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.” 

Surely, this is what we do as students of the Science of Christianity that Mrs. Eddy has interpreted for us – we dig into the Bible and her writings for enlightenment.  We are all pioneers, and Science and Health states, ‘The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle, “of whom the world was not worthy,” awaits, in some form every pioneer of truth’; hence, the need to keep digging.

Webster has further: 1. In the art and practice of war, one whose business is to march with or before an army to repair the road or clear it of obstructions, work at intrenchments, or form mines for destroying an enemy’s works.  2. One that goes before to remove obstructions or repair the way for another.

And on the internet I found: 1. One who ventures into unknown or unclaimed territory to settle.

2. One who opens up new areas of thought, research, or development: a pioneer in aviation.

How apt that is for Mrs. Eddy’s work of founding Christian Science.  She says in Retrospection and Introspection (page 20): “As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone in this conflict, endeavouring to smite error with the falchion of Truth.  The rare bequests of Christian Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which the dainty borrower would have fled.  Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and love, have cleared its pathway.” 

The warfare angle is prominent in this reasoning, so I turn to S&H (page 324:15) to confirm that, in speaking of the way to salvation: ‘It is a warfare with the flesh, in which we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here or hereafter, - certainly before we can reach the goal of Spirit, or life in God.’ 

Pioneers in Christian Science need to be sturdy, and able to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough granite.  Then the results of that work will be seen in future ages.  See S&H vii:23.

All of which reminds me of a statement from Mrs. Eddy’s Miscellany, “We live in an age of Love’s divine adventure to be All-in-all.”