The Overwhelming Evidence Concerning Spiritual Healings Through Mary Baker Eddy

What Is Man?

Today’s physicists state that all matter, including the human body, is made up of atoms, and that the atom is made up largely of protons, neutrons, electrons and space. Many physicists also state that the protons, neutrons and electrons possess no material substance, but consist only of magnetic energy.

Fifty years ago there was a tendency to speak of great inventors and their inventions. Today there is a tendency to speak of great discoveries, as though more people are coming to see that there exists an eternal Principle and an infinite Intelligence available to all.

If this civilization is to survive and progress, it will become imperative for it to gain a much clearer understanding of the entity called man.

Preface

The greatest discovery of the past two thousand years undoubtedly occurred February 4, 1866, when a New England woman, partially paralyzed, was healed through recognizing the spirit of God as a healing Presence. Her healing from pain and paralysis caused a great deal of amazement among her friends. She realized only dimly at the time how it was accomplished, but she immediately dedicated her life to a thorough understanding of what had happened, and how to transmit that understanding to others. Her name later became Mary Baker Eddy, and her wonderful healing proved to be the discovery of the spiritual Principle of Christianity, which not only heals the body but transforms the outlook to a higher basis of life and life’s ultimate meaning.

The world today is divided between those who believe there is no God and those who believe they should worship Him through some particular form of church service, creed or doctrine. But there are a few who believe that they must find the spirit of God in their hearts and minds, in their everyday lives. Mrs. Eddy was of the latter conviction, and devoted her remaining forty-five years to this end and also to the work of making it possible for others to become aware of this healing Principle; call it the Great Spirit, or God, or what we will.

This little book brings together a few of the many wonderful healings which she was able to achieve through her awareness of the one God and man’s relationship to Him. Such miraculous healings may seem like tall stories to those who have not yet discovered this Principle. Though Mrs. Eddy later established a church to extend her discovery more widely, she knew that the church was not a necessity, but merely an opportunity, another avenue for the hungry heart to find God, and to learn how to contemplate the things of God more understandingly. A religious renaissance would burst forth if enough people should make this discovery. The underlying Spirit of this discovery governed Jesus of Nazareth completely, and it inspired the prophets of old, and enabled them to accomplish marvels that were difficult for the human mind to understand.

During the war years of the 1940’s, when the lights were going out all over the world, many of Mrs. Eddy’s churches lost much of that healing and refreshing spirit which was so prevalent when she was active in healing, teaching and training students. As William Wordsworth once wrote, “The world is too much with us.” Yet, the basic Principle lives on for each individual to discover, develop and defend, whether he does so within a church or without the church.

The author and compiler of this book, a retired civil and sales engineer and not a member of any church, was exceedingly skeptical when he first investigated the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and was quite sure that many of her statements were ridiculous nonsense. Later, one of those “ridiculous” statements came into focus with a clear, self-evident meaning, a meaning higher than the surface meaning, and he was amazed at the simple yet profound spiritual idea and its far reaching implications. He knew that he had found a touch of the spirit of God, and that it was this spirit which had inspired Mrs. Eddy’s writings and also the books of the Bible. Many statements by Mrs. Eddy, however, continued to be impossible to believe, yet, subsequently the spiritual meaning usually would unfold and be understood. Thus, our ordinary human mind does not grasp the things of God. But our latent spiritual sense does.

The author had the rare privilege of being closely associated for many years with Gilbert C. Carpenter, C. S. B., who served Mrs. Eddy as an assistant secretary at her Pleasant View home in Concord, New Hampshire, during the year 1905. Mr. Carpenter devoted over fifty years to the practice of spiritual healing after leaving Mrs. Eddy’s home, healing a great many incurable cases, so-called. The writer frequently played billiards at his home. On some of these occasions Mr. Carpenter would be so ill that he could hardly get around the table to make his shots. Yet, during many of those times, as the game progressed, he would be playing very vigorously, as though he were twenty years younger. The writer could feel the whole mental atmosphere change, as though this great Christian warrior had again found his God and had renewed his strength and his spiritual well-being.

This little book has been compiled for those who are seeking some assurance that there is a God, and that, when in need, they can turn to Him intelligently and with confidence.

Ralph B. Spencer

Seekonk, Massachusetts 1972

Introduction

Living Close to God Brings Healing and Harmony

Numerous statements in both Old and New Testaments indicate that the people who lived close to God tended to prosper and enjoy better health. When they departed from this path, they were usually in trouble, sometimes in severe trouble. This also has been true of a great many people in modern times. Anyone who is aware of this fact naturally makes the effort to live as close to God as possible. Yet, relatively few people seem to know how to do this, and very few people even claim to know the nature of God. Jesus of Nazareth said, “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” He also said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” This kingdom undoubtedly stands for perfect well-being, perfect harmony, in accordance with the statement by Jesus as recorded by Matthew, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” God’s gift to man is perfection, not imperfection, and His perfect kingdom is much to be desired and sought after. If people knew this, they would seek until they found, and not wait for a “convenient season.”

Must Learn to Tune In

If one had a radio, and he knew that a good program was being broadcast, he would tune in and receive the program. God is the infinite Spirit of all good, ever present, and is always broadcasting; but few receive the program. Abraham did, somewhat, — also Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Daniel and others. But for Jesus, it was natural to stay in tune with his heavenly Father. Many people in modern times have learned to get in tune also, even though it is not divinely natural to others as it was to Jesus. Nevertheless, one can make the approach, and one can succeed to a degree that he might at first think to be impossible.

Early Christians Were Successful

Mary Baker Eddy undoubtedly succeeded in this art more than anyone else since the time of Jesus, not only for herself but on behalf of thousands of others. Yet, this healing and enlightening Spirit is not limited to any individual nor to any church, nor to any creed or religious doctrine. It animated the prophets, the early Christians and thousands of others, down through many centuries. In spite of this, however, the great majority of people have continued to believe that it is not possible to understand this spiritual teaching nor practical to pursue it. But many scholars are of the opinion that the early Christians were successful for about three hundred years. Then the light of understanding apparently died out. Why should not we of today be successful? A tiny success in any endeavor tends toward further success.

Man’s Divine Heritage

Christians are apt to accept the Scriptures only as historical facts, moral philosophy and religious doctrine. The most valuable part of the Scriptures, however, is the somewhat hidden portion, — the spiritual meaning that brings an awareness of God, and which the writers were endeavoring to set forth as best

they could. But to set forth the things of the Spirit with material phraseology is not easy. It is no wonder that for thousands of years the Bible and other spiritual writings have been so misunderstood and have seemed so incomprehensible. Yet, man’s underlying nature is of the Spirit, and it is this Spirit which he needs to discover and understand, so that he may partake more and more of his divine heritage. For a whole generation, our people have strayed farther and farther away from God and the things of God, and behold the mess that the world is in. Yet, the wonderful things of God are always available, and especially so to those who believe and pursue until they find.

The “All-Heal” Must Be Understood

At the time of Jesus, one of the words for God was “All-Heal.” This term was used by the Druids in Britain for Yesu, who was to be the coming Messiah, and it was used for the spirit of God which he was to bring without measure, and which he did bring. In the Old Testament there are healings attributed to some of the great spiritual leaders, including Moses, Elijah and Daniel. At the time of Jesus there were many healings by him, by his disciples and by many of the early Christians. Following Jesus’ ministry, the healing work went on until about 300 A. D. It was then lost sight of for about twelve hundred years, did not become clearly acknowledged again until 1866, and did not become understood until Mrs. Eddy’s writing began to appear in 1875.

Prayer Healing Not New

Thus, the power to heal through prayer is not something new in the past one hundred years, nor at the time of Jesus, but has existed throughout the ages. A better understanding of effectual prayer is greatly needed. One definition, as stated by Mrs. Eddy and also by a French Friar of the seventeenth century, is this, “Prayer is the practice of the presence of God.” The spirit of God, as it touches the receptive heart and mind, automatically brings out a higher sense of harmony, freedom and intelligence; and where spiritual harmony prevails, inharmony and disease tend to fade out of human consciousness; and the body tends to manifest this change of thought.

Mrs. Eddy’s Healing and Discovery

Mary Baker Eddy, when a little girl, radiated a healing atmosphere and brought about physical healings occasionally to members of her family and others. Yet, as she has said, she never understood just how the healings were accomplished until she had her own healing at the age of forty-five in 1866, when the doctor in attendance expected her to die in a matter of hours from severe injuries to her head and spine, which caused her to lose consciousness for many hours. Mrs. Eddy told the story of her healing in the 1881 edition of her textbook in this way. “The case was pronounced fatal by my attending physician and surgeon; he said I could not survive over three days. The third day was the Sabbath; my clergyman visited me before services, prayed with me, and said farewell. I asked him to call after meeting. He replied by asking me if I knew the fatal nature of my injury, and that I was sinking, and might not survive through the day. I replied that I knew it all, but had such faith in God I thought He would raise me up. After he left, I requested to be left alone; . . . I opened the Bible to the third chapter of Mark, where

our Master healed the withered hand on the Sabbath day. As I read, the change passed over me; the limbs that were immovable, cold, and without feeling, warmed; the internal agony ceased, my strength came instantaneously, and I rose from my bed and stood upon my feet, well. The clergyman called after services, and I met him at the door, and that day prepared my family supper. . . . My physician was astounded when he called Monday forenoon and found me about the house. He said, ‘What! Are you about? Was it those higher attenuations I gave you that have produced such a result?’ I replied, ‘Come here and I will show you,’ and went to my table by the bedside, opened the drawer, and there he saw every particle of medicine he had left me. He looked with blank astonishment, and continued: ‘If you will tell me how you cured yourself, I will lay aside drugs, and never prescribe another dose of medicine.’ I replied, ‘It is impossible for me to do that now, but I hope to explain it at some future period to the world.’ For three years thereafter I sought day and night the solution of that problem, searched the Scriptures, read nothing else, not even a newspaper, kept aloof from society, and devoted all my time and energies to discovering a rule for that demonstration. I knew its Principle was God, and I thought it was done according to primitive Christian healing, by a certain action of mind on the body, through a holy, uplifting faith; but I wanted to find the science that governed it; and, by the help of God, and no human aid, I did find it, and was reminded of the shepherd’s shout. ‘For unto us a Child is born,’ a new idea has birth, and ‘his name is Wonderful.’”

