Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/554



is no fundamental similarity between Christian Science and Shakerism, but there are significant resemblances. Ann Lee's main contribution to religious theories or pretensions was the idea that God is both masculine and feminine. She, herself, claimed to be the "female principle of God," and the Shakers believed and taught that she was the "female Christ." Mrs. Eddy also teaches the femininity of God, and Christian Scientists have claimed that she is the "feminine principle of Deity." The Shakers asserted for Ann Lee that she was greater than Christ. Mrs. Eddy has said that her revelation of Christian Science was "higher, clearer, and more permanent," than that given eighteen centuries ago. The Shakers prayed always to "Our Father and Mother which are in Heaven," while Mrs. Eddy has "spiritually interpreted" the Lord's Prayer, making it read: "Our Father-Mother God." The Shakers proclaimed Ann Lee to be the woman of the Apocalypse, calling her the "God-anointed Woman," and the "Holy Comforter." In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has called the attention of her followers to the significance of the chapter in Revelation on the woman of the Apocalypse and its "relation to the present age," suggesting that the woman represents the founder of Christian Science. Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy teaches, is the "Holy Comforter." In the original