Article May 28, 1955 Issue

Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them

[Mentioned in Pulpit and Press, p. 54, and The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p.12]

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892

One of Whittier's biographers has observed that Whittier "was not a poet of religion, but a man in whom religion was vital." This accounts for the appeal of his poems which have been set to music as hymns. A Quaker by birth, he thoroughly believed in God's goodness and was animated by the spirit of universal love. These two guiding principles made it natural for him to espouse the cause of the slaves. As editor of several antislavery journals, his writings were particularly effective because they were without malice. Delicate health prevented him from being very active in political affairs, although he served in the state legislature and was a member of the electoral college both times Lincoln was elected.

Whittier attended the district school. But the poems he sent to the Haverhill Gazette attracted the attention of William Lloyd Garrison, who was responsible for Whittier's having 2 terms at the Haverhill Academy and later securing an editorial post on a Boston paper. His poems have the same feeling for the homely things of everyday life as have those of Burns, whom he greatly admired.

After 1840 Whittier's writing was nearly all done from Amesbury, where the family moved. It was here that Mrs. Eddy during one visit healed Whittier of incipient pulmonary consumption.

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