THE fact mentioned in the article in the October number of the Granite Monthly, of Concord, N. H., that the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, of which the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy was President, was closed at a time when it was yielding an income of forty thousand dollars a year, as to all who read it ought, and with all fair minded persons, will be sufficient to put a stop to the repeated charges that in her labors . she is governed or influenced by mercenary motives. We do not think she needs any attempt at vindication from us, but knowing as we do the entire unselfishness of her labors, our righteous indignation at the falsity and injustice of the foolish and persistent charges made against her leads us at times to raise our voice in protest against them, and we take the liberty for once, at least, of adding briefly our pen to our voice.
Had Mrs. Eddy desired to accumulate wealth, it is not likely she would have closed her college at a time when in a few years it would have made her a millionaire. Were money-getting her ambition, she could receive a thousand dollars for healing, teaching and lecturing, where, for her present labor, she receives one dollar. Almost every day she is importuned to heal, teach, and lecture, and in many cases she could command her own price; but in the performance of her sacred mission she declines all such solicitations, refrains from responding to all social demands which would tend to draw her away from her labor, and remains in the seclusion of her home, laboring day and night with single purpose and consecrated aim to upbuild that Cause which God has entrusted to her. She does not even, except at rare intervals, visit her church in Boston. Yet to visit it is, no doubt, an inestimable pleasure to her. as it is a joy and blessing to her students.
Those who are in position to know of her inner life, of her untiring devotion to God's cause, of her largeness of heart and broadness of charity, while pained at these gross misrepresentations and misconceptions, yet well know that they can neither injure her nor the Cause of which she is the founder and head. Their only effect can be to temporarily mislead some who otherwise might remain free from the prejudices caused by malice and slander, but we know that, as to these, God in His justice and mercy will sooner or later lead them to see aright. As to the wilful detractors, we need give ourselves no concern, for the eternal law of justice is as much in force to-day as it ever was.
