Description
Mrs. Eddy once wrote in a letter: “People seem to understand Christian Science in the exact ratio that they know me and vice versa. It sometimes astonishes me to see the invariableness of this rule.” Most important, then, are memoirs that actually document the significant events of her life. Miscellaneous Documents is a book of fourteen memoirs mainly by those who knew Mrs. Eddy during the early years of the movement. These recollections include events about her not found in other works.
One of the contributors, Clara Choate, wrote of the close relationship between Dr. and Mrs. Eddy and how devoted they were to each other. She gives a number of inspiring incidents of Mrs. Eddy’s stand for God’s directions above all else. Her maid, Adelaide Still was with her during her final years. She wrote: “On several occasions I saw Mrs. Eddy subdue a storm and I well remember the first time I witnessed this demonstration. It was the 3rd of August, 1907, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. The sky was overcast with heavy clouds and it was very dark. Mrs. Eddy sat in her chair in the study at Pleasant View watching the clouds with a smile and a rapt expression on her face. It seemed to me that she saw beyond the storm and her present surroundings and I do not think she was conscious of my presence. In a few moments the clouds broke and flecked and the storm was dissolved into its native nothingness. About half an hour later I had occasion to go to her room again when she said to me, ‘Did you see the sky?’ I said, ‘Yes, Mrs. Eddy.’ Then she said, ‘It [meaning the cloud] was never there. God’s face was never clouded.’” These memoirs reveal the spiritual power with which Mrs. Eddy handled animal magnetism from the earliest days of the Cause to the time she left us.