Christian Science Reading Room is Nassau's quiet sanctuary

How many students actually visit the Christian Science Reading Room on Nassau Street? Mary Ellen Schott, the reading room's librarian, hesitated for a moment before answering in a soft voice.

"Well, a girl came by who was writing a paper on Christian radio shows for one of her classes," she said.

Even though it doesn't seem to draw crowds, the reading room is located in a well-trafficked area, across the street from Thomas Sweet, a few doors down from CVS Pharmacy and right next door to Princeton Wine and Liquor.

In some ways, the two neighbors aren't so different. Both have biblical (or pseudo-biblical quotes) in their recent window displays. The reading room's quote, displayed above a decorative basket of bread, reads, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger . . . ," and is attributed to Christ Jesus. The liquor store's anonymous quote is pasted less obtrusively above a St. Patrick's Day display complete with plastic green Irish hats and, of course, Bailey's, and it reads, "God in his goodness sent the grapes to cheer both great and small; little fools will drink too much, and great fools not at all."

Schott said the reading room and the liquor store share the same parking lot and that she's friendly with the owners, but that "it's a different sense of spirit."

"This is our church's outreach to the community; we're just making the truths available for people," she said.

"All we really know about them is that they're over there. That's it," a cashier at the liquor store said.

Every Christian Scientist church is required to have a reading room in an accessible part of town, and Princeton's reading room is attached to the First Church of Christ, Scientist on Bayard Lane, which has a 10:30 a.m. Sunday Service and Sunday School and a 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Evening Testimonial Meeting.

The reading room is meant to be a space for reading and study, and it sells the publications put out by the Christian Science Publishing Society, mostly the works of Mary Baker Eddy.

"We call her the discoverer and founder of Christian Science," Schott said, explaining Eddy's 1866 experience of healing through prayer.

Eddy's face, with its misty, piercing blue eyes, is inescapable, popping out at you from the covers of books and from several portraits both in the reading room proper and the back study room, where a desk and chairs are available as well as a complete set of the Christian Science Sentinel beginning with the year 1898.

Schott pulled down a recent issue of the church's monthly magazine and pointed out a testimonial of recovery through prayer.

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"Scorpion sting healed — that was from someone in Spain," she said.

For those who want to read Eddy's "Science and Health" in Spanish, the reading room is the right place. The reading room carries the text in 16 different languages. It also offers the Church's Weekly Bible Lessons — colorful booklets that have pictures of leopards and zebras on the front; a cassette tape titled, "Living Well: Healthy, Vital, Age-proof;" and a little children's desk with a puzzle of "Daniel in the Lion's Den."

Gazing out the window, Schott said that the people sitting outside on the bench in front from time to time don't usually have anything to do with the church or reading room.

"Sometimes people just sit out there. Maybe they're having lunch. Maybe they have to tie their shoelaces."

When Schott was a student, she probably wouldn't have stepped inside the reading room either. She became a Christian Scientist as an adult, after reading Eddy. Was religion something she discovered after college?

"Yes, I think you could say that," she said with a small laugh.