A woman whose words changed the world

As the March sun rises
higher in the sky, this year’s National Women’s History Month shines a light on
women in public service, government, religion, the arts and other professions--have
helped to shape a more just world through their courage and determination.

There’s another woman, little
known today but well known a century ago, who changed the course of history
through her vision and dedication to helping others - Mary Baker Eddy. In
2001 her primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, was
recognized by the Women’s National Book Association as one of “75 books by
women whose words have changed the world.” This book, which unites
science with Christianity, was first published in 1875, and since then it has
sold over 10 million copies and been translated into 16 foreign languages.

Eddy
also started the Church of Christ, Scientist, which has branches in 60
countries all over the world, and in 1908 she founded the Pulitzer-prize
winning newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, “to injure no man, but
to bless all mankind.”

Through her writings, her
Church, and her newspaper, Eddy offered the world a way to turn intelligently
to God as an aid in combating evil, including prejudice, poverty, injustice and
even sickness. Based on the Bible, her writings proclaim that we have a
spiritual nature, created by God, and that as Her child we express divine
qualities such as wisdom, courage, strength, affection, wholeness and mercy.
At the back of Science and Health, she included 100 pages of
letters by readers illustrating how this higher, spiritual concept of
themselves radically improved their lives by healing and awakening them to God
as Principle and to the Christ-spirit as always present to heal and bless
mankind.

In
some cases, the impact on readers has rippled out to bless countless others.
For example: Marion B. Jordan, former National Field Secretary of the NAACP,
found these words from Eddy’s book to be of great value in her work: “The
history of our country, like all history, illustrates the power of Mind (God),
and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking.
A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice,
have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and
slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, not did the breath of
freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator.”

This reliance on God, divine
Love, as the liberator of mankind, gave Jordan the courage to face prejudice
and bigotry, as well as the vision to help establish the Negro Educational
Emergency Drive, which over a ten-year period aided over 8,000 students in
paying for their education (see Living Christian Science, pps. 126-127).
Even though Mary Baker Eddy was not a political activist, she advocated
for everyone’s rights as a child of God, including the right to freedom from
hate and suffering. Her writings, especially Science and Health,
continue to be read worldwide today, liberating her readers from issues such as
fear, anger, addiction, contagion and illness.

As we
gratefully recognize the many women in our country, and worldwide, who have
inspired us with their courageous words and deeds, let’s also consider Mary
Baker Eddy and these words of hers: “Citizens of the world, accept the
‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your
divine right.”

Photo by H. Mitchinson

Thomas (Tim) Mitchinson is the Christian
Science Committee on Publication for Illinois. You can contact him at illinois@compub.org.