Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/337

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FOUNDATION WORK IN BOSTON
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journalism which has the keen and bracing atmosphere that was felt in the old days from such great dailies as Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune. To be sure it is journalism in a limited sphere and with its own direct appeal, but it is of that sort which brings into a home the highest sense of a socialized life.

The founding of the Journal proved to be one of the most effective moves Mrs. Eddy made in the establishment of Christian Science. The magazine could go cheaply where it would cost a great deal of money to send lecturers and practitioners. Moreover, it carried in a peculiar way the personal touch of the founder of Christian Science. And yet the Journal was in no sense a personal organ. To so style it is to confuse its aims with those of a political or biased publication. Its appeal was to the spiritual sense of the reader.

The Journal’s history is singular in that it has had a series of editors who fell away from Christian Science into strange apostasy. The first associate editor, Arthur True Buswell, was expelled from the Christian Scientist Association. His case was a peculiar one and difficult to explain, for he has declared to the author that Christian Science in his opinion is the vital truth of the world. But he also admitted that he was attracted to certain apostate students who were frankly practising hypnotism.

Mrs. Emma Hopkins, wife of an Andover professor, was the second to assume the position of associate editor, her name first appearing in the Journal in February, 1884. Mrs. Hopkins was a