Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/451

Rh It was in the early autumn of 1889 that Mrs. Eddy conceived the idea that malicious animal magnetism was interfering with the proper conduct of the Christian Science Journal. She sent one morning for Mr. William G. Nixon, publisher of the Journal, and directed him to take the magazine and flee with it at once into some other city; if he stayed in Boston a month longer, she declared, mesmerism would wreck the periodical. Mr. Nixon tried to explain to her the difficulties of picking up a periodical and "fleeing" with it between publication days, when no preparatory arrangements had been made and no new location selected. But Mrs. Eddy was immovable. In business disputes Mrs. Eddy had always one argument which none of her associates could hope to equal: she would draw up her shoulders, look her opponent in the eye, and say, very slowly, "God has directed me in this matter. Have you anything further to say?" Mr. Nixon naturally wished to remain in Boston; he had brought his family there from Dakota, and his contract with his printer was unexpired. But there was nothing to be gained by arguing with Mrs. Eddy; and there was no time to be lost if he was to find a new location for his business in time to get out the next month's Journal. He went to Philadelphia, where he at length found a suitable office and a printer who would undertake to get the magazine out on time. Just as he was about to close the contract, he received a telegram from Mrs. Eddy telling him to bring the Journal back to Boston at once.

In directing the Journal's policy, Mrs. Eddy was never afraid to change her mind, and often repudiated to-day what she had yesterday advanced as divine revelation. On one occasion