Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/356

308 of these students went to distant places to practise, and did the work of missionaries, encouraging their patients to go to Boston and study under Mrs. Eddy. A degree from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College meant, in most cases, a lucrative practice. In the West especially, where Boston is regarded as the sum of all that is conservative, and where even the banks consider it an advantage to have a Bostonian among their directors, a degree from a Boston institution meant a great deal, and the "Massachusetts Metaphysical College of Boston" suggested an institution devoted to higher scholarship. A combination of Boston and metaphysics seemed to leave little to be desired in the way of learning, and many a Western student, after having "gone East to college," returned home to find that, for the purpose of making a living and commanding respect among his neighbours, a degree from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College served him quite as well as a degree from Harvard. Graduate students had lectured and practised in Chicago, and when Mrs. Eddy taught a class there in the summer of 1884, she inspired a sentiment which was ultimately to build up a strong church.

The Christian Science Church was now conspicuous enough to be the object of occasional attacks from conservative theologians. These attacks were neither frequent nor bitter,—indeed, they were usually humorous or mildly ironical,—but Mrs. Eddy made the most of them, and answered them with promptness and fire, getting her replies published in the Boston newspapers whenever it was possible to do so, and, when editors proved intractable, resorting to her own periodical, the Christian Science Journal. She realised the value of persecution,