Signs of the Times

Methodist Recorder

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.

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