Article December 17, 1910 Issue

The creed which Mrs. Eddy built in the minds or hearts...

New York Morning Sun

The creed which Mrs. Eddy built in the minds or hearts of her multitude of disciples has one aspect or incident which seems to us to deserve universal recognition. It is apart from any question concerning the theology, the pathology, the psychology of her doctrines, and apart even from the facts of her personal career.

We are thinking of the astonishing influence she exerted in thousands of homes for the amelioration of life and manners in some of the details of family and social intercourse. She taught cheerfulness of spirit, and observation encourages the belief that the great majority of her followers either became more cheerful, both subjectively and as consistent examples to those around them, or with more or less success simulated a modification of temperament in that respect, which amounts in practice to nearly the same thing. She taught charity in judging the deeds and motives of another—who does not know of more than one case in his own circle of acquaintance where apparently hopeless vinegar has become oil because of her? She went so far as to devise a vocabulary of euphemism, which proceeds in the right direction, no matter how you may regard some of its extreme manifestations; for there are many habitual and conventional asperities of expression which serve beyond doubt no better purpose than to intensify the sentiments they denote.

It may be said that this is nothing more than an insistent application of principles common to all the forms of the Christian faith. Granting that, is it any the less the duty of candor to recognize the effort and results and to acknowledge the service?

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