Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them February 9, 1957 Issue

Lyman Abbott, 1835-1922

[Mentioned in Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 12]

"I get my recreation by going from the editor's chair to the pulpit and from the pulpit to the editor's chair. And I hardly know which I enjoy the most." Twofold activity was characteristic of Lyman Abbott. After graduating from New York University, he entered his brothers' law firm and also worked as a law reporter for The New York Times. He studied law by himself and in 1856 passed the bar examinations. Later, when he gave up law for the ministry, he again studied by himself and was duly ordained. The next five years he was pastor of the Congregational Church in Terre Haute, Indiana, where, after the election of Lincoln, he openly supported the Union side and made slavery a religious issue. In addition to pastoral work, he was chaplain and professor of philosophy at Terre Haute Female Seminary.

At the close of the Civil War, Abbott left Indiana to become secretary of a relief and rehabilitation commission with headquarters in New York; he was also pastor of a church there. The next years were filled with literary activity, editing for Harper's Magazine, writing for several weeklies, including the Illustrated Christian Weekly, which featured wood engravings by Timothy Cole, and completing several books of his own.

In 1876 he became joint editor of the Christian Union, which later, under his sole editorship, was called The Outlook and with which he was associated for the rest of his life. Here he exerted his greatest influence. The magazine discussed the Indian problem, the temperance cause, woman suffrage, immigration, and industrial relations. Believing that industrial peace was dependent on "social and organic Christianity," Abbott proposed a national board of arbitration for labor disputes and advocated profit sharing and co-operatives.

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