
Mary
Baker Eddy
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A Brief Account of Spiritual
Healing by Mrs. Eddy
MARY BAKER
EDDY'S HEALING WORK
"...Let her own
works praise her in the gates." Proverbs
The
following are some of the reports of Mrs. Eddy's
healing work compiled by Arthur F. Fosbery, an
early Christian Scientist.
I
called in Boston on Miss C--, and her mother who
had formerly lived in North Windham, Maine, for
fifty-two years. They told me that Miss C. when
about fifteen years old had a growth in her neck
for four years standing, which was so large that
she could not turn her head without turning her
whole body. The mother had permitted a doctor to
lance the lump at one time, but refused to allow
any other treatment. One day she received a letter
from a friend in Portland, Maine, telling her that
Mrs. Eddy had come there to start a church, and
asking if she would permit our Leader to treat her
daughter. The mother consented, and the growth had
disappeared entirely in about three weeks' time,
leaving no trace, except the scar which the
daughter showed me, where the doctor had lanced it.
Mrs. Eddy treated the case absently, and, so far as
I could gather from what the mother and daughter
told me, gave only one treatment, though they were
not clear on this point.
-------
Nov.
6, 1923. Called with Eugenia M. Fosbery on Miss
Bartlett at 24 Idlewild Ave., a bright, active
woman, who went through class with Mrs. Eddy about
1880 and began teaching herself about 1884. She
talked to us for an hour and a half about Mrs. Eddy
and the early days in Christian Science. She said
Mrs. Eddy told her of a case of healing a baby
which had passed on. The mother brought it to her
and was holding it in her arms and Mrs. Eddy
restored it to life.
-------
Mr.
Tomlinson, on being shown the above wrote to me
that it called his mind a story of a healing told
him directly by Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy was living on
Columbus Avenue. She enjoyed seeing a little babe
who lived on the street opposite. She missed the
smiles of this little one and wondered what had
happened. One morning she noticed the doctors
carriage leaving the home of the child. Mrs. Eddy
went over to the house, spoke with the mother and
asked to see the child. The mother said the child
had passed on - the doctor had so decreed. Mrs.
Eddy went and sat beside the child, realizing the
truth of Being as no one else has since the time of
Jesus, and the child was healed. Instead of
gratitude being expressed by the mother, she took
the child and expressed ugliness towards our
beloved Leader. The child remained
healed.
-------
Another
time Mrs. Eddy was called to heal a little boy of
four years who was dying. They seldom asked
for Christian Science in those days till all other
hope was exhausted. Mrs. Eddy stood at the
foot of the bed and did her work. The boy sat up
and said: I is sick. Mrs. Eddy
talked to him and then took him out of bed and
stood him on his feet on the floor, but he was
still so rebellious that he foamed at the mouth.
Our Leader went on with her work and continued
talking to him. Presently he hung his head and
leaned against Mrs. Eddys knee; then she took
him on her lap and he was healed.
-------
Mrs.
Eddys eldest sister, Abigail Tilton, was very
much opposed to Christian Science, but when her
little daughter lay dying, she called Mrs. Eddy, or
in some way conveyed to her what the situation was,
and permitted her to see the child. Mrs. Eddy asked
her sister to leave the room, and in a short time
healed her niece, got her out of bed and dressed
and then had a romp round the room with the child,
- to get her thought normal, as the
student who told me the story expressed it. Then
the mother came in and saw them playing and said:
It is the work of the devil.
-------
These
three cases above were told Miss Bartlett by Mrs.
Eddy. Miss Bartlett also saw a cripple on two
crutches helped into Hawthorne Hall by two women
and walk out of the hall healed with his crutches
on his shoulder after the service. This was when
Mrs. Eddy was preaching in Hawthorne
Hall.
-------
Miss
Bartlett also told of the time of hearing a very
clear soprano voice ring out when the hymns were
being sung in Hawthorne Hall and of a mother and
daughter going up to Mrs. Eddy after the service
and the mother telling her how her daughter, who
could hardly speak above a whisper, had been healed
at the service and was able to sing clearly and
freely. (This is no doubt the case spoken about by
Sybil Wilbur in her [book: The Life of Mary
Baker Eddy.] A.F.F.).
-------
When
Mrs. Eddy went to Pleasant View, she told them (the
people who were with her there) that she was
receiving revelations every day which she could not
tell them because they could not bear it yet. They
were not ready to take them in.
-------
Miss
Bartlett and Dr. Eddy went through Mrs. Eddy's
first class at 569 Columbus Avenue (afterwards Mrs.
Eddy moved to 571 and Miss Bartlett went to stay
with her there). This was before the charter for
the College was obtained. There were several others
in the class but Miss Bartlett and Dr. Eddy were
the only two who had had previous class instruction
from Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy told them she had to
answer their questions first before she came to
others. They had not asked any questions but Mrs.
Eddy felt their thought. In this class or another
Miss Bartlett had some phase of Science which she
was studying in her mind. Mrs. Eddy started in
asking questions of each member of the class in
turn, - different questions. When she came to Miss
Bartlett, she asked her a question on the subject
she had been studying over. Miss Bartlett then saw
that she had been sounding each one separately on
the query in his own mind as she went through the
class with her questions. ...
-------
During
his last illness in 1882 our Leader raised her
husband, Dr. Asa G. Eddy from the dead two or three
times. After our talk with Miss Bartlett, she wrote
me as follows, "The day Dr. Eddy seemingly left us,
he seemed so much better that I went out with him
on a little car ride which he enjoyed. Mrs. Eddy
had her work for the Cause to attend to, and as
both she and I had been up with him so much nights,
two students insisted on our getting some rest, and
came to take care of Dr. Eddy for that night.
