Article August 2, 1947 Issue

LETTERS TO THE PRESS

from Christian Science Committees on Publication

R. Ashley Vines

Rationalist

R. Ashley Vines Committee on Publication for Victoria, Australia Rationalist, Melbourne

"Mrs. Baker Eddy" is mentioned in a recent issue of your magazine. The circumstances of the allusion would tend to associate Mary Baker Eddy in the thought of your readers with those referred to as having made an "ostentatious display of money screwed out of the ignorant and superstitious crowds that flock these weird and distorted excrescences of the Christian faith." It is obvious that the writer of this article, while admitting the popularity of Christian Science activities, has not read authentic biographies of Mrs. Eddy, the much-beloved and increasingly revered Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and Leader of the Christian Science movement. Otherwise he would realize how entirely incongruous such a reference is with its completely baseless insinuations.

In 1932 The Ladies' Home Journal conducted a poll for determining the twelve women who had made the most valuable contribution to American progress during the past one hundred years. Mrs. Eddy topped the poll. A year later, in 1933, the National Council of Women exhibited her picture at the Century of Progress Exposition held in Chicago, and her principal work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was exhibited among the one hundred most important books written during the century. Each year since the publication in 1875 of the first edition of this textbook of Christian Science, the demand for each successive edition has continued to increase. In 1945 the sales of Mrs. Eddy's writings, as reported by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy, were more than twice those of 1940.

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