An anonymous correspondent, in a recent issue of your paper, recommends your readers to study the story of Mrs. Eddy's life. Will you, therefore, permit me, as one who knew Mrs. Eddy, and had the opportunity of knowing a little of her life, and of what it meant to the world, to tell them, very briefly, something of it?

Mrs. Eddy was one of the noblest women the world has known. Her entire time and energy was given to the service of God and man. Those who know best the story of her life, instinct as it was with marvelous courage and self-sacrifice, have never told it. That was her wish, her way. She knew the future was on her side. She knew that the finest vindication of her fame against the breath of slander, as well as the most splendid memorial to her work, would be found in the lives and labors of the Christian Scientists of the world, to which the archbishop of York bore such splendid testimony, not so very long ago.

It was Mrs. Eddy's fearlessness, with its accompanying certainty of divine protection, that struck every one with whom she was brought in contact. To dream of failure where she was concerned was an impossibility. Her followers learned that, with marvelous prescience, she never made demands beyond their strength. If the Tenth Legion never shook, no matter how fierce the press, if the Ironsides never wavered, no matter what the odds before them, and if the Old Guard never surrendered, and all this in the struggle to take life on the battle-fields of the world, the Christian Scientists were little likely to falter in the effort to bring health to the sick, to give peace to the weary, or to help the sinner to fling off his sin.

In spite of this, the task which confronted Mrs. Eddy was immense. Men do not take in an altogether kindly spirit to the idea of women as their leaders, least of all as their religious leaders, and when, as in her case, the battle to which she called her followers was one of conquest of self, the enthusiasm was not likely to be rapidly generated. Once, however, it was generated, it burned with the steady flame of conviction, and not with the flicker of emotion. All the same, this is no excuse for the bitterness with which Mrs. Eddy was attacked. Genius, Lord Lytton once wrote, does what it must, talent what it can. Mrs. Eddy's genius was the genius of holiness, and it did what it must. Had it been otherwise, a greater share of popularity would have been her immediate reward. Perhaps this could hardly have been better expressed than in the beautiful verses, written some years ago, as a tribute to her life-work:—

To those who knew Mrs. Eddy at all, whether personally or through her writings, her genius as a leader is here expressed. She had caught the note of freedom which the understanding of Christian Science had brought to her, the world sense of freedom expressed in that marvelous sentence, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." She desired that every one should share that freedom—a freedom not merely political, not merely social, but from sorrow, and sickness, and sin, the mental freedom which lifted man above the bonds of materiality and showed him that the kingdom of heaven was not afar off, for the kingdom of God was within him.

The raison d'etre of the Christian Science movement is to bring this freedom to the world, and it can be brought only as men gain the Mind that was in Christ Jesus. It is thus that in Christian Science sin loses its geographical or mere temporal significance, and becomes the term for obedience to everything that is unlike God. Christian Science healing is the attempt to demonstrate this, as it was demonstrated by Jesus the Christ; and the patient can only gain freedom in proportion as he gains the Mind that was in Christ Jesus. The consequence is that in Christian Science a man cannot be made healthier without being made holier, with the result that, when he becomes "every whit whole," it is because his physical condition has responded to his vision of true being.

Mrs. Eddy did more than preach, she preached the gospel and she healed the sick. She was intensely practical in her work for mankind, and never more practical than when she gave humanity the understanding of healing which was to make it "every whit whole." It was thus that she displayed that silent but true charity which, combined with the beauty of her life, made her so respected in the New England city which she had made her home. When, after seventeen yeats' residence in Concord, she left that place for her new home in Boston, the city council, men of all churches and all manner of views, expressed their deep regret at her departure, and unanimously voted her a farewell address, in which the words of the chairman found expression thus:—

"It is quite unnecessary for me to prompt your memory of the countless deeds of charity and her endless gifts. Neither is it necessary for me to call your attention to her innumerable donations to the unfortunate ones in our midst."

This little house of Mrs. Eddy's at Concord, like the rather larger one on the outskirts of Boston, to which she removed, was the subject of the most ludicrous comments. It finally became, in the language of her critics, a palace, where she dwelt, surrounded by secretaries and servants, receiving the tributes of her followers. I remember it now, as I first saw it, in the snow of a winter's day, when the Merrimac was clothed with ice, and the New Hampshire hills rose in one long barrier of white along the sky-line, a simple little villa, standing a few yards from the road, with a meadow behind it. Here, Mrs. Eddy lived in absolute seclusion, directing the army of Christian Science workers, and the hardest worker of them all.

It would have been difficult, if one had not already realized from her books the power on which she relied, to understand how this gentle and venerable lady, who seemed physically so fragile, could keep in touch with, and direct, the vast organization her devotion to Truth had spread over the world. Her grip was extraordinary, and her knowledge of the whole organization remarkable. Not that she ever interfered with those whom she placed in positions of trust. She never dwarfed their initiative, nor lessened their sense of responsibility by unnecessary directions, though when they had done their work, she was at once their keenest, most helpful critic. Those who imagined that the Christian Science movement would fall to pieces when her hand was withdrawn from the helm, little understood Mrs. Eddy, or the rock in which she had sunk the foundations of the movement. The very foundations of that movement lie in the fact that it never has had, and never will have any other leader than Mrs. Eddy and her writings, and during all those years of seclusion at Concord and Boston, she was patiently training the executive of the movement in self-reliance, and its democracy in wisdom.

In Boston, she lived, if possible, in greater seclusion than at Concord, surrounded by a household whose love for her was unbounded, and to whose labors of love for her no one could succeed in doing justice. Her little bedroom was almost as simple, in some ways even more simple, than that of the Duke of Wellington at Walmer. Her adjoining study, with its glorious view of the Massachusetts hills, was always flooded with light, and she sat there, in the great bow-window, surrounded by her work. It was there that she initiated and carried to success one of the greatest of her plans, the establishment of a wholesome daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, which was to prove that such a paper could be made a success, in spite of the elimination of everything that was unworthy.

It was here she finished her work, as far as her bodily presence in the Christian Science field was concerned. She remains, as she ever will remain, the Leader of the movement. It is today as it was when she retired to the physical seclusion, yet greater activities, of her house at Concord. Then she wrote to the College Association the words printed on page 135 of "Miscellaneous Writings": "All our thoughts should be given to the absolute demonstration of Christian Science. You can well afford to give me up, since you have in my last revised edition of Science and Health, your teacher and guide."