Today Mrs. Eddy learned of the death of her sister-in-law, Mary Baker, the wife of her brother Samuel. I went into her study when I knew about it and found her alone, tears in her eyes, overcome for the moment with the human sense of loss. “She is the last of my family,” she said, “and I am now alone. Sister Mary would never believe that death is not a reality. I could not make her think my way. Now she knows she has not died. She has realized Life.”

A lesson on spirituality

Mrs. Eddy gave me a lesson on spirituality today. I remarked that I was not spiritual and did not feel that I could attain to any very spiritual height.

“You must not say that again,” she said, “and never have such a thought. What is spirituality? Do you not love to be true and to live honestly?”

“Yes, I do,” I replied.

“Do you not love God and desire to strive for the unfolding of that in yourself which is like Him? You are honest, conscientious, diligent in your work; all of these are qualities of a spiritual nature.”

I said that I had never been a Bible student nor a devotee of any church, but had lived from childhood under the quiet, kind, and gentle influence of the Quaker discipline.

“Because you love good, you love God,” she said, “and therefore you must never say you are not spiritual.”

I saw clearly in our conversation that in proportion as we are governed by materiality indulging it instead of overcoming and refusing to be influenced by its suggestions, are we lacking in that which is spiritual. She substantiated my thought by alluding to the way in which many people indulge the sense of  ● ● ●