Accession: 350.47.011
Editorial Title: H. C. Waddell to Augusta E. Stetson, March 3, 1886
Author: H. C. Waddell 
Recipient: Augusta E. Stetson 
Annotator: Unknown 
Date: March 3, 1886
Manuscript Description: Handwritten by H. C. Waddell on lined paper from Leipsic, Ohio.
Archival Note: An unknown annotator has added metamarks that look like Xs at several points throughout the document.
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350.47.011
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Reproduced from the archive of The Mary Baker Eddy Library

Your comforting letterEditorial Note: This letter is not extant. reached me yesterday for which I feel most thankful. The developments in my case toward reaching a conclusion are about as follows. The church here is willing to leave me wholly untrammeled in preaching Christian Science because they are unwilling to let me go, but as I have argued, there is no good reason for me remaining here on that account, for if even I should succeed in converting all of Leipsic in five years, which I count more than improbable, it would be only Leipsic. There is no use of thinking about practicing Christian Healing here, that would be like trying to fight single handed in one battle for years. BostonEditorial Note: Boston, Massachusetts on the other hand offers me a larger field with cooperation from all quarters and opens all New England to me as a lecture field. Indeed with all my sympathy for the people here, when I try to reconcile myself to staying, it appears foolish and absurd and a waste of time. While I have tried I have not been able to make one argument in favor of staying and have never had any definite notion of remaining here permanently. After the Elder had exhausted arguments in favor of my remaining here, on Monday, I said "Well I must do my duty and I want you to look at this impartially and let us both be actuated by unselfish motives, in deciding. We cannot kick against the goods. It is useless to try to run counter to God's will." I said farther that I had felt at times that if I did not obey this call I would regret it always, for not a day had it been out of my thoughts since last summer. I fully believe it is my duty to go where I can do most good and I have no question about being able to do more both in the present and future there than here. I see now why I should have been brought here, and I am thoroughly convinced from every cry of Truth to go. I feel, frequently that I shall suffer much but we must suffer with Him if we shall reign with HimII Tim 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: ." I cannot enter the class this month but I must be ready for the next. I advertise my encyclopediaAs Written:encyclopaedia this week. and I hope I may be successful in selling it. My wife is reconciled to my going to BostonAs Written:B–. She is very will but oh! what a change the Truth will make I asked her yesterday afternoon when I had finished reading your letter to herEditorial Note: This letter is not extant., "Would you not like to hear Mrs Eddy"? and she said "Yes I would! I received the books. and can sell the extra copy. I like it better than the old edition. I am not altogether free from my beliefs, but when I think of the long bondage through material Physiology and Pathology with Taylor's Health by exercise and so on into the regions of darkness and discord, it is a wonder that I am as well as I am but I am fighting and I will win. The more I survey all the ground the more the voice says to me go proclaim the highest truth. Yes I have been watching the inclination of H. W. Beecher for a long time toward the (right) idea. After reading "Science & Health"Editorial Note: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy last August I was convinced that H. W. Beecher was struggling to hide this light that had shined in upon him. I have read his sermons thoughtfully for years and while I have been disgusted with his materialistic evolutionary myths I have caught the strains of Idealism from his harp and learned to love all men the more. [*]Archival Note: A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript. The world cannotAs Written:can not smother this scienceEditorial Note: Christian Science for as I said on Sunday morning it is mathematic certainty As Written: certainity clothed with poetic beauty and filled with bounding health. I discovered the other day an article "Faith in the Unseen" written ten years ago by one of our brethren O. A Burgess who was then President of Butler University Indiana. The whole of the argument is in perfect accord with Mrs Eddy's teaching only he does not apply it, but who that thinks can reject the truth that All is spirit and the unseen is the real. If I were required to preach otherwise I would resign in an hour I recognize the fact that the standard for a Christian Scientist is high [*]Archival Note: A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript. and I am glad it is so. A number of years ago while attending college at Hopkinsville, KentuckyAs Written:Ky. I extravagantly admired the President Robert Care, who was a great orator. A sister said to me who knew him, not to make him my ideal. I said then and resolved to make Jesus the Christ my Ideal and none other. I quote a sentence from the article which I have mentioned that gives me strength. "I hold it entirely possible for us to see the unseen with as steady gaze and unstaggering faith as did Christ. If we seem to come short, it is because we do not keep our attention riveted there as he did, or because in the fact that he is more immediately akin to the divine we take it for granted we cannotAs Written:can not be like him, and live and die without the effort." This I hold to be true of course, and to reach this standard there is I understand but one way. A sister said to me the other day "The church is cursed with worldly-mindednessAs Written:worldly mindedness, and how are we to get rid of it? I answered that there is but one way and that is to prove to the (church) that the world is nothing, that there is no matter and what we see with the eyes of sense is not real. Hoping still to be guided by the holy voice of Truth and to be found faithful. I cannot think for an hour no not for a moment now of staying here, but I wait. In the meantime I shall make every effort to get ready to enter class.