Right Attitude Important

This extraordinary healing, together with the spiritual enlightenment which came to Mrs. Eddy during the next few months, enabled her to understand more and more about the great healing influence which could transform a hopeless condition into health and harmony. She began to understand how the individual, when he tunes in to this great spiritual reality, becomes conscious that his life is not separate from God but united to Him forever. Mrs. Eddy said it later dawned upon her thought that it was her attitude of mind that made her aware of God’s healing presence, even as one who is not a trained musician may happen to touch the harmonic chords.

Early Testing and Healings

This awakening enabled her to heal others, most of them instantaneously, and she continued this healing ministry for forty-five years, until she passed on in her sleep at the age of eighty-nine in 1910. The many hundreds of outstanding healings accomplished by this great lady probably will never be known because there was no effort to record them in the first ten years or so, and only occasional efforts in subsequent years. Her later years were devoted more and more to teaching others and to organizing the various activities of her Church, in the hope that this wonderful discovery and spiritual understanding would not again be lost. She did not write her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, for nine years following her healing. During those nine years she did much healing work in each of the communities where she resided, much testing of her discovery, and assimilated her heart and mind more fully to God. She found that a true understanding of God comes, not all at once, but with spiritual growth, and with an awakening to a higher tone of consciousness and a purer affection. These higher qualities of thought seem to prepare the mind to receive the things of God and to understand them.

Spirit of Truth Not Easy to Convey

During those nine years she talked much of her discovery and of the Principle behind it, but failed almost completely to get her listeners to grasp her meaning. With the publication of her textbook in 1875, her spiritual meaning began to unfold more clearly, and many readers and listeners began to comprehend. In Matthew we read how Jesus spoke “unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.” Jesus evidently knew the difficulty of conveying spiritual truth through material terminology. The understanding of spiritual truth cannot be forced, but has to come naturally. When pondering the statements of the prophets, of Jesus, of the early Christians or of other spiritual leaders, it does little good to try to believe anything that does not register in our consciousness as being genuine and self-evident. Hence, many statements have to be put aside until the moment arrives when their truth is revealed. Blind belief tends to be only a deterrent to the clear understanding desired.

A Challenge

In February of 1872, Mrs. Eddy was called at the suggestion of several doctors to visit a lady who was about to die of consumption. When she arrived, she found there were three or four doctors in attendance, fine men she observed, who had used all of their medical knowledge in trying to save this lady from dying. When they found there was no hope for her recovery, they decided “to test that woman,” because they had heard of someone who had been cured by her. Mrs. Eddy came when word reached her and healed the woman quickly; then told her she could get up, and that she would help her dress. She then asked the doctors to leave the room while she helped the lady to dress, after which they joined the doctors and her husband in the sitting room. One of the doctors, an old experienced physician, witnessed this and said, “How did you do it? What did you do?” She said, “I can’t tell you, — it was God.” And he said, “Why don’t you write a book, publish it, and give it to the world?” When she returned home she opened her Bible, and her eyes fell on the words, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.” (Isaiah 30:8)

A New Outlook

Soon after this, Mrs. Eddy commenced writing her book, a book which was destined to give many millions of people a new outlook. This new way of looking at life tends to accompany spiritual healings because such healings, as contrasted with medical healings, do more than heal physically. They tend to lift the thought to a higher standpoint, to a spiritual awareness, to a realization that life is far more beautiful and much more worthwhile than is generally experienced in the ordinary, human pattern.

What Does the Healing?

The question is often asked, “What is it that does the healing? Is it faith? Is it mesmerism? Is it a beseeching prayer that is somehow answered?” To suggest an answer, one needs to consider a radio. What is it that brings the program? If a station is broadcasting, and one has a radio, he needs only to tune in. So man must learn to tune in to God with his whole heart and mind. The results will amaze him. The two statements of Jesus mentioned previously are a sort of key in this regard: “The kingdom of God is within you” and “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”King David, in Psalm 51, speaks of it this way, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Saul, the persecutor of Christians, who became Paul, the great Christian preacher and healer, said in his letter to the Ephesians, “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind”; and he wrote to the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” It would appear therefore that Mrs. Eddy discovered how to throw off the limited, materialistic human mind to such a degree that she found this kingdom of God within. Thus, she renewed a “right spirit” within her; and then made practical this spiritual understanding for the benefit of others.

The Second Coming of Christ?

Was not this the second coming of the Christ-spirit, in accordance with St. John’s prophecy in the tenth and twelfth chapters of Revelation? — to enlighten and heal, at a time when there were some who were ready to comprehend an advancing idea along spiritual lines? It was the age of our great poets and ministers and other fine spiritual leaders. It was also a time when our people were destitute and wretched from the Civil War, hungry for a “balm in Gilead,” and in need of a practical, healing philosophy. And it was only natural that such a Messianic message should have been presented with a scientific approach in the dawning of the great scientific age of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, it probably was inevitable that the great majority of people would not accept this spiritual idea, since “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. (I Cor. 2)

Textbook Healings

Thus, through spiritual discernment, Mrs. Eddy glimpsed the underlying perfection of man, and through her a veritable multitude found better health as well as a glimpse of this same perfection which would transform their lives. In publishing the later editions of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy included one hundred pages of testimonies of healings, all taking place from merely reading and pondering the book. She might have included many healings that she accomplished herself, but evidently chose not to, so that the reader would be more encouraged to find that he could gain an understanding of God’s healing power without other help.

In an early edition of her textbook, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Hundreds of similar cures I have wrought but the excitement they caused, induced me to suppress the rumors of them. . . . When you learn the Principle of this method, and carry it out in practice, you will prove for yourself that what I have written is true.”

Three Qualities Needed

However, unless one is willing to be unusually honest with himself, also humble and childlike in his approach to the subject, and truly compassionate in his attitude toward others, he is not likely to find very much of the spiritual Science of Life, — this healing spirit of Truth, as God gives it. When one does make the discovery of this spiritual idea, all spiritual writings take on a new meaning. The New Testament, for example, which is only history and moral philosophy to many people, begins to open up, so that obscure passages come alive with their original, spiritual meaning. Yet, no one can justly claim to be an authority in this field. A lifetime is insufficient in which to thoroughly understand the infinite Spirit or Principle called God. When one does begin to gain some understanding, he finds that he is not acquiring human knowledge so much as he is learning to tune in to that Intelligence and Love which never began and will never end.

Thousands of Healings Attested

In the early nineteen-thirties a compilation was made of the number of spiritual healings that had taken place during the previous fifty years when spiritual healings were most common. These healings had been published in the periodicals of Mrs. Eddy’s Church, and each healing attested by three or more witnesses. The total was over 30,000. In addition to these there were undoubtedly many thousands more which were never published.

Such evidence of God’s power to heal is overwhelming. Even if we make allowances for nature-healings, faith healings, and for possible mistakes in diagnosis, the evidence is still overwhelming. Also, in addition to physical healings, there were many thousands set free from mental disturbances and personal difficulties, after finding a new way to resolve their problems. In conncection with her healing work, Mrs. Eddy wrote: “When I have most clearly seen and most sensibly felt that the infinite recognizes no disease, this has not separated me from God, but has so bound me to Him as to enable me instantaneously to heal a cancer which had eaten its way to the jugular vein. In the same spiritual condition I have been able to replace dislocated joints and raise the dying to instantaneous health. People are now living who can bear witness to these cures. Herein is my evidence, from on high, that the views here promulgated on this subject are correct.

. . . An acknowledgement of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can.” (Unity of Good, page seven)

The King’s Highway

The Chapter in Science and Health called, “Fruitage,” which contains one hundred pages of healings from reading the textbook, is an encouraging acknowledgement of this healing influence of the ever present Spirit which Mrs. Eddy was able to discern. Though others have not equalled the demonstrable understanding which Mrs. Eddy developed over the years, each one who has gained a clear glimpse of the presence and power of the infinite Life-Principle knows that he is on a new road, the King’s Highway; and it is up to him whether or not he chooses to follow this Highway, and defend his course from all encroachments.

Clear Proofs Bring Encouragement

In her book, Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy has included seventy pages of further testimonies of healings which resulted from the reading and study of Science and Health. Since she did not include in her published writings very many of the healings which she herself performed, a few of those remarkable healings have been collected from various authentic sources. They are printed here as an encouragement to those who are questioning the basis of Christianity or of

Christian Science, or are questioning the relationship of man to God, in their effort to find a way out of the troubles and limitations which material existence has placed upon them. Such an accounting also serves as a just tribute to Mary Baker Eddy and her spiritual standpoint as a representative of God and His power to heal. Christians, and all seekers after the Light, will become increasingly grateful as they perceive how this great woman was able to keep her mental windowpane so clear of materialism and personality-considerations that the healing light of Truth and Love could shine through, and into the hearts and minds of others.

Other Spiritual Leaders

Since the passing of Mrs. Eddy in 1910, there have been other fine, spiritual leaders and evangelical preachers. Even Mahatma Ghandi of India was a great spiritual leader, in addition to being a political leader. Frank Buchman of the United States was a dedicated Christian who changed the lives of many people in many countries. His story is partially told in Peter Howard’s little book, Frank Buchman’s Secret (published in 1961). He founded Moral Rearmament, and his simple, Christian approach wrought miracles of character transformation.

Mrs. Eddy’s More Logical Approach

In recent years, members of several denominations of the Christian faith have been practicing spiritual healings, yet it was Mrs. Eddy, more than anyone else, who so widely demonstrated the power of God to heal. Most important of all, it was Mrs. Eddy and only Mrs. Eddy who set forth a logical approach to the Principle involved, and who also set forth the nature of the deterent which so frequently has stopped the Christian in his joyous march out of the old and into the new; or caused him to personalize the spiritual idea until it became lost in the shuffle. Mrs. Eddy consistently renewed her clear sense of the Christ-idea. She also wrote books and articles, and established churches to help others make the same discovery and to gain an understanding of it that could be applied to the problems of every-day living. She named this discovery, its development, and its application, Christian Science, and frequently spoke of it as Divine Science.

