Consciousness and vision

I love the photo of Mary Baker Eddy on the dust cover of my copy of Lyman Powell's book Mary Baker Eddy - A Life Size Portrait. The photo or portrait of the Leader of the Church of Christ, Scientist, offers the reader a glimpse into her character. It suggests to me a woman at work, alert to the needs of the world, insightful and spiritually-minded, loving but firm, particular about even the smallest details. She was a woman of her own time, and yet a woman for all time. The portrait is very pleasing, even uplifting, and it belies the extraordinary privations she endured over many decades earlier in her long life.

Having now read the first three and a half chapters, I have journeyed with our protagonist through her childhood and early womanhood, her three marriages, the anguish of losing her beloved first husband George Glover and then her only son George to foster parents, the shame of her wayward second husband, the weary years of ill-health and poverty, and the glimmers of hope as she searched for the science of Christ-healing. Powell describes her as "a lonely and heroic soul singing to herself" (p. 111) and a Mrs. Sarah G. Crosby recalled her as "one fired with the prescience of a great mission...a beloved guest in my home...when in poverty she came to me, - no money, scarcely comfortable clothing, - most unhappy in her domestic relations. Her only assets being her indomitable will and active brain" (p. 112).

Of her manner, we learn that "Usually she was reserved...but...she talked very well and convincingly..." (p. 114) and "her conversation was always an inspiration and instructive" (p. 115).

Powell tells us that "her consciousness of God's power to heal...growing brighter with the years...was now at its full" (p. 120). Indeed, she herself related to a friend that "she had attained unto that consciousness of the divine Presence which heals the sick" (ibid).

I love the title of chapter four: Building the Book. There were nine long years between 1866, when she fell on the ice, and 1875, when her book would be published. During those years, she lodged in the homes of others. However, by 1872 she had saved six thousand dollars, and finally in March 1875 she bought her own home for $5650, and subsequently leased all but the front parlor and a tiny upper bedroom for herself.

Julie Swannell