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The
historic moment when Hermann Hering wrote and delivered this lecture
could not be more gripping. Before its first delivery, Hering
sent a draft of his lecture to Mrs. Eddy, who commended it. Writing
to him on October 11, 1906, she expressed her desire that his
lecture be "read all over this planet."
At
that very time, and probably unknown to Hering, both the popular
McClure's Magazine and the New York World had been quietly preparing
articles hostile to Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science.
Three
days after Mrs. Eddy's letter, two reporters from the World went
on October 14 to Mrs. Eddy's home, Pleasant View, on the outskirts
of Concord, New Hampshire. They informed her long-time secretary,
Calvin Frye, that they had received many reports that Mrs. Eddy
was dead and they wanted to verify or refute this information
by meeting her themselves in the presence of her neighbor John
F. Kent - a person noted for his hostility to Mrs. Eddy.
The
brief meeting took place the next day, and Kent confirmed for
the reporters that the person they had met was indeed Mary Baker
Eddy. Leaving her study, one of the reporters commented to a member
of her household, "She is certainly a well-preserved woman
for her years" (see Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial,
by Robert Peel, p. 263).
On
October 16, the day after this meeting, Hering delivered for the
first time his lecture, "Christian Science: Humanity's Helper,"
in The Mother Church in Boston with its recently dedicated Extension.
About
two weeks later he gave the lecture in Concord, New Hampshire,
on October 28. Coincidentally, on that very day the New York World
published a sensational article, depicting Mrs. Eddy as near death,
and launching a wave of yellow-journalism articles against her
and the religion she had founded. The yellow journalism culminated
in a suit brought ostensibly on Mrs. Eddy's behalf but in fact
hostile to her. The suit collapsed when Mrs. Eddy's health and
competence were established beyond doubt.
During
the period of these attacks, such literature as Hering's lecture,
"Christian Science: Humanity's Helper," helped counteract
the hostility of the times. Mrs. Eddy's request that Hering's
lecture be read "all over this planet" was fulfilled:
not only did he give this lecture in many locations, but also
it was printed in The Christian Science Journal, November 1906,
a German translation appeared in Der Herold der Christian Science,
and it was printed as a pamphlet. In November 1906, it was published
in full in a special edition of the New Hampshire Patriot, and
thirty thousand copies of this paper were distributed.
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