A normal thoughtful woman

 The following article, reviewing Robert Peel's book Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery in its first edition, may be of interest to readers. It was reprinted in the October 21, 1967 edition of The Christian Science Sentinel.

An item in the Methodist Recorder

London, England

Mr. J. B. Priestley, a good many years ago, wrote a humorous essay on Mrs. Beeton, author of the famous books on cookery and household management. He knew nothing at all about Mrs. Beeton, but he imagined her as compiling gorgeous cookery receipts ("Take two dozen eggs") while the unfortunate Mr. Beeton was dining daily on cold scrag of mutton. When the authoritative biography of Mrs. Beeton appeared, it appeared also that she was a handsome young woman who kept an excellent table for her family and friends and was married to a thoroughly contented husband.

It may be said without offence that many of us have conceived a notion of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, which is as far wide of the mark as Mr. Priestley's notion of Mrs. Beeton. We have thought of her, vaguely, as somewhat resembling the transcendentalist ladies of whom Dickens made such wicked fun in "Martin Chuzzlewit." This idea is completely dispelled by a big new book by Robert Peel entitled Mary Baker Eddy, The Years of Discovery....

Mrs. Eddy was, in fact, a normal thoughtful woman—reared in Congregationalism and at one time attracted to Methodism—who possessed in a high degree the gift of what we now call spiritual healing. Finding that she and some of her interested friends had had a series of authentic experiences in this field, she thought herself justified in using the word "science" to describe this method of dealing with disease. Science, after all, rests upon the observation and appreciation of plain facts.

Had Mrs. Eddy pondered and practised a little nearer to our own time, she might not have thought it necessary to found a distinctive "Church of Christ, Scientist." In a sense we are all Christian Scientists today. We all believe that mind, spirit, and faith have a great part to play in the healing of the body, and most of us believe that this observed fact is a strong witness to the uplifting truth that God wills the health and well-being of His whole creation.

Mr. Peel's book may draw many readers to a serious study of Christian Science. It will strongly justify, at all events, the use of the word "Christian" in the title of Mrs. Eddy's Church.

Open the book for inspiration

My method of engaging with the book, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, at present is to simply open it, find something that inspires me to develop further in my thought and add something to the blog about it.

Battles*

Speaking of the battles between science and religion in the 1800s, Peel says “… Christian Science from the start occupied ground in full view of both contending armies” (page xv)—and that strong combo brings healing.

Freedom

The record of Mary Baker Eddy’s life seems to tell us that she spent the first half of it as a prisoner in matter—the universal belief that matter is all.

Considering Mary’s telling references to freedom, one could say that, for 45 years she was imprisoned in the false belief that matter was both the cause of her problems as well as the cure.  Her great discovery dates from 1866 the year after the end of the American Civil War. In Science and Health’s chapter Footsteps of Truth she has written at length about freedom from slavery being gained first by the slaves and then Mary herself. She discovered that all men are free in the Kingdom of God. See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 225:14‒227:29.

Hear this from the last paragraph:

“Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: “Follow me!  Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!”  Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious liberty of the children of God,” and be free!  This is your divine right.”

Dissection of thought

Interesting idea: Mary Baker Eddy had the task of dissecting mortal mind like a student surgeon dissects a cadaver to uncover the process of how the matter body works: the “brain, blood, bones, and other material elements” which Science and Health (p. 475) proclaims do not constitute man.

The surgeon can never dissect mind. It does not exist in matter. Science and Health tells us about anatomy and dissecting thoughts on page 462:20‒463:4.

Resistance

I wonder: Is Christian Science resisted because of its simplicity? Its basic truths are that God is good and God is infinite All, a correlative to “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen. 1: 31 (to 1^st .)). Simple and profound.  So simple a child can demonstrate it through healing; profound, as demonstrated by the very book we are thinking about. 

What a profound thinker Peel was. 

I find that the phrase “simple and profound” has come to me through Science and Health: ““Love one another” (I John, iii.23) is the most simple and profound counsel of the inspired writer” (p. 572: 6-8). The “inspired writer” was the disciple John.)

Profound: Strong, powerful, intense, fierce, deep.(Seems to have to do with emotions, deep feelings of the heart.)Intellectually deep; that enters deeply into subjects, not superficial or obvious to the mind, e.g. profound reasoning

A thinker

Don’t we love the story of a very young Mary saying: “Oh I wish I could but off my thinker.”  We thank God that she never did (page 20).

Etiquette

OH!  What would Mary think of today’s carelessness of speech and lack of etiquette in this fast communication age (see page 41 middle)? She even insisted on the etiquette of Christian Science, along with its morals and Christianity (ibid).

Immortal life now

One of the impressions that slowly came from reading this book is that I had been taking into account the influence of the belief amongst Christians that immortal life will be obtained after death and eternal life will be the reward of living a good Christian life in this earthly existence. I tried to consult the internet on this subject but couldn’t cope with the answers, which were very confusing to this student of Christian Science which teaches that Life is eternal now. 

Joyce Voysey

* Ed. On the topic of battles, Peel wrote the following passage in an article for The Christian Science Journal:

The challenge came in communicating to the world what she was discovering, for the whole entrenched belief of life in matter seemed to concentrate itself in outraged opposition to the message and the messenger. While those who were healed were grateful and even enthusiastic, they all too often took alarm as gradually they realized the demands the new teaching made on them.