Thereupon we retired, as he was so comfortable. He
sat in his chair, because more restful to him than
the bed; and seemed very peaceful and comfortable,
until finally he had been quiet so long they went
up to him to see if he was asleep - and found he
was gone, but they did not know when it happened,
as there was no sign of anything unusual, and they
supposed him sleeping."
-------
I
was standing at the foot of the second flight of
stairs in 385 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Mrs.
Eddy's old home, when Mrs. --said to me: "It was at
the foot of this staircase that Mrs. Eddy raised
Calvin Frye from the dead. She had called him to
come down stairs and he fell near the bottom and
broke his neck, and was lying so that his head was
twisted under his body. Mrs. Eddy said to him:
Calvin get up, Calvin get up. And the second
or third time she said it, Mr. Frye came to life,
and got up on his feet."
This
I believe was the first time Mrs. Eddy raised
Calvin Frye from the dead, of the three cases I
have heard of. I told a student who had been with
Mrs. Eddy in the early days that I knew Mrs. Eddy
had raised Calvin Frye from the dead on two
occasions. She said, "Oh, more than that;" and then
told me that one time she and Mrs. Eddy were
together on the verandah and Mrs. Eddy sent her
with a message to Mr. Frye. When she reached his
room she called to him but got no answer. Then she
went in and found him on the floor. He must have
been there some time. She lifted his arm and it
fell limp. She felt his hand it was cold. Then she
called Mrs. Eddy, who came very quickly, and came
there and saw his condition and great need. Through
Christian Science treatment she helped him and he
returned to consciousness. Then speaking the truth
to him constantly after about an hour he moved his
head. Then Mrs. Eddy, standing beside him, told him
to rise with her help, which he did, and then she
left him. She then called him to her from time to
time and spoke the truth to him very earnestly
until she found he was quite well.
A
third instance was related to us a few years ago by
Mr. Kinter of Chicago, formerly Mrs. Eddy's
secretary, and was also told by Mrs. Laura E.
Sargent to the students of the College class of
1913.
Mr.
Kinter said that Mrs. Eddy had a different bell for
each one of her helpers. When he went to our
Leader's home, she asked him if he had a warm
dressing gown, and told him that he was likely to
be called at any hour of the day or night to take
dictation. One night she rang for Mr. Frye and got
no answer. She rang a second time, and then called
some one else and sent a message that she wanted
Mr. Frye to come to her. The messenger found that
Calvin Frye was dead. The household was aroused,
but no one had the courage to tell Mrs. Eddy what
was the matter. Our Leader knew, however, that
something serious was wrong, and insisted on being
told what it was. When they informed her that
Calvin Frye had passed on, she said, "Bring him in
here." Then she said: "No, I'll go to
him."
She
went to Calvin Frye's room, where several members
of the household were assembled. Mr. Kinter wrapped
a comforter around her over her dressing-gown and
she stood leaning on her arm for an hour, giving
Mr. Frye an audible treatment; vigorously calling
on him to awaken, while the household stood round
and looked on. One of the things she said to him
was: "Calvin, disappoint your enemies!" At the end
of the hour Calvin Frye had revived, and was
healed. They asked Mrs. Eddy if someone should sit
up with him all night, and she said: "No, I have
protected my treatment."
-------
One
of Bostons early practitioners told me that a
number of years ago he went to Lynn with several
people who had come on to the Annual Meeting. He
was pointing out to one Westerner a very old house,
when an elderly gentleman passing offered to show
them a much older house. This man, a Mr. Green, in
the course of the conversation asked if they had
come on to the Annual Meeting, and being answered
in the affirmative, told them the following
story:
Years
before in Lynn Mrs. Eddy called at his house
looking for a room. His wife said they could not
let her have a room because they had a sick
daughter in the house who was dying of consumption.
Mrs. Eddy went upstairs to the daughter, and he and
his wife could remember nothing that happened after
that till they saw Mrs. Eddy and their daughter
walk in the front door. He and his wife were in a
kind of daze and had not seen them go out. It was a
cold raw day, but the daughter was completely
healed when she returned from the walk.
They
rented a room to Mrs. Eddy, but a neighbor woman
told his wife some tales against our Leader and
said she was a dangerous woman, so Mrs. Green would
not let Mrs. Eddy come. Mrs. Eddy left him Science
and Health, which he put in his book case. Some
time after this Mr. Green was suffering from
nervous prostration, and it occurred to him to read
the book our Leader had left. He read, and woke up
well the next morning. Later he had a running sore
on his arm which had to be dressed daily. One day
he decided to try and heal it by reading the book.
He read and was healed. His wife got an attack of
asthma which went on for some time, to the
disturbance of the whole household. He decided he
would read her well without saying anything to her
about it. He read the book again and she was
completely healed. But his wife and one of his
daughters, not the one who was healed, remained
opposed to Christian Science.
-------
Another
case: Mrs. Eddy was called to treat a girl in Lynn,
who, the doctors said, had only a little piece of
one lung left, and was dying. There were
Spiritualists around and Mrs. Eddy could not reach
her thought at first, so she said to her: Get
up out of that bed, and pulled the pillow
from under the girls head. Then she called to
those in the other room to bring her clothes. The
girl got up and was well; she never even coughed
again. But the mother was offended at Mrs. Eddy and
would not speak to her afterwards because she said
Mrs. Eddy had spoken disrespectfully to her dying
daughter.
-------
Another
time Mrs. Eddy went into a house and saw a woman
weeping in the hallway. The woman said: My
daughter is dying of consumption. The doctor has
just left and he told me he could do nothing for
her. Mrs. Eddy asked if she might go up and
heal the daughter. The mother consented, so Mrs.
