Pulpit and Press Part 4

With simple ceremonies, four times repeated, in the presence of four different congregations, aggregating nearly 6,000 persons, the unique and costly edifice erected in Boston at Norway and Falmouth streets as a home for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and a testimonial to the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, was yesterday dedicated to the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d.

The structure came forth from the hands of the artisans with every stone paid for--with an appeal, not for more money, but for a cessation of the tide of contributions which continued to flow in after the full amount needed was received. From every state in the Union and from many lands, the love offerings of the disciples of Christian Science came to help erect this beautiful structure, and more than 4,000 of these contributors came to Boston from the far-off Pacific coast and the Gulf states and all the territory that lies between, to view the new-built temple and to listen to the message sent them by the teacher they revere.

From all New England the members of the denomination gathered; New York sent its hundreds, and even from the distant states came parties of 40 and 50. The large auditorium, with its capacity for holding 1,400 or 1,500 persons, was hopelessly incapable of receiving this vast throng, to say nothing of the nearly 1,000 local believers. Hence the service was repeated until all who wished had heard and seen; and each of the four vast congregations filled the church to repletion.

At 7:30 a.m. the chimes in the great stone tower, which rises 126 feet above the earth, rung out their message of "Peace on earth and good will to men."

Old familiar hymns--"All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name," and others such--were chimed until the hour for the dedication service had come.

At 9 a.m. the first congregation gathered. Before this service had closed the large vestry room and the s.p.a.cious lobbies and the sidewalks around the church were all filled with a waiting mult.i.tude. At 10:30 o'clock another service began, and at noon still another. Then there was an intermission, and at 3 p.m. the service was repeated for the last time.

There was scarcely even a minor variation in the exercises at any one of these services. At 10:30 a.m., however, the scene was rendered particularly interesting by the presence of several hundred children in the central pews. These were the little contributors to the building fund, whose money was devoted to the "Mother's room," a superb apartment intended for the sole use of Mrs. Eddy. These children are known in the church as the "Busy Bees," and each of them wore a white satin badge with a golden beehive stamped upon it, and beneath the beehive the words "Mother's Room," in gilt letters.

The pulpit end of the auditorium was rich with the adornment of flowers.

On the wall of the choir gallery above the platform, where the organ is to be hereafter placed, a huge seven pointed star was hung--a star of lilies resting on palms, with a centre of white immortelles, upon which in letters of red were the words: "Love-Children's Offering--1894."

In the choir and the steps of the platform were potted palms and ferns and Easter lilies. The desk was wreathed with ferns and pure white roses fastened with a broad ribbon bow. On its right was a large basket of white carnations resting on a mat of palms, and on its left a vase filled with beautiful pink roses.

Two combined choirs--that of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, of New York, and the choir of the home church, numbering thirty-five singers in all--led the singing, under the direction, respectively, of Mr. Henry Lincoln Case, and Miss Elsie Lincoln.

Judge S.J. Hanna, editor of the _Christian Science Journal_, presided over the exercises. On the platform with him were Messrs. Ira O. Knapp, Joseph Armstrong, Stephen A. Chase, and William B. Johnson, who compose the board of directors, and Mrs. Henrietta Clark Bemis, a distinguished elocutionist, and a native of Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re.

The utmost simplicity marked the exercises. After an organ voluntary, the hymn, "Laus Deo, It Is Done," written by Mrs. Eddy for the corner-stone laying last spring, was sung by the congregation.

Selections from the Scriptures and from SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, were read by Judge Hanna and Dr. Eddy.

A few minutes of silent prayer came next, followed by the recitation of the Lord's prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science text-book.

The sermon prepared for the occasion by Mrs. Eddy, which was looked forward to as the chief feature of the dedication, was then read by Mrs.

Bemis. Mrs. Eddy remained at her home in Concord, N.H., during the day, because, as heretofore stated in _The Herald_, it is her custom to discourage among her followers that sort of personal wors.h.i.+p which religious teachers so often receive.

Before presenting the sermon, Mrs. Bemis read the following letter from a former pastor of the church:

_Rev. Mary Baker Eddy_--Dear Teacher, Leader, Guide: Laus Deo. It is done. At last you begin to see the fruition of that you have worked, toiled, prayed for. The prayer in stone is accomplished.

Across 2,000 miles of s.p.a.ce, as mortal sense puts it, I send my hearty congratulations. You are fully occupied, but I thought you would willingly pause for an instant to receive this brief message of congratulation. Surely it marks an era in the blessed onward work of Christian Science. It is a most auspicious hour in your eventful career.

While we all rejoice, yet the mother in Israel, alone of us all, comprehends its full significance.

Yours lovingly,

LANSON P. NORCROSS.

(_Boston Sunday Globe_, January 6, 1895.)

EXTRACT.

Stately Home for Believers in Gospel Healing.--A Woman of Wealth Who Devotes All to Her Church Work.

Christian Science has shown its power over its students, as they are called, by building a church by voluntary contribution, the first of its kind, a church which will be dedicated to-day, with a quarter of a million dollars expended and free of debt.

The money has flowed in from all parts of the United States and Canada without any special appeal, and it kept coming until the custodian of funds cried "enough" and refused to accept any further checks by mail or otherwise. Men, women, and children lent a helping hand, some giving a mite and some substantial sums. Sacrifices were made in many an instance which will never be known in this world.

