Sir John Bowring and hymn 79

Sir John Bowring (1798-1872), mentioned in Unity of Good, p. 26, by Mary Baker Eddy.

Bowring had quite a few strings to his bow, including being familiar with over one hundred languages, being governor of Hong Kong (1854-9) and writing a number of hymns. The entry about him in Wikipedia suggests that he was a Unitarian, and it offers the following information about one compilation of his hymns:

Hymns (Privately published, 1825) This includes the hymns In the cross of Christ I Glory, and Watchman, Tell Us of the Night, both still used in many churches. The American composer Charles Ives used part of Watchman, Tell Us of the Night in the opening movement of his Fourth Symphony.

A check in the 'Authors and Sources' section at the back of the Christian Science Hymnal (pp. 621-626) lists the following hymn authorship by him:

• 79          God is Love: His mercy brightens
• 128/9     How sweetly flowed the gospel sound
• 133/424 I cannot always trace the way
• 363        Upon the Gospel's sacred page
• 368/9     Watchman, tell us of the night

Mary Baker Eddy's reference to Bowring concerns hymn 79. She objected to one particular verse--

Chance and change are busy ever,
Man decays and ages move; 
But His mercy waneth never, --
God is wisdom, God is love.

This verse has been omitted in our hymnal. Mrs. Eddy reasoned that 'if it be true that God's power never waneth, how can it be also true that chance and change are universal factors, - that man decays?' (Unity of Good, p. 26). She continues, 'Many ordinary Christians protest against this stanza of Bowring's, and its sentiment is foreign to Christian Scientists' (ibid). 

We can be glad to sing the hymn without this offending stanza. I, for one, always cherish the recurring message of the hymn: God is wisdom, God is Love.

Julie Swannell

Brave Blondin

Firstly, please accept apologies for the rogue posting that popped up on this site on Tuesday. Technical difficulties! 

Blondin (1824-1897) - mentioned in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 199 - is a fascinating character. Real name: Jean Francois Gravelet.

French-born Blondin's passion for rope-walking began as a child 'when a troupe of acrobats pitched their tent near his home at St. Omer' (Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them, p. 36). I wonder what his mother thought as he 'practiced crawling out on branches...catch[ing] hold of the branch above and swing[ing] himself up' (ibid)! 

In fact, by the time 'he was five, his parents placed him in the École de Gymnase in Lyons...[and soon]...he appeared as Little Wonder' (p. 37).

I especially enjoyed reading that 'In 1851 he came with a French company of equestrian and acrobatic performers to the United States. On the voyage a man was washed overboard. At once Blondin jumped in and rescued him' (ibid) and that 'While performing, he never looked down, but always straight ahead' (ibid).

The internet has many many references to Blondin - even some videos of his crossing the Niagara Falls. This entry from History Today is interesting: 'Blondin's first crossing of the Niagara Falls, in 1859, was the most famous feat in a life packed with them and like all the others was painstakingly prepared, ...'

A writer to the Christian Science Sentinel of April 14, 1962, mentions Blondin in his article regarding self-discipline. Israel Pickens writes, in part:

'The overcoming of fear and of other propensities of mortal mind does not require the use of willpower. There have been instances when some great achievement was accomplished simply through the expression of such qualities as stability, poise, or fearlessness or through practicing the art of self-discipline, which is not the same as willpower.

'An example of this is seen in the experience of Charles Blondin, who walked on a tightrope above the roaring torrents of Niagara Falls. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p.199), "Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it." And she adds, "His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear." Blondin had practiced self-discipline, which enabled him not only to overcome completely the fear of falling but to balance himself.

'Such self-discipline expressed in the overcoming of the fear of falling is far less significant, however, than is that of the self-discipline in learning that God governs our real selves, that man is His care and responsibility.'

While we may never have the ambition or the staying power to conquer the art of tight-rope walking, yet we each have the self-discipline necessary to hone and expand our individual talents, and so to glorify our heavenly Parent.

