for inspiration is further augmented by the testimony of Rev. George Tomkins, D.D., already

quoted, that Mrs. Eddy and her book were foretold in Revelation, and that Mrs. Eddy "is God's brightest

thought to this age, giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible in the ' little book'" of the Angel.

I am aware that it is not Mr. Tomkins that is speaking, but Mrs. Eddy. The commissioned lecturers of the

Christian Science Church have to be members of the Board of Lectureship. (Bylaws Sec. 2, p. 70.) The

Board of Lectureship is selected by the Board of Directors of the Church. (Bylaws, Sec. 3, p. 70.) The

Board of Directors of the Church is the property of Mrs. Eddy. (Bylaws, p. 22.) Mr. Tomkins did not make

that statement without authorization from headquarters. He necessarily got it from the Board of Directors, the

Board of Directors from Mrs. Eddy, Mrs. Eddy from the Deity. Mr. Tomkins would have been turned down

It may be that there is evidence somewhereas has been claimedthat Mrs. Eddy has charged upon the

Deity the verbal authorship of Science and Health. But if she ever made the charge, she has withdrawn it (as

it seems to me), and in the most formal and unqualified; of all ways. See Autobiography, page 57:

"When the demand for this book increased . . . the copyright was infringed. I entered a suit at Law, and my

Thus it is plain that she did not plead that the Deity was the (verbal) Author; for if she had done that, she

would have lost her caseand with rude promptness. It was in the old days before the Berne Convention and

before the passage of our amended law of 1891, and the court would have quoted the following stern clause

1. That Mrs. Eddy claims the verbal author ship for herself. 2. That she denies it to the Deity. 3. Thatin her

beliefshe wrote the book under the inspiration of the Deity, but furnished the language herself.

In one place in the Autobiography she claims both the language and the ideas; but when this witness is

testifying, one must draw the line somewhere, or she will prove both sides of her casenine sides, if desired.

It is too true. Much too true. Many, many times too true. She is a most trying witnessthe most trying

witness that ever kissed the Book, I am sure. There is no keeping up with her erratic testimony. As soon as

you have got her share of the authorship nailed where you half hope and half believe it will stay and cannot

be joggled loose any more, she joggles it loose againor seems to; you cannot be sure, for her habit of

dealing in meaningless metaphors instead of in plain, straightforward statistics, makes it nearly always

impossible to tell just what it is she is trying to say. She was definite when she claimed both the language and

the ideas of the book. That seemed to settle the matter. It seemed to distribute the percentages of credit with

precision between the collaborators: ninetytwo per cent. to Mrs. Eddy, who did all the work, and eight per

cent. to the Deity, who furnished the inspiration not enough of it to damage the copyright in a country closed

against Foreigners, and yet plenty to advertise the book and market it at famine rates. Then Mrs. Eddy does

not keep still, but fetches around and comes forward and testifies again. It is most injudicious. For she resorts

to metaphor this time, and it makes trouble, for she seems to reverse the percentages and claim only the eight

per cent. for her self. I quote from Mr. Peabody's book (Eddyism, or Christian Science. Boston: 15 Court

"Speaking of this book, Mrs. Eddy, in January last (I901) said: 'I should blush to write of Science and Health,

with Key to the Scriptures, as I have, were it of human origin, and I, apart from God, its author; but as I was

only a scribe echoing the harmonies of Heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be supermodest of the

"Nothing could be plainer than that. Here is a distinct avowal that the book entitled Science and Health was

It does seem to amount to that. She was only a "scribe." Confound the word, it is just a confusion, it has no

determinable meaning there, it leaves us in the air. A scribe is merely a person who writes. He may be a

copyist, he may be an amanuensis, he may be a writer of originals, and furnish both the language and the

ideas. As usual with Mrs. Eddy, the connection affords no help"echoing" throws no light upon "scribe." A

rock can reflect an echo, a wall can do it, a mountain can do it, many things can do it, but a scribe can't. A

scribe that could reflect an echo could get over thirty dollars a week in a sideshow. Many impresarios would

rather have him than a cow with four tails. If we allow that this present scribe was setting down the

"harmonies of Heaven"and certainly that seems to have been the case then there was only one way to do it

that I can think of: listen to the music and put down the notes one after another as they fell. In that case Mrs.

Eddy did not invent the tune, she only entered it on paper. Therefore dropping the metaphorshe was

merely an amanuensis, and furnished neither the language of Science and Health nor the ideas. It reduces her

Is that it? We shall never know. For Mrs. Eddy is liable to testify again at any time. But until she does it, I

think we must conclude that the Deity was Author of the whole book, and Mrs. Eddy merely His telephone

and stenographer. Granting this, her claim as the Voice of God standsfor the presentjustified and

I overlooked something. It appears that there was more of that utterance than Mr. Peabody has quoted in the

above paragraph. It will be found in Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal (January, I901) and

"It was not myself . . . which dictated Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures."

That is certainly clear enough. The words which I have removed from that important sentence explain Who it

Certainly that is definite. At last, through her personal testimony, we have a sure grip upon the following vital

facts, and they settle the authorship of Science and Health beyond peradventure:

1. Mrs. Eddy furnished "the ideas and the language." 2. God furnished the ideas and the language.

It is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much. She is a shining drop of quicksilver which you put your

finger on and it isn't there. There is a paragraph in the Autobiography (page 96) which places in seemingly

"No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person can compass or fulfil the individual

mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the

discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity."

I have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure that I rightly understand it. If the Saviour's name had been

placed first and the Virgin Mary's second and Mrs. Eddy's third, I should draw the inference that a descending

scale from First Importance to Second Importance and then to Small Importance was indicated; but to place

the Virgin first, the Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn the scale the other way and make it an

ascending scale of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy ranking the other two and holding first place.

I think that that was perhaps the intention, but none but a seasoned Christian Scientist can examine a literary

animal of Mrs. Eddy's creation and tell which end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most baffling and

Eddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive aspect in the list of the reformed Holy

Family. She has thought of that. In the book of Bylaws written by her"impelled by a power not one's

own"there is a paragraph which explains how and when her disciples came to confer a title upon her; and

this explanation is followed by a warning as to what will happen to any female Scientist who shall desecrate

"The title of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to

others, except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an

indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the MotherChurch."

While the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems to indicate that Mrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy the

First Place in it, that expectation is not definitely avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is

clearerclearer, and does not claim the first place all to herself, but only the half of it. I quote from Mr.

"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her property, and published by her, it was

claimed for her, and with her sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to

"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf that she herself was the chosen successor to and

In her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite "We" for "I") she says that "While we entertain

decided views . . . and shall express them as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine

Our divine origin. It suggests Equal again. It is inferable, then, that in the near byandby the new Church

I am not playing with Christian Science and its founder, I am examining them; and I am doing it because of

the interest I feel in the inquiry. My results may seem inadequate to the reader, but they have for me clarified

My readings of Mrs. Eddy's uninspired miscellaneous literary efforts have convinced me of several things:

1. That she did not write Science and Health. 2. That the Deity did (or did not) write it. 3. That She thinks She

wrote it. 4. That She believes She wrote it under the Deity's inspiration. 5. That She believes She is a Member

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 manwhere she sits serene today, 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

That a commonplace person should go climbing aloft and become a god or a halfgod or a quartergod 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

highjinks on the stage and closed the business, there will be enough of them accumulated in the museum on

Each in his turn those little supernaturals of our bygone 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 published her book. She copyrighted it. She copyrights everything. If she should say, "Goodmorning;

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 religionfervent,

sincere, devoted, grateful people. A year or two later she organized her first Christian Science "Association,"

She continued to teach and heal. She was charging nothing, she says, although she was very poor. She taught

Then, in 187981 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 actand I think we mustwe 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 failedfrom 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 loosejointed 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 Mindhealing Church." It

Mrs. Eddy could not copyright her Church, but she chartered it, which was the same thing and relieved the

pain. It had twentysix 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. FosterEddy. The college term

was "barely three weeks," she says. Again she was bold, brave, rash, recklesschoose for yourselffor 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 termcut 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 isbut 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

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

Four thousand times eight hundred isbut 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 nonpaying 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:

"The collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing includes twelve lessons. Tuition, three

"Course in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lectures, and is open only to students from this college.

"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

"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.

"Largest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first course.

There it isthe horseleech's daughter alive again, after a three century vacation. Fifty or sixty hours'

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 bear 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

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 trademarks 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 advancepayment 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.

She was appointed one of a committee to draught Bylaws 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, byandby,

the Bylaws 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

Churchlaws will be found interesting. And not the less so if we keep in mind that they were "impelled by a

It is a Church "without a creed." Still, it has one. Mrs. Eddy draughted itand copyrighted it. In her own

name. You cannot become a member of the MotherChurch (nor of any Christian Science Church) without

signing it. It forms the first chapter of the Bylaws, and is called "Tenets." "Tenets of The Mother Church,

The First Church of Christ, Scientist." It has no hell in itit throws it overboard.

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

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 phrasefamily of

the ChurchWithoutaCreed and the PastorWithNothingtoDo; that is to say, of the family of

LargeNamesWhichMeanNothing. The Board is of so little consequence that the Bylaws 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

The "candidate." The Board cannot even proceed to an election until the Pastor Emeritus has examined the

Whether the original first Board began as the personal property of Mrs. Eddy or not, it is foreseeable that in

time, under this Bylaw, 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

"This Bylaw can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of Mrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus"

On these clearly worded terms: "Subject to the approval of the Pastor Emeritus."

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

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 MotherChurch, the Charter Members, the Aborigines, a

sort of stylish but unsalaried little College of Cardinals, good for show, but not indispensable. Nobody is

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 pennypost, 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 MotherChurch

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.

There isn't anynow. 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 probabilityfor she is a

woman with a long, long look ahead, the longest look ahead that ever a woman hadand she has provided

for that emergency. In Art. I., Sec. 5, she has decreed that no Board of Trustees shall ever exist in the

The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus; President; Board of Directors; Treasurer; Clerk;

and is still moving onward, ever onward. When I contemplate her from a commercial point of view, there are

These are a feature of first importance in the churchmachinery 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 timea man and a woman. One reads a passage from the

Bible, the other reads the explanation of it from Science and Healthand so they go on alternating. This

constitutes the servicethis, with choirmusic. They utter no word of their own. Art. IV., Sec. 6, closes their

"They shall make no remarks explanatory of the LessonSermon 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 businessidea yet invented for the safeguarding and perpetuating of a

religion. If it had been thought of and put in force eighteen hundred and seventy years ago, there would be

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

In arranging her government she has borrowed ideas from various sources not poor ones, but the best in

the governmental marketbut this one is new, this one came out of no ordinary businesshead, 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 businessbrain that produced itthe splendid pluck and

Readers are not taken at haphazard, any more than preachers are taken at haphazard for the pulpits of other

"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 electionby 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

There are no dangerously long officeterms in Mrs. Eddy's government. The Readers are elected for but one

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

"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.

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

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

Twice a year it "votes on" admitting candidates. That is, for Church membership. But its work is cut out for it

"Every recommendation for membership In the Church 'shall be countersigned by a loyal student of Mrs.

All these three classes of beings are the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. She has absolute control of the

"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 Membersmakes this quite plain:

"Before being elected, the candidates for First Members shall be approved by the Pastor Emeritus over her

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.

In this Article there is another exhibition of a couple of the large features of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable

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.

"Who are you? Who is your sponsor? Who asked you to come here? Go away, and don't come again until you

It is calculated to strikingly impress a person accustomed to Moody and Sankey and Sam Jones revivals;

accustomed to brainturning 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

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

itthen 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 tryfree of

costa 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

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

"Applications of students of the Metaphysical College must be signed by the Board of Directors."

Children of twelve may be admitted if invited by "one of Mrs. Eddy's loyal students, or by a First Member, or

These sponsors are the property of Mrs. Eddy, therefore her Church is safeguarded from the intrusion of

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 MotherChurch."

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

That is the aristocracy, the aborigines, the Sanhedrin. It is Mrs. Eddy's property. She herself is the Sanhedrin.

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.

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

"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 matterthen act in accordance therewith."

She should have waited to calm down, then, but instead she added this, which lacks sugar:

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

The little book of Bylaws 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

specialtylumbering 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

It is an unfortunate sentence, for it could mislead a hasty or careless reader for a moment. Mrs. Eddy framed

itit is her very ownit bears her trademark. "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,

We know what she means, in both instances, but a lowpriced 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

The Bylaw 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 harumscarum 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 Bylaw 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 MotherChurch 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

She does not have to prefer charges against him, she does not have to find him lazy, careless, incompetent,

untidy, illmannered, 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

outofdoors homeless and ashamed in a strange land; she does not have to do anything but send a letter and

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 selfseeking and

remorseless tyrant as a God. This worship is deniedby persons who are themselves worshippers of Mrs.

That Mrs. Eddy wrote that amazing Bylaw 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 sandbar 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

churchsexton, gravedigger, advertisingagent, Annexpolisher, 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

That Bylaw 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 Bylaw 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.

Very properly, the first qualification for membership in the Mother Church is belief in the doctrines of

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 textbook, 'Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,' by Rev. Mary

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,

Herselfhas 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 businessand they close the

"The Bible and the abovenamed book [Science and Health], with other works by the same author," must be

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 textmeanings on his own hook; he will be prudent and seek the meanings at the only permitted

Value of this Straitjacket. One must not underrate the magnificence of this longheaded 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

"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

"There is no doubt that Jesus believed that the rich young man thought more of his wealth than he did of his

"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

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

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 uponnothing at all. In the other dispute

("Did Jesus anywhere claim to be God?") the same kind of mentrained and learned clergymenbacked up

their arguments with chapter and verse. On both sides. Plenty of verses. Were no reinforcing verses to be

The opinion of the nine seems strange to me, for it is unsupported by authority, while there was at least

It is hairsplitting differences of opinion over disputed textmeanings 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 slightso 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 listaccompanied

by various Church statistics for 1902, compiled by Rev. Dr. H. K. Carrollwas published, January 8, 1903,

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 (Winebrennarian), 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), Latterday 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

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

Now, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time, all explanations of her religion

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 fourace

All in proper time Mrs. Eddy's factory will take hold of that Commandment, and explain it for good and all. It

may be that one member of the shift will vote that the word "all" means all; it may be that ten members of the

shift will vote that "all" means only a percentage; but it is Mrs. Eddy, not the eleven, who will do the

deciding. And if she says it is percentage, then percentage it is, forevermore and that is what I am

expecting, for she doesn't sell all herself, nor any considerable part of it, and as regards the poor, she doesn't

declare any dividend; but if she says "all" means all, then all it is, to the end of time, and no follower of hers

will ever be allowed to reconstruct that text, or shrink it, or inflate it, or meddle with it in any way at all. Even

today right here in the beginningshe is the sole person who, in the matter of Christian Science

exegesis, is privileged to exploit the Spiral Twist. The Christian world has two Infallibles now.

