I have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure
that I rightly understand it. If the Saviour’s
name had been placed first and the Virgin Mary’s
second and Mrs. Eddy’s third, I should draw the
inference that a descending scale from First Importance
to Second Importance and then to Small Importance
was indicated; but to place the Virgin first, the
Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn
the scale the other way and make it an ascending scale
of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy ranking the other two
and holding first place.
I think that that was perhaps the intention, but none
but a seasoned Christian Scientist can examine a literary
animal of Mrs. Eddy’s creation and tell which
end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most
baffling and bewildering writer in the literary trade.
Eddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive
aspect in the list of the reformed Holy Family.
She has thought of that. In the book of By-laws
written by her—“impelled by a power
not one’s own”—there is a paragraph
which explains how and when her disciples came to confer
a title upon her; and this explanation is followed
by a warning as to what will happen to any female
Scientist who shall desecrate it:
“The title of Mother. Therefore if a student
of Christian Science shall apply this title, either
to herself or to others, except as the term for kinship
according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the
Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor
Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church.”
She is the Pastor Emeritus.
While the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems
to indicate that Mrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy
the First Place in it, that expectation is not definitely
avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is
clearer—clearer, and does not claim the
first place all to herself, but only the half of it.
I quote from Mr. Peabody’s book again:
“In the Christian Science Journal for April,
1889, when it was her property, and published by her,
it was claimed for her, and with her sanction, that
she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was
made to establish the claim.
“Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim
in her behalf that she herself was the chosen successor
to and equal of Jesus.”
In her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite
“We” for “I”) she says that
“While we entertain decided views . . . and
shall express them as duty demands, we shall claim
no especial gift from our divine origin,” etc.
Our divine origin. It suggests Equal again.
It is inferable, then, that in the near by-and-by
the new Church will officially rank the Holy Family
in the following order:
1. Jesus of Nazareth.—1. Our
Mother. 2. The Virgin Mary.
I am not playing with Christian Science and its founder,
I am examining them; and I am doing it because of
the interest I feel in the inquiry. My results
may seem inadequate to the reader, but they have for
me clarified a muddle and brought a sort of order
out of a chaos, and so I value them.
