From the Collections: Notations in Mary Baker Eddy’s Book of Psalms

Title page from Mary Baker Eddy’s copy of The Book of Psalms, 1879. B00016.
In celebration of National Bible Week in the United States later this month, we’re featuring an item from the Library’s Mary Baker Eddy Book Collection: a copy of the psalter (The Book of Psalms) that Mary Baker Eddy owned and valued. Her notations in this volume exemplify how she turned to psalms for inspiration, comfort, and guidance—especially during a pivotal period in the history of the Christian Science church.
Extensive notations in Eddy’s hand appear throughout this book, including both sides of the front flyleaf, title page, back flyleaf, and back endpaper.1 Those on the flyleaves specify a psalm, and occasionally one or more verses, accompanied most frequently by an insight she made, such as “Psalm 50 Rebuking sinners showing them their sins.”2 Sometimes Eddy’s notations include one or more of the following:
- A date when she opened her psalter to a particular psalm
- A description of what was occurring in her life, or in her church, when she turned to a psalm
- An occasion in which to use a psalm
- A phrase from a psalm
- A comment on the meaning of a word
[Click to enlarge.]
Beyond the flyleaves, additional notations and marks appear on many pages throughout. A number of the psalms Eddy referenced on the flyleaves also bear marks on the corresponding pages within the book where the psalms are printed.
The dates in Eddy’s notation range primarily from June 1886 to August 1899.3 Significantly, the majority of these dates refer to the years 1892 and 1893, and over 85 percent are between 1889 and 1893. These were transformative years for Eddy and the young Church of Christ (Scientist); in 1889 she resigned as its pastor,4 and the church disorganized.5 That same year, Eddy also retired as teacher from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and both the college and the Christian Scientist Association dissolved. She moved from Boston to Concord, New Hampshire, and focused on revising Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures for the 50th edition, which was published in January 1891.6
During the months leading up to the church’s September 23, 1892, reorganization,7 Eddy dealt with opposition from the Trustees for the land in the Back Bay district of Boston on which a church edifice was to be built.8 By the spring of 1892, it was becoming clear that the Trustees had broken the conditions of the deed for the land, by collecting funds to build a combination publishing house and church, when the land was intended solely for a church.9
Title page of Eddy’s Book of Psalms, 1879. B00016. [Click to enlarge.]
As indicated by her multiple handwritten notations on the book’s title page, Eddy turned to psalms for inspiration in praying for guidance to shepherd her church forward. The notation at the top of the title page—“Ps. 46 ver 10 – 11 (Church Building plot in Boston)”—references verses that open with the message “Be still, and know that I am God.”10 Handwritten between these verses is the notation “answer to am May 3 1892.”11 Also on the title page is a notation Eddy made ten days later: “May 13 1892 Church fund question struggle.” She wrote “Ps 56” to the left of this date; above “Ps 56” appears the notation “Ps 38 May ’92.”12
In Psalm 38, she marked verses 8–17 and 19–22;13 these verses depict primarily the psalmist’s struggles and secondarily the psalmist’s hope in God and requests to God for help.14 In Psalm 56, she bracketed verses 2, 5, 8b, and 9, and underlined the psalmist’s words “trust in thee” (verse 3), evidently acknowledging a needed reminder that, even amid the attacks of enemies, the psalmist trusts in God.15
By August, the legal situation was such that the land had reverted to Ira O. Knapp, who had originally deeded the land to the Trustees on Eddy’s behalf.16 Perhaps it was not entirely clear what should happen next, for on August 12, 1892, Eddy wrote a lament next to Psalm 69, a psalm that is quoted multiple times in the Gospel of John.17 Eddy remarked: “I in such suffering do all for others and they hinder and mock Oh! God how long!”18 She closed by quoting a question that appears often in lament psalms: “How long?” (Lament psalms address God with the psalmists’ struggles and petitions, and almost always end in celebration.)19
Notations on Psalm 69 in Eddy’s Book of Psalms, 1879. B00016. [Click to enlarge.]
