Article November 13, 2017 Issue

‘The Light will shine in darkness’: Mary Baker Eddy, the Bible, and searching the Scriptures

Judy Huenneke

Editor’s note: Judy Huenneke is Senior Research Archivist at The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life” proclaimed the Messiah, Jesus Christ (John 5:39). Mary Baker Eddy, the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, took this command very seriously, as the archival collections of The Mary Baker Eddy Library illustrate. It’s no exaggeration to say that Eddy daily searched the Bible for guidance and inspiration.

Her dedication to the Scriptures began at an early age. “As a child the book I loved best was the Bible,” she remembered. “After school when the other children were at play, I would steal home, and taking my precious Bible, I would seat myself in the rocker, and while I rocked I read the Psalms of David or the life of the Master. At twelve years of age my dear book of books was well-thumbed and worn, and many of my favorite Psalms and whole chapters of the New Testament I could repeat by heart” (Irving C. Tomlinson, reminiscences, p. 9, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).

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