Of equal power? For the present only. When Leo XIII. passes to his rest another Infallible will ascend his

throne; others, and yet others, and still others will follow him, and be as infallible as he, and decide questions

of doctrine as long as they may come up, all down the far future; but Mary Baker G. Eddy is the only

Infallible that will ever occupy the Science throne. Many a Science Pope will succeed her, but she has closed

their mouths; they will repeat and reverently praise and adore her infallibilities, but venture none themselves.

In her grave she will still outrank all other Popes, be they of what Church they may. She will hold the

supremest of earthly titles, The Infalliblewith a capital T. Many in the world's history have had a hunger

for such nuggets and slices of power as they might reasonably hope to grab out of an empire's or a religion's

assets, but Mrs. Eddy is the only person alive or dead who has ever struck for the whole of them. For small

things she has the eye of a microscope, for large ones the eye of a telescope, and whatever she sees, she

When Mrs. Eddy's "sacred revelations" (that is the language of the By laws) are read in public, their

authorship must be named. The Bylaws twice command this, therefore we mention it twice, to be fair.

But it is also commanded that when a member publicly quotes "from the poems of our Pastor Emeritus" the

authorship shall be named. For these are sacred, too. There are kindly people who may suspect a hidden

generosity in that Bylaw; they may think it is there to protect the Official Reader from the suspicion of

having written the poems himself. Such do not know Mrs. Eddy. She does an inordinate deal of protecting,

but in no distinctly named and specified case in her history has Number Two been the object of it. Instances

"Members shall also instruct their students" to look out and advertise the authorship when they read those

1. Mrs. Eddy gave the land. It was not of much value at the time, but it is very valuable now. 2. Her people

built the MotherChurch edifice on it, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 3. Then they gave

the whole property to her. 4. Then she gave it to the Board of Directors. She is the Board of Directors. She

took it out of one pocket and put it in the other. 5. Sec. 10 (of the deed). "Whenever said Directors shall

determine that it is inexpedient to maintain preaching, reading, or speaking in said church in accordance with

the terms of this deed, they are authorized and required to reconvey forthwith said lot of land with the

building thereon to Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and assigns forever, by a proper deed of conveyance."

She is never careless, never slipshod, about a matter of business. Owning the property through her Board of

Waxworks was safe enough, still it was sound business to set another grip on it to cover accidents, and she

did it. Her barkers (what a curious name; I wonder if it is copyrighted); her barkers persistently advertise to

the public her generosity in giving away a piece of land which cost her a trifle, and a

twohundredandfiftythousanddollar church which cost her nothing; and they can hardly speak of

the unselfishness of it without breaking down and crying; yet they know she gave nothing away, and never

intended to. However, such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not

Some of the hostiles think that Mrs. Eddy's idea in protecting this property in the interest of her heirs, and in

accumulating a great money fortune, is, that she may leave her natural heirs well provided for when she goes.

I think it is a mistake. I think she is of late years giving herself large concern about only one interesther

power and glory, and the perpetuation and worship of her Namewith a capital N. Her Church is her pet

heir, and I think it will get her wealth. It is the torch which is to light the world and the ages with her glory.

I think she once prized money for the ease and comfort it could bring, the showy vanities it could furnish, and

the social promotion it could command; for we have seen that she was born into the world with little ways

and instincts and aspirations and affectations that are duplicates of our own. I do not think her

moneypassion has ever diminished in ferocity, I do not think that she has ever allowed a dollar that had no

friends to get by her alive, but I think her reason for wanting it has changed. I think she wants it now to

increase and establish and perpetuate her power and glory with, not to add to her comforts and luxuries, not to

furnish paint and fuss and feathers for vain display. I think her ambitions have soared away above the

fussandfeather stage. She still likes the little shows and vanitiesa fact which she exposed in a public

utterance two or three days ago when she was not noticing but I think she does not place a large value

upon them now. She could build a mighty and farshining brassmounted palace if she wanted to, but she

does not do it. She would have had that kind of an ambition in the early scrabbling times. She could go to

England today and be worshiped by earls, and get a comet's attention from the million, if she cared for such

things. She would have gone in the early scrabbling days for much less than an earl, and been vain of it, and

glad to show off before the remains of the Scotch kin. But those things are very small to her now next to

invisible, observed through the cloudrack from the dizzy summit where she perches in these great days. She

does not want that church property for herself. It is worth but a quarter of a milliona sum she could call in

from her farspread flocks tomorrow with a lift of her hand. Not a squeeze of it, just a lift. It would come

without a murmur; come gratefully, come gladly. And if her glory stood in more need of the money in Boston

than it does where her flocks are propagating it, she would lift the hand, I think.

She is still reaching for the Dollar, she will continue to reach for it; but not that she may spend it upon

herself; not that she may spend it upon charities; not that she may indemnify an early deprivation and clothe

herself in a blaze of North Adams gauds; not that she may have nine breeds of pie for breakfast, as only the

rich NewEnglander can; not that she may indulge any petty material vanity or appetite that once was hers

and prized and nursed, but that she may apply that Dollar to statelier uses, and place it where it may cast the

A brief and good one is furnished in the book of Bylaws. The Scientist is required to pray it every day.

This is not in the Bylaws, it is in the first chapter of Science and Health, edition of 1902. I do not find it in

the edition of 1884. It is probable that it had not at that time been handed down. Science and Health's (latest)

"Our FatherMother God' allharmonious, adorable One. Thy kingdom is within us, Thou art everpresent.

Enable us to knowas in heaven, so on earthGod is supreme. Give us grace for today; feed the famished

affections. And infinite Love is reflected in love. And Love leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth

from sin, disease, and death. For God is now and forever all Life, Truth, and Love."

If I thought my opinion was desired and would be properly revered, I should say that in my judgment that is

as good a piece of carpentering as any of those eleven Commandmentexperts could do with the material

after all their practice. I notice only one doubtful place." Lead us not into temptation" seems to me to be a

very definite request, and that the new rendering turns the definite request into a definite assertion. I shall be

glad to have that turned back to the old way and the marks of the Spiral Twist removed, or varnished over;

then I shall be satisfied, and will do the best I can with what is left. At the same time, I do feel that the

shrinkage in our spiritual assets is getting serious. First the Commandments, now the Prayer. I never expected

to see these steady old reliable securities watered down to this. And this is not the whole of it. Last summer

the Presbyterians extended the Calling and Election suffrage to nearly everybody entitled to salvation. They

did not even stop there, but let out all the unbaptized American infants we had been accumulating for two

hundred years and more. There are some that believe they would have let the Scotch ones out, too, if they

could have done it. Everything is going to ruin; in no long time we shall have nothing left but the love of

"Working Against the Cause. Sec. 2. If a member of this Church shall work against the accomplishment of

what the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science understands is advantageous to the individual, to this

The member may think that what he is doing will advance the Cause, but he is not invited to do any thinking.

More than that, he is not permitted to do anyas he will clearly gather from this Bylaw. When a person

joins Mrs. Eddy's Church he must leave his thinker at home. Leave it permanently. To make sure that it will

not go off some time or other when he is not watching, it will be safest for him to spike it. If he should forget

himself and think just once, the Bylaw provides that he shall be fired outinstantlyforeverno return.

"It shall be the duty of this Church immediately to call a meeting, and drop forever the name of this member

There are forgivable offenses, but this is not one of them; there are admonitions, probations, suspensions, in

several minor cases; mercy is shown the derelict, in those cases he is gently used, and in time he can get back

into the foldeven when he has repeated his offence. But let him think, just once, without getting his thinker

set to Eddy time, and that is enough; his head comes off. There is no second offence, and there is no gate

"This rule cannot be changed, amended, or annulled, except by unanimous vote of all the First Members."

The same being Mrs. Eddy. It is naively sly and pretty to see her keep putting forward First Members, and

Boards of This and That, and other broideries and ruffles of her raiment, as if they were independent entities,

instead of a part of her clothes, and could do things all by themselves when she was outside of them.

Mrs. Eddy did not need to copyright the sentence just quoted, its English would protect it. None but she

The former Unpardonable Sin has gone out of service. We may frame the new Christian Science one thus:

"Whatsoever Member shall think, and without Our Mother's permission act upon his think, the same shall be

It has been said that I make many mistakes about Christian Science through being ignorant of the spiritual

meanings of its terminology. I believe it is true. I have been misled all this time by that word Member,

There is a Bylaw which forbids Members to practice hypnotism; the penalty is excommunication.

1. If a member is found to be a mental practitioner 2. Complaint is to be entered against him 3. By the

Pastor Emeritus, and by none else; 4. No member is allowed to make complaint to her in the matter; 5. Upon

Mrs. Eddy's mere "complaint"unbacked by evidence or proof, and without giving the accused a chance to

Mrs. Eddy has only to say a member is guiltythat is all. That ends it. It is not a case of he "may" be cut off

from Christian Science salvation, it is a case of he "shall" be. Her serfs must see to it, and not say a word.

Does the other Pope possess this prodigious and irresponsible power? Certainly not in our day.

Some may be curious to know how Mrs. Eddy finds out that a member is practicing hypnotism, since no one

is allowed to come before her throne and accuse him. She has explained this in Christian Science History,

"I possess a spiritual sense of what the malicious mental practitioner is mentally arguing which cannot be

deceived; I can discern in the human mind thoughts, motives, and purposes, and neither mental arguments nor

A marvelous woman; with a hunger for power such as has never been seen in the world before. No thing,

little or big, that contains any seed or suggestion of power escapes her avaricious eye; and when once she gets

that eye on it, her remorseless grip follows. There isn't a Christian Scientist who isn't ecclesiastically as much

her property as if she had bought him and paid for him, and copyrighted him and got a charter. She cannot be

satisfied when she has handcuffed a member, and put a legchain and ball on him and plugged his ears and

removed his thinker, she goes on wrapping needless chains round and round him, just as a spider would. For

she trusts no one, believes in no one's honesty, judges every one by herself. Although we have seen that she

has absolute and irresponsible command over her spectral Boards and over every official and servant of her

Church, at home and abroad, over every minute detail of her Church's government, present and future, and

can purge her membership of guilty or suspected persons by various plausible formalities and whenever she

will, she is still not content, but must set her queer mind to work and invent a way by which she can take a

memberany memberby neck and crop and fling him out without anything resembling a formality at all.

She is sole accuser and sole witness, and her testimony is final and carries uncompromising and irremediable

The SoleWitness Court! It should make the Council of Ten and the Council of Three turn in their graves for

shame, to see how little they knew about satanic concentrations of irresponsible power. Here we have one

Accuser, one Witness, one Judge, one Headsmanand all four bunched together in Mrs. Eddy, the Inspired

of God, His Latest Thought to His People, New Member of the Holy Family, the Equal of Jesus.

When a Member is not satisfactory to Mrs. Eddy, and yet is blameless in his life and faultless in his

membership and in his Christian Science walk and conversation, shall he hold up his head and tilt his hat over

one ear and imagine himself safe because of these perfections? Why, in that very moment Mrs. Eddy will cast

What shall it profit him to know it isn't so? Nothing. His testimony is of no value. No one wants it, no one

will ask for it. He is not present to offer it (he does not know he has been accused), and if he were there to

It was out of powers approaching Mrs. Eddy'sthough not equalling them that the Inquisition and the

devastations of the Interdict grew. She will transmit hers. The man born two centuries from now will think he

has arrived in hell; and all in good time he will think he knows it. Vast concentrations of irresponsible power

have never in any age been used mercifully, and there is nothing to suggest that the Christian Science Papacy

Several Christian Scientists have asked me to refrain from prophecy. There is no prophecy in our day but

history. But history is a trustworthy prophet. History is always repeating itself, because conditions are always

repeating themselves. Out of duplicated conditions history always gets a duplicate product.

I wonder if there is anything a Member can do that will not raise Mrs. Eddy's jealousy? The Bylaws seem to

hunt him from pillar to post all the time, and turn all his thoughts and acts and words into sins against the

meek and lowly new deity of his worship. Apparently her jealousy never sleeps. Apparently any trifle can

offend it, and but one penalty appease itexcommunication. The Bylaws might properly and reasonably be

entitled Laws for the Coddling and Comforting of Our Mother's Petty Jealousies. The Bylaw named at the

head of this paragraph reads its transgressor out of the Church if he shall carry a letter from Mrs. Eddy to the

Dishonest members are to be admonished; if they continue in dishonest practices, excommunication follows.

Considering who it is that draughted this law, there is a certain amount of humor in it.

Here follow the titles of some more Bylaws whose infringement is punishable by excommunication:

Silence Enjoined. Misteaching. Departure from Tenets. Violation of Christian Fellowship. Moral Offences.

Illegal Adoption. Broken Bylaws. Violation of Bylaws. (What is the difference?) Formulas Forbidden.

Official Advice. (Forbids Tom, Dick, and Harry's clack.) Unworthy of Membership. Final Excommunication.

This looks as if Mrs. Eddy had devoted a large share of her time and talent to inventing ways to get rid of her

Church members. Yet in another place she seems to invite membership. Not in any urgent way, it is true, still

she throws out a bait to such as like notice and distinction (in other words, the Human Race). Page 82:

"It is important that these seemingly strict conditions be complied with, as the names of the Members of the

MotherChurch will be recorded in the history of the Church and become a part thereof."

The Hymnal. There is a Christian Science Hymnal. Entrance to it was closed in 1898. Christian Science

students who make hymns nowadays may possibly get them sung in the MotherChurch, "but not unless

Solo Singers. Mrs. Eddy has contributed the words of three of the hymns in the Hymnal. Two of them appear

in it six times altogether, each of them being set to three original forms of musical anguish. Mrs. Eddy,

always thoughtful, has promulgated a Bylaw requiring the singing of one of her three hymns in the Mother

Church "as often as once each month." It is a good idea. A congregation could get tired of even Mrs. Eddy's

muse in the course of time, without the cordializing incentive of compulsion. We all know how wearisome

the sweetest and touchingest things can become, through repreprepetition, and still reprep repetition,

and more repreprepetitionlike "the sweet byandby, in the sweet byandby," for instance, and

"Tahrahrah boomdeaye"; and surely it is not likely that Mrs. Eddy's machine has turned out goods that

could outwear those great heartstirrers, without the assistance of the lash. "O'er Waiting Harpstrings of the

Mind" is pretty good, quite fair to middlingthe whole seven of the stanzasbut repetition would be certain

to take the excitement out of it in the course of time, even if there were fourteen, and then it would sound like

the multiplication table, and would cease to save. The congregation would be perfectly sure to get tired; in

fact, did get tiredhence the compulsory Bylaw. It is a measure born of experience, not foresight.

The Bylaws say that "if a solo singer shall neglect or refuse to sing alone" one of those three hymns as often

as once a month, and oftener if so directed by the Board of Directorswhich is Mrs. Eddythe singer's

salary shall be stopped. It is circumstantial evidence that some soloists neglected this sacrament and others

refused it. At least that is the charitable view to take of it. There is only one other view to take: that Mrs.