A New Way of Life

Truly she inaugurated a new approach to life, a new way of dealing with one’s self and one’s fellow man, a new way of solving life’s problems, even as Jesus ushered in “the way, the truth, and the life,” and which was not known as Christianity or even as a religion until long after Jesus’ ministry, but as the Way. Mrs. Eddy likewise thought of this inspiring and healing Principle as a Way of life, and did not hold any church services for thirteen years following her discovery, nor did she build her Mother Church for twenty-eight years following her discovery. Yet, the healing work went on to an amazing degree.

The Christ Identity

In order to understand spiritual healing or Christ healing, we need to understand the Christ-idea as it animates an individual who has consecrated much of his thinking and living to the spirit of God. Perhaps the highest sense of prayer is to actually feel the presence of God, which of course is to embrace the Christ-spirit. The word Christ comes from the Greek and means anointed. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew and also means anointed. The term anointed is applied, not merely to the anointment of oil, but refers basically to being anointed of God (See I John 2:27), and was used that way from the time of Moses. It means to be imbued with the spirit of God, to radiate that spirit of the highest order, which inspires and heals, and which promotes good will among men. It is a type of consciousness, but it is not natural to the animal man nor to the intellectual man, even as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. The Christ-consciousness was native to Jesus, however, because of Mary’s spiritual conception instead of a sexual conception. To all others, it is a discovery, and it may be developed to a higher and higher degree.

Second Advent Prophecied

This Christ-consciousness, which was so natural to Jesus, became natural, to some degree, to the early Christians. Later, the Light went out. Then followed the darkness of the Dark Ages, the ill will, the sensualism and the cruelty for hundreds of years. According to the New Testament, several prophecies were made by Jesus and St. John that there would be a return of the Christ, and according to St. John this return would again be followed by the dragon and the beast, which may be taken to mean the Antichrist. Many Christians and many Christian scholars are convinced that this second coming has already occurred, but was not perceived or acknowledged by most Christians.

Thus, we need to discern the “signs of the times.” If the Second Advent has already occurred, we should expect to find that a great many spiritual healings came with it, that perhaps incurable cripples were restored, that storms were stilled, that the word of God was preached and written; and written, not necessarily in the style of the idioms of 2000 years ago, but in the style and idioms of the times. Such writings should also agree, in substance, with the doctrinal writings of the New Testament. Also, we should expect to find some fulfillment of prophecy, such as that of St. John, in his book of Revelation. We might also expect to find some fulfillment that agrees with the prophecies of the Great Pyramid. This pyramid, quite different from all the others, is designed and constructed so amazingly, in so many different ways, that many of today’s engineers doubt if it could be duplicated with today’s knowledge. It was built about 2600 years prior to Jesus, and it prophesies the spiritual development and progress of mankind back to God. The prophecy is not in words but in structure, and the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah is clearly shown and was exactly fulfilled, even to depicting the resurrection of the saints at the time of Jesus’ resurrection. (Mat. 27:52) Following the Christian dispensation of Jesus, there is prophecied in the pyramid a period of light and advancement that would culminate in a final giant step of progress for the period beginning about 1875.

When we analyze this period, from 1875 to the present, we find it to be the greatest period of science, invention and engineering the world has ever known. Also, it represents a period when man has become dominant, to a considerable degree, over matter and material conditions, instead of continuing to be subservient to them. It was in 1844 that the great Michael Faraday, in a paper published in the Philosophical Magazine, avowed his belief in the immateriality of physical objects. In this same period of the 1840’s several other noted individuals made similar assertions. In 1844, Mary Baker Eddy, as she wrote in later years, “was convinced that mortal mind produced all disease, and that the various medical theories were in no proper sense scientific.”

Second-Advent Healings

In her ninety-five page autobiography, Mrs. Eddy states, “During twenty years prior to my discovery [of 1866] I had been trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause.” When on her deathbed in 1866, she recalled the statement of the Master, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” With this recollection came a flood of light, of buoyancy and inspiration, and she found herself healed. Soon after, she found that this spirit of the Christ would emanate from her to others, and it healed them, usually instantaneously, never losing a case during her first sixteen years of healing work. Even cripples, cripples from birth, yielded to the Christ-spirit and were completely restored; also there were several who were raised from the dead.

Jesus to Return?

The evangelical groups, however, such as the followers of Dr. Billy Hargis, Dr. Billy Graham, Herbert W. Armstrong and other evangelical leaders, are still expecting the Second Advent in the form of a return of the man, Jesus. They believe he will return in person to lead a religious revival, and to establish a government of God to replace the political governments of the day. They believe that this return of the Christ, in the person of Jesus, is near at hand. Are they not confusing that dual nature of Jesus? Jesus, as the son of Mary, could speak of ordinary, material things as any human being might speak, but as the Son of God, he could speak out from God, as the Christ. He once said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham lived 2000 years prior to Jesus, so it is obvious Jesus did not live before Abraham. As the Christ, however, he was as eternal as God, and he certainly identified himself as the eternal Christ, so much so, that at times he must have seemed as God Himself. If he fulfilled his mission and graduated from the flesh by progressing to a higher standpoint of life, why should he return after 2000 years to an outgrown, earthly existence?

Prophecy Fulfillment Not Usually Discerned

The word Christ is frequently used as a synonym for Jesus. Properly speaking, it is not a synonym but a title. Many of the people of Jesus’ day were expecting the promised Messiah, somewhat after the order of King David, who was one of the finest spiritual and temporal leaders Israel ever had. At the time that Jesus was fulfilling prophecy, the great majority of Jewish people were not aware of it, and did not believe that the young preacher was the promised Messiah. Prophecies are seldom perceived when being fulfilled, but become fairly obvious sometime after the fulfillment.

Also, the great majority of Christians did not believe that Mrs. Eddy was fulfilling prophecy and did not believe that she represented the second coming of the Christ. They thought she was mistaken in her views, and there were those who felt that she was neither Christian nor scientific. Some were convinced she was a charlatan. Surely they must have been mistaken. Not only were her astounding healings brought about after the manner of the wonderful healings by Jesus, 2000 years prior, but there was a continuance, to some degree. It should be expected that many of her followers would have gained an understanding of the Christ that would have enabled them to heal, even as the disciples and many of the early Christians carried on Christ-healings for many years. The record shows that many of her followers did carry on such healings, even though others did not grow to that degree of faith and understanding.

This understanding was greatly enhanced, of course, by Mrs. Eddy’s textbook, more copies of which have been sold than for any other book ever published, except for the Bible. In 1931, a small book of only eighty pages was published privately by the lady who introduced Christian Science into Germany in 1898. This book is titled, Christian Science in Germany, by Frances Thurber Seal, and it contains not only many astounding healings, but also experiences similar to some of those of the early Christians. It is a gem. How could anyone, after reading this little gem, doubt for a moment that the Second Advent has already occurred! Why was there not more realization of what was going on in those days? The answer is the old, old story: The human mind does not naturally perceive the divine Mind or Christmind; it is not drawn toward it and does not understand it. Also, most religionists tend to question and even misrepresent any Christian writings or Christian accomplishments which are not of their own church or of their own religious convictions. Thus, a cloud of confusion or misrepresentation spreads over the land, and most everyone comes under it, to some degree. It makes little difference whether the year is 30 A.D. or 1900 A.D. or 1970 A.D. That which is of the Spirit usually goes unnoticed, or is misunderstood and misrepresented.

Inevitable Consequences Consequently, is not much of the trouble, the tension, the confusion and the injustice of our times due to our deteriorating values and the relinquishment of those high standards formerly adhered to? Is not our nation paying a price for turning its back on the Second Advent and for not recognizing the spiritual high tide which made possible so much of the nation’s material progress? Have not our people loved the gold too much and the goose too little? Will not the nation be brought to judgment, even as other nations have been brought to judgment, for going “after other gods”? Is it not time this great nation, which gave birth to man’s fullest sense of freedom, which gave birth to the highest form of government ever known to man, and which gave birth to Mary Baker Eddy and the Second Advent, should turn again unto the Lord, that it should clean out its Augean stables, and that it should reestablish a new order of the ages “NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM”? — which appears on our one dollar bills.

Church, — What Is It?

The deterioration of the nation is certainly expressed in the deterioration of the churches. Jesus never established a church, in the sense of an organization or a church edifice. Mrs. Eddy did not want to establish a church, but hoped to make her wonderful discovery fully available through her writings and her lectures, and assumed that the Christian churches would perceive the truth of those writings, and embrace them. When the churches did not accept them, she eventually felt impelled to establish her own church, in order to preserve her discovery and keep it alive for future generations. Later, she included a definition of church in her textbook. This definition, however, is wholly along spiritual lines rather than being the material concept of it. It reads: “CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.

“The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.”

The True Church

When dedicating her original Mother Church in 1894, Mrs. Eddy said, “The Church, more than any other institution, at present is the cement of society, and it should be the bulwark of civil and religious liberty. But the time cometh when the religious element, or Church of Christ, shall exist alone in the affections, and need no organization to express it.” Two years prior to this, Mrs. Eddy was establishing her church building fund, and she wrote in her Christian Science Journal at that time, March of 1892, “It is not indispensable to organize materially Christ’s Church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain pastors and to dedicate churches; but if this be done, let it be in concession to the period, and not as a perpetual or indispensable ceremonial of the Church. If our Church is organized, it is to meet the demand, ‘Suffer it to be so now.’ The real Christian compact is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual and inviolate.”

Was not Jesus hinting at the true Church when the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well said to him, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus saith unto her, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” ( John 4)

Again, was not Jesus pointing to the true Church when he turned to Peter and said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona [Simon, son of Jonah]: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. [In the Aramaic, the word for heaven translates into either heaven or universe.] And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter [Petros, meaning rock], and upon this rock I will build my church.” Peter had discerned who Jesus really was and had said, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Thus the true Church was to be built on that recognition of the Christ, on that spiritual power and influence, which is ever emanating from the one God. The one God was the God of the Jews, and of no other people, in those days. The Christ, of course, is to God as the sunbeam is to the sun.

