Overwhelming consciousness of the divine presence

 

When I came to the entry for Sarah Crosby in Appendix B of our book, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (p. 432) and read that Mary Patterson (as she was then) had healed her in 1864, it hit me that this occurred 2 years before Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science.

It was what may be called a significant healing -- see pages 54 and 55. Mrs. Crosby had spilt vitriolic acid on her face. Mary prayed and Mrs. Crosby slept. In two hours the “face showed no sign of the accident” (p. 54). Later there was some discomfort with one of the eyes from light. It was soon healed after Mary was informed of the problem by letter.

The healing mentioned before this one -- pp. 53-54 -- is also recorded in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The case concerned consumption and suffering brought on by “east winds.”  (See SH pages 184-185.)

It seems that Mary Patterson had lived and worked with what would later be named "Christian Science" with remarkable results before her discovery of its full explanation. It is interesting to me that the healing of consumption is included in the textbook of Christian Science as an illustration of its healing effects.

Alfred Farlow, the first Christian Science "Committee on Publication", wrote this about Mrs. Eddy’s own healing in 1866 - see pp. 440-441 of Christian Healer:

            At that time it was not clear to Mrs. Eddy by what process she had been instantaneously healed, but she knew that her thought had turned away from all else in contemplation of God, His omnipotence and everpresence, His infinite love and power. It eventually dawned upon her that this overwhelming consciousness of the divine presence had destroyed her fear and consciousness of disease exactly as the light dispels the darkness.

            She afterwards “noticed that when she had entertained similar thoughts in connection with the ills of her neighbors, they too were benefited, and it was in this manner that she discovered how to give a mental treatment."

Joyce Voysey

He's in my book club

Friends

Warm greetings to our book club readers. 

People all over the world are joining together to read. Our local library has a group that meets regularly - and from my observation - converses eagerly together about their current choice. It's a great way to expand one's reading and to share insights.

Our Reading Room Book Club has been "meeting" digitally since 2012. We've read so many interesting books together and read about some wonderful discoveries. Mostly, we don't hear from our readers and so we don't know who is reading along at any point in time. That's OK. And it makes the following "Home Forum" essay from The Christian Science Monitor Daily Edition (on Thursday this week I believe) even more appropriate.

So, for those who may have missed it or for those who'd like to read it again. (I hope those without a subscription can access this link. If you have trouble, please email me at csredcliffe@hotmail.com.) 

"He doesn’t know it, but he’s in my book club"

https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2020/1209/He-doesn-t-know-it-but-he-s-in-my-book-club

Of course, our book club's major project is to better understand the Bible and its relevance to healing and harmony in our own times, so anyone who's ever dipped into its pages may already be a tacit member of our book club. 

Warmly

Julie Swannell

Healing, teaching, writing - a mission of love

Purity of thought: Mrs. Eddy’s insistence on purity of thought and morals seems to come more definitely to me lately and it runs through the pages of this book (Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer).

[Ed. The setting is around 1870 when Mary taught her first class (p. 87). At that time, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures had not yet been written and her students were aided by several papers written by their teacher as well as her “teaching manuscript” (p. 88) called “The Science of Man” (ibid). In a revision of that document she wrote:]

A student of Moral Science, and this is the Science of man, must be a pure and undefiled Christian, in order to make the most rapid progress in healing… (p. 89).

Process of teaching: On the previous page, there is a quote from a letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to her student Mr. S. P. Bancroft in reply to his question about “how [one] should metaphysically view the process of teaching” (p. 88):

When I teach science it is not woman that addresses man, it is the principle and soul bringing out its idea. …My scholars may learn from me what they could not learn from the same words if uttered by another with less wisdom than even my “grain of mustard seed,” hence, it is not the words, but the amount of soul that comes forth to destroy error. (ibid).

I had an “Aha!” moment. Aha! That is the reason behind her prohibiting the taking of notes in her classes.

Genesis: She wrote 600 pages of notes on the book of Genesis between 1867 and 1868! (see page 128.)

Jesus’ example: And here is a hint on being a follower of Jesus, “the higher grew the affection of Jesus, the grander grew his demonstration.” (See page 137.)

Index to SH: It had never sunk in for me that the Reverend Wiggin prepared the first index to Science and Health. (See page 139.)

Easter 1888: I don’t suppose there has ever been a service similar to the one held at Easter time in 1888. “The service that first of April was largely a concert by the Sunday School children. No fewer than eighteen hymns and anthems … Half way through, twelve young ladies each answered a question, responding with a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (pages 145, 146).

Demonstration vs repetition: Readers of my contributions to the blog may recall that I have long been a fan of Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. There is one gem which I have perhaps not really come to terms with. Here it is on page 213 of Peel’s book:

 

Five times ten are fifty. This is science. Echo answers: “Five times ten are fifty. This is science.” The first statement is true and the latter is untrue. Why? Because one…demonstrates Science...the other repeats Science….