Two days later, Eddy made notations next to Psalm 107:37: “Aug. 14 1892 opened looked first at this to ans[wer] when shall the church vote on her by-laws at the 1st or 2ond meeting?” This verse declares, “And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.”20 Solutions were soon found – Knapp deeded the land to Eddy on August 19, and she deeded the land to the newly formed Christian Science Board of Directors on September 1.21
Eddy’s final notation on the title page dates to the day of the church’s reorganization: “Ps 47 opened to Sept 23. 1892.” The notation concludes by proclaiming, “The end of my battle for our church.”22 On that celebratory day, she opened her psalter to a hymn praising God’s reign.
The book of Psalms and its rich history of interpretation—including Eddy’s notations in her beloved psalter—exemplify how individuals for millennia have turned to God in prayer throughout the whole range of human experiences. During a transformative period for Eddy and her church, she found in her psalter a guiding light and experienced the following promise within its pages: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105).
- The finding aid for the Mary Baker Eddy Book Collection states about this volume, “Notations primarily by Mary Baker Eddy. Some by Calvin A. Frye.” While this article attributes notations and marks to Eddy, some notations in Eddy’s psalter were written by Frye at Eddy’s direction.
- Notation in the Book of Psalms (New York: American Bible Society, 1879), B00016, back flyleaf. On the front flyleaf, two notations reference other biblical books, “Exodus III” and “Luke XXI.”
- One exception is this notation, written next to Psalm 102: “I opened to this Ps Feb. 19, 1839.” Eddy may have been recalling a girlhood memory or intending to write a different year, such as 1889 or 1893. Mary Baker Eddy, notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 143.
- Mary B. G. Eddy, “Special Notice from Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy,” The Christian Science Journal, June 1889, 156.
- While the church membership voted to abandon “its congregational organization” on December 2, 1889, the church continued “to hold Sunday services and Friday evening meetings as a voluntary association.” The Mary Baker Eddy Library, “A Chronology of Events Surrounding the Life of Mary Baker Eddy,” 2022, 41, https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2.10.22-MBE_detailed_annotated-chronology.pdf. See Mary Baker Eddy to the Church of Christ (Scientist) Boston, 28 November 1889, L00008.
- “A Chronology of Events,” 37–43. See Eric Nager, “Why did Mary Baker Eddy disband her church in 1889?,” The Mary Baker Eddy Library, 26 June 2023, https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/why-did-mary-baker-eddy-disorganize-her-church-in-1889/
- “A Chronology of Events,” 45. See pages 37–47 for additional details about this reorganization and other pertinent events from 1889–1893.
- See Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), 13–18; “A Chronology of Events,” 41.
- “A Chronology of Events,” 44.
- Notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, title page, 65. The Bible translation used in Eddy’s psalter is the King James Version. Eddy’s psalter was published six years before the 1885 Revised Version.
- Notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 65. The letters “am” stand for animal magnetism, which Eddy described as “the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful.” (Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures [Boston: The Christian Science Board of Directors], 103.) Eddy’s use of the term “mortal mind” echoes Paul’s reference to “the carnal mind” in Romans 8:7, a passage that Eddy quoted multiple times in her writings.
- Notations in The Book of Psalms, B00016, title page.
- Marks in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 53–54.
- See James Limburg, Psalms, Westminster Bible Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 126–127.
- Marks in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 77.
- “A Chronology of Events,” 41, 44.
- John 2:17 quotes Ps. 69:9, John 15:25 quotes Ps. 69:4, and John 19:28–30 echoes Ps. 69:21 (see Matt. 27:34; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36).
- Eddy, notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 95.
- See Bernhard W. Anderson with Steven Bishop, Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 60–62; J. Clinton McCann Jr., Reading the Psalms Again for the First Time: A Spirituality for Justice-Seekers & Peacemakers (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2024), 41.
- Eddy, notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, 159.
- “A Chronology of Events,” 44–45.
- Eddy, notation in The Book of Psalms, B00016, title page.