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WOMAN'S CAUSE 
 
'0 Cause 
 
 By 
 
 CAROL NORTON, C.S.D. 
 
 Author of "Studies in Character," "The New World, 
 "Poems and Verses" 
 
 BOSTON 
 DANA ESTES C& COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 1895, by CAROL NORTON 
 A II Rights Reserved 
 
'TVHE Woman's Cause is man's: they 
 
 rise or sink 
 
 Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or 
 free. 
 
 Tennyson 
 
 304589 
 
OTRENGTH and honor are her 
 clothing; and she shall rejoice in 
 time to come. 
 
 She openeth her mouth with Wis- 
 dom; and in her tongue is the law of 
 kindness. 
 
 Give her of the fruit of her hands; 
 and let her own works praise her in the 
 gates. 
 
 Proverbs xxxi. 25, 26, 31. 
 
 vii 
 
preface 
 
 "Vision Beautiful" of the 
 twentieth century will be the 
 " new man " and the " new woman " 
 side by side, at work in the vineyard of 
 Christ, reforming the race, and reveal- 
 ing the kingdom of God among men. 
 This " new man " will be to mortals a 
 revelation, for he will express the divine 
 majesty of his Creator, and reflect 
 man's rightful dominion over sin, dis- 
 ease, and death. He will be the Scien- 
 tist of the age, because he will under- 
 stand and demonstrate the Science of 
 Being through the metaphysics of Di- 
 vine Law. 
 
 He will be a Prophet because of his 
 
 u 
 
communion with the Divine Mind, 
 which will enable him to read the signs 
 of the times, to analyze mental forces 
 that are destined to perplex the com- 
 ing days, and to see the inevitable 
 future of things, both good and bad. 
 He will be a Theologian of the highest 
 type, on account of his spiritual vision, 
 acquaintance with the spiritually scien- 
 tific import of the Bible and the teach- 
 ings of Jesus Christ, and lastly because 
 of the premise from which he will work, 
 i. e., the eternal reality of Good, as 
 Deity, and the unreality of evil, as er- 
 ror. He will be the most advanced and 
 successful Physician that practises 
 among men by virtue of the medicine 
 he will use, and the food and exercise 
 that he will prescribe. He will heal 
 through the divine law of Mind, as the 
 
great curative Principle, God; and 
 he will emulate and imitate understand- 
 ingly, such great healers of moral and 
 bodily ills as Jesus, Matthew, Mark, 
 Luke, John, Peter, and Paul. His medi- 
 cine for the sick will be the simple oper- 
 ation of spiritual thought upon the 
 body; the food he will prescribe, the 
 eating of the body of Christ, i. e., the 
 thinking and living of the Christ Mind; 
 and the exercise demanded will be the 
 honest and perpetual thinking of pure 
 and Christly thoughts, as opposed to 
 the indulgence of selfish, depraved, and 
 material ones. 
 
 As a Reformer, Statesman, and Ideal- 
 ist, he will be eminently successful, 
 honest, sincere, and practical; for he 
 will reform by his religion, and uplift 
 and purify the State by the influence 
 
of Good that he will radiate among 
 men. As an Idealist, he will insist that 
 the perfect ideals of freedom, equality, 
 health, and immortality constitute the 
 only real being, and must sooner or 
 later be the rich heritage of all men. 
 Thus he will be 
 
 A man of deeds, not creed, 
 A soul which Truth doth lead, 
 A heart whose life is Love, 
 A mind which lives above 
 The things that work for ill. 
 
 The " new woman " will be a greater 
 revelation to the world in many re- 
 spects than the " new man." She will 
 be all that has made noble womanhood 
 in the past, with added graces and 
 strength. She will not evolve, but re- 
 veal new qualities and characteristics, 
 thus her true selfhood will become 
 
seen, felt, and universally acknowl- 
 edged. For centuries this selfhood has 
 been to a great extent dormant and 
 undeveloped. And why? Because of 
 the general idea that woman's nature 
 is naturally limited to a certain sphere 
 of life, and her chief characteristics, 
 those that make social and religious 
 leadership, and work, things wholly 
 beyond her ability. True it is that 
 there are scattered along the path of 
 centuries, in all lands, conspicuous ex- 
 ceptions to this general idea, but these 
 examples are largely in the minority 
 and appear as instances of "womanly 
 attainment" that have been born and 
 nourished into fulness in spite of sur- 
 rounding difficulties, rather than be- 
 cause of the encouragement given by 
 the world at large. 
 
xiv preface 
 
 Through the cross of Christ and the 
 gospel of Love, this new woman will 
 attain her place in the plan of the Great 
 Architect; she will reflect the Mother- 
 hood of God, and proclaim the infinite 
 compassion of the Divine Maternity. 
 Thus she will help uplift the race to the 
 heights of chastity, equality, and union 
 with the eternal law of Life and Love. 
 
