Nurtured by the Early Workers

“Our dear Mrs. Eddy said lately: ‘Take up your cross and run!’”

Ethel Reid was 13 when her Sunday School teacher shared this gem in a note thanking her for the gift of a Christmas calendar. Mary Speakman, Ethel’s teacher, had been a prominent educator in Philadelphia before moving to Boston because of her interest in Christian Science. There, she began serving at The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.

Mary Baker Eddy’s statement, Miss Speakman elaborated, “is very emphatic and makes us see how unworthy we are when we linger and lag and are driven by duty, instead of springing energetically to work. Study this week’s beautiful [Bible] Lesson willingly and well.”¹

Encouragement such as this and examples of people “springing energetically to work” abounded in young Ethel’s life, contributing to her lifelong love of Christian Science.

When she was six, Ethel’s family started riding an electric trolley from their home in Plymouth, Massachusetts, up to Kingston, four miles away, to attend Christian Science services. It was 1894, and her parents were so taken with their new understanding of this religion that over the next several years they helped launch a branch church in Plymouth, entered the public practice of Christian Science healing, and packed up their family of six to move to Boston, settling in a neighborhood near The Mother Church.²

Here, Ethel and her three sisters were immersed in an environment teeming with people learning how to channel their inspiration into productive work for the Cause. One of their neighbors, Minnie Scott, would become a special friend to Ethel—and a devoted helper in Mary Baker Eddy’s household, later sharing insights gleaned from that experience.

From the start, little Ethel was eager to do her part. She joined other children known as the “Busy Bees,” who raised money for The Mother Church. Her contributions, which came after the original donations had furnished a room at the church for Mrs. Eddy, went toward a special flower fund.

Ethel had another hands-on role in the growing activities of the movement, too. Her father, Ezra Reid, had formerly been a bookkeeper, and for a time worked in the mail room of the Christian Science Publishing House at 95 Falmouth Street, right next to The Mother Church.³ “Many a time have my sister and I helped in wrapping literature,” Ethel recalled in a handwritten reminiscence.⁴ Mr. Reid went on to launch the Reid Publishing Company, with a catalog selling postcards, note cards, artwork, and souvenirs related to Christian Science.

 

 

The start of the new century was a special time for Ethel. She turned 12 that year and joined The Mother Church on June 2, 1900.⁵ The annual meeting took place three days later in Mechanics Hall on Huntington Avenue. Ethel was there, in the standing-room-only second balcony, hoping along with the rest of the crowd that Mrs. Eddy would make an appearance.⁶ After all, the year before, her father and her mother, Emma Reid, had seen the Leader of Christian Science speak at the annual meeting at Tremont Temple.⁷

 

Mrs. Eddy did not attend the meeting where Ethel was present, but the assembled group sent a message of gratitude to her in response to her message, which had been read at the church services on the preceding Communion Sunday. Mrs. Eddy had told her followers, in part, “The song of Christian Science is, ‘Work—work—work—watch and pray.’”⁸ They replied that they were moved “to renewed efforts and holier consecration to the work you have given us to do for all mankind.”⁹

Ethel did get an opportunity to hear Mrs. Eddy speak just a few years later. In June 1903, she, her parents, sister Bertha, and possibly other sisters were among about 10,000 people who traveled to Concord, New Hampshire, and saw Mrs. Eddy give a brief talk from her balcony at Pleasant View.¹⁰

“I would present a gift to you to-day, only that this gift is already yours. God hath given it to all mankind,” Mrs. Eddy told the gathered throng. “This gift is a passage of Scripture; it is my sacred motto, and it reads thus:—‘Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.’”¹¹

At 16, Ethel experienced a significant healing. The Christian Science practitioner on her case was Berenice Goodall, C.S.D., a student of Mrs. Eddy’s, with whom Ethel’s parents and sister Lula had taken Primary class instruction. “She healed me of a severe case of something—which was never diagnosed—but which seemed nearly fatal,” Ethel explained.¹²

During the expansion of The Mother Church and its publishing activities, Ethel and her family also had a front-row seat to the transformation of the landscape around the church in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. In the summer of 1904, for instance, the Reids watched as the cornerstone of the domed Extension of the church was laid.

