FALSE TONE! (Sol Wilson – Mrs. Eddy’s “fine instructor in reading”)

Julie Swannell

One of Mrs. Eddy students Sue Harper Mims records the following (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy):

She said, as I recall “Now I want you to speak distinctly.  When you speak distinctly it shows your mental quality.  Speak as if you had something that you wanted the world to hear.  Speak loud and strong and distinctly.”  Her own voice is very clear.

I wonder, do we naturally speak clearly or do most of us have to learn?  When I was at school, there were lessons on reading aloud (prose and poetry) and we were tested on both.  I am so glad of those lessons.  Later, I was directed to read a couple of very helpful and inspiring texts on the topic of reading aloud: Speak for Yourself – Essentials of Reading Aloud and Speaking by Jessica Somers Driver (my copy tells me it was a gift from my mother in October 1977!), and You Can Do It by actress Emma Dunn. 

The other side

Julie Swannell

Last month, as we read the book of Mark, a contributor commented that Jesus was always going over to "the other side" (of the lake).  I'd never taken much notice before, but it's been coming back to me a lot since then and I wonder at its possible significance. 

Could it be that Jesus needed to get away from the crowds - I'm sure he certainly did.  There were probably lots of reasons for jumping in the boat to go to the other side.  Or maybe he was getting new views...

What about us?  Are we trying to see things from the other person's point of view?  Or are we firmly stuck on "our side" of a discussion?

Joyce Voysey offers some answers to our questions on “Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy”

1. Ps 11: 1 says “Flee as a bird to your mountain.” What was Mrs Eddy’s take on this passage? (see p. 51 original ed. of Twelve Years..)

This question has been answered beautifully and at length by another contributor to the Book Club.  As I look at the quotation, now I see that it is talking about ‘your’, therefore ‘my’ mountain.  Could it be talking about the individuality of each one of us?  The exactness of the way prayer works for us?  Hence the rule that there can be no set formula for treating disease; each case is dealing with a different human consciousness.  

 

2. Who was Eddy’s instructor in reading? (see p. 80 original edition) 

Is this a trick question?

“One on God’s side is a Majority” by Joyce Voysey

In relation to the pages about war, I have written (Ed. I presume in the margins of Joyce’s copy of Twelve Years):  We need to be sure we take sides with Principle and not come too conclusions which are mere human opinions.  We need to pray! 

And I wrote a poem – a very unusual thing for me.  It didn’t get the nod from the editors of the Christian Science periodicals, but I still like it:

           

One on God’s side is a Majority

One on God’s side is a majority?

     How can that be?

Yet,

Mary Baker Eddy, inspired writer, teacher, leader,

quotes Wendell Phillips with authority –

“One on God’s side is a majority.”

Of course! That’s it!

 –   I’m touched by inspiration too –

I see

that, that one on God’s side knows

(and in Science knowing is all that is needed):

There is no other side than God’s.

The balance tips, and stays,

     because

All must be on God’s side –

   For there is no other.

It seems to me that the founding of The Christian Science Monitor was Mrs. Eddy’s gift to God’s universal family (see S&H 577:4), a gift which gives men the tools with which to confront all the problems, including war, which they face on a daily basis.  So today, The Christian Science Monitor is the Christian Scientists’ continuing gift of love to themselves and all mankind.  Are we truly grateful for the Monitor, supporting it, subscribing for it, reading it, praying with it and for it?

John Salchow’s gallant action in physically lifting Mrs. Eddy away from curious onlookers is delightfully described on page 199.  What a beautiful picture we have in our minds about that gorgeous happening.

The last chapter (XIV) declares Mary Baker Eddy’s place in the history of Christianity and the world.

Flee as a bird to your mountain (Ps 11: 1)

Julie Swannell

What is the Psalmist talking about?  Let’s take a look at two Bible translations and paraphrases first:

King James Version:
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?  For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?  The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.  The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.  Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.  For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

From Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message:
^1-3I've already run for dear life straight to the arms of God.
So why would I run away now
when you say,
"Run to the mountains; the evil
bows are bent, the wicked arrows
Aimed to shoot under cover of darkness
at every heart open to God.
The bottom's dropped out of the country;
good people don't have a chance"?

