Total Pageviews

Sunday, 10 June 2012

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.  
My copy of the book is inscribed as a gift to me with love from my daughter Julie and her husband.  Date February, 1978.  There is also a bookplate (with a wise owl and its owlet reproduction of a painting “Ural Owl – Syrnium Uralense”) which states:

EX LIBRIS

Joyce Voysey

There is more: Notations appear at the bottom of the pages.  Do you get the idea that I love books?  When I was a child and bored, I was told to, “Go and read a book.”  I did – and do.  My husband’s business was printing, and we have produced a small book of my memories up till about age 16.


Now to the Foreword -

Qualities expressed by Mrs. Eddy mined from this chapter: graciousness & consideration; tenderness, loving motherly solicitude; soulful quality of her deep-set blue eyes; stately dignity; keenest intelligence; energy, originality and executive ability; remarkable and noble; self-effacement; complete love for God and man; inspiring love, inspiration, and unselfish example; modesty; self-forgetfulness, patience, unfaltering tenderness.

In considering the meekness of this remarkable, inspired woman, one is reminded of what is written of Moses in the book of Numbers 12:3: Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.  And Jesus words, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”  (John 5:30)  Never since Jesus has there been one who was so in tune with God that she did His will in every event of her life.  A contemporary book, Mary Baker Eddy Christian Healer by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis amd Robert Townsend Warneck, records many accounts of the healing results of this closeness to God, divine Love. ~

1 comment:

Christian Science Reading Room Redcliffe said...

It's interesting that the 1996 edition is numbered differently from the earlier editions. It has four additional pages prior to the Publisher's Note. They are titled:
INTRODUCTION - Twentieth-Century Biographers Series, which includes the following information:

"Mrs Eddy wrote only briefly about herself....Yet she came to see the need for an accurate account of her life..

"As we near the close of a century that directly witnessed some of Mary Baker Eddy's major contributions, The Christian Science Publishing Society, the publishing arm of the church she established, has reexamined the church's obligations to future generations and centuries, in providing an appreciation and understanding of her remarkable career.

"Irving C. Tomlinson assembled what is probably the lengthiest reminiscence of anyone who worked with and knew Mary Baker Eddy. During the last twelve years of her life, he served in her household at difference periods... Mrs. Eddy also told him much about her early life and her work after discovering Christian Science.

"Mr. Tomlinson wrote over eight hundred pages of reminiscences and then proceeded to pare them down to the smaller book that was eventually published as "Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy". After his passing the final details regarding the publication of his book were handled by his widow. She delivered the manuscript to the Publishing Society in January 1945, and the book was published by that autumn.

"His account, which has been a particular favorite with many because of the immediacy of its narrative, is now being reissued in an amplified form.."

Popular Posts