The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur)/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII
LIFE AT CHESTNUT HILL
RETURNING to Boston in her eighty-seventh year to take up her residence at Chestnut Hill, Mrs. Eddy caused the world to wonder what she could have in mind to accomplish by this change of base for her household. The average commenter regarded the move as hazardous for one of her advanced years and believed that she could find no contentment in a new home after her long residence in Concord. But such commenters were basing their judgment on the facts of an ordinary life. An ordinary life has ceased to be concerned with the affairs of this world after entering the eighties and is willing to drift quietly with the tide. But Mrs. Eddy had purposes as yet unrevealed to the world, among which was one great purpose, a purpose cherished for twenty-five years, namely, the establishment of a daily newspaper.
The germ of this enterprise lay in the seed that was planted in 1883 in the first issue of the eight-page paper, at first sent out only once every two months, the paper called The Journal of Christian Science, for twenty years whose early fortunes have been traced in the chapter dealing with foundation work in Boston. During this time the Christian Science Sentinel had been established as a weekly publication of Christian Science news, dealing with affairs of the church, with the lecturers, and printing letters and testimonies of healing, the Journal, which had become a monthly, retaining the special province of publishing articles and essays on metaphysical subjects from the pens of the students. There was also established Der Herold der Christian Science, a monthly in the German language.
All these publications were then housed at 250 Huntington avenue. Ground was broken for the erection of the Christian Science Publishing House in the summer of 1907 and the work was actively pushed, for Mrs. Eddy's attention was now largely concentrated upon the publications of the church, and her cherished purpose was yet to be unfolded to her followers. This came in the first few months of her residence in Boston. The new publishing house had gone up speedily at the corner of St. Paul and Falmouth streets, a handsome, three-storied structure of Bedford stone. The Publishing Society occupied its new quarters in August, 1908. During July Mrs. Eddy communicated to the Board of Directors her wish that in the near future a daily newspaper be started, and on August 8 she sent the following letter to the Board of Trustees:
Christian Science Board of Trustees,
Boston, Mass.
Beloved Students, — It is my request that you start a daily newspaper at once, and call it the Christian Science Monitor. Let there be no delay. The Cause demands that it be issued now.
You may consult with the Board of Directors, I have notified them of my intention.
Lovingly yours,
On September 19 a request was sent out through the Sentinel to the field for subscriptions to a fund to enlarge the Publishing House. No explanation was offered at this time of the Leader's purpose, but a response indicative of the confidence and support of the church for Mrs. Eddy's projects was instant, — money began to come in immediately. There was need of it, for much work had to be done. The land adjoining the existing structure was occupied by a block of flats in which were numerous tenants. These tenements had to be cleared and razed before construction could be begun. All this was accomplished rapidly and without friction or lawsuit. No men of affairs ever had a more active, earnest director behind them than the woman of eighty-seven in her quiet retreat in the Newton Hills, just outside the limits of Boston.
As the structure went up the city wondered, editors of newspapers were watching, and reporters continually strove to elicit information as to what the Christian Science church was going to do with such a commodious building. While the building operations were still going on the great modern presses were placed in position, wrapped in tarpaulin for protection. Continual speculation went on in the other newspaper offices of the city, and many conjectures were printed. But the inquirers were obliged to possess themselves in patience until October 17, 1908, when there was published in the Sentinel an editorial leader entitled “The Christian Science Monitor.” In this article Mr. McLellan said:
We are pleased to announce that with the approval of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, The Christian Science Publishing Society will shortly issue a daily newspaper to be known as The Christian Science Monitor. In making this announcement we can say for the Trustees of the Society that they confidently hope and expect to make the Monitor a worthy addition to the list of publications issued by the Society. It is their intention to publish a strictly up-to-date newspaper, in which all the news of the day which should be printed will find a place, and whose service will not be restricted to any one locality or section, but will cover the daily activities of the entire world.
