Article December 17, 1910 Issue

No just or accurate estimate of the character and work of...

Springfield (Mass.) Union

No just or accurate estimate of the character and work of Mary Baker Eddy is possible at this time, and anything that may be attempted in that direction must necessarily fail of the approval of a very considerable number of people. About no personage of her generation has so much and such bitter controversy raged as around the Founder and Leader of the organization and doctrines known as Christian Science, who has just died. The facts of her life and the very question of her existence in recent years, as well as the value of her teachings and example, have been a subject of fierce and acrimonious contention. Many years must elapse before an adequate and fair summing up of her work can be made. But, from whatever view-point one regards the subject, it is beyond the possibility of dispute that she was one of the most influential as well as one of the most remarkable figures of the age.

In the last few years the power and vitality of the Christian Science movement has been shown more clearly than at any previous time. However much Christian Science has been overestimated as a reformative and constructive agent, however strained or unsound some of its tenets may be, it has unquestionably been a force to influence thought and religious institution, and its effect has been felt far beyond the membership of the Christian Science organization. The dignity of her bearing, the patience and self-control she has displayed in the most trying emergencies, have been no slight contribution to the success of her cause. To have preached uniformly the doctrine of peace and love to so many listeners, year after year, is in itself a great thing. In the element referred to as "healing" Mrs. Eddy seems to have touched a spring that is giving religion a new impulse in modern life. How deep and how genuine this really is, must be left to the future to determine.

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Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy may properly be estimated as one...
December 17, 1910
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