Evening Star Newspaper, March 6, 1921, Page 36

ra T THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 6, 1921—PART 2. Augusta E. Stetson, C. S. D, replies to the statement by N Fear not t| You will soar, as a bird, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom- Fear not, little flock, 'tis your Father’s good pleasure To give you the kingdom, the robe and tke ring. mad foe, who, beholding your triumph, Pursues to destroy with the merciless sting. Awake to your birthright! And, guided by wisdom, Communing with sPimb:;" quickening dove, And rest, safe in joyous, omnipotent Love. —CHRIST JESUS. ond each sin-barbed arrow, —AUGUSTA E. STETSON. “Albert F. Gilmore, Christian Science Committee on Publication for the IN THE EVENING MAIL, of February 24, 1921, appears a letter, signed by State of New York,” in which Mr. Gilmore comments upon certain portions of an interview with me, which interview was published in THE EVENING MAIL of New York City, on February 19th, under the signature of its religious Editor, Mr. Charles A. Starr, Mr. Gilmore, as New York representative of the Christian Science board of directors, Boston, Mass., makes his commq ents in his official capacity, as the agent of tke directors and therefore it becomes necessary that his statements be answered and corrected. of members from the church roll of Firs In his letter, Mr. Gilmore, in speaking of the dropping t Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, says, “twenty-four were immediately reinstated when it became known that they desired to retain their membership.” The twenty-four members are those whose names had been improperly dropped from churck membership and who were obliged to resort to court action for reinstatement. Mr. Gilmore’s statement was not in accordance with these facts, when he alleges, that these members were reinstated “irrespective of the effort through court action.” Some of these members, before taking court action, had written the facts to the board of trustees of First Church and had received re- plies, which were unsatisfactory. Another statement in® Mr. Gilmore’s letter reads as follows: To those who kave read Mrs. Eddy’s letters to Mrs. Stetson, re- cently published in the advertising columns of the local press, to which reference is made in this inter- view, it must have been apparent that Mrs. Stetson had an unusual opportunity to become a loyal and useful member of the Christian Sclence movement. That she did %ot improve her opportunity to that purpose is manifest from later de- velopments. To understand the true situation one should read Mrs. Eddy’s letters appearing on pages 359-61 in the volume “Mis- cellany.” In regard to the first part of the state- ment by Mr. Gilmore, it is indeed “appar- ent” to any one reading the facsimile letters of Mrs. Eddy to me, that I had an “unusual opportunity,”—the opportunity afforded by mere than twenty-five years of constant association with Mrs. Eddy, and the infinite, boundless benefit of her instruction, advice, guidance, confidence, and Jove. Among the expressions used by Mrs. Eddy, in her letters, to which Mr. Giimore refers, may be noted the follow- ing: TS S G 1 R asee Fegpecisn ’ ~ Gt ont Lok L Cave M(fit——z'. :‘ oLasec L2 il o Py o2 (9 MW - ‘M..fi/ %—2“‘7 o Mnn@ Ltcm Cdand -, . i o3 . ——— s 20 da ol Pric AN Casepeot Grentoe Goec Pleasant View, Concord, N. H. My Jdarling Student : I have a few moments to myself and my heart turns to you with such grati- tude for your stremgth in carrying out measures so important to the cause, that I must tell you how much I love you and that all of earth and hades could never blind me to this fact. No student, no being on earth, can change my true sense of an individual No matter what is said to me it cannot move me. ‘Wbhat was it that inspired Mrs. Eddy to phrase the last paragraph of the above letter as she did? The implication fis plain, that there were students and ma- terlalists who oppose the spiritual animus, refiected by the true Christian Scientist; also that these were even then trying to discredit me, foreshadowing the continued operation of the enemy of good, working through its channels and that Mrs. Pddy, I am fixed and more and more in my confidence in your strength to stand, & “having done all to stand.” If you will pardon me I will tell you one of my pet names for you when speaking of you to my household, “my war horse.” Oh dearest, precious child, how much you have done and will yet do for our cause, none knows but me. G 2B ® ¢ © come directly to-me. I must tell you something about mental prac- tice that cannot be written and in- volves ail for time and eternity. With great love to you, Ever thine, M. B. G. EDDY. Come without fail. Mrs. Eddy then gave to me instruction Row to defend myself against malice, envy, Jealousy, batred, fear, etc., as these mental elements work through innocent, ignorant, or maliclous avenues. Spirituality, the Mind of Christ, divine love, renders one fnvulnerable to the attacks of the mental sssassin and a Christian Sclentist must possess and exercise the qualities of the Christ-nind if he would escape the mental assasstn. This armor of Truth and Love, 1 Jave preved invulnerable for mere than Aty TR, . st detecting this effort of error, refused to glve it the slightest power or influence upon