As to the motive which has led to the establishment of a daily paper of this character, there is nothing we could say that would be so forceful or so timely as the announcement made by Mrs. Eddy when she established the Christian Science Journal. We quote as follows from her article, “A Timely Issue,” as it appears in “Miscellaneous Writings:”
“Looking over the newspapers of the day one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fear to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper, at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought.”
It will be the mission of the Monitor to publish the real news of the world in a clean, wholesome manner, devoid of the sensational methods employed by so many newspapers. There will be no exploitation or illustration of vice and crime, but the aim of the editors will be to issue a paper which will be welcomed in every home where purity and refinement are cherished ideals.
A notice was published in the Sentinel asking for Christian Scientists who were professional journalists to volunteer their services for the new publication. A very large number of responses came, more than could be accepted. But a wise and sufficient selection of applicants was made. The first issue of the Monitor appeared November 25, 1908, the day before Thanksgiving. In that issue appeared an editorial leader written by Mrs. Eddy entitled, “Something in a Name.” In it she said:
I have given the name to all the Christian Science periodicals. The first was The Christian Science Journal, designed to put on record the divine Science of Truth; the second I entitled Sentinel, intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love; the third, Der Herold der Christian Science, to proclaim the universal activity and availability of Truth; the next I named Monitor, to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. The object of the Monitor, is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.
Thus Mrs. Eddy assumed full responsibility for the new publication, re-affirming the motto of her life as the motto of the new paper. If any doubt lay in the mind of the world as to who was the actual founder of the new paper it should have been dispelled by the editorial in the issue of the Sentinel, October 24, 1908, in which the editor thanked the Boston Herald for the respects paid to the forthcoming Monitor. The Herald had printed this paragraph:
Good luck to the coming Christian Science newspaper. Starting a daily paper is an enterprise that usually tests the courage and resources of the bravest and most resourceful souls. The graveyards are full of their remains.
“We hope,” said the editor of the Sentinel, “we
shall not be considered boastful when we say that
the progress of the Christian Science movement
from its very beginning has been not one only, but
a series of steps such as ‘usually test the courage and
resources of the bravest and most resourceful souls;’
and that as an incentive to high endeavor we could
have nothing better than the example of our Leader,
Mrs. Eddy, under whose guidance these steps have
been taken successfully.”
And they were taken successfully. The new paper was cordially received by the press in all parts of the country, its appearance was veritably a demonstration of brotherhood, and this was the title of an editorial which appeared in the second number, closing with these words:
To count the various items of good-will that went to build up the Monitor would be impossible. The architect was devoted, and his representative, the superintendent of the work, was indefatigable; the contractors were industrious in trying to meet the time limit. The builders of the press gave night and day labors. Those who had to provide materials brought in supplies, disregarding their own convenience. There was much more than buying and selling involved. There was the urgency of kindness in much of the work done. There was fine fidelity to promises given. There was honesty that rose above the claim of policy. Some might have seen confusion, but to the seeing eye, taking form among the clouds, was the vision of man serving man in a brotherhood of service. And through this demonstration of brotherhood the Leader of the Christian Science movement finds her labors for the world now assisted by The Christian Science Monitor.
“No wonder,” commented Frederick Dixon of London in the Outlook, a British publication, after the passing of Mrs. Eddy, “no wonder Mrs. Eddy was an ever-inspiring leader to work for, and no wonder there grew up around her a body of devoted assistants. No matter how hard they might work, she worked harder still; and for months and years, while they were receiving her constant and incisive instructions, they read with mingled amusement and amazement the stories of her mental incapacity and the failure of the movement, which then, very much as now, constituted in the Press the news of Christian Science.”
The body of devoted assistants had presented in the march of events differing types of men with differing talents and qualifications for work. These men were under the survey of her active mind, they were constantly being tried and tested in various services, and time was making it necessary for her to place her hand on the shoulder of some of these men and summon them to the post of the most urgent fidelity the church could require. Changes in the personnel of the Board of Directors were made necessary by the death of two members and the resignation of a third whose long and faithful service had given him the rightful privilege of retiring.