Eddy did really foresee that there would be singers who would some day get tired of doing her hymns and

proclaiming the authorship, unless persuaded by a Bylaw, with a penalty attached. The idea could of course

occur to her wise head, for she would know that a sevenstanza break might well be a calamitous strain upon

a soloist, and that he might therefore avoid it if unwatched. He could not curtail it, for the whole of anything

It consists of four members, one of whom is President of it. Its members are elected annually. Subject to Mrs.

Mrs. Eddy is President of the Metaphysical College. If at any time she shall vacate that office, the Directors

of the College (that is to say, Mrs. Eddy) "shall" elect to the vacancy the President of the Board of Education

It is another case of "Pastor Emeritus." She gives up the shadow of authority, but keeps a good firm hold on

Applicants for admission to this industry must pass a thorough three days' examination before the Board of

Education "in Science and Health, chapter on 'Recapitulation'; the Platform of Christian Science; page 403 of

Christian Science Practice, from line second to the second paragraph of page 405; and page 488, second and

The lecturers are exceedingly important servants of Mrs. Eddy, and she chooses them with great care. Each of

them has an appointed territory in which to perform his dutiesin the North, the South, the East, the West,

in Canada, in Great Britain, and so onand each must stick to his own territory and not forage beyond its

boundaries. I think it goes without sayingfrom what we have seen of Mrs. Eddythat no lecture is

delivered until she has examined and approved it, and that the lecturer is not allowed to change it afterwards.

There are but four. They are electedlike the rest of the domestics annually. So far as I can discover, not

a single servant of the Sacred Household has a steady job except Mrs. Eddy. It is plain that she trusts no

So far as I can see, they could not do it if they wanted to. The Bylaws are merely the voice of the master

issuing commands to the servants. There is nothing and nobody for the servants to reutter them to.

That useless edict is repeated in the little book, a few pages farther on. There are several other repetitions of

prohibitions in the book that could be sparedthey only take up room for nothing.

THE CREED It is copyrighted. I do not know why, but I suppose it is to keep adventurers from some day

claiming that they invented it, and not Mrs. Eddy and that "strange Providence" that has suggested so many

No Change. It is forbidden to change the Creed. That is important, at any rate .

I can understand why Mrs. Eddy copyrighted the early editions and revisions of Science and Health, and why

she had a mania for copyrighting every scrap of every sort that came from her pen in those jejune days when

to be in print probably seemed a wonderful distinction to her in her provincial obscurity, but why she should

continue this delirium in these days of her godship and her farspread fame, I cannot explain to myself. And

particularly as regards Science and Health. She knows, now, that that Annex is going to live for many

centuries; and so, what good is a fleeting fortytwoyear copyright going to do it?

Now a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter. I would like to give her a hint. Let her strike for a

perpetual copyright on that book. There is precedent for it. There is one book in the world which bears the

charmed life of perpetual copyright (a fact not known to twenty people in the world). By a hardy perversion

of privilege on the part of the lawmaking power the Bible has perpetual copyright in Great Britain. There is

no justification for it in fairness, and no explanation of it except that the Church is strong enough there to

have its way, right or wrong. The recent Revised Version enjoys perpetual copyright, tooa stronger

Now, then, what is the Annex but a Revised Version itself? Which of course it isLord's Prayer and all.

With that pair of formidable British precedents to proceed upon, what Congress of ours

But how shortsighted I am. Mrs. Eddy has thought of it long ago. She thinks of everything. She knows she

has only to keep her copyright of 1902 alive through its first stage of twentyeight years, and perpetuity is

assured. A Christian Science Congress will reign in the Capitol then. She probably attaches small value to the

first edition (1875). Although it was a Revelation from on high, it was slim, lank, incomplete, padded with

bales of refuse rags, and puffs from lassoed celebrities to fill it out, an uncreditable book, a book easily

sparable, a book not to be mentioned in the same year with the sleek, fat, concise, compact, compressed, and

competent Annex of today, in its dainty flexible covers, giltedges, rounded corners, twin screw, spiral

twist, compensation balance, Testamentcounterfeit, and all that; a book just born to curl up on the

hymnbookshelf in church and look just too sweet and holy for anything. Yes, I see now what she was

It is true in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. She thought of an organ, to disseminate the

Truth as it was in Mrs. Eddy. Straightway she started onethe Christian Science Journal.

It is truein matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. As soon as she had got the Christian

Science Journal sufficiently in debt to make its presence on the premises disagreeable to her, it occurred to

her to make somebody a present of it. Which she did, along with its debts. It was in the summer of 1889. The

victim selected was her Church called, in those days, The National Christian Scientist Association.

She delivered this sorrow to those lambs as a "gift" in consideration of their "loyalty to our great cause."

Alsostill thinking of everythingshe told them to retain Mr. Bailey in the editorship and make Mr. Nixon

publisher. We do not know what it was she had against those men; neither do we know whether she scored on

Bailey or not, we only know that God protected Nixon, and for that I am sincerely glad, although I do not

Nixon took the Journal and the rest of the Publishing Society's liabilities, and demonstrated over them during

"On assuming my duties as publisher, there was not a dollar in the treasury; but on the contrary the Society

owed unpaid printing and paper bills to the amount of several hundred dollars, not to mention a contingent

liability of many more hundreds"represented by advance subscriptions paid for the Journal and the

"Series," the which goods Mrs. Eddy had not delivered. And couldn't, very well, perhaps, on a Metaphysical

College income of but a few thousand dollars a day, or a week, or whatever it was in those magnificently

flourishing times. The struggling Journal had swallowed up those advancepayments, but its "claim" was a

severe one and they had failed to cure it. But Nixon cured it in his diligent three years, and joyously reported

the news that he had cleared off all the debts and now had a fat six thousand dollars in the bank.

At the time that Mrs. Eddy had unloaded that dismal gift on to her National Association, she had followed her

inveterate custom: she had tied a string to its hind leg, and kept one end of it hitched to her belt. We have

seen her do that in the case of the Boston Mosque. When she deeds property, she puts in that stringclause. It

provides that under certain conditions she can pull the string and land the property in the cherished home of

its happy youth. In the present case she believed that she had made provision that if at any time the National

Christian Science Association should dissolve itself by a formal vote, she could pull.

A year after Nixon's handsome report, she writes the Association that she has a "unique request to lay before

it." It has dissolved, and she is not quite sure that the Christian Science Journal has "already fallen into her

hands" by that act, though it "seems" to her to have met with that accident; so she would like to have the

matter decided by a formal vote. But whether there is a doubt or not, "I see the wisdom," she says, "of again

I think that that is unassailable evidence that the waif was making money, hands down.

She pulled her gift in. A few years later she donated the Publishing Society, along with its real estate, its

buildings, its plant, its publications, and its moneythe whole worth twentytwo thousand dollars, and free

That is to say, to herself. There is an act count of it in the Christian Science Journal, and of how she had

already made some other handsome gifts to her Churchand others to to her Cause besides "an almost

countless number of private charities" of cloudy amount and otherwise indefinite. This landslide of

generosities overwhelmed one of her literary domestics. While he was in that condition he tried to express

"Let us endeavor to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to . . . our Mother in Israel for these evidences of

generosity and selfsacrifice that appeal to our deepest sense of gratitude, even while surpassing our

A year or two later, Mrs. Eddy promulgated some Bylaws of a self sacrificing sort which assuaged him,

perhaps, and perhaps enabled his surpassed comprehension to make a sprint and catch up. These are to be

This Article puts the whole publishing business into the hands of a publishing Boardspecial. Mrs. Eddy

The profits go semiannually to the Treasurer of the MotherChurch. Mrs. Eddy owns the Treasurer.

Editors and publishers of the Christian Science Journal cannot be elected or removed without Mrs. Eddy's

Every candidate for employment in a high capacity or a low one, on the other periodicals or in the publishing

house, must first be "accepted by Mrs. Eddy as suitable." And "by the Board of Directors"which is

If at any time a weekly shall be started, "it shall be owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist"which

I think that any one who will carefully examine the Bylaws (I have placed all of the important ones before

the reader), will arrive at the conclusion that of late years the masterpassion in Mrs. Eddy's heart is a hunger

for power and glory; and that while her hunger for money still remains, she wants it now for the expansion

and extension it can furnish to that power and glory, rather than what it can do for her towards satisfying

I wish to enlarge a little upon this matter. I think it is quite clear that the reason why Mrs. Eddy has

concentrated in herself all powers, all distinctions, all revenues that are within the command of the Christian

Science Church Universal is that she desires and intends to devote them to the purpose just suggestedthe

upbuilding of her personal glory hers, and no one else's; that, and the continuing of her name's glory after

she shall have passed away. If she has overlooked a single power, howsoever minute, I cannot discover it. If

she has found one, large or small, which she has not seized and made her own, there is no record of it, no

trace of it. In her foragings and depredations she usually puts forward the MotherChurcha lay

figureand hides behind it. Whereas, she is in manifest reality the MotherChurch herself. It has an

impressive array of officials, and committees, and Boards of Direction, of Education, of Lectureship, and so

ongeldings, every one, shadows, spectres, apparitions, waxfigures: she is supreme over them all, she can

abolish them when she will; blow them out as she would a candle. She is herself the MotherChurch. Now

That does not surprise uswe know by the rest of the Bylaws that that is a quite irrelevant remark. Yet we

do vaguely and hazily wonder why she takes the trouble to say it; why she wastes the words; what her object

can beseeing that that emergency has been in so many, many ways, and so effectively and drastically

barred off and made impossible. Then presently the object begins to dawn upon us. That is, it does after we

have read the rest of the Bylaw three or four times, wondering and admiring to see Mrs. EddyMrs.

EddyMrs. Eddy, of all personsthrowing away power! making a fair exchangedoing a fair thing for

once more, an almost generous thing! Then we look it through yet once more unsatisfied, a little

suspiciousand find that it is nothing but a sly, thin makebelieve, and that even the very title of it is a

"Local SelfGovernment. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, shall assume no

official control of other churches of this denomination. It shall be officially controlled by no other church."

It has a most pious and deceptive giveandtake air of perfect fairness, unselfishness, magnanimityalmost

In the Bylaws, Mrs. Eddy, speaking by the mouth of her other self, the MotherChurch, proclaims that she

will assume no official control of other churchesbranch churches. We examine the other Bylaws, and they

1. What is a branch Church? It is a body of Christian Scientists, organized in the one and only permissible

wayby a member, in good standing, of the MotherChurch, and who is also a pupil of one of Mrs. Eddy's

accredited students. That is to say, one of her properties. No other can do it. There are other indispensable

2. The new Church cannot enter upon its functions until its members have individually signed, and pledged

3. They are obliged to study her books, and order their lives by them. And they must read no outside religious

4. They must sing the hymns and pray the prayers provided by her, and use no others in the services, except

1O. She can do this without consulting the branch Church, and without explaining.

11. The branch Church can have a religious lecture from time to time. By applying to Mrs. Eddy. There is no

14. The harnessing of all Christian Science weddingteams, members of the branch Church, must be done by

duly authorized and consecrated Christian Science functionaries. Her factory is the only one that makes and

[15. Nothing is said about christenings. It is inferable from this that a Christian Science child is born a

[16. Nothing is said about funerals. It is inferable, then, that a branch Church is privileged to do in that matter

To sum up. Are any important Churchfunctions absent from the list? I cannot call any to mind. Are there

any lacking ones whose exercise could make the branch in any noticeable way independent of the Mother.

Church? even in any trifling degree? I think of none. If the named functions were abolished would there

still be a Church left? Would there be even a shadow of a Church left? Would there be anything at all left?

Manifestly not. There isn't a single vital and essential Churchfunction of any kind, that is not named in the

list. And over every one of them the MotherChurch has permanent and unchallengeable control, upon every

one of them Mrs. Eddy has set her irremovable grip. She holds, in perpetuity, autocratic and indisputable

sovereignty and control over every branch Church in the earth; and yet says, in that sugary, naive,

Whereas in truth the unmeddledwith liberties of a branch Christian Science Church are but very, very few in

1. It can appoint its own furnacestoker, winters. 2. It can appoint its own fandistributors, summers. 3. It

can, in accordance with its own choice in the matter, burn, bury, or preserve members who are pretending to

The branch Churches have no important liberties, none that give them an important voice in their own affairs.

Those are all locked up, and Mrs. Eddy has the key. "Local SelfGovernment " is a large name and sounds

well; but the branch Churches have no more of it than have the privates in the King of Dahomey's army.

Mrs. Eddy, with an envious and admiring eye upon the solitary and rivalless and worldshadowing majesty

of St. Peter's, reveals in her By laws her purpose to set the MotherChurch apart by itself in a stately

seclusion and make it duplicate that lone sublimity under the Western sky. The Bylaw headed

"In its relation to other Christian Science churches, the MotherChurch stands alone.

"Then for a branch Church to assume such position would be disastrous to Christian Science,

Therefore no branch Church is allowed to have branches. There shall be no Christian Science St. Peter's in

But for the thoughtful Bylaw thus entitled, every Science branch in the earth would imitate the

MotherChurch and set up an aristocracy. Every little group of groundfloor Smiths and Furgusons and

Shadwells and Simpsons that organized a branch would assume that great title, of "First Members," along

with its vast privileges of "discussing" the weather and casting blank ballots, and soon there would be such a

locustplague of them burdening the globe that the title would lose its value and have to be abolished.

But where business and glory are concerned, Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything, and so she did not fail to take

care of her Aborigines, her stately and exclusive One Hundred, her college of functionless cardinals, her

Sanhedrin of Privileged Talkers (Limited). After taking away all the liberties of the branch Churches, and in

the same breath disclaiming all official control over their affairs, she smites them on the mouth with

"No First Members. Branch Churches shall not organize with First Members, that special method of

And so, first members being prohibited, we pierce through the cloud of Mrs. Eddy's English and perceive that

they must then necessarily organize with Subsequent Members. There is no other way. It will occur to them

byandby to found an aristocracy of Early Subsequent Members. There is no Bylaw against it.

I uncover to that imperial word. And to the mind, too, that conceived the idea of seizing and monopolizing it

as a title. I believe it is Mrs. Eddy's dazzlingest invention. For show, and style, and grandeur, and thunder and

lightning and fireworks it outclasses all the previous inventions of man, and raises the limit on the Pope. He

can never put his avid hand on that word of wordsit is preempted. And copyrighted, of course. It lifts the

MotherChurch away up in the sky, and fellowships it with the rare and select and exclusive little company

of the THE's of deathless glorypersons and things whereof history and the ages could furnish only single

examples, not two: the Saviour, the Virgin, the Milky Way, the Bible, the Earth, the Equator, the Devil, the

Missing Link and now The First Church, Scientist. And by clamor of edict and Bylaw Mrs. Eddy gives

personal notice to all branch Scientist Churches on this planet to leave that THE alone.