Eddy went upstairs into the bedroom. The father,
who knew who Mrs. Eddy was, and was very
antagonistic to her, was standing beside the bed,
but Mrs. Eddy felt that, having the permission of
the mother to heal the girl, it was right for her
to go ahead, so she said to the sick girl:
Get up and come for a walk. The girl
got up and Mrs. Eddy helped her dress and they went
for a walk together. The father followed them,
secretly as he thought, dodging behind trees and
watching round corners, expecting every moment to
see his daughter drop dead. Mrs. Eddy knew he was
following, but that did not interfere with her
demonstration, for when they returned from the walk
the daughter was entirely healed.
-------
In
one of Mrs. Eddy's classes there was a woman who
had a strong sense of resentment and condemnation
towards her husband, who was very immoral. Mrs.
Eddy said to her that Jesus healed the Magdalen by
condemning the sin, not the woman. The lady
answered: "Yes, but I have not the consciousness
that Jesus had." Our Leader instantly rebuked this
by saying that she should claim the
Christ-consciousness, for otherwise she could not
heal a single case of sin or sickness. The
students consciousness was so illumined and
uplifted by what Mrs. Eddy said that her state of
mind changed towards her husband, and when she
returned she found him healed.
-------
One
day when Mrs. R-- was driving with Mrs. Eddy,
Princess, one of the horses, became frightened.
Mrs. R. made the declaration: "Princess, there is
nothing to fear." Mrs. Eddy said: "When I am
driving, I will treat Princess." Then she said:
"You are not afraid, Princess," and the horse
quieted down.
-------
In
Concord there was a woman who had [a mentally
handicapped] boy. Mrs. Eddy's carriage passed
her house every day, and when she saw it coming she
would send her boy to the corner of the fence where
Mrs. Eddy could see him. The boy was healed. Mrs.
Eddy told this to Laura Sargent, and added that
later on she saw this boy walking to church,
wearing gloves.
-------
There
was also, in an asylum that Mrs. Eddy used to drive
past, a mentally deranged man who had a sore on his
leg. Every day when he saw Mrs. Eddy's carriage
coming, he would run to the gate and pull down his
sock so that our Leader would see the sore. This
man was evidently saner on one point than the
average individual. Mrs. S. told us that one day
when she was at Pleasant View, she heard Mrs. Eddy
tell her sister that this man had been healed of
his sore and of his insanity.
-------
On
March 4, 1927, Mr. Irving C. Tomlinson wrote me:
"You may be interested in this healing which I can
testify is absolutely correct. There was a woman in
Concord, N.H. who had an appointment for treatment
with me in Christian Science Hall, Concord, where I
was then living. Her claim was such that it was
very difficult for her to walk up the four or five
steps leading to Christian Science Hall. News had
come that Mrs. Eddy was passing the hall that
afternoon so that patient was told that our Leader
would pass by the hall at a certain time and it was
the patient's privilege to see Mrs. Eddy as she
rode by. She arrived just in time to see Mrs. Eddy.
Mrs. Eddy smiled at her and greeted her. The woman
entered the hall afterwards having no difficulty
walking up the steps and saying, 'I do not need
treatment, I am well.' The practitioner smilingly
said, 'This is the way I lose my
patients.'"
Miss
Elizabeth Earl Jones was present at Christian
Science Hall when this healing took place, and gave
me an account of it a few years ago
(A.F.F.).
-------
Mrs.
S. told of a child that was dead being placed in
Mrs. Eddy's arms. Mrs. Eddy took it to her room and
in about ten minutes stood it on the floor and
opened the door for it to go to its mother. The
child walked through the door, and the mother
seeing it alive and walking for the first time (for
the child had never walked before), screamed, and
the child sat down. Mrs. Eddy, in telling the
story, said: "I saw I had another patient on my
hands."
-------
Another
of Mrs. Eddy's students told me that one time a
mother brought her dead baby to Mrs. Eddy and
placed it in her lap. Our Leader asked her to come
back in an hour, and began to treat the child. She
realized that Life was Love, and that Love was
right there, and Love was Life, and kept realizing
this more clearly; after a while she felt something
moving on her lap, (she had forgotten the baby).
She looked down, and saw the child smiling at her,
and kicking its feet.
-------
At
the time the Church in Concord, N.H. was being
erected, Mrs. Sweet went into the building and
slipped on a board or something, and hurt herself.
Some of the workers at Pleasant View tried to help
her, but without much success. Mrs. Eddy asked them
what was the matter with Mrs. Sweet. They answered
that she was all right. Our Leader said: "But she
is not all right." She then asked Mrs. Sweet what
the trouble was, and the latter replied that it was
all right, it was being met. Mrs. Eddy said: "It is
not being met." Then our Leader asked her how she
was working and Mrs. Sweet answered that she was
knowing there there were no accidents in Mind. Mrs.
Eddy replied: "That would not heal you. You were
brought here to help me; you are one of my best
workers," and pointed out to her that the trouble
was only an argument to interfere with her
usefulness to Mrs. Eddy. By the time our Leader
finished talking to her, Mrs. Sweet was
healed.
It
was in this conversation that Mrs. Eddy said to
Mrs. Sweet: "I will say for your comfort that if
you were brought here with every bone in your body
broken, you would respond to my
treatment."
-------
Mr.
G-- of Boston told me that his wife's eldest
brother had a rupture which he had seen, and which
was so bad that a man could not stand on his feet
with it, and that he always had to wear a truss for
support, This man went to the original Mother
Church to one of the meetings at which Mrs. Eddy
spoke, and was healed during the
service.
-------
Mrs.
Laura E. Sargent told the following story to the
class she taught in the Metaphysical College: Mrs.
