Article July 23, 1921 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Robert Norwood, Mary B. Mullett, S. K. Ratcliffe

["Mrs. Eddy's Centenary," from The Dearborn Independent]

Christian Scientists the world over are making elaborate preparations for a dignified and impressive celebration on July 16 of the centenary of the birth of the Founder of the cult, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. The occasion directs attention anew, and in the sharper perspective of time, to one who holds unique place among leaders in American life, as to the particular movement of religious thought in our time of which she was in a way the initiator and apostle.

In all ages, there has been witness among men to the metaphysical basis of life. The disciples of Tsao Lo in China, of Krishna and of Buddha in India, of Zoroaster in Persia, of Hermes in Greece, of the Essenes in the Sinai Peninsula, all in some degree recognized the therapeutic value of right thinking. Æsculapius, "Father of Medicine," laid more emphasis on the spiritual than on the physical factors in healing. Summed up, as to its basic philosophy, in the Master's saying, "The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment," there can be no doubt that this spiritual healing was taught and practiced by the apostles and the early Christians. In essence, it had large place in the metaphysical teaching of the Christian mystics and "Quietists" of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and that doctrine of "the inner light" which was the inspiration of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers, as of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. Theoretically, Emerson and the Transcendentalists, who exerted so profound an influence on American thought while Mary Baker Eddy was still a young woman, taught the same philosophy and may be regarded, indeed, as the natural precursors of Christian Science....

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Signs of the Times

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access