Article February 2, 1899 Issue

Mr. Norton's Reference to Mrs. Eddy

Mr. Norton concluded his lecture at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburg, Pa., with the following beautiful and truthful reference to the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy:—

The Founder of Christian Science recently stated in a published interview that its adherents number more than six hundred thousand believers. The magnitude of the work of the system, its healing, reformation, and widespread influence upon the thought of the present era, demand that its tenets be soberly investigated. To its Discoverer and Founder the race owes everlasting gratitude. Hundreds of thousands, long bound by chains of suffering and error, now call her career blessed and her mission to humanity divinely ordered. She discourages personal homage. Her strongest characteristic is lofty scorn for mere personal regard or any approach towards hero worship. She is liberal, consistent, and unselfish. As a friend she is constant; as a religious teacher, faithful and untiring; as a philanthropist, liberal and wise, giving in private and public charities large instalments of her time and money. As a Mother in Israel, tender, compassionate, forgiving. As a Reformer, courageous, with prophetic vision of a rare order. As an American woman, patriotic and democratic, yet it can be said of her that "the world is her country—to do good her religion." She stands as she always has done, the friend of the oppressed and downtrodden. Works, not professions, crown her years of toil, and willing thousands, with dignified gratitude, love to call her by the endearing term of Mother, for she has interpreted to a needy world the nature of the divine Maternity, yea, a Father and a Mother God.

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