In 1868, Mary Baker Eddy, then Mrs. Glover, was rooming at the Websters' in Amesbury, Massachusetts, devoting her full time to studying the Bible. Two years earlier she had discovered the divine Science of Christian healing as the result of her own recovery from a near-fatal accident. Now she was seeking to understand thoroughly the Principle and rules of the Science that had healed her.
A telegram for "Mrs. Mary B. Glover" arrived at the Websters' on May 30, a Saturday. It was from Manchester, New Hampshire. "Mrs. Gale is very sick, please come Monday morning if possible. Answer yes or no." Mrs. Glover went to see Mary Gale immediately. When she arrived, the doctors informed her Mrs. Gale could not live. She was dying of pneumonia. Mrs. Glover healed her on the spot. Very soon after the healing, one of the doctors told Mrs. Glover that Mrs. Gale was addicted to morphine, taken for relief from consumption, which had been healed at the same time as the pneumonia. Mrs. Glover then felt the need to pray day and night about the addiction. In three days it was cured. Historical File: Henry Robinson, Church History department of The Mother Church; see also Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 242 . This healing is referred to in Mrs. Eddy's book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany on page 105. In later years when asked by a student what had prompted her to write Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy told her about this healing. The student, Clara Shannon, relates in her reminiscence:
... when [Mrs. Glover] entered the room the patient was propped up with many pillows, and could not speak. Our Leader saw that what she needed was an arousal,... told her that she could get up and that she would help her dress. She was instantaneously healed and well....
