Pulpit and Press Part 7

Dr. Hammond, the pastor, came to Baltimore about three years ago to organize this movement. Miss Cross came from Syracuse, N.Y., about eighteen months ago. Both were under the instruction of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the movement.

Dr. Hammond says he was converted to Christian Science by being cured by Mrs. Eddy of a physical ailment some twelve years ago, after several doctors had p.r.o.nounced his case incurable. He says they use no medicines, but rely on Mind for cure, believing that disease comes from evil and sick-producing thoughts, and that, if they can so fill the mind with good thoughts as to leave no room there for the bad, they can work a cure. He distinguishes Christian Science from the faith cure and added: "This Christian Science really is a return to the ideas of primitive Christianity. It would take a small book to explain fully all about it, but I may say that the fundamental idea is that G.o.d is Mind, and we interpret the Scriptures wholly from the spiritual or metaphysical standpoint. We find in this view of the Bible the power fully developed to heal the sick. It is not faith cure, but it is an acknowledgment of certain Christian and scientific laws, and to work a cure the pract.i.tioner must understand these laws aright. The patient may gain a better understanding than the church has had in the past. All churches have prayed for the cure of disease, but they have not done so in an intelligent manner, understanding and demonstrating the Christ-healing."

(_The Reporter_, Lebanon, Ind., January 18, 1895.)

EXTRACT.

DISCOVERED CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

Remarkable Career of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, Who Has Over 100,000 Followers.

Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer and founder of Christian Science, author of its textbook, "SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES,"

president of the Ma.s.sachusetts Metaphysical college, and first pastor of the Christian Science denomination, is without doubt one of the most remarkable women in America. She has within a few years founded a sect that has over 100,000 converts, and very recently saw completed in Boston as a testimonial to her labors, a handsome fire proof church that cost $250,000, and was paid for by Christian Scientists all over the country.

Mrs. Eddy a.s.serts that in 1866 she became certain that "all causation was mind and every effect a mental phenomenon." Taking her text from the Bible, she endeavored in vain to find the great curative principle--the Deity--in philosophy and schools of medicine, and she concluded that the way of salvation demonstrated by Jesus was the power of truth over all error, sin, sickness, and death. Thus originated the divine or spiritual science of mind healing, which she termed Christian Science. She has a palatial home in Boston and a country seat in Concord, N.H. The Christian Science church has a membership of 4,000, and 800 of the members are Bostonians.

(_N.Y. Commercial Advertiser_, January 9, 1895.)

The idea that Christian Science has declined in popularity is not borne out by the voluntary contribution of a quarter of a million dollars for a memorial church for Mrs. Eddy, the inventor of this cure. The money comes from Christian Science believers exclusively.

(_The Post_, Syracuse, New York, February 1, 1895.)

DO NOT BELIEVE SHE WAS DEIFIED.

Christian Scientists of Syracuse Surprised at the News About Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, Founder of the Faith.

Christian Scientists in this city, and in fact all over the country, have been startled and greatly discomfited over the announcements in New York papers that Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the acknowledged Christian Science leader, has been exalted by various dignitaries of the faith....

It is well known that Mrs. Eddy has resigned herself completely to the study and foundation of the faith to which many thousands throughout the United States are now so entirely devoted. By her followers and co-believers she is unquestionably looked upon as having a divine mission to fulfill, and as though inspired in her great task by supernatural power.

For the purpose of learning the feeling of Scientists in this city toward the reported deification of Mrs. Eddy, a _Post_ reporter called upon a few of the leading members of the faith yesterday and had a number of very interesting conversations upon the subject.

Mrs. D.W. Copeland of University avenue was one of the first to be seen.

Mrs. Copeland is a very pleasant and agreeable lady, ready to converse, and evidently very much absorbed in the work to which she has given so much of her attention. Mrs. Copeland claims to have been healed a number of years ago by Christian Scientists, after she had practically been given up by a number of well known physicians.

"And for the past eleven years," said Mrs. Copeland, "I have not taken any medicine or drugs of any kind, and yet have been perfectly well."

In regard to Mrs. Eddy, Mrs. Copeland said that she was the founder of the faith, but that she had never claimed, nor did she believe that Mrs.

Lathrop had, that Mrs. Eddy had any power other than that which came from G.o.d and through faith in Him and His teachings.

"The power of Christ has been dormant in mankind for ages," added the speaker, "and it was Mrs. Eddy's mission to revive it. In our labors we take Christ as an example, going about doing good and healing the sick.

Christ has told us to do His work, naming as one great essential that we have faith in Him.

"Did you ever hear of Jesus' taking medicine Himself, or giving it to others?" inquired the speaker. "Then why should we worry ourselves about sickness and disease? If we become sick G.o.d will care for us, and will send to us those who have faith, who believe in His unlimited and divine power." Mrs. Eddy was strictly an ardent follower after G.o.d. She had faith in him, and she cured herself of a deathly disease through the mediation of her G.o.d. Then she secluded herself from the world for three years and studied and meditated over His divine word. She delved deep into the Biblical pa.s.sages, and at the end of the period came from her seclusion one of the greatest Biblical scholars of the age. Her mission was then the mission of a Christian to do good and heal the sick, and this duty she faithfully performed. She of herself had no power. But G.o.d has fulfilled His promises to her and to the world. "If ye have faith ye can move mountains."

Mrs. Henrietta N. Cole is also a very prominent member of the church.

When seen yesterday she emphasized herself as being of the same theory as Mrs. Copeland. Mrs. Cole has made a careful and searching study in the beliefs of Scientists and is perfectly versed in all their beliefs and doctrines. She stated that man of himself has no power, but that all comes from G.o.d. She placed no credit whatever in the reports from New York that Mrs. Eddy has been accredited as having been deified. She referred the reporter to the large volume which Mrs. Eddy had herself written, and said that no more complete and yet concise idea of her belief could be obtained than by a perusal of it.

(_New York Herald_, February 1, 1895.)

MRS. EDDY SHOCKED.

[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE HERALD.]

CONCORD, N.H., February 4, 1895.--The article published in the HERALD on January 29, regarding a statement made by Mrs. Laura Lathrop, pastor of the Christian Science congregation, that meets every Sunday in Hodgson Hall, New York, was shown to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the Christian Science "discoverer," to-day.

Mrs. Eddy preferred to prepare a written answer to the interrogatory, which she did in this letter, addressed to the editor of the HERALD:

"A despatch is given me, calling for an interview to answer for myself, 'Am I the second Christ?'

"Even the question shocks me. What I am is for G.o.d to declare in his infinite mercy. As it is I claim nothing more than what I am, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, and the blessing it has been to mankind which eternity enfolds.

"I think Mrs. Lathrop was not understood. If she said aught with intention to be thus understood, it is not what I have taught her, and not at all as I have heard her talk.

"My books and teachings maintain but one conclusion and statement of the Christ and the deification of mortals.

"Christ is individual, and one with G.o.d, in the sense of Divine Principle and its compound divine idea.

"There was, is and never can be but one G.o.d, one Christ, one Jesus of Nazareth. Whoever in any age expresses most of the spirit of Truth and Love, the Principle of G.o.d's Idea, has most of the spirit of Christ, of that Mind which was in Christ Jesus.

"If Christian Scientists find in my writings, teachings, and example a greater degree of this spirit than in others, they can justly declare it. But to think or speak of me in any manner as a Christ, is sacrilegious. Such a statement would not only be false, but the absolute antipode of Christian Science, and would savor more of heathenism, than of my doctrines.

"MARY BAKER EDDY."

(_The Globe_, Toronto, Canada, January 12, 1895.)

EXTRACT.

CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS.