From the Papers: New beginnings

While adding documents to the Mary Baker Eddy Papers website, our Papers team has come across people who took new paths. While each thought they were on one life journey, an encounter with Christian Science prompted a course change. Let’s take a look at a few such individuals who wrote to Eddy in February 1887.

Adnah K. Frain (1845–1929) was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. During the American Civil War, he served as a commissary sergeant in the Union Army. Afterward he earned an M.D. from Michigan Homeopathic Medical College in Lansing, Michigan, in 1873. That same year he married his classmate, Mary J. Frain (Goodell) (1837–1927), in Wood, Ohio, and by 1880 they were living in Spencer, Iowa. Sometime between 1887 and 1892 they moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Adnah Frain was a member of the Chicago Electro-Medical Association.¹

Adnah K. and Mary J. Frain to Mary Baker Eddy, February 22, 1887, 669A.73.004, https://mbepapers.org/?load=669A.73.004

He was introduced to Christian Science around 1886, while working as a homeopathic physician alongside his wife, Mary J. Frain. Intrigued, he talked with Christian Scientists and read Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The Frains wrote to Eddy on February 22, 1887, stating that they were interested in attending her Massachusetts Metaphysical College.² This instruction never ended up happening, however, because Adnah Frain was struggling to understand and apply the teachings of Christian Science.³ He continued to practice as a homeopathic physician until 1898, when he suffered from illness and, after much trial and error, failed to find a cure for his ailments. He later wrote:

During these months of affliction I had not once thought of Christian Science until some time in the early part of August, when I was thrown in almost daily contact with a Christian Science practitioner in a semi-social way. She carried with her the evidence of health, a joyous disposition, and a contented mind which were inspiring and a living sermon of the Truth she taught.⁴

Because of these interactions, Frain decided to try reading Science and Health again, this time with a more open mind, “utilizing its statements instead of combatting them.”⁵ Within a short time he experienced healing. The Frains soon retired from medicine, and Adnah Frain decided to devote himself to Christian Science. He joined The Mother Church (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts), on June 2, 1900. One of the trustees of Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, he was also at one point chairman of the board of directors of Ninth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago. Christian Science had evolved from something he initially deemed preposterous to representing a set of beliefs and practices that, through his healings and continued study of Science and Health, resonated with him. Not only was he receptive to its message; he committed the rest of his life to its cause. During his time as chairman of Ninth Church, he said this while introducing a lecture:

Christian Science, that great light shining from God to man, is showing us, in the measure of our receptivity … how to enthrone the one infinite intelligence, the only true God, omnipotent good, thus bringing into brain, body, business, and daily life, the activities of good which alone emanate from this omniscient source.⁶

Adnah Frain was listed as a Christian Science practitioner in Chicago from 1907 to 1923, and in Los Angeles, California, from 1924 until his death in Palm Springs, California, in 1929. He is one of many individuals who were trained as physicians but were also interested in learning more about Eddy’s system of healing.

Ellen G. McKay (1866–1957) was also interested in attending medical school. But she changed directions when her mother, Mary E. Evans—a Christian Science practitioner—encouraged her in another direction. “My mother is a devoted deciple of Christaian Science,” she wrote to Eddy in February 1887, “and has almost persuaded me to abandon my plans to study medicine as I had decided to do.”⁷ Although McKay inquired about studying with Eddy, she ended up taking Christian Science instruction with her student John F. Linscott—and the path stuck. Many years later in 1900, she encouraged her husband, George D. McKay, to follow in her footsteps just as her mother had encouraged her. He was a practicing physician of osteopathy. In a 1904 Journal testimony he recounted his experience:

“…my wife, who had been interested in Christian Science long before, persuaded me to accompany her to a Wednesday evening meeting, and there I heard testimonies given of such a sincere and practical character, that I was at once led to hope that Christian Science might have something in it for me. Following the light thus gained, I began that night to study Science and Health and other writings of Mrs. Eddy, together with the literature of The Christian Science Publishing Society…”⁸

In less than a year he abandoned his osteopathic practice, and the McKays both joined The Mother Church on June 23, 1903. He took Christian Science class instruction from Eddy’s student Charles Marsh Howe. Ellen McKay was listed as a practitioner in St. Joseph, Missouri, from 1904 to 1905.

Not all stories of new beginnings emerged out of the medical field. James A. Lee (1867–1939) had intended to become a Methodist minister. But those plans changed after he encountered Christian Science. In 1868 he immigrated from Ontario, Canada, to the United States with his family, settling in Neligh, Nebraska. He wrote to Eddy in 1887:

I am a young man intending to work my way through college to prepare my self for the Methodist Ministery. Upon reading your book and hearing of your great demonstrations of your work, have been entirely won to your cause. I wish to do the thing which my Master wishes me to do as all I have is given up to him now.⁹

Although his parents opposed Christian Science, Lee soon took instruction from Eddy’s student Alfred Farlow. He joined The Mother Church on November 1, 1900 and also became a member of his local Christian Science branch church in Neligh.

These are just some of the stories of individuals who found new paths in life after learning about Christian Science. As we continue to publish more of Eddy’s correspondence, we will share additional examples of the impact that her teachings were having on personal and professional lives.

Please note: Quoted references in our “From the Papers” article series reflect the original documents. For this reason they may include spelling mistakes and edits made by the authors. In instances where a mark or edit is not easily represented in quoted text, an omission or insertion may be made silently.