Those are the terms. There can and will be a million First Churches of Christ, Scientist, scattered over the

world, in a million towns and villages and hamlets and cities, and each may call itself (suppressing the

article), "First Church of Christ. Scientist"it is permissible, and no harm; but there is only one The Church

of Christ, Scientist, and there will never be another. And whether that great word fall in the middle of a

I do not suppose that a juvenile passion for fussy little worldly shows and vanities can furnish a match to this,

anywhere in the history of the nursery. Mrs. Eddy does seem to be a shade fonder of little special distinctions

She instituted that immodest "The" with her own hand; she did not wait for somebody else to think of it.

There is but one human Pastor in the whole Christian Science world; she reserves that exalted place to

There is but one other object in the whole Christian Science world honored with that title and holding that

office: it is her book, the Annex permanent Pastor of The First Church, and of all branch Churches.

With her own hand she draughted the Bylaws which make her the only really absolute sovereign that lives

She does not allow any objectionable pictures to be exhibited in the room where her book is sold, nor any

indulgence in idle gossip there; and from the general look of that Bylaw I judge that a lightsome and

In a room in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, there is a museum of objects which have attained to

holiness through contact with Mrs. Eddy among them an electrically lighted oilpicture of a chair which

she used to sit in and disciples from all about the world go softly in there, in restricted groups, under

proper guard, and reverently gaze upon those relics. It is worship. Mrs. Eddy could stop it if she was not fond

The fittingup of that place as a shrine is not an accident, nor a casual, unweighed idea; it is imitated from

ageold religious custom. In Treves the pilgrim reverently gazes upon the Seamless Robe, and humbly

worships; and does the same in that other continental church where they keep a duplicate; and does likewise

in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, where memorials of the Crucifixion are preserved; and

now, by good fortune we have our Holy Chair and things, and a market for our adorations nearer home.

But is there not a detail that is new, fresh, original? Yes, whatever old thing Mrs. Eddy touches gets

something new by the contact something not thought of before by any one something original, all her

own, and copyrightable. The new feature is self worshipexhibited in permitting this shrine to be installed

A prominent Christian Scientist has assured me that the Scientists do not worship Mrs. Eddy, and I think it

likely that there may be five or six of the cult in the world who do not worship her, but she herself is certainly

not of that company. Any healthyminded person who will examine Mrs. Eddy's little Autobiography and the

Manual of Bylaws written by her will be convinced that she worships herself; and that she brings to this

service a fervor of devotion surpassing even that which she formerly laid at the feet of the Dollar, and

I think this is as good a place as any to salve a hurt which I was the means of inflicting upon a Christian

Scientist lately. The first third of this book was written in 1899 in Vienna. Until last summer I had supposed

that that third had been printed in a book which I published about a year latera hap which had not

happened. I then sent the chapters composing it to the North American Review, but failed. in one instance, to

date them. And so, In an undated chapter I said a lady told me "last night" so and so. There was nothing to

indicate to the reader that that "last night" was several years old, therefore the phrase seemed to refer to a

night of very recent date. What the lady had told me was, that in a part of the MotherChurch in Boston she

had seen Scientists worshipping a portrait of Mrs. Eddy before which a light was kept constantly burning.

A Scientist came to me and wished me to retract that "untruth." He said there was no such portrait, and that if

I wanted to be sure of it I could go to Boston and see for myself. I explained that my "last night" meant a

good while ago; that I did not doubt his assertion that there was no such portrait there now, but that I should

continue to believe it had been there at the time of the lady's visit until she should retract her statement

herself. I was at no time vouching for the truth of the remark, nevertheless I considered it worth par.

And yet I am sorry the lady told me, since a wound which brings me no happiness has resulted. I am most

willing to apply such salve as I can. The best way to set the matter right and make everything pleasant and

agreeable all around will be to print in this place a description of the shrine as it appeared to a recent visitor,

Mr. Frederick W. Peabody, of Boston. I will copy his newspaper account, and the reader will see that Mrs.

"We lately stood on the threshold of the Holy of Holies of the Mother Church, and with a crowd of

worshippers patiently waited for admittance to the hallowed precincts of the 'Mother's Room.' Over the

doorway was a sign informing us that but four persons at a time would be admitted; that they would be

permitted to remain but five minutes only, and would please retire from the 'Mother's Room' at the ringing of

the bell. Entering with three of the faithful, we looked with profane eyes upon the consecrated furnishings. A

showwoman in attendance monotonously announced the character of the different appointments. Set in a

recess of the wall and illumined with electric light was an oilpainting the showwoman seriously declared

to be a lifelike and realistic picture of the Chair in which the Mother sat when she composed her 'inspired'

work. It was a picture of an oldfashioned? country, hair cloth rockingchair, and an exceedingly

commonplacelooking table with a pile of manuscript, an inkbottle, and pen conspicuously upon it. On the

floor were sheets of manuscript. 'The mantelpiece is of pure onyx,' continued the show woman, 'and the

beehive upon the windowsill is made from one solid block of onyx; the rug is made of a hundred breasts of

eiderdown ducks, and the toiletroom you see in the corner is of the latest design, with gold plated

drainpipes; the painted windows are from the Mother's poem, "Christ and Christmas," and that case contains

complete copies of all the Mother's books.' The chairs upon which the sacred person of the Mother had

reposed were protected from sacrilegious touch by a broad band of satin ribbon. My companions expressed

their admiration in subdued and reverent tones, and at the tinkling of the bell we reverently tiptoed out of the

Now, then, I hope the wound is healed. I am willing to relinquish the portrait, and compromise on the Chair.

At the same time, if I were going to worship either, I should not choose the Chair.

As a picturesquely and persistently interesting personage, there is no mate to Mrs. Eddy, the accepted Equal

of the Saviour. But some of her tastes are so different from His! I find it quite impossible to imagine Him, in

life, standing sponsor for that museum there, and taking pleasure in its sumptuous shows. I believe He would

put that Chair in the fire, and the bell along with it; and I think He would make the showwoman go away. I

think He would break those electric bulbs, and the "mantelpiece of pure onyx," and say reproachful things

about the golden drainpipes of the lavatory, and give the costly rug of duckbreasts to the poor, and sever

the satin ribbon and invite the weary to rest and ease their aches in the consecrated chairs. What He would do

with the painted windows we can better conjecture when we come presently to examine their peculiarities.

When Mrs. Eddy turned the pastors out of all the Christian Science churches and abolished the office for all

time as far as human occupancy is concernedshe appointed the Holy Ghost to fill their place. If this

language be blasphemous, I did not invent the blasphemy, I am merely stating a fact. I will quote from page

227 of Science and Health (edition 1899), as a first step towards an explanation of this startling mattera

"Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune God, or triply divine Principle. They represent a trinity in unity,

three in one the same in essence, though multiform in office: God the Father; Christ the type of Sonship;

"The Holy Ghost, or Spirit, reveals this triune Principle, and (the Holy Ghost) is expressed in Divine Science,

which is the Comforter, leading into all Truth, and revealing the divine Principle of the universe universal

"His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered they

were roused to an enlarged understanding of Divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation . . . of His

The Holy Ghost reveals the massed spirit of the fused trinity; this massed spirit is expressed in Divine

Science, and is the Comforter; Divine Science conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the Saviour's

Divine Science is Christian Science; the book Science and Health is a "revelation" of the whole spirit of the

Trinity, and is therefore "The Holy Ghost"; it conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the Bible's

I do not find this analyzing work easy, I would rather saw wood; and a person can never tell whether he has

added up a Science and Health sum right or not, anyway, after all his trouble. Neither can he easily find out

whether the texts are still on the market or have been discarded from the Book; for two hundred and

fiftyeight editions of it have been issued, and no two editions seem to be alike. The annual changesin

technical terminology; in matter and wording; in transpositions of chapters and verses; in leaving out old

chapters and verses and putting in new onesseem to be next to innumerable, and as there is no index, there

is no way to find a thing one wants without reading the book through. If ever I inspire a BibleAnnex I will

not rush at it in a halfdigested, helterskelter way and have to put in thirtyeight years trying to get some of

it the way I want it, I will sit down and think it out and know what it is I want to say before I begin. An

inspirer cannot inspire for Mrs. Eddy and keep his reputation. I have never seen such slipshod work, bar the

ten that interpreted for the home market the "sell all thou hast." I have quoted one "spiritual" rendering of the

Lord's Prayer, I have seen one other one, and am told there are five more. Yet the inspirer of Mrs. Eddy the

new Infallible casts a complacent critical stone at the other Infallible for being unable to make up its mind

"The decisions, by vote of Church Councils, as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ, the

manifest mistakes in the ancient versions: the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament and the

three hundred thousand in the Newthese facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine

To some extent, yesspeaking cautiously. But it is nothing, really nothing; Mrs. Eddy is only a little way

behind, and if her inspirer lives to get her Annex to suit him that Catholic record will have to "go 'way back

and set down," as the ballad says. Listen to the boastful song of Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science

Journal for March, 1902, about that year's revamping and halfsoling of Science and Health, whose official

name is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and who is now the Official Pastor and Infallible and Unerring Guide

of every Christian Science church in the two hemispheres, hear Simple Simon that met the pieman brag of the

"Throughout the entire book the verbal changes are so numerous as to indicate the vast amount of time and

labor Mrs. Eddy has devoted to this revision. The time and labor thus bestowed is relatively as great as that of

the committee who revised the Bible.... Thus we have additional evidence of the herculean efforts our

beloved Leader has made and is constantly making for the promulgation of Truth and the furtherance of her

It is a steady job. I could help inspire if desired; I am not doing much now, and would work for halfprice,

The price of the PastorUniversal, Science and Health, called in Science literature the Comforterand by

that other sacred Name is three dollars in cloth, as heretofore, six when it is finely bound, and shaped to

imitate the Testament, and is broken into verses. Margin of profit above cost of manufacture, from five

hundred to seven hundred per cent., as already noted In the profane subscriptiontrade, it costs the publisher

heavily to canvass a threedollar book; he must pay the general agent sixty per cent. commissionthat is to

say, one dollar and eighty cents. Mrs. Eddy escapes this blistering tax, because she owns the Christian

Science canvasser, and can compel him to work for nothing. Read the following commandnot request

fulminated by Mrs. Eddy, over her signature, in the Christian Science Journal for March, 1897, and quoted

"It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and to sell as many of these books as they can."

That is flung at all the elect, everywhere that the sun shines, but no penalty is shaken over their heads to scare

them. The same command was issued to the members (numbering today twentyfive thousand) of The

MotherChurch, also, but with it went a threat, of the infliction, in case of disobedience, of the most dreaded

punishment that has a place in the Church's list of penalties for transgressions of Mrs. Eddy's edicts

"If a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, shall fail to obey this injunction, it will render him

None but accepted and well established gods can venture an affront like that and do it with confidence. But

the human race will take anything from that class. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race; knows it better than any

mere human being has known it in a thousand centuries. My confidence in her humanbeingship is getting

A Scientist out West has visited a booksellerwith intent to find fault with meand has brought away the

information that the price at which Mrs. Eddy sells Science and Health is not an unusually high one for the

size and make of the book. That is true. But in the booktradethat profitdevourer unknown to Mrs.

Eddy's booka threedollar book that is made for thirtyfive or forty cents in large editions is put at three

dollars because the publisher has to pay author, middleman, and advertising, and if the price were much

below three the profit accruing would not pay him fairly for his time and labor. At the same time, if he could

get ten dollars for the book he would take it, and his morals would not fall under criticism.

But if he were an inspired person commissioned by the Deity to receive and print and spread broadcast

among sorrowing and suffering and poor men a precious message of healing and cheer and salvation, he

would have to do as Bible Societies dosell the book at a pinched margin above cost to such as could pay,

and give it free to all that couldn't; and his name would be praised. But if he sold it at seven hundred per cent.

profit and put the money in his pocket, his name would be mocked and derided. Just as Mrs. Eddy's is. And

The complete Bible contains one million words. The New Testament by itself contains two hundred and forty

My '84 edition of Science and Health contains one hundred and twenty thousand words just half as many

Science and Health has since been so inflated by later inspirations that the 1902 edition contains one hundred

and eighty thousand wordsnot counting the thirty thousand at the back, devoted by Mrs. Eddy to

advertising the book's healing abilitiesand the inspiring continues right along.

If you have a book whose market is so sure and so great that you can give a printer an everlasting order for

thirty or forty or fifty thousand copies a year he will furnish them at a cheap rate, because whenever there is a

slack time in his pressroom and bindery he can fill the idle intervals on your book and be making something

instead of losing. That is the kind of contract that can be let on Science and Health every year. I am obliged to

doubt that the threedollar Science and Health costs Mrs. Eddy above fifteen cents, or that the six dollar copy

costs her above eighty cents. I feel quite sure that the average profit to her on these books, above cost of

Every proper Christian Scientist has to buy and own (and canvass for) Science and Health (one hundred and

eighty thousand words), and he must also own a Bible (one million words). He can buy the one for from three

to six dollars, and the other for fifteen cents. Or, if three dollars is all the money he has, he can get his Bible

for nothing. When the Supreme Being disseminates a saving Message through uninspired agentsthe New

Testament, for instance it can be done for five cents a copy, but when He sends one containing only

twothirds as many words through the shop of a Divine Personage, it costs sixty times as much. I think that

Here are some figures which are perfectly authentic, and which seem to justify my opinion.

"These [Bible] societies, inspired only by a sense of religious duty, are issuing the Bible at a price so small

that they have made it the cheapest book printed. For example, the American Bible Society offers an edition

of the whole Bible as low as fifteen cents and the New Testament at five cents, and the British Society at

sixpence and one penny, respectively. These low prices, made possible by their policy of selling the books at

We may now make a final footingup of Mrs. Eddy, and see what she is, in the fulness of her powers. She is

There she standspainted by herself. No witness but herself has been allowed to testify. She stands there

painted by her acts, and decorated by her words. When she talks, she has only a decorative value as a witness,

either for or against herself, for she deals mainly in unsupported assertion; and in the rare cases where she

puts forward a verifiable fact she gets out of it a meaning which it refuses to furnish to anybody else. Also,

when she talks, she is unstable, she wanders, she is incurably inconsistent; what she says today she

But her acts are consistent. They are always faithful to her, they never misinterpret her, they are a mirror

which always reflects her exactly, precisely, minutely, unerringly, and always the same, to date, with only

those progressive little natural changes in stature, dress, complexion, mood, and carriage that

markexteriorlythe march of the years and record the accumulations of experience, while

interiorlythrough all this steady drift of evolution the one essential detail, the commanding detail, the

master detail of the makeup remains as it was in the beginning, suffers no change and can suffer none; the

basis of the character; the temperament, the disposition, that indestructible iron framework upon which the

character is built, and whose shape it must take, and keep, throughout life. We call it a person's nature.