Joseph Armstrong, publisher of Mrs. Eddy’s works, business manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society, and for nine years a director of The Mother Church in Boston, passed from life in this world at his home 387 Commonwealth avenue, Boston, on Monday evening, December 9, 1907. He had been a very efficient man, both as director of the church and as manager of the Publishing Society. His departure from this earth did not take place until he had performed his duty in accounting for his stewardship at the Concord hearing of the suit brought against the estate by George W. Glover. Mrs. Eddy wrote the following tribute to his memory the day after his departure:
Hear, O Israel: The late lamented Christian Scientist brother and the publisher of my books, Joseph Armstrong, C. S. D., is not dead, neither does he sleep nor rest from his labors in divine Science; and his works do follow him. Evil has no power to harm, to hinder, or to destroy the real spiritual man. He is wiser to-day, healthier and happier, than yesterday. The mortal dream of life, substance or mind in matter, has been lessened, and the reward of good and punishment of evil and the waking out of this Adam dream of evil will end in harmony, — evil powerless, and God, good, omnipotent, and infinite.
In January, 1908, Mrs. Eddy appointed Allison V. Stewart as her publisher. He had been a member of the Board of Trustees since September, 1906. Mrs. Eddy also nominated Mr. Stewart for the vacancy on the Board of Directors of The Mother Church and he was elected a member. With Mrs. Eddy’s consent David B. Ogden was elected business manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society.
On May 31, 1909, William B. Johnson, for nineteen years Clerk of the Mother Church and member of the Board of Directors, and a loyal student for twenty-five years, lovingly desired of Mrs. Eddy the privilege of resigning from the post which had become one of the most exacting offices of the church. He expressed the wish to devote his time to the practise of Christian Science healing. His request was granted and a tribute to his long years of service appeared in the editorial columns of the Sentinel as a leader, entitled, “Well Done.” The vacancy caused by Mr. Johnson’s retirement was filled by the election of John V. Dittemore, who took his seat as a member of the board and as Clerk of the Mother Church at the annual meeting, May 31, 1909. In answer to an invitation extended to Mrs. Eddy by the Board of Directors to attend the annual meeting, Mrs. Eddy sent the following letter:
The Christian Science Board of Directors, Beloved Students:
I thank you for your kind invitation to be present
at the annual meeting of the Mother Church on
June 7, 1909. I will attend the meeting, but not
in propria persona. Watch and pray that God
directs your meetings and your lives, and your
Leader will then be sure that they are blessed in
their results.
Lovingly yours,
The Sentinel of November 19, 1910, in an editorial leader commemorated the services of Ira O. Knapp, C.S.D., who passed from earth November 11, 1910, at his home in Batavia street, Boston.
Adam H. Dickey, who for nearly three years had been Mrs. Eddy’s secretary, was unanimously elected a member of The Christian Science Board of Directors to fill this vacancy in accord with the following letter, received November 21, 1910, which it is interesting to note was the last official communication of Mrs. Eddy to any of the officers of her Church. It read:
Board of Directors:
Beloved Students, — Please appoint Mr. Adam
H. Dickey member of the Board of Directors.
Lovingly yours,
Thus during Mrs. Eddy’s residence at Chestnut Hill was the personnel of the Board of Directors changed by three members. Her attention had been very much centered upon the directorate and its deliberations. She had heartened it by special messages sent to its meetings, she had given it very important work to do in the investigation of the practises of certain of the branch churches, and she had sustained it by messages to the field. In one particular instance, she had written the following letter:
To the Board of Trustees, First Church of Christ, Scientist,
New York City:
Beloved Brethren, — In consideration of the present momentous question at issue in First Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, I am constrained to say, if I can settle this church difficulty amicably by a few words, as many students think I can, I herewith cheerfully subscribe these words of love:
My beloved brethren in First Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, I advise you with all my soul to support the Directors of the Mother Church, and in this way God will bless and prosper you. This I know, for He has proved it to me for forty years in succession.
