A Remarkable Woman

       This Mary Baker Eddy was in my estimation.  She was an influential American author, teacher, and religious leader, noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health which she named Christian Science.  She articulated those ideas in her major work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Four years later she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist which today has branch churches and societies around the world.


        I wouldn't have the life I now have without the influence of this woman, and will be forever thankful she was brought through all she had to endure in her early years.  "I love Jesus more than any man who ever was or is" she once wrote.  And what drove her on through tribulation was an overwhelming desire to bring to mankind the laws of God that were the basis of Jesus' healing work, and that had saved her from death.


        At one point, Mrs. Eddy was to give a talk in a New England town and some people threatened to blow up the hall.  What did this nineteenth century, refined lady do?  She didn't seek human protection.  In her own words, "I leaned on God, and was safe."


        Of all the inspired words this woman has left, this to me is the most sublime:  "I can endure anything, if I just don't incur His displeasure."


         I'd like to think that my own experiences of deliverance from all kinds of problems, as well as those of thousands of thousands of men and woman who embraced her great discovery would have been enough to repay her for the years of  toil, opposition, friendlessness, poverty,  even hunger at times, as she pushed on to do what she was sure God had called her to do.


        What more can I say about a woman who certainly ranks right up there among heroic Christians in my view.  The indebtedness I feel for the freedom I've gained from physical afflictions alone  (and this is no small thing) gives some idea of how highly I regard this remarkable woman.