USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 17
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In politics he is a Democrat of that school which stands for the old traditions and policies of the party, and does not follow the vain imaginings of some recent leaders. An example of Mr. Carpenter's devotion to the best interests of his city is his service in the difficult and responsible position of police commissioner.
Mr. Carpenter attends the Franklin street Congrega- tional church. He is not a member of secret societies.
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MARY BAKER G. EDDY
MARY BAKER G. EDDY.
THE DISCOVERER AND FOUNDER OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
The advent in earthly history of a strong and vigorous personality marks an era in human affairs, especially when the individual has a distinct capacity for leadership, and touches the life of the people upon a plane of vital issues. The rare quality of Mazzini's nature and mental equipment would have made him a conspicuous figure among his contemporaries, in any event, but for one of his endowment and ideals to become the inspired and inspiring leader of a great religious and democratic idea, was to date an epoch in the chronicles of his time.
The nineteenth century has given to America a galaxy of rare and gifted women who have achieved distinction in the fields of art, education, literature and philanthropy, and won deserved recognition as the benefactors of man- kind, and to this number New Hampshire has contributed one, who in the uniqueness of her personality, the strength and nobility of her character, the keenness and penetration of her spiritual perception, and the patient continuance of her well doing, would have acquired an easy pre-eminence; but it is when she is considered with respect to the exalted nature of her message,-its signifi- cance to the solution of the world's profoundest, most pressing problems,-and the growth and influence of the movement she has inaugurated and of which she is the recognized leader, that Mary Baker Eddy is seen to stand quite alone.
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Her ancestors in one line were Scotch Covenanters, whose historic devotion to faith and fatherland was honored and preserved by their sturdy representatives who lived among the beautiful and inspiring hills of the Granite State. Capt. Joseph Baker, Mrs. Eddy's great- grandfather, was a prominent citizen and a member of the Provincial Congress, from which he held a commis- sion. He married Hannah, the daughter of John Love- well, who made himself famous in the Indian wars as the Miles Standish of the North Colonies, and Mrs. Baker inherited a share of the ample acres which were bestowed upon her father by the New Hampshire Colony in recognition of the distinguished services he had ren- dered. Their son, Joseph Baker, 2nd, Mrs. Eddy's grandfather, married Marian Moore, and a part of their "old homestead" which lay in the adjoining towns of Concord and Bow is still in the possession of one of their descendants.
Hid away from the world's intrusion, these early settlers spent their quiet and thoughtful years in close touch with nature, "companioning with the sky." They knew far less of the world's fitful philosophies than of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Their habits were simple, wholesome, Christian, and their ideals, their impulses, and their integrities constituted the greater patrimony of their children, who were all made rich thereby.
Joseph and Marian Baker had thirteen children, and Mark, the youngest, married Abigail Ambrose, the daughter of Deacon Nathaniel Ambrose, a prominent citizen and religious leader of Pembroke. They made their home in Bow, and here Mary, the youngest of their six children, was born.
Mrs. Eddy's father was a man of the serious, asser- tive, intellectual type of his ancestors. Her mother was
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a woman of unusual winsomeness, of deeply thoughtful habit and gentle strength. In Mrs. Eddy's childhood the family moved to the village of Tilton, and here they were known intimately to one who has said of her mother that her presence was like the gentle dew, her character distinguished for its excellences, her thought the com- panion of great themes, and her life a daily illustration of Christian faith.
The Baker home was a generous and hospitable one, a haven of rest for ministers, and as a result in part of its earnest religious atmosphere, Mary was led to think of the deeper things of life even at a very early age. The severe and sombre aspects of. the Calvinistic theology familiarly discussed in her presence, her mother's earnest piety, and the habit of logical inquiry with which she naturally approached every subject,- these inevitably precipitated in the alert mind of this meditative girl a struggle between the creedal dogma- tism of her parents and some of her religious teachers, and the spiritual protest and assertive freedom of her own intuitive thought; and this struggle, both in its nature and its outcome, gave intimation of the signifi- cant part she was to assume in the cause of religious reform.
From early childhood she was impelled by a longing for truth, an instinctive adherence to all that is good and beautiful, "a desire," as she has said, "for something higher and better than matter, and apart from it," and her mother's appreciative and considerate attitude toward her during her early experiences of the move- ment and impulse of the spirit within, encouraged her recognition of the value and authority of her own spon- taneous convictions, and of the importance of loyalty to them.
The son of Rev. Enoch Corser, A. M., who knew Mary
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Baker as a neighbor girl, has written of her at this time :- "My father, Mrs. Eddy's pastor, and for a time teacher,-held her in the highest esteem; in fact, he considered her, even at an early age, superior both intellectually and spiritually, ... and greatly enjoyed talking with her. ... She was about fifteen when I first knew her, and I well remember her gift of expres- sion, which was very marked. She and my father used to converse on deep subjects frequently,-too deep for me. She was always pure and good, and she stands out in my mind as his (father's) brightest pupil. I also remember her great .admiration for him."