^4-6 But God hasn't moved to the mountains;
his holy address hasn't changed.
He's in charge, as always, his eyes
taking everything in, his eyelids
Unblinking, examining Adam's unruly brood
inside and out, not missing a thing.
He tests the good and the bad alike;
if anyone cheats, God's outraged.
Fail the test and you're out,
out in a hail of firestones,
Drinking from a canteen
filled with hot desert wind.

⁷ God's business is putting things right;
he loves getting the lines straight,
Setting us straight. Once we're standing tall,
we can look him straight in the eye.

From the Hebrew lexicon:

Flee (Hebrew: nüd) - move oneself; shake oneself; wander; be a fugitive; take flight
Bird (Hebrew: tsip·pōre') – any bird; sparrow
Mountain (Hebrew: har) – mountain, hill country, promotion

In Chapter 4 of Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, in discussing the topic of Healing, Tomlinson tells us that Mrs Eddy got a clear view of the “significance of the admonition” to flee as a bird to your mountain in regard to prayer.  He writes “She went to say that the little bird does not hop his way to the mountain; he flies straight and swift as an arrow. 

“Twelve years..” chapters 9 to12 (Joyce Voysey)

Chapter 9 - On page 134 we have Mrs. Eddy instructing lecturers.  The letter reproduced there is instructive for church members sponsoring lectures for their community.  Not just the lecturer is responsible for the message reaching the hearers.  Don’t you just love the last sentence in the letter?  “Think before you act and your thoughts will govern yours and other men’s lives more than your acts can.”

After page 134 I seem to have had a bit of a gap in reaction to what I was reading.  Was it because at the same time I was reading the new book about The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor Its History, Mission, and People by Keith Collins.  Anyway, I finished it yesterday, and my last evening’s reading of our book Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy brought some more response, starting from page 169.

Chapter 11 - Mrs. Eddy’s ability to excel in every department of her experience is a supreme example to us.  On page 169 Tomlinson reports on the running of her home.  It sounds like a clue to the later study of time and motion, when he writes: So smoothly adjusted was the domestic machinery of her household that the maximum of results was obtained with a minimum of labor.

Are we worthy?   by Joyce Voysey

Chapter 5 – Mrs Eddy is quoted on page 90 (Ed. - page 103 in the Amplified edition) as having used the terms Her and Herself for God, when teaching Christian Science.  What a beautiful quote it is: “Love is a Mother tenderly brooding over all Her children.  This Mother guards each one from harm, nourishes, holds close to Herself, and carefully leads along the upward way”.  Of course, Love as Father is also there being its loving, masterly self.  The point I am getting to is that nowhere in her writings do we find the feminine pronouns being capitalised.  It has me wondering

Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language

  Joyce Voysey

Mary Baker Eddy did not have many reference books, but she did have Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.  And what a reference book it is.  We are privileged that it has been reprinted and available for our study.  I have a note in mine that says the original printing was 2,500 copies in the U.S., and 3,000 copies in England.

I found this on the book’s website http://www.1828-dictionary.com/ : 

Greece and other things...Joyce Voysey

I wondered for a long, long time why Mrs. Eddy did not explain in detail how she healed Mr. Clark in Lynn of hip disease pronounced fatal (Science and Health p. 192/3).  Now, I have been reading the Tomlinson book at intervals ever since I was given it in 1975, and it is just now that I have found a beautiful explanation.  Here on page 51: The very presence of this God-inspired woman healed the sick, not because of human personality, but because of the truth which she spiritually perceived.  As the rays of the sun melt the snow and ice and warms whatever they touch, so did the purity of her consciousness bless and heal.