Lovingly yours,
To support the directors of the Mother Church meant that the members of the Mother Church and the members of branch churches should be loyal to the tenets of the Mother Church as set forth in the Church Manual; for it is the work of the Board of Directors to administer the discipline of this manual. When Mrs. Eddy wrote that she had for forty years supported the directors of the church, she did not write an absurdity but the veritable truth. She had supported the tenets and been governed by the tenets since 1879, the charter for the church having been obtained in June of that year. It is true that Mrs. Eddy drafted the tenets of the church herself, and from time to time revised and amended them, as the experience of the church “walking through deep waters” many times revealed a necessity for regulation. But her authorship of the Manual was as inspired as her authorship of “Science and Health,” she studied both writings and submitted her life to the guidance of the Manual as well as the text book.[1]
An important part of the labors performed by Mrs. Eddy after removing to Chestnut Hill was a revision of the Manual. In the Sentinel for June 20, 1908, this letter appeared:
My beloved Brethren, — When I asked you to dispense with the Executive Members meeting the purpose of my request was sacred. It was to turn your sense of worship from the material to the spiritual, the personal to the impersonal, the denominational to the doctrinal, yea, from the human to the divine.
Already you have advanced from the audible to
the inaudible prayer; from the material to the
spiritual communion, from dogma to deity; and
you have been greatly recompensed. Rejoice and
be exceedingly glad, for so doth the divine Love
redeem your body from disease; your being from
sensuality; your soul from sense; your life from
death. Of this abounding and abiding spiritual
understanding the prophet Isaiah said, “And I
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not;
I will lead them in paths that they have not known:
I will make darkness light before them, and crooked
things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them.”
(Signed)Mary Baker Eddy.
On July 8, 1908, the body of Executive Members was dissolved. On May 22, 1909, notice of an amended by-law was published entitled, “No Interference,” Section 10, Article XXIII. This bylaw provided for the complete democratization of the organization and shed light on the abolishment of Executive Members. It reads:
A member of the Mother Church may be a member of one branch Church of Christ, Scientist, or of one Christian Science society holding public services, but he shall not be a member of both a branch church and a society; neither shall he exercise supervision or control over any other church. In Christian Science each branch church shall be distinctly democratic in its government, and no individual, and no other church shall interfere with its affairs.
On June 21, 1908, the Committee on Publication issued this notice from Mrs. Eddy:
The house of The Mother Church seats only five thousand people, and its membership includes forty-eight thousand communicants, hence the following:
The branch churches continue their Communion seasons, but there shall be no more Communion season in The Mother Church that has blossomed into spiritual beauty, Communion universal and divine. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (I Cor. 2:16.)
On the same date the following letter was written which appeared in the Sentinel for June 27, 1908:
Beloved Christian Scientists, — Take courage.
God is leading you onward and upward.
Relinquishing a material form of Communion
advances it spiritually. The material form is a
“Suffer it to be so now” and is abandoned so soon
as God’s Wayshower, Christ, points the advanced
step. This instructs us how to be abased and how
to abound. Dropping the Communion of the
Mother Church does not prevent its distant
members from occasionally attending this church.
(Signed)Mary Baker Eddy.
The above provision was embodied in the Manual under Article XVIII. It has been shown in a previous chapter how the founder of Christian Science solved the difficult problem of organization, and in these important amendments of the Manual is shown her wise provision for the harmonious government of the church, and the removal of a motive for religious pilgrimages to the Mother Church by advancing its form of Communion to the spiritual understanding of its gracious compact with the branch churches of the entire world.