Roman's 
 
 test of civilization is the esti- 
 mate of woman," said George 
 William Curtis; and the closing days 
 of this century present many proofs of 
 the truthfulness of this utterance. 
 
 The present is certainly woman's 
 hour in a larger and purer sense than 
 that of any previous epoch of human 
 history. It is especially pregnant with 
 evidences of her coming emancipation 
 from all that limits her mental growth, 
 and her position in the world socially, 
 civilly, and religiously. Through clouds 
 of bigotry, literalism, custom and self- 
 ishness we get inspiring glimpses of 
 
 1C 
 
16 
 
 that glorified hour when woman will 
 stand in the world for what she is, and 
 for what the All-Father meant her 
 to be. 
 
 For centuries the world has been 
 governed by materialistic and unrea- 
 sonable prejudice on all questions that 
 involve the element of freedom, and 
 perhaps in no way more conspicuously 
 than in its estimate of woman's nature, 
 privileges, capabilities, and destiny. It 
 has progressed along other lines much 
 more rapidly than it has moved forward 
 in the idea of sex-equality. Men have 
 fought war after war for man's political 
 freedom; they have overturned nations 
 to right the wrongs of a few men. They 
 have so perfected the vast machinery 
 of the Law that to-day the humblest 
 citizen of our Commonwealth has the 
 
10 man's Cause 17 
 
 protection, individual might and dig- 
 nity, enjoyed by the king of two centu- 
 ries ago. But woman has, to a great 
 extent, fought her own battles, won her 
 victories in the closet, alone with her 
 God, and has become the happy pos- 
 sessor of enlarged privileges and possi- 
 bilities, only as the thought of the race 
 has been exalted and spiritualized by 
 the influx of light and purity from on 
 High. 
 
 True it is that the work of holy men 
 in all ages has ushered in, step by step, 
 the freedom that she is now beginning 
 to enjoy. All the progress of the ages 
 has been of necessity spiritual progress, 
 as there is really no other. All good is 
 of God, and the increase of good in the 
 world means the growth of all those 
 things among men and races that work 
 
is ftfiioman'g Cause 
 
 for liberty, right, health, and spiritual 
 freedom to the individual. 
 
 While for ages woman has been 
 steadily ascending to her rightful place 
 as man's co-equal in all the walks of 
 life, yet what is so widely known in all 
 parts of the world at the present time 
 as " Woman's Cause," is the outgrowth 
 of the last quarter of the century, in a 
 peculiar and marked way. In Christen- 
 dom the " Woman's Movement " dom- 
 inates all other questions that involve 
 individual, social, moral, and spiritual 
 freedom. Truly says a well-known au- 
 thor, "The Mother-heart of God will 
 never be known to the world until 
 translated into terms of speech by 
 mother-hearted women. Law and Love 
 will never balance in the realm of grace 
 until a woman's hand shall hold the 
 
JKUoman's (Cause 19 
 
 scales." Our nineteenth century civili- 
 zation will find that its last quarter has 
 given birth to two vital forces that have 
 already begun to evolve a better state 
 of things. The first is a system of re- 
 ligion that can be truly called scientif- 
 ically spiritual. The second, the great 
 idea that 
 
 " The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink 
 Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free. 
 For woman is not undeveloped man, 
 But diverse. . . . 
 
 Yet in the long years liker must they grow 
 The man be more of woman, she of man, 
 Distinct in individualities ; 
 But like each other even as those who love, 
 Then comes the statelier Eden back to men ; 
 Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and 
 
 calm; 
 May these things be!" 
 
 Woman's work for the ages has been 
 essentially religious and -ethical. She 
 
20 
 
 has touched the chords of the harp of 
 human existence to those higher har- 
 monies of Soul, wherein dogma, human 
 intellect and mere speculation have no 
 part. She has given and continues to 
 give to the world the idea of God as 
 Love. In the hours of humanity's 
 greatest need, woman has always 
 voiced the great Mother-heart of God, 
 in words at once firm, loving, compas- 
 sionate, and exalted. 
 
 It was through Miriam that Israel 
 caught some of the highest notes of its 
 great prophetic Scriptures. Deborah 
 filled the high office of Judge in Israel, 
 with great power. And from the trust- 
 ing prayer of Hannah came that great 
 leader, Samuel, to be the saviour of a 
 down-trodden people. Sarah is cited 
 by Paul in his wonderful tribute to the 
 
21 
 
 works of faith in the eleventh Chapter 
 of Hebrews, as one of the great exam- 
 ples of exalted faith. Here woman 
 stands side by side in spiritual power, 
 with such conspicuous Biblical charac- 
 ters as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, 
 Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, 
 Samuel and others. 
 
 It was Esther who delivered her kin- 
 dred; and through woman's compas- 
 sion and devotion, Moses was saved to 
 Israel. Ruth stands as a type of fidelity 
 and loyalty. It was Elizabeth's child 
 of promise, " the greatest born among 
 women," who prepared the way for the 
 world's Saviour. The Virgin Mary, 
 " blessed among women," gave to a suf- 
 fering world its Redeemer. She it was 
 who guarded the tender infant days of 
 that Holy Child. In her maternal arms 
 
22 
 
 he rested, and as he " grew and waxed 
 strong, growing in favor with God and 
 man," she never forsook him, but lov- 
 ingly, meekly, followed him with a 
 mother's heart to "the foot of the cross, 
 where amidst the shadows of the cruci- 
 fixion, he gave her into the tender care 
 of the loving disciple. While all Israel 
 looked and waited for a Messiah, his- 
 tory once again repeated itself, and 
 when the Saviour came, but few re- 
 ceived him, or recognized in his words, 
 works and life, the embodiment of their 
 own Messianic prophecies and hopes, 
 hence his rejection and crucifixion. But 
 all were not asleep to the mighty events 
 of those holy days in humanity's his- 
 tory, neither were all blind to the fact, 
 that in the immaculate conception of 
 the meek and lowly Christ-child existed 
 
HUoman'0 Cause 23 
 
 the fulfilment of Isaiah's words, " Be- 
 hold, a virgin shall be with child, and 
 shall bring forth a son, and they shall 
 call his name Emmanuel, which, being 
 interpreted is God with us." While 
 those who sat in Moses' seat and re- 
 hearsed the prophetic words of the 
 great Law-giver, and the prophets re- 
 lating to the coming Messiah, rejected 
 him when he came, Luke records the 
 just and devout Simeon, who waited for 
 the consolation of Israel, as being so 
 filled with the Holy Ghost (spiritual 
 illumination) that when the Christ- 
 child was brought into the Temple by 
 his parents, Simeon recognized the in- 
 fant Messiah and taking him in his 
 arms blessed God, and said, " Lord, 
 now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
 peace, according to thy word. For 
 
24 Zttlomatrs (<itu*e 
 
 mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
 which thou hast prepared before the 
 face of all people. A light to lighten 
 the Gentiles, and the glory of thy peo- 
 ple Israel." John also records that the 
 Baptist after preaching the coming of 
 Christ, on seeing Jesus, at once ex- 
 claimed to two disciples who stood by, 
 "Behold the Lamb of God." But 
 Simeon and John were not alone in 
 their recognition of the long looked 
 for Messiah. Woman ever rising to 
 prophetic vision stands equally the dis- 
 cerner of the Nazarene's individuality, 
 for Luke tells us of Anna the Prophet- 
 ess, the daughter of Phanuel, " who de- 
 parted not from the Temple, but served 
 God with fastings and prayers night 
 and day." Who coming into the Tem- 
 ple where the child Jesus was, like 
 
10 man's Cause 25 
 
 Simeon " gave thanks likewise unto the 
 Lord, and spoke of Him to all them 
 that looked for redemption in Jerusa- 
 lem." To Mary of Bethany Jesus gave 
 some of the sublimest truths of his min- 
 istry, to the woman at the well he 
 preached one of his grandest dis- 
 courses; to Mary Magdalene came the 
 glory of regeneration and the new 
 birth, after which she followed her 
 Master more closely than all others, 
 seeing him first after the resurrection. 
 To woman came the great privilege of 
 first proclaiming the Gospel of the Res- 
 urrection. Faithful woman followed 
 the Nazarene Teacher and his disciples, 
 ministering to them of their substance. 
 To Lois and Eunice, Timothy owed his 
 preparation for discipleship in the early 
 church. 
 
26 ZZlomfin'g (Cause 
 
 Well says Bishop Fallows: "The 
 time has come for the setting apart of 
 women for the work of the gospel min- 
 istry. On the resurrection morn the 
 commission was first given to women 
 to preach the good news to man. The 
 Corinthian women were not to be com- 
 pared for a moment with the refined, 
 cultured women of to-day. The injunc- 
 tion to the former did not apply to the 
 latter. I have been long, I confess, in 
 coming to this conclusion. I read the 
 life of our Lord in a new light, the 
 last ritualistic prejudice has vanished. 
 Christ's commissions were given to 
 women and men alike. Men have too 
 long misconceived the true position of 
 women. This present period in the 
 church is very important. Let us not 
 array ourselves against Holy Ghost 
 
ftll omurg Cause 27 
 
 women lest we be found to fight against 
 God." 
 
 " Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung. 
 Not she denied Him with unholy tongue. 
 She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave, 
 Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave." 
 
 From early days until now, a noble 
 army of consecrated, unnamed women 
 in every age and clime has uplifted 
 mankind in an unseen ministry of de- 
 votion, purity and goodness. In art, 
 social reform, in literature, and at the 
 fireside countless thousands have min- 
 istered to the human race. 
 
 Our own country and the whole Eng- 
 lish-speaking world, as well as all lands 
 have been blessed in a wonderful degree 
 in all the walks of life, by the work of 
 noble women. Who has sung of the 
 Pilgrim's landing, with the sublimity 
 
28 
 
 of Mrs. Hemans, in her famous poem, 
 " The Breaking Waves Dashed High? " 
 Who has risen to greater heights of 
 religious fervor, among the poets, than 
 Lucy Larcom, Adelaide Procter, Fran- 
 ces Havergal, Celia Thaxter, and Alice 
 and Phoebe Gary? Can it not be truly 
 said, that the writings for young people 
 of Louisa Alcott, Frances Hodgson 
 Burnett, Mary Mapes Dodge, and 
 Susan Coolidge, have few, if any supe- 
 riors in our literature? It took the 
 noble humanity and fiery eloquence of 
 Garrison and Phillips, and the breath 
 of human equality and justice of Low- 
 ell's and Whittier's anti-slavery poems, 
 to picture the awful inhumanity of sla- 
 very, and to inaugurate its destruction. 
 While to Harriet Beecher Stowe was 
 given the task of portraying in her 
 
21 Oman's Cause 29 
 
 famous and pathetic book, the crush- 
 ing of maternal affection born of the 
 system. She spoke for thousands of 
 slave mothers whose hearts were wrung 
 with the loss of those who, by the law 
 of humanity and affection, were their 
 own. What voices rose higher, or 
 whose efforts counted for more in that 
 great struggle for human equality, than 
 those of Lucretia Mott and Lydia 
 Maria Child? Christendom's favorite 
 hymn, " Nearer, my God, to Thee," is 
 a woman's gift to the worldo Through 
 the untiring work of a few devoted 
 women, foremost among them being 
 Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, 
 to-day over forty nations, in time of 
 battle, mutually agree to protect and 
 to make absolutely neutral ground, that 
 portion of their battlefields occupied by 
 
30 Ziloman'g Canst 
 
 the Red Cross Society, in its ministry 
 to the wounded. 
 
 In the world of literature in England 
 is to be found a famous group of 
 women, foremost among them being 
 Hannah More, Mrs. Browning, Jean 
 Ingelow, and Eliza Cook. 
 
 The reform work in that country of 
 such philanthropists as Elizabeth Fry, 
 Augusta Webster, Lady Elizabeth 
 Hope, Sarah Robinson and Mrs. L. 
 Ormiston Chant has been one of the 
 most potent forces that has worked to 
 raise the ways, means and character 
 of living in England. 
 
 In America the philanthropic work of 
 Dorothea Dix ranks with the highest, 
 in the line of social reform in public 
 charity institutions, and the educa- 
 tional work of Elizabeth Peabody has 
 
JKllomau's Cause 31 
 
 borne much fruit. With Frances E. 
 Willard's great work for Temperance, 
 and for a purer social life, the disinter- 
 ested efforts of her colaborer, Lady 
 Henry Somerset, and of the long de- 
 votion of Margaret Fuller, Lucy Stone, 
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. 
 Anthony, to the cause of equal suffrage, 
 we are all aqcuainted. All lovers of 
 progress, right and equality honor 
 their courage and admire their ideals. 
 Mary A. Livermore has graced the lec- 
 ture platform and preached from the 
 pulpit with the quiet dignity and sub- 
 limity born of deep religious conviction 
 and high aim. The work of Julia Ward 
 Howe for humanity and for her sex, 
 especially for the great truth that 
 there should be but " one moral stand- 
 ard for man and woman," has been a 
 
32 
 
 telling factor in the direction of social 
 reform. 
 
 The work of this noble army of 
 women, to which could be added scores 
 whose names cannot be mentioned in 
 this brief review, proves that woman's 
 heart has ever cried out for freedom 
 and goodness, and that she never has 
 spared nor ever will spare, a single ef- 
 fort to establish the reign of true man- 
 hood and womanhood, with one moral 
 standard for both, to the end that the 
 Religion of Jesus Christ rule the world, 
 with all the purity, equality and gran- 
 deur that this religion includes. 
 