And, what a wonderful benediction on page 65 to round out that chapter of Mrs. Eddy’s healing works: "May the light of Divine love so illumine your mind that you behold yourself in His likeness, even as you are, - the image of perfect Mind.  Thus will you find all power, wisdom, and peace in goodness, and demonstrate the grace of Spirit as ever sufficient to help you in every time of need." (Ed: This is from a letter by MBE dated 1895.  The Notes refer the reader to Christian Science Sentinel July 25 1936 p. 938.  Readers with access to either the Bound Volumes of the periodicals or to JSH-online.com can check this out.)

In a previous post, I was somewhat stumped on how to decribe the exact feeling I had about Mary Baker’s mother’s influence for love on her.  I wasn’t really satisfied with how it finished up.  It reads:

FREEDOM FIGHTER by Joyce Voysey

As I have been reading, I’ve been on the lookout for evidence of the synonyms  of God (see Science and Health page 465 - What is God?) developing in Mary’s thought.  We have had Love and Principle.  And page 20 gives us an account of Mary’s discernment regarding the thought of an orange being left when the orange has been destroyed.  Surely, this is evidence that at an early age she was aware that God is Mind, though no doubt she would not have voiced it in these words.

Freedom is prominent in Chapter 2.  I wonder if there is one synonym which covers freedom?  Or could every synonym be covered with that momentous idea?  Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.  An interlude here while I ponder the synonyms.  What I have come up with is rather in the relative: they are a force in our human experience. 

Friends,

We are half way through the month of June.  How are you going with our project to read about Irving Tomlinson's Twelve Years with the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy?  I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.  And don't forget our questions as you read. 

Some people may wonder why we might choose to read about this woman.  Well, if I was learning the Beethoven Violin Concerto, I would certainly want to know a bit about the composer and his times in order to play the work with authenticity and understanding.  God speaks to all of us and we express our God-given talents in individual ways.  Each has his valued and valuable niche to fill and no one can take the place of another.  Paul writes in 1 Cor 14:10 "There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification."

Mary Baker Eddy lived in an era very different from our own.  It was interesting to catch the ABC TV program about Australian women campaigning for and gaining the right to vote earlier than any other women in the world, except New Zealanders!  Talk about pioneers!  When reading a book such as we have chosen, it is helpful to know what else was going on in the world at the same time so we can really get a feel for our subject.

Mary Baker growing up – Joyce Voysey

How tenderly Tomlinson speaks about our dear Leader, and her angelic and saintly mother.  Mary began early to work for God in shepherding pigs, lambs, children in school.  What a good child she was.  Sometimes ‘good’ people are shunned for their goodness by the more worldly-minded.  Is this because they have a personal sense of their own good, rather than expressing the good that is God?  “Great only as good” Mary Baker Eddy says of Paul and Jesus in Miscellaneous Writings p. 360:6. May we not include her in that description?

It seems that the student of Christian Science cannot come to a new look at a book about Mrs. Eddy without applying what they have already learned of her, her books, and her works.  The student has grown in Science since their last reading, and has a different perspective.

The truth that God is Love, she learned from her mother; that God is Principle and law, from her father and her brother Albert. 

Perhaps she could repeat all Psalm 119 from memory!  Easily!  ...Which led me to check

Pioneering
by Joyce Voysey

At the Wednesday Testimony Meeting at church last week, I opened the hymn book at a hymn with words by our author.  He given us the words for two beloved hymns: 5 – A voice from Heaven, and 236, a Christmas message – O peace of the world

Chapter 1  - In the first couple of pages the idea of pioneering seems to stand out.  What an example of pioneering Mrs Eddy was: pioneering in the realm of Spirit, uncovering the centuries of erroneous thinking which clouded the correct interpretation of what God is, and of man’s relationship to Him as His beloved child.  Well, this idea has set me a task: look up the word pioneer in her writings.

But, first to Noah Webster’s dictionary which says that the word pioneer derives from the word “to dig.” 

The Keeley Cure

from Joyce Voysey

 It seems I can’t leave the Foreword without speaking about the Keeley Cure.  What a fine example it is for us to know of Rev. Tomlinson’s experience.  How he yearned to help folk, yet all he, as a minister of the church, could offer to a man with a drinking habit, was the Keeley Cure, a popular medical treatment of the day, which did not really cure. There must be so many physicians and theologians who yearn in just that way to be able to give people what they need – divine healing.