It had been said to the author of this book by one of Mrs. Eddy’s very oldest loyal students, that the Leader would stand by her post until her work was done, that the world’s criticisms, the lawsuits of enemies, the burden of years, would not affect her to drive her from the post of duty until her plans and purposes for the church in the world were accomplished. On September 28, 1910, Mrs. Eddy sent a notice to the Publishing House for insertion in three issues of the Sentinel:
I hereby announce to the Christian Science field that all inquiries or information relating to Christian Science practise, to publication committee work, reading-room work, or to Mother Church membership should be sent to the Christian Science Board of Directors of the Mother Church; and I have requested my secretaries not to make inquiries on these subjects, nor to reply to any received, but to leave these duties to the Clerk of the Mother Church, to whom they belong.
During the year 1909 Mrs. Eddy’s labors for the Monitor and her attention to a heavy correspondence which she had not as yet laid down combined to fill her days with as much activity as a man in his prime would care to assume. It was therefore of especial significance that to her should have come at this time news of the dedication of a splendid church edifice in the largest city of the world, First Church of Christ, Scientist, London, England.
Two letters came to Mrs. Eddy from the board of directors of this church, one in May explaining the steps which had been taken to make possible the dedication, and another in June to say the dedication was solemnized June 13. In the letter of particulars these interesting facts were given:
The whole of our liabilities, amounting to upward of eighty thousand pounds (approximately four hundred thousand dollars), have been met, and the church stands on its own freehold site in one of the most convenient positions in London. Our aim throughout has been to keep to the keynote of simplicity and dignity, to accommodate as many as possible within the limits of our space, and to arrange that all should be able to see and hear to the best advantage. All the Christian Science churches in London, and other Christian Science churches in the United Kingdom, have generously contributed to our building fund. The meeting on April 26 had been called for the purpose of taking up a collection to enable us to pay off the sum still remaining as a liability on the land, but at the commencement of the meeting the treasurer was able to announce that the sum was already in hand, and that he had that day paid off the last installment. The members then decided that a practical expression of our thankfulness to God could take no better form than in a gift to the Publishing House, so a collection amounting to one thousand four hundred and seventeen pounds (approximately seven thousand dollars) was taken at the meeting, and it was also resolved that the collection at the dedication should be devoted to the same purpose.
Mrs. Eddy sent to this church a letter of sympathetic rejoicing as she was also enabled to do in November of the same year to First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edinburgh, who had announced to her that they were ready to begin their structure in the land of her forefathers.
In the month of November, 1909, the Leader's heart was gladdened by the reassurance of First Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, of its support of the Board of Directors of The Mother Church, Boston. This took place after a patient and thorough examination into methods and practises of certain members of that church which had been complained of for a period of years. The directorate of The Mother Church, after patient remonstrance with the chief offenders of the New York congregation, acted for The Mother Church by removing the names of the persistent offenders from the roster of its membership. It did not interfere, however, with the local government of First Church, New York City, but left that church to the democratic dealing with its own affairs which has ever been the policy of the Christian Science organization. The church responded loyally to the Leader's appeal, and at a meeting held in November reorganized its own board of trustees and accepted gratefully and lovingly the correction of error among its members.
Following this episode of church history Mrs. Eddy gave to the field valuable doctrinal instruction on two specific points, reprinting an excerpt of an address to the members of the Christian Science Association delivered in July, 1895, and also by replying to a letter of inquiry raised by a student in the West. The excerpt from her address, reprinted November 13, 1909, is as follows:
My address before the Christian Science Association has been misrepresented and evidently misunderstood by some students. The gist of the whole subject was, not to malpractise unwittingly. In order to be sure that one is not doing this he must avoid naming in his mental treatment any other individual but the patient whom he is treating, and practise only to heal. Any deviation from this direct rule is more or less dangerous. No mortal is infallible, — hence the Scripture, “Judge no man.” The rule of mental practise in Christian Science is strictly to handle no other mentality but the mind of your patient, and treat this mind to be Christly. Any departure from this golden rule is inadmissible. This mental practise includes and inculcates the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Animal magnetism, hypnotism, etc., are disarmed by the practitioner who excludes from his own consciousness, and that of his patients, all sense of realism of any other cause or effect save that which cometh from God. And he should teach his students to defend themselves from all evil, and to heal the sick by recognizing the supremacy and allness of good. This epitomizes what heals all manner of sickness and disease, moral or physical.