 Said one of the women Reformers 
 before the Woman's Congress held in 
 Chicago, " If woman is qualified, is she 
 called? How can one know? Again 
 let us take the divine judgment. How 
 
Cause 33 
 
 can we know God's call, His purpose, 
 His requirement of any creature? The 
 song-bird sings. She cannot help it. 
 And the great creatures of the sea must 
 take their place therein. They die if 
 out of their own domain. . . . And all 
 God's ministers must chant His love, 
 for they see His presence and feel His 
 touch, in places, in persons, and in prin- 
 ciples, and they must repeat His 
 thoughts after Him. Are women thus 
 moved? Let even pre-Christian history 
 answer. Have women thus moved, 
 thus inspired men, and cities, and na- 
 tions? Let dying martyrs and trans- 
 figured saints give reply. In the latest 
 floodtide of the world's philanthropy 
 and Christian work are women seen 
 and felt? Let the overwhelming sta- 
 
34 
 
 tistics of the last thirty years give the 
 
 answer." 
 
 " Let her make herself her own 
 To give or keep, to live and learn and be 
 All that harms not distinctive womanhood." 
 
 To the work of Rev. Mary Baker 
 Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of 
 Christian Science, the " Cause of 
 Woman " owes endless homage and 
 gratitude. To her, in a larger sense 
 than to any other woman, does human- 
 ity owe everlasting indebtedness. To 
 praise her work is not to take away one 
 iota of the lustre that surrounds the 
 work of the noble and consecrated 
 women referred to; but it is to add 
 glory to the sex which she so grandly 
 represents. Truly can it be said that 
 her characteristics are pre-eminently 
 those of a great spiritual Reformer and 
 
Cause 35 
 
 Teacher. Spiritual might to which is 
 allied meekness, a depth of love that 
 blesses the race and includes all who 
 would array themselves against the ex- 
 alted teachings of the religion she has 
 founded, patience, moral courage, un- 
 changing purpose, a modesty akin to 
 selflessness, and a lofty optimism, 
 which amidst storms of misrepresenta- 
 tion and materialism has held bravely 
 to the great fact of the eternal suprem- 
 acy and reality of Good as the One- 
 God, and of evil's unreality, these 
 have been her conspicuous characteris- 
 tics from the inception of her labors, as 
 the Founder of the great Christian 
 Science Movement. 
 
 Looking backward down the vista of 
 time we halt at the year 1866. The 
 great struggle that had brought about 
 
36 
 
 the end of human slavery on the Amer- 
 ican continent was just at its close, 
 when in the old Bay State, that centre 
 of religious growth, liberalism and 
 freedom, one brave woman stepped out 
 of the beaten path of traditional theol- 
 ogy, medicine and popular scientific 
 systems, and rising above the mists of 
 materialistic codes, announced in tones 
 at once Scriptural, and Christian, log- 
 ical and metaphysical, the great truth 
 that Mind is Causation, and that the 
 so-called miracles of early Christianity 
 were not supernatural, but divinely 
 natural, and capable of perpetual dem- 
 onstration in all ages. 
 
 For years Boston had been the centre 
 of America's intellectual and religious 
 life, and the world of thought had be- 
 come used to being startled by the 
 
37 
 
 voices that this new world's Athens 
 from time to time sent forth. From 
 out its liberty-loving atmosphere had 
 sounded the stentorian voices of Wen- 
 dell Phillips and William Lloyd Garri- 
 son in behalf of a nation in the chains 
 of slavery. As the offspring of its 
 broad and ever-widening love of liberty 
 in the deep things of the Spirit, came 
 forth the lofty strains of Channing, 
 whose exalted thought and pulpit elo- 
 quence, more than that of any other 
 single liberal Christian worker, brought 
 about the great liberal movement that 
 raised high the standard of rational re- 
 ligion, and entered its powerful protest 
 against form, dogma, mysticism and 
 literalism in Christianity. From Mas- 
 sachusetts and Boston went forth the 
 aspiring transcendentalism of Emerson, 
 
38 
 
 the anti-slavery and spiritual poems 
 and writings of Whittier and Lowell, 
 the tender and noble poems of Henry 
 and Samuel Longfellow, true poets of 
 humanity; and the much-loved prose 
 and poetry of Doctor Holmes. Here, 
 too, A. Bronson Alcott sent forth as 
 leaven in the great world of thought, 
 the sweet discoveries of his pure nature, 
 and Hawthorne his tales of romance, 
 and lastly can be mentioned the many 
 contributions of Louis Agassiz to mod- 
 ern knowledge. So it would seem as if 
 it were in the divine and natural order, 
 that in this foremost centre of religious 
 activity, in the freest land of the globe, 
 the voice of the Founder of the great 
 spiritual Movement known as Christian 
 Science should first be heard. From 
 Puritan parents, Mrs. Eddy inherited 
 
Cause 39 
 
 that natural love of freedom that so 
 conspicuously marks all her writings 
 and work. Her chief desire had always 
 been to bring freedom to all who were 
 in bondage to sin and disease, and we 
 have but to turn to the results of the 
 Movement, born of her self-sacrificing 
 labors, to witness the fulfilment of her 
 long cherished desire. Her voice was 
 raised, the message fresh from the 
 hands of God went forth, the blessed 
 discovery of the Truth that had so long 
 existed unseen in the very midst of 
 men, ushered in "with signs follow- 
 ing," was given to a hungry world 
 sorely in need of health, of scientific 
 religion, and of Christly grace. 
 
 Did an army rush forth to accept the 
 message of this lone brave woman? 
 Did a host advance recognize the 
 
40 
 
 teaching of this new herald as Christian 
 and Scientific? Did the pulpits of lib- 
 eral Massachusetts accord it the wel- 
 come due to " tidings of great joy? " 
 Did its press grasp the holy import of 
 the teaching, or see in it the Gospel of 
 the Nazarene? Not so in any general 
 sense. It was as of old, the " light shin- 
 ing in darkness and the darkness com- 
 prehended it not." True, certain noble 
 minds at once discerned its Christian 
 character, and some saw its marked 
 originality. Longfellow wrote kindly 
 to the Founder, on receipt of the Chris- 
 tian Science text book, " Science and 
 Health, with Key to the Scriptures," by 
 Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy. Wendell 
 Phillips said, in speaking of her early 
 labors: "Had I young blood in my 
 veins I would help that woman." But 
 
aa Oman's Cause 41 
 
 apart from the recognition of a few 
 thinkers, the teaching of Christian 
 Science, although attended with won- 
 derful evidences of its divine origin in 
 the healing of all types of disease, was 
 misunderstood and looked upon as an- 
 tagonistic to true Christianity. It was 
 history's long repetition of the rejection 
 of those higher truths that only spirit- 
 ual discernment and time reveal to the 
 minds of men. 
 
 Meanwhile the Founder of Christian 
 Science went on with her divine mis- 
 sion. She knew the divinity and scien- 
 tific nature of her discovery. She had 
 received orders higher than any within 
 the grasp of man to issue, and through 
 the help of that Infinite Father and 
 Mother God, who never forsakes, she 
 went in and out among the sinful, the 
 
42 
 
 sick and the sorrowing, breaking the 
 bread of Life, explaining the Scriptures, 
 aglow with the holy enthusiasm that is 
 born of a divine certainty; healing all 
 manner of disease, and meekly rising 
 above the opposition that so many 
 times tested the brave heart almost to 
 its limit of endurance. Little by little 
 her efforts began to bear fruit. Here 
 and there some earnest, longing heart 
 would respond to the pure teaching of 
 the consecrated worker. Before long, 
 spiritually minded men and women 
 began to recognize that there existed 
 in her teachings something that they 
 needed, and that popular religion and 
 the church gave not. In some instances 
 these people came, like the disciples of 
 old, from the humblest walks of life, 
 bearing no university diplomas, but 
 
1 Oman's Cause 43 
 
 possessing those higher credentials, 
 spiritual aspiration and perception, 
 honesty of purpose and willingness to 
 leave time-honored theories. Again, 
 came men and women from the high- 
 est intellectual circles, and from the 
 leading walks of social and philan- 
 thropic work, and, with a common dis- 
 cernment, saw in Christian Science a 
 demonstrable Religion, and the true 
 interpretation of the life of Christ. All 
 this time the healing of the sick went 
 on, which led thousands to its accept- 
 ance as a Religion. Thus the Move- 
 ment went on from strength to 
 strength, till to-day it numbers hun- 
 dreds of thousands of followers, and 
 of it can be truly said, it is the Truth 
 which known, maketh free. As a prac- 
 tical outgrowth of the Founder's life 
 
44 JKUoman'a Canst 
 
 and work, came the Massachusetts 
 Metaphysical College, chartered by the 
 State, in 1881, in which Mrs. Eddy 
 taught over four thousand students the 
 principles of Christian Science. These 
 students, returning to their homes in 
 all parts of the world, have, in their 
 turn, presented Christian Science to the 
 world through healing and teaching, 
 also the National Christian Scientist 
 Association; the Christian Science 
 Journal, the official organ of the Asso- 
 ciation; and the Mother Church of 
 Christian Science in Boston. In " Sci- 
 ence and Health, with Key to the Scrip- 
 tures," first published in 1875, she em- 
 bodied the principles of the system. 
 After a number of revisions, this book 
 is now (1907) in its four hundredth 
 edition, with a constantly increasing 
 
Z&1 Oman's (Cause 45 
 
 demand. The Christian Science 
 Churches have grown in number until 
 now there are five hundred and fifty 
 chartered ones, and two hundred Sun- 
 day Services, which will eventually 
 become regular churches. 
 