 As usual, one may find information about the Keeley Cure on the Internet.  This was one I found.

Musings on Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy
- from Joyce Voysey

We still haven’t got to the main substance of the book.  “Illustrations” gives a list of photographs included in the book.  Another blank page before the author’s “Foreword.” at which the numbering of the pages begins with “1”.  I would mention here that I find it a good idea

to remove the paper dust jacket while reading a book.  This keeps it in good condition for shelving it ready for the next reading – by me or by someone else.
 Oh!  I missed something.  

Joyce Voysey writes: How delightful to have Chesterfield defined.  Thank you, Julie.  If I had been asked (without reference to the quote from the book) what a Chesterfield was, I would have said, “Some sort of a gun – old.”  Way off the mark!  I find that a friend has a Chesterfield chair.  Already I have learned something.  Chesterfield is a town the county of Derby in England. Some of my ancestors came to Australia from there.

Back to my musings about starting out on a new book read.  The other thing that I seek out is a note about the author,

Monday 4th June, Joyce Voysey wrote:
I am delighted that we will be reading Tomlinson's Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy.  For many years it was my favourite book about the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Interestingly, it was a biography of Mary Baker Eddy which introduced me to Christian Science: Lyman Powell's Mary Baker Eddy: A Life in Protest.  I had gone to a public library in Brisbane in search of something about Eastern religions. 

You see I had been touched by God

Chesterfield Manners
- by Julie Swannell

I was interested to read Mrs Eddy's description of her beloved brother Albert: "He possessed the manners of a Chesterfield.."  Now, I'm sure Mrs Eddy's listeners would have understood her reference, but to me in 2012, it doesn't ring a single bell (isn't a Chesterfield a certain type of upholstered couch with regularly spaced buttons?  Answer: Yes).  So, in these days when manners are rarely discussed, and often largely untaught, I have no idea what she could be talking about.  Forunately, with Google,

Amplified Edition of 1996 available in Reading Rooms
- Julie Swannell,editor

An amplified edition of Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy was issued in 1996. Here's an excerpt about it from the www.christianscience.com web site:

Tomlinson worked closely with Mary Baker Eddy for more than a decade, and this insightful work includes many of his personal recollections. Reissued in 1996,

Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy – starting out

Mary Baker Eddy has written in her autobiographical work Retrospection and Introspection: "The motive of my earliest labors has never changed.  It was to relieve the sufferings of humanity by a sanitary system that should include all moral and religious reform." (Ret 30: 7)
As I read Tomlinson’s book once again, I am going to let these words inform my perspective.

Musings on starting a new book ...from Joyce Voysey 4^th June 2012

When I start a new book, I look at the pages which do not have pages numbers although they are actually numbered - for instance Science and Health's third page (i.e. iii) isn't printed as such. What a lovely page!  I have been known to finish my Wednesday Testimony Meeting readings with Mrs. Eddy's beautiful prayer/poem which appears there:

Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest: -
Thou here, and everywhere.

So...our book – Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy – isn't like that;

Our June book is Irving Tomlinson’s “Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy” and here are the questions:

1.    Ps 11: 1 says “Flee as a bird to your mountain.”  What was Mrs Eddy’s take on this passage? (see p. 51 original ed. of Twelve Years..)

The Gospel of Mark – Guest Contribution from Anita Byth in Greece; thank you Anita.

 Thanks Redcliffe for choosing The Gospel of Mark as your May Book of the Month!

 It’s such a great read. What really stood out to me is how Jesus, although he was right there amongst the masses, right in the thick of it, seemed to me to not be a part of it, always above the issue, as if he was on another plane – which of course he was. His plane was Spirit. His view was God’s view.

 In Chapter 1, John the Baptist is described as a ‘wildman’ type – dressing in camel hair and skins and eating wild honey and locusts – but not Jesus. The description of Jesus is that the Spirit descended upon him. There are no descriptions of Jesus’ material persona,