Eddy, in one of her homes had two canaries, named
Benny and May. One day someone moved a chair
against one of the birds, May, which was on the
floor and broke its leg, so that it was held
together just by a piece of skin. The bird was in
its cage, and shortly afterwards a visitor came in.
The other bird, Benny, kept flying between the cage
and the visitor, and chattering to attract her
attention, and when she asked our Leader what was
the matter with the bird, Mrs. Eddy told her to
look into the cage. She did so and exclaimed: "Why
this bird's leg is broken." Our Leader asked her to
come back in three days, and when the lady returned
three days later she found the bird's leg was
perfectly healed, and little May was hopping about
on her perch.
-------
Another
of Mrs. Eddy's students told me that one time she
had a physical trouble, which did not show. She
went to call on our Leader, but did not mention the
trouble. Mrs. Eddy however at once detected the
error in her thought, spoke about it, and denied
it, and the student was practically healed right
there.
-------
One
of the students ... told us that Mrs. Eddy asked
each member of the class in turn this question:
"How will you heal most quickly?" They gave
wonderful answers and told of splendid
demonstrations of instantaneous healing, and the
student did not see how anything more could be said
on the subject of quick healing. When they had all
replied to the question, Mrs. Eddy thanked them and
said their answers were good, but that not one had
given the correct answer to her question. Then she
said: "It is, when you know and feel
that God is Love."
-------
The
next case came to me through a student of Mrs.
Eddy's who heard it from a milliner in Concord,
N.H. The milliner said that she had been confined
to her room with consumption, and was sitting all
wrapped up at the window one day when Mrs. Eddy's
carriage passed. Our Leader looked up at her, and
the milliner thought to herself, What is it that
woman has which I have not? She arose from her
chair, hunted up her clothes, dressed herself, and
went to the Reading Room and asked them questions
about Christian Science. She then went home and
prepared her husband's dinner. When he came in, he
thought his wife was out of her mind, and it took
her a few days to convince him that she was all
right. This woman was thoroughly healed, and never
coughed again after Mrs. Eddy looked at her that
day.
-------
Three
students to whom Mrs. Eddy told the following story
recounted it to me. One time Mrs. Eddy was called
to see a sick child. A girl of about fifteen opened
the door for her and she had to pass through a room
in which the father was in bed with consumption, to
get to the room where the child and its mother
were. The child was so thin that its bones were
sticking out. The mother went out of the room, and
Mrs. Eddy healed the baby in about fifteen minutes,
"so that its cheeks stuck out like rosy apples."
(to quote our Leader's own words). When the mother
came to the door, the child called lustily: "Mamma!
Mamma!" The woman exclaimed: "Have I gone mad!"
Then Mrs. Eddy went into the other room with her
and saw the father sitting on the side of his bed,
healed of his consumption; and learned that the
girl of fifteen who opened the door for her, had
been healed of deafness. These three healings were
all made in the space of about fifteen minutes.
Later, I was told that Mrs. Eddy turned away from
the sick child and looking out of the window said:
"This is not right; it is not Love, and God is
Love," and that when she looked around at the child
it was healed.
-------
One
of Mrs. Eddy's students told me that Mrs. W. was in
the same class which she attended, and one day
asked permission to tell the story of a healing of
our Leader's which she witnessed. Our Leader gave
her permission, and the following is the account:
Mrs. W. went with Mrs. Eddy to a furniture shop to
help her select some chairs. The clerk who waited
on them was wearing a bandage over one eye. Mrs.
Eddy seemed absorbed in thought while they were
being shown the chairs, and paid very little
attention to them, and when pressed as to which she
like best, said, "Any that we can sit on." Mrs. W.
was annoyed at Mrs. Eddy's seeming indifference,
and told the clerk that they would come back the
next day and give their decision about the chairs.
They were in an upstairs room of the shop, with two
doors opening out, one onto the stairway and the
other onto a chute for sliding boxes down to the
sidewalk. Mrs. Eddy opened one door and went down
stairs. Mrs. W. in her perturbation opened the
other door, stepped onto the box chute, and slid
down to the sidewalk, where Mrs. Eddy arrived in
time to see her picking herself up. Mrs. W.
reproached our Leader with her lack of attention to
the business in hand, and Mrs. Eddy replied: "Could
I think of chairs when the man was suffering?" When
Mrs. W. went the next day to see about the chairs,
the clerk said: "Who was that lady with you
yesterday? I had an abscess on my eye, and when she
went out, I took the bandage off, and there was not
a sign of it left."
-------
The
next case of healing is very brief, but very
beautiful. Mrs. Eddy drove down a street and passed
a crippled newsboy, who was on the sidewalk. The
boy crawled into an alleyway, or doorway, and
slept, and when he woke, he was completely healed
of his deformity. He explained his healing by
saying: "The lady smiled at me." Mr. McLeod told me
that the same or similar case was told in the
St. Louis Globe Democrat some twenty-five or
more years ago.
-------
The
following two accounts are found in an article by
Judge Hanna in the New Hampshire Granite
Monthly of October 1896:
"About
the year 1870, before Mr. Charles Slade's door in
Chelsea, Mass., there stopped an emaciated,
pale-faced cripple, strapped to crutches. His
elbows were stiff, and lower limbs so contracted
his feet touched not the ground. Mrs. Eddy was
there, and gave him some scrip.
"A
few weeks thereafter, sitting in her carriage, Mrs.
Slade noticed a smart-looking man, having that same
face, vending some wares on the grounds where
General Butler held parade. She drove to where he
stood. Their gaze met, and simultaneously they
exclaimed: 'Are you that man?' and 'Where is that
woman?' Then followed the explanation, he narrating
that after leaving her house he hobbled to the next
door, and was given permission to enter and lie
down. In about an hour he revived and found his
arms and limbs loosed, - he could stand erect and
walk naturally. All pain, stiffness, and
contraction were gone, and he added, 'I am now a
well man, and I am that man.'
