Betrayal and going forward

It was 1907. Mrs. Eddy's credibility was under attack in a lawsuit brought by her "next friends", including her son George Glover. 

William Chandler, no friend of Christian Science and a "former senator from New Hampshire and owner of one Concord's two newspapers" (p. 177, A World More Bright: the life of Mary Baker Eddy by Isabel Ferguson and Heather Vogel Frederick) was the prosecutor.

"One of the central issues of the lawsuit was financial mismanagement" (ibid. p. 182), the claim being that her secretary, Calvin Frye, was cheating his employer and that she was no longer competent to manage her affairs. 

"The entire nation was following the developments of the case with interest" (p. 185) and so Mrs. Eddy granted several interviews, including by "two psychiatrists" and "four prominent reporters" (p. 186). The reports were in her favour. One commented that "Mrs. Eddy talked fluently, incisively [and] showed no signs of fatigue" (p. 188). 

Finally, the suit was dismissed. 

"She was free to go forward" (p. 192).

How beautifully the sentiment in hymn 278 from the Christian Science Hymnal sums up this chapter in Mrs. Eddy's experience:

Truthful and steadfast though trials betide thee,

Ever one thing do thou ask of thy Lord,

Grace to go forward, wherever He guide thee,

Gladly obeying the call of His word.

(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 278:2)

Julie Swannell