The man who is born stingy can be taught to give liberallywith his hands; but not with his heart. The man

born kind and compassionate can have that disposition crushed down out of sight by embittering experience;

but if it were an organ the postmortem would find it still in his corpse. The man born ambitious of power

and glory may live long without finding it out, but when the opportunity comes he will know, will strike for

the largest thing within the limit of his chances at the time constable, perhapsand will be glad and proud

when he gets it, and will write home about it. But he will not stop with that start; his appetite will come again;

and byandby again, and yet again; and when he has climbed to police commissioner it will at last begin to

dawn upon him that what his Napoleon soul wants and was born for is something away higher uphe does

not quite know what, but Circumstance and Opportunity will indicate the direction and he will cut a road

I think Mrs. Eddy was born with a farseeing businesseye, but did not know it; and with a great organizing

and executive talent, and did not know it; and with a large appetite for power and distinction, and did not

know it. I think the reason that her make did not show up until middle life was that she had General Grant's

luck Circumstance and Opportunity did not come her way when she was younger. The qualities that were

born in her had to wait for circumstance and opportunitybut they were there: they were there to stay,

whether they ever got a chance to fructify or not. If they had come early, they would have found her ready

and competent. And theynot shewould have determined what they would set her at and what they would

make of her. If they had elected to commission her as secondassistant cook in a bankrupt boardinghouse, I

know the rest of itI know what would have happened. She would have owned the boardinghouse within

six months; she would have had the late proprietor on salary and humping himself, as the worldly say; she

would have had that boardinghouse spewing money like a mint; she would have worked the servants and

the late landlord up to the limit; she would have squeezed the boarders till they wailed, and by some

mysterious quality born in her she would have kept the affections of certain of the lot whose love and esteem

she valued, and flung the others down the back area; in two years she would own all the boardinghouses in

the town, in five all the boardinghouses in the State, in twenty all the hotels in America, in forty all the

hotels on the planet, and would sit at home with her finger on a button and govern the whole combination as

It would be a grand thing to see, and I feel a kind of disappointment but never mind, a religion is better and

larger; and there is more to it. And I have not been steeping myself in Christian Science all these weeks

without finding out that the one sensible thing to do with a disappointment is to put it out of your mind and

We outsiders cannot conceive of Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science Religion as being a sudden and miraculous

birth, but only as a growth from a seed planted by circumstances, and developed stage by stage by command

and compulsion of the same force. What the stages were we cannot know, but are privileged to guess. She

may have gotten the mentalhealing idea from Quimbyit had been experimented with for ages, and was no

one's special property. [For the present, for convenience' sake, let us proceed upon the hypothesis that that

was all she got of him, and that she put up the rest of the assets herself. This will strain us, but let us try it.] In

each and all its forms and under all its many names, mental healing had had limits, always, and they were

rather narrow ones Mrs. Eddy, let us imagine, removed the fence, abolished the frontiers. Not by

expanding mentalhealing, but by absorbing its small bulk into the vaster bulk of Christian ScienceDivine

Science, The Holy Ghost, the Comforterwhich was a quite different and sublimer force, and one which had

The Christian Scientist believes that the Spirit of God (life and love) pervades the universe like an

atmosphere; that whoso will study Science and Health can get from it the secret of how to inhale that

transforming air; that to breathe it is to be made new; that from the new man all sorrow, all care, all miseries

of the mind vanish away, for that only peace, contentment and measureless joy can live in that divine fluid;

that it purifies the body from disease, which is a vicious creation of the gross human mind, and cannot

continue to exist in the presence of the Immortal Mind, the renewing Spirit of God.

The Scientist finds this reasonable, natural, and not harder to believe than that the disease germ, a creature of

darkness, perishes when exposed to the light of the great suna new revelation of profane science which no

one doubts. He reminds us that the actinic ray, shining upon lupus, cures ita horrible disease which was

incurable fifteen years ago, and had been incurable for ten million years before; that this wonder,

unbelievable by the physicians at first, is believed by them now; and so he is tranquilly confident that the

time is coming when the world will be educated up to a point where it will comprehend and grant that the

light of the Spirit of God, shining unobstructed upon the soul, is an actinic ray which can purge both mind

It is apparent, then, that in Christian Science it is not one man's mind acting upon another man's mind that

heals; that it is solely the Spirit of God that heals; that the healer's mind performs no office but to convey that

force to the patient; that it is merely the wire which carries the electric fluid, so to speak, and delivers the

message. Therefore, if these things be true, mentalhealing and Sciencehealing are separate and distinct

To heal the body of its ills and pains is a mighty benefaction, but in our day our physicians and surgeons

work a thousand miraclesprodigies which would have ranked as miracles fifty years agoand they have

so greatly extended their domination over disease that we feel so well protected that we are able to look with

a good deal of composure and absence of hysterics upon the claims of new competitors in that field.

But there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and that is the healing of the spiritwhich is

Christian Science's other claim. So far as I know, so far as I can find out, it makes it good. Personally I have

not known a Scientist who did not seem serene, contented, unharassed. I have not found an outsider whose

observation of Scientists furnished him a view that differed from my own. Buoyant spirits, comfort of mind,

freedom from care these happinesses we all have, at intervals; but in the spaces between, dear me, the black

hours! They have put a curse upon the life of every human being I have ever known, young or old. I concede

not a single exception. Unless it might be those Scientists just referred to. They may have been playing a part

Time will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good; if time shall prove that the Science can heal the

persecuted spirit of man and banish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and contentwhy, then Mrs.

Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if she did not hit upon that imperial idea

and evolve it and deliver it, its discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think. It is the giant

feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of Christian Science, the auxiliary features are of minor

consequence [Let us still leave the large "if" aside, for the present, and proceed as if it had no existence.]

It is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her plunder. (No, findthat is the word; she

did not realize the size of her find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance with the

inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and by stages only, and never furnishes any mind

In the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the mental healing detail And perhaps

She would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils, and her commerce would grow. She

would inspire in patient and pupil confidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would not

There probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to think there was something deeper in

her teachings than they had been suspectinga mystery beyond mentalhealing, and higher. It is

conceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little by little, and from respectful

became reverent. It is conceivable that this would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to

wonder if their secret thoughtthat she was inspiredmight not be a wellgrounded guess. It is

conceivable that as time went on the thought in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into

She would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more than once, by a mysterious voice just

as had happened to little Samuel. (Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient

It is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within her would give a new and powerful

impulse to her philosophizings, and that from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of body

and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of Godthe central and dominant idea of Christian Scienceand

that when this idea came she would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven.

[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a scheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all

people, working her mind on a plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing,

discovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in sinceritiesto be frank, I find it a large

It is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her and in the authenticity of her heavenly

ambassadorship was not of the lukewarm and halfway sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere. Her

book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of convert making, and within six years she had

successfully launched a new Religion and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of eager

students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary that we are almost compelled to accept her

statement (no, her guarded intimation) that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human being

unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies could hardly put up such a hand as that

From this stage onwardMrs. Eddy being what she wasthe rest of the developmentstages would follow

But if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different arrangement of them, with different

results. Being the extraordinary person she was, she realized her position and its possibilities; realized the

We have seen what her methods were after she passed the stage where her divine ambassadorship was

granted its executer in the hearts and minds of her followers; we have seen how steady and fearless and

calculated and orderly was her march thenceforth from conquest to conquest; we have seen her strike dead,

without hesitancy, any hostile or questionable force that rose in her path: first, the horde of pretenders that

sprang up and tried to take her Science and its market away from hershe crushed them, she obliterated

them; when her own National Christian Science Association became great in numbers and influence, and

loosely and dangerously garrulous, and began to expound the doctrines according to its own uninspired

notions, she took up her sponge without a tremor of fear and wiped that Association out; when she perceived

that the preachers in her pulpits were becoming afflicted with doctrinetinkering, she recognized the danger

of it, and did not hesitate nor temporize, but promptly dismissed the whole of them in a day, and abolished

their office permanently; we have seen that, as fast as her power grew, she was competent to take the measure

of it, and that as fast as its expansion suggested to her gradually awakening native ambition a higher step she

took it; and so, by this evolutionary process, we have seen the gross moneylust relegated to second place,

and the lust of empire and glory rise above it. A splendid dream; and by force of the qualities born in her she

These qualitiesand the capacities growing out of them by the nurturing influences of training, observation,

and experience seem to be clearly indicated by the character of her career and its achievements. They seem to

A clear head for business, and a phenomenally long one; Clear understanding of business situations;

Accuracy in estimating the opportunities they offer; Intelligence in planning a business move; Firmness in

sticking to it after it has been decided upon; Extraordinary daring; Indestructible persistency; Devouring

ambition; Limitless selfishness; A knowledge of the weaknesses and poverties and docilities of human nature

and how to turn them to account which has never been surpassed, if ever equalled;

Andnecessarilythe foundationstone of Mrs. Eddy's character is a neverwavering confidence in

It is a granite character. Andquite naturallya measure of the talc of smallnesses common to human

nature is mixed up in it and distributed through it. When Mrs. Eddy is not dictating servilities from her throne

in the clouds to her official domestics in Boston or to her farspread subjects round about the planet, but is

down on the ground, she is kin to us and one of us: sentimental as a girl, garrulous, ungrammatical,

incomprehensible, affected, vain of her little human ancestry, unstable, inconsistent, unreliable in statement,

and naively and everlastingly selfcontradictoryoh, trivial and common and commonplace as the

commonest of us! just a Napoleon as Madame de Remusat saw him, a brass god with clay legs.

In drawing Mrs. Eddy's portrait it has been my purpose to restrict myself to materials furnished by herself,

and I believe I have done that. If I have misinterpreted any of her acts, it was not done intentionally.

It will be noticed that in skeletonizing a list of the qualities which have carried her to the dizzy summit which

she occupies, I have not mentioned the power which was the commanding force employed in achieving that

lofty flight. It did not belong in that list; it was a force that was not a detail of her character, but was an

outside one. It was the power which proceeded from her people's recognition of her as a supernatural

personage, conveyer of the Latest Word, and divinely commissioned to deliver it to the world. The form

which such a recognition takes, consciously or unconsciously, is worship; and worship does not question nor

criticize, it obeys. The object of it does not need to coddle it, bribe it, beguile it, reason with it, convince

itit commands it; that is sufficient; the obedience rendered is not reluctant, but prompt and wholehearted.

Admiration for a Napoleon, confidence in him, pride in him, affection for him, can lift him high and carry

him far; and these are forms of worship, and are strong forces, but they are worship of a mere human being,

after all, and are infinitely feeble, as compared with those that are generated by that other worship, the

worship of a divine personage. Mrs. Eddy has this efficient worship, this massed and centralized force, this

force which is indifferent to opposition, untroubled by fear, and goes to battle singing, like Cromwell's

soldiers; and while she has it she can command and it will obey, and maintain her on her throne, and extend

She will have it until she dies; and then we shall see a curious and interesting further development of her

The President and Board of Directors wil1 succeed her, and the government will go on without a hitch. The

Bylaws will bear that interpretation. All the MotherChurch's vast powers are concentrated in that Board.

Mrs. Eddy's unlimited personal reservations make the Board's ostensible supremacy, during her life, a sham,

and the Board itself a shadow. But Mrs. Eddy has not made those reservations for any one but herselfthey

are distinctly personal, they bear her name, they are not usable by another individual. When she dies her

reservations die, and the Board's shadowpowers become real powers, without the change of any important

By law, and the Board sits in her place as absolute and irresponsible a sovereign as she was.

It consists of but five persons, a much more manageable Cardinalate than the Roman Pope's. I think it will

elect its Pope from its own body, and that it will fill its own vacancies. An elective Papacy is a safe and wise

It is not a single if, but a severaljointed one; not an oyster, but a vertebrate.

1. Did Mrs. Eddy borrow from Quimby the Great Idea, or only the little one, the oldtimer, the ordinary

2. If she borrowed the Great Idea, did she carry it away in her head, or in manuscript?

3. Did she hit upon the Great Idea herself? By the Great Idea I mean, of course, the conviction that the Force

involved was still existent, and could be applied now just as it was applied by Christ's Disciples and their

converts, and as successfully. 4. Did she philosophize it, systematize it, and write it down in a book?

5. Was it she, and not another, that built a new Religion upon the book and organized it?

I think No. 5 can be answered with a Yes, and dismissed from the controversy. And I think that the Great

Idea, great as it was, would have enjoyed but a brief activity, and would then have gone to sleep again for

some more centuries, but for the perpetuating impulse it got from that organized and tremendous force.

As for Nos. 1, 2, and 4, the hostiles contend that Mrs. Eddy got the Great Idea from Quimby and carried it off

in manuscript. But their testimony, while of consequence, lacks the most important detail; so far as my

information goes, the Quimby manuscript has not been produced. I think we cannot discuss No. 1 and No. 2

As regards No. 3, Mrs. Eddy was brought up, from the cradle, an old time, boileriron,

WestminsterCatechism Christian, and knew her Bible as well as Captain Kydd knew his, "when he sailed,

when he sailed," and perhaps as sympathetically. The Great Idea had struck a million Bible readers before

her as being possible of resurrection and applicationit must have struck as many as that, and been

cogitated, indolently, doubtingly, then dropped and forgottenand it could have struck her, in due course.

But how it could interest her, how it could appeal to her with her make this a thing that is difficult to

For the thing back of it is wholly gracious and beautiful: the power, through loving mercifulness and

compassion, to heal fleshly ills and pains and grief allwith a word, with a touch of the hand! This power

was given by the Saviour to the Disciples, and to all the converted. Allevery one. It was exercised for

generations afterwards. Any Christian who was in earnest and not a makebelieve, not a policy Christian,

not a Christian for revenue only, had that healing power, and could cure with it any disease or any hurt or

damage possible to human flesh and bone. These things are true, or they are not. If they were true seventeen

and eighteen and nineteen centuries ago it would be difficult to satisfactorily explain why or how or by what

Grasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she seesmoney, power, glory vain, untruthful,

jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent, pitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate, shallow,

Of course the Great Idea could strike her, we have to grant that, but why it should interest her is a question

which can easily overstrain the imagination and bring on nervous prostration, or something like that, and is

Unless we call to our help the alleged other side of Mrs. Eddy's make and character the side which her

multitude of followers see, and sincerely believe in. Fairness requires that their view be stated here. It is the

opposite of the one which I have drawn from Mrs. Eddy's history and from her Bylaws. To her followers

Patient, gentle, loving, compassionate, noble hearted, unselfish, sinless, widely cultured, splendidly equipped

mentally, a profound thinker, an able writer, a divine personage, an inspired messenger whose acts are

She has delivered to them a religion which has revolutionized their lives, banished the glooms that shadowed

them, and filled them and flooded them with sunshine and gladness and peace; a religion which has no hell; a

religion whose heaven is not put off to another time, with a break and a gulf between, but begins here and

now, and melts into eternity as fancies of the waking day melt into the dreams of sleep.