In speaking of this period of her life Mrs. Eddy has referred in the most affectionate terms to the joy and inspiration of her associations with her brother Albert, who, though he passed away when but relatively young, had attained to eminence in his profession, the law, and been tendered high political preferment at the hands of his fellow citizens. He possessed rare intellectual gifts and a most lovable nature. He was greatly interested in metaphysics, and found an apt and absorbing listener in his sister, over whom he exerted a stimulating and help- ful influence. By him she was introduced to the classic languages, and quickened in that love of good literature, and those habits of close application, analysis, and dis- crimination which gave zest to her studies and easy mas- tery of her academic course, and which were destined to render such service in the advancement of her life work.
To one of her sensitive, poetic mind, such a loving af- filiation and friendship could but be most nourishing and eventful. Intelligent sympathy is the sunshine in which refined impulses and capacities come to their fullest blos- soming, and in this respect the appreciative affection of her mother and brother supplemented the appeal of the gentle and picturesque aspects of that beautiful world
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which compassed her youthful vision. Many verses written at this time express in fragrant fancy and spiritu- ally suggestive figure the delicacy of her interpretation of nature and of life.
Mrs. Eddy's history as a non-conformist and champion of religious freedom was entered upon at the age of fourteen, when she was examined, in solemn conclave, for admission to the Congregational church, of which her parents had been active members for many years. In one of the autobiographical reminiscences contained in her little book called "Retrospection and Introspec- tion," she has graphically outlined the surroundings and circumstances under which a modest but daring girl stood by her sense of truth against the rigid theology which her father maintained with unyielding insistence. The scene becomes well nigh dramatic as we see this gentle, retiring child brought before her sedate but startled questioners, and hear her declare in the fervor of a feel- ing so intense as to produce an alarming illness, that she is ready to take her chances with "unbelievers" and hazard the dreadful judgments resting upon them, rather than subscribe to the doctrine of predestination against which her deepest spiritual convictions were in pro- nounced revolt.
In the midst of her trial and her tears, Love's ministry was expressed in her mother's words of assuring con- fidence and tender sympathy, and there was brought to her "the comforts of God." The sustaining power of the divine presence was so realized that her perturbation and consequent illness were laid aside as a garment, and she felt strengthened and refreshed in the conscious- ness of her faithfulness to the voice within. Despite her unusual attitude and astonishing independence of thought, she was admitted to the church and received her pastor's blessing.
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We have but to enlarge the setting of this scene, and give increase of years and experience, of trials and tri- umphs, to embrace the story of her after life's heroic stand for a present and demonstrable apprehension of Truth, as opposed to traditional and inefficient beliefs, for the spiritual and saving sense of the Word, as op- posed to the conventionally accepted interpretations of ecclesiastical authority, for intellectual and religious freedom as opposed to contented conformity, and for the spiritual and divine as opposed to the material and human.
Remembering her responsiveness to spiritual appeal, one can but think with what gladness she would have welcomed, and with what avidity she would have appro- priated, at this time, that illumination of the Word of God, and of the duty and privilege of life, which, through her patient truth-seeking in the lonely problem- solving years, has now become the inheritance of the children of men. Her way of escape from the confusions of dogma, and the tragedies of human experience, lay through that region of awakening convictions which is beset by conflicting doubts within and denials without. Alone, with no one to understand, no one to guide or support in the hour of darkness, temptation and grief, save infinite Love, she pressed on through faith in Him, to find after many years a satisfying portion for herself, and to demonstrate for her brother man the possible fulfillment of a new and larger hope.
In 1843 she married Col. George Washington Glover, a prominent and esteemed citizen of Charleston, S. C., where she went to found a home; but her wedded joy was of brief duration. In less than a year death severed the happy union and she returned to her father's house, where, four months later, her only child was born. The loss of her husband's property brought a burdensome
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sense of dependence, while the death of her mother brought increase of loneliness and grief, but the climax of her suffering was not reached until she was compelled, through consideration for trying family circumstances, to part with her little boy, who was placed in charge of a lady in a distant part of the State.
Crushed but yet hopeful, and impelled by the longing of her mother-heart for sympathy and a home for her- self and boy, she consented to a second marriage, with Daniel Patterson, D. D. S., which proved most unfortu- nate and unhappy. After its consummation her husband denied her the anticipated joy of having her son with them, and made necessary the removal of the latter to a distant state. They were thus wholly separated, and by means of a false report, and a letter confirming it, she was led to mourn her little one as dead. Ultimately she was compelled to ask for a legal separation from Dr. Patterson, which was granted in Salem, Mass., while he was in Littleton, N. H., and on the ground of his adul- tery. This closed the saddest chapter that can possibly enter into a pure woman's life, and over which she can but cast the mantle of silence. In the furnace of bitter experience earth's proffered and alluring joys had shrunken to their native nothingness, nevertheless, in her fiery trial she clung steadfastly to her childhood's faith in God, and thus in the end the gold came forth more pure.
Loyalty to her own high ideals, regardless of the thought and conduct of others, was the Aegis of her safety. She longed ever for the knowledge of God, and conformity to His will, and she proved in her own dark days that "Truth and Love come . . nearer us in the hour of woe, when strong faith wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God."* In the loom of a common life, she was weaving a web "whose texture Science and Health, p. 567.
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on the other side was more divinely fair" than that which she saw ofttimes through tears.
In all these years she was alive to every progressive idea, and was seeking for truth in many lines of investi- gation. The world's faiths and theories were looked into, their cup of promise tasted, and then removed for- ever from her lips. Allopathy and homeopathy were studied to thereby improve her health. General litera- ture and theology received much attention, and her pen was busied during many years in supplying the demand upon it for newspaper and magazine articles. More than all other books, however, she honored the Bible, which became her constant and quickening companion. To the faithful study of its teachings and meditation thereon, she traces her every spiritual gain. It alone pointed out and illumined her ascending path to the towering heights of Christian Science.
The progressive steps toward a higher apprehension of Truth were taken tentatively as she found her footing in the relative obscurity of prevailing belief and material experiment. Faith was feeling its way to understand- ing, and the physical basis of therapeutics was being replaced by an ever-strengthening conviction that the explanation of all phenomena was to be found in the mental realm. Medical experience and observation had proved convincingly that the drug factor could be elimi- nated from the healing equation without sensibly impair- ing its effectiveness, and the accumulation of confirming sense evidence kept pace with the growing realization of the naturalness and superiority of the spiritual healings of Jesus. In speaking of these first glimpses of the dawn- ing day she has said, "When the door opened, I was waiting and watching. My heart knew its Redeemer. Soulless famine had fled. Being was beautiful, its sub- stance, cause and currents were God and His idea."
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The climax of many years of prayerful seeking if haply she might find God, was reached in 1866, when, through a travail of suffering and of faith, she arrived at a scientific certainty that "all causation is Mind," and that this apprehension is practically available in the heal- ing of disease. Having experienced a serious accident, which left her in a painful and alarming physical condi- tion that neither medicine nor surgery could remove, in despair of all human aid, she turned with a sense of supreme need and childlike faith to her heavenly Father, and was immediately healed of her infirmity and arose well and rejoicing, to the astonishment of her physician and friends. The satisfying demonstration and con- sciousness of the divine presence were hers. "The Great Discovery" had been made, though as yet she could not explain the rule and order of Truth's appearing. "I had learned," she says, "that Mind reconstructed the body, and that nothing else could. How it was done the spiritual Science of Mind must reveal. It was a mystery to me then, but I have since understood it."*
To the solution of this problem she now consecrated her life. Alone with God, in persistent and prayerful study of the Bible, she essayed to find for her fellowmen that expression of the order of Truth's unfoldment which brings it into saving relationship with the human con- sciousness, man's sense of limitation and of need. With ever-increasing clearness she recognized that Jesus must have been both "a natural and divine scientist,"+ and that he acted in conformity with a divine law which must be continuously operative and correspondingly available to all those who through spiritual apprehension and obedience of heart become responsive to its demands. Jesus' assurance, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," must mean that the manifestations
* Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 26 and 34.
t Retrospection and Introspection, P. 31.
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of spiritual supremacy incident to the Christ life in him were to attend the Christ life in all who received him, for "to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." "The divine hand," she writes, "led me into a new world of light and life. . . . I had learned that thought must be spirit- ualized, in order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish and pure, in order to have the least understanding of God in Divine Science. "Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to a perception of and dependence on spiritual things. For Spirit to be supreme in demonstration it must be supreme in our affections. . . . The first spontaneous motion of Truth and Love, acting through Christian Science on my roused consciousness, banished at once and forever the fundamental error of faith in things material. . . . Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed, and stood abashed. . . . Frozen fountains were unsealed. Erudite systems of philosophy and religion melted, for Love unveiled the healing promise and potency of a present spiritual afflatus. It was the Gospel of healing, on its divinely appointed human mission, bearing on its white wings, to my apprehension, 'the beauty of holiness,' even the possibilities of spiritual insight, knowledge and being."*
Three years were spent in retirement from the world, before she began to communicate her thought to others, and ventured to undertake the fulfillment of the Lord's command to preach the gospel and heal the sick.
As early as 1862 she began to make notes of her meditations, and especially on the spiritual meaning of the scriptures, and the practical relation of holiness to health, but of these early endeavors to express the truths of Christian Science she has written, they were "feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of Christian
* Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 33-38.
