Article May 18, 1912 Issue

The decision of the New Hampshire supreme court, declining...

Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle

The decision of the New Hampshire supreme court, declining to interfere with the trust created by the will of the late Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, will be generally regarded as just. Mrs. Eddy, because of the faith of her followers, was able to pile up a property of something like two million dollars in her own name. She left it nearly all in trust for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Her son by a former marriage contested the will. The court says:—

"Mrs. Eddy had the constitutional right to entertain such opinions as she chose, and to make a religion of them, and to teach them to all others, and their rights of belief are as extensive as hers. Her legal right to teach was not ended with her death."

It was the belief that Mrs. Eddy was above sordidness that led her supporters to buy her publications, to help her, and to help the Christian Science movement. In her testament she could have proven their belief unfounded by treating her fortune as personal, to be passed on as any other fortune might be, to her heirs or to persons she might name for personal reasons. We presume that a court could not have given any redress to Christian Science or Christian Scientists if she had thus betrayed their trust. She did not betray it. She vindicated their wisdom in trusting her. It would have been essentially immoral, considering the source of the fortune, to have permitted legal technicalities to interfere with a wholly proper purpose.

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