Malicious Falsehoods JUDGE SEPTIMUS J. HANNA, CSD          We herewith republish from the Denver Republican of November 9, the following letter, which is self-explanatory. We may add that the source from which the malicious stories therein referred to emanate, is well known. The authorship of the letters written to the postmaster at Concord, N. H., and to other persons, is also known. Unless these reprehensible methods cease we shall have somewhat more to say upon this subject.          To the Editor of the Republican: — In your very interesting editorial recently published, relating to Christian Science and its Discoverer and Founder, the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, you make this statement: —          "In 1866 a New England woman, obscure and almost friendless while suffering from an injury caused by an accident — an injury pronounced fatal by surgeons — was restored to complete health."          Most of this statement is strictly true, but that part of it which says Mrs. Eddy was "obscure and almost friendless," cannot truthfully be said to be so. In our land of liberty there is no stigma attaching to obscurity and friendlessness in the early life of the citizen, and no objection is raised to your statement on that ground. My purpose in taking notice of it is for the reason that certain enemies of Mrs. Eddy have long been circulating stories to the effect that in her early life and before she began her career as a metaphysician or Christian Scientist, she was an "obscure and ragged" woman, and that they, through their influence, had lifted her to fame, etc.          While this method of attack is so palpably malevolent as to be almost unworthy of notice, yet I am aware that occasionally a well-meaning person is misled thereby, unjustly prejudiced against Mrs. Eddy and her followers and consequently the cause of Christian Science, and thereby held from investigating it, where otherwise he might do so.          The truth is, Mrs. Eddy, long before she began the investigation of the subject of mind healing and while yet an active and consistent member of an Orthodox church, into whose membership she was admitted at the age of twelve years, and in which she had a large list of friends, had attained no small prominence as a writer for magazines, and also as a lecturer. Her merit as a writer was recognized by the publishers of the magazines to which she contributed, not only by their unquestioned publication, but by the fact of a liberal remuneration therefor. Her career as a writer began at the age of sixteen. She was also, during times of political campaigns, employed to write for the newspapers upon the leading issues of the day. When the Civil War broke out Mrs. Eddy took a public stand for the abolition of slavery, obtaining a long list of female petitioners to General Benjamin F. Butler, then in command at New Orleans, La., beseeching him to make loyal slaves contraband of war. In a letter acknowledging the receipt of this petition, General Butler wrote Mrs. Eddy: "If we had many more women like yourself the war would soon close."          In 1844, after the death of her husband, Colonel G. W. Glover, when Mrs. Eddy bade adieu to her friends at the South, the governor and his staff, at Wilmington, N. C., where her husband was when attacked with yellow fever, together with a retinue of Free Masons, accompanied her to the depot and tenderly saw her leave for her Northern home.          In 1862 Mrs. Eddy delivered a lecture in what was then Waterville College, Me., and Professor Sheldon, in an article in the local newspapers, pronounced it one of the most able lectures ever delivered before that institution on the subject of the North and the South.          Mrs. Eddy's parents were well known and respected citizens of Bow, N. H. Her brother, the Hon. Albert Baker, was a prominent lawyer, and at the time of his death, at thirty years of age, he was about to take his seat as a member of Congress from New Hampshire. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College.          I make mention of the above facts simply by way of refutation of the falsehoods that have been circulated, as I have stated. Mrs. Eddy's firm refusal to allow the continuance of the profuse praise and tender friendship, and to accept liberal offers from the hands of hosts of her friends, at the cost of resigning what she conscientiously regarded as her mission to establish the cause of Christian Science — caused the years of privation and desertion which followed her discovery of Christian Science. Her marvelous career, her long years of self-sacrificing labors, her exalted Christian character, and her present work of promulgating the Christian gospel of healing, need no defence at my hands. With very great respect,         S. J. Hanna                             "Malicious Falsehoods" by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD The Christian Science Journal, December, 1898

 

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