I was reminded of this when I came to page 157 of our book, where in reference to the point that some of her students were using written formulas in their healing work, she wrote to one student:

Tell every one whom you know of doing this, that it is as far from scientific as it would be to give or order drugs. The written direction, beyond a general scientific rule for practice which is already given in Science and Health, confines the practice to mortal mind and is nothing more or less than human directions, mind cure, and will produce the effect only of animal magnetism.

I may be imagining a correlation. I would love to hear from another blogger on this one.

Poetic purpose: On page 154 I was enlightened about Mrs. Eddy's poem/hymn Love:

Love was the only way Mrs. Eddy knew to respond to hate or settle disagreements. A number of years after this [Ed. Probably a number of years after 1888], she would write a poem entitled "Love."  It is a beautiful lesson on healing disputes.  In it she points out, "The arrow that doth wound the dove / Darts not from those who watch and love," and she ends with

...Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.

I had never understood that the poem had been written with settling disputes in mind. I guess each of those hymn/poems was written for a healing purpose needed at the time. 

 Joyce Voysey

Children and receptivity

 It is wonderful to read of Mrs Eddy's healing of children's cases, and it is a pleasure to share here a few such healings which are recounted in the early chapters of Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (expanded edition).

1. As a school girl, Mary "once stood up to a girl who was terrorizing the other children"( p. 32). As a result "the girl's nature was transformed" (ibid). (Corporeal punishment had failed to deal with the bad behaviour.)

2. As a young widow, for a period Mary taught school. She addressed the problem of one "persistently misbehaving boy" (p. 39) in a decisive manner. Recounting the "incident in later years" (ibid) she explained that she took "his hand" and told him she loved him but she "must make [him] suffer for bad conduct and its influence on [her] pupils" (ibid). As he kneeled next to her, she prayed for him, and despite his being convinced it would do no good, "soon he was sobbing and ...  imploring [her] to whip him and forgive him" (p. 40). His mother later reported that he was a changed boy.

3. Gaining a conviction of her God-impelled mission, and despite immense opposition--especially it seems from her sister Abigail, Mary soon had "an unlooked-for, imperative call for help". A young lad called Dorr Phillips was suffering greatly with a felon (a type of inflammation) on a finger. He agreed to let Mary treat him, promising not to look at his finger while the metaphysical treatment was underway.  Soon he had forgotten all about it because the finger no longer gave him any trouble (pp. 65, 66).

4. The fourth healing of a child is that of seven-year-old George Norton. This healing is beautifully recounted in a remarkable lecture given recently by Chet Manchester at the Lynn Museum ("Mary Baker Eddy - A Life of Discovery" https://talksthatchangelives.org/). Mary befriended the lad, who was noticeably lame, and was soon holding his hands and helping him to walk, guiding "his feet with her own" (p. 68).

Later, she was to write: 

Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 236:25)

Furthermore, she offered this idea to her readers:

Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 323:32–2)

However, even in the face of complete unreceptivity, even hostility, Mary was able to help. A gentleman by the name of Wheeler was ready to have his finger amputated when Mary asked him if he would consent to her praying for him. His reply? "If you will be quick, I will" (p. 69)! Within a short time, the pain had ceased. No amputation was necessary. 

Seeing God at work on the human scene like this impelled Mary's untiring efforts over many years to discover and share how the healing work was done. The result was her book Science and Health, a perfect companion book to the Bible. A book loved by both adults and children. A book which repays the receptive thought.

Julie Swannell

Experience and revelation

I submitted the following to our Editor Julie, having read from the original "Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer" and not the amplified one. She pointed out to me that the pages references were different. I have now clarified the matter to my own satisfaction, and can tell you that this whole experience is amplified on the pages 32 to 59.

On pages 42-44, we are told of what Mrs. Eddy later described as “the falling apple” in her development towards the discovery of the Science of Christ. The account here is of a healing she accomplished when she treated people with the homeopathic method. Eddy prescribed unmedicated pills (the patient was unaware that they were unmedicated) and the patient was healed. She explained the experience as being “the enlightenment of the human understanding”, whereas, in contrast, the discovery of Christian Science in 1866, she described as “the revelation from the divine Mind” (ibid; see also p. 59).

Ed. The authors here clarify the situation for the reader: "Two facts had become clear as a result of this cure of dropsy: first, the same remedy that had been impotent when administered by the physician became effective when she prescribed and administered it; second, the unmedicated pills were as effective as the medicated ones. She saw that both the thought of the physician and the thought of the patient were the determining factors in the case, to the exclusion of matter" (p. 44).

On pages 56-59, we learn about a major healing of her own. Eddy later declared that with this experience came the discovery of Christian Science. The healing came about in two stages. 