 

A number of their neighbors in Boston were well-known Christian Scientists, many of them Mrs. Eddy’s students. When her family lived at 25 St. Stephen Street, from 1899 to 1904, Ethel noted that they were “around the corner” from Ira Knapp, a member of The Mother Church’s Board of Directors, and his wife, Flavia, a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, along with their three children. On the Reids’ own street lived Joseph Mann, also a Christian Science teacher, his sister Pauline Mann, and Calvin Hill, a practitioner who went through Normal Class in 1902. Mr. Hill lived with the Manns and was superintendent of The Mother Church Sunday School during part of the time that Ethel attended.¹³

During their first year in Boston, 1898, the Reid family lived on St. Germain Street, next door to Minnie and Clarence Scott, who would soon set up their Christian Science practices nearby. Ethel and Mrs. Scott formed a strong bond.

In 1906, Mrs. Scott was invited to Concord, New Hampshire, to begin helping in Mrs. Eddy’s household. The following year, she wrote a letter to Ethel, explaining a bit about her work at Pleasant View: “I have been called upon to assume responsibilities that I did not dream I could carry successfully,” she confided, “but knowing that ‘it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure’ gives you confidence to undertake the work that comes, and increases our capabilities.”¹⁴

 

In February 1907, Minnie Scott invited Ethel to come to Concord for a visit.

“When the time comes that is described in Solomon’s Song 2:10 to 13, if you would like to accept the invitation in these verses perhaps you will ‘come away’ up here to see me,” she wrote, “that is, if I can still be as helpful as I believe I am to-day. When you think of me, just know that I am honoring God and all my friends by loving service here. …”

Mrs. Scott sent her love to the family and urged Ethel to “not neglect your Science study and work, for that insures success in other lines.” She signed the letter, “As ever your ‘Auntie’ Minnie A. Scott.”¹⁵

Ethel gladly accepted her invitation, traveling to Concord with another woman close to the Scotts.

“I remember so clearly walking up Pleasant Street and we saw Mrs. Eddy’s carriage coming along,” she later recalled. “She waved to us (as she did to everyone) and we hastened along to Pleasant View where we were greeted by our dear friend Minnie A. Scott. She had permission from Mrs. Laura E. Sargent to allow me to go out on the balcony and peer into Mrs. Eddy’s study—an experience I shall never forget, as my sister Bertha, our parents, and I were present in June 1903 when the beautiful balcony picture of Mrs. Eddy was taken by Mr. Kimball of Concord. To me, that is the true likeness of our Leader.”¹⁶

 

The correspondence between Minnie Scott and Ethel continued after Mrs. Scott moved with Mrs. Eddy and her household to 400 Beacon Street in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, in January 1908. That spring, Mrs. Scott sent an invitation to Ethel and Bertha to visit her, but it’s not clear if that visit ever took place.

At Christmastime, Ethel sent a book to Mrs. Scott as a gift. In her thank-you letter, Mrs. Scott noted, “I have not sent out anything but loving thoughts to you all, and it is good to know that thoughts winged with Truth and Love reach the dear ones and bring to them the happiness that is the truest and best. … The unceasing prayer that the Christ may be born in every heart is going out from this place daily, and in that way the work is blessing all mankind.”¹⁷

Ethel Reid went on to marry, raise two children, and contribute to civic life in her community. She remained devoted to Christian Science throughout her life, from her work as a child with the “Busy Bees” through active engagement with her branch church in the town of Sharon, Massachusetts.

The lives of faithful service she witnessed and the letters of her youth that she saved from such experienced Christian Scientists as Mary Speakman and Minnie Scott help show how the seeds of Ethel’s own spiritual progress and dedication were nurtured.

Stacy A. Teicher is Longyear’s senior research associate.

 

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_{Top photo: Ethel Reid (standing, at left) with two of her sisters, Bertha and Lula (seated), circa 1905. Courtesy of Bill Darrow.}

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