Editorial October 25, 1913 Issue

"Be strong and of a good courage"

Archibald McLellan

On page 147 of this issue we quote from The Christian Science Monitor a report of an important step by which the trust created by Mrs. Eddy, in her will, for the purpose of promoting and extending the religion of Christian Science as taught by her, will become effective. That this stage of the probate of Mrs. Eddy's will was not reached much earlier was due to litigation which was commenced for the purpose of frustrating her desire that her fortune should be devoted to the cause for which she labored so unselfishly and unceasingly during a period of almost half a century, and Christian Scientists everywhere will rejoice that with this final decision of the probate court the last barrier to the fulfilment of Mrs. Eddy's desire, and in the way she wished, has been removed.

To have discussed during its pendency the litigation which has been so persistently maintained, would have been an impropriety, therefore the Monitor has simply reported its various phases practically without comment. With so much on our own part for which to be grateful, perhaps the kindest thing that can be done now is to "let the dead past bury its dead" and make no further comment than to say that the courts have not only passed favorable judgment upon the will and the legality of the trust created by it, but that the plaintiffs themselves, as long ago as February, 1912, withdrew the allegations upon which they had tried to support their suits, and judgment was entered against them in every instance.

It is useless to discuss the motives and aims of those who were actually behind the litigation, or of those ostensibly responsible for it; it is sufficient to say that, notwithstanding the efforts of these persons, the philanthropic work for which Mrs. Eddy made provision in her will can now go forward in the way she intended it should. Our revered Leader always regarded her fortune as a trust fund to be used for the promotion of Christian Science. She so used it while she was with us, and her expressed desire was that this fortune, which had come to her solely through her own labors for the good of mankind, should continue to be used to further the cause for which she had worked night and day since her discovery, in 1866, as she writes in Science and Health (p. 107), of "the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love," which she later named Christian Science. It is needless to say, therefore, that as soon as the formalities attendant upon the closing of the accounts of the administrator and the transfer of the residue of the estate to the trustees appointed by the probate court can be accomplished, active work in the fulfilment of her wishes will commence.

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