The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, was deeply benevolent and encouraged her students to be so as well. For example, when The Mother Church was first being built in Boston and donations slowed, she gave about 40 of her students the opportunity to each contribute $1,000 toward the project. Implicitly, she was asking them to pray about benevolence. Few of her students could simply write a check for $1,000 (the equivalent of about $25,000 today), and the country was in a deep depression. Yet they sent the funds cheerfully. Their example led to even more giving and the Church’s timely, debt-free completion (see Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 143; Joseph Armstrong and Margaret Williamson, Building of The Mother Church, p. 14; and Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, p. 69).
To some, the word benevolence may sound like a fancy way to say, “Send more money.” But true benevolence is not about money. One dictionary defines it as “the disposition to do good; goodwill; kindness; charitableness; the love of mankind.” So in its highest meaning, this word signifies the expression of wisdom, service, and love.
Mrs. Eddy’s concept of benevolence changed lives and met human needs. She gave aid to earthquake victims and helped to ensure that poor children in her town had winter shoes (see Irving Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, Amplified Edition, pp. 237, 244). She sent meals to returning Spanish-American War veterans and made sure they had tents
(p. 242). She inspired her town to improve its roads—and helped pay for them (pp. 235–237). And she gave about half her savings to build a Christian Science church in Concord, New Hampshire (Tomlinson memoirs, p. 297, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).