 It is well here to say, that Christian 
 Science counts not its strength from a 
 numerical standpoint, but from the 
 power it has among men as a quickener 
 of spiritual discernment; a healer of 
 disease, a reformer of the depraved and 
 vicious; a purifier of social, moral and 
 business methods; a saviour of men 
 from the miasma of materialism, skep- 
 ticism and " science falsely so-called," 
 a deliverer from the awful dogma of 
 eternal punishment, and a verifier of 
 the promises of Jesus Christ. 
 
46 z&omairg Canst 
 
 To give to man Christ's love, 
 
 To lift from sin above, 
 
 To bear the message of His peace, 
 
 To bid the restless heart-throbs cease, 
 
 To heal the sick and free the bound, 
 
 Till songs of praise from all lips sound, 
 
 Such is its mission here. 
 
 It is always a delight to dwell upon 
 the wonderful growth of the Movement 
 during the last few years; to write of 
 its influence, as shown in the great Con- 
 gress of the Parliament of Religions in 
 Chicago; to tell of the gathering to- 
 gether of six thousand of its represen- 
 tatives in Boston in January, 1895, to 
 attend the dedication of the Mother 
 Church in that city, and to read the 
 Testimonial Tablet engraved on that 
 beautiful church to the loved Founder; 
 to note the fair and cordial reception 
 given the subject by the Press, and to 
 
(Cause 47 
 
 witness the way in which the encyclo- 
 paedias, dictionaries and historical 
 works of the hour are writing the life 
 of the Founder, and the history of the 
 Movement; to detail the widespread 
 healing of disease the world over, and 
 to rejoice at the reformation of the sin- 
 ner by its exalted teaching. 
 
 The work of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy 
 is rounded and symmetrical. The re- 
 ligious system which she has founded 
 and developed bears the imprint of a 
 divinely guided hand. She has sancti- 
 fied the word " Science " by wedding 
 it to that of " Christian," and in Chris- 
 tian Science as a code of law incorpo- 
 rating within itself Science, Theology 
 and Medicine, we can truly say, she has 
 welded with the hammer of metaphys- 
 ics upon the anvil of revelation, the 
 
48 toman's 
 
 three great Sciences, and using them 
 not as three diverse systems, but as 
 one, she has proved the existence of 
 but one God, or Mind, with but one 
 governing spiritual law, ruling the 
 whole creation, including man. A 
 certain Judge, after reading her im- 
 mortal book, " Science and Health, 
 With Key to the Scriptures," said: 
 " The wisdom and logic of that book is 
 not the product of a man's mind, nor 
 of a woman's, but of Divinity." 
 
 The work of Mrs. Eddy has opened 
 to woman in the ministry of Christian 
 Science, the two noblest of all avo- 
 cations, philanthropy and medicine. 
 Through the understanding of Chris- 
 tian Science men and women, by one 
 and the same method, can reform the 
 sinner and heal the sick. In her recent 
 
Ullomau's Cause 49 
 
 reconstruction of the order of public 
 services in the Churches of Christ, 
 Scientist, throughout the world, she 
 has placed woman by the side of man 
 in the pulpit as co-worker and co-equal. 
 What Christian thinkers have for years 
 said should be done, she has done. 
 She has revealed simultaneously with 
 " the new man " in God's own image, 
 " the new woman," and in her own 
 words she states their equality thus: ' 
 " Man is the generic term for God's 
 children, made in His own image and 
 likeness, and because they are thus 
 made, reflected, the male and female 
 of His creating are equipoised in the 
 balances of God." 
 
 1 The World's Parliament of Religions, by Rev. John 
 Henry Barrows, D. D., Vol. II., page 1423. Address on 
 Christian Science by its Discoverer and Founder, Rev. 
 Mary Baker Eddy. By permission. 
 