Christian Scientists not only say that they can effect cures of disease and erect churches, but add that they can get their buildings finished on time even when the feat seems impossible to mortal senses. Read the following from a publication of the new denomination:

One of the grandest and most helpful features of this glorious consummation is this: that one month before the close of the year every evidence of material sense declared that the church's completion within the year 1894 transcended human possibility.

The predictions of workman and onlooker alike were that it could not be completed before April or May of 1895.

Much was the ridicule heaped upon the hopeful, trustful ones, who declared and repeatedly a.s.severated to the contrary. This is indeed, then, a scientific demonstration. It has proved, in most striking manner, the oft-repeated declarations of our text-books, that the evidence of the mortal senses is unreliable.

A week ago Judge Hanna withdrew from the pastorate of the church, saying he gladly laid down his responsibilities to be succeeded by the grandest of ministers--the Bible and "SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES." This action it appears, was the result of rules made by Mrs. Eddy. The sermons hereafter will consist of pa.s.sages read from the two books by readers, who will be elected each year by the congregation.

A story has been abroad that Judge Hanna was so eloquent and magnetic that he was attracting listeners who came to hear him preach rather than in search of the truth as taught. Consequently the new rules were formulated.

But at Christian Science headquarters this is denied; Mrs. Eddy says the words of the judge speak to the point, and that no such inference is to be drawn therefrom.

In Mrs. Eddy's personal reminiscences, which are published under the t.i.tle of "Retrospection and Introspection," much is told of herself in detail that can only be touched upon in this brief sketch.

Aristocratic to the backbone, Mrs. Eddy takes delight in going back to the ancestral tree and in tracing those branches which are identified with good and great names both in Scotland and England.

Her family came to this country not long before the Revolution. Among the many souvenirs that Mrs. Eddy remembers as belonging to her grandparents was a heavy sword, encased in a bra.s.s scabbard, upon which had been inscribed the name of the kinsman upon whom the sword had been bestowed by Sir William Wallace of mighty Scottish fame.

Mrs. Eddy applied herself, like other girls, to her studies, though perhaps with an unusual zest, delighting in philosophy, logic, and moral science, as well as looking into the ancient languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Her last marriage was in the spring of 1877, when, at Lynn, Ma.s.s., she became the wife of Asa Gilbert Eddy. He was the first organizer of a Christian Science Sunday-School, of which he was the superintendent, and later he attracted the attention of many clergymen of other denominations by his able lectures upon scriptural topics. He died in 1882.

Mrs. Eddy is known to her circle of pupils and admirers as the editor and publisher of the first official organ of this sect. It was called the _Journal of Christian Science_, and has had great circulation with the members of this fast-increasing faith.

In recounting her experiences as the pioneer of Christian Science, she states that she sought knowledge concerning the physical side in this research through the different schools of allopathy, homeopathy, and so forth, without receiving any real satisfaction. No ancient or modern philosophy gave her any distinct statement of the science of mind healing. She claims that no human reason has been equal to the question.

And she also defines carefully the difference in the theories between faith cure and Christian Science, dwelling particularly upon the terms belief and understanding, which are the key words respectively used in the definitions of these two healing arts.

Besides her Boston home, Mrs. Eddy has a delightful country home one mile from the state house of New Hamps.h.i.+re's quiet capital, an easy driving distance for her when she wishes to catch a glimpse of the world. But for the most part she lives very much retired, driving rather into the country, which is so picturesque all about Concord and its surrounding villages.

The big house, so delightfully remodeled and modernized from a primitive homestead, that nothing is left excepting the angles and pitch of the roof, is remarkably well placed upon a terrace that slopes behind the buildings, while they themselves are in the midst of green stretches of lawns, dotted with beds of flowering shrubs, with here and there a fountain or summer-house.

Mrs. Eddy took the writer straight to her beloved "lookout"--a broad piazza on the south side of the second story of the house, where she can sit in her swinging chair, revelling in the lights and shades of spring and summer greenness. Or, as just then, in the gorgeous October coloring of the whole landscape that lies below, across the farm, which stretches on through an intervale of beautiful meadows and pastures to the woods that skirt the valley of the little truant river, as it wanders eastward.

It pleased her to point out her own birthplace. Straight as the crow flies, from her piazza, does it lie on the brow of Bow hill, and then she paused and reminded the reporter that Congressman Baker from New Hamps.h.i.+re, her cousin, was born and bred in that same neighborhood. The photograph of Hon. Hoke Smith, another distinguished relative, adorned the mantel.

Then my eye caught her family coat of arms and the diploma given her by the Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.

The natural and lawful pride that comes with a tincture of blue and brave blood, is perhaps one of her characteristics, as is many another well born woman's. She had a long list of worthy ancestors in colonial and revolutionary days, and the McNeils, and General Knox, figure largely in her genealogy, as well as the hero who killed the ill-starred Paugus.

This big, sunny room which Mrs. Eddy calls her den--or sometimes "mother's room," when speaking of her many followers who consider her their spiritual leader--has the air of hospitality that marks its hostess herself. Mrs. Eddy has hung its walls with reproductions of some of Europe's masterpieces, a few of which had been the gifts of her loving pupils.

Looking down from the windows upon the tree-tops on the lower terrace, the reporter exclaimed: "You have lived here only four years, and yet from a barren waste of most unpromising ground has come forth all this beauty!"