Julie Swannell

Soldier and historian Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus (37-117 A.D. -- born the day Paul became a Christian) is often mentioned as a source who authenticates the actual being of Jesus. Scholars argue about that.  The reprinted article which follows the Bible Lens this week (see Christian Science Sentinel September 23-29, 2019) offers a beautiful record on one person's inspiration in this regard (Chet Manchester – Peace in a shared homeland – originally printed January 21 2002, Christian Science Sentinel)

Mary Alice Rose's January 2015 Christian Science Journal article, adapted from a JSH-Online Journal podcast series, gives an updated Josephus' story*.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Subscribers to jsh-online can search directly for the articles mentioned above. Non-subscribers are welcome to use the facilities of Christian Science Reading Rooms to access the articles. Note that non-subscribers are able to access a wealth of information for free. 

Ed. Josephus is mentioned in Mary Baker Eddy's book Christian Healing, p. 3.

* The version found in our book Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them appeared in the Sentinel June 23, 1956. 

Six men of character

On the same page of Mary Baker Eddy's book, The People's Idea of God, that mentions Abercrombie and Johnson, Voltaire gets a mention:  'Voltaire says: “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease”' (p. 6: 11). Precious. Leo Tolstoy quotes it in War and Peace.

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire lived from 1694 to 1778. The article on him in the Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them series finishes with: 'Voltaire has been called an atheist, but these words deny it: "I shall always be convinced that a watch proves a watchmaker, and that a universe proves a God”' (p. 209).

Franklin Pierce (1804–1869)—mentioned in Eddy's Retrospection and Introspection, p. 6 and The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, pp 308, 309, 311. I have not as yet found the article in the periodicals where Mrs. Eddy mentions Franklin Pierce. But of course I don't need to, for I have the 'hard copy' of the Bound Sentinel which contains it, which I found in the Reading Room. With the knowledge that it is in the Sentinel of April 12, 1958, I could find it on JSH-Online*. However, students of Christian Science are quite familiar with him and his family. There was a close connection with her brother Albert, who read law with him, and he went on to become President of the United States. I wonder how Mrs. Eddy viewed some of his ideas, like “defend[ing] the proslavery program” (ibid, p. 167). There is an interesting note about presidential campaigning: 'Pierce himself did not actively campaign, but remained quietly in Concord until he was elected' (ibid).

Aha! I was spelling Pierce wrongly. “Pearce” would never find him on JSH.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)—mentioned in Eddy's Science and Health, pp. 66, 176, 244; Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 8, 226, 267; Retrospection, p. 81; Unity of Good, pp. 22, 23. It would seem that Mrs. Eddy could have valued Shakespeare a little lower than the Bible. On page (iii) of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, three authors are cited:

           Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. JOHN viii. 32

           There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. SHAKESPEARE

            Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;

            And I am blest!

            This is Thy high behest: —

            Thou here, and everywhere.  MARY BAKER G. EDDY

And we find Jesus and Shakespeare in the same paragraph on page 8 of Miscellaneous Writings:

'Shakespeare writes: “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Jesus said: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; …

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”'

'Shakespeare, the immortal lexicographer of mortals, writes: — To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man' (Mis. 226:13).

 At the time of his passing, his fellow playwright Ben Jonson wrote: 'He was not of an age, but for all time.' And so it has proved to be.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)—mentioned in Retrospection, p. 77: Message for 1901, p. 30; Miscellany, p. 269. Mrs. Eddy commends Pope for saying: '“An honest man's the noblest work of God”' (Ret. 77:2). This is a reminder of the words of a loved hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal—'Man is the noblest work of God' (# 51). Perhaps Pope did not have quite the quality of poet Mary Alice Dayton's man in mind—man who is the perfect idea of Mind, God.

Mrs Eddy counselled 'Christian Scientists under all circumstances to obey the Golden Rule, and to adopt Pope's axiom: “An honest, sensible, and well-bred man will not insult me, and no other can”' (Message for 1901, 30:27–30).

