Article July 1, 1916 Issue

Mrs. Eddy was and is the Discoverer of Christian Science,...

S. T. Downs

Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune

Mrs. Eddy was and is the Discoverer of Christian Science, and it is a matter of common knowledge that she, and she alone, wrote originally and authoritatively on this subject. She gave the name Christian Science to her discovery, and authorized the use of the term by the cause she founded for the purpose of promulgating, protecting, and maintaining the purity of her teaching.

A very large number of books have been published which are devoted to the discussion of this great teaching, some of which are very friendly and only approximately accurate in their statement of the letter of Christian Science, while others purport to be friendly but are inaccurate in statement. These books at their best are but commentaries on the works of Mrs. Eddy. It would be as unjust to call these publications Christian Science literature, even though they bear the title Christian Science, as it would be to designate a commentary on Emerson's works as Emerson's writings ; and it is no less unfair to hand a commentary on Christian Science to an inquirer for works on Christian Science at a public library than it would be to hand a discussion of Emerson's essays to one who asked for the essays themselves.

The cause which Mrs. Eddy founded does not ask that any literature be excluded from public libraries, but simply requests that the literature be so classified that the public may be able to distinguish between authorized literature on Christian Science and merely a commentary on or a discussion of the subject. The classification "Authorized Literature of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.," was adopted by the librarian of the Congressional Library at Washington, and also by a large majority of the public libraries in all parts of the country. In most instances a further distinction has been made by cataloguing all other literature on this subject as "Christian Science, Unauthorized and Critical." These classification furnish the only means by which the average person may know whether he is receiving genuine or spurious Christian Science literature, and is a protection that the public has a right to expect.

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