50 
 
 By years of patient toil she has formed 
 a system of religious and medical in- 
 struction that has already become a 
 boon to thousands of mothers, because 
 of its demonstrable power to strengthen 
 moral character, and inculcate a natural 
 love of the pure and good in the minds 
 of children, and because of the freedom 
 that it brings to families, inasmuch as 
 it heals all manner of disease, destroys 
 the fear of parents, and thus becomes 
 the ever-present friend, the Guardian 
 Angel in the home. She has sounded 
 no minor chords, made no concessions 
 to materialistic conventionalism and 
 blind custom, even though they be 
 hoary with age, nor has she allowed 
 any form of mysticism to enter her 
 teachings as to woman's rights, priv- 
 ileges and possibilities, sexually, civilly, 
 
fcllomau's Cause 51 
 
 morally or spiritually. But in every 
 instance bases her arguments for 
 woman's complete emancipation from 
 all that retards the attainment of her 
 divine destiny upon the great founda- 
 tional stone of the divine creation, that 
 mighty utterance found in the first 
 chapter of Genesis " God created 
 man in His own image, in the image 
 of God created He him, male and fe- 
 male created He them." 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's work has given dignity 
 to womanhood, made it synonymous 
 with that grace of graces, spiritual dis- 
 cernment, and has given in words sub- 
 lime and marvelous, a glimpse of the 
 resurrection state, and of the reflections 
 of the Fatherhood and Motherhood of 
 God. 
 
 History will not only record Mrs. 
 
52 
 
 Eddy as the Discoverer and Founder 
 of Christian Science, and as Author, 
 Teacher, Reformer and Philosopher, 
 but as Poetess. Her poems and hymns 
 are gems of rarest thought set in the 
 pure gold of spiritual vision, tenderness 
 and deep consecration. Foremost 
 among her poems can be mentioned 
 "Death of Colonel Ransom," "To 
 My Mother in Heaven," "Woman's 
 Rights," " Meeting Beyond the Grave," 
 " The Wife and Widow." Among her 
 best known hymns are " Christ My 
 Refuge," "Saw Ye My Saviour," 
 "Feed My Sheep," and " Laus Deo." 
 Her touching prayer in verse entitled, 
 "The Mother's Evening Prayer," is 
 one of the priceless jewels of the 
 world's poetry and should be in the 
 heart and mind of every mother and 
 
WUoman'0 Cause 53 
 
 guardian, and in the homes of all lovers 
 of our Master. 
 
 The higher and divinely spiritual 
 significance of " Woman's Cause " is 
 beautifully set forth in Mrs. Eddy's 
 poem entitled, " Woman's Rights." 
 
 WOMAN'S RIGHTS 1 
 
 Grave on her monumental pile, 
 
 She won from vice, by virtue's smile, 
 
 Her dazzling crown, her sceptered throne, 
 Affection's wreath, a happy home. 
 
 The right to worship deep and pure, 
 To bless the orphan, feed the poor; 
 
 Last at the cross to mourn her Lord, 
 First at the tomb to hear his word. 
 
 To fold an angel's wings below, 
 And hover o'er the couch of woe, 
 
 To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet, 
 The right to sit at Jesus' feet. 
 
 1 By permission. 
 
54 Roman's (Cause 
 
 To form the bud for bursting bloom, 
 The hoary head with joy to crown ; 
 
 In short, the right to work and pray, 
 " To point to heaven and lead the way." 
 
 A. Bronson Alcott's words to her in 
 the early days of her work were timely 
 and beautiful. He wrote : " The pro- 
 found truths which you announce, sus- 
 tained by the immortal life, give to your 
 work the seal of inspiration; reaffirm 
 in modern phrase the Christian revela- 
 tions. In times like these, so sunk in 
 sensualism, I hail with joy your voice, 
 speaking an assured word for God and 
 immortality, and my joy is heightened 
 that these words are of woman's divin- 
 ings." 
 
 As the warm gulf-stream flows on its 
 course year after year, changing the 
 climatic conditions of vast stretches of 
 
territory, a beautiful type of the 
 great current of Spiritual Truth that 
 has come down through the centuries, 
 illuming the hearts of men, and giving 
 birth to heavenly aspiration, so the 
 life and inspired teachings of the 
 Founder of Christian Science can be 
 well termed a counter current, that like 
 those so common along our New Eng- 
 land coast, runs directly contrary to 
 the main stream of worldly ways and 
 means, materialistic systems and dog- 
 mas, but once the vessel of our lives 
 and hopes enters into it, it is borne 
 along by the tide of the Divine Law of 
 Love, to the port of Salvation, wherein 
 we cast anchor safe within the harbor 
 bar, secure in the eternal haven. Then 
 open to our gaze the gates of the Celes- 
 
56 wnatrs Cause 
 
 tial City " beside the tideless sea " and 
 entering in we awake in His likeness, 
 at one with Good the everlasting 
 Father, and we are satisfied. 
 
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