Firstly, when she read from Mark about the healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, a “change passed over us; the limbs that were immovable, cold, and without feeling, warmed; the internal agony ceased, our strength came instantaneously, and we rose from our bed and stood upon our feet, well” (p. 56). (The end-notes tell us that this is from Science and Health, third edition (1881), p. 156.)

The second stage occurred when the doctor’s “disbelief seemed to strike at her and she felt suddenly weakened and could no longer stand” (p. 57). She then turned to the ninth chapter of Matthew and “Jesus words, 'Arise, and walk' spoke to her across the centuries” (p. 58). She rose again and the claim of relapse was banished.

Joyce Voysey

Not to a select number, but to all

Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) consists of the following:

• Preface
• Part One - A Lifetime of Healing (18 chapters plus an Interlude titled "Advice for healers"
• Part Two - More Healing Works by Mary Baker Eddy  
• Appendix A - More Advice for Healers
• Appendix B - Biographical Glossary, Notes, Index

It is a very comprehensive book. 

Last night I flipped to Appendix A and read Eddy's 1888 letter to her student Edward Kimball. Kimball seems to have been experiencing stomach trouble and had turned to his Christian Science teacher for help. She cuts to the chase. She reminds him of those qualities which had obviously impressed her when he was her class student: "great, grand, noble, frank" (p. 392). She reminds him that he is working for God, who "knows that [he] is able to do all the good that [he] is required to do" (ibid). 

The next paragraphs are taken from Eddy's 1889 message of the Christian Scientist Association. Here she includes a rebuke to the idea that we "haven't time" (ibid 394) for needed attention to a need. This suggestion must be met with the fact that we do have time!

She knew that her "experience of the effects of faith was no miracle and nothing impossible to all who have that faith which is followed by spiritual understanding and is equal to avail itself of Christ's promise, not to a select number, but to all who exercise it." (written by Mary Baker Eddy in 1900. See page 11).

Isa 55: 1 "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters..." King James Version

"Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink..." The Living Bible 

It's not a closed shop. This teaching is for everyone.

Julie Swannell

God's cascading love

Since taking up the specific study of the book of Jude, I have discovered a wonderful testimony of the healing of 2 horses which were in dire trouble. I will share an excerpt from the first healing. Vinny is a horse. The writer and her husband started praying as soon as they noticed a problem with Vinny. They also contacted a Christian Science practitioner. Seeing no improvement after two hours, at the request of their son, the horse's owner, they called a vet. Meanwhile, the practitioner continued praying.

The writer continues:  

By the time the vet arrived, Vinny had collapsed, was unable to rise, and clearly was in great distress. After administering a muscle relaxant to relieve pain as well as another drug to move the intestines, the vet said he had done all he could for the time being, and, “It’s up to St. Jude now.” He and my husband left the corral to phone our son and ask what action he wanted to take. The vet outlined the options as: (1) surgery (which was often unsuccessful), (2) administering heavy doses of painkillers and waiting until morning (which would likely not alleviate the horse’s distress), or (3) euthanizing him. The vet recommended the last one, and our son accepted his advice. 

When my husband and the vet returned to the corral minutes later to carry out the decision, Vinny was not where they had left him. He was up and standing at the waterer. The vet was amazed and said he couldn’t believe it. Vinny was able to walk into the barn, where he started to nibble some hay. About an hour later, he was eating normally. And he has had no
aftereffects from this experience.

When my husband came inside to tell me what had happened, I realized that at about the same time the vet had said it was “up to St. Jude,” I had felt that my prayers were complete. I thought it was right to “let go and let God,” and I did. By this I mean that I needed to let go of the feeling that I was personally responsible for curing the horse, and instead cling to what I knew would help: the understanding that God was actually the horse’s very Life. To me, this “letting go” opened the way for the healing to take place...

May 2013 Christian Science Journal - article "No colic" by Joy Sawyer

What a lovely proof of God's tender care. I like how the book of Jude expresses it in this beautiful benediction from verse 2: May God’s mercy, peace, and love cascade over you! (The Passion Translation) 

Julie Swannell

A new generation of church leaders

Following the passing of the first generation of Christian leaders -- among them, Jesus' disciples and Paul -- a new generation had to pick up the reins. They faced both persecution by the Roman authorities and wavering faithfulness among their flock. 