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healing, and are not complete or satisfactory expositions of truth. To-day, though rejoicing in some progress, she (the author) finds herself a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the mind of Christ .*
The first statement of her new apprehensions to appear in print, was a pamphlet entitled "The Science of Man," published in 1870. Later on its substance was embodied in the chapter headed "Recapitulation" in her monu- mental work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the text-book of Christian Science, which was published in 1875.
While the physical healing attracted the more immedi- ate attention, bringing as it did a satisfying assurance of the truth of her teaching to unnumbered beneficiaries, spiritual healing, the acquirement of the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, was ever emphasized as essential to immunity from disease, since health is but the manifesta- tion of right consciousness. Teaching therefore was regarded of fundamental importance, and that which has developed into a broad and inclusive system of instruc- tion was begun in 1867 with a single pupil. The number of students from all parts of America and from Europe had so increased that in 1881 the Massachusetts Meta- physical College was organized, and privileged by a charter from the state to give instruction in Christian Science Mind Healing.
Of this College Mrs. Eddy became the President and chief instructor, and during the first eight years of its history about four thousand students were admitted to her primary or normal classes. In 1889, while at the height of its prosperity, this work was laid aside and the college temporarily closed that she might find undis- turbed opportunity for the revision of "Science and Health." Later, the College was reopened, and is now an important adjunct of the Christian Science move- * Science and Health, Pref. p. ix.
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ment. Its annual session is open to a selected number of students who have completed a primary course under authorized instructors, and who are recommended by their intelligence and their works to become teachers of Christian Science.
Her marriage with Dr. Asa G. Eddy, a man of the noblest type, occurred in 1877. Their union was spiritual and blessed, and he was her devoted and effective co-laborer, both in healing and teaching, up to the time when he passed away, in 1882.
Multiplied and ever-expanding events crowded upon each other in these early years of the history of the Christian Science movement.
The first official organ, the Christian Science Journal, a monthly periodical, was founded April, 1883, of which Mrs. Eddy became the editor, publisher and chief contributor. To this has since been added the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly, and Der Christian Science Herold, a monthly issued in the German language.
The first Christian Science association was organized in Boston in 1876, and its growth and duplication resulted in a national federation of state associations, which was convened in New York in 1886.
The first Christian Science Church, now known as "The Mother Church," was chartered in June, 1879, and Mrs. Eddy was immediately called to its pastorate. The erection of The Mother Church edifice, Boston, Mass., was begun in 1893, and the building was dedicated free from debt, as is the custom in all Christian Science churches, in January, 1895. In 1903 Mrs. Eddy's church, The First Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston, Mass., numbers 27,796 communicants, and more than 760 organized churches and societies, very many of them occupying splendid church buildings, witness to the presence and healing power of Christian Science in unnumbered hearts and in many lands.
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In the midst of these many exacting activities, in all of which she was much of the time blazing her way through unexplored territory, and meeting with problems every day to the solution of which she had no guide save the illumined words and works of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy's writings are characteristic and original. She has found time to make large contributions to the litera- ture of Christian Science, and has published numerous books and pamphlets, among which are The Unity of Good, Pulpit and Press, Retrospection and Introspection, Rudimental Divine Science, No and Yes, Christian Healing, Christian Science vs. Pantheism, People's Idea of God, Miscellaneous Writings, etc. Mean- while her fertile pen has supplied the ceaseless demand for association adresses, messages, contributions to the Christian Science periodicals, newspaper articles, etc., and has conducted a vast advisory and super- visory correspondence. There came a time, however, when the larger interests of the movement impera- tively demanded her freedom from the less important expenditures of time and attention, and this was found in the retirement of her simple country home at Pleasant View, Concord, New Hampshire. Here she now watches with patient and loving oversight, and guides with wise and determinative counsels, that advancing spiritual impulse whose waves are beating upon the shores of every sea.
The unity and homogeneity of the Cause has been secured in the use of a uniform Bible Lesson study which is prepared by her provision and issued quarterly. The reading of this lesson from Scripture and the Christian Science text-book takes the place of the sermon and is the distinctive feature of the Sabbath service. The saving truth of the Word, as spiritually understood in Christian Science, is thus given opportunity to dominate
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the hearer's thought, while the personal and oratorical distractions of the pulpit are entirely eliminated.
Unity has been further secured by organized uniform- ity of instruction, and by the appointment of a Board of Lectureship, the members of which are authorized expositors of the teachings of Christian Science, and have opportunity to recognize and answer in a digni- fied way the inquiries and criticisms of the public.
The distinctive and fundamental teaching of Christian Science is embodied in the "Scientific Statement of Being," which is as follows :
"There is no life, truth, intelligence, or substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifesta- tion, for God is All in all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness; hence man is spiritual and not material."*
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