Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/398

346 them that cursed her, and prayed for them that despitefully used her; that she has been led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearers is dumb, so she has opened not her mouth.

It is because Eve was the first to admit her fault in the garden of Eden, Mrs. Eddy says, that a woman was permitted to give birth to Jesus Christ, and that a woman was permitted to write Science and Health and to reveal the spiritual origin of man. It is because woman is more spiritual than man, the Christian Science writers in the Journal explain, that a woman perceived the nothingness of matter, though Jesus did not, and that she was able to interpret the feminine idea of God, which is essentially higher than the masculine. In answer to an inquiry concerning the edition of the Bible upon which Science and Health is based, the editor of the Journal replied:

Would it not be too material a view to speak of "Science and Health" being based upon any edition of the Bible? . . . The Chosen One, always with God in the Mount, speaks face to face. In other words, "Science and Health" is a first-hand revelation. When this statement by the editor, Mr. Bailey, was criticised, he replied that he meant no disparagement of the Bible, but that he considered 'the Bible and "Science and Health" as one book—the Sacred Scriptures.'

When Mrs. Eddy's following consisted of but a handful of students, her divine assumption passed unnoticed; but, as time went on, less credulous critics were heard from. She had created a wide and lively interest in mind-healing, and many people began to look into the subject. In 1882 Julius Dresser, her old fellow-patient and pupil under Phineas Parkhurst