Aristotle (384 B.C. – 332 B.C.)—mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 226. Mrs. Eddy wrote of him: 'When Aristotle was asked what a person could gain by uttering a falsehood, he replied, “Not to be credited when he shall tell the truth”' (Mis. 226).

Along with his teacher Plato, he has been called the "Father of Western Philosophy". His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics and government. (Wikipedia)

My aside at this stage was, 'What an encouragement to scholarship all this is.'

Charles Carrol Bonney (1831-1903)—mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 312. The reader may like to read for themselves what Mrs. Eddy said about this 'great' man. 

Joyce Voysey

* An addition to the story of Franklin Pierce in the 'Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them' series was prepared for podcast by Christian Science Monitor reporter Gail Russell Chaddock (published 1 December 2015).

Reading Room discovery

I have loaned my copy of the book, Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them, thinking I would find one to borrow in my church's Reading Room lending library. Alas, no copy there, so I had to find another road to finding the articles which make up the substance of the book.

Recently, when I was in the Reading Room before our Wednesday Testimony Meeting, I chose, at random, a volume of the Christian Science Sentinel (an annual 'bound volume') to browse through. What do you know? The 1958 volume opened up to an entry about General Henry Knox (1750-1806) from the 22 February 1958 edition of the Sentinel. I learned that this hero of the American War of Independence was a relative of Mary Baker Eddy's on her grandmother's side. In her Retrospection and Introspection Mrs Eddy tells us, 'I was fond of listening, when a child, to grandmother's stories about General Knox, for whom she cherished a high regard' (Ret. 2:27) -- as did George Washington, according to the Sentinel account.

Now, I knew that these pieces had been first printed as a series in the Christian Science Sentinel, so I looked for more in that volume of Sentinels. I found that they did not appear weekly, but by patiently turning the pages I came to others.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) -- a Scottish chap: Sentinel, 25 January 1958. Carlyle is mentioned in Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 33 and The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 154, 193. In the latter reference, Mrs Eddy commends Carlyle's sentiment: 'Give a thing time; if it succeeds, it is a right thing' (My 193: 22).

At this stage, my thought was of gratitude that Mrs. Eddy found support for her ideas from characters such as these recorded in our book. It seems she felt that they were reaching for the truth she found in divine Science, and grasping a little of that truth. Sometimes she takes the message higher through a reference to the Bible.

John Albion Andrew (1818-1867) -- a contemporary of Mrs. Eddy: Sentinel, 8 February 1958. The reference to this man is in Mrs. Eddy's Poems. The Sentinel account has a wonderful tribute to Abraham Lincoln (a hero of mine), but I will refer here to another quote relevant to Christian Science: 'In respect to principles I am always radical. In respect to measures I am always conservative. Principles are of God...Measures, on the other hand, are human devices by which men attempt to actualize in human affairs the principles they perceive and believe in' (Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them, p. 16).

One is reminded of the absolute and relative in our work as students of Christian Science.

Dr John Abercrombie (1780-1844 – a Scot) and Dr James Johnson (1777-1845): Sentinel, 8 March 1958. These men are coupled in one entry in the Sentinel. They too appear in Mrs. Eddy's writings. In The People's Idea of God, p. 6, Abercrombie is quoted as saying, 'Medicine is the science of guessing.' Johnson, Surgeon to William IV, King of England,  is even more forthright, 'I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long observation and reflection, that if there was not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality...” See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 163 and The People's Idea of God, p. 6.

David Hume (1711-1776) - Sentinel, 22 March 1958. Ah! Hume is one of a group of thinkers who Mrs Eddy's critics felt 'must have been the originators of the Science of Mind-healing as...stated [in Science and Health]'. See Retrospection and Introspection, p. 37.

I still have five more blokes to comment on, so I will give the editor and the reader a break here.