"Mrs.
Slade then answered his question as to 'that'
woman, and afterwards narrated to Mrs. Eddy the
circumstances connected with his recovery, but not
until she had inquired of her, If she thought that
terrible-looking cripple, whom they both saw, was
healed? To which Mrs. Eddy quickly answered, 'I do
believe that he was restored to health.' Later on
being asked by her students as to how she healed
him, Mrs. Eddy simply said, - 'When I looked on
that man, my heart gushed with unspeakable pity and
prayer. After that, he passed out of my thought
until being informed by Mrs. Slade of his sudden
restoration.'
"About
the year 1867, as Mrs. Eddy sat alone in her quiet
occupation in an outside room opening on a garden
and porch, the door was suddenly burst open, and an
escaped maniac dashed into the room. Her quiet,
truthful gaze momentarily met his wild glare; then
he fiercely seized a chair to hurl at her head. She
spoke to him; he dropped the chair, approached her
and pointing upward, exclaimed: 'Are you from
there?' The next moment he was kneeling before her
with his head pressed hard into his hands. She
uttered not a word; but those of our readers who
are Christian Scientists can apprehend a little of
her inspiration at that moment. Soon the poor
maniac gave a deep groan, then he looked up into
her face with a new wildness -the astonishment of
sanity - and breathed out, 'that terrible weight
has gone off the top of my head.'
"Yes,
she answered figuratively,' I have anointed you
with the oil of gladness.' He left the house
clothed in his right mind. Several years afterwards
this man returned to thank Mrs. Eddy for his
healing."
-------
In
the early days it was hard for Mrs. Eddy to find
patients to treat; and one day she went out on the
street to see if she could find some one to heal.
She saw the doctor's gig tied in front of a house,
and when he had come out and driven away, Mrs. Eddy
crossed the street and rang the doorbell of the
house out of which the doctor had come. A
tear-stained woman opened the door, and Mrs. Eddy
asked if anyone was sick in this house. The lady
said that her daughter had just died. Mrs. Eddy
asked if she could go in and see the daughter. The
woman at first demurred, but finally let her go in
where the body lay. In a little while the mother
heard voices and looking into the room she saw her
daughter sitting up in bed, and talking with Mrs.
Eddy.
Mrs.
Eddy said that "a wordless flood of life filled her
consciousness," and the girl was raised from the
dead. Mrs. Eddy asked the mother to bring the
daughter's clothes, and the amazed mother asked
why. Our Leader answered that she wanted to take
the girl out for a walk. The mother said: "You
don't know what you are asking. My daughter has
been ill with consumption for months, and she could
not go out." Mrs. Eddy reassured the mother and
told her that no harm could come to her daughter
through anything Mrs. Eddy should do, and finally
the mother brought the girl's clothes. Mrs. Eddy
then took the girl out and walked her up and down
for about half an hour, the mother and father
following behind to see what was being done. The
girl's color came back and she was not only alive,
but healed of the disease! When they got back to
the house, the mother took off her diamond ring and
gave it to Mrs. Eddy, and this ring our Leader
always wore.
-------
The
two following paragraphs are from The Christian
Science Monitor of May 11, 1914:
"There
are authentic witnesses, however, of the healing
work of Mrs. Eddy in those days. One of them was a
Mrs. Mosher, a lifelong friend of one of the
Christian Scientists now at work in Lynn. When the
latter was healed in Christian Science, Mrs.
Mosher, returning from the West, sought out her
friend expressly to tell her this story, and said
she could make an affidavit that this is what she
saw. She had not told it to her friend sooner
because she was ashamed of having tried the new
kind of healing.
"Several
years before this she went to the office where Mrs.
Eddy and a student were at work, and was treated by
the student. She saw there a girl afflicted with
dumbness whom the student had not been able to
heal. At last he asked Mrs. Eddy to help. Mrs.
Mosher was present when Mrs. Eddy walked up to the
dumb girl and said: 'God did not send this upon
you. You can speak. In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, I command you to speak!' The girl shrank
back and cried out, 'I can't, and I won't!' and
fled out of the room. But she was able to speak
ever after. The Scientist who tells this had
already heard a different version of the case from
others, who said that Mrs. Eddy threatened the girl
in some way. Possibly such was the impression made
upon the girl, under stress of the mighty,
redeeming word of spiritual authority. Mrs. Mosher,
not knowing that her friend had heard the story,
volunteered this account of the occurrence. She
herself had received little benefit from treatment
by the student, and never accepted Christian
Science. This student was one of those who
afterwards withdrew from the work. He persisted in
using methods which Mrs. Eddy did not approve, and
could not perceive either her power of spiritual
understanding nor her right to correct their
mistaken notions. The world was slow to accept her
restatement of the radical position of Jesus, and
the purely spiritual means of healing, looking to
God for help, not to matter nor to human
intelligence, when he said, 'These signs shall
follow them that believe.'"
-------
In
front of Mrs. Eddy's home a good many years ago,
out on the highway, a man was one day run over by a
very heavily laden wagon from which he had fallen,
the wheels passing across his body. The teamster
was thought dead, and the body was brought into her
home and laid on the floor. Mrs. Eddy was upstairs
at the time and they besought her to come down. My
remembrance is that she hesitated at first but
finally came down, and looking away from the body,
began to declare the truth, and had such a
wonderful sense of mental uplift that she became
entirely oblivious of her surroundings. After
spending some moments in this spiritual
contemplation of Truth, she suddenly came to
herself and found that the man had arisen, and
passing his hand over his eyes in a somewhat dazed
way, said: "Why I thought I was hurt, but I am all
right."