They believe it is a Christianity that is in the New Testament; that it has always been there, that in the drift of

ages it was lost through disuse and neglect, and that this benefactor has found it and given it back to men,

turning the night of life into day, its terrors into myths, its lamentations into songs of emancipation and

There we have Mrs. Eddy as her followers see her. She has lifted them out of grief and care and doubt and

fear, and made their lives beautiful; she found them wandering forlorn in a wintry wilderness, and has led

To ask them to examine with a microscope the character of such a benefactor; to ask them to examine it at all;

to ask them to look at a blemish which another person believes he has found in itwell, in their place could

you do it? Would you do it? Wouldn't you be ashamed to do it? If a tramp had rescued your child from fire

and death, and saved its mother's heart from breaking, could you see his rags? Could you smell his breath?

They are prejudiced witnesses. To the credit of human nature it is not possible that they should be otherwise.

They sincerely believe that Mrs. Eddy's character is pure and perfect and beautiful, and her history without

stain or blot or blemish. But that does not settle it. They sincerely believe she did not borrow the Great Idea

from Quimby, but hit upon it herself. It may be so, and it could be so. Let it gothere is no way to settle it.

They believe she carried away no Quimby manuscripts. Let that go, toothere is no way to settle it. They

believe that she, and not another, built the Religion upon the book, and organized it. I believe it, too.

Finally, they believe that she philosophized Christian Science, explained it, systematized it, and wrote it all

I am not able to believe that. Let us draw the line there. The known and undisputed products of her pen are a

formidable witness against her. They do seem to me to prove, quite clearly and conclusively, that writing,

upon even simple subjects, is a difficult labor for her: that she has never been able to write anything above

thirdrate English; that she is weak in the matter of grammar; that she has but a rude and dull sense of the

values of words; that she so lacks in the matter of literary precision that she can seldom put a thought into

words that express it lucidly to the reader and leave no doubts in his mind as to whether he has rightly

understood or not; that she cannot even draught a Preface that a person can fully comprehend, nor one which

can by any art be translated into a fully understandable form; that she can seldom inject into a Preface even

single sentences whose meaning is uncompromisingly clearyet Prefaces are her specialty, if she has one.

Mrs. Eddy's known and undisputed writings are very limited in bulk; they exhibit no depth, no analytical

quality, no thought above school composition size, and but juvenile ability in handling thoughts of even that

modest magnitude. She has a fine commercial ability, and could govern a vast railway system in great style;

she could draught a set of rules that Satan himself would say could not be improved on for devilish

effectivenessby his staff; but we know, by our excursions among the MotherChurch's Bylaws, that their

English would discredit the deputy baggagesmasher. I am quite sure that Mrs. Eddy cannot write well upon

In the very first revision of Science and Health (1883), Mrs. Eddy wrote a Preface which is an unimpeachable

witness that the rest of the book was written by somebody else. I have put it in the Appendix along with a

page or two taken from the body of the book, and will ask the reader to compare the labored and lumbering

and confused gropings of this Preface with the easy and flowing and direct English of the other exhibit, and

And let him take the Preface apart, sentence by sentence, and searchingly examine each sentence word by

word, and see if he can find half a dozen sentences whose meanings he is so sure of that he can rephrase

themin words of his ownand reproduce what he takes to be those meanings. Money can be lost on this

Now let the reader turn to the excerpt which I have made from the chapter on "Prayer" (last year's edition of

Science and Health), and compare that wise and sane and elevated and lucid and compact piece of work with

the aforesaid Preface, and with Mrs. Eddy's poetry concerning the gymnastic trees, and Minerva's not yet

effete sandals, and the wreaths imported from Erudition's bower for the decoration of Plymouth Rock, and the

Plaguespot and Bacilli, and my other exhibits (turn back to my Chapters I. and II.) from the Autobiography,

and finally with the late Communication concerning me, and see if he thinks anybody's affirmation, or

anybody's sworn testimony, or any other testimony of any imaginable kind would ever be likely to convince

I do not wish to impose my opinion on any one who will not permit it, but such as it is I offer it here for what

it is worth. I cannot believe, and I do not believe, that Mrs. Eddy originated any of the thoughts and

reasonings out of which the book Science and Health is constructed; and I cannot believe, and do not believe

I think that if anything in the world stands proven, and well and solidly proven, by unimpeachable

testimonythe treacherous testimony of her own pen in her known and undisputed literary productionsit

is that Mrs. Eddy is not capable of thinking upon high planes, nor of reasoning clearly nor writing

Inasmuch asin my beliefthe very first editions of the book Science and Health were far above the reach

of Mrs. Eddy's mental and literary abilities, I think she has from the very beginning been claiming as her own

another person's book, and wearing as her own property laurels rightfully belonging to that person the real

author of Science and Health. And I think the reasonand the only reasonthat he has not protested is

That with an eye to business, and by grace of her business talent, she has restored to the world neglected and

abandoned features of the Christian religion which her thousands of followers find gracious and blessed and

contenting, I recognize and confess; but I am convinced that every single detail of the work except just that

onethe delivery of the Product to the worldwas conceived and performed by another.

There seems a Christian necessity of learning God's power and purpose to heal both mind and body. This

thought grew out of our early seeking Him in all our ways, and a hopeless as singular invalidism that drugs

increased instead of diminished, and hygiene benefited only for a season. By degrees we have drifted into

more spiritual latitudes of thought, and experimented as we advanced until demonstrating fully the power of

mind over the body. About the year 1862, having heard of a mesmerist in Portland who was treating the sick

by manipulation, we visited him; he helped us for a time, then we relapsed somewhat. After his decease, and

a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians, we discovered that the Principle of all healing and the

law that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and regained health.

It was not an individual or mortal mind acting upon another socalled mind that healed us. It was the glorious

truths of Christian Science that we discovered as we neared that verge of socalled material life named death;

yea, it was the great Shekinah, the spirit of Life, Truth, and Love illuminating our understanding of the action

and might of Omnipotence! The old gentleman to whom we have referred had some very advanced views on

healing, but he was not avowedly religious neither scholarly. We interchanged thoughts on the subject of

healing the sick. I restored some patients of his that he failed to heal, and left in his possession some

manuscripts of mine containing corrections of his desultory pennings, which I am informed at his decease

passed into the hands of a patient of his, now residing in Scotland. He died in 1865 and left no published

works. The only manuscript that we ever held of his, longer than to correct it, was one of perhaps a dozen

pages, most of which we had composed. He manipulated the sick; hence his ostensible method of healing was

We helped him in the esteem of the public by our writings, but never knew of his stating orally or in writing

that he treated his patients mentally; never heard him give any directions to that effect; and have it from one

of his patients, who now asserts that he was the founder of mental healing, that he never revealed to anyone

his method. We refer to these facts simply to refute the calumnies and false claims of our enemies, that we

are preferring dishonest claims to the discovery and founding at this period of Metaphysical Healing or

The Science and laws of a purely mental healing and their method of application through spiritual power

alone, else a mental argument against disease, are our own discovery at this date. True, the Principle is divine

and eternal, but the application of it to heal the sick had been lost sight of, and required to be again spiritually

discerned and its science discovered, that man might retain it through the understanding. Since our discovery

in 1866 of the divine science of Christian Healing, we have labored with tongue and pen to found this system.

In this endeavor every obstacle has been thrown in our path that the envy and revenge of a few disaffected

students could devise. The superstition and ignorance of even this period have not failed to contribute their

mite towards misjudging us, while its Christian advancement and scientific research have helped sustain our

Since our first Edition of Science and Health, published in 1875, two of the aforesaid students have

plagiarized and pirated our works. In the issues of E. J. A., almost exclusively ours, were thirteen paragraphs,

Not one of our printed works was ever copied or abstracted from the published or from the unpublished

writings of anyone. Throughout our publications of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science, when writing

or dictating them, we have given ourselves to contemplation wholly apart from the observation of the

material senses: to look upon a copy would have distracted our thoughts from the subject before us. We were

seldom able to copy our own compositions, and have employed an amanuensis for the last six years. Every

work that we have had published has been extemporaneously written; and out of fifty lectures and sermons

that we have delivered the last year, fortyfour have been extemporaneous. We have distributed many of our

unpublished manuscripts; loaned to one of our youngest students, R. K c . . . . . y, between three and four

hundred pages, of which we were sole authorgiving him liberty to copy but not to publish them.

Leaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of to day grow brief, and tomorrow is big

The wakeful shepherd, tending his flocks, beholds from the mountain's top the first faint morning beam ere

cometh the risen day. So from Soul's loftier summits shines the pale star to prophetshepherd, and it traverses

night, over to where the young child lies, in cradled obscurity, that shall waken a world. Over the night of

error dawn the morning beams and guiding star of Truth, and "the wise men" are led by it to Science, which

repeats the eternal harmony that it reproduced, in proof of immortality. The time for thinkers has come; and

the time for revolutions, ecclesiastical and civil, must come. Truth, independent of doctrines or timehonored

systems, stands at the threshold of history. Contentment with the past, or the cold conventionality of custom,

may no longer shut the door on science; though empires fall, "He whose right it is shall reign." Ignorance of

God should no longer be the steppingstone to faith; understanding Him, "whom to know aright is Life

This volume may not open a new thought, and make it at once familiar. It has the sturdy task of a pioneer, to

hack away at the tall oaks and cut the rough granite, leaving future ages to declare what it has done. We made

our first discovery of the adaptation of metaphysics to the treatment of disease in the winter of 1866; since

then we have tested the Principle on ourselves and others, and never found it to fail to prove the statements

herein made of it. We must learn the science of Life, to reach the perfection of man. To understand God as

the Principle of all being, and to live in accordance with this Principle, is the Science of Life. But to

reproduce this harmony of being, the error of personal sense must yield to science, even as the science of

music corrects tones caught from the ear, and gives the sweet concord of sound. There are many theories of

physic and theology, and many calls in each of their directions for the right way; but we propose to settle the

question of "What is Truth?" on the ground of proof, and let that method of healing the sick and establishing

Christianity be adopted that is found to give the most health and to make the best Christians; science will then

have a fair field, in which case we are assured of its triumph over all opinions and beliefs. Sickness and sin

have ever had their doctors; but the question is, Have they become less because of them? The longevity of

our antediluvians would say, No! and the criminal records of today utter their voices little in favor of such a

conclusion. Not that we would deny to Caesar the things that are his, but that we ask for the things that

belong to Truth; and safely affirm, from the demonstrations we have been able to make, that the science of

man understood would have eradicated sin, sickness, and death, in a less period than six thousand years. We

find great difficulties in starting this work right. Some shockingly false claims are already made to a

metaphysical practice; mesmerism, its very antipodes, is one of them. Hitherto we have never, in a single

instance of our discovery, found the slightest resemblance between mesmerism and metaphysics. No especial

idiosyncrasy is requisite to acquire a knowledge of metaphysical healing; spiritual sense is more important to

its discernment than the intellect; and those who would learn this science without a high moral standard of

thought and action, will fail to understand it until they go up higher. Owing to our explanations constantly

vibrating between the same points, an irksome repetition of words must occur; also the use of capital letters,

genders, and technicalities peculiar to the science. Variety of language, or beauty of diction, must give place

to close analysis and unembellished thought. "Hoping all things, enduring all things," to do good to our

enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to bear to the sorrowing and the sick consolation and healing, we

The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the life of our great Master. His spiritual noumenon and

phenomenon, silenced portraiture. Writers, less wise than the Apostles, essayed in the Apocryphal New

Testament, a legendary and traditional history of the early life of Jesus. But Saint Paul summarized the

character of Jesus as the model of Christianity, in these words: "Consider Him who endured such

contradictions of sinners against Himself. Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,

It may be that the mortal life battle still wages, and must continue till its involved errors are vanquished by

victorybringing Science; but this triumph will come! God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and Being.

The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created through the flesh; for his father and mother are the one

Any kind of literary composition was excessively difficult for Mrs. Eddy. She found it grinding hard work to

dig out anything to say. She realized, at the above stage in her life, that with all her trouble she had not been

able to scratch together even material enough for a child's Autobiography, and also that what she had secured

was in the main not valuable, not important, considering the age and the fame of the person she was writing

about; and so it occurred to her to attempt, in that paragraph, to excuse the meagreness and poor quality of the

feast she was spreading, by letting on that she could do ever so much better if she wanted to, but was under

constraint of Divine etiquette. To feed with more than a few indifferent crumbs a plebeian appetite for

personal details about Personages in her class was not the correct thing, and she blandly points out that there

is Precedent for this reserve. When Mrs. Eddy tries to be artful in literature it is generally after the

manner of the ostrich; and with the ostrich's luck. Please try to find the connection between the two

It seems to me that this one is distinctly superior to the one that was inspired for last year's edition. It is

strange, but to my mind plain, that inspiring is an art which does not improve with practice.M. T.

"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast

into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to

pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray,

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." CHRIST JESUS.

The prayer that reclaims the sinner and heals the sick, is an absolute faith that all things are possible to

Goda spiritual understanding of Himan unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say or think on

this subject, I speak from experience. This prayer, combined with self sacrifice and toil, is the means

whereby God has enabled me to do what I have done for the religion and health of mankind.

Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no less can occur from trusting

God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in audible word, and in

What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to make ourselves better, or to benefit those that hear us; to

enlighten the Infinite, or to be heard of men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth

hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void.

God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done; nor can the Infinite do less

than bestow all good, since He is unchanging Wisdom and Love. We can do more for ourselves by humble

fervent petitions; but the Allloving does not grant them simply on the ground of lipservice, for He already

Prayer cannot change the Science of Being, but it does bring us into harmony with it. Goodness reaches the

demonstration of Truth. A request that another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading

with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly

God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him

anything He does not already comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the

open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? The unspoken prayer does bring us nearer the

Asking God to be God is a "vain repetition." God is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever"; and He

who is immutably right will do right, without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not

Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to work out the problem? The

rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all

goodness to do His own work? His work is done; and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order

The divine Being must be reflected by manelse man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender,

and true, the one "altogether lovely"; but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute

How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omnipresent,

infinite, and then we try to give information to this infinite Mind; and plead for unmerited pardon, and a

liberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail

ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal

If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are insincere;

and incur the sharp censure our Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case the only acceptable prayer is

to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings. While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love,

What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love,

and good deeds. To keep the commandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper debt to

Him, and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all He has done. Outward worship is not of itself

sufficient to express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since He has said: "If ye love Me, keep My

The habitual struggle to be always good, is unceasing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the blessings

they bring which, if not acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be made partakers of

Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and

holierexpressed in daily watchfulness, and in striving to assimilate more of the divine characterthis will

mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the Science of Christianity through

demonstration of the divine nature; but in this wicked world goodness will "be evil spoken of," and patience

Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer,

watchfulness, and devout obedience, enable us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and

creeds, have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in human robes. They materialize worship,

Sorrow for wrongdoing is but one step towards reform, and the very easiest step. The next and great step

required by Wisdom is the test of our sinceritynamely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the

stress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for what is done. So

it will ever be, till we learn that there is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must pay "the uttermost

farthing." The measure ye mete "shall be measured to you again," and it will be full "and running over."

Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always in this world. The followers of Christ drank His cup.

Ingratitude and persecution filled it to the brim; but God pours the riches of His love into the understanding

and affections, giving us strength according to our day. Sinners flourish "like a green baytree"; but, looking

farther, the Psalmist could see their endnamely, the destruction of sin through suffering.

Prayer is sometimes used, as a confessional to cancel sin. This error impedes true religion. Sin is forgiven,

only as it is destroyed by ChristTruth and Life If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is cancelled, and that

man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil. He grows worse who continues in sin because he thinks

An apostle says that the Son of God (Christ) came to "destroy the works of the devil." We should follow our

divine Exemplar, and seek the destruction of all evil works, error and disease included. We cannot escape the

penalty due for sin. The Scriptures say, that if we deny Christ, "He also will deny us."

The divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the

sinner. God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve. Calling on

Him to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition that we have nothing to do

To cause suffering, as the result of sin, is the means of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin will

furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until belief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach heaven, the

"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask; higher we cannot look; farther we cannot go. To suppose that

God forgives or punishes sin, according as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love and

Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before He cast it out. Of a sick woman He said that Satan had bound her;

and to Peter He said, "Thou art an offense unto me." He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin,

It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: "His rebuke is

The only civil sentence which He had for error was, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." Still stronger evidence that

Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is in His own wordsshowing the necessity for such forcible

utterance, when He cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The relinquishment of error deprives

Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation to thought; but does it produce any

lasting benefit? Looking deeply into these things, we find that "a zeal . . . not according to knowledge," gives

occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and wholesome perception of God's

requirements. The motives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or encourage

Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ecstasy, and emotions. If spiritual sense always guided men at

such times, there would grow out of those ecstatic moments a higher experience and a better life, with more

devout selfabnegation, and purity. A selfsatisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes a

Christian. God is not influenced by man. The "divine ear" is not an auditoria! nerve. It is the all hearing and

allknowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, and by whom it will be supplied.

The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation. By it we may become involuntary

hypocrites, uttering desires which are not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the

recollection that we have prayed over it or mean to ask forgiveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to

A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of selfjustification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite. We

never need despair of an honest heart, but there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to

face with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it. Their prayers are indexes which do not correspond with

their character. They hold secret fellowship with sin; and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like unto

If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, is impure, and therefore insincere, what must be the

comment upon him? If he had reached the loftiness of his prayer, there would be no occasion for such

comment. If we feel the aspiration, humility, gratitude, and love which our words expressthis God accepts;

and it is wise not to try to deceive our. selves or others, for "there is nothing covered that shall not be

revealed." Professions and audible prayers are like charity in one respect they "cover a multitude of sins."

Praying for humility, with whatever fervency of expression, does not always mean a desire for it. If we turn

away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses the poor. We confess to

having a very wicked heart, and ask that it may be laid bare before us; but do we not already know more of

We ought to examine ourselves, and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart; for this alone can

show us what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently, and credit

what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are "not as other men?" During many years the author has

been most grateful for merited rebuke. The sting lies in unmerited censurein the falsehood which does no

The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of this

asking? Do we pursue the old selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we give

no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently with our prayer? If selfishness has given

place to kindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we shall never

meet this great duty by simply asking that it may be done. There is a cross to be taken up, before we can

Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind?" This

command includes mucheven the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This

is the E1 Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of

Spirit, wherein Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.

Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire

to attain this point? No! Then why make long prayers about it, and ask to be Christians, since you care not to

tread in the footsteps of our dear Master? If unwilling to follow His example, wherefore pray with the lips

that you may be partakers of His nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. Prayer means that we

desire to, and will, walk in the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleeding footsteps, and waiting

The world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus' cup of

earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sorrows. Until we are thus divinely qualified, and willing to

drink His cup, millions of vain repetitions will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit, in demonstration

of power, and "with signs following." Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the world, the

Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving which enables us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a

One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a prayingmachine through the streets, and stop at the doors

to earn a penny by grinding out a prayer; whereas civilization pays for clerical prayers, in lofty edifices. Is the

Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in prayer.

There is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and blessedness, or we should

certainly receive what we ask for. The Scriptures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye

may consume it upon your lusts." What we desire and ask for it is not always best for us to receive. In this

case infinite Love will not grant the request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful and not punish sin? Then "ye

ask amiss." Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, "forgive us our debts," specified also the

terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman He said, "Go, and sin no more."

A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral benefit to the criminal; and at best, it

only saves him from one form of punishment. The moral law, which has the right to acquit or condemn,

always demands restitution, before mortals can "go up higher." Broken law brings penalty, in order to compel

Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they are

corrected) leaves the offender free to repeat the offense; if, indeed, he has not already suffered sufficiently

from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the

most effectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence against an individual's sin,

Petitions only bring to mortals the results of their own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in

order to gain it; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be

willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness. Prayer alone cannot

change the unalterable Truth, or give us an understanding of it; but prayer coupled with a fervent habitual

desire to know and do the will of God will bring us into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible

To begin, then, at the beginning, Christian Science accepts the work of healing sickness as an integral part of

the discipleship of Jesus Christ. In Christ it finds, what the Church has always recognized, theoretically,

though it has practically ignored the factthe Great Physician. That Christ healed the sick, we none of us

question. It stands plainly upon the record. This ministry of healing was too large a part of His work to be left

out from any picture of that life. Such service was not an incident of His careerit was an essential element

of that career. It was an integral factor in His mission. The Evangelists leave us no possibility of confusion on

this point. Coequal with his work of instruction and inspiration was His work of healing.

The records make it equally clear that the Master laid His charge upon His disciples to do as He had done.

"When He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them

out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." In sending them forth, "He commanded

them, saying, . . . As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the

That the twelve disciples undertook to do the Master's work of healing, and that they, in their measure,

succeeded, seems beyond question. They found in themselves the same power that the Master found in

Himself, and they used it as He had used His power. The record of The Acts of the Apostles, if at all

Beyond the circle of the original twelve, it is equally clear that the early disciples believed themselves

charged with the same mission, and that they sought to fulfil it. The records of the early Church make it

indisputable that powers of healing were recognized as among the gifts of the Spirit. St. Paul's letters render it

certain that these gifts were not a privilege of the original twelve, merely, but that they were the heritage into

Beyond the era of the primitive Church, through several generations, the early Christians felt themselves

called to the same ministry of healing, and enabled with the same secret of power. Through wellnigh three

centuries, the gifts of healing appear to have been, more or less, recognized and exercised in the Church.

Through those generations, however, there was a gradual disuse of this power, following upon a failing

recognition of its possession. That which was originally the rule became the exception. By degrees, the sense

of authority and power to heal passed out from the consciousness of the Church. It ceased to be a sign of the

indwelling Spirit. For fifteen centuries, the recognition of this authority and power has been altogether

exceptional. Here and there, through the history of these centuries, there have been those who have entered

into this belief of their own privilege and duty, and have used the gift which they recognized. The Church has

never been left without a line of witnesses to this aspect of the discipleship of Christ. But she has come to

accept it as the normal order of things that what was once the rule in the Christian Church should be now only

the exception. Orthodoxy has framed a theory of the words of Jesus to account for this strange departure of

His Church from them. It teaches us to believe that His example was not meant to be followed, in this respect,

by all His disciples. The power of healing which was in Him was a purely exceptional power. It was used as

an evidence of His divine mission. It was a miraculous gift. The gift of working miracles was not bestowed

upon His Church at large. His original disciples, the twelve apostles, received this gift, as a necessity of the

critical epoch of Christianity the founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered on, in weakening

activity, until they gradually ceased, and the normal condition of the Church was entered upon, in which

We accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of things in Christianity. But it is a conception which will not

bear a moment's examination. There is not the slightest suggestion upon record that Christ set any limit to this

charge which He gave His disciples. On the contrary, there are not lacking hints that He looked for the

Even if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark's Gospel were a later appendix, it may none the less have been

a faithful echo of words of the Master, as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief of the early

Christians as to the thought of Jesus concerning His followers. In that interesting passage, Jesus, after His

death, appeared to the eleven, and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His work in the world;

bidding them, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." "And these signs," He tells

them, "shall follow them that believe"not the apostles only, but "them that believe," without limit of time;

"in My name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." The

concluding discourse to the disciples, recorded in the Gospel according to St. John, affirms the same

expectation on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn way: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that

believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

Few will deny that an intelligence apart from man formed and governs the spiritual universe and man; and

this intelligence is the eternal Mind, and neither matter nor man created this intelligence and divine Principle;

nor can this Principle produce aught unlike itself. All that we term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in the

belief of matter. The realm of the real is spiritual; the opposite of Spirit is matter; and the opposite of the real

is unreal or material. Matter is an error of statement, for there is no matter. This error of premises leads to

error of conclusion in every statement of matter as a basis. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is

true, except that matter is unreal, simply a belief that has its beginning and ending.

The conservative firm called matter and mind God never formed. The unerring and eternal Mind destroys this

imaginary copartnership, formed only to be dissolved in a manner and at a period unknown. This

copartnership is obsolete. Placed under the microscope of metaphysics matter disappears. Only by

understanding there are not two, matter and mind, is a logical and correct conclusion obtained by either one.

Science gathers not grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Intelligence never produced nonintelligence, such as

matter: the immortal never produced mortality, good never resulted in evil. The science of Mind shows

conclusively that matter is a myth. Metaphysics are above physics, and drag not matter, or what is termed

that, into one of its premises or conclusions. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the

objects of sense for the ideas of Soul. These ideas are perfectly tangible and real to consciousness, and they

have this advantage they are eternal. Mind and its thoughts comprise the whole of God, the universe, and

of man. Reason and revelation coincide with this statement, and support its proof every hour, for nothing is

harmonious or eternal that is not spiritual: the realization of this will bring out objects from a higher source of

The fact of spiritualization produces results in striking contrast to the farce of materialization: the one

produces the results of chastity and purity, the other the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of

The exalting and healing effects of metaphysics show their fountain. Nothing in pathology has exceeded the

application of metaphysics. Through mind alone we have prevented disease and preserved health. In cases of

chronic and acute diseases, in their severest forms, we have changed the secretions, renewed structure, and

restored health; have elongated shortened limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, made cicatrized joints supple; restored

carious bones to healthy conditions, renewed that which is termed the lost substance of the lungs; and

I feel almost sure that Mrs. Eddy's inspirationworks are getting out of repair. I think so because they made

some errors in a statement which she uttered through the press on the 17th of January. Not large ones,

perhaps, still it is a friend's duty to straighten such things out and get them right when he can. Therefore I will

put my other duties aside for a moment and undertake this helpful service. She said as follows:

"In view of the circulation of certain criticisms from the pen of Mark Twain, I submit the following

"It is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first gave me the endearing appellative 'mother'

not to name me thus. But, without my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think the name is

not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as a Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard

selfdeification as blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered, provided for, and

cheered than others before meand wherefore? Because Christian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse

"My visit to the MotherChurch after it was built and dedicated pleased me, and the situation was

satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet me with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and

went alone in my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the steps of its altar. There the

foresplendor of the beginnings of truth fell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one

Christ, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one Mother Mary, and know I am not that

one, and never claimed to be. It suffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this subject.

"Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics, or any other sect. They need to be

understood as following the divine Principle God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a

"In the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark Twain's wit was not wasted In certain

directions. Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human

consciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but to understand the spiritual idea is

essential to demonstrate Science and its pure monotheismone God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human

propaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. His lifework subordinated the material

to the spiritual, and He left this legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of philosophy,

"I have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second Virgin Motherher duplicate, antecedent, or

subsequent. What I am remains to be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom, and love to

perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us. This glory is molten in the furnace

She still thinks the name of Our Mother not applicable to her; and she is also able to remember that it

distressed her when it was conferred upon her, and that she begged to have it suppressed. Her memory is at

fault here. If she will take her Bylaws, and refer to Section 1 of Article XXII., written with her own

handshe will find that she has reserved that title to herself, and is so pleased with it, and somay we say

jealous?about it, that she threatens with excommunication any sister Scientist who shall call herself by it.

"The Title of Mother. In the year 1895 loyal Christian Scientists had given to the author of their textbook,

the Founder of Christian Science, the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore, if a student of

Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for kinship according

to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and

Mrs. Eddy is herself the MotherChurchits powers and authorities are in her possession solely and she

can abolish that title whenever it may please her to do so. She has only to command her people, wherever

they may be in the earth, to use it no more, and it will never be uttered again. She is aware of this.

It may be that she "refuses adulation" when she is not awake, but when she is awake she encourages it and

propagates it in that museum called "Our Mother's Room," in her Church in Boston. She could abolish that

institution with a word, if she wanted to. She is aware of that. I will say a further word about the museum

"I believe in . . . but one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be."

At a session of the National Christian Science Association, held in the city of New York on the 27th of May,

1890, the secretary was "instructed to send to our Mother greetings and words of affection from her

"All hail! He hath filled the hungry with good things and the sick hath He not sent empty away.MOTHER

Which Mother Mary is this one? Are there two? If so, she is both of them; for, when she signed this telegram

in this satisfied and unprotesting way, the Mothertitle which she was going to so strenuously object to, and

put from her with humility, and seize with both hands, and reserve as her sole property, and protect her

monopoly of it with a stern Bylaw, while recognizing with diffidence that it was "not applicable" to her

(then and today)that Mothertitle was not yet born, and would not be offered to her until five years

later. The date of the above "Mother Mary" is 1890; the "individual, endearing title of Mother" was given her

In his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President recognized this Maryour Maryand

Were had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus at one time, and only one; there is a

Mary and "only one." She is not a Has Been, she is an Isthe "Author of Science and Health; and we cannot

1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. 2. Mrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in

signing the telegram. 3. Mrs. Eddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press utterance of

January 17th. 4. And has "never claimed to be "that oneunless the signature to the telegram is a claim.

Thus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't, and thought she was and knows she

She is also "The Mother," by the election of 1895, and did not want the title, and thinks it is not applicable to

her, end will excommunicate any one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear.

I think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these particular matters has arisen from the

name Mary. Much vexation, much misunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some

of her other names in place of that one. "Mother Mary" was certain to stir up discussion. It would have been

much better if she had signed the telegram "Mother Baker"; then there would have been no Biblical

competition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too late, yet.

I wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this examination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January

The history of her "Mother Mary" telegramas told to me by one who ought to be a very good authorityis

curious and interesting. The telegram ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the "Magnificat," but really makes

"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away."

"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not sent empty away."

To judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that massed convention of trained

Christians created no astonishment, since it caused no remark, and the business of the convention went

Did those people detect those changes? We cannot know. I think they must have noticed them, the wording of

St. Luke's verse being as familiar to all Christians as is the wording of the Beatitudes; and I think that the

reason the new version provoked no surprise and no comment was, that the assemblage took it for a

"Key"a spiritualized explanation of verse 53, newly sent down from heaven through Mrs. Eddy. For all

Scientists study their Bibles diligently, and they know their Magnificat. I believe that their confidence in the

authenticity of Mrs. Eddy's inspirations is so limitless and so firmly established that no change, however

violent, which she might make in a Bible text could disturb their composure or provoke from them a protest.

Her improved rendition of verse 53 went into the convention's report and appeared in a New York paper the

next day. The (at that time) Scientist whom I mentioned a minute ago, and who had not been present at the

convention, saw it and marvelled; marvelled and was indignantindignant with the printer or the

telegrapher, for making so careless and so dreadful an error. And greatly distressed, too; for, of course, the

newspaper people would fall foul of it, and be sarcastic, and make fun of it. and have a blithe time over it,

and be properly thankful for the chance. It shows how innocent he was; it shows that he did not know the

limitations of newspaper men in the matter of Biblical knowledge. The new verse 53 raised no insurrection in

the press; in fact, it was not even remarked upon; I could have told him the boys would not know there was

anything the matter with it. I have been a newspaper man myself, and in those days I had my limitations like

The Scientist hastened to Concord and told Mrs. Eddy what a disastrous mistake had been made, but he found

to his bewilderment that she was tranquil about it, and was not proposing to correct it. He was not able to get

her to promise to make a correction. He asked her secretary if he had heard aright when the telegram was

dictated to him; the secretary said he had, and took the filed copy of it and verified its authenticity by

Mrs. Eddy did make the correction, two months later, in her official organ. It attracted no attention among the

Scientists; and, naturally, none elsewhere, for that periodical's circulation was practically confined to

That is the tale as it was told to me by an exScientist. Verse 53 renovated and spiritualizedhad a

narrow escape from a tremendous celebrity. The newspaper men would have made it as famous as the

To return to the Claim. I find myself greatly embarrassed by Mrs. Eddy's remark: "I regard selfdeification as

blasphemous." If she is right about that, I have written a halfream of manuscript this past week which I must

not print, either in the book which I am writing, or elsewhere: for it goes into that very matter with extensive

elaboration, citing, in detail, words and acts of Mrs. Eddy's which seem to me to prove that she is a faithful

and untiring worshipper of herself, and has carried self deification to a length which has not been before

ventured in ages. If ever. There is not room enough in this chapter for that Survey, but I can epitomize a

With her own untaught and untrained mind, and without outside help, she has erected upon a firm and lasting

foundation the most minutely perfect, and wonderful, and smoothly and exactly working, and best

safeguarded system of government that has yet been devised in the world, as I believe, and as I am sure I

It is a despotism (on this democratic soil); a sovereignty more absolute than the Roman Papacy, more

absolute than the Russian Czarship; it has not a single power, not a shred of authority, legislative or

executive, which is not lodged solely in the sovereign; all its dreams, its functions, its energies, have a single

object, a single reason for existing, and only the oneto build to the sky the glory of the sovereign, and keep

Mrs. Eddy is the sovereign; she devised that great place for herself, she occupies that throne.

In 1895, she wrote a little primer, a little body of autocratic laws, called the Manual of The First Church of

Christ, Scientist, and put those laws in force, in permanence. Her government is all there; all in that

deceptively innocentlooking little book, that cunning little devilish book, that slumbering little brown

volcano, with hell in its bowels. In that book she has planned out her system, and classified and defined its

A Supreme Church. At Boston. Branch Churches. All over the world One Pastor for the whole of them: to

In every C.S. pulpit, two "Readers," a man and a woman. No talkers, no preachers, in any Churchreaders

only. Readers of the Bible and her booksno others. No commentators allowed to write or print.

A Church Service. She has framed itfor all the C.S. Churches selected its readings, its prayers, and the

hymns to be used, and has appointed the order of procedure. No changes permitted.

A Creed. She wrote it. All C.S. Churches must subscribe to it. No other permitted.

Supreme Church. Pastor EmeritusMrs. Eddy. Board of Directors. Board of Education. Board of Finance.

College Faculty. Various Committees. Treasurer. Clerk. First Members (of the Supreme Church). Members

Even the little "Pastor Emeritus" is a fiction. Instead of being merely an honorary and ornamental official,

Mrs. Eddy is the only official in the entire body that has the slightest power. In her Manual, she has provided

a prodigality of ways and forms whereby she can rid herself of any functionary in the government whenever

she wants to. The officials are all shadows, save herself; she is the only reality. She allows no one to hold

office more than a year no one gets a chance to become overpopular or overuseful, and dangerous.

"Excommunication" is the favorite penaltyit is threatened at every turn. It is evidently the pet dread and

The member who thinks, without getting his thought from Mrs. Eddy before uttering it, is banished

permanently. One or two kinds of sinners can plead their way back into the fold, but this one, never. To

To nearly every severe and fierce rule, Mrs. Eddy adds this rivet: "This Bylaw shall not be changed without

Mrs. Eddy is the entire Supreme Church, in her own person, in the matter of powers and authorities.

Although she has provided so many ways of getting rid of unsatisfactory members and officials, she was still

afraid she might have left a life preserver lying around somewhere, therefore she devised a rule to cover that

defect. By applying it, she can excommunicate (and this is perpetual again) every functionary connected with

the Supreme Church, and every one of the twentyfive thousand members of that Church, at an hour's

By authority of this astonishing Bylaw, she has only to say a person connected with that Church is secretly

practicing hypnotism or mesmerism; whereupon, immediate excommunication, without a hearing, is his

portion! She does not have to order a trial and produce evidenceher accusation is all that is necessary.

The Branch Church's pulpit is occupied by two "Readers." Without them the Branch Church is as dead as if

its throat had been cut. To have control, then, of the Readers, is to have control of the Branch Churches. Mrs.

Eddy has that controla control wholly without limit, a control shared with no one.

1. No Reader can be appointed to any Church in the Christian Science world without her express approval.

2. She can summarily expel from his or her place any Reader, at home or abroad, by a mere letter of

dismissal, over her signature, and without furnishing any reason for it, to either the congregation or the

Thus she has as absolute control over all Branch Churches as she has over the Supreme Church. This power

In simple truth, she is the only absolute sovereign in all Christendom. The authority of the other sovereigns

has limits, hers has none, none whatever. And her yoke does not fret, does not offend. Many of the subjects of

the other monarchs feel their yoke, and are restive under it; their loyalty is insincere. It is not so with this

one's human property; their loyalty is genuine, earnest, sincere, enthusiastic. The sentiment which they feel

for her is one which goes out in sheer perfection to no other occupant of a throne; for it is love, pure from

doubt, envy, exaction, faultseeking, a love whose sun has no spotthat form of love, strong, great,

uplifting, limitless, whose vast proportions are compassable by no word but one, the prodigious word,

Worship. And it is not as a human being that her subjects worship her, but as a supernatural one, a divine one,

Mrs. Eddy has herself created all these personal grandeurs and autocracieswith others which I have not (in

this article) mentioned. They place her upon an Alpine solitude and supremacy of power and spectacular

show not hitherto attained by any other selfseeking enslaver disguised in the Christian name, and they

persuade me that, although she may regard "selfdeification as blasphemous," she is as fond of it as I am of

She knows about "Our Mother's Room" in the Supreme Church in Boston above referred tofor she has

been in it. In a recently published North American Review article, I quoted a lady as saying Mrs. Eddy's

portrait could be seen there in a shrine, lit by alwaysburning lights, and that C.S. disciples came and

worshiped it. That remark hurt the feelings of more than one Scientist. They said it was not true, and asked

me to correct it. I comply with pleasure. Whether the portrait was there four years ago or not, it is not there

now, for I have inquired. The only object in the shrine now, and lit by electricsand worshipedis an oil

portrait of the horsehair chair Mrs. Eddy used to sit in when she was writing Science and Health! It seems to

Mrs. Eddy knows about that. She has been there, she has seen it, she has seen the worshippers. She could

abolish that sarcasm with a word. She withholds the word. Once more I seem to recognize in her exactly the

same appetite for selfdeification that I have for pie. We seem to be curiously alike; for the love of

selfdeification is really only the spiritual form of the material appetite for pie, and nothing could be more

"Rights" is vague; I do not know what it means there. Mrs. Eddy is not well acquainted with the English

language, and she is seldom able to say in it what she is trying to say. She has no ear for the exact word, and

"Eschews." This is another umbrella where there should be a torch; it does not illumine the sentence, it only

deepens the shadows. Does she mean "denies?" "refuses?" "forbids?" or something in that line? Does she

The bulk of the succeeding sentence is to me a tunnel, but, when I emerge at this end of it, I seem to come

"Christian Science recognizes but one God, forbids the worship of human beings, and refuses to recognize the

I am subject to correction, but I think that that is about what Mrs. Eddy was intending to convey. Has her

Englishwhich is always difficult to mebeguiled me into misunderstanding the following remark, which

she makes (calling herself "we," after an old regal fashion of hers) in her preface to her Miscellaneous

"While we entertain decided views as to the best method for elevating the race physically, morally, and

spiritually, and shall express these views as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine

"Although I am of divine origin and gifted with supernatural power, I shall not draw upon these resources in

Which is awkwardmost awkward; for one either has a divine origin or hasn't; shares in it, degrees of it, are

surely impossible. The idea of crossed breeds in cattle is a thing we can entertain, for we are used to it, and it

Well, then, what does she mean? I am sure I do not know, for certain. It is the word "our" that makes all the

trouble. With the "our" in, she is plainly saying "my divine origin." The word "from" seems to be intended to

mean "on account of." It has to mean that or nothing, if "our" is allowed to stay. The clause then says:

And I think that the full sentence was intended to mean what I have already suggested:

"Although I am of divine origin, and gifted with supernatural power, I shall not draw upon these resources in

When Mrs. Eddy copyrighted that Preface seven years ago, she had long been used to regarding herself as a

"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her property, and published by her, it was

claimed for her, and with her sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to

"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf, that she herself was the chosen successor to and

The following remark in that April number, quoted by Mr. Peabody, indicates that her claim had been

"Now, a word about the horror many good people have of our making the Author of Science and Health

Surely, if it had excited horror in Mrs. Eddy also, she would have published a disclaimer. She owned the

paper; she could say what she pleased in its columns. Instead of rebuking her editor, she lets him rebuke those

It may be that "Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings," and forbids worship of any but

"one God, one Christ"; but, if that is the case, it looks as if Mrs. Eddy is a very unsound Christian Scientist,

and needs disciplining. I believe she has a serious malady"self deification"; and that it will be well to

Meantime, let her go on livingfor my sake. Closely examined, painstakingly studied, she is easily the most

interesting person on the planet, and, in several ways, as easily the most extraordinary woman that was ever

P.S.Since I wrote the foregoing, Mr. McCrackan's article appeared (in the March number of the North

American Review). Before his article appearedthat is to say, during December, January, and FebruaryI

had written a new book, a characterportrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words, and it was

thentogether with the three brief articles previously published in the North American Reviewready to be

delivered to the printer for issue in book form. In that book, by accident and good luck, I have answered the

objections made by Mr. McCrackan to my views, and therefore do not need to add an answer here. Also, in it

I have corrected certain misstatements of mine which he has noticed, and several others which he has not

referred to. There are one or two important matters of opinion upon which he and I are not in disagreement;

but there are others upon which we must continue to disagree, I suppose; indeed, I know we must; for

instance, he believes Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health, whereas I am quite sure I can convince a person

As concerns one considerable matter I hope to convert him. He believes Mrs. Eddy's word; in his article he

cites her as a witness, and takes her testimony at par; but if he will make an excursion through my book when

it comes out, and will dispassionately examine her testimonies as there accumulated, I think he will in candor

concede that she is by a large percentage the most erratic and contradictory and untrustworthy witness that

Broadly speaking, the hostiles reject and repudiate all the pretensions of Christian Science Christianity. They

affirm that it has added nothing new to Christianity; that it can do nothing that Christianity could not do and

In that case is there no field for the new Christianity, no opportunity for usefulness, precious usefulness, great

and distinguished usefulness? I think there is. I am far from being confident that it can fill it, but I will

indicate that unoccupied fieldwithout chargeand if it can conquer it, it will deserve the praise and

The present Christianity makes an excellent private Christian, but its endeavors to make an excellent public

This is an honest nationin private life. The American Christian is a straight and clean and honest man, and

in his private commerce with his fellows can be trusted to stand faithfully by the principles of honor and

honesty imposed upon him by his religion. But the moment he comes forward to exercise a public trust he

can be confidently counted upon to betray that trust in nine cases out of ten, if "party loyalty" shall require it.

If there are two tickets in the field in his city, one composed of honest men and the other of notorious

blatherskites and criminals, he will not hesitate to lay his private Christian honor aside and vote for the

blatherskites if his "party honor" shall exact it. His Christianity is of no use to him and has no influence upon

him when he is acting in a public capacity. He has sound and sturdy private morals, but he has no public

ones. In the last great municipal election in New York, almost a complete onehalf of the votes representing

3,500,000 Christians were cast for a ticket that had hardly a man on it whose earned and proper place was

outside of a jail. But that vote was present at church next Sunday the same as ever, and as unconscious of its

Our Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are true to every obligation of honor; yet in

every session they violate them all, and do it without shame; because honor to party is above honor to

themselves. It is an accepted law of public life that in it a man may soil his honor in the interest of party

expediency must do it when party expediency requires it. In private life those men would bitterly

resentand justlyany insinuation that it would not be safe to leave unwatched money within their reach;

yet you could not wound their feelings by reminding them that every time they vote ten dollars to the pension

appropriation nine of it is stolen money and they the marauders. They have filched the money to take care of

the party; they believe it was right to do it; they do not see how their private honor is affected; therefore their

consciences are clear and at rest. By vote they do wrongful things every day, in the party interest, which they

could not be persuaded to do in private life. In the interest of party expediency they give solemn pledges, they

make solemn compacts; in the interest of party expediency they repudiate them without a blush. They would

Now then, can Christian Science introduce the Congressional Blush? There are Christian Private Morals, but

there are no Christian Public Morals, at the polls, or in Congress or anywhere else except here and there

and scattered around like lost comets in the solar system. Can Christian Science persuade the nation and

Congress to throw away their public morals and use none but their private ones henceforth in all their

I do not think so; but no matter about me: there is the fielda grand one, a splendid one, a sublime one, and

absolutely unoccupied. Has Christian Science confidence enough in itself to undertake to enter in and try to

Make the effort, Christian Science; it is a most noble cause, and it might succeed. It could succeed. Then we

should have a new literature, with romances entitled, How To Be an Honest Congressman Though a