In the late 1850s, the thunderclouds of war were gathering. At the bottom of the issue was the immorality of slavery.
Mary Baker Eddy (then Mary Patterson) knew all too well about slavery. For her, slavery also meant a material body bound in the chains of chronic illness, under the lash of pain. But unlike the weapons soon to be unleashed on the battlefields of the American Civil War, "the weapons of [her] warfare [were] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." II Cor. 10:4. When the war between the North and the South began in 1861, Mary was living in Rumney, New Hampshire, fighting against invalidism. The Bible and prayer were her only weapons. Her neighbors had grown to know her as a devout Christian and would seek her counsel in time of trouble. Remembering one such incident, Mary Baker Eddy wrote in later years:
... a mother whose only son was drafted to enter the army, came to [me] in tears, told of her trouble and her deep concern for her son's moral welfare. At that time [my] husband was confined in Libby Military prison and [my] only son was in a military hospital. . . . But [I] took almost [my] last dollar and bought a Bible for the woman's son, wrote a scriptural text on the fly leaf and gave it to him. He was shot in battle, but the bullet struck the Bible and his life was saved. After his return home he united with the Methodist Church. He always said that Bible and the text written on the fly leaf were the cause of his conversion. Church History document: A10222, Church History department of The Mother Church.
