Winburg, Orange Free State, South Africa, September 4, 1897.
Dear Mr. Armstrong:—Your kind reply to my letter received in due time, as also the books ordered by me.
I have immersed myself in Mrs. Eddy's teaching unreservedly and with the spirit of a child. I have been duped and misled so often before in matters religious, that I may well have resolved to stand aside awhile until people generally are certain that they have the truth, demonstrating the reality by clear, continuous reasoning and "signs following." Fanaticism and Pharisaism have had their day, and the world has suffered therefrom. Christ spoke as one having authority. But He also acted as one having authority. Such authority I can accept. Mrs. Eddy also speaks as one having authority, and I understand that she also so acts. I will therefore accept her teaching, even where I see no reasonable proof adduced for an assertion, however sweeping. My friends caution me against this Science. I cannot yet demonstrate its truth; I am as yet only a humble, ardent, willing disciple. So I return them answer that "I would rather err with Mrs. Eddy than shine with the churches." I do not for a moment" infer that Mrs. Eddy is erring, nor that there is no reasonable proof for all her assertions. I feel that her teaching is Scientific and, above all, eminently Christian.
