Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/319

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
273

on the map, to pass through that city. Mr. Buswell was, accordingly, despatched, at his own expense, to make straight the path in Cincinnati, with the understanding that Mrs. Eddy would follow him in six weeks.[1] She did not go, however, and was greatly annoyed when Mr. Buswell ran out of money and wrote to her for help. She replied that it was very evident to her that mesmeric influences were abroad in Cincinnati as well as in Lynn, and had inspired him with disloyal sentiments.

In the meantime Mrs. Eddy's forerunners in Boston had been meeting with some success. Mrs. Clara Choate and her husband had taken a house on Shawmut Avenue and were introducing the Christian Science treatment of disease. Edward J. Arens came to Boston immediately after the unfortunate conspiracy tangle, and fell to work with industry and courage. He took an office at 32 Upton Street and began to do missionary work among the marketmen down about Faneuil Hall, treating a bronchial cold here and a case of rheumatism there. He spoke occasionally in a hall in Charlestown, lecturing on Metaphysical Healing, and charging an admission fee of ten cents. Among his first patrons was James C. Howard, a bookkeeper who came to arrange for treatments for his invalid wife. This was before Mrs. Eddy had entirely renounced Mr. Arens, and it was in his office that Mr. Howard first met Mrs. Eddy. He became interested in Christian Science and made one of a class of two which Mrs. Eddy taught at Mrs. Choate's house. Mrs. Eddy was then in need of practitioners, and she urgently needed an active man of affairs to succeed Mr. Arens, toward whom


  1. At about the same time that Mrs. Eddy sent Mr. Buswell to Cincinnati to prepare a way for her, she sent Joseph Morton to New York on the same mission, promising to follow later. He opened an office on Ninth Street, but, as he found no patients, he soon returned to Boston.