When I was 12 years old and chose for myself to go to the Christian Science Sunday School, my interest in God got a real focus. I had been able to see and experience many healings through prayer in my family, so this decision to go to Sunday School was a natural step. Christian Science became my religion, my way of life.
As I grew up, my interest in Mary Baker Eddy grew steadily. I read several biographies about her life and work, and my appreciation for what she did grew continually. When the first volume of Robert Peel’s biographies came out, I couldn’t stop reading. I found myself again and again in tears of joy and gratitude because I realized that Mrs. Eddy was not someone who came down from a fairytale heaven—she was a woman, like myself, who was always striving to keep her balance, her health, her happiness, and her peace. To me, the outstanding thing about her was that she had a clear vision about the purpose of her life. And that she did whatever was necessary and possible to express, demonstrate, and live that purpose. As I understand it, this purpose has much to do with Eddy’s conviction of being one with the Divine, and of her radical understanding and vision of the complete goodness and love of God.
I was so grateful that Peel took her down from that pedestal of personal adulation where so many of her followers had put her. After all, she said in her writings, “Follow your Leader, only as far as she follows Christ” (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4). The three Peel volumes have been precious to me. They are like lexica to which I can turn again and again regarding the unfoldment of Church in Eddy’s experience.