In 66 AD there was a revolt against Rome. This was swiftly put down when Titus sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD*, causing Christians to disperse to the far corners of the Roman Empire, which by then was huge. ("The majority of information on the siege comes from the copious notes of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus." (Brittanica))

In a helpful article about the books of the New Testament which follow the gospels, Mary Trammell and Bill Dawley suggest that Jude was written some 40 to 60 years after the horrific events in Jerusalem. A whole new generation would have been born by then. They write:

JUDE

Like the Pastoral epistles, the little book of Jude was probably written sometime between A.D. 110 and 130. It's a stern warning to Christians. The author instructs Christians to be wary of "ungodly men" who pervert the gospel of truth and defy authority. Such people are ungodly sinners, he says, and will have to reckon with divine justice. (See The Early Church Moves Forward in The Christian Science Journal dated May 1993.)

Two passages from Mary Baker Eddy come to thought as I ponder Jude's message.

"If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind, the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 234: 14), and  

"Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 246:25). 

The early Christians have given us a strong lead.

Julie Swannell

Jude: short letter - great benediction

Here is a brief, informative and entertaining video (7:44 minutes) covering our book this month - Jude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UoCmakZmys&vl=en

You will hear that Jude can be pronounced Judah. (Other sources give Judas as an alternate name.)

You will learn that Jude was one of Jesus' brothers and that while none of the brothers followed Jesus during Jesus' time on earth, they did follow his teachings after the resurrection and ascension.

You will see that Jude's brief letter is chock-a-block with references from Jewish texts - some from our Bible, some not - that his compatriots would have understood and been very familiar with. 

You will notice that Jude's letter explicitly faces up to incorrect Christian teaching. Jude's purpose is to "urge [them] to contend for the faith" (verse 3, NIV), something we today must surely also do in our prayers. (In verse 12, he refers to the mistaken teachers as "shepherds who feed only themselves".)

The final verses provide a beautiful benediction (blessing):

"To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (NIV)

Those more familiar with the King James Bible, will remember that last verse promises that we are kept "from falling" - always a comforting promise to take away with us when the First Reader gives us this verse as a benediction on Sunday morning.

Julie Swannell

Three Hebrew boys and thought trends

Much is heard today about medical conditions, including those of a mental nature. It is therefore interesting to read in the very first testimony in Chapter XVIII of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (SH) by Mary Baker Eddy titled Fruitage, that on reading this book the testifier--who was suffering from rheumatic trouble---"realized that the mental condition was what needed correcting, and that the Spirit of truth which inspired this book was [his/her] physician." (Emphasis added.) 

Wondering what sort of mental condition one might need to correct, I found a passage from Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 where she reminds her students about the "animal element ... of ... rivalry, jealousy, envy, revenge ..." (See pp. 280:26–11.)

We may wonder about the mental state of the three Hebrew boys (maybe including being fearless, undaunted, unbowed) and the mental state which surrounded them (authoritative, proscriptive) -- see Daniel 3: 14-27 -- both before and after they emerged unscathed from the king's fiery punishment. 

This reminds me of a passage in Science and Health:

One whom I rescued from seeming spiritual oblivion, in which the senses had engulfed him, wrote to me: “I should have died, but for the glorious Principle you teach, — supporting the power of Mind over the body and showing me the nothingness of the so-called pleasures and pains of sense. The treatises I had read and the medicines I had taken only abandoned me to more hopeless suffering and despair. Adherence to hygiene was useless. Mortal mind needed to be set right. The ailment was not bodily, but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in Christian Science.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 382:24)

And so the testifiers we hear from in Fruitage speak of changed mental states, of being lifted into "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21: 1) as was John, exiled on the island of Patmos, but with thought soaring to new realms of freedom from death, sorrow, crying and pain.

Julie Swannell

African-American Marietta Webb and other cases of healing

 The Mary Baker Eddy Library series Women of History gives the history of “A Remarkable Case” found in the Chapter "Fruitage" on pp. 612-614 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The testifier was Marietta Webb. She was the first African-American to be listed in The Christian Science Journal. I would love to include the whole MBE Library article here, but you can click HERE instead to read it at its source. (Ed. It's worth taking some moments to read this.)

It is so good to have the full name and even a photo of Mrs. Webb. She is seen at the age of 86 reading without glasses. The testimony includes the fact that she was healed of what a leading oculist said were eyes that were in a dreadful condition and which would always require glasses – through her early reading of the textbook.

This testimony is one I particularly recall because of her comment about borrowing Science and Health for her initial reading of the book. “I never saw any one part so reluctantly with a book as my friend did with her copy of the textbook.”

Another testimony in Fruitage speaks of borrowing the book for 2 hours a day. The lady read a borrowed Science and Health from 10 o’clock till dinner time, then borrowed it for 2 hours a day for eight days and was healed of consumption. (page 624)

Yet another spoke of having the opportunity of reading Science and Health a few minutes day for about a week and healed thereby!

I wonder if I could part with my one and only copy of Science and Health for a needy friend. At this time it would not be a problem – there are many copies of the book in my home, from tiny travel-sized ones to a big reader’s. (I used to have two of those when I was a First Reader in my church.) PS I also have Science and Health in German.