The Christ-spirit A Discovery

The meaningful part of Christianity lasted only two or three hundred years. Mrs. Eddy had to re-discover it. Then the meaningful part of Christian Science lasted only seventy-five years or so. Hence, the great need now for a revival and a renaissance which will bring into focus again the amazingly wonderful things of God which have faded out and have been forgotten, over and over again, all the way back to the prophets, and even to Adam and Eve.

A Christly Period Always Followed By The Antichrist

Mrs. Eddy healed instantaneously a great many people, even as did Jesus. She spoke the living Truth so clearly and with so much of the divine Spirit that people were not only healed but were regenerated, even as with Jesus. Yet her words and the Spirit of them were not accepted by the vast majority of Christians, even as Jesus’ words and the Spirit of them were not accepted by the Jews. Within 300 years following Jesus’ dispensation, the light had almost gone out, spiritual healings had largely disappeared, and the Dark Ages of materialism had begun to move in and discredit the words and accomplishments of the great Messiah.

Within thirty years following Mrs. Eddy’s dispensation, the light had almost gone out, spiritual healings had largely disappeared and the dark age of the second Antichrist period began to move in and discredit the words and accomplishments of the Second Coming of the Christ-spirit. The Second Coming had been prophecied by both St. John and by Jesus, and it came as prophecied. We might say that it appeared in four steps or phases, those of 1844, 1866, 1875, and the one to come, possibly in 1977. Throughout the last third of the previous century, it continued to grow clearer and clearer, and its effectiveness became more widely acknowledged. Soon after Mrs. Eddy passed, in 1910, the Antichrist period very slowly and subtly began its infiltration and brain-washing. It had been clearly prophecied by both John and Jesus, and also by Mrs. Eddy. An Antichrist period may also be designated as a hate period.

Clear Understanding Greatly Needed

The discovery of the one God and His Christ is the core of the Church and of all Christianity. It is a mental, moral and spiritual discovery. Yet, the discovery demands a follow-up, in order that one might consciously live more and more in the presence of God, and embody more of the Christ-spirit. This tends to change one’s whole way of life. The world is seen in a different light, one’s aim in life moves higher, and one’s approach to life takes on a finer and surer tone. Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth was a natural and divine Scientist. He was so before the material world saw him. He who attended Abraham, and gave the world a new date in the Christian era, was a Christian Scientist, who needed no discovery of the Science of being in order to rebuke the evidence. To one born of the flesh, however, divine Science must be a discovery.” Again, she once wrote, “Who dare say that matter or mortals can evolve Science? Whence, then, is it, if not from the divine source, and what, but the contemporary of Christianity, so far in advance of human knowledge that mortals must work for the discovery of even a portion of it?”

If matter is as real, or as solid, or as permanent as it appears, then Jesus could not possibly have suddenly appeared and disappeared, or stilled the tempest, or raised the dead, or fed the five thousand. Basically, there is no such thing as a miracle or a supernatural happening. Everything must respond to law, either the laws of the material universe or to the law of God. If the law of God is the supreme law, then he who intelligently operates under it may seem to perform miracles to him who knows nothing of it.

Thus, a clear understanding of the true nature of God and man is most valuable! It aids in a better understanding of the true Church of Christ, a church which does not necessarily need a building nor a creed for its expression. The true Church, or the Church of Christ, is surely something above and beyond the physical church, its physical organization and its formalities.

Religious Organizations

The incipient origin of nearly every religion was not a religion nor an organization. It was a way of life, a way of approaching God and gaining an understanding of man’s relationship to Him. The liturgical part, the church service, dogma, creed and organization always followed later. When the church and the organization had become well established, and the founder had passed, the founding spirit usually diminished.

Thus the church, which can be a great help to the individual, may also be a hindrance. Whether it is the one or the other will depend upon the attitude of the individual, and also upon the church, as to whether or not it continues to feed the individual with a renewal of his innermost being, the “kingdom of God within,” rather than merely offering church formalities, or the mere letter of the Word without the Spirit which enlightens and heals.

Demands of God Better Understood

Over the centuries, the great spiritual leaders of each period did the best they knew to find God, obey Him and help deliver their people from evil and oppression, and into a Way of God’s appointing. They usually succeeded up to a point, but always there was “a falling away” by the people from the higher standpoint that had been set before them. Each new leader, however, interpreted the demands of God somewhat differently. By the time of the First Advent, God was understood by Jesus as a God of love and as the Principle of the universe. However, there was no attempt on the part of Jesus to use this Principle to destroy his enemies, as in the times of the Old Testament, nor on the part of Mrs. Eddy to destroy her enemies. Yet, it was the same God. The interpretation of the divine demands had progressed to a clearer understanding of the true nature of God, man and the universe.

Many Christians, for many years, have accepted the idea that man was created in the “image and likeness of God,” and because of this, they tried to imagine that God was some great and venerable person, located way up in the heavens. Yet, Jesus said, “God is a spirit.” Hence man, from Jesus’ standpoint, is spiritual, and he reflects or manifests that which is of the Spirit. Judging from the records of the Old Testament, of the New Testament and from those of the Second Advent, it becomes obvious that this Spirit or Principle can be known to man and can operate through him. Jesus surely was not speaking of himself alone when he said, “I and my Father are one.” He knew that the Christ-selfhood which was native to him was latently native to all, but it had to be discovered and developed. A high sense of this Christ-idea and its Principle was held by Jesus and by Mary Baker Eddy, yet it was used by them only to heal, to cleanse, to regenerate and to so break the mesmerism of the Adam-dream of life in the flesh that Christian followers would be lifted higher, would “see those things which ye see, and would hear those things which ye hear, as Jesus said to his disciples. (Luke 10:23, 24)

The Swing of the Pendulum

Within three hundred years after Jesus’ dispensation, the Light almost went out, the darkness descended into the horrors of the Dark Ages, and the Antichrist reigned supreme. Within thirty years after Mrs. Eddy’s dispensation, the Light almost went out, and now the Antichrist is abroad in the land. But there is some reason to hope that the spark is being rekindled toward the day of a spiritual renaissance. Truth is far more contagious than error. Good is far more contagious than evil. When the accomplishments and the writings of the Second Advent break through the cloud of mesmerism, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation that has been thrown around them, the clear truth concerning God, man and the universe will become more apparent, and its dissemination and acceptance will accelerate. The millenial period may not be too far away, in spite of the darkness of the hour. Surely the close of this century should see a period emerging, — if not before.

The whole earth could be renewed, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. And a return to God could be widespread. Then many would become as “kings and priests unto God,” and the Christ would reign among us and in us, “after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110; Hebrews 7)

The Spirit or the Letter

When in search of spiritual Truth, one should not overlook the promise of Jesus, “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth in you, and shall be in you.” It is possible that today many of those who follow the teachings or Church of Mrs. Eddy accept it more as an organized religion than did those of Mrs. Eddy’s day, who saw it more as a living Truth, redolent with healing, — a guiding Principle, resurrecting the individual, not merely from sin and disease, but also from the barrenness of intellectual materialism.

Religious discussions and arguments, however, frequently do more harm than good. Anyone can talk the traditional terminology of his religion, but it is a rare individual who can convey the spiritual tone, the enlightenment and the healing which underly any and all true religions. In January 1904, Mrs. Eddy said to several students in her home, “I used to heal with a word; I have seen a man yellow because of disease, and the next moment I looked at him and his color was right; was healed. I knew no more how it was done than a baby; only it was done every time. I never failed; almost always in one treatment; never more than three. Now God is showing me how, and I am showing you.”

Who Knows the Way?

The question naturally presents itself, How many today are discovering this Principle and Way of Life, this enlightened understanding of God, man and the universe, either in the churches, or through the written word alone? It is impossible of course to know; but it is hoped that the overwhelming evidence presented here will encourage others to find, in some degree, that which Mary Baker Eddy found in such a large measure, and which the Master knew intuitively.

Recorded Healings By Mary Baker Eddy

The healings which follow are part of the overwhelming evidence of Mrs. Eddy’s ability to heal, even as the healings set forth in her two books, Science and Health and Miscellaneous Writings, present the overwhelming evidence of the healing power of her writings for those who are able to discern something of the spiritual nature of man and his relationship to God.

(1) Mrs. Eddy would not tolerate error in any form, error being her term for anything unlike the true sense of harmony and perfection that God is perpetually giving to man. At one time, when Mrs. Eddy was having her meal brought to her room, the worker who was to bring her meal had a severe cold. She did her best to hide it as she approached the doorway to Mrs. Eddy’s room, whereupon Mrs. Eddy looked up, took in the entire mental atmosphere of the worker at a glance, and said in a commanding tone. “Drop it!” The worker instantly dropped the tray, dishes, dinner and all. After cleaning up the mess, she realized that she was completely free of the cold.

(2) “Mrs. Eddy once went into a house where she saw a woman weeping in the hallway. The woman said, ‘My daughter is dying of consumption. The doctor has just left and he told me he could not do any more for her.’ Mrs. Eddy asked if she might go up and heal the daughter. The mother consented, and Mrs. Eddy went upstairs to the bedroom. The father, who was very antagonistic to Mrs. Eddy, was standing by the bed; but Mrs. Eddy felt that, having the mother’s permission to help the girl, it was right for her to go ahead, so she said to the sick girl, ‘Get up and come for a walk.’ The girl got up and Mrs. Eddy helped her dress and they went off for a walk together. The father followed them, secretly as he thought, dodging behind trees and watching around corners, expecting every moment to see his daughter drop dead. Mrs. Eddy knew that he was following, but that did not interfere with her healing work, for when they returned from the walk the daughter was completely healed.”

