WHEN DID CHRISTIAN SCIENCE become a "Cause" for Mary Baker Eddy? As I considered this question, I quickly assumed that she began to label her discovery as a cause when her church was well established, when she had a substantial group of loyal students supporting her and assisting her. I decided to start my research on this by taking a chronological look through her correspondence—quite simply, I would see when the term was first used.
As is so often the case when searching through The Mary Baker Eddy Library collections, initial assumptions were way off the mark. I looked through her letters, and I kept going back, farther and farther. I finally stopped in January 1872, when I found the first mention of her science as a "cause" in a letter to the Editor of the Lynn Transcript. This was a little less than six years after a serious accident had led to the healing that had set her on a path of discovery and growth.
Looking at the archival documents, we can see that the early months of 1872 were a critical period for Mrs. Mary M. Glover (later Mary Baker Eddy). On January 13, one of the local papers, the Lynn Transcript, published a letter from Wallace W. Wright, who had studied "Moral Science" with Mrs. Glover. (She would adopt the term "Christian Science" several years later.) This began an intense exchange of letters between the two. It's a fascinating group of documents, and while Mary Baker Eddy expressed herself somewhat differently than in later years, her sense of commitment, and her pure Christianity, shine through.
Wright's accusations were not entirely clear. As the controversy unfolded for Transcript readers, however, it was apparent that Wright was most concerned about obtaining a refund for his class tuition. He also unleashed a number of charges, strongly asserting that Moral Science was nothing but mesmerism.
These were extremely serious issues for Mrs. Glover. Most likely she saw that the back and forth with Wallace Wright was far more than a public squabble over money with a disgruntled student. It constituted an attack on the legitimacy of her teachings, the legitimacy of contemporary Christian healing. Her initial response to Wright, published in the January 20, 1872 issue of the paper, answered some of his accusations, and concluded:
"My few remaining years will be devoted to the cause I have espoused viz:—To teach and demonstrate the Moral and Physical Science that can heal the sick. Well knowing as I do that God hath bidden me, I shall steadfastly adhere to my purpose to benefit my suffering fellow beings, even though it be amid the most malignant misrepresentation and persecution" (V05002, Mary M. B. Glover to Editor, Lynn Transcript, January 20, 1872, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).
The debate in the Transcript continued. Mrs. Glover's letter of February 3 gave her the opportunity to go into some of the details of her teachings. "Moral Science is to put down sin and suffering through the understanding that God created them not, nor made He man to be the servant to his body; and these signs shall follow those who have learned Him aright:—they shall have control over matter and man, over sickness and sin. Jesus demonstrated this moral control over matter and man, but this was not mesmerism, it was God. ..." And her final paragraph begins: "I am preparing a work on Moral and Physical Science, that I shall submit to the public as soon as it is completed" (V05003, Mary M. B. Glover to Editor, Lynn Transcript, February 3, 1872, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection). The work would appear about three and one half years later—the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health.
Looking at these documents over 130 years later, aware of all that would follow for Mary Baker Eddy and her Cause, I find it astonishing to realize that as she began her book, she also began to see herself and her small and informal group of students as invested in something of deep importance. Mentions of a "cause" appear in her correspondence quite regularly from this time on, though in this early period no organization of any kind really existed. And the group that did exist was very small indeed. These students made a statement in the February 17 Transcript, affirming the "great gain" that all had received from their study, and concluding, "With the view of satisfying all candid readers this article has been written, and not for the sake of provoking a discussion. Hence nothing further will be said. Those whose names are written below will gladly converse on Moral Science. ..." (The entire letter, and all the letters published in the Transcript, may be found in In My True Light and Life: Mary Baker Eddy Collections (2002), pp. 238-259). Judging from the names that followed, it appears that in February 1872 the Cause was probably sustained by one teacher and her five students. But numbers were not the primary concern.
Three years after the conclusion of the controversy with Wallace Wright, in 1875, Mary Glover withdrew from the Congregational church that shéd joined as a teenager, and she and her students held a brief series of church services in Lynn. Later that year Science and Health was published. A year later the Christian Scientist Association of her students was formed. Growth was beginning for the Cause. What did its Founder expect of those who joined it?
In 1879, with regular church services being held in Boston, the Church of Christ (Scientist) was formed. The church's "Tenets and Covenant" give us a window into the kind of commitment required of those who united with the Cause at this early date. The "Covenant," which eventually became the sixth of the Tenets of Christian Science, was surprisingly detailed in its expectations. "And we solemnly covenant to faithfully obey the ten commandments; to walk worthy our high calling, to deal justly, love mercy; and walk humbly with our God; to abhor a lie, to love Truth, to do good to man, to have but one God, and to strive habitually to reach that higher understanding of Christian Science contained in the Sermon on the Mount, whereby to cast out error and heal the sick." The Covenant concluded with strong denunciations of spiritualism, mesmerism, and the use of medicine (EOR13, Minute Book, Church of Christ (Scientist), The Mary Baker Eddy Collection).
In 1892 Mary Baker Eddy reorganized her church. It was now a church that all Christian Scientists could join; it was not just for those who lived in Boston. The tenets did change—commitment to the Cause now included a greater emphasis on brotherhood. "We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love the brethren, and, up to our highest understanding to be meek, merciful, and just, and live peaceably with all men" ("Church Tenets and Rules" (1892), Subject File, The Mary Baker Eddy Library). (Though mention of the Ten Commandments was removed, they reappeared later as the "first lessons" for Sunday School students—see Article XX, Section 3 of the Manual of The Mother Church.)
The commitment of Mary Baker Eddy and her tiny group of pupils in 1872 contributed to the establishment of the Cause of Christian Science. In the brief history of the Church of Christ, Scientist, published in the Church Manual (see p. she describes it this way:
"Although walking through deep waters, the little Church went steadily on, increasing in numbers, and at every epoch saying.
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' "
Please contact the Research staff with your historical questions about Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science movement at research@mbelibrary.org or 617–450–7218.
