The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur)/Chapter 18

by Sibyl Wilbur

CHAPTER XVIII

FOUNDATION WORK IN BOSTON

WITH the death of her husband Mrs. Eddy suffered a severe blow, having lost a devoted co-worker and friend in whom she had found great satisfaction through a most exalted human relationship. A new chapter now opens in her life, a period of worldly activity in the cause of religion. She becomes the founder and the organizer, the teacher and promulgator of Christian Science and in this character transcends her former self as the kind hostess and sympathetic friend. Girlhood, widowhood, wifehood vanish, are swallowed up, in a complex but unified individuality which reveals her preeminently as the founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

The most cynical critics of this illustrious woman have made the comment that she is never so commanding a figure as when she bestirs herself in the face of calamity. Although these critics have essayed to portray her in the sad moment of her bereavement as a woman prostrated, hysterical, and exhausted, afraid to go out of her house and afraid to stay in it when in the quiet upper chamber the mortal remains of her husband lay draped for the grave, the events of those days will not harmonize with such a characterization.

Mrs. Eddy was self-controlled in the face of her bereavement, so calm that she in every way conformed to the usages and standards of the world, and yet bore herself with the composure of one acting in sublime faith. As there had been unwarranted rumors concerning Mr. Eddy’s illness and death, she had permitted an autopsy. That grim function completed and the verdict of heart failure rendered, Mrs. Eddy summoned such friends and students as she could rely upon. Mr. Eddy’s interment was lovingly arranged for and carried out and her tribute to his life and work was pronounced for her in a public service. She then took steps to withdraw from active work through the summer and rearranged her plans for a campaign of several years, looking to the establishment of the church on a firm foundation.

Before leaving Boston for a summer’s rest, a period which the world would call a time of mourning, but which to Mrs. Eddy was a spiritual retreat for the restatement in her consciousness of the deep things of love and truth and immortality, she gathered together her students and gave to each his work. She received representatives from the press and granted an interview in which she refuted the popular notion that consternation had seized her with the swing of death’s pinion. She declared with superb affirmation, “I believe in God’s supremacy over error, and this gives me peace.”

Mr. Arthur True Buswell, the student whom Mrs. Eddy had sent to Cincinnati to teach and practise, came to her house in Columbus avenue, summoned by telegram to join in an advisory council. He suggested that she make use of his home in Barton, in the Northern part of Vermont, for her vacation, and she accepted. Her house in Boston she left in the care of her students, Miss Julia Bartlett and Mrs. Abbie Whiting. She took with her as companion for the summer Miss Alice Sibley, a young woman of great beauty of character who was much endeared to her.

Although she had exhibited heroic qualities of energy and fortitude, neglecting nothing of direction and command before leaving Boston, she showed on the journey traces of nervous exhaustion and at times the hysteria of grief threatened to overwhelm her. With her wonderful faith she battled against the thoughts which assailed her, holding herself to her great purpose with the energy of a saint. Mr. Buswell relates that her great struggle was known to his household, but that she carried it through alone, though they often watched outside her door. After a night of agony she would emerge from her struggle with a radiant face and luminous eyes, and they would hesitate to speak to her for fear of disturbing the peace which enveloped her.

However great the struggle of the night, day found her ready to discuss the work of the movement. During the brief summer she constantly considered the situation in Boston. She planned the reorganization of her household, the reopening of the college, discussed what new students should be admitted to the fall classes, arranged for lectures to be given by the old students, and above all discussed the founding of a periodical which she resolved to call the Journal of Christian Science.

In such practical matters Mr. Buswell could help her, and together they discussed the proposed new organ of the propaganda. She decided to make Mr. Buswell the first assistant editor and business manager. This subject required a great deal of thoughtful consideration and the vital needs of its conception focussed and controlled her thought, leaving her grief to yield more gently to the ministration of divine agency.

An almost equally important matter for consideration was the future conduct of her household which she purposed establishing on an institutional basis. She turned over in her mind the qualifications of students in order to settle upon one in whom she could repose the trust of steward of her household. One day she requested Mr. Buswell to telegraph to Calvin A. Frye of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Directly afterward she resolved to return to Boston, and what had been in many respects a pleasant summer interval of inspirational drives and walks shared with Alice Sibley and of practical conferences with Mr. Buswell now came to an end.

