Spiritual Perspectives
A Woman and Her Book

By Sandy Webb
Special to The Independent

“How did you do it? Why don’t you write it in a book, publish it and give it to the world?” an experienced physician, Dr. Davis, asked Mary Baker Eddy after she had healed Mrs. Gale, a Manchester, Mass. woman who had been dying of pneumonia. Mrs. Eddy went home, opened the Bible that had been her constant companion through her life, and her eyes fell upon these words from Jeremiah: “Write all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.”

This wasn’t the first healing Mary had accomplished through prayer alone. Even as a child she had healed small animals on her family farm; as a natural outpouring of love there had also been healings of severe headaches and wounds along the way. Her parents had grounded Mary with a deep faith in and study of the Bible, yet Mary herself had remained an invalid for most of her life. She had even lost custody of her five-year-old son because friends and family were convinced she was unable to care for him.

What she later described as a “falling apple” experience brought a focused answer to her lifelong quest for healing. Pronounced near death herself, after a fall on the ice which caused internal injuries “of a very serious nature, inducing spasms and intense suffering” (Lynn Reporter, Feb.3, 1866), Mary called for her Bible. She read the account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man (Luke), then got up and joined her formerly mourning but now astonished friends in the next room. She was healed, but she couldn’t explain it.

Thus began three-years of intense personal research and reflection on the Bible. She began healing others based on the revelations that came to her during this time about the spiritual nature of man (the male and female of Genesis 1:27) as the image of God. She reasoned that the healings Christ Jesus accomplished were the result of his understanding of God, man and the divine laws that govern all things. She reasoned that he understood the all powerful, everpresent God, Spirit, creates only good as stated in Genesis 1, and that our spiritual nature as children of God trumps any claim that evil could make against the creation of that omnipotent and omnipresent goodness. She began to prove, by healing, that it is possible to experience our spiritual nature as children of omnipotent goodness and Love.

The aforementioned Mrs. Gale heard of these healings, sent Mrs. Eddy a telegram asking for help, and found release from the grip of pneumonia. And Mary began to write Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures.
As we begin Women’s History Month in March, this article celebrates the courage and accomplishments of a woman who, at a time when women couldn’t even vote, claimed her right to interpret the Bible on her own and proved that spirituality is real, tangible and can profoundly affect every aspect of our lives. She felt compelled to share these freeing ideas and to challenge the citizens of the world to accept their divine rights to the “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans).

Mary Baker Eddy went on to teach others how to heal using scientific prayer, and to found a worldwide church devoted to understanding our spiritual nature as children created in God’s image. The Christian Science Monitor, a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper, was also the result of Mrs. Eddy’s desire to bring the power of prayer to bear on solving the problems of the world.

Over the past hundred years the Christian Science Sentinel and Journal she founded have published verified weekly testimonies of healing based on the ideas in the Bible and Science and Health. Many of these testimonies include the healings of medically diagnosed terminal cases.

The book Mary Baker Eddy gave to the world includes one hundred pages of testimonies by people who were healed just by reading it!

“The time for thinkers has come.” (Science and Health)
Sandy Webb is part of the Christian Science Group of Gallup. For more information on spirituality and healing, check out www.spirituality.com. Call 722-0357 for information about local Christian Science meetings.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues.

For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.