(3) “Mrs. Weller went with Mrs. Eddy to a furniture shop to help her select some chairs. The clerk who was waiting on them wore a bandage over one eye. Mrs. Eddy seemed absorbed in thought while they were being shown the chairs, paying very little attention to them, and when pressed as to which she liked best, she said, ‘Any that we can sit on.’ Mrs. Weller was annoyed at Mrs. Eddy’s indifference, and told the clerk that they would come back the next day and give a decision about the chairs. They were on the second floor of the shop with two doors opening out, one into a stairway, the other to a chute for sliding boxes down to the sidewalk. Mrs. Eddy opened one door and went down the stairs; Mrs. Weller, in her perturbation opened the other door and stepped on the chute, and slid down to the sidewalk where Mrs. Eddy arrived in time to see her picking her self up. Mrs. Weller reproached Mrs. Eddy for her lack of attention to the business at hand, and Mrs. Eddy replied, ‘Could I think of chairs when the man was suffering?’ When Mrs. Weller went the next day to see about the chairs, the clerk said, ‘Who was that lady with you yesterday? I had an abscess on my eye, and when she went out I took the bandage off, and there was not a sign of it left.’”

(4) “In an asylum, past which Mrs. Eddy used to drive, there was a mentally deranged man who had a sore on his leg. Every day when he saw Mrs. Eddy’s carriage coming, he would run to the gate and pull down his sock so that Mrs. Eddy would see the sore. Mrs. Sargent told us that one day when she was at Pleasant View she heard Mrs. Eddy tell the former’s sister that this man had been healed of the sore and of the insanity.”

(5) “At the time the church at Concord was being built, Mrs. Sweet went into the building and slipped on a board and hurt herself. Some workers at Pleasant View tried to help her, but without much success. Mrs. Eddy asked them what was the matter with Mrs. Sweet. They answered that she was all right. Mrs. Eddy said, ‘She is not all right.’ She then asked Mrs. Sweet what the trouble was, and the latter replied that it was being met. Mrs. Eddy said, ‘It is not being met.’ Then Mrs. Eddy asked her how she was working. Mrs. Sweet answered that she was knowing there was no accident in Mind. Mrs. Eddy replied, ‘That would not heal you. You are one of my best workers.’ She then pointed out that the basic trouble was an argument designed to interfere with her usefulness to Mrs. Eddy. By the time Mrs. Eddy finished talking to her, Mrs. Sweet was healed. Mrs. Eddy said to her, ‘I will say for your comfort that if you were brought here with every bone broken in your whole body, you would respond to my treatment.’”

(6) “While Mrs. Eddy was living on Columbus Avenue, Boston, she enjoyed seeing a little baby who lived across the street. After a time she missed the smiles of the little one and wondered what had happened. One morning she noticed the doctor’s carriage leaving the home. Mrs. Eddy went over to the house, spoke with the mother and asked to see the child. The mother said her child had died while the doctor was there. Mrs. Eddy went and sat beside the child and became so conscious of the eternal Principle of all life that the child was healed and remained healed.”

(7) Miss Julia Bartlett witnessed the following: “I saw a man who came to Hawthorne Hall to hear Mrs. Eddy speak, come up the steps on his crutches with great difficulty, a person on each side assisting him, but when the service was over he went out by himself, carrying his crutches under his arm.” Miss Bartlett had been healed by Mrs. Eddy after seven years of invalidism. She became a very successful healer. Concerning her own healing, she wrote, “I never could describe the sense of freedom that came with a glimpse of this glorious Truth. . . . All things were seen from a different view point, and there was a halo of beauty over all.”

(8) “At one time, some of the students at Mrs. Eddy’s Pleasant View home in Concord were sitting in front of a window working against a storm which was approaching; suddenly Mrs. Eddy came up behind them and said, ‘You are not meeting it because you are mesmerized by the appearance.’ Then she swept them aside, took up the case herself, and in a short time they saw the blue sky appear through the center of the storm cloud.”

(9) “The first encouragement Mrs. Eddy received after issuing the first edition of Science and Health was from A. Bronson Alcott, who called to see her and said, ‘I have faith in you.’ She afterwards healed him from a severe form of rheumatism which had confined him to his chair.”

(10) “A well known actor was healed physically, and his testimony appeared in The Christian Science Journal. Afterwards, he was walking along a street one day in Concord with a cigar in his mouth. Mrs. Eddy passed in her carriage and looked at him. He took the cigar out of his mouth and threw it away, and was completely healed of the desire to smoke.”

(11) “One day Mrs. Eddy was going out for her afternoon drive when a tall, gaunt man, who appeared far gone in consumption came up to her gate, held out his hands to her and shouted, ‘Help me!’ Mrs. Eddy said a few words to him out of the carriage window; talked to him for about two minutes and then drove on out of the gate. On her return she exclaimed, ‘What a need that man had.’ Next day she received a letter from the man telling Mrs. Eddy that he was conscious he had been healed as soon as the carriage drove on.”

(12) “Mrs. Eddy drove into Concord one day and stopped at the Christian Science Hall, and Mr. Calvin Frye, her secretary, went in with a letter, leaving the carriage door open. A gentleman who was standing in front of the hall had called at Pleasant View earlier in the day to see Mrs. Eddy but was told she could not see him, and that an appointment or an opportunity might be arranged later. As he went away from the house he was very discouraged and said, so that a worker heard him, ‘There may not be any later.’ This man stepped to the carriage, took off his hat, and said, ‘Mrs. Eddy?’ Mrs. Eddy said, ‘Yes.’ ‘May I ask you a question?’ ‘Certainly!’ she said. Then he said, ‘Can you tell me about God, who is He, where is He, and what is He?’ Mrs. Eddy told him that God was his Mind, his Life, and continued talking just three minutes. Then the man looked at the clock, which they could both see, and said, ‘I have learned more in these three minutes about God than I have in all the rest of my life.’ He raised his hat and said Good-bye, and the carriage drove off. Mrs. Eddy afterwards told her students that she saw he was suffering from jaundice and that as she talked with him, she saw the unhealthy color fade from his face like the shadow of a cloud vanishing away, and his face became perfectly normal. She added, ‘He was healed, but he did not recognize it while we were talking.’ Next day the man wrote he was completely healed, and that he took the train home that same night.”

(13) “There was a student of Christian Science, a lady who was staying with friends in Concord. One day Mrs. Eddy called to see these friends, who told her that the lady was ill in their house with diptheria. Mrs. Eddy said, ‘Tell her to have no fear whatever, as God is taking care of her, and Mother [a term used for Mrs. Eddy by those who were close to her] is praying for her.’ After she left the house, the message was given to the woman at once. In a few minutes the bad conditions were removed. The student breathed easily, and the next morning rose in perfect health.”

(14) “In the early days, it was hard for Mrs. Eddy to find patients to heal, and one day she went out on the street to see if she could find someone. She saw a doctor’s gig in front of a house nearby. When the doctor drove away, Mrs. Eddy went to the door and asked a tear-stained woman if there was anyone sick in the house. The lady said her daughter had just died. Mrs. Eddy asked if she could go in and see the daughter. The woman demurred, but finally let her go in where the body lay. In a little while the mother heard voices, and looking into the room, saw that her daughter was sitting up in bed, talking to Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy said that ‘a wordless flood of life filled her consciousness, and the girl was raised from the dead.’ Mrs. Eddy asked the mother to bring the daughter’s clothes, and the amazed mother asked why. She answered that she wanted to take the girl out for a walk. The mother said, ‘You don’t know what you are asking. My daughter has been ill for months with consumption and could not go out if she wanted to.’ Mrs. Eddy reassured the mother, and told her that no harm would come to her daughter. Finally the mother brought the girl’s clothes, and Mrs. Eddy took the girl out and walked her up and down for about a half an hour, the mother and father following behind to see what was being done. The girl’s color came back, and she was not only alive, but healed of the disease. When they got back to the house, the mother took off her diamond ring and gave it to Mrs. Eddy, and this ring she always wore.”

(15) “Mrs. Mosher went to the office where Mrs. Eddy and a student were at work, and saw there a girl who was afflicted with dumbness, whom a student had not been able to heal. At last the student asked Mrs. Eddy to help. Mrs. Mosher was present when Mrs. Eddy walked up to the dumb girl and said, ‘God did not send this upon you. You can speak. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I command you to speak.’ The girl shrank back, crying out, ‘I can’t and I won’t and fled out of the room. But she was able to speak, ever after.”

(16) “An old school friend of Mrs. Eddy’s who was down and out called on her one day, and she talked with him. Before he left, she gave him a prayer that she had given the students, and asked him to say it each day. After two weeks, he came back completely healed. Then Mrs. Eddy gave him $500.00 to set him up in business. The prayer was, ‘O divine Love, give me higher, holier, purer desires, more self-abnegation, more love and spiritual aspirations.’”

(17) “A reporter once asked Mrs. Eddy for a brief definition of Christian Science treatment. She thought a moment and said, ‘Absolute acknowledgement of present perfection.’ The reporter was not a Christian Scientist and did not become one. Yet many years later he found himself on what he was told was his death bed, and those words came back to him and restored him to health.”

(18) “A student told Mrs. Eddy of a case of bronchial trouble that she had been endeavoring to heal without success. Mrs. Eddy leaned over the desk and shook her finger at her, saying, ‘What are bronchial tubes for?’ Then she answered her own question, ‘They are to be used to sing praises to the Lord, and for nothing else.’ The student’s patient was healed in that hour.”

(19) “Edward Kimball, a Christian Science lecturer and teacher had suffered many years with a condition that made him cross and irritable, and from which he gained only temporary relief through Christian Science. Finally it became so aggravated he wired Mrs. Eddy that he wanted to see her, and she wired back telling him to come. As he sat in the parlor waiting for her, he began to have misgivings, because he realized that under this claim he was so touchy that he was hardly fit to talk to anyone, even to his own family. He began to wonder how he was going to appear even civil before her. When he heard her step on the stair, he wanted to run out of the house. She entered the room, paused on the threshold, and holding out both her hands, she advanced to him and said, ‘Doesn’t it made one cross to be sick?’ Then without a word from him, she changed the subject and began to talk about other things. She never referred to his reason for coming to Boston all the while he was there. His summary of this interview was, ‘I had never been so loved in all my life.’”

(20) Mrs. Eddy wrote in Mind in Nature, in the June issue of 1885 (when refuting accusations that she was a mesmerist), “On March 15, during my sermon, a sick man was healed. This man had been assisted into the church by two men, a crutch and a cane, but he walked out of it erect and strong, with cane and crutch under his arm. I was not acquainted with the gentleman, was not aware of his presence, he having been helped to a seat before I entered. Other chronic cases of disease, of which I was ignorant, were healed while I was preaching.”

(21) “Mrs. Emily Hulin, who eventually became a teacher of Christian Science in New York City, wrote in a letter to Mrs. Eddy after Mrs. Eddy’s extemporaneous address in the Central Music Hall in Chicago in 1888, ‘At the conclusion of your address, I noticed a poor woman who had entered the auditorium on crutches and who was evidently badly crippled, stretch out her arms toward you in a beseeching manner. You looked at her with eyes full of compassion and love, as it seemed to me, and immediately she laid down her crutches and walked out as anyone in a normal condition would do!

“‘I cannot tell you of the awe that fell on me or the impression I received, and I then determined to learn more of this wonderful truth at the fountainhead.’”

(22) Mrs. Eddy healed her three-year old gandaugher, Mary Baker Glover, of crossed eyes. The grandaughter later related how her mother and father were both amazed to notice the perfect condition of her eyes soon after she and her father returned home to South Dakota from a visit with her grandmother in Boston. Her mother had had a picture taken of her previously which showed the condition of crossed eyes. Fifty-four years later both mother and daughter were still living and still possessed the picture as a cherished memento of the healing.

The following eight healings occurred in the early days of Mrs. Eddy’s healing work, before she established a church, and these accounts were published during those early days:

(23) “I was suffering from pulmonary difficulties, pains in the chest, a hard and unremitting cough, hectic fever; and all those fearful symptoms made my case alarming. When I first saw Mrs. Eddy, I was so reduced as to be unable to walk any distance, and could sit up but a portion of the day. Walking up stairs gave me great suffering in breathing. I had no appetite, and seemed surely going to the grave, the victim of consumption. I had received her attention but a short time when my bad symptoms disappeared, and I regained health. Dur ing this time I rode out in storms to visit her, and found the damp weather had no unpleasant effect on me. From my personal experience, I am led to believe that the Science by which she not only heals sickness, but explains the way to keep well, is deserving the earnest attention of the community. Her cures are not the result of medicine, spiritualism, or mesmerism, but the application of a Principle that she understands.

East Stoughton, Mass., 1867 — James Ingham”

(24) “I take great pleasure in giving to the public one instance, out of many, of Mrs. Eddy’s skill in metaphysical healing. At the birth of my youngest child, now eight years old, I thought my approaching confinement would be premature by several weeks, and sent her a message to that effect. Without seeing me, she returned an answer that the proper time had come, and that she would be with me immediately. Slight labor pains had commenced before she arrived. She stopped them at once, and requested me to call an accoucheur, but to keep him below stairs until after the birth. When the doctor arrived, and while he remained in a lower room, Mrs. Eddy came to my bedside. I asked her how I should lie. She answered, ‘It makes no difference how you lie,’ and added, ‘Now let the child be born.’ Immediately the birth took place, and without pain. The doctor was then called into the room to receive the child, and he saw that I had no pain whatever. My sister, Dorcas B. Rawson, of Lynn, was present when my babe was born, and will testify to the facts as I have stated them. I confess my own astonishment. I did not expect so much, even from Mrs. Eddy, especially as I had suffered before very severely in childbirth. The physician covered me with extra bed-clothes, charged me to be very careful about taking cold and to keep quiet, and then went away. I think he was alarmed at my having no labor-pains, but before he went out I had an ague coming on. When the door closed behind him. Mrs. Eddy threw off the extra coverings and said, ‘It is nothing but the fear produced by the doctor that causes these chills.’ They left me at once. She told me to sit up when I chose, and eat whatever I wanted. My babe was born about two o’clock in the morning, and the following evening I sat up several hours. I ate whatever the family did. I had a boiled dinner of meat and vegetables the second day. I made no difference in my diet, except to drink gruel between meals, and never experienced the least inconvenience from this course. I dressed myself the second day, and the third day felt unwilling to lie down. In one week I was about the house and was well, running up and down stairs and attending to domestic duties. For several years I had been troubled with prolapsus uteri, which disappeared entirely after Mrs. Eddy’s wonderful demonstration of Christian Science at the birth of my babe.

Lynn, Mass., 1874 — Miranda R. Rice.”

(25) “My little son, a year and a half old, had ulcerations of the bowels and was a great sufferer. He was reduced almost to a skeleton, and growing worse daily. He could take nothing but gruel, or some very simple nourishment. At that time the physicians had given him up, saying they could do no more for him, and he was tak ing laudanum. Mrs. Eddy came in, took him up from the cradle, held him a few minutes, kissed him, laid him down again, and went out. In less than an hour he was taken up, had his playthings, and was well. All his symptoms changed at once. For months previously blood and mucous had passed his bowels, but that day the evacuation was natural, and he has not suffered from his complaint since. He is now well and hearty. After she saw him he ate cabbage just before going to bed.

Lynn, Mass., 1873 — L.C. Edgecomb.”

(26) “Please find enclosed a check for five hundred dollars, in reward for your services, that can never be repaid. The day you received my husband’s letter I became conscious for the first time in forty-eight hours. My servant brought my wrapper, and I arose from bed and sat up. The attack of heart-disease lasted two days, and we all think I could not have survived, but for the wonderful help received from you. The enlargement of my left side is all gone, and the doctors pronounce me rid of heart-disease. I had been afflicted with it from infancy. It became organic enlargement of the heart and dropsy of the chest. I was only waiting, and almost longing to die, but you have healed me. How wonderful to think of it, when you and I have never seen each other. We return to Europe next week. I feel perfectly well.

New York (Prior to 1876) — Louisa M. Armstrong.”

(27) “‘My painful and swollen foot was restored at once on receipt of my letter, and that very day I put on my boot and walked several miles.’ He had previously written me, ‘A stick of timber from a building fell on my foot, crushing the bones.’

Cincinnati, Ohio — R. O. Badgeley.”

(28) “Your wonderful science is proved to me. I was a helpless sufferer six long years, confined to my bed, unable to sit up one hour in the twenty-four. All I know of my cure is this: the day you received my letter I felt a change pass over me, I sat up the whole afternoon, went to the table with my family at supper, and have been growing better every day since. I call myself well.

New Orleans, La — Jenny R. Coffin.”

(29) “Miss Ellen C. Pillsbury, of Tilton, N.H., was suffering from what her physicians called enteritis, of the severest form, following typhoid fever. Her case was given up by her regular physician, and she was lying at the point of death, when Mrs. Eddy visited her. In a few moments after Mrs. Eddy entered the room and stood by her bedside, Miss Pillsbury recognized her aunt and said, ‘I am glad to see you aunty.’ In about ten minutes more Mrs. Eddy told her to rise from her bed and walk. Miss Pillsbury rose and walked seven times across her room, then sat down in a chair. For two weeks before this we had not entered her room without feeling obliged to step lightly. Her bowels were so tender that she felt the jar, and it increased her sufferings. She could only be moved on a sheet from bed to bed. When she walked across the room, at Mrs. Eddy’s bidding, Mrs. Eddy told Miss Pillsbury to stamp her foot strongly upon the floor, and she did so without suffering from it. The next day she was dressed, and went down to the table; and on the fourth day made a journey of about a hundred miles in the cars.

August, 1867 — Martha Rand Baker.”

(30) “Mrs. Sarah Crosby, of Albion, Maine, sent for my aid [Mrs. Eddy’s aid] because of an injury to her eye. She was hundreds of miles away, but after receiving her first letter, as soon as the mail could bring it, I received another letter from her, of which the following is an extract: — ‘Since the accident to my eye, it has been so exceedingly sensitive to the light, I have shaded it, unable to do any writing or sewing of any note. The Sunday I mailed you a letter I suffered a great deal with it; Monday it was painful until towards night, when it felt better; Tuesday it was well, and I have not worn my shade over it since a week ago Monday, and I have read, sewed, and written, and still all is well. Now you may form your own conclusions. I told a friend the other day you had cured my eye, or perhaps my fear of my eye, and it is so; though I am sure, for the life of me, I cannot understand a word of what you write me about the possibility of a spirit like mine having power over a hundred and seventy pounds of live flesh and blood to keep it in perfect trim.’”

(31) “I was called to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, confined to his bed six months with hip-disease, caused by a fall upon a wooden spike when a boy. On entering the house I met his physician, who said he was dying. He had just probed the ulcer on the hip, and said the bone was carious for several inches. He even showed me the probe, which had on it the evidence of this condition of the bone. The doctor went out. Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and sightless. The dew of death was upon his brow. I went to his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and said. ‘I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone.’ It was between three and four o’clock in the afternoon when this took place.

“I told him to rise, dress himself, and take supper with his family. He did so. The next day I saw him in the yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed that he went to work in two weeks, and that pieces of wood were discharged from the sore as it healed. These pieces had remained ever since the injury in boyhood.

“Since his recovery I have been informed that his physician claims to have cured him, and that his mother has been threatened with incarceration in an insane asylum for saying; ‘It was none other than God and that woman who healed him.’ I cannot attest the truth of this report, but what I saw and did for that man, and what his physician said of the case, occurred just as I have narrated.” (Science and Health, 124th edition, 1897)

(32) “Mrs. Eddy said that a woman to whom she had been kind was stricken down with a disease, but that she did not know it until one day a man told her she was dead. ‘Dead,’ she said, ‘DEAD?’ He said, ‘Well she was dying when I was there and I suppose she is dead by this time.’ The next day she was around the house at her work, well, and remained so; she said the family never knew what healed the woman.”

(33) “In one of Mrs. Eddy’s classes there was a woman who had a strong sense of resentment and condemnation toward her husband, who was very immoral. Mrs. Eddy said to her that Jesus healed the Magdalen by condemning the sin, but not the woman. The lady answered, ‘Yes, but I have not the consciousness that Jesus had.’ Our Leader instantly rebuked this by saying that she could claim the Christ-consciousness, for otherwise she could not heal a single case of sin or sickness. The student’s consciousness was so illumined that her state of mind completely changed toward her husband, and when she returned home, she found him healed.”

(34) “Mrs. Eddy was called to a case of fever where two physicians were present; they said the man could not live; he had refused to eat anything for a week. As she went to his door he was saying, ‘This tastes good and that tastes good,’ and he did not have any food in the room. Mrs. Eddy said, ‘With that consciousness he can live without eating.’ The physicians laughed at it. ‘Well he can eat,’ she said, and instantly he was in his right mind, recognized someone in the room and called for something to eat. They brought him a bountiful supply, and he ate it all, dressed himself, and went out in the yard, entirely well.”

(35) “A lady in Lynn was so angry at me she would not speak to me after healing her daughter, because she said I spoke disrespectfully to her dying daughter. The physicians had said there was only a little piece of her lung left and she was dying. I was called, and there were Spiritualists around; I tried to reach her thought, but no, could not get at it; so I said, ‘Get up out of that bed!’ Then I called to those in the other room, ‘Bring her clothes.’ The girl got up and was well; never coughed again; is living yet for all I know. I have never heard otherwise, but her mother has never spoken to me since.”

(36) “I lectured one time where the Spiritualists tried to break up the meeting. A lady in the audience was taken with one of her attacks of gallstones; fell on the floor in excruciating pain. I said to the Spiritualists present, ‘Now is your time to prove what your God will do for you. Heal this woman.’ They did what they could, but she grew worse and worse. I stepped down from the platform, stood beside her a moment and the pain left; she arose and sat in her chair, and was healed. This went broadcast, and it was through the healing work that this Science was brought to notice. This element is being lost sight of and must be regained.”

(37) “I was just thinking how I am abused (Glovercase law suit and newspaper articles) and I could feel the tears starting to come, when suddenly I thought of two cases of healing I had, and then joy took the place of sorrow. One of them was one of the worst cripples I ever saw. I was walking along the street in Lynn — I walked because I hadn’t a cent to ride — and saw this cripple, with one knee drawn up to his chin; his chin resting on his knee. The other limb was drawn the other way, up his back. I came up to him and read a piece of paper pinned on his shoulder: ‘help this poor cripple.’ I had no money to give him so I whispered in his ear, ‘God loves you.’ And he got up perfectly straight and well. He ran into the house of Mrs. Lucy Allen, who saw the healing from her window, and asked, ‘Who is that woman?’ pointing to Mrs. Glover, [afterward Mrs. Eddy]. Mrs. Allen replied, ‘It is Mrs. Glover.’ ‘No, it isn’t, it’s an angel,’ he said. Then he told what had been done for him.”

(38) “The other case was this: I was at a house [in Chelsea], and the woman came running into the room as white as ashes, and said a cripple was at the door, and he looked so dreadful she slammed the door in his face. I went to the window, and there was — well, it was too dreadful to describe; his feet did not touch the earth at all; he walked with crutches. I gave him through the window all I had in my pocket — a dollar bill — and he took it in his teeth. He went to the next house and frightened the woman there, but she did not slam the door in his face. He asked her to let him lie down for a few minutes; she let him go into a bedroom and lie down. He fell sound asleep, and when he awakened was perfectly well. Sometime afterward, the woman who was kind to him was in a store (I think) and this man came rushing up to her and said, ‘Yes, you are the one, but where is the other woman?’ Then he told her he was the one who was healed by me.”

The following healings (39-50) were recorded by Miss Clara Shannon, who was an accomplished Canadian singer, singing professionally for substantial fees, but who gave up her career in order to practice spiritual healing, and also to be of service to Mrs. Eddy; she served Mrs. Eddy intermittently for many years, and was considered one of the finest workers and healers in the Christian Science movement:

(39) “When Mrs. Eddy was a little girl, her brother George climbed a tree for some apples. He lost his balance and fell to the ground on a broken bottle. The glass made a very deep gash in his thigh. His father picked him up, took him into the house, and sent for a surgeon to put in some stitches. It was a long, deep gash and the boy was screaming in agony. Mr. Baker at once picked up little Mary and took her backwards into the room so that she could not see her brother. The father put her hand on the wound, and the pain ceased. He held it there while the doctor put in the stitches; (anesthetics had not been heard of at that time). The doctor thought there must be something very wonderful and very strange about her.”

(40) “During the year prior to Mrs. Eddy’s discovery of 1866, while she was visiting Dr. Quimby, she cured a number of his patients. A man who was dying was brought to the hotel in which she was staying. His wife was taking him to his old home in Canada. A doctor who was on the train advised moving him as soon as the train reached the next station, suggesting that he should be taken to the hotel which was close by. Very soon after he reached it, he passed away.

“Mrs. Eddy, who was in the hotel and heard about it, went to the bereaved wife’s door and knocked. The lady opened the door, and Mrs. Eddy tried to comfort her. She said, ‘Let us go and waken him.’ They went, and she stood beside him for a few minutes and told his wife that he was waking, and that she must be close by so that he could see her when he opened his eyes which he shortly did. He said to his wife, ‘Oh! Martha, it was so strange to be at home and you not there,’ and he spoke about meeting his parents and others of the family who had died before. Mrs. Eddy remained there for three days, and during that time he continued to live.”

(41) “In Mrs. Eddy’s early days of healing, after her discovery of 1866, Whittier, the poet, was ill and dying of a supposedly incurable, hereditary disease. The Spiritualists had tried to cure him and had failed. Mrs. Eddy was called to help him, and he was healed at once.”

(42) “When going downstairs to breakfast one morning, I met Miss Morgan, the Housekeeper, and she told me that the farmer who served Mrs. Eddy with milk was very solemn when he came that morning; he said his well was dry. It was so bitterly cold that everything was frozen, and he was obliged to go to a brook or river some distance away. He had taken barrels in his wagon, which he filled with ice and snow from the river, and took home to melt, so as to have water for his cows. This was very hard work; it took a long time and he was much distressed. During that day I mentioned his difficulties to Mother, telling her just what had happened. She smiled and said, ‘Oh, if he only knew’; then after a moment’s silence, ‘Love fills that well.’ The next morning when the farmer brought the milk, he was overjoyed, and told Miss Morgan what a wonderful thing had occurred. That morning early when he had gone out to attend the cattle he found the well full of water, in spite of the bitter cold day with all ice and snow around, He said it must have been Mrs. Eddy’s prayers that had done it all. She must have had something to do with it for it was a miracle. He had a great reverence for Mrs. Eddy although he was not a Christian Scientist. That day, when we were at dinner, I told Mother what had happened and just what the man said. Oh! The joy and sweetness, the illumination and love of her face is ever to be remembered; her expression of praise and gratitude to God were glorious, and she said, ‘Oh! Didn’t I know.’”

(43) “She told me about a child, a few years old, whose mother brought him to her, believing him to be dead. He was stretched out stiff in her arms, and she laid him on Mrs. Eddy’s lap. Mrs. Eddy saw that the mother was very much agitated, and asked her to leave the little boy with her for a time, and to return later. When the mother left them, Mrs. Eddy sat realizing the Truth, the spiritual Truth as it applies to all of God’s children; and after a while she found the child sitting up on her lap, looking into her face. The first thing he said was, ‘Me is tick,’ and Mrs. Eddy said, ‘No, you are not sick, you are well.’ But he repeated several times, ‘Me is tick,’ and he seemed to get very angry and tried to strike her until she rose and put him down to stand, while she talked of Truth, Life and Love to him. After a time, when he was submissive, he began to cry and sob bitterly. When she saw that he was yielding to Truth, she put him on her lap again, and talked lovingly and tenderly to him and comforted him. Soon a knock on the door was heard and she said, ‘That’s Ma-ma; go and meet her.’ He ran towards the door, and as his mother came in, she collapsed and needed help. What astonished her so much, even more than the fact that he was alive, was that he was walking, because he had never done so before; he had been paralyzed from birth.”

(44) “A lady brought her daughter to Mrs. Eddy one day and asked to leave her with her, as she could not speak. After doing all she could to help the girl, with apparently little effect, it occurred to her to test her in another way, and she said to her, ‘Well, I suppose the reason you do not talk is because you cannot talk.’ At once the girl answered her, ‘I can talk and I do talk, and I will talk, as much as I like and you can’t stop me.’ So Mrs. Eddy was able to send her home to her parents cured of the devil of dumbness.”

(45) “There was a man who was deaf and dumb, whom Mrs. Eddy healed of these afflictions. That man has talked to me many times and his speech and hearing are perfect.”

(46) “Mother told me that when she first was preaching at Chickering Hall, the caretaker brought his daughter, who was ill with consumption and had a distressing cough. After the congregation left the building she was sitting in one of the end seats, waiting for her father. As Mrs. Eddy went down the aisle, she saw the lit tle girl and noticed how ill she looked. She stopped and spoke to the child and said to her, ‘Don’t you know, dear, that you haven’t any lungs to cough with, not to be consumed? You are God’s child’; and she talked the truth to her and told her what she was as God’s idea, and to know that she was well; and the child stopped coughing and was instantly healed. When her father came to take her home, he was amazed to find that she was well.”

(47) “One day, a man whom she had seen jump from a great height, called to see her. He had on dark goggles. She asked him if he were not afraid when he took that leap. He explained to her that if he were to become afraid the jump was too high, he would be killed. After talking to him in a most heavenly way for some time, one could see by the expression of his face how enlightened he was mentally. Then she began again, and talked to him about his lack of fear, he still asserting that he had no fear when jumping — he knew he could do it. She said to him, ‘Why not apply the same rule to your eyes?’ One he told her had been destroyed through an accident; the other was all right, but he wore dark goggles to hide the bad eye. They were sitting in the library, and as she talked to him I could see and feel that his fear was removed, and his thought was full of hope and joy, although he did not then realize the blessing he had received. A day or two afterwards the cabman who drove him to the station reported there that he had two perfect eyes when he reached the station.”

(48) “One day, while I was writing to Mrs. Eddy’s dictation, she sent me with a message to Mr. Frye, who was in his room. When I reached the door, which was open, I saw him lying on his back on the carpet, apparently lifeless. I returned to Mrs. Eddy and told her about it saying, ‘It seems as though he has fainted.’ She immediately rose and we both went to his room. She kneeled beside him, lifted his arm, which fell inert. She then began to talk to him. I had been praying for him, but what she said to him was a revelation to which I listened in wonder. Such heavenly words and tenderness, such an expression of love I had never heard, telling him the truth of man’s relationship to God. After a while he opened his eyes, and as soon as Mother saw that he was becoming conscious, her voice changed, and most severely she rebuked the error that seemed to be attacking him. Her voice and manner were so different, according to the need, that I was deeply impressed.

“Presently she told him to rise to his feet, and gave him her hand to help him get up. Then she turned around and went out of the room, down the passage where she had been sitting. When she called out, ‘Calvin, come here!’ he followed her. She spoke to him for several minutes, striving to wake him up — at times thundering against the error. Then she said, ‘Now you can go back to your room, but before he entered she called him again and talked to him, and this was repeated several times.

“I said, ‘Oh, Mother, couldn’t you let him sit down for a few minutes?’ She said, ‘No, if he sits down he may not waken again — he must be aroused — we mustn’t let him die — he is not quite awake yet.’ She began to talk to him again and remind him of the time when Martha and Mrs. Frye together drove out and spent the day there, and she began to remind him of the experiences of that day. That reached him, and she said, ‘You haven’t forgotten, Calvin?’ And he said, ‘No, Mother!’, and laughed heartily. Then she talked more of the Truth to him and told him he could go back to his room and this time, ‘Watch.’

“Mr. Frye was a changed man after that experience, to which he never referred.”

(49) “At Mrs. Eddy’s home, dominion over the weather, storms, etc. was just the same as over other material conditions. Once, after a prolonged drought, the inharmonious condition was met by Mrs. Eddy’s watching and praying, the effect being rain, when there had not been a cloud visible in the sky.

“During part of the year, cyclones were sometimes experienced at Concord; and one day Miss Morgan came to me and said that the clouds were gathering, and there was going to be a dreadful storm; and she called me to look through the windows of her room, which was at the end of the house, looking towards the stables. Above, I saw dark clouds which seemed to be coming towards us very rapidly, and as Mother had told me that whenever I saw a cyclone or storm coming, I must let her know, I went to her room immediately and told her. She rose and went to the veranda at the back of the house. By that time, the clouds had reached overhead. She then went into the front vestibule and looked on that side of the house. Then she returned to the veranda. I ran downstairs to the front door, opened it and went outside. I looked up and saw the clouds hanging over the house, very heavy, black clouds, and in the middle right over the house, was a rift; they were dividing — part were going one way and the other part in the opposite direction. This seemed to be such a strange phenomenon. I went in, closed the door and went upstairs to Mother, on the veranda, and told her what I saw. I said, ‘The clouds are dividing just overhead.’ She said to me, ‘CLOUDS! What do you mean? Are there any clouds?’ I said, ‘No, Mother.’ She was looking up, and I could see by the expression on her face that she was not seeing clouds but was realizing the Truth; I saw the black clouds turn indigo, the indigo to light grey, the light grey to white fleecy clouds which dissolved, and they were no more; and she said to me ‘There are no clouds to hide God’s face, and there is nothing that can come between the light and us; it is divine Love’s weather.’

“That was early in the evening. The wind had been blowing terrifically, and Mr. Frye and another gentleman were in the attic trying to pull down a large American flag. It was a fete day, and a gentleman had sent the flag to Mrs. Eddy. It was very large, and Mr. Frye and this friend were trying to pull it down, and the strength of the two men was not sufficient; but suddenly the wind subsided, and the flag yielded. Next morning, early, when the mail was delivered, the postman was amazed to see that nothing had been disturbed in the garden, because a short distance down the road and in town was a great deal of damage.”

(50) “One day, when Mrs. Eddy had finished giving her lesson to the class of which I was a member, she asked me to stay after the other members had gone. While she was still standing in the classroom, a gentleman called to see her, bringing with him his sister, who greatly needed healing.

“Mrs. Eddy met them at the door of the room, and asked him to wait downstairs, while she talked with his sister. The belief was insanity, and she looked terrified. Mrs. Eddy told me her delusion was that a serpent was coiled around her body and was crushing her. I stood in amazement, watching Mrs. Eddy’s face as she turned and looked at the woman who fell on the floor screaming, ‘It’s crushing me, it’s killing me.’ Mrs. Eddy looked upwards, as if she had seen the face of an angel in her communion with God. In a moment she said to the woman, ‘Has it gone?’ But there was no reply. Mrs. Eddy repeated her question but the woman still seemed not to hear it. Then she spoke with authority and asked, ‘Has it gone?’ And the poor woman looked up and her whole body was shaking and quivering as she answered, ‘Yes!’ I watched the changes of expression that came over her face, from peace to joy. And Oh! the love that was expressed in Mrs. Eddy’s face as she looked down on her, stretched out both arms and lifted her up saying,

‘Get up, darling.’ Then our dear Teacher took that needy one’s head on her shoulder and patted her face, as she lovingly talked the truth to her. Mrs. Eddy then went out of the room and talked to the brother — who took his sister home — and then asked me to come and have supper with her, and to sing to her. During the evening she turned to me and said, ‘You saw what happened to that lady today? Well, she will never be insane in this world again.’ And she has not been.”

Appendix

The healings recorded herein with minor editing, were taken from the following sources:

Golden Memories, by Clara Shannon. These memoirs were first in circulation in the nineteen-twenties, when Miss Shannon was still teaching and healing in London, England. (Healings 39-50)

Notes on the Course in Divinity, recorded by several students who served Mrs. Eddy at her Pleasant View home. Privately printed by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr., C.S.B., in 1933. (Healings 32-38)

Collectanea, a collection of notes and events, and words spoken by Mrs. Eddy and recorded by students closely associated with her. Privately printed by Gilbert

C. Carpenter, Jr., in 1938. (Healings 2-6, 8-19)

Healings 23-30 are from early editions of Science and Health, editions of 1875, 1878 and 1888.

Healings 1, 7 and 20-22 are from five miscellaneous sources.

Bibliography

The following, though not a complete bibliography, is a sufficiently comprehensive listing of the pertinent books by Mrs. Eddy and those about Mrs. Eddy as to enable the reader to gain some understanding of her life, her accomplishments and her message to the world:

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy’s textbook on Christian Science. First edition published in 1875; final revision, 1910. (700 pages)

Miscellaneous Writings, by Mrs. Eddy. First published in 1896. (470 pages)

Retrospection and Introspection, by Mrs. Eddy. Partly autobiographical and partly her spiritual standpoint as standard bearer. First published in 1891. (95 pages)

The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, a biography by Sibyl Wilbur, a newspaper reporter and a Roman Catholic when she first met Mrs. Eddy. First published in 1907. (400 pages)

What Mrs. Eddy Said to Arthur Brisbane, an interview by the eminent Jewish journalist with Mrs. Eddy, appearing first as an article published in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, August, 1907. The book was first published in 1930. (60 pages)

Mary Baker Eddy, A Life Size Portrait, by Lyman P. Powell, an Episcopal minister. First published in 1930 by The MacMillan Company, after twenty-five years of research by the author. (300 pages)

Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, by Irving C. Tomlinson, sets forth recollections and experiences of the author during the twelve years that he served the Christian Science Leader in several capacities. First published in 1945. (220 pages)

We Knew Mary Baker Eddy. This series of four volumes contains a total of eighteen articles by students of Mrs. Eddy who had sat under her teaching and had felt the presence and power of the Spirit, as it poured forth into their consciousness from Mrs. Eddy’s clear insight into the things of God, — in her marvelous representation of the Christ-Spirit. These few, among others, were to her what the apostles were to Jesus. Published by The Christian Science Publishing Society in 1943, 1950, 1953 and 1972.

The above books may be borrowed from public libraries or purchased from The Christian Science Publishing Society, One Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

The following are not generally available at libraries or from the Publishing Society:

Mrs. Eddy, Her Life, Her Work, Her Place in History, by Hugh A. Studdert-Kennedy, English-born, Foreign Editor of the Christian Science Monitor for ten years; also author of Christian Science and Organized Religion. First published in 1947. (500 pages) Available from the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent, [www.plainfieldcs.com,](http://www.plainfieldcs.com/) P.O. Box 5619, Plainfield, N.J. 07061-5619.

The Cross and the Crown, by Norman Beasley, a free-lance writer and not a Christian Scientist. This is a history of Christian Science up to the time of Mrs. Eddy’s passing. It also includes a short appendix of early Christian writings, before 300 A. D. Published in 1952 by Duell, Sloan and Pearce. (600 pages) Obtainable from book stores and some public libraries.

From Hawthorne Hall, by William Lyman Johnson. Published in 1922. This is an historical novel which presents an interesting story of the times when Mrs. Eddy’s influence was near its peak. The author’s father was closely associated with Mrs. Eddy for many years, holding important positions in her Church. (400 pages)

Christian Science in Germany, by Frances Thurber Seal. This tells of the introduction of Christian Science into Germany in 1898. This healing work in Germany was among the most amazing of all the Christ-healings and divine experiences of the early workers. First published in 1931. (85 pages) Available from the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent, www.plainfieldcs.com, P.O. Box 5619, Plainfield, N.J. 07061-5619.

Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps, by Gilbert C. Carpenter and Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. This book would be of interest to those who have already gained some demonstrable understanding of Christian Science, and are interested in learning more about Mrs. Eddy as the advanced demonstrator of the truth which she taught. Mr. Carpenter, Senior, served Mrs. Eddy as a secretary in the year 1905. Privately printed in 1934. (400 pages) Available from the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent, [www.plainfieldcs.com,](https://www.plainfieldcs.com/) P.O. Box 5619, Plainfield, N.J. 07061-5619.

Turn to God for Healing

If you do not know how to turn to God, start with this pamphlet. It offers encouraging facts and gives ample references for learning more.

No one is an authority on the subject. Even medical doctors can only do the best they know. But many thousands of intelligent people are now learning more and more about spiritual healing, and consequently are turning to God instead of medicine, even as did the early Christians.

In our modern era of science and discovery, Mary Baker Eddy developed a scientific approach to spiritual healing and also a more logical approach to the things of God in general.

Some call it a religion. Others call it a new way of thinking and living. Regardless of what we call it, it certainly offers a better means of understanding life, its underlying nature and its unlimited possibilities.

Make the discovery yourself. Then follow it up. It is too valuable to ignore!