Yours most sincerely
H. C Waddell.
350.47.011
-
Reproduced from the archive of The Mary Baker Eddy Library

Your comforting letterEditorial Note: This letter is not extant. reached me yesterday for which I feel most thankful. The developments in my case toward reaching a conclusion are about as follows. The church here is willing to leave me wholly untrammeled in preaching Christian Science because they are unwilling to let me go, but as I have argued, there is no good reason for me remaining here on that account, for if even I should succeed in converting all of Leipsic in five years, which I count more than improbable, it would be only Leipsic. There is no use of thinking about practicing Christian Healing here, that would be like trying to fight single handed in one battle for years. BostonEditorial Note: Boston, Massachusetts on the other hand offers me a larger field with cooperation from all quarters and opens all New England to me as a lecture field. Indeed with all my sympathy for the people here, when I try to reconcile myself to staying, it appears foolish and absurd and a waste of time. While I have tried I have not been able to make one argument in favor of staying and have never had any definite notion of remaining here permanently. After the Elder had exhausted arguments in favor of my remaining here, on Monday, I said "Well I must do my duty and I want you to look at this impartially and let us both be actu [?] Unclear or illegible ated by unselfish motives, in deciding. We cannot kick against the [?] Unclear or illegible  goods. It is useless to try to run counter to God's will." I said farther that I had felt at times that if I did not obey this call I would regret it always, for not a day had it been out of my thoughts since last summer. I fully believe it is my duty to go where I can do most good and I have no question about being able to do more both in the present and future there than here. I see now why I should have been brought here, and I am thoroughly convinced from every cry of Truth to go. I feel, frequently that I shall suffer much but we must suffer with Him if we shall reign with HimII Tim 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: ." I cannot enter the class this month but I must be ready for the next. I advertise my encyclopaediaCorrected:encyclopedia [?] Unclear or illegible  this week. and I hope I may be successful in selling it. My wife is reconciled to my going to B–Expanded:Boston. She is very will but oh! what a change the Truth will make I asked her yesterday afternoon when I had finished [?] Unclear or illegible  reading your letter to herEditorial Note: This letter is not extant., "Would you not like to hear Mrs Eddy"? and she said "Yes I would! I received the books. and can sell the extra copy. I like it better than the old edition. I am not altogether free from my beliefs, but when I think of the long bondage through material Physiology and Pathology with Taylor's Health by exercise and so on into the regions of darkness and discord, it is a wonder that I am as well as I am but I am fighting and I will win. The more I survey all the ground the more the voice says to me go proclaim the highest truth. Yes I have been watching the inclination of H. W. Beecher for a long time toward the (right) idea. After reading "Science & Health"Editorial Note: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy last August I was convinced that H. W. Beecher was struggling to hide this light that had shined in upon [?] Unclear or illegible  him. I have read his sermons thoughtfully for years and while I have been disgusted with his materialistic evolutionary myths I have caught the strains of Idealism from his harp and learned to love all men the more. [*]Archival Note: A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript. The world can notCorrected:cannot smother this scienceEditorial Note: Christian Science for as I said on Sunday morning it is mathematic certainity Corrected: certainty clothed with poetic beauty and filled with bounding health. I discovered the other day an article "Faith in the Unseen" written ten years ago by one of our brethren O. A Burgess who was then President of Butler University Indiana. The whole of the argument is in perfect accord with Mrs Eddy's teaching only he does not apply it, but who that thinks can reject the truth that All is spirit and the unseen is the real. If I were required to preach otherwise I would resign in an hour I recognize the fact that the standard for a Christian Scientist is high [*]Archival Note: A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript. and I am glad it is so. A number of years ago while attending college at Hopkinsville, Ky.Expanded:Kentucky I extravagantly admired the President Robert Care, who was a great orator. A sister said to me who knew him, not to make him my ideal. I said then and resolved to make Jesus the Christ my Ideal and none other. I quote a sentence from the article which I have mentioned that gives me strength. "I hold it entirely possible for us to see the unseen with as steady gaze and unstaggering faith as did Christ. If we seem to come short, it is because we do not keep our attention riveted there as he did, or because in the fact that he is more immediately akin to the divine we take it for granted we can notCorrected:cannot be like him, and live and die without the effort." This I hold to be true of course, and to reach this standard there is I understand but one way. A sister said to me the other day "The church is cursed with worldly mindednessCorrected:worldly-mindedness, and how are we to get rid of it? I answered that there is but one way and that is to prove to the (church) that the world is nothing, that there is no matter and what we see with the eyes of sense is not real. Hoping still to be guided by the holy voice of Truth and to be found faithful. I cannot think for an hour no not for a moment now of staying here, but I wait. In the meantime I shall make every effort to get ready to enter class.

Yours most sincerely
H. C Waddell.
 
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This letter is not extant. Boston, Massachusetts This letter is not extant. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript. Christian Science A metamark that looks like an X appears at this point in the manuscript.