-------
In
Pulpit and Press we are told how Mrs. Eddy
pointed to some large elm trees on her grounds in
Concord, and said: "My faith has the strength to
nourish trees as well as souls." "Look at those big
elms! I had them brought here in warm weather,
almost as big as they are now, and not one
died."
-------
Mrs.
Eddy met casually a woman who had a son afflicted
with epileptic fits. The son was not present when
Mrs. Eddy met the mother, and Mr. Hulin thought
Mrs. Eddy did not know of the case at all. But Mrs.
Eddy turned to the mother and said: "You never had
a tyrannical father whom you were afraid of" - and
the son was instantaneously healed of the epilepsy
when Mrs. Eddy uncovered and destroyed the latent
fear in the mother's thought of her father, which
had made her a nervous girl; and her child was very
nervous when it was born, developing into
epilepsy.
-------
Mrs.
Eddy was called to treat a child; and when she
arrived and saw the child and its mother, she paid
no attention to the disease or manifestation of
discord which the child was showing, but turned to
the mother and said: "You fell before this child
was born." The mother answered: "No, Mrs. Eddy, I
never fell when I was carrying this child." But
Mrs. Eddy declared: "There is no effect from
prenatal shock or fear," and the child immediately
was healed of a condition very remote seemingly
from an effect of a fall. Then the mother said:
"Yes, I do remember now that a few days before this
child was born, I fell down two steps, but I had
forgotten it."
-------
When
Mrs. Eddy was a young woman, she started a primary
school, and among her pupils was a very bad boy who
had caused his parents and his playmates continual
trouble and apprehension. Mrs. Eddy dealt patiently
with him, but seemingly to no avail at first.
Finally, one day she required him to remain after
school until the other children had gone home; then
she began to talk with this boy, not upbraiding
him, but telling him about the love of God for him,
and also praying for him. When the boy reached home
that night, his whole nature had undergone an utter
transformation through this transmitting touch of
divine Love, as expressed to him through his
teacher. His parents were astonished and spoke to
her later about it, saying that the hateful
disposition which he had formerly shown had been
entirely dispelled, and he was now gentle and
loving and obedient. The boy had also manifested a
great interest in the Bible, and seemed to love to
read it, while his reverence and affection for his
teacher were unbounded.
-------
In
one of Mrs. Eddy's classes an elderly clergyman had
a partial belief of blindness, and asked our Leader
if it could be cured. She answered: "Yes, if you
only touch the hem of His garment," and the man was
later healed during class.
-------
It
was reported to Mrs. Eddy one day that her milkman
had said that he had no water for his cattle. The
church building needed dry weather and there had
been no rain in Boston for several weeks. When Mrs.
Eddy heard this report of the shortage of water she
prayed in effect, that the urgency of the occasion
might not tempt her to sin. Next day the man
reported that he had water in his well and asked if
they were prophets or witches in that
house.
-------
Mrs.
Eddy's maid was working in the room where Mrs. Eddy
was and all of a sudden it got very dark and it
surprised her so much that she looked out of the
window back of Mrs. Eddy and saw a most terrible
storm. There were black clouds shaped like funnels
rolling around and coming straight towards Mrs.
Eddy's home. She had never seen anything like it.
Then she went out of the room about her work and
when she came back in a short time afterwards, Mrs.
Eddy said to her: "Have you looked out of the
window?" No, she had not; but she did and there was
all sunshine and clear sky. The storm had
disappeared.
-------
A
well-known actor was healed physically in Science
and his testimony appeared in the Journal.
Afterwards, one day he was walking along a street
in Concord with a big cigar in his mouth. Mrs. Eddy
passed in her carriage and looked at him. He took
the cigar out of his mouth and threw it away, and
was healed of the desire to smoke right
there.
-------
One
day one of the workers in our Leader's home found
the cook unfit for duty, so [she] cooked
the meal herself. The range was large and very hot
to work over. After she had finished cooking the
meal the worker went upstairs, opened a window and
stood in the breeze to cool off. Mrs. Eddy, who was
sitting in another room, called her in and pointing
a chair in the middle of the room, said; "Sit down
on that chair and make your demonstration." She sat
down and worked and felt that our Leader's thought
helped her. The claim of being overheated was soon
met and had never returned. That is, the worker
says she has never been troubled by heat
since.
-------
One
of our Leader's students who had been with her in
early days, wrote: "Often there were healings of
people who came to Pleasant View, whom we met while
driving when they were watching for her in the
street."
-------
One
day as Mrs. Eddy was going out for her afternoon
drive, a tall gaunt man, who appeared far gone in
consumption, came up to her gate, held out his hand
to her and shouted: "Help me." Mrs. Eddy said a few
words to him out of the carriage window, talked to
him for about two minutes and then drove out of the
gate. On her return she remarked: "What a need that
man had." Next day they received a letter from the
man telling Mrs. Eddy that he was conscious that he
had been healed as soon as the carriage drove
on.
-------
One
day a gentleman came to Pleasant View to see Mrs.
Eddy. Our Leader was very busy and he was told he
could not see her but that it might be arranged
later. He was very despondent and looked as if
there might not be any "later."
Mrs.
Eddy drove into town and stopped at the C.S. Hall
and Mr. Calvin Frye went in with a letter leaving
the carriage door open. A gentleman was standing in
front of the Hall, the same man who earlier in the
day had wanted to see our Leader. This man stepped
into the carriage, took off his hat and said: "Mrs.
Eddy." Our Leader answered: "Yes." "May I ask you a
question?" he said, and she answered: "Certainly."
