Editorial March 14, 1994 Issue

Marriage and the Comforter

Richard C. Bergenheim

It was inevitable that the Comforter, promised by Jesus, would speak to the subject of marriage, for despite the great promise of joy that marriage holds, many find it the source of the greatest misery in their lives. Mrs. Eddy's own life unfortunately illustrated the range of grief that can follow in its wake. Her first husband, George Glover, died suddenly of yellow fever during their first year of marriage while she was pregnant. Ill herself, grief-stricken, and with no means of her own, she returned to her father's home. She was so ill after the birth of her son, that he needed to be placed in what we would think of as a foster home. Later, marrying Dr. Patterson with the hope of providing a home for her son, she continued to suffer severe bouts of illness, the foster family moved cross-country with her son, and she discovered that her new husband was inveterately unfaithful to her.

There was more than sufficient cause to echo Job's lament "Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea" (Job 6:2, 3). Yet, like Job, Mrs. Eddy was also unremitting in her search for God, for a spiritual understanding of Him. A conviction of God's love had so permeated her thought as a youngster, that she had been healed of a high fever. Unlike many over the past century, her misfortunes never turned her against God or away from Him. They served to intensify her search. Praying was a marked attribute of her life. It is inconceivable that the heavy grief that plagued her life during this period was not the subject of the most earnest, yearning prayer.

The Comforter, or counselor, promised by Jesus, was to bring mankind the full revelation of Truth. It was to give to the world the Science of Life and Love, an understanding of God, the divine Principle illustrated by Jesus' life. The Comforter was to bring divine Love's full answer and remedy to human woe and suffering of every kind. It would bring into remembrance all that Jesus said and did. It would make the healing of disease and sin and the erasing of grief a contemporary experience instead of merely a historical account.

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