EDDY 



1923 



EDELWEISS 



very delicate health and dependent upon her 

 family, her position was a difficult one. She 

 was always a devout student of the Bible, and 

 in her distress of body and mind she con- 

 stantly turned to it for relief and guidance, 

 and in 1866, while suffering from a serious acci- 

 dent, she gained the perception of the mean- 

 ing of the Scriptures which brought about her 

 own healing and gave rise to the religion she 

 founded. Of this experience she afterwards 

 published the following account, which is found 

 in her work, Miscellaneous Writings: 



Saint Paul writes : "For to be carnally minded 

 is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life and 

 peace." This knowledge came to me in an hour 

 of great need ; and I give it to you as death-bed 

 testimony to the day-star that dawned on the 

 night of material sense. This knowledge is prac- 

 tical, for it wrought my immediate recovery from 

 an injury caused by an accident, and pronounced 

 fatal by the physicians. On the third day there- 

 after, I called for my Bible and opened it at 

 Matthew IX, 2. As I read,' the healing Truth 

 dawned upon my sense ; and the result was that 

 I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in 

 better health than I had before enjoyed. That 

 short experience included a glimpse of the great 

 fact that I have since tried to make plain to 

 others, namel'y, Life in and of Spirit ; this life 

 being the sole reality of existence. 



After nearly a decade of work in pondering 

 her discovery, perfecting its statement and 

 proving its worth to her fullest satisfaction, she 

 produced in 1875 her fundamental contribution 

 to the religious and therapeutic thought of the 

 world in Science and Health, with Key to the 

 Scriptures, which is the "text-book" of Christian 

 Science. It has gone through numerous edi- 

 tions and has come to be one of the most 

 widely read of books. But one translation, 

 that into German, has been authorized. Amonr* 

 Mrs. Eddy's most important other works arc 

 Unity of Good and Other Writings, Christian 

 Healing and Other Writings, and the Church 

 Manual. 



In 1877 she married Dr. Asa G. Eddy, who 

 was associated with her in the Christian Science 

 movement, to which she devoted her life from 

 the time of her healing. In 1879 she organized 

 the Church of Christ, Scientist, which in 1892 

 was reorganized as The First Church of Christ, 

 Scientist, in Boston, Mass. Of The First 

 Church, known also as The Mother Church, 

 she was pastor for many years. 



In 1881 she opened in Boston the Massa- 

 chusetts Metaphysical College, the only institu- 

 tion of its kind having a charter from the 

 Commonwealth. She founded the periodicals 

 of the denomination, now issued by the Chris- 



tian Science Publishing Society of Boston, in- 

 cluding The Christian Science Journal, a 

 monthly; The Christian Science Sentinel, a 

 weekly; Der Herald der Christian Science, 

 a German monthly; and The Christian Science 

 Monitor, a daily newspaper. For a number of 

 years Mrs. Eddy lived in comparative retire- 

 ment at Concord, N. H. In 1908 she went to 

 Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Boston, where, 

 revered and loved by her many thousands of 

 followers, she remained actively in charge of 

 her large and growing movement until her 

 death, December 3, 1910. See CHRISTIAN 

 SCIENCE. AC 



Consult Wilbur's Life of Mary Baker Eddy. 



EDELWEISS, a' del vise, a pure silver- 

 white, star-shaped perennial flower. It is 

 Switzerland's national emblem, and plays an 

 important part in that country's legend and 

 poetry. Due to its rarity, laws protect it there. 

 Appearing in ex- 

 posed places, high 

 in the Alps of 

 Switzerland, Ty- 

 rol, Carinthia, 

 Austria and Ser- 

 bia, its fame is 

 due chiefly to the 

 difficulty in ob- 

 t a i n i n g it. 

 Thrilling tales are 

 told of the lure 

 of the rare edel- 

 weiss. That it 

 can be easily cul- 

 tivated, however, 

 has been proved 

 by its frequent 

 appearance in 

 American and 

 European gar- 

 dens. The plant 

 grows about six 

 inches high. It.< 

 compound flowers 

 are surrounded by 

 small, woolly 

 flower-1 eaves 

 (bracts) and sage- 

 green foliage 

 leaves. Almost any soil, not too rich and fully 

 exposed to the sun. will produce edelweiss 

 plants, for the woolly covering enables them 

 to hold moisture and endure exposure. 



The word is from the German, and means 

 noble white. 



THK KUKLWKISS 



