“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.


We, her followers*, know in theory that “with God all things are possible”, but are we reluctant in our work for church to take on a position that will require us to extend ourselves and demand that we demonstrate over limitations and prove what we are learning? 

(*Note Mrs Eddy's Message to The Mother Church 1901 says: "..study the Bible and the textbook of our denomination; obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ." p. 34:23)

Calvin Frye.  How can one describe his position in Mrs. Eddy’s life in a few words?  How he must have demonstrated the truth of being in order to accomplish all that he did in his service to his Leader.  Tomlinson itemises some of those duties from the early days: kept her books, superintended the household buying, took her dictation, typing or writing in longhand a vast number of her letters and most of her articles.   Imagine taking down the book Unity of Good from her dictation!  Did he learn shorthand and typewriting?  Longhand and ‘hunt and peck’ typing?  That dear man.  We read that he didn’t always get everything right, but how much he accomplished in the service of this great woman.

On page 173 I queried “horsecloth armchair”.  What is horsecloth?  Cloth made with horse or camel hair, it seems.  Not a satisfactory search.  Couldn’t find a photo of a chair.

Don’t you wish Tomlinson had spelled out for us the qualities he thought should characterise those coming into Christian Science, the list Mrs. Eddy praised as follows when she said to him: “You have struck the very fundamentals of our religion…If you will be true to those sentiments, you will progress in Christian Science.” Pages 174 and 175

Chapter 12 seems to exhort us to be better citizens of our cities and towns.  Not just moaning about something we see as needing to be done, but actually doing something to start the process moving.

I couldn’t find anything that satisfied my curiosity about “Utica” (Page 184 has: No pent up Utica confines her powers.) Anyone got an idea?

Ed.  The phrase seems to be attributed to Aristotle, as noted by a recent author as follows (http://www.proz.com/kudoz/English/poetry_literature/3658489-utica.html):

We can well imagine how Aristotle, the mountain-climber and horseman, at times grew heartily tired of the faultily faultless garden with its high wall and gravelled walks and delicate shrubbery, and shouted aloud in protest, "The whole world of mountain, valley and plain should be our Academy, not this pent-up Utica that contracts our powers."

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Wickipedia tells us the following:
Utica, ancient city, N Africa

Utica (y `tĭkə), ancient N African city, c.25 mi (40 km) NW of Carthage. According to tradition, it was founded by Phoenicians from Tyre c.1100 B.C. Second in importance to Carthage, Utica usually allied itself with that city, but in the Third Punic War it sided with Rome against Carthage. Upon the destruction of Carthage (146 B.C.), Utica was made the capital of the Roman province of Africa. It fell (A.D. 439) to the Vandals, was recaptured (534) by the Byzantines, and was finally destroyed (c.700) by the Arabs. Excavations at the site have yielded two Punic cemeteries and Roman ruins, including baths and a villa with mosaics.

How can one forget the bullet in the "Testament" story on page 185? 

Freedom enters our story on page 186, not that it really left it I guess, setting the prisoners free mentally.  The different old theology approach is cited at the bottom of the page.

Page 187’s note to Clara Louise Burnham “Our sex seems to be needed at this period to lift the darkness and to cheer the faithful sentinels at their posts of love and duty” has me wondering: is this woman’s era?  Are Mrs. Eddy’s healing works the outcome of the going before e.g. Elijah, Jesus, and Paul?  Our CS Lesson-Sermon this week “Christian Science” brings out healings by Elijah, Jesus and Paul, plus Mary (Baker Eddy).  I am reminded of Mrs. Eddy’s poem printed in Miscellaneous Writings Woman’s Rights:

Grave on her monumental pile:

She won from vice, by virtue’s smile,
Her dazzling crown, her sceptred throne,
Affection’s wreath, a happy home;

The right to worship deep and pure,
To bless the orphan, feed the poor;
Last at the cross to mourn her Lord,
First at the tomb to hear his word:

To fold an angel’s wings below;
And hover o’er the couch of woe;
To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet,
The right to sit at Jesus’ feet;

To form the bud for bursting bloom,
The hoary head with joy to crown;
In short, the right to work and pray,
“To point to heaven and lead the way.”

That wonderful last line is a quote from another source, but we do not know whose it might be.  (Ed. It appears to have come from Freemasonry.)

I finished up my reading before sleep last night with the idea that this chapter is all about loving one’s neighbour.   Still a couple of pages to go - two more chapters before I finish the book.