Actually, there is another session I had on Friday in the Reading Room that I must chat about...

Joyce Voysey

A fascinating Chronological Index

I find it very interesting that there is, at the back of our book, Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them, there is a list of the people mentioned, as listed in chronological periods.  Thus:

• Classical Times
• Early Christian Period
• The Renaissance, Reformation and Elizabethan Age
• Identified with 17th Century
• identified with 17th and 18th Centuries
• Identified with 18th Century
• Identified with 18th and 19th Centuries
• Identified with 19th Century
• Identified with 19th and 20th Century

 Joyce Voysey

Ed. Joyce photocopied the Index for our readers, but the images were rather small once set in the blog, so here is just a taste -- transcribed for book club readers.  

CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX

Classical Times

 ?100-850 BC......................... Homer

Sixth Century BC................... Pythagoras

469-399 BC...........................  Socrates

460-357 BC...........................  Hippocrates

427-347 BC...........................  Plato

384?-322 BC.......................... Demosthenes

384-322 BC...........................  Aristotle

356-323 BC...........................  Alexander the Great

c. 300 BC...............................  Euclid

70-19 BC...............................  Virgil (Publius Virgilius Maro)

63 BC-AD 14......................... Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)

42 BC-AD 37..........................Tiberius Caesar

AD 37-117.............................  Flavius Josephus

c. 60-c. 120...........................   Epictetus

62-113..................................    Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus)

Middle of Second Century...... Claudius Ptolemy

Early Christian Period

?...........................................   Publius Lentulus

69-155..................................  Polycarp

?...........................................   Papias (contemporary of Polycarp)

100(?)-165(?).......................   Justin Martyr

280(?)-337............................  Constantine (Flavius Valerius Constantinus)

354-430................................   St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus)

Middle Ages

1265-1321............................. Dante Alighieri

1272(?)-1305.........................Sir William Wallace

1320(?)-1384.........................John Wyclif

1340(?)-1400.........................Geoffrey Chaucer

The Renaissance, Reformation, and Elizabethan Age

1451-1506............................. Christopher Columbus

1452-1498............................. Girolamo Savonarola

1473-1543............................. Nicolaus Copernicus

1483-1520............................. Raphael Santi

1564-1642............................. Galileo Galilei

1600-1681............................. Pedro Calderón de la Barca

1483-1546............................. Martin Luther

1497-1560............................. Philip Melanchthon

1509-1564............................. John Calvin

1519-1572............................. Gaspard de Coligny

1533-1603............................. Elizabeth I

1564-1616............................. William Shakespeare

1573-1637............................. Ben Jonson

B.O. Flower - a man of honour

Hi folks,

Well, this month's book is so very interesting. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to find copies But the good news is that all is not lost because the book is a compilation of articles written  originally for the Christian Science publications. A search on the web site jsh-online.com under the topic "Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them" brings up 2881 entries!

I scrolled down to an entry about Benjamin Orange Flower (1858-1918) written by a former editor of The Christian Science Monitor, John Yemma (see Christian Science Journal January 2016) - and then compared it to the entry in our book which appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel dated 25 July 1959. Both are helpful.

Yemma's article reveals Flower as a man of integrity--and a champion of "fair play". During a period when the press was intensely critical of the Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy, he provided an unbiased view. Yemma writes:

B. O. Flower read what other journalists were writing and reached the same conclusion Mrs. Eddy did about bias. While not a Christian Scientist, Flower knew people healed through Christian Science. He began questioning the pack mentality that seemed to be targeting this new religion and its Founder. He had, he said, always “made it a rule in my life to try to understand a subject before attempting to criticize it or to influence others either for or against it.”

Always quick to note integrity and kindly neighbourliness, Eddy responded to Flower's impartiality -  see The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p. 316 - where she writes that his 'dignified, eloquent appeal to the press in behalf of common justice and truth demands public attention'.

How good it is to note the good in our communities.

Julie Swannell