My well-worn copy of Prose Works

As I read the chapter Questions and Answers, I wondered how I reacted to it on first reading...so long ago.  I sort of wished that I was now reading it for the first time. 

My original copy of Prose Works is in a well-used (to say the least) state.  In the early days of my study of Christian Science, the little Group I belonged to didn’t have a Reading Room.  We normally visited the Reading Room in Brisbane city.  But in my travels, one day I passed the Reading Room in Fortitude Valley.  The only copy of Prose Works available there was a quite de-luxe one, with gilt edges to the pages.  I hesitated to pay the price, expecting to get a cheaper binding to match my copies of the Bible and Science and Health.  However, I did pay the price.  The gilt edging is barely discernible now; the front cover and spine are detached; it has marking papers scattered throughout; it has loose pages; and it has hand-written notes in the back pages.  It has been much loved – and well worth the price!

Oops!  I forgot to mention that it went with me to Perth when I had Class Instruction, and the front end papers are adorned with the signatures of my teacher and most of the members of the class.  August 1974.

Meanwhile the leather-bound copy of much later vintage waits patiently at my bed-side.  Yes, it gets used as well.

On page 39, Mrs. Eddy says that she had been all her years in giving birth to Christian Science.  How wonderful it is to ponder that statement.  Can we relate to it in any way?  Were all my experiences before being led to Christian Science part of my “new birth”?

It seems to me that there is quite a strong theme so far in this book, namely, the danger of misuse of the teaching of Christian Science, of rivalry, incorrect teaching, etc.  Students must be honest!

I remember writing pages in answer to a friend’s question, “But where did evil come from?”  Many years later I became aware (having read it before many times) that Mrs. Eddy had answered it in about two-thirds of a page.  (See Mis. 45:21-9.)   I hadn’t taken the question to the source and authority of Truth.

Joyce Voysey