There is nothing here to suggest the emergence of a new form of Christianity. The newspapers of that day were full of such advertisements, with testimonials of every sort of quack cure. Yet behind this crudely worded appeal to the public lay Mrs. Patterson’s conviction that the Christian disciple could best become a “fisher of men” by healing the sick. It was through his success in healing that he would draw men to the truth.
In her letter to Martha Pilsbury she had written, “The Doct here is just begining at great expense in a new place . . . but all that come to him sick he cures.”76 She herself stood behind him, teaching him, helping him, taking especially difficult cases herself. Two written testimonials from James Ingham and Alanson Wentworth bear witness to healings she had brought about in Stoughton.77
Toward the end of July she was summoned by Martha to Sanbornton Bridge. Tanbark and straw were once more spread on the road before Mark Baker’s old house, for inside it Martha’s daughter, Ellen Pilsbury, lay dying of enteritis, given up by three doctors, according to her cousin, George W. Baker. [Elizabeth P. Baker] later wrote an account of what happened:
In a few moments after [Mrs. Glover] entered the room and stood by her bedside, [Ellen] recognized her aunt, and said, “I am glad to see you aunty.” In about ten minutes more, Mrs. Glover told her to “rise from her bed and walk.” She rose and walked seven times across her room, then sat down in a chair. For two weeks before this, we had not entered her room without stepping lightly. Her bowels were so tender, she felt the jar, and it increased her sufferings. She could only be moved on a sheet from bed to bed. When she walked across the room at Mrs. Glover’s bidding, she told her to stamp her foot strongly upon the floor, and she did so without suffering from ● ● ●
76 [Mary Baker Patterson to Martha Baker Pilsbury, 28 April 1867, L11153, MBEL.]
77 James Ingham, quoted in Mary Baker Glover, Science and Health, 1st ed. (Boston: Christian Scientist Publishing Company, 1875), p. 338. Alanson Wentworth, recorded in Alfred Farlow, “Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy,” c. 1909, Subject File, Alfred Farlow - Manuscript - Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy (2 of 2), p. 105, MBEL. The Wentworth testimony in Farlow is mistakenly attributed to the year 1873.