Hastening to answer Mrs. Eddy’s summons, Mr. Frye met the returning party at Plymouth, New Hampshire. Mrs. Eddy requested him to make the journey to Boston with them and on the train she unfolded in part her plans and her needs of efficient stewardship. She put to him searching questions concerning his own life and his willingness to serve the cause of Christian Science. To all her questions he replied sincerely and declared himself ready to perform whatever lay in his power. Mrs. Eddy did not tell him at the time what she later revealed to him, that Mr. Eddy had gone to Lawrence some months before his death and inquired into Mr. Frye’s record with the possible idea of summoning him to this very position. He had anticipated his wife’s need. The Rev. Joshua Coit, Mr. Frye’s pastor in the Congregational church, had so spoken of Mr. Frye that Mr. Eddy recommended him to his wife as a man to be trusted with her intimate affairs.

Mr. Frye entered Mrs. Eddy’s household on her arrival in Boston and from that hour remained faithful in her service. There is no term that will cover the manifold duties which devolved upon him. He was usually spoken of as her private secretary because of the enormous amount of correspondence of which he relieved her. He was her bookkeeper, her purchasing agent, and her personal representative on many important occasions. Those who would make a reproach of his faithfulness have referred to him as her butler and her coachman. Indeed, he did not hesitate to occupy the box of her carriage to guard her on her daily drives.

But a few words concerning Mr. Frye’s history will correct the impression that the titles of servitude were warranted by his natural social status. The Frye family is an old one, as American ancestry goes. His grandfather and great-grandfather fought in the wars of 1812 and the Revolution. Frye village, now a part of Andover, Massachusetts, was named for his grandfather, who had a prosperous milling business there in grist and lumber. His father, Enoch Frye, prepared for college in Phillips Andover Academy and graduated from Harvard in the class made famous by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Calvin Frye received his education in the district school of Frye village. His father was in moderate circumstances, having contracted a lameness which unfitted him for active life work, and it was not possible for him to educate his sons as he had himself been educated. There were five children of Calvin’s generation, a brother who died in infancy, one who lost his life in the Civil War, another who was a business man of Boston, and a sister who with Calvin became a Christian Scientist.

Calvin married at the age of twenty-eight, but his wife lived only a year after the marriage and they had no children. He thereafter lived at home with his parents and sister in Lawrence, working in the Natick mill as an overseer of machinery. His family all belonged to the Congregational church, his father and grandfather before him having been members of the choir. For fifteen years Calvin was an active church-worker, librarian, class leader, and usher. He and his sister Lydia became interested in Christian Science at the same time through Mrs. Clara Choate who carried the new teaching into Lawrence. She healed a relative of the Frye family and was then invited to their home.

Mr. Frye’s mother had suffered from mental derangement for many years and Mrs. Clara Choate restored her to sanity which continued for four years, when under a sudden return of her malady she expired. But her marvelous restoration made firm converts of brother and sister, and Calvin Frye went to Lynn and studied Christian Science in the autumn of 1881 and practised healing in Lawrence until Mrs. Eddy summoned him to Boston. Lydia Frye Roaf joined her brother and was for a time in charge of Mrs. Eddy’s domestic affairs. She returned to Lawrence and practised Christian Science until her death. The Fryes have been a united family, neglecting none of the filial duties and paying each other the attention of yearly visits. Calvin Frye is a quiet, earnest man with a clear and placid countenance, and he is not without a mild mirthfulness which makes him an agreeable companion. His education has been broadened by the habit of reading. In practical matters he is an active, careful agent and the quality of faithfulness is preeminently his.

THE MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE

One of a series of gray stone residences in Columbus Avenue Boston, occupied by Mrs. Eddy in 1882

The house which Mr. and Mrs. Eddy had taken in Boston before Mr. Eddy’s death was at 569 Columbus avenue. Shortly after her return to Boston she removed to the house next door at 571. This was a three-story dwelling with gray stone front. It was very simply furnished for Mrs. Eddy curtailed and modified the views of the enthusiastic students who would have had her (as one of them regretfully expressed it to the author) “lay carpets the feet would sink into or hang draperies of rich lace and velvet and decorate with bronzes and paintings which would reflect her taste in art.” The students who desired and urged such appointments were of two temperaments, those who loved her devotedly in a very human way and wished to exalt her before the world of Boston; others who had decidedly florid views of what metaphysics should manifest in worldly appearance and would have turned the modest gray institute into a Vatican palace, with oratories, perpetual altar lights, and chapel incense as its features, had they had their way.

Mrs. Eddy had previously expressed her views on these matters. Mrs. Choate had given her a reception at her house in Tremont street at the corner of Upton street on her return with Mr. Eddy from Washington early in the spring of 1882. Through the efforts of a student who had a large social acquaintance the parlors were filled with fashionable Bostonians. Mrs. Eddy was simply garbed in a quiet gray silk with a black lace shawl draped over her shoulders. When she appeared the babble was quieted and she made a brief address. She then shook hands with a few of the guests, and retired from the scene of festivity. She afterward told her disappointed students that Christian Science could not be forwarded after that method.

