Article September 8, 1917 Issue

An item in a sequence of aspersions furnishes an apt...

Judge Clifford P. Smith

Ft. Pierce (Fla.) News

An item in a sequence of aspersions furnishes an apt illustration of the methods by which professional antagonists gather materials for fomenting hostility to Christian Science. It is only fair, however, to say that the bit of evil now to be mentioned is not a recent device, hence the assailant who has just made use of it may have gotten it from one of his fellows. Indeed the evil spoken against Mrs. Eddy gains what currency it has, mainly because some opponents are disposed to repeat anything detrimental to her which they hear one another say.

The matter now in question was started as follows: "Mrs. Eddy said in a letter to Judge Hanna: 'I have marveled at the press and pulpit's patience with me, when I have taken away their Lord.'" What she actually wrote to Judge Hanna is to be found on page 15 of a pamphlet entitled "Christian Science History" which was issued by The Christian Science Publishing Society and widely distributed some years ago. The complete quotation was this: "Mrs. Eddy has recently said in a letter to me: 'A new discovery of science always has awakened the world to fierce combat, and Christian Science is no exception to this rule. I have marveled at the press and pulpit's patience with me, when I "have taken away their Lord" to present the risen Saviour, more spiritual appearing of God's power,—and I thank God, and the vox populi for these signs of the times.' "

The reader is invited to notice that both and all of these sentences need to be read as a whole, also that one of them was omitted, with an essential part of the other, and that the quotation marks around certain words in the remaining fragment were taken off. In such a process of garbling, the golden rule was trampled under foot. Mrs. Eddy's letter to Judge Hanna plainly alluded to John xx. 1-18, where Mary Magdalene feared she had lost her Lord, only to find him nearer and more helpful than before.

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