Christian Science -- Controversial literature; Eddy, Mary Baker, 1821-1910
In his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President
recognized this Mary--our Mary-and abolished all previous ones. He said:
“There is but one Moses, one Jesus; and there is but one Mary.”
The confusions being now dispersed, we have this clarified result:
There had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus
at one time, and only one; there is a Mary and “only one.” She is not a
Has Been, she is an Is--the “Author of Science and Health; and we cannot
ignore her.”
1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. 2.
Mrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in signing the telegram. 3. Mrs.
Eddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press utterance
of January 17th. 4. And has “never claimed to be that one”--unless the
signature to the telegram is a claim.
Thus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't,
and thought she was and knows she wasn't. That much is clear.
She is also “The Mother,” by the election of 1895, and did not want the
title, and thinks it is not applicable to her, and will excommunicate
any one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear.
I think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these
particular matters has arisen from the name Mary. Much vexation, much
misunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some of
her other names in place of that one. “Mother Mary” was certain to stir
up discussion. It would have been much better if she had signed
the telegram “Mother Baker”; then there would have been no Biblical
competition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too
late, yet.
I wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this
examination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January 17th again.
The history of her “Mother Mary” telegram--as told to me by one who
ought to be a very good authority--is curious and interesting. The
telegram ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the “Magnificat,” but really
makes some pretty formidable changes in it. This is St. Luke's version:
“He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent
empty away.”
This is “Mother Mary's” telegraphed version:
“He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not
sent empty away.”
To judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that
massed convention of trained Christians created no astonishment, since
it caused no remark, and the business of the convention went tranquilly
on, thereafter, as if nothing had happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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