When I began working in the Archives of The Mother Church, I didn’t anticipate how profoundly I’d be influenced by the historical material I encountered in the study of the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy. Her integrity and her Christianity were abundantly apparent in the documentary evidence.
The Leader of Christian Science did not impose a more rigorous discipline on her followers than she imposed upon herself. Hers was no double standard—no ease while others worked, no abandoning of duty when things got rough, no going to sleep at mortal mind’s suggestion—but an unflinching commitment to subordinate self to divine law. This integrity, which she lived so consistently, still continues to inspire me today
About a year after I began working in the Archives, I was taken one Friday night with intense abdominal pain. A dedicated Christian Science practitioner assisted me metaphysically through prayer, but by early Sunday morning, the pain seemed unbearable. In those early morning hours, I began to think of how much Mrs. Eddy had sacrificed to establish the Cause of Christian Science, how she’d drawn on spiritual strength to withstand persecution, privation, and physical distress. I asked myself, In the light of such selfless perseverance, could I not consecrate one more hour to prayer? I did so. And when that hour was up, I committed myself to another hour, and then another, and so on.
