CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS. The name given to those who accept the teaching of Mary Baker Eddy (see article above). Mrs. Eddy was the daughter of Mark and Mary Baker, and was born at Bow, New Hampshire, on July the 16th, 1821. In 1843 she married Washington Glover, who had been associated with her brother, Samuel Baker, in Boston as a contractor and builder, and at this time had a good business in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Mason. a member of Saint Andrew's Lodge, No. 10, and of Union Chapter, No. 3, of Royal Arch Masons. His married life was short, for within a year he became ill and died. Mrs. Glover returned to her parents. A son was born to her, whom she named after his father, but she was too ill to nurse him. On her recovery she was employed in writing political articles for the New Hampshire " Patriot," and in teaching occasionally at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary. After the death of her mother she became an Invalid. She lived with her sister Abigail, and often for long periods was confined to her bed. In 1853 she contracted a second marriage with Daniel Patterson, a dentist. She had been separated from her child, and believed that in thus marrying again, she would be able to get him back. After a time they went to live at North Groton, New Hampshire. We are told that " she was bedridden most of the time they lived here." The next move was to a cottage In Rumney village. Here, In spite of a most careful observance of the laws of hygiene, and of homeopathic treatment from her husband, Mrs. Patterson's " spinal weakness was not overcome and the nervous seizures continued to occur with increasing violence." She " was wasting to a shadow under the most careful nursing, and her life was being consumed in ineffectual efforts to appease the ravishment of pain." At the same time she read the Bible daily, and, as her biographer " she more than ever pondered the cures of the early church." In 1S02 she wrote to Phineas P. Quimby, of Portland, Maine, who had a reputation as a healer. She said she wished to come to him for study and healing. Her sister described Quimby as a char latan, and tried to dissuade her from going. But Mrs. Patterson was determined to know whether he had dis covered a truth which she had long been seeking. " I certainly do not want mesmerism or spiritualism, but I somehow believe that I must see what this man has or has not. I am impelled with an unquenchable thirst for God that will not let me rest. Abigail, there is a science beyond all sciences we have ever studied. It is Christ's Science. There is a fundamental doctrine, a God's truth that will restore me to health, and if me, then countless thousands. Has this man Quimby discovered the great truth or is he a blunderer, perhaps a charlatan as you say? I must know." In October, 1862, she arrived at the International Hotel, Portland, where Dr. Quimby had his offices. Dr. Quimby succeeded in giving her relief. Her biographer writes thus : " Gradually he wrought the spell of hypnotism, and under that suggestion she let go the burden of pain just as she would have done had mor phine been administered. The relief was no doubt tre mendous. Her gratitude certainly was unbounded. She was set free from the excruciating pain of years." But her interpretation of Quimby's success was different from his own. She imputed to him " a knowledge of God's law," an " understanding of the truth which Christ brought into the world and which had been lost for ages."
She believed that he had a philosophy which could be reduced to philosophic arguments, and she tried to help him to put this into shape in writing. Mrs. Patterson was certainly for a long time under the influence of Quimby. On the strength of this fact extravagant claims have been made for him. They are : " that Quimby cured Mary Baker of her invalidism, that he gave her the germ ideas of her philosophy, that he pre sented her with manuscripts which she afterwards claimed as her own, that he focussed her mind, that he was the impetus of all her subsequent momentum." In the light, however, of her earlier history, and of the general character of the book which she afterwards published, as compared with the personal history of Quimby and with what is known of his efforts of com position, it seems pretty clear that in reality " she heard and saw only what was in her own mind and experience, and continued to identify publicly and privately her faith with Quimby's in the face of all the evidence to the con trary and his own occasional expostulation." In 1864 Mrs. Patterson went to live in Lynn, Massachusetts. On February the 3rd, 1800, she met with an acci dent, which was referred to in the Lynn " Reporter " as follows : " Mrs. Mary Patterson, of Swampscott, fell upon the ice near the corner of Market and Oxford streets on Thursday evening and was severely injured. She was taken up in an insensible condition and carried into the residence of S. M. Bubier, Esq., near by, where she was kindly cared for during the night. Dr. Cushing, who was called, found her injuries to be internal and of a severe nature, inducing spasms and internal suffering. She was removed to her home in Swampscott yesterday afternoon, though in a very critical condition." The next morning she was still semi-conscious, but was removed to her suburban residence. " On the third day, which was Sunday, she sent those who were in her room away, and taking her Bible, opened it. Her eyes fell upon the account of the healing of the palsied man by Jesus." Thereupon, we are told, she had a mar vellous spiritual experience, which healed her. " Mrs. Patterson arose from her bed, dressed and walked into the parlor where a clergyman and a few friends had gathered, thinking it might be for the last words on earth with the sufferer who, they believed, was dying. They arose in consternation at her appearance, almost believing they beheld an apparition. She quietly reassured them and explained the manner of her recovery, calling upon them to witness it." Soon after this her husband deserted her. In 1873 she was divorced from him. In 1877 she married Asa Gilbert Eddy, an agent for a sewing machine business, who had come to her for healing. He died in 1882. In 1SS3 Mrs. Eddy published the first number of the " Journal of Christian Science," now called the " Christian Science Journal." By the year 1888 thirty Christian Science academies were in existence. In 1SS9 Mrs. Eddy withdrew from the world, and retired to Concord. In 1894 was completed at Boston the original Mother Church of Christ, Scientist. In 1908 Mrs. Eddy removed to Chestnut Hill in the suburbs of Boston. She died in 1910. Cp. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. See Sibyl Wilbur, The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, 1907.