I have read the testimony beginning on page 624 of Fruitage many, many times, but never twigged to the fact that it must have been written by a school student. The testifier says she and her mother began the reading of Science and Health together. (I say “she” but there is nothing to indicate that is the fact.) She says it seemed to her that it was something she had always believed. How different that is from some of the testimonies which say the person could not understand what they were reading but that they persisted.

As one who found Christian Science in a public library (first through Lyman Powell’s biography, and, on its recommendation, Science and Health), I am interested in how each one of the testifiers obtained their first copy of the book. I am going to make a list...

That sounds like a big undertaking. I will make a start – The completed list goes on for 4 pages, so I will not include it here.

Joyce Voysey

Read / Pause / Apply -- to meet your present need

The following came in as a comment to yesterday's post but I thought our readers might miss it unless it was a proper "post", so here it is:

Thank you, Julie, for that lovely post. Full of gratitude, sincerity and expectancy of good. 

My first impression in this month's reading was in relation to the introduction to this precious chapter of Science and Health, Fruitage. I noted that if we have doubts as to the legitimacy of what is to come we can apply to the Editor. How interesting. There is really no way we can apply to the original Editor who compiled the substance of the chapter, but we can apply to the office of Editor, which to-day would be the Christian Science Publishing Society. 

How important it is in Christian Science to honour the office rather than the person holding that office. For instance, we honour the office of First Reader when we give gratitude for the readings from the Bible and Science and Health at Wednesday evening Testimony Meetings rather than the person in that office. And we honour the office of Christian Science practitioner when we show our appreciation of a healing accomplished through that office. 

I like to remind myself of a direction from Mary Baker Eddy on the reading of Science and Health. It was directed to one student, and no doubt was of particular help to the student, Frank Walter Gale. Mrs. Eddy had sent Mr. Gale a copy of a new edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and Mr. Gale records that she sent this note with it: "In reading my revised edition that is, by the way, published this week, there is no special direction requisite. The general rule is to commence with the first chapter, read slowly, and pause as you read to apply certain portions which meet your present need, -- to thought that will carry them out in action. The book is complete in itself, it is a teacher and healer" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol. I, expanded edition, p. 219). 

I have been reading these testimonies in Science and Health since 1961, and have at every reading been inspired by with the inspired records The number of testimonies which record healing of eyesight is remarkable. I must count them again. One of my early copies of the book was marked as I numbered them. So precious! I will not tell you the number now, but will mark the book I am reading for this blog - a tiny hardback, lovely edition. 

Joyce Voysey 

PS I had no idea I would write so much when I started this comment! 

Free as a bird

After my mother found Christian Science, we children were enrolled in the Christian Science Sunday school. We also sometimes attended Wednesday Testimony Meetings. I cannot recall a single testimony, but I do remember the spirit of joy present during those meetings. These days, testimonies are shared in person, in writing, and over zoom but the weekly testimony meetings continue to offer a deep sincerity, joy and gratitude. Many a tear and many a laugh have given deep meaning to the holy experience of testifying to the effect of the healing Christ, Truth in our midst. In the Church Manual (p. 47), it says: "Testimony in regard to the healing of the sick is highly important. More than a mere rehearsal of blessings, it scales the pinnacle of praise and illustrates the demonstration of Christ, 'who healeth all thy diseases' (Psalm 103:3). The Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, would be of no use unless we could put their truths into practice.

The eighty-three testimonies in the back of Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (chapter title 'Fruitage') offer proof of its effectiveness as a practical guide to healing. They also offer a glimpse of how different people have approached the reading of this unique text.

One early student shared her experience like this: "I bought my first copy of Science and Health from [Mrs. Eddy]...In my search in reading the book to see how Jesus healed, I was perfectly healed of a complication of diseases." (Victoria H. Sargent, quoted in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Vol II, expanded edition p 32.) (Emphasis added.)

Janette E. Weller remembered her initial reading like this: "In March 1884, I first heard of Christian Science and its healing work. I immediately purchased a copy of the seventh edition of Science and Health (SH), by Mary B. G. Eddy, and read it through carefully, giving most of my time for three weeks to its study. I had not heard that the reading of the book healed the sick, but before these three weeks had passed, I awoke to find that all the claims of disease and pain from which I had suffered for more than twenty years had vanished and that I was free as a bird" (ibid, p. 40).

Septimus Hanna and his wife had a slightly different experience. When Mrs. Hanna received a gifted copy of SH from her father, she felt she was too busy to read it and so recommended that her husband read it first. When he soon laid it aside as incomprehensible, she began its study. Hanna writes: "...as was her habit when she read books in which she became intensely interested, she read late into the night, or rather into the wee small hours. ...there was an almost instant change in her looks and manner...she was doing things that I knew she could not do before she began to read that book. ...Two or three months went by before I was interested enough to make another effort to read the book, but when I did so, I began to see in it [the] reasonable and logical presentation of God, man, and the universe for which I had hoped but had not before found. Yet I did not take up the serious study of the subject for about a year after this time" (ibid, p. 229-230).

