Did Eddy regularly read a hymn at bedtime?

We have been asked if Mary Baker Eddy regularly read a hymn before she went to sleep. While we do not know for sure, the following account is found in Irving Tomlinson’s reminiscence:

One evening in January 1910 [Eddy] called [Tomlinson] to her and said: “I love to think of these beautiful words from Scripture — ‘My life is hidden with Christ in God’ with Truth in Love.” Soon after she again called me. When I was by her side she whispered, “Every night I say over to myself this little verse — “The Spirit’s sweet control Freely I will confess Fly to thine outstretched arms of love, And there find health and rest.” ¹

The hymn Eddy is quoted as reciting was first published as a poem titled “Thy Way.” It was published in the August 1888 Christian Science Journal. The author was Myra J. H. Zink, a Christian Scientist. 

In 1889 Zink’s poem was republished as a hymn in Hymns and Tunes for the Church of Christ, (Scientist). When the first edition of the Christian Science Hymnal came out a few years later, “Thy Way” was there as well. It remained in the Hymnal until publication of the 1909 edition, which did not contain it.²