Inspiration
Women's History Month
“Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations”
The National Women’s History Alliance is celebrating Women’s History Month in March 2025. Its theme is: “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.” In the history of the 19th and 20th centuries, Mary Baker Eddy played an important role in forwarding thought in the spheres of religion and healthcare.
A lifelong Bible student, Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, first published in 1875. In the last 100 pages of the book are testimonies from people who were healed by reading this book. Four years later she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist. Today it has branches around the world.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress (Item USZ62-53514 )
Here is how one biography of Mary Baker Eddy describes the situation in her time.
Legally, a married woman couldn’t own property, and any that she did bring to a marriage became the property of her husband. She wasn’t allowed to sign a contract or make a will, nor could she control any wages she might earn. Divorce and child custody laws favored men, too. This began to change with the passage of equity laws regarding women’s rights—first in Mississippi, with the Married Women’s Property Act of 1839. Other states would eventually follow its lead, and by 1857 the Married Women’s Property Bill passed in the U.S. Congress.
. . .
Though many of these restrictions were loosened and lifted during Mary’s lifetime—and she herself would break many of the barriers—it wasn’t until the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1920, granting women the right to vote, that more rapid progress toward full equality was made. (Isabel Ferguson and Heather Vogel Frederick, A World More Bright, pp. 36-37)
For more information about Mary Baker Eddy, you can find biographies in our Christian Science Reading Room located at 626 Jamestown Road. In addition, you can explore more about her life and her church by visiting in person or online The Mary Baker Eddy Library.
Here are some passages from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy on the rights of women.
From the Bible
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27)
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? ... (Malachi 2:10 (to 2nd ?)
... O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8 O)
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16)
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. (Romans 14:19)
From Science and Health
It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. (p. 467)
Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science. (p. 266)
Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.
Genesis i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated that God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are human concepts. In one of the ancient languages the word for man is used also as the synonym of mind. (p. 516)
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gender is mental, not material. The seed within itself is the pure thought emanating from divine Mind. . . . The intelligent individual idea, be it male or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds the infinitude of Love. (p. 508)
In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. . . . Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being.
Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization. (p. 63)
Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the selfishness and inhumanity of man. (p. 64)
Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood. (p. 538)
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed. (p. 340)
More Inspiration
Inspiration for Prayers for the Wars in
Ukraine and the Middle East
“You are my place of safety and protection”
“Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘You are my place of safety and protection. You are my God and I trust you.’” (Psalms 91: 1, 2, New Century Version)
“I will give peace to your country; you will lie down in peace, and no one will make you afraid.” (Leviticus 26:6 New Century Version)
“God is our protection and our strength. He always helps in times of trouble.” (Psalms 46:1, New Century Version)
From the Christian Science Sentinel, Nov. 14, 2011
by Josh Niles
"Prayer - a game-changer in times of conflict"
From the Christian Science Sentinel, Oct. 13, 2023
by Suzanne Smedley
"God is comforting Her people"
From the Christian Science Sentinel, Aug. 29, 2022
by Judy Cole
"Deliver me from 'the violent man'"
Music from keyboardist Tonia Herrin
A keyboard medley of “Let There Be Peace” and other selections.
From the Bible
"Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men." - Psalms 140:1 (New King James Version)
"I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible." - Jeremiah 15:21 (New King James Version)
"Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. .... Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children." - Psalms 90:1, 16 (New King James Version)
From Science and Health
"Let discord of every name and nature be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense of Life and being take possession of human consciousness." - Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 355
Also by Mary Baker Eddy
"Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited." - The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210
Climate change and mental change
By Leslie Revilock
Published in the August 2022 issue of The Christian Science Journal
Leslie explains how our prayers and the way we live can help the world’s climate by affirming that all creaton exists and contnues within the atmosphere of divine Love.
