Reading Room Discoveries

Joyce Voysey

Back to hymns.  Hymns 88 and 89, "Gracious Spirit, dwell with me", have words by Thomas Lynch, a minister for small groups in London (1818-1871).  The asterisk beside his name indicates that the words have been adapted for our hymnal, but they are so spiritually perceptive that one would suppose them to have been written by a student of Christian Science.  I would like to see the original poem.

I am in awe of all the work that must have gone into compiling our Hymnal and the Hymnal Notes.  In our Reading Room on Wednesday, I found in the December 2, 1933 copy of the Christian Science Sentinel the announcement of the publication and sale of Hymnal Notes in book form.  They had previously been printed in The Christian Science Monitor, between October 1892 and the date of publication as a book.

The Sentinel notice (http://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1933/12/36-14/notices) includes this statement, which beautifully expresses something of what I feel about the Notes:  “It presents incidentally a vivid story of music, as a whole, in its treatment of the great composers, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and others.”

In the May 1933 Sentinel there is another note which rings true for us to-day, with our new Supplement to the Hymnal http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1933/5/51-2/items-of-interest:

“Neither Christian Science Sunday schools nor Christian Science churches in their meetings and services need feel that every tune in the revised Hymnal is to be sung by them.  The thought which led to the selection of so many tunes to certain hymns was that among them would be tunes which would please the various tastes and nationalities which are now represented in the Christian Science churches.  It was not the thought that any one church need feel that it must use each of these tunes irrespective of its adaptability to the needs of its congregation.  Let the membership learn to know and love these new tunes, particularly the more difficult ones, before they are frequently selected for the services. There is spiritual food within the covers of the Hymnal sufficient for years to come, and care in selection of suitable tunes for particular congregations and Sunday schools will avoid occasions when some are disappointed because they feel unable to sing the hymns. In some churches at every service familiar tunes are chosen in addition to one new tune.”

The note includes a list of hymns suitable for Sunday school singing.

I love to find “stuff” in the Reading Room and then go home and look it up on http://jsh-

online.com.  For instance, this week I found interesting items in the April and July 1933 editions of The Christian Science Journal:

- Christian Science is recommended for mothers: “There are no problems too small in the daily round of duties that Christian Science cannot help us mothers to solve” p.50 (http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1933/4/51-1/i-wish-to-express-my-gratitude); and

- Regarding the Benevolent Assn. Sanatorium in Boston: “One did not visit there for a physical healing, but to get better acquainted with God” p. 235 (http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1933/7/51-4/after-many-postponements-i-feel).

I’ll now share some inspiration that came to me following my reading of the Lesson-Sermon on “Spirit” earlier this week.  I had a clear thought that God didn’t say, “I’ll get all the ingredients/components together and make man and the universe.”  He created by BEING.  The creation IS being.