Then he said: "Can you tell me about God, who He
is, what He is, where is He?" Mrs. Eddy told him
God was his Mind, his Life, and continued talking
to him and teaching him what God was until Mr. Frye
came back. They had been talking just three
minutes. Then the man looked at the clock which
they both could see, and said: "I have learned more
in these three minutes about God than in all the
rest of my life." He raised his hat and said
good-bye as the carriage drove off. Mrs. Eddy
afterwards told her student that she saw he was
suffering from jaundice and that as she talked to
him she saw the unhealthy dark yellow color fade
from his face like the shadow of a cloud vanishing
away and his face became perfectly normal. She
added: "He was healed but he did not recognize it
while we were talking." Next day the man wrote that
he was completely healed and had taken a train home
that night.
-------
There
was a friend staying with friends at Concord, N.H.
and one day Mrs. Eddy called to see these friends
who told her that a lady was ill in their house
with diphtheria. When Mrs. Eddy heard it she said:
"Tell her to have no fear whatever as God is taking
care of her and Mother was praying for her." After
she left the house the message was given to her
immediately and in a few minutes all the bad
conditions were removed and the student could
breathe freely, and next morning rose in perfect
health, with heartfelt gratitude to God and to the
dear Leader whose demonstration it was.
-------
One
time there was a state fair held at the back of
Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy's home, and there was a
man who dived from a high place into some water.
Mrs. Eddy with Judge and Mrs. Ewing in the carriage
drove down to see him dive, and he came up
afterwards to speak to her and she took him into
the drawing-room and began to talk to him about her
hearing voices when a child, and Miss S. wondered
why she did this. Then Mrs. Eddy went on to speak
about fear, and said. "You are able to dive because
you have overcome fear." He said, Yes, he had no
fear whatever, he had practised for a long time
taking a higher and higher dive till he could do it
without fear. Then Mrs. Eddy said: "Use that
overcoming of fear on your eyes." The man had dark
glasses on and said: "Well, I damaged one eye so
that the eyeball had to be taken out, and that is
why I wear glasses, because the eye is unpleasant
to look at." The cabman who took this man to the
station told afterwards that when the man got to
the station he took off his glasses, and his eye
was completely restored, so that both eyes were the
same. (I heard from another source that Mrs. Eddy
once told her class that she had healed a man of
blindness whose eyeballs were gone and had restored
his sight at the same time. Someone in the class
asked why, if sight was mental she needed to
restore his eyeballs, and she pointed out that if
he had gone around telling people he could see
things when he did not have any eyes to see with,
they would have thought he was crazy, and would
have shut him up).
-------
One
day Mrs. Eddy passed a hunchback who was all bent
over. He was selling matches. She leaned over and
said to him: "God made you upright," and walked
round the corner. He looked after her and found
himself up straight; then he ran up the steps of a
house near and said: "An angel told me God made me
upright. I am the man who sells matches across the
street." The woman told him that the only person
she knew of who could have healed in that way was
Mrs. Glover [Mrs. Eddy].
-------
Mrs.
Lathrop was healed of many things but not of heart
disease which she had not mentioned to her
practitioner. She went to New York and some one
from there told Mrs. Eddy that Mrs. Lathrop was
having great trouble from heart disease. Our Leader
invited Mrs. Lathrop to visit her for a week. After
dinner the first night Mrs. Eddy ran upstairs very
lightly and Mrs. Lathrop followed her running
faster than she had done for a long time. Just as
she got to the top she collapsed with a very bad
attack of heart trouble. Mrs. Eddy turned round and
rebuked the error. She seemed to Mrs. Lathrop to
grow very tall, as if her head touched the ceiling,
and to express the embodiment of power as she did
so, ...and Mrs. Lathrop was healed.
[For
more information on this healing, see the
Christian Science Sentinel, Dec. 24, 1904,
p.259]
-------
"It
was the year 1897, on the 4th of July, that Mrs.
Eddy invited her church to her home in Concord, New
Hampshire. She sent a telegram to a student here,
telling him to come and bring his friends, and I
was invited to go. I went with my sister and my two
children.
"When
we were getting ready to start, we discovered that
my little daughter, seven years old, had a boil on
the crown of her head. Her hair was heavy and
curly, and the boil was very much
inflamed.
After
we got on the train, she would not allow me to comb
her hair. The confusion, the heat and the crowded
car made it difficult to work mentally, and her
hair really went uncombed until we got to Concord.
I did not try to comb it that night, because she
cried so bitterly, but sister and I put her to bed
and we sat down to do our mental work on the
matter. The next morning we were to go out to Mrs.
Eddy's home. The boil by this time looked like a
small end of an egg. It stood up pointedly from her
head and was more inflamed than before.
"We
took the scissors and cut the hair from around the
boil. Then I washed her hair and combed it, my
sister working for her mentally all the while, and
I holding to the truth as best I could while I
worked. The whole thing was a most trying ordeal,
and It was only through showers of tears that we
finally got her ready to go. She had a little light
straw hat with a wreath of daisies on it. She did
not want to put it on, because she said it hurt her
head.
"Mrs.
Eddy and a number of others spoke to us. When the
speaking was over, Mrs. Eddy sat upon the porch as
the people passed through the carriage-way,
greeting her as they passed. When my two children,
a boy [nine years old] and this little girl
[seven years old], got in front of her,
they stopped the whole procession, and stood
looking up into her face with a most joyous smile.
She looked at them and then looked at me, then she
looked back again and threw a kiss to each of them,
and somebody told them to pass along. I followed
them.
"I
wish I could make the world know what I saw when
she looked at those children. It was a revelation
to me. I saw, for the first time, the real mother,
Love, and I knew that I did not have it. I had a
strange, agonized sense of being absolutely cut off
from my children. It is impossible to put into
words what the uncovering of my own lack of
mother-love meant to me.