MARY BAKER EDDY: DISCOVERER by ROBERT PEEL, From the February 1966 issue of The Christian Science Journal

 

 

 

 

 

A glimpse of 16-year-old Mary Baker

In 1837 Mary Baker was 16 when the an 18-year-old Victoria was crowned Queen of England and announced "I will be good" (p. 64, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery by Robert Peel, 2nd edition). 

That same year, Peel notes that both Mary and her sister Martha "had long sieges of sickness" (p. 57), with Mary resorting to a strict diet of bread and water (p. 58). 

 Additionally, 1837 marked the arrival of a new pastor, Reverend Enoch Corser, at the Northfield Congregational Church in Sanbornton Bridge. This gentleman also served as the local school teacher. His son Bartlett later recalled Mary Baker's "gift of expression", "her superior abilities and scholarship, her depth and independence of thought, and not least, spiritual-mindedness" (p. 65). Mary became a member of the Congregational church the following year, although not without her protest against the doctrine of foreordination (p. 66). 

Meanwhile, Mary's beloved elder brother Albert "was admitted to the Massachusetts bar" in April 1837, but, beset by ill-health, returned to Sanbornton for three or four months for rest and recuperation, a period undoubtedly at least partially spent tutoring his little sister. Some years later, he would write to Mary and Martha "If there is a brother in this world, who is happy in the love of his sisters, it is I. ... I know there is honesty and sincerity in a sister's love. But my joy was saddened, upon reading in your postscript, that Mary's health is again in danger" (p. 82).

Mary's ill-health would continue to be a concern in coming years.

Julie Swannell

Higher education

Readers of this blog who also attend Wednesday meetings at the Christian Science church at Redcliffe may recall my speaking about a dilemma I had been placed in with the announcement that Mary Baker Eddy: the Years of Discovery would be the Book of the Month for August. 

Why was that?  Well.  I was three-quarters of the way through the book at that time.  The dilemma: to stop reading and start again, or finish reading and then start again.  

I finished reading.  However, there were some notes I had written on an end paper which were perhaps ready for comment. So, here we go again – Years of Discovery.  

One impression I was left with on finishing the reading was that I could see I must be grateful for every one of Mary’s early students, even the ones who eventually left her and turned against her. Just so, I can be grateful for those in this era who have been loyal students but have turned against the church. 

Through all of these experiences Mrs Eddy was taught lessons in Christian Science that had to be learned for the development of the Science.  Her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, gives evidence of her having had experience in practically any difficulty a mortal may be faced with. As she said on page one of the textbook, “...I speak from experience” (line 5). 

I find that my original edition of the book is looking almost like new.  It hasn’t had my attention like the third book of Peel’s series, The Years of Authority, which is falling apart.  That volume is such a mighty help for the earnest student. 

Robert Peel graduated from Harvard and taught literature at the august University in Boston. It shows in his books! I reckon we could almost gain a degree in literature by studying all the literary works cited in them, along their authors. 

I suppose one could begin a list! ?  And a list of religions and of places of learning and historical events mentioned. Authors and poets: 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (pages 6, 7, 22)

Lucy Larcom (7, 20, 32)

Lyman Beecher (8)

Pope (9)

John Greenleaf Whittier (10, 43)

Harriet Martineau (10)

Harriet Beecher Stowe (11, 12, 30)

Bacon/Locke/Voltaire/Hume (12)

Jonathan Edwards (13, 14, 21, 29)

Oliver Wendell Holmes (16)

Goethe (17)

Byron (17, 23)

Castlereagh/Talleyrand/ Metternich (17)

Pope/Young/Thomson (18)

Emily Dickinson (20, 39)

Henry Thoreau (21)

Thomas Carlyle (21)

Charles Lyell (21)

Sir Walter Scott (23)

Felicia Hemans (23, 35)

Tom Paine (25)

Herman Melville (26, 27)

Bronson Alcott (37)

Noah Webster (37)

William Wordsworth (38)

Addison & Goldsmith/Milton & Pope/Johnson & Gray (38)

And that is all from Chapter One! The student in me must look them all up. What a blessing that the internet will provide much material to enlighten.                                                             

One might say that Peel was a champion of education – higher education.

Speaking of the battles between science and religion in the 1800s, P eel says “… Christian Science from the start occupied ground in full view of both contending armies” (page xv). And that strong combo brings healing through both religion and science.

Joyce Voysey

Mary's early years

How special are the memories recounted by the adult Mary of her mother Abigail, including the story of the pine knot found in Mr. Gault's woods. Abigail's question: "Would you have God and mother thinking till tomorrow that you have broken His commandment [not to steal]?" must have hit the mark when Mary pleaded tiredness in not wanting to return it to the woods that very afternoon. See page 13, Mary Baker Eddy: the Years of Discovery, 2nd edition, by Robert Peel.

I also enjoyed Abigail's "moral instruction" such as "Forget the past, enjoy the present hope for the future", and "Count that day lost whose setting sun finds no good done" (ibid).

It seems that both Mark and Abigail Baker were readers, and Peel points out that the "village schoolhouse" in New England "produced ... self-reliance in character", "intellect [being] cultivated as assiduously as potatoes" (ibid, p. 10). The young Mary grew up in an atmosphere of wide learning and great love.

Julie Swannell