The instruction to the student in the West came almost a year later, being printed in the Sentinel September 3, 1910. It embodied the right standpoint of the Christian Scientist in the world to-day, and had an especial value in that it was almost the last word of the Leader to her church. The question and Mrs. Eddy's reply were as follows:
Last evening I was catechized by a Christian Science practitioner because I referred to myself as an immortal idea of the one divine Mind. The practitioner said that my statement was wrong, because I still lived in my flesh. I replied that I did not live in my flesh, that my flesh lived or died according to the beliefs I entertained about it; but that, after coming to the light of Truth, I had found that I lived and moved and had my being in God, and to obey Christ was not to know as real the beliefs of an earthly mortal. Please give the truth in the Sentinel so that all may know it.
Mrs. Eddy's reply. — You are scientifically
correct in your statement about yourself. You can
never demonstrate spirituality until you declare
yourself to be immortal and understand that you
are so. Christian Science is absolute; it is neither
behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward
it; it is at this point and must be practised therefrom.
Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle
to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration.
By this I do not mean that mortals are the children
of God,—far from it. In practising Christian
Science you must state its Principle correctly, or
you forfeit your ability to demonstrate it.
(Signed)Mary Baker Eddy.
Mrs. Eddy’s rejoicing over the healthy state of the church was further augmented in the month of November, 1909, by a letter received from the Associate Manager of the Committee on Publication, which was published in the Sentinel with these words from Mrs. Eddy:
Hear, O Israel. The following letter from Mr. Mattox tends to comfort, reconcile, and elevate the waiting hearts of all Christian Scientists:
I have just returned from a six-weeks trip to the Northwest and the Pacific Coast, where I attended meetings of the state committees on publication and assistants. It may interest you to hear briefly of the nature of these meetings and of some of the conditions prevailing in the field. The energy and vigor of our great western country and of the Pacific coast are proverbial, and I found that this typical western alertness was characteristic of the Christian Scientists and of their work.
The meetings were everywhere well attended, and the Scientists seemed eager to get any message that would improve the quality of their service and make them more intelligent and more effective workers in our great cause. I was most hospitably received, and it made me especially happy to notice everywhere a hearty and generous desire to support the directors and all the activities at headquarters. There were many expressions of grateful appreciation of the directors and others connected with the Mother Church. One man who came to the meeting at Portland, Oregon, traveled ninety miles over the mountains in a stage-coach before he reached the railroad line. This shows how keen the Scientists are for anything that will be a benefit to them.
What impressed me most and what pleased me most were the evidences of the loving regard in which you are held by Christian Scientists everywhere. Your wise leadership is recognized, and the genuine love for you which is being constantly expressed is so substantial and so potent a force for good that I feel sure it must encourage and sustain you. One gentleman, at the meeting at Los Angeles, said that he did not want the meeting to close without expressing his thanks for what he had got out of it, that the point which had impressed him most was the necessity for shielding and protecting our Leader. He said he could see, as never before, that this was one of the practical ways in which we could prove our gratitude and affection.
The subject matter of the meetings seemed to be interesting and helpful to those who attended, and I sincerely hope, and have every reason to believe, that much good will result from this series of conferences. If the churches and societies of each state are brought into closer fellowship, if the ties are strengthened which unite in a common cause the Mother Church and the branch churches, if individual thought is aroused to more scientific and more consecrated activity, the purposes of the meetings will have been achieved.