In this month's edition of The Christian Science Journal, Thomas Mitchinson ("Read This Book" CSJ Sept 2020) reminds us that Mrs. Eddy "followed her own advice" i.e. "Read this book from beginning to end. Study it, ponder it" (SH p. 559). Eddy's student William R. Rathvon explains that she "was a close student of her own writings, the margin of her copy of Science and Health being sprinkled with pencilings, comments, cross-references, and correlative texts" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol II, expanded edition, p. 555). 

A grateful reader from the US wrote: "My first reading of Science and Health was without understanding. I was full of darkness and gloom, and it was laid aside for a time. The good seed had been sown, however, and erelong the reading was resumed, and with such interest that my afflictions disappeared "like mist before the morning sun" (SH p. 622-623). 

And so we today can see for ourselves the effect of reading Science and Health as we "take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel" and "eat it up" (Rev. 10: 8, 9).  

Julie Swannell

You are a blessing to the world

 How interesting it was to hear about Malachi in a current Sentinel Watch program with Tony Lobl and Jasmine Birtles: "Dispelling the fear of money". 

Jasmine shares that wonderful promise from Malachi 3:10-11--

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

Jasmine explains that the passage not only assures us that God is the fountain of all good for each of us, but equally, that WE ARE the blessing: God pours US out to be a blessing for the world. 

We might look at ourselves and those around us, those who've gone before us, and those we may never even meet, in a different, perhaps less critical, light when we acknowledge this declaration of Malachi's. What a new view of everyone's worth emerges.

Julie Swannell

All scrubbed up

 The book of Malachi reminds me a bit of Job which also uses a question and answer method. But of course, Malachi also has some wonderful promises.

Here's one: "I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty. (Mal. 3:1, NIV)

Then follows some doubt about the outcome of this promise: But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. (Mal. 3: 2-3)

In the April 2013 copy of The Christian Science Journal, Doug Brown wrote about the significance of this passage for him, showing that, as he says: "The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy ... are as contemporary today as when they were written."

Upon reading about refining and purifying, which he likens to both baptism and unfoldment of truth, Mr. Brown writes that "the purification of thought called "baptism" ... is ... overturning and purifying every aspect of our human experience--our hopes, our desires. And this truth is current. What seems new is the unfoldment of what always has been and always will be."

He continues: "I could see for the first time that this presence of divine Truth is active in consciousness, today, this very moment, right where we are... The moment I realized "I AM" as the power that motivates, my point of view changed from observer to participator, from being on the outside looking up to God, to looking out from God."

Just as the refiner's fire burns the dross from silver and gold, and the fuller's soap removes the impurities from wool, so "[w]hen we place God first and let Him precede us in every aspect of our lives, we begin to see dramatic changes ... We develop a sense of stability and dependability. We stop reacting. We end the war with a false sense of self. We stop judging, taking offence, insisting on having things our way." ("The Immediacy of Truth" by Doug Brown, CS Journal April 2013). 

It makes one feel all scrubbed up just thinking about this promise from Malachi doesn't it?

Julie Swannell

Some contextual background for Malachi

The little book of Malachi has set me on a path of enquiry. Here's what I've discovered so far:

Purpose: Its purpose was to "confront the people with their sins" (NIV Study Bible). (Have we some confronting to do - personally and as a nation?)

Who were the intended listeners? Malachi's message was to the Jews (in Jerusalem) who had returned from exile in Babylon (and to us today: those of us who may have unwittingly adopted practices and positions of the culture surrounding us.)

When was it written? Around the middle of the fifth century B.C. (The Continuity of the Bible: Prophetic Writings by Thomas Linton Leishman, p. 85).  

Why? "It was an age of discontent, worldliness, and skepticism.... [The book] confirms the basic law of Deuteronomy ... it upholds the principles of law, thus supporting law rather than legalism." (ibid).

What was Malachi's method? The temple had been rebuilt about one hundred years ago, but the congregation is not tuned in to God's demands and they have many excuses for why not! Malachi uses a special literary technique of questions and answers to get his message across. (Leishman explains that Haggai has a similar approach.) Here are some examples of the question and answer method used:

• I have loved you, says the Lord ... How have you loved us? (Mal. 1:2 NIV)
• It is you priests who show contempt for my name ... How have we shown contempt for your name? (Mal 1:6)
• Return to me, and I will return to you ... How are we to return? (Mal 3: 6)
• ...you rob me. ... How are we robbing you? (Mal 3: 8)

Malachi neatly provides the link between the Old and New Testaments. He references Moses while also pointing to a new messenger to come. After Malachi, there were more than 400 years of "silence" (no further prophecy*) until the appearance of John the Baptist. At this point, explains the NIV Study Bible: "The Eastern empires of the Israelites' captivity -- Babylon, Assyria, and Persia -- no longer dominate the region. Instead, a new power has risen in the West", the empire of Rome. Its boundaries extend from the Mediterranean to North Africa and even Europe".

