Let Him do the work

 On page 129 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes of the "reformatory mission" of [divine] Science. This aligns with a sentiment pronounced publicly by Mary M. B. Glover (as she was at that time known) in the Lynn Transcript of January 20, 1872:

"Well knowing as I do that God hath bidden me, I shall steadfastly adhere to my purpose to benefit my suffering fellow beings, even though it be amid the most malignant misrepresentation and persecution" (p. 99 Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck).

A beautiful example of this beautiful purpose on page 83 (ibid). The date was 1868. A "raving maniac" had escaped from a "mad-house" and had threatened her with a chair. She "looked upward", whereupon "he dropped the chair, and asked if [she] had something to say to him". The account continues:

"I said I had, all from the spiritual side, 'The first thing is you have no disease of the brain; you need never have been in the insane hospital.' Then came the comfort and relief, and the poor maniac fell on his knees before me; he was cured" (ibid, p. 83-84). Readers here will enjoy reading the paragraphs that follow this account, where Eddy speaks of the "anointing of Truth like the dew or the gentle rain, coming upon that poor, agonized brain" (p. 84).

Mrs. Eddy never claimed those healing works as being the result of her own ability. Indeed, when asked "if she could restore the blind--She replied no, but God could, if we would let Him do the work" (p. 109).

This is much to ponder from this book.

Julie Swannell