Article February 27, 1932 Issue

I have read with interest the review of two biographies...

H. Ernest Vincent, Committee on Publication for Natal, South Africa,—Pietermaritzburg

Natal Witness

I have read with interest the review of two biographies of Mary Baker Eddy, by Miss Sibyl Wilbur and Lyman P. Powell, D. D., respectively, which appears in your issue of July 28. As the review contains several statements which require correction, I shall be grateful if the courtesy of your columns can be extended to me. The review can hardly be termed an impartial one, and it is to be regretted that the writer should deem it necessary to introduce into it material taken from works whose authors had gleaned their information from sources which cannot possibly be authentic.

Mrs. Eddy was a consecrated and devout Christian, an earnest student of the Scriptures; and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was the outcome of years of patient and consecrated study of that sacred volume. The assertion that she regarded herself in the light of a deity is untrue, and the very reverse of her teachings. Such statements are as offensive to Christian Scientists as they would be to other Christians. She exhorted her followers, "Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ" (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4). Mrs. Eddy's character was just the reverse of that painted by those who would discredit her. Those who knew her best speak of her kindness, gentleness, tenderness, true humility, and unfailing courtesy in her dealings with others. She cared little for wealth, and the fortune which came to her resulted from her own labors. During her lifetime she made many generous gifts to public institutions. The bulk of her fortune she left to The Mother Church in Boston for the advancement of Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy was always consistent, and from the time of her discovery of Christian Science in 1866 until she passed on her life was one of conformity with her teachings as stated in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in which she writes (p. 167), "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized." Never for one moment did she abandon the divine Principle of her discovery.

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