"As
I turned in the procession and walked toward the
line of trees in the front yard, there was a bird
sitting on the limb of a tree, and I saw the same
Love, poured out on that bird, that I had seen flow
from Mrs. Eddy to my children. I looked down at the
grass and the flowers and there was the same Love
resting on them. It is difficult for me to put into
words what I saw. This Love was everywhere, like
the light, but it was divine, not mere human
affection.
"I
looked at the people milling around on the lawn and
I saw it poured out on them. I thought of the
various discords in this field, and I saw, for the
first time, the absolute unreality of everything
but this infinite Love. It was not only everywhere
present, like the light, but it was an intelligent
presence that spoke to me and I found myself
weeping as I walked back and forth under the trees,
and saying out loud 'Why did I never know you
before, Why have I not known you
always?'
I
don't know how long it was until my boy came to me
and said: 'Come, mother, they are going home.' I
got into the carriage and drove back to the hotel,
but that same conscious intelligence and Love was
everywhere. It rested upon everything my thought
rested on.
"When
we got to the hotel, there was no boil on my
child's head. It was just as flat as the back of
her hand. Afterwards the hair, for about two inches
around where the boil had been, came out. She was
totally bald on the crown of her head, but the hair
grew back as naturally as if it had never been
out.
"I
know that this revelation of divine Love came to me
by reflection from Mrs. Eddy, and for weeks it had
a strange effect on me. I could not bear to hear
anyone speak in a cross ill-tempered tone, or do
anything that would cause pain. We had two little
pet dogs that belonged to the children. They would
sometimes get on the beds, and I kept a little
riding whip on the mantel in the upper hall which
was used to punish them if they were on the beds.
This I could no longer bear. I wondered how I ever
could have been so cruel.
"Each
time I saw Mrs. Eddy, I had a wonderful revelation
of God. I know she was no ordinary woman. God had
anointed her with the oil of gladness above her
fellows, for she loved righteousness and hated
iniquity. Heb. 1: 9."
-------
The
healing of the hunchback was after this fashion: It
was when Mrs. Eddy was living in Lynn and one rainy
day someone was sent to her from a distance in the
city and asked her to come to visit a lady who was
dying with consumption, and she said she
would.
She
took a cab at the doorway and went to this person,
and on the way when near her destination, saw a
hunchback in the street and the carriage passed
very close to him; and as it passed him, one wheel
went down into a rut and splashed him all over with
water. He Immediately became angry, but she leaned
out of the carriage and said to him, 'Little man,
God loves you,' and went on her way a few hundred
feet. The young fellow watched her.
She
went into the house, stayed about half an hour,
healed her patient, and as she came out, there was
a tall young man standing at the curbstone, and he
went to her and said, "'Are you the lady that told
me God loved me?" She looked at him closely, and he
said, "Look at me, how I have straightened up," and
expressed gratitude.
-------
"Dear
Leader: - I had an uncle by marriage who was a
helpless cripple and who was deformed. All his
limbs were withered, and on very pleasant mornings
a special policeman would wheel him out on Boston
Common in his wheelchair. One morning a number of
years ago, he sat there in his wheelchair as you
were passing through the Common, and you stopped
and spoke to him, telling him that man is God's
perfect child, and a few other words. Later, after
you had left him, he declared you had helped him.
The next morning he looked and looked for you in
the same place, and morning after morning continued
to do so, until one day you came. Again you
repeated to him what you had said before, and this
time he was healed and made perfect - every whit
whole; and after that he was able to go into
business for himself and provide his own living. No
doubt you will remember the whole circumstance. His
bones had hardened so that when sitting or lying
down his knees were drawn up and rigid, his brother
having to carry him up and down stairs, and feed
him and care for him all the time; but after he was
healed through your spoken word, he was able to be
active as other men and earned his own living; and
whereas before he could not even brush a fly from
his face, he regained the use of his hands, and
became more than an ordinary penman.
"It
was you, dear Leader, who spoke to him of the
healing Christ and set him free, when you met him
so long ago on Boston Common, and many times I have
desired to tell you about it, and to express to you
my gratitude for the many benefits I have also
received from Christian Science. Words can never
express it."
-------
A
case of healing given by Mrs. C.C. Allen of Los
Angeles, which appeared over the signature of
Irving C. Tomlinson in the 23rd volume of the
Journal, page 572:
"Two
years ago I had a man come to my house to repair
some window-shades in my parlor. When he had
finished his work I asked him to come to my study.
I left him in my room for a time, and when I
returned he said: 'I see that you are a Christian
Scientist,' because he saw my literature in the
room. Then he said, 'I was healed by the Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Mary Baker
Eddy.' I said, 'I want you to tell me all about
it.' Then he gave me these facts: 'About eighteen
years ago, while living in Boston, I fell from the
third story of a building on which I was working,
to the pavement. My leg was broken in three places.
I was taken to a hospital, where they tried to help
me. They said that the leg was so bad that it would
have to be amputated. I said, 'No, I would rather
die.' They permitted it to heal as best it might,
and as a result I had to wear an iron shoe eight or
nine inches high. I was called to Mrs. Eddy's home
on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, to do some light
work. Mrs. Eddy came into the room where I was
busy, and observing my condition, kindly remarked,
'I suppose you expect to get out of this some
time.' I answered 'No, all that can be done for me
has been done, and I can now manage to get around
with a cane.' Mrs. Eddy said, 'Sit down and I will
treat you.' When she finished the treatment she
said, 'You go home and take off that iron shoe, and
give your leg a chance to straighten out.' I went
home and did as I was told, and now I am so well
that, so far as I know, one leg is as good as the
other."
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