A reader from the Sunshine Coast, Meg McCauley, writes that although her reading of the Years of Trial is progressing very slowly, she is "appreciating it much more" than the first time around.
In fact Meg first read it as a Sunday school student and felt that "nobody could be that good"! Later, as she was re-discovering Christian Science, her Mum gave her the set of three books and for Meg "it was through reading them that I began to appreciate and love Mrs. Eddy and the scale of her discovery and love for all mankind."
My reading is also progressing slowly, but am just loving what I'm discovering. For instance, reading the opening paragraph of chapter three, I was struck by the fact that Mrs. Eddy was lecturing in the Baptist Tabernacle in Boston. Her topic was "The Art of Healing by Divine Power", the first in a series of lecture-sermons which were followed by open discussion (page 61). Peel indicates that it was through the interest generated by these lectures, along with often "electrifying" testimony from ordinary folk, that "Christian Science began to strike roots in Boston".
The following pages follow the emerging movement and its structuring as a church body and it's interesting to read that while just nine members voted to form the fledgling church in April 1979, by August there were 26 members.
As I'm concurrently reading Julia Baird's new book Victoria, the Queen, I was interested to read that Gilbert Eddy was "always faultlessly attired in a Prince Albert". It seems that Victoria and her consort's influence reached beyond the realm of Britain and her colonies, though I am not sure of the actual garments which might make up such a costume.
Julie Swannell
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