Anticipating her own death after years of illness and suffering, Caroline Bates wanted to give her husband, Edward, a memento of her love. She went to a nearby city to have a portrait made of herself. There she met a friend who gave her a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. Reading just two or three pages, Caroline said she "caught the idea of non-intelligent matter" and was healed on the spot. Caroline S. Bates reminiscences, p. 1, Archives and Library of The Mother Church .
Soon her husband, a prominent businessman in Syracuse, New York, was also cured of deteriorating health. The couple entered both Mrs. Eddy's Primary and Normal classes in 1887 because they were determined to learn as fast as possible about the Science that had healed them.
Two years later Edward Bates was appointed to the Publication Committee of The Christian Science Publishing Society, which was responsible for publishing and selling the Journal and other Science literature. Mr. Bates stood firm as a key policymaker during the Journal's turbulent adolescent years. Thanks to his persistent efforts, Oxford India paper was obtained for the printing of Science and Health. See William Dana Orcutt, Mary Baker Eddy and Her Books (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1950), pp. 62–64. Here was a worker who could get things done.
