Healing, teaching, writing - a mission of love

Purity of thought: Mrs. Eddy’s insistence on purity of thought and morals seems to come more definitely to me lately and it runs through the pages of this book (Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer).

[Ed. The setting is around 1870 when Mary taught her first class (p. 87). At that time, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures had not yet been written and her students were aided by several papers written by their teacher as well as her “teaching manuscript” (p. 88) called “The Science of Man” (ibid). In a revision of that document she wrote:]

A student of Moral Science, and this is the Science of man, must be a pure and undefiled Christian, in order to make the most rapid progress in healing… (p. 89).

Process of teaching: On the previous page, there is a quote from a letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to her student Mr. S. P. Bancroft in reply to his question about “how [one] should metaphysically view the process of teaching” (p. 88):

When I teach science it is not woman that addresses man, it is the principle and soul bringing out its idea. …My scholars may learn from me what they could not learn from the same words if uttered by another with less wisdom than even my “grain of mustard seed,” hence, it is not the words, but the amount of soul that comes forth to destroy error. (ibid).

I had an “Aha!” moment. Aha! That is the reason behind her prohibiting the taking of notes in her classes.

Genesis: She wrote 600 pages of notes on the book of Genesis between 1867 and 1868! (see page 128.)

Jesus’ example: And here is a hint on being a follower of Jesus, “the higher grew the affection of Jesus, the grander grew his demonstration.” (See page 137.)

Index to SH: It had never sunk in for me that the Reverend Wiggin prepared the first index to Science and Health. (See page 139.)

Easter 1888: I don’t suppose there has ever been a service similar to the one held at Easter time in 1888. “The service that first of April was largely a concert by the Sunday School children. No fewer than eighteen hymns and anthems … Half way through, twelve young ladies each answered a question, responding with a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (pages 145, 146).

Demonstration vs repetition: Readers of my contributions to the blog may recall that I have long been a fan of Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. There is one gem which I have perhaps not really come to terms with. Here it is on page 213 of Peel’s book:

 

Five times ten are fifty. This is science. Echo answers: “Five times ten are fifty. This is science.” The first statement is true and the latter is untrue. Why? Because one…demonstrates Science...the other repeats Science….

I was reminded of this when I came to page 157 of our book, where in reference to the point that some of her students were using written formulas in their healing work, she wrote to one student:

Tell every one whom you know of doing this, that it is as far from scientific as it would be to give or order drugs. The written direction, beyond a general scientific rule for practice which is already given in Science and Health, confines the practice to mortal mind and is nothing more or less than human directions, mind cure, and will produce the effect only of animal magnetism.

I may be imagining a correlation. I would love to hear from another blogger on this one.

Poetic purpose: On page 154 I was enlightened about Mrs. Eddy's poem/hymn Love:

Love was the only way Mrs. Eddy knew to respond to hate or settle disagreements. A number of years after this [Ed. Probably a number of years after 1888], she would write a poem entitled "Love."  It is a beautiful lesson on healing disputes.  In it she points out, "The arrow that doth wound the dove / Darts not from those who watch and love," and she ends with

...Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.

I had never understood that the poem had been written with settling disputes in mind. I guess each of those hymn/poems was written for a healing purpose needed at the time. 

 Joyce Voysey

Children and receptivity

 It is wonderful to read of Mrs Eddy's healing of children's cases, and it is a pleasure to share here a few such healings which are recounted in the early chapters of Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (expanded edition).

1. As a school girl, Mary "once stood up to a girl who was terrorizing the other children"( p. 32). As a result "the girl's nature was transformed" (ibid). (Corporeal punishment had failed to deal with the bad behaviour.)

2. As a young widow, for a period Mary taught school. She addressed the problem of one "persistently misbehaving boy" (p. 39) in a decisive manner. Recounting the "incident in later years" (ibid) she explained that she took "his hand" and told him she loved him but she "must make [him] suffer for bad conduct and its influence on [her] pupils" (ibid). As he kneeled next to her, she prayed for him, and despite his being convinced it would do no good, "soon he was sobbing and ...  imploring [her] to whip him and forgive him" (p. 40). His mother later reported that he was a changed boy.

3. Gaining a conviction of her God-impelled mission, and despite immense opposition--especially it seems from her sister Abigail, Mary soon had "an unlooked-for, imperative call for help". A young lad called Dorr Phillips was suffering greatly with a felon (a type of inflammation) on a finger. He agreed to let Mary treat him, promising not to look at his finger while the metaphysical treatment was underway.  Soon he had forgotten all about it because the finger no longer gave him any trouble (pp. 65, 66).

4. The fourth healing of a child is that of seven-year-old George Norton. This healing is beautifully recounted in a remarkable lecture given recently by Chet Manchester at the Lynn Museum ("Mary Baker Eddy - A Life of Discovery" https://talksthatchangelives.org/). Mary befriended the lad, who was noticeably lame, and was soon holding his hands and helping him to walk, guiding "his feet with her own" (p. 68).

Later, she was to write: 

Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 236:25)

Furthermore, she offered this idea to her readers:

Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 323:32–2)

However, even in the face of complete unreceptivity, even hostility, Mary was able to help. A gentleman by the name of Wheeler was ready to have his finger amputated when Mary asked him if he would consent to her praying for him. His reply? "If you will be quick, I will" (p. 69)! Within a short time, the pain had ceased. No amputation was necessary. 

Seeing God at work on the human scene like this impelled Mary's untiring efforts over many years to discover and share how the healing work was done. The result was her book Science and Health, a perfect companion book to the Bible. A book loved by both adults and children. A book which repays the receptive thought.

Julie Swannell

Experience and revelation

I submitted the following to our Editor Julie, having read from the original "Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer" and not the amplified one. She pointed out to me that the pages references were different. I have now clarified the matter to my own satisfaction, and can tell you that this whole experience is amplified on the pages 32 to 59.

On pages 42-44, we are told of what Mrs. Eddy later described as “the falling apple” in her development towards the discovery of the Science of Christ. The account here is of a healing she accomplished when she treated people with the homeopathic method. Eddy prescribed unmedicated pills (the patient was unaware that they were unmedicated) and the patient was healed. She explained the experience as being “the enlightenment of the human understanding”, whereas, in contrast, the discovery of Christian Science in 1866, she described as “the revelation from the divine Mind” (ibid; see also p. 59).

Ed. The authors here clarify the situation for the reader: "Two facts had become clear as a result of this cure of dropsy: first, the same remedy that had been impotent when administered by the physician became effective when she prescribed and administered it; second, the unmedicated pills were as effective as the medicated ones. She saw that both the thought of the physician and the thought of the patient were the determining factors in the case, to the exclusion of matter" (p. 44).

On pages 56-59, we learn about a major healing of her own. Eddy later declared that with this experience came the discovery of Christian Science. The healing came about in two stages. 

Firstly, when she read from Mark about the healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, a “change passed over us; the limbs that were immovable, cold, and without feeling, warmed; the internal agony ceased, our strength came instantaneously, and we rose from our bed and stood upon our feet, well” (p. 56). (The end-notes tell us that this is from Science and Health, third edition (1881), p. 156.)

The second stage occurred when the doctor’s “disbelief seemed to strike at her and she felt suddenly weakened and could no longer stand” (p. 57). She then turned to the ninth chapter of Matthew and “Jesus words, 'Arise, and walk' spoke to her across the centuries” (p. 58). She rose again and the claim of relapse was banished.

Joyce Voysey

Not to a select number, but to all

Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) consists of the following:

• Preface
• Part One - A Lifetime of Healing (18 chapters plus an Interlude titled "Advice for healers"
• Part Two - More Healing Works by Mary Baker Eddy  
• Appendix A - More Advice for Healers
• Appendix B - Biographical Glossary, Notes, Index

It is a very comprehensive book. 

Last night I flipped to Appendix A and read Eddy's 1888 letter to her student Edward Kimball. Kimball seems to have been experiencing stomach trouble and had turned to his Christian Science teacher for help. She cuts to the chase. She reminds him of those qualities which had obviously impressed her when he was her class student: "great, grand, noble, frank" (p. 392). She reminds him that he is working for God, who "knows that [he] is able to do all the good that [he] is required to do" (ibid). 

The next paragraphs are taken from Eddy's 1889 message of the Christian Scientist Association. Here she includes a rebuke to the idea that we "haven't time" (ibid 394) for needed attention to a need. This suggestion must be met with the fact that we do have time!

She knew that her "experience of the effects of faith was no miracle and nothing impossible to all who have that faith which is followed by spiritual understanding and is equal to avail itself of Christ's promise, not to a select number, but to all who exercise it." (written by Mary Baker Eddy in 1900. See page 11).

Isa 55: 1 "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters..." King James Version

"Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink..." The Living Bible 

It's not a closed shop. This teaching is for everyone.

Julie Swannell