berself, and she never was moved from her vantage ground of spiritual deci- sion. The following facsimile letter sheds light on this phase of the situation: Do not allow the evil ome in your mlidst to turn you away from me in this hour of crucifizion, or history will re- peat Itself, and Christlan Science will once more be lost as aforetime. The lles that are told about me or what I say of you are not worth your notice nor mine. The last two letters above quoted, clearly indicate that Mra. Bddy felt that the pres- ervation of genulne Christian Sclence de- Dended upon demonstrators ef spiritual ]sense or the Mind of Christ. She saw the “cup” they must drink and the cross they mu$t carry up the hill of Christlan Science. Mrs. Eddy states, that if I should be turned away by “the evil one” “Chris- tian Science will once more be lost as afore- time.” Throughout my entire Christian Science experlence, T have been combating these enemies of Christ and I sball con- tinue to resist and overcome the clalm of a power opposed to God and His Christ, unt!l the head of the dragon is crushed and its efforts to overcome me and sepa- rate me from God, who is my life and my supply of every human need, forever fall. The hour has arrived when I can con- fidently assert that Christian Science will never again “be lost as aforetime.” I am armed with the consclousness of my divine ego, as God's child, and with the invuinerable armor of Truth and Love, the arrow of the archer fails to deprive me of my fearless wing or to move me from my firm foundation on the Rock—Christ. In one of M Eddy’s letters to me she sa “Beloved ! you need to watch and | pray that the enemy of good cannot sepa- rate you from your Leader and best earthly friend.” 7The “enemy of good” never has been and never will be able to separate me from my Leaders, Mary Baker Eddy's, divine Individuality. Genuine Christian Scientists never del- fied Mrs. Eddy’'s physical personality. Truth, spiritual sense, revealed to them her mission and her spiritual identity, as an idea of God, reflecting Mind, Spirit, intelligence, the creator of all that is real and eternal. The “remnant” of Mrs. Eddy’s seed, her true followers, will continue to defend the spiritual interpretation of the Holy Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by M-ry Baker Eddy. Freely we have receivea freely and lovingly we glve to humanity, Christ's Christianity, | which frees from mental bondage to sin, suffering, sorrow, and death. In one of her letters Mrs. Eddy assured me of her faith in my spiritual “strength to stand” and defend her teachings. She wrote me, “I am fixed and more and more in my confidence in your strength to stand, & ‘having done all to stand.'” (See Let- ter No. 1.) Mrs. Eddy placed upon me 2 great responsibility,—the defense and demonstration of gepulne Christlan Science, as promulgated by her and my “strength” increases with each demand of Christ. After more than thirty years of preach- ing, teaching, and demonstrating the power of Truth and Love over the false claim of sin, sickness, sorrow, and death, the world has a right to look to me for a proof of my ability to demonstrate the potency of the Mind of Christ, the fulfill- ing of the law of love for God and for my brother man and to overcome the last enemy, the illusion—death. Mr. Gilmore seems not to agree with Mrs. Eddy's conviction and confidence in me, as expressed in the facsimile letters of Mrs. Eddy to me, shown on these two pages. ‘The lles that are told about me or what I say of you are not worth your notice nor mine. It is apparent that Mrs. Pddy was aware that “lles . . . are told about me or what 1 say of you” and these, she says, “are not worth your notice mor mine.” She published, for the protection of her follow- ers, who might be misled by the forgeries and counterfeit letters and telegrams, which were 1n circulation at various times and accredited to her, this statement: I am sure that the counterfelt let- ters in circulation, purporting to have my signature, must fail to influence the minds of this dear people to con- cluslons the very opposite of my real sentiments. i (Miscellany, page 175.) @ van” }4"& ——— PLEASANT VIEW, Concord, N. H., April 20. My preclous Student: We always unite on one point, viz., that no supposed power can ever sep- arate the eternal friendship and Chris- tian love that exists between me and you— With oceans of love, M. B. G. EDDY. Mr. Glimore, in a portion of his letter to THE EVENING MAIL, quoted above, refers to Mrs. Eddy's letters appearing in the volume entitled Miscellany. The fmpli- cation of his words here, is that Mrs. Eddy, in statements attributed to ber, and published on the last pages of the volume, Miscellany, had reversed her position of over twenty-five years, and that she had decided that she had been in error in re- gard to her spiritual Intuitions and con- victions of my loyaity, faith, divine love and understanding and my “strength to stand,” under the attacks of “the evil one,” to use Mrs. Eddy’s own expressions, and that Mrs. Eddy had therefore found that what she had written and said of me was not true. What a grave accusation sgainst our wise, Christly Leader, Mary Baker Fddy! Surely the “accuser of our brethren” and bis angels are even now cast down to the ground! This new