And this month of November, 1909, which had witnessed the subsidence of controversy in New York, the founding of a beautiful outpost of the faith in the great city of London, and the arousing to a closer, vital relationship with the Mother Church of the whole Pacific coast, gave Mrs. Eddy also the comfort of being able to reconcile her son, George Glover, to her wise plans for him. The consummation of an agreement took place and was signed on November 10, 1909, between Mrs. Eddy and her son and her adopted son, by which settlement she transferred to George W. Glover and his family the sum of $245,000 and to Ebenezer J. Foster-Eddy the sum of $45,000. The sum given to her son, George Glover, was inclusive of the trust fund previously created by which she had conveyed securities valued at $125,000 to the guardianship of her counsel for his benefit, but which he had previously rejected, and also funds already paid for the benefit of himself and family. Her son and adopted son professed themselves satisfied with this settlement and executed deeds relinquishing all their present and prospective rights or expectant interests in their mother’s estate, either as heirs-at-law or legatees under any previously made will of Mrs. Eddy. They severally acknowledged that full particulars of her estate had been made known to them. The settlement was brought about through a series of conferences held between General F. S. Streeter, Mrs. Eddy’s counsel, the Honorable Henry M. Baker, Mrs. Eddy’s trustee, and former United States Senator William E. Chandler, counsel for the sons. On July 16, 1910, she received her two grandsons at her home at Chestnut Hill, they having come East to visit her on her eighty-ninth birthday.
It seems proper to state here that Mrs. Eddy throughout her life yearned with the natural solicitation of a mother over her son and grandchildren; she made various and repeated efforts to guide and direct them, to see that they were comfortably situated, and that her grandchildren were being properly educated and reared. She did not believe, however, that they required vast sums of money or great luxury to ensure their happiness, for she herself lived simply, never indulging in luxury. But she had given nearly fifty years of arduous labor to promulgate the doctrine of Christian Science and to establish the Christian Science church as the guardian in the world of this truth. She had accumulated a fortune which has been conservatively estimated at $2,000,000 at the time of her leaving this world. This had been largely the result of the sale of her writings, though some of it had been earned by the investment of the money from her books in securities. It is proper to say that the church which grew up on the basis of her doctrine, the church which so widely bought and read her books, had contributed largely to this fund. It was therefore eminently just, and revealed Mrs. Eddy's sincerity of motive and dearest purpose, that she should have left in her last will this sum to the Mother Church of Boston for the carrying out of a specific plan, to advance the cause of Christian Science.
After the demise of Mrs. Eddy the details of her will greatly interested the world. This was largely because her sons endeavored to have its provisions set aside. Mrs. Eddy’s will gave $10,000 to each of her four grandchildren in addition to the previous settlement with her sons; it gave bequests to her secretary, Calvin A. Frye, and her companion, Laura E. Sargent, long faithful in her service, as household stewards. It provided for the lifting of the debt of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, and the sum of $100,000 to be set aside for a trust fund to educate Christian Science practitioners. The residue was left to the Mother Church as above set forth. The will was probated in Concord, New Hampshire, January 17, 1911, by Mrs. Eddy’s executor, one of the former trustees of her estate and her cousin, General Henry M. Baker.
- ↑
On the twenty-third day of September, 1892, at the request of Rev.
Mary Baker Eddy, twelve of her students and church members met and
reorganized, under her jurisdiction, The Christian Science Church and named
it, The First Church of Christ, Scientist. At this meeting twenty others of
Mrs. Eddy’s students and members of her former church were elected members
of this church, — those with others that have since been elected were known
as “First Members.” The Church Tenets, Rules and By-Laws, as prepared
by Mrs. Eddy, were adopted. A by-law adopted March 17, 1903, changed
the title of “First Members” to “Executive Members.” (On July 8, 1908,
the by-laws pertaining to “Executive Members” were repealed.)
Historical Sketch, Church Manual.