Meeting the case

Mary Baker Eddy was raised in the Christian faith and epitomised Christian qualities like kindness and compassion throughout her life. She loved her fellow man, animals, and nature. But her life trajectory was to extend her Christianity to be scientific and practical. Her discipleship included strict discipline and insight in meeting cases involving both sin and disease. 

Her students were not always immediately successful in their healing work and the book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer* offers examples of her instructions in some of these cases. One example (see p. 376-377) comes from a worker in Mrs. Eddy's home, Mrs. Ella Sweet, who sustained a strained ankle and "quite a wound" to her face as a result of an accident during a visit to the building site of a Christian Science church in Concord. 

When Mrs. Sweet tried to hide the difficulty, Mrs. Eddy questioned her about the incident and the "help ... being given". Mrs. Sweet responded that "she was handling the false claim of accidents." 

"Mrs. Eddy replied, 'That will not meet the case. Animal magnetism is trying to separate you from me and I need you.' She talked a little and complete healing followed."

A little further on the book (p. 381-384) is the account of how Mrs. Eddy responded to "a hard-boiled, belligerent bunch of old-timers ... [who] hoped and expected to 'dig up' a lot of scandal" about her. 

One of the reporters, a Mr. Weadlock, was very ill - "he had lost his voice entirely and was not able to speak a word" (p. 381). He had "an extremely painful growth on this throat ... which at times completely overwhelmed him" (p. 384). 

Furthermore, he was angry that Mrs. Eddy had asked her representative to convey, by telephone, a message specifically to him, "the head man" (ibid). After the call, the account continues: "when the reporter turned away from the phone, he could not only speak perfectly, but he was completely healed" (p. 381).

The authors of our book note that "one can see Mrs. Eddy's insightfulness, wisdom, leadership, and tenderness, but most of all her love for her students" (p. 391). Christian qualities indeed.

She was also diligent, and encouraged her students to be diligent. To Septimus J. Hanna she wrote: 

    "I beg of you to have rules like the Medes and Persians that change not. Make them imperative and unalterable viz.: That certain hours you cannot be seen nor communicated with. Do not let the caller in at those hours, nor a letter or message be sent to you. Had not I established this system for myself, I never could have accomplished what little I have done" (p. 402).

In a similar vein she wrote to Clara E. Choate: "We must have system. This great Cause cannot progress in a desultory fashion. Everything must be done decently and in order" (p. 428).

Love and Principle - terms for God - work hand in hand to meet our challenges. 

Julie Swannell

*by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck (Amplified Edition)

"My darling, I love you."

In the gospel of Mark, chapter one, we read about Jesus "preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God" in Galilee.

Here, by this large and beautiful freshwater lake (approx. 53kms around) he encountered some fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew. He invited them to leave their fishing nets and join him to "become fishers of men". They did.

Next, he encountered two more brothers, James and John. They also accepted the invitation to join Jesus. 

These five came to Capernaum, on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called Jesus' second home. They went into the local synagogue, where Jesus astonished them with his authoritative teaching. (One blogger writes that the synagogue was "school, meeting place, courtroom, and place of prayer" and explains that the Greek word synagogue means assembly.)

So, here we are in the community meeting-place. Jesus is teaching, when suddenly "a man with an unclean spirit" shouts out: "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." 

What an affront! Was the man indignant, annoyed, angry? Why did he express such antipathy to Jesus' teaching? 

What happens next is so interesting. Did Jesus shout back? Did he take offence? Was he dismayed and disappointed? Certainly this was not a sign of welcome or appreciation. The man was apparently deeply disturbed. 

We have no indication as to how the others in the synagogue reacted, but Jesus remained undisturbed in face of this push-back. With total conviction, he "rebuked him, saying Hold thy peace, and come out of him." And it was so. 

This story came to mind as I read in Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer of a child born blind.  As Mrs. Eddy "began to talk to her of God, Truth and Love ... the child ... stamped her foot and said, 'I hate you. I hate you. I could sit up all night to hate* you.'" 

Mrs. Eddy's response? "My darling, I love you. I love you, why I could sit up all night to love you!" (p. 290, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck). The child was healed. She could see.

I was struck by a corollary to these two occurrences. This month, as I take up our book of the month each day, I have sometimes felt a reluctance to read about Mrs. Eddy's healing work. What Paul calls the "carnal mind" and Mrs. Eddy terms "mortal mind" -- the so-called mind which is "not subject to the law of God" (Rom. 8:7) -- can sometimes sound like our own voice, our own instincts. But when I realised that this reluctance, the "push-back" was a spurious suggestion, not a message from God, I pushed on with the reading until I was again appreciating its wonderful ramifications for the world.

Julie Swannell

*A study of the word "hatred" in the concordances to the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings - in printed books or online in Concord - is illuminating. (I love Concord! It's such a worthwhile investment.) 

Inspiration

Notes from Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck, the chapter Appendix B – Biographical Glossary.

Mrs. Emilie B. Hulin recorded this re Mrs. Eddy’s Primary class in November 1888:

Mrs. Eddy was showing in class the definition of God . . . and showing that “Mind” is the “all seeing.”

She said that through the understanding of this she had healed a man of blindness whose eyeballs had been destroyed, and the eyeballs were restored whole. Someone in the class asked, “Well, if Mind is all that sees, why was it necessary for the eyeballs to be restored?”

Mrs. Eddy replied: “Ah, I anticipated that you would ask that question. The effect of Christian Science is this. Science restores that standard of perfection which mortal mind calls for. If the eyeballs had not been restored, no one would have believed him when he said he could see.” (p. 459)

Mrs. Eddy gave Mr. Kinter a run-down of his duties and made a point of saying:

“Do you drink coffee and tea? Because if you do, you won’t get any here We don’t have either. We drink cocoa shells, --it is a real nice drink and our faithful cook serves it good and hot.” (p. 467)

Carol Norton was told by Mrs. Eddy:

“Woman’s spiritual leadership will not supersede that of man, because man will rise to the possession of a spirituality and love that is ideal. Then there will be fulfilled the vision of genuine sex co-operation.” (p. 481)

These are a few passages which inspired me. I hope the reader of this blog will search the book for his or her own inspirations. All with reference to Mary Baker Eddy’s wonderful gift of healing.

Joyce Voysey