flood, cast out by the dragon to destroy the spiritual idea, the divine individuality of the genuine Chris- tian Scientist, has signally failed to hush the volce of Christ and them that are Christ's. The position taken by Mr. Gilmore, in regard to what he considers my deviation from Christian Sclence, as judged from his otwon concept of what Christlan Science is, may be compared to the phenomenon of a trained musician, versed in all the intrica- cles of counterpoint and harmony, sud- denly losing his knowledge, until he could not distinguish between a major and a minor chord; or of an advanced mathema- tician, who had passed every examination in higher mathematics, and had been en- dorsed by his teacher, suddenly becoming unable to add, subtract, multiply or divide. Just previous to my so-called “trial” by the directors in Boston, the following mes- sage from Mrs. Eddy was published in the Bentinel: When my dear brethren In New York desire to build higher,—to en- large their phylacteries and demon- strate Christian Science to a higher extent,—they must begin on a wholly spiritual foundation, than which there 18 no other. . . . Bpirit is infinite; therefore Spirit is all. “There is no matter” is not only the axiom of true Christian Scl- ence, but it is the only basis upon which this Sclence can be demon- strated. In answer to Mrs. Fddy's mesmage, ask- ing if we were ready to begin “to build . « » on a wholly spiritual foundation,” we replied as follows: In grateful acknowledgment of the redemption of the first-born, mindful of the ever-present protection of divine Love, we will enlarge our spiritual pbylacteries, dbinding them as fromt- lets between our eyes, that we may “demonstrate Christian Sclence to a higher extent.” Having completed our demonstration of the church mili- tant, we will strive more earnestly to attain the higher understanding which will reveal the Church Triumphant, where “Spirit {s infinite; therefore Spirit is all.” (The Christion Science Journal, vol. xxvi., p. 697.) ‘When Mrs. Eddy called her “dear breth- ren in New York” out from the material organization to begin “to bufld . . . on a wholly spiritual foundation,” she closed Mer work with the material organization, and let it remain in the hands of those who were still in th!s primary stage of church activity. She says: After this material form of cohesion and fellowship has accomplished its end, continued organization retards spiritual growth, and should be lald off,—even as the corporeal organiza- tion deemed requisite in the firet stages of mortal existence is finally 1ald off, in order to gain spiritual free- dom and supremacy. (Retrospection ond Introspection, p. 45.) She trusted that we, who bad assured ber that we did desire to begin “to build . . on a wholly spiritual foundation,” were so armed with Truth and Love that we would have spiritual understanding to continue to build on the Rock—Christ, and reveal the Church Triumphant. My so-called “trial” by the board of directors, to which Mr. Gilmore has re- ¢ ¢ & by adhering to His lonely, present highest idea of love you will hold to its Principle and be safe. O! I thank Him, love Him and love my Awguate. and everlastingly yours, M. B. ED| = M—e%‘__&# gz lal,” )—J—-aa‘é,,‘_}’ < ,‘C_f 4 ) 7 a1, AA o e a s, Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., July 2, 1905. Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson, C. S. D., and_the practi- tioners in the R. R. of her church, N. Y., N. Y. Dearly beloved: Words fall me, they are insufficlent to tell my gratitude for your remembrance of me. I love you— 1 deeply appreclate your love for me and your mag- nificent gifts for my room in church. The silver ice sett, and gilt onyx table. More than a cup of cold water In His name, even, is the love that overflows it all—that you feel and constantly demonstrate for me. Darlings, it blesses you, it blesses me, and the whole world! Your love reflects the divine Love which heals the sick, conquers sin and the sinner. Here let me assure you that I never said or thought I should remove female Students from their sacred office of Readers in our churches! - Pleasant View, Goncord, N. H., March 21, 1905. My precious Studems: Yes, you are conscious of God's care and love; and that I will stand by you, will warn and comfort you and help you onward and upward. . . . Be patient, humble, loving, full of faith and good works and ell will be well with thee. Be of good cheer, darling, you are supported by a strong arm,—jyour students are loyal. Now take my advice. Do not counteract any movement for churches or for the unity of two In one—even if it seems best to do so—but let the students learn from experience, and God direct them. You are emtremched, and had better be left out than mixed with what cannot mix. So be wise and wait en God and He will direct thy path. . Lovingly faithfully thine, MARY BAKER EDDY. The evil one or one evil is ramified just mow in attempts, but God, good, is all and you have nothing to fear—since evil is nothing and you are a great somethings in God's dear sight. He will uphold you ‘with the right arm of His rightness. I pray for you dally. God loves you and I love and you are the sheep of His pasture. Rest, my darling Augusta, in peace, God is with you. Ever lovingly thine own. MARY BAKER EDDY.