Q: We know that prior to 1866, Mary Baker Eddy spent 20 years “trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 24). Her answer came when she turned to Matthew 9, verse 2, and instantly recovered from an injury sustained in a fall. What did she see in that verse? —A Journal reader
A: Actually, there may have been more than one Bible verse that played a role in this healing.
Mrs. Eddy referred at various times to a verse in Mark that she turned to and was greatly helped by (see Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, pp. 56–58). Both verses, from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, would have held a world of meaning for her. All her life she’d been a devout Christian and cared deeply about Jesus and his works of healing. So, opening her Bible to those healings would have been a potent message in itself. The man who was brought to Jesus for healing, described in Matthew 9:2, had to be carried, much as she had been. Nevertheless he was suddenly freed, and he did “arise and walk” when Jesus spoke to him.
There’s no record of Mrs. Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of this verse in Matthew. But what we can be sure of is that the genuine holiness and witness to Spirit in the Bible opened the door of thought to what came next.
