Christian Science And Organized Religion

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHRISTIAN AND ORGANIZED RELIGION A. Plea tor an Impartial Consideration and tLe Jwxamination ol a . New Point of v iew BY HUGH A. 5TUDDERT KENTSTEDY Author of Xlie IxntpatieRC-e of a Laygaiart, * TKe Visitor, * etc. SB Gutter Street * San IfrAacxtfco, Califoroia COPYRIGHT 1930 BY THE FARALLON PRESS All rights reserved First printing, August, 1930 Second printing, September, 1930 IERYM, 1619ft i WILLIAMS PRINTING j COMPANY TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii CHAPTER I Spiritual Healing i CHAPTER II la the Matter of Christian Science 10 CHAPTER III Mary Baker Eddy Early Days 18 CHAPTER IV The Formative Years 29 CHAPTER V Quimby 41 CHAPTER VI The Discovery of Christian Science 52 CHAPTER VII Science and Health 62 CHAPTER VIII Some Early Developments 72 CHAPTER IX Christian Science and Orthodox Faith 84 CHAPTER X Mrs. Eddy at Eighty and Afterwards 96 CHAPTER XI The Masters at Pleasant View 107 CHAPTER XII Mary Baker Eddy The Last Phase 125 CHAPTER XIII The Christian Science Movement at the Time of Mrs. Eddy's Passing 137 CHAPTER XIV The First Few Years After Mrs. Eddy's Death 153 CHAPTER XV - The Great Lawsuit 167 CHAPTER XVI The Master's Hearing and Findings 175 CHAPTER XVII The Struggle Over the Periodicals 187 CHAPTER XVIII The Arguments and the Decision 201 CHAPTER XIX Did Mrs. Eddy Foresee It? 210 CHAPTER XX Organization and Religion 219, CHAPTER XXI The Way Out 237 TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIX I Text of the Deed of Trust Constituting the Christian Science Publishing Society, January, 1898 243 APPENDIX II Report of Doctor Allan McLane Hamilton as to the Mental and Physical Condition of Mrs. Eddy; in the Next Friends Suit, August, i97 249APPENDIX III Plea of General Frank Sherwin Streeter Against the Dismissal of the Next Friends Suit, August 21, 1907 257 APPENDIX IV A Recent Attack on Mrs. Eddy 265 APPENDIX V Editorial Comment on the Dismissal of the Next Friends Suit, August 21, 1907 273 APPENDIX VI Letter from the Board of Trustees to the Board of Directors 285 APPENDIX VII The Bill in Equity 293 PREFACE Two PHENOMENA of human thought and action are un doubtedly claiming today a great and increasing amount of attention from thoughtful people. One of these is Chris tian Science and the other is the whole question of organ ization, not only in the religious field, so-called, but in every other phase of human activity. The increasingly successful demands which Christian Science is making upon the world's attention is evidenced in no way more forcibly than in the vigor and frequency of recent attacks upon it. After a comparative lull of over twenty years, the ruthless frontal onslaughts of Mark Twain, Georgine Milmine, Julius Dresser, and many others, are being repeated today. Within the past twelve months, no fewer than three full-length books have been published on the subject, two in the United States and one in Great Britain. In addition to this, the past year has seen the publication, in some of the leading magazines both of the United States and Great Britain, of articles by well known writers, either attacking the life and character of Mary Baker Eddy or the nature and works of the religion she founded. All this argues a great and widespread interest in the sub ject. Publishers, within certain honorable limits, set them selves to give the public what it wants. The fact that, in this PREFACE instance, publishershave rightly gauged the popular de mand for further and yet further discussion of Christian Science, in the widest connotation of that term, is shown by the remarkable sale that all these books have achieved, and are still achieving, and the undoubted popularity of such magazine articles on the subject as have appeared. On the question of organization and its growing tyranny, not only in religion but in life generally, one finds discus sion, often fearful and anxious, on all hands. What I hope to do then, in the pages which follow, is to bring together these two great su