In his article in this issue of the Journal (p. 27), Tom Black has brought out the crucial importance Mary Baker Eddy placed on Christian Scientists being alert to and dealing with the aggressive resistance to Truth she called "animal magnetism." She expected Christian Scientists to meet it with a healing response that was not naive concerning its nature, but that also recognized the powerlessness of evil in the face of the omnipotent power of God and His Christ.
RESISTANCE IN THE FORM OF MEDIA ATTACKS
One way this resistance showed up during Mrs. Eddy's lifetime, and ever since, has been in the area of public discourse about Christian Science. Beginning in the 1870s, Mrs. Eddy and other Christian Scientists began to refute publicly disseminated falsehoods about Christian Science. She made this activity a permanent part of the healing mission of her Church in December 1898, when she started the Committee on Publication. The Committee, at first consisting of three members, began its work in January 1899. And by the next year, Alfred Farlow had been appointed to head up the activity from his base in Boston.
As I've read Mrs. Eddy's letters about the Committee on Publication, it's been interesting to me to see that her conception of it was very far from its being merely a "public relations" arm for her Church. She saw its purpose as deeply Christian—as an activity itself impelled by the light of the Christ triumphing over all that would resist its healing power. A good illustration of how Mrs. Eddy's vision for the Committee was translated into action can be seen in documents written in the midst of the aggressive media attacks on Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science during the years 1900-1901. This was the period of a sensational lawsuit brought against Mrs. Eddy by Josephine Woodbury, a student of Mrs. Eddy's who had left Christian Science and was now doing everything she could to bring it down. One of her first major efforts along these lines was a vicious article about Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, published in May 1899 in The Arena magazine.
Woodbury saw a further avenue for attack when she read Mrs. Eddy's June 1899 Communion Address to The Mother Church, in which Mrs. Eddy referred to the symbolism of the doom of the "Babylonish woman," found in the Book of Revelation. Claiming that Mrs. Eddy was referring to her as this woman, Woodbury sued for libel on July 31. She did what she could to try the suit in the press as well as in the courts, and it's not surprising that other sensational attacks on Christian Science found their way into the press at this time. Members of the new Committee on Publication certainly had their work cut out for them!
NEEDED: SOMEONE CAPABLE OF 'GREAT GOOD'
For her part, Mrs. Eddy saw a deeper dimension to Woodbury's activities and the accompanying media ferment. She believed them to be tools of the "one evil," or the carnal mind's opposition to the light of Christ that was powerfully breaking into human lives through the healing work of Christian Science. And in Alfred Farlow, she saw a person well suited to deal with this opposition from a standpoint of prayer and concrete action inspired by that prayer. She wrote him in late 1899: "The Press impresses more minds mortal than we really estimate. Till the 'one evil' turned on me, the press had become reconciled to me and the leading newspapers were in my favor all over our land. Their editors sought my articles on the most important topics. Now if you work untrammeled you can accomplish great good in this direction. God helps you, and who can stay His hand?" Mary Baker Eddy to Alfred Farlow, L01600, December 9, 1899, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Following Woodbury's initiation of the libel suit, and through its conclusion in Mrs. Eddy's favor on June 5, 1901, Farlow and his fellow Committee members patiently and persistently corrected not only Woodbury's lies, but a variety of other attacks on Mrs. Eddy's character and the teachings of Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy and Farlow kept in close touch, and he had the advantage of her wise counsel. Her letter to Farlow on January 21, 1901, shows that she was generally pleased with his work, but felt that much greater results were possible if his efforts were not trammeled by the hidden, yet active, mental opposition to her and Christian Science that she called animal magnetism: "You have had much in belief to overcome. But this only makes one stronger.... Be of good cheer. When an article on my wrongs appears in our prints, it must tell the whole story and have all the muscle and nerve of the Divine Mind, i.e., all the Truth and Love that human wisdom and divine Science and divine Science and human wisdom can bring to the rescue.... You have done well. You have learned just the wise ways of meeting the press and would have mastered if [malicious animal magnetism] had been out of the conflict. You must master that or you can do little for me. I am the target for all the fire." Eddy to Farlow, L01617, January 21, 1901, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Another letter written during this period shows Mrs. Eddy's conviction that being alert to, correcting, and healing aggressive opposition to Christian Science was something that all Christian Scientists should be involved in: "Woodbury is having a marked influence again on the press. Why? Because the [Christian Scientists] at her mental order relax their watch.... O Alfred, my dear student, some ones besides you and I ought to be on the walls and see all this and work against it." Eddy to Farlow, L01624, n.d., The Mary Baker Eddy Collection.
In the end, Woodbury lost her suit, the media attacks of 1900-1901 passed, and the healing mission of the Church of Christ, Scientist continued. But the succeeding years have brought further attacks, subtle and overt, so there are still plenty of opportunities for every Christian Scientist to "be on the walls" and challenge evil, armed with confidence in the omnipotence and the inevitable victory of God, divine Love.
A compilation of selected correspondence between Mary Baker Eddy and Alfred Farlow during the years 1900-1901 is available in the Research Room of the Library. Please phone 617-450-7218 for further information.
