EDITORIAL COMMENT

The old rumor that has been started so many times about Mrs. Eddy being ill, being represented by a substitute, being out of her mind,—in short, a lot of nonsense,—has been taken so seriously this time that Scientists have been greatly disturbed and have taken committees of prominent people in Concord to call on her and the alleged substitute. These all unite in saying that Mrs. Eddy is well and keen of mind and manages her own affairs, the last being respectfully suggested as a course that her calumniators ought to emulate. There is nothing gained by such baseless rumors. It is a method that does not commend itself to any creed or any following, for the time that is wasted in decrying others inevitably takes away from our own achievements. No matter what the physical and bodily state of Mrs. Eddy, it is the concern of her followers; and if every allegation were true, it ought to be a matter of regret to the community.

This country, this age, permits all degrees of religious freedom. Any man has at any time a right to set up anything that he believes is satisfactory to himself, provided he does not insist on its being satisfactory to his neighbor by compulsion. It is not Christianity to be criticising others' beliefs. So live that they will feel impelled to follow yours if they can.

Again, by their fruits shall ye know them. The Christian Scientists in every community have come to be more than a debatable factor. They are a force for the betterment of the material good, certainly, whether we agree with them spiritually or not. They erect handsome houses, fine edifices that are educational in their beauties of line and ornament; they are friends to culture and refinement and charity of thought and deed. And spiritually a creed that believes in being bright, cheerful, in refusing to consider evil triumphant, and that exemplifies its teachings in its lives, should be regarded by all other creeds as having a right to place, not persecution.—New London (Conn.) Globe.

The testimony from Concord, N. H., that it's Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy herself—and not a masquerading impostor—who goes about in her carriage, and bows to her bowing townsmen, is abundant and convincing. Evidently the New York World has been victimized by sensation-mongers.

Monday evening the editor of the Concord Monitor told the public that he has enjoyed Mrs. Eddy's friendship for ten years and more, meeting her frequently and corresponding with her "almost continuously," Recently he had occasion to consult her on public affairs; "her words were direct and simple, her discernment acute and sympathetic, her manner cordial and unaffected." One day last week, in a narrow street, he met her carriage; the real Mrs. Eddy, whom he has known all these years, was in it. Very well, then:—

"When any one tells Concord that Mrs. Eddy is not one of our busiest, most helpful, and most beloved and respected citizens, in full possession of her illustrious faculties of mind and in bodily strength beyond what her years warrant, Concord has a prompt and impregnable answer:—

"We all know better!"

That seems to settle it.—Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

The New York World can hardly be congratulated on having been brilliantly successful in its effort to establish the belief that Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the head of Christian Science, is fatally ill with cancer at her home in Concord, N. H., and that other persons are personating her and acting for her in various ways. The allegations published in its Sunday issue are met with the most positive denials, not only by the members of her household but by the mayor of Concord, the editors of the two daily papers published there, and other persons.—Hartford (Conn.) Times.

One does not need to be a Christian Scientist to have a feeling of indignation over the recent treatment of the venerable Leader of that cult.

There is an element of impertinence, indeed of cruelty, in the episode, that does not accord with the sense of ordinary courtesy. To force a woman in her eighty-sixth year to make a public exhibition of herself in order to prove her own existence, to subject her to a formal catechism, to criticise her because she does not evince the lively vitality often absent in persons thirty years younger, is not a pleasant spectacle. The episode does not reflect credit upon the critics of Mrs. Eddy.—The Boston Post.

The charge against Mrs. Eddy appears to be that at eighty-five she is not as young as she once was; that she maintains a degree of privacy which is not yet a crime in any lady, and that she has not made public accounting of the earnings of her pen. Her fellow-townsmen repel the attack recently made upon her, and fellow-religionists seem still capable of retaining their characteristic serenity and of holding fast to their sustaining faith.—Boston Herald.

The facts established at the interview with Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, head of the Christian Science Church, as reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday, should set at rest all stories to the effect that Mrs. Eddy is even slightly ill. For a woman of her age Mrs. Eddy appears to be remarkably strong, physically and mentally.

New London (Conn.) Day.

On the whole, the disciples of Mrs. Eddy have no good reason to complain of the outcome of the latest attack on her. It's a boomerang.—Boston Herald.

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MRS. EDDY TAKES NO PATIENTS

November 3, 1906

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