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