TREASURED BOOK LOVED TO BITS!

Here are one Book Club member’s answers to our questions about this month’s book, Miscellaneous Writings (Mis.) by Mary Baker Eddy.

Part 1

 

1. When the articles were first written, what else was happening in the Christian Science movement?

- Wow! What a question! 

Robert Peel’s books Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial and Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority deal with those years.  He writes on p. 34 of Trial: “Through much of 1878 Mrs. Eddy felt that she was literally battling for the life of her movement, and in retrospect it seems something of a miracle that it did escape obliteration at that time.” 

This warfare had been with her since her discovery, and the beginnings of her teaching of this Science.  She says that, “In compiling this work, I have tried to remove the pioneer signs and ensigns of war, and to retain at this date the privileged armaments of peace” (pp. xi & xii).

In his books, Peel gives a Chronology of Notable Events through the years.  It would be interesting to know in what order the articles were published.  The Chronology says the first edition of Science &Health was published in 1975 and Christian Healing in 1880; Retrospection and Introspection in 1891; Pulpit and Press 1895.    

 I do wonder about Love Your Enemies (p. 8): was that written specially for inclusion in Mis.?

 

2. When and why did Mary Baker Eddy decide to collect them into a single volume?

- Copyright 1896; Preface date 1897.

- She had received requests for a book for reference and she saw the need for a guidebook. 

-  She was concerned about the quality of the Class teaching being done by her students, and students of her students.

 

Peel writes in Authority that “It marked, in a way, the watershed between the formative and productive years of the church’s history” (p. 101).   And that “the new book, gathering up the lessons of the past, had a good deal more of the personal Mrs. Eddy in it than did Science and Health” (p. 103).  He quotes her as having written to Carol Norton: “My heart speaks to you in my last book” whereas Science and Health has so much of “the divine heart”, and less of her own human feelings.  And on p. 104: “...Miscellaneous Writings gave practical instruction on how to be a more effective student and church member.”

           

 

3. To whom was the book dedicated?

- “To loyal Christian Scientists in this and every land”

 

4. Which, to you, is the most interesting question and answer in Chapter 3?

 - “What course should Christian Scientists take in regard to aiding persons brought before the courts for violation of medical statutes?” (p. 79)

 

5. Which is your favourite article and why?

- This could be a trick question.  I read and wonder at Mrs. Eddy’s Christian Science in Tremont Temple (p 95).  Surely I must say this is my favourite!  Then the Extract from My First Address in The Mother Church, May 26, 1895 (p. 106), with its three cardinal points or stages, the second stage of which – repentance – mortals must hasten through, and on to the third stage – the understanding of good.  Surely that must really be my favourite. 

 

But the Message to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, Boston, 1896 (p. 125), really must take pride of place in my affection.  Do not I read from it every day, especially p.127:7, as one of my Daily Duties?  And opposite, on page 126: “No reproof is so potent as the silent lesson of a good example.”   And here, on page 127, we have “the human heart, like a feather bed, needs often to be stirred, sometimes roughly...” Actually, those two pages are shiny with use. 

 

 By the way, I have decided to pension off my original copy of Prose Works.  You are probably glad!  But the leather one has a long way to go to be as comfy as the old one.  Already I am consulting the old one for marked passages.

 

6. Which is your favourite sermon from Chapter 6 and why?

- The first one which begins on page 168, mostly because of the Bible text (Matt xxii. 29): “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”  It seems to encapsulate all that keeps folk from accepting God as their Saviour.  The first paragraph on page 169 is so uplifting.  Here she speaks of her own experience.  How beautiful that the “uplifting of spirit was the upbuilding of the body” for her.

 

7. What is the over-riding sentiment in the letters in Chapter 5?

- The Rule for Motives and Acts from the Manual of The Mother Church (p. 40) comes strongly to mind: 

“Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church.  In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness.  The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counselling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.”

 

Joyce Voysey