Peer pressure, social media, and cultural norms tempt us constantly to yield to what our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, called the mental “clamor” and “glamor” of worldly opinions, influences, and demands. Mary Baker Eddy to Sue Ella Bradshaw, April 6, 1892; L04645, The Mary Baker Eddy Library; © The Mary Baker Eddy Collection. They make us feel that we must do likewise or be out of sync with a changing world.
Christian Science offers a way out of this mental clamor. In three brief sentences Mrs. Eddy shows us how: “Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 451).
That is the only time Mrs. Eddy uses the word pressure in all of her published writings, so that is the only legitimate pressure we need recognize and obey! To me, calling Christianity our “queen of life” signifies that it should be considered sovereign over us—the most important and the most obeyed guiding force in our lives.
