Nature's role

April Book Club, 2016 – Christian Science versus Panthiesm (Pan.) by Mary Baker Eddy

As she speaks of the seasons which had come and gone since the previous Communion season in 1897, Mrs. Eddy doesn’t speak only of the uncomfortable qualities of the weather of various month but also of the comfortable: the “winds of March” have hummed hymns as well as shrieked; April’s smile as well as its frown is noted; and, ever poetical in her utterances, she rejoices in the laugh of May and the roseate blush of joyous June. (See Pan. 1:5.)

Mrs. Eddy had an extraordinary love of nature.  Hear this from page 240 of Science and Health in praise of nature:

Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature.  Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect.  The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity.  Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and he leaflet turns naturally towards the light.

Her Miscellaneous Writings 86:9-14 is also helpful on this subject.

However, as we have noted in previous blogs, Mrs. Eddy was adamant that her students pray about excesses of weather such as snow- and thunder-storms. This paragraph on page 192 of Science and Health gives much to work on, and with, in this regard -

         Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind and not of the immortal.  It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest’s breath.  It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, wicked, dishonest, and impure.

My goodness: what does she mean by “the feast of our Passover” (Pan. 1: 2)?  It cannot be a ritual. 

No doubt one should start with a Bible Dictionary to find out the Biblical usage of the word Passover.  My edition provides about 2 full pages of information.  I will content myself with the opening sentence and definition – “The religious festival commemorating God’s deliverance of the Jews from bondage.”

Already, the student of Christian Science can see a connection with his or her own experience; however, we find two satisfying references in Mrs. Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings, beginning page 90:

1.  In answer to a question about administration of communion in Christian Science, she writes:

Our great Master administered to his disciples the Passover, or last supper, without this prerogative being conferred by a visible organization and ordained priesthood.  His spiritually prepared breakfast, after his resurrection, and after his disciples had left their nets to follow him, is the spiritual communion which Christian Scientist celebrate in commemoration of the Christ.  This ordinance is significant as a type of the true worship, and it should be observed at present in our churches.

2.  In Message for 1900, she speaks again of the Passover:

To sit at this table of their Lord and partake of what Love hath prepared for them, Christian Scientists start forward with true ambition.  The Passover, spiritually discerned, is a wonderful passage over a tear-filled sea of repentance – which of all human experience is the most divine; and after this Passover cometh victory, faith, and good works.

In checking “Passover” in JSH-Online (http://jsh.christianscience.com/console), I found much of interest about the Communion Season of The Mother Church at Annual Meeting time in June.  Mrs. Eddy abolished this yearly gathering of Christian Scientists* in Boston in 1908. When the size of the audience far exceeded the size of The Mother Church’s seating capacity, it was a reasonable thing to do.  It seems these gatherings were, in the experiences of the members, something to really cherish: members apparently wished wish that they would never end, so inspiring were they.  Hence, the “feast.”

*     Ed. The Communion season was abolished, not Annual Meeting. See Church Manual: Man. 61:8-10 The The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, shall observe no more Communion seasons.

The second paragraph (Pan 1: 11) starts out with a word I thought perhaps I didn’t quite know the definition of – “unctuous”. That turned out to be an understatement.  Here is the first definition which came up on Google:

1.      Excessively flattering or ingratiating; oily - “he seemed anxious to please
       but not in an unctuous way”
       http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/unctuous

Synonyms: sycophantic, ingratiating, obsequious, fawning, servile, self-abasing, groveling subservient, wheedling, cajoling, crawling, cringing, Uriah Heepish, humble, toadying, hypocritical insincere, flattering adulatory, honey-tonged, silver-tonged, gushing effusive, suave, urbane, glib, smooth, smooth-tongue, smooth-spoken smooth-talking, slick, slippery, saccharine; (And it promised more!)

(How exact Charles Dickens was with his words and in choosing names.  Uriah Heep [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uriah_Heep] was just the character I thought of as I typed all those synonyms.)

2.      Webster is more modest:
         http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Unctuous

         Unctuous.  Fat; oily, greasy.  Having a resemblance to oil, as, the unctuous feel of a stone.

I am sorry to say that I am not getting a true sense of Mrs. Eddy’s meaning when she writes, “In unctuous unison with nature…”   I am going to send this off to the blog and contemplate further on this paragraph. 

Any input from others would be most welcome.

Joyce Voysey