A change of heart

I love to read about Paul’s coming to Christianity.  He says, “I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It seems to me that he joined up all the dots of that silver thread of the Christ which runs through the Old Testament and which his training in the Jewish faith had set in his consciousness.  The Christ, Truth, was then separated from the Pharisaical traditions which had so mesmerised him that he had persecuted the followers of Jesus.  He took three years for solid, solitary thought about it all in the wilderness of Arabia before he went to Jerusalem to see Peter and James, Jesus brother.

I have had a couple of occasions lately where it was appropriate to tell of my coming to Christian Science.  It seems fitting to repeat the story here.  It proves that to-day the Christ can still come to us directly.

Although I attended Sunday School as a child, I gained no comprehension of what it was to be a Christian.  When I had children of my own, I sent them to a Church of England Sunday School, reasoning that they had the right to accept  the teachings or not.  I sometimes accompanied my Aunt to Communion Services at the same church.  People who actually believed in God seemed strange to me, although some of my good friends fell into that category.

Then one night in bed a most wonderful feeling came over me that God is real and an influence on my life.  It was a beautiful, warm feeling around the heart.  I immediately started to pray to God – to this feeling of what God is, I suppose it could be called.  Again in bed, each evening I asked God to fix various things in my life.  The next evening I would thank Him and proceed to more things.  I say “things” because I do not recall what I asked for.  The request and the thanks are what I remember.

I went to the minister of the church and asked him to tell me something about God.  He merely gave me some International Bible Lessons.  They did nothing for me.  So I began to wonder if the Eastern religions could hold the answer for me.  I went to the public library.  Right next to the Eastern-type religious books was a biography of Mary Baker Eddy – Lyman Powell’s Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait.  I took it home and devoured it, coming to the conclusion that here was the perfect religion.   Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was right next to the Powell book, so, of course, I borrowed it. 

This was some 53 years ago.  The perfect religion it has proven to be.

I looked up Lyman Powell on JSH Online.  It seems the book was published in 1931. 

Here is what I found:

After so much misinformation having been spread abroad...

by Oscar Graham Peeke, Committee on Publication for the State of Missouri,

From the July 11, 1931 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Independence Leader

After so much misinformation having been spread abroad regarding Mrs. Eddy, it is gratifying to know that an authentic history of her life and work has been written by the Rev. Dr. Lyman P. Powell, rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in New York, and has recently been published by The Macmillan Company. This book presents a truthful picture of Mrs. Eddy throughout, and gives a correct and comprehensive account of the Christian Science movement from the time of its organization by Mrs. Eddy. Dr. Powell has aptly named his book "Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait." Although an Episcopal minister, Dr. Powell was eminently qualified to write Mrs. Eddy's biography. Besides his work as rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, he has to his credit a great many books and magazine articles, and is widely known as a speaker of note. Dr. Powell commenced to study Mrs. Eddy's work many years ago, and has devoted to his subject a vast amount of time and thought.

It should be known that besides Mrs. Eddy's autobiography in "Retrospection and Introspection," the authorized or approved biographies of this great religious Leader are Sibyl Wilbur's "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy" and Dr. Powell's book as hereinbefore mentioned.

So, by 1931, it seems there had been only two biographies of Mary Baker Eddy published.  I would be interested to have a time-line of publishing dates for all of the many biographies we have now.

 Joyce Voysey