Governed by ideas of simplicity, she now gave orders for the fitting out of the college. The classroom on the second floor was laid with oil-cloth. The wealthy and fashionable students, of whom there were now a good many, lifted their hands in amazement and despair. Mrs. Eddy further ordered a small platform built in one corner on which her table and chair should be placed. The entire house was furnished with like austerity and had the plainness of an office even in the front parlors, though it was always garnished throughout with the shine of perfect order.

Miss Julia Bartlett and Mrs. Abbie Whiting were living in the house. Alice Sibley came and went with the freedom of a daughter. Mr. Edward H. Hammond of Waltham, who later introduced Christian Science into Baltimore, Mr. Hanover P. Smith, who wrote a book of appreciation of Mrs. Eddy, and Mr. Arthur Buswell also resided there. The house was run on the cooperative plan and the residents all used the parlors for receiving patients, each having his specified office hours.

On the front door of the house was affixed a silver plate bearing the inscription, “The Massachusetts Metaphysical College,” and students soon began to overflow the parlors. They were attracted through the public services at which Mrs. Eddy usually presided, or through the accounts of her own or her students’ healings which were frequently printed in the papers of Boston. Mrs. Eddy’s class-room became the center and soul of the house. She was teaching two or three hours a day. Of the work of the college, she bore the entire burden.

So much did she pour her genius into it that when its doors were finally closed in 1889 she wrote that the college drew its breath from her and, as the reason for closing it, asked who else could sustain the institute in its vital purpose on her retirement. No one had helped her carry on the work of teaching up to this time. Asa G. Eddy, it is true, taught two terms in Lynn; Dr. E. J. Foster-Eddy taught one term in Boston, and General Erastus N. Bates taught a class just before the institute was closed. But aside from this assistance, Mrs. Eddy taught all the classes that passed through the college during the eight years of its existence. The students aggregated four thousand. It will be seen that Mrs. Eddy must have taught from thirty to fifty students a month throughout this period. The task was herculean, the work accomplished amazing, for it must be remembered that she was not only teaching several hours every day but she was also lecturing every Thursday evening in the parlors of the college and preaching almost every Sunday. During the first few months after her return to Boston she was arranging for the establishment of the Journal, which made great demands upon her time.

The Journal of Christian Science, afterwards called The Christian Science Journal made its first appearance April 14, 1883. The little magazine, destined to become the organ of the church, was at first an eight-page paper, issued every other month. It was an attractive publication from the first moment of its birth, and to-day those first numbers are so rare and so eagerly desired that the bound volumes are worth their weight in gold. In the prospectus Mrs. Eddy stated the purpose of the Journal, or rather her purpose in founding it. She said it was the desire of her heart “to bring to many a household health, happiness, and increased power to be good and to do good; — to kindle all minds with a common sentiment in a regard for and understanding of Infinite Truth.”

It was not a great literary output in its first issues nor did it leap at once to financial self-sufficiency. Rather was it a shy, modest little pamphlet which required the sinking of a good deal of capital to get it on its legs, and it was a great drain on the attention of the founder. But it was seen at once that it had a sufficient raison d'être. It conveyed rare touches of sympathy for lives shut in, lives that were desolate, lives that had seemed to spell failure. It was not sent to the mighty or the learned, nor was it designed for such, but for the needy. It contained articles on how to keep well, on prayer as a spiritual aspiration, on sunshine in the home, on the folly of having nerves, the fallacy of that tired feeling, the abuse of will power. Its pages sparkled with witty sayings culled from great authors, and nuggets of gold from philosophic minings. It showed in every column the earnest, diligent work of its editor.

Some of the articles from Mrs. Eddy’s pen in these early numbers have been reprinted in her book “Miscellaneous Writings,” which have served as the stepping-stone to many of her followers in a comprehension of the text-book, “Science and Health.” There is no doubt that her personality is revealed in them in more vivid colors than elsewhere. From time to time in the Journal appeared a poem from her hand, and from these devout versifications were chosen some which have become the best beloved hymns of the church.

