He referred to her statement that mesmerism was one belief driving out another belief and then quoted from her manuscript the explanation that since belief was supposed to be located in the brain and people generally believed that the healer got nearer the patient through physical contact, the student might lay his hands where the belief was, to rub it out, even while turning his thoughts away from the body to argue down the belief. Was not this one belief driving out another? he asked. Was not this in fact mesmerism?
The very question was an evident shock to Mrs. Glover, but a salutary one. It brought to the surface the problem she had been struggling with in Kennedy for almost a year. While this has been interpreted as the problem of two very different temperaments working together, it was more basically a struggle over ultimate values. Friction had grown as the popular young healer resisted the demands which, as Mrs. Glover saw it, were inherent in the Science she taught. In a notation made many years later she listed three stages in his attitude during that time: “1st Good resolves. 2d Continual asking forgiveness. 3d Hardness of heart, resolve to take own course.”88
Dimly she was beginning to consider the possibility that the human mind undisciplined by religion might run wild with a sense of its own power. Christianity had always taught that the essence of religion was, “not my will, but thine, be done.”89 In her own terminology, spiritual sense, the expression of Soul, or God, could be used only for good, but “personal sense” was all there was to evil; it was, like the carnal mind of which Paul wrote, “enmity against God.”90 Its resistance to the ● ● ●
88 Mary Baker Eddy, note, n.d., L09853, MBEL. It needs to be remembered that Kennedy was still in his early twenties. It is hardly surprising that he found the role of martyr and hero, on which he had embarked so eagerly a few years earlier, less than appealing as time went on. Also he was doing extremely well financially, and this increased his sense of independence. By June 1, 1871, Mrs. Glover had received from him as her share of his first year’s practice a total of $1744. On March 11, 1872, he refused to pay her anything further. A filing by her attorney in the case of Glover v. Kennedy ( January 6, 1879) states “that Defendant paid to Plaintiff as her share of the profits of this partnership the sum of $2200 to $2300.” [N. D. A. Clarke, “Mary M. B. Glover vs. Richard Kennedy - Action of Contract,” December 1878, Subject File, Mary Baker Eddy - Lawsuits - Glover v. Kennedy, MBEL.]
89 [Luke 22:42.]
90 [Romans 8:7.]