In 1877 Mrs. Glover married Dr. Asa Gilbert Eddy, of Londonderry, Vermont, a physician who had come into sympathy with her own views, and who was the first to place "Christian Scientist," on the sign at his door. Dr. Eddy died in 1882, a year after her founding of the "Metaphysical College" in Boston, in which he taught.
The work in the Metaphysical College lasted nine years, and it was closed (in 1889) in the very zenith of its prosperity as Mrs. Eddy felt it essential to the deeper foundation of her religious work to retire from active contact with the world. To this college came hundreds and hundreds of students, from Europe as well as this country. I was present at the class lectures now and then by Mrs. Eddy's kind invitation, and such earnestness of attention as was given to her morning talks by the men and women present I never saw equalled.
MRS. EDDY'S PERSONALITY.
On the evening that I first met Mrs. Eddy by her hospitable courtesy, I went to her peculiarly fatigued. I came away in a state of exhilaration and energy that made me feel I could have walked any conceivable distance. I have met Mrs. Eddy many times since then, and always with this experience repeated.
Several years ago Mrs. Eddy removed from Columbus to Commonwealth avenue, where, just beyond Massachusetts avenue, at the entrance to the Back Bay Park, she bought one of the most beautiful residences in Boston. The interior is one of the utmost taste and luxury, and the house is now occupied by Judge and Mrs. Hanna, who are the editors of the Christian Science Journal, a monthly publication, and to whose courtesy I am much indebted for some of the data of this paper. "It is a pleasure to give any information for The Inter-Ocean," remarked Mrs. Hanna, "for it is the great daily that is so fair and so just in its attitude toward all questions."
The increasing demands of the public on Mrs. Eddy have been, it may be, one factor in her removal to Concord, N.H., where she has a beautiful residence, called Pleasant View. Her health is excellent, and although her hair is white, she retains in a great degree her energy and power; she takes a daily walk and drives in the afternoon. She personally attends to a vast correspondence; superintends the church in Boston, and is engaged on further writings on Christian Science. In every sense she is the recognized head of the Christian Science Church. At the same time it is her most earnest aim to eliminate the element of personality from the faith. "On this point, Mrs. Eddy feels very strongly," said a gentleman to me on Christmas eve, as I sat in the beautiful drawing room, where Judge and Mrs. Hanna, Miss Elsie Lincoln, the soprano for the choir of the new church, and one or two other friends were gathered.
"Mother feels very strongly," he continued, "the danger and the misfortune of a church depending on any one personality. It is difficult not to centre too closely around a highly gifted personality."
THE FIRST ASSOCIATION.
The first Christian Scientist Association was organized on July 4, 1876, by seven persons, including Mrs. Eddy. In April, 1879, the church was founded with twenty-six members, and its charter obtained the following June. Mrs. Eddy had preached in other parishes for five years before being ordained in this church, which ceremony took place in 1881.
The first edition of Mrs. Eddy's book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH, was issued in 1875. During these succeeding twenty years it has been greatly revised and enlarged, and it is now in its ninety-first edition. It consists of fourteen chapters, whose titles are as follows: "Science, Theology, Medicine," "Physiology," "Footsteps of Truth," "Creation," "Science of Being," "Christian Science and Spiritualism," "Marriage," "Animal Magnetism," "Some Objections Answered," "Prayer," "Atonement and Eucharist," "Christian Science Practice," "Teaching Christian Science," "Recapitulation." Key to the Scriptures, Genesis, Apocalypse, and Glossary.