So what happened in between? 

The Persian Period (539-336 BC)

The Hellenistic Period (336-165 BC) This period began with the "fall of Persia to Alexander the Great" (NIV). During the Hellenistic Period, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (The Greeks wanted everyone to speak Greek and most Jews would have now used Greek every day.) This was called the Septuagint. It was quoted by Jesus. 

The Maccabean Period (165-63 BC) The book of Daniel was probably* written at this time, even though it describes a period around 600 BC. Daniel wrote "in a secret code understandable only to the Jews" (The Reforming Power of the Scriptures by Mary Trammell and William Dawley, p. 29).

The Roman Period (63 BC - 135 AD)

It's great to learn this context, but it seems to me that Malachi's enduring message is not one of shame, fear or rebuke, but of  promise. We can talk more about that in another post. 

Julie Swannell

Malachi ("my messenger") in an age of scepticism

Thomas Leishman, Bible student and Christian Scientist, who commented on the whole Bible in a series in The Christian Science Journal, is very helpful about the book of Malachi. (The series was called The Continuity of the Bible, with sub-heading, A series showing the progressive unfoldment of the Christ, Truth, throughout the Scriptures. A very valuable record.)

Malachi is a book that I have not made much of really, while appreciating a couple of verses as being helpful, namely:

 “Bring your tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (3:10),  and 

 “Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?” (2:10 to 2^nd ?). But, in the search for those verses, I find the prophesy about John the Baptist, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me...” (3:1 (to :)). (Emphases added. ed.)

Here are some excerpts from Leishman’s piece from the Journal of November 1939, 

THE PROPHETS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

"CHAPTERS 56 to 66 of the book of Isaiah appear to date from about 460 B.C.—some sixty years after Haggai and Zechariah. ...

"From the same period comes the anonymous volume now known as the book of Malachi, that is, of "my messenger"—this being the translation of the Hebrew word "malachi" found in Malachi 3:1. 

"Like his contemporary, Third-Isaiah, Malachi lived in an age of skepticism, when men doubted the very existence of God, and felt it "vain to serve" Him (Mal. 2:17, 3:14). He reminds his apathetic countrymen of God's gracious love (1:2), pointing out that even the Gentiles honor God's name, while the Chosen People profane it (Mal. 1: 1 If, R.V.); yet the Israelites also will receive a blessing, if they will but give more freely (3:10). 

"The prophet tells the people as a whole that the gifts of light and of healing will follow the exhibition of true reverence (4:2). So while Malachi commended obedience to the law of Moses (4:4), he foresaw many of the characteristics of the gospel law of love; and he also foretold the coming of the forerunner of the Messiah (Mal. 4:5; cf. Luke 1:17; Matt. 11:14)."

Joyce Voysey

Ed. How thrilling that there was a messenger to usher in John the Baptist's arrival. What does that mean for readers today?

Malachi the messenger

As we launch into a new month of reading, the beautiful poem by Vera Goring Thomas from the archives of The Christian Science Journal at JSH-Online provides a splendid starting point for our book, Malachi. 

From the May 1951 issue of The Christian Science Journal

Malachi 

by VERA GORING THOMAS

Who was Malachi?
Shepherd? Prophet? Statesman?
Who can say?—
Voicing enduring truth, precious, vital, immanent, then
As today.
Malachi—messenger pseudonym or name?
Let it suffice, he came—
Came with a vision foreseeing the coming of John.
The cleanser, baptizer, the voice from the wilderness
Calling upon
All to repentance, to wake to the message he brought,
Physical purity, symbol of purified thought.
The link with Old Testament prophets who came to portray…
That consciousness chastened through turning from matter's display.
The forerunner of spiritual consciousness hidden until
The heart yields to God, knowing only His purpose and will.

Who was Malachi?
One who loved purity, urged all to know
That into grateful hearts, purged, reaching to God,
Would flow
The healing truth, the joy to know and prove
The Father's changeless love.
And who foresaw, though centuries apart,
One who would say. "Blessed
Are the pure in heart." 

Those with access to JSH-Online and/or the bound volumes in Reading Rooms will be interested to read the healing of granulated eyes in the January 1889 issue of the Journal. It was written by Loren Chowen who quotes this passage from Malachi:

And try Me now in this, saith Jehovah of Hosts,—
Whether I will not open to you the Windows of Heaven,

And pour out upon you a blessing.

Happy reading and discovering,

Julie Swannell

A night watchman

Psalms 102 verse 7 from the King James Version tells us: "I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top" while the New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version) puts it like this: "I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop."

This reminds me of John Salchow's experience in Mary Baker Eddy's household. His wish was that he would anticipate his Leader's needs, and he was often able to do this without any direct communication with her.

A son of a farmer, he was a faithful and dedicated student and reliable helper. He frankly and humbly shares with his readers that his "day at Pleasant View [Mrs. Eddy's home of many years] started at about three-thirty to four o'clock in the morning in the summer and possibly an hour or half an hour later in the winter. I would hoe the garden, milk the cows, and feed the pigs. Then August Mann would give the horses their grain, and I would groom them. By that time it would be nearly seven o'clock, and I would stop for breakfast. After that there were the lawns and gardens to take care of, ice to take up to the house and cottage, or necessary repairs at the house, barn, or cottage, such as plumbing, electric wiring, carpentering, etc. In the evening I milked the cows again and watered the lawn if necessary. It was not often in the summer that my day was over before ten at night" (page 376, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Volume 1, Expanded Edition).

Salchow also shares insights into the practicality of Mrs. Eddy's teaching. For instance, he explains the ways he was able to replace an unsatisfactory carriage step (see pp. 391-393). He writes that "error was always trying to tell those who worked for Mrs. Eddy that they could not carry out her instruction. She herself talked with me and taught me how to resist these arguments and to meet the belief of reversal... I ... learned to be awake to the error and to protect myself against it. ... Mrs. Eddy talked to her family very freely and often on this question of reversal, reminding her students not to forget to be alert and watchful" (pp. 393-394).

This alertness helped him to find an ingenious way of rigging up a doorbell after electricians had given up (p 394) and it gave him the ability to step into the role of night watchman following a break-in at the home. The break-in occurred in 1903 and disturbed the household very much. Mrs. Eddy was not told of the incident but everyone "agreed that there ought to be someone to watch at night" (p. 396). Well, John Salchow volunteered. He now extended his long day to include his sleeping hours, making a small adjustment of lying down to sleep from supper until ten! When he "found [himself] so overcome by sleep that [he] did not dare to sit down or lean against anything because [his] eyes would immediately close" he rigged up an alert system that served to jolt him awake if he fell asleep (ibid)! 

This continued on until one day Mrs. Eddy requested that the household have a watchman. She was never told what her selfless "dear John" had done for her, but I think her awareness and alertness would have given her the presence of mind and loving intuition to take this latter step for the good of all.

Julie Swannell

Faithful servant of God

Why would someone choose to serve a church faithfully and joyfully over many decades? Calvin C. Hill (1864-1943) served the Christian Science church in many ways, including holding the position of "Sunday School Superintendent of The Mother Church ... for fourteen years" and also serving "on the Finance Committee from 1902 to 1943" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Vol 1 Expanded Edition).

His introduction to Christian Science is related on pages 323 and 324 of that same book. He writes that his "religious training at home and in the Presbyterian church [had] prepared [him] to accept and appreciate Christian Science when it was presented to [him] in an hour of great need."

Nevertheless, when a colleague "who had been healed by reading Science and Health" (the textbook of Christian Science, written by its Discoverer Mary Baker Eddy) would speak to him about the good results he could expect from its application, "for three years [he] refused to listen to any great extent to what was said to [him] by this friend." However, after five years of disappointment with other methods of healing, Hill decided to "give [it] a trial."

After experiencing wonderful results, he longed to know more. He relocated to Boston where he found that "[t]he more [he] studied Mrs. Eddy's writings, together with the Bible, and the more [he] heard Christian Science discussed by its adherents and saw it exemplified in their daily lives, the more convinced [he] became that it was what Christ Jesus knew, taught, and proved in many wonderful works of healing" (p. 324-5).

However, he had become "prejudiced against Mrs. Eddy" (p. 325) due to having read derogatory newspaper and magazine articles about her. This changed during a meeting he attended when one of her students stated that "You can no more separate Mrs. Eddy from Science and Health than you can Moses from the Commandments, or Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount" (ibid).

Mr. Hill recounts with affection his first meeting with Mrs. Eddy in his capacity as a carpet salesman. He had brought her a little momento, which she received "as graciously as if it were a costly gift" (p. 328) and in return he received from her "one of the silver souvenir spoons which had been made available to Christian Scientists the previous December" (p. 328) and which were engraved with a special motto: "Not matter but Mind satisfieth" (ibid). 

Later in his story, Calvin Hill recalls his job of finding helpers for Mrs. Eddy. He was looking for "qualities of thought [such as] love, orderliness, promptness, alertness, accuracy, