In our March book Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy
(Expanded edition) by Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson, MA, CSB, I was interested to
read about Mary Baker Eddy and Shakespeare. I knew she was familiar with Shakespeare's work.
Doesn’t Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
(written by Mary Baker Eddy) have a Shakespearean quote (from Hamlet) on page
iii, set between a quote from John’s gospel and a poem by the author?
There is nothing either
good or bad,
but thinking makes it so.
Tomlinson tells us that she was able to quote from Macbeth
Act 5, scene 3. He writes (page 17): Mrs.
Eddy addressed us by repeating the following from Macbeth act V, scene 3 –
Canst thou not minister
to a mind diseas’d,
Pluck from the memory a
rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written
troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet
oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff’d bosom
of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the
heart?
He goes on,
These lines were repeated
without hesitation, and with the accent and intonation which indicated a
familiarity that might be expected of a noted actor. I asked two longtime
workers in Mrs. Eddy’s household if they remembered it as a quotation often
used by Mrs. Eddy. Both said that they had never heard her use the lines
before.
One can certainly understand why those lines were so
meaningful to Mrs. Eddy.
On page 30 we find a passage which tells us of Mrs. Eddy’s handling of an unruly child in the school she started in Tilton for children 8 to 10 years. (This would have been before she discovered the Christ Science.)
I shall copy it here.
A mother whose
ten-year-old son was so ungovernable that she had sent him to the reform school
came to me and begged that I take her boy into my school. I hesitated but at
last yielded to her entreaties. The first day the boy behaved very badly. I
asked him to remain after the others had gone and I could see him looking for a
chance to escape. His eyes glanced to the door and to the windows as if he
would break away. I fastened the door and put the key in my pocket. He looked
up at me defiantly and said, “Shan’t I go out and get you a stick?” I talked
gently to him of God, and the rude boy melted and the tears ran down his
cheeks. Then I read to him from the Bible and I prayed with him until I knew my
prayer was answered. We went home together hand in hand. When at home he amazed
his mother by asking for the Bible and going apart with it to read and pray.
The dear boy became transformed. A short time later he joined the
Congregational Church and grew to be an honorable and upright man.
Another gem on page 31:
Mrs. Eddy once told of
moving to North Groton, New Hampshire, in 1855 when she was Mrs. Patterson: “It
was a beautiful spot, and among other good people there was one saintly man who
was known as Father Merrill. I went to this good man and asked him if we could
not on the Sabbath day hold a prayer meeting in the schoolhouse. He said, ‘Oh
no, there would be no one attend. The people don’t care for such things and it
would do no good.’ He yielded to my entreaties, and the following Sunday at
three o’clock was appointed for our prayer meeting. The day dawned fair and
beautiful, and three o’clock found Father Merrill and myself at the little
school ready for the service. Congregation or no congregation we were resolved
upon our service and we two held our service of prayer and praise. Fervent
indeed were the offerings laid upon God’s altar that beautiful Sabbath
afternoon. A service was announced for the following Sunday at the same time
and place, and when the hour arrived there were three others present. The
following Sunday there came together a good congregation and before the month
was out the schoolhouse could not hold all who sought admittance. We opened the
windows that those without might share the service.”
This reminds me of the ten Boom sisters (Corrie and Betsy)
getting a prayer group going in a Nazi concentration camp. See Corrie ten
Boom’s The Hiding Place.
Joyce Voysey