Mrs. Eddy did not write the entire contents of the Journal, far from it; there were numerous excellent articles by her students and co-workers. But her impress is strongly visible, and in glancing through its pages one can almost see her at work at her desk, so direct and vital is the editorial contact. It is 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 student of Mrs. Eddy. She came to her in trouble and sickness. She was healed, taught, and provided with employment congenial to her mind. But after the most extravagant happiness in her new-found field of usefulness, she became the victim of a flattering woman from Detroit who came to study at the college. This woman was Mary H. Plunkett, known later in New York as an advocate of marriage by selection of soul affinity without regard to marriage and divorce laws. Mrs. Plunkett departed for New Zealand with her affinity, leaving her husband behind and was later reported to have wearied of her companion or to have been deserted by him and to have entered a religious order.

This woman succeeded by flattery and cajolement in turning the head of Emma Hopkins. She told her she would make her the greatest woman on the planet and succeeded in making the Andover professor’s wife believe herself a feminine genius whose name would go down the ages as another Hypatia. It was strange that a student could sit for two or three hours in a class-room under the spiritual teaching which led all into a rapt sense of the higher life; and then make her way to the office of a recognized aide de camp and there plot desertion and heresy.

However, it was so. Mrs. Hopkins left with Mrs. Plunkett for the West and began teaching a system of so-called metaphysics under her management in Detroit, Chicago, and other Western cities. Her teaching was a perversion of the doctrine she had learned from the founder of Christian Science, though the perversion was at first so subtle that it was scarcely possible to detect it. It was, however, the old heresy of hypnotism clothing itself in religious terms. Under the tutelage of the brilliant worldling, for such Mrs. Plunkett was known to have been in Detroit, it is not surprising that Mrs. Hopkins found the singularly pure ideals of Mrs. Eddy to appear reversed or that she was presently joining the chorus of Christian Science deserters in declaring her selfish and tyrannical. The two women published for a time a magazine which they called The International Magazine of Christian Science, a deceptive name which caused considerable annoyance to the management of the Journal.

In the fall of 1885 Mrs. Sarah H. Crosse became assistant editor and remained in that position until she too left Christian Science with a group of other students, some of whom departed from the association in 1888 for the very strange reason that they desired to study medicine. This disaffection will be spoken of in another chapter. The Rev. Frank Mason then became editor of the Journal. He later went to New York and founded a church in Brooklyn which was non-Christian Science. Mr. William G. Nixon took the business management of the Journal in 1890 and his apostasy will be described in connection with the building of the Mother Church. During that year Mr. Joshua Bailey was editor and the year following Miss Sarah J. Clark of Toledo acted in this capacity, — both loyal students. Finally, in 1892, the charge of the Journal was assumed by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, who stood like a rock and for ten years edited it with ability and discretion. He was relieved of his duties in 1902 that he might become active in the lecture field, since which time its able editing has been conducted by Mr. Archibald McLellan.

During all these years the little magazine, in spite of precarious storms, under the masterly superguidance of Mrs. Eddy, grew into a powerful organ for the church. In its early days its life was more than once threatened by such sinister means as the publication of a counterfeit which just escaped the infringement of copyright. But of the use of copyrights Mrs. Eddy had been wisely educated by both investigation and experience. It was in 1883, shortly after founding the Journal, that she exercised her knowledge of the law in this respect and brought to an end the encroachments of Edward J. Arens which have been previously referred to.

Mrs. Eddy sued Arens for infringement of copyrights by filing a bill in equity in the United States Circuit Court at Boston in April, 1883. Arens filed an answer in which he alleged that the copyrighted works of Mrs. Eddy were not original with her, but had been copied by her, or by her direction, from manuscripts originally composed by Phineas Quimby. This extraordinary statement he was called upon to substantiate with proofs. He was unable to present the slightest evidence, his appeals to George Quimby of Belfast, Maine, meeting with no response. Arens therefore gave notice to the court, through his counsel, that he would not submit testimony, that he had none to submit. Thus Arens’ defense fell to the ground and his failure to prove the old and worn statement that Mrs. Eddy’s book was Quimbyism became a veritable vindication of her authorship. The United States Court issued a perpetual injunction against Arens, restraining him from printing, publishing, selling, giving away, or distributing in any manner his pirated works under pain of a fine of $10,000. Furthermore, his printed books to the number of thirty-eight hundred were “put under the edge of the knife and their unlawful existence destroyed.” The costs of the suit which were $113 were taxed against Arens.

Thus the seal of the United States Court was put upon Mrs. Eddy’s rights as an author, and those copyrights which Mr. Eddy secured in her name were never again disputed. This signal triumph came at a time when Mrs. Eddy needed such a perpetual guarantee from justice for her right of way. Having secured it, no one could again with propriety publicly or privately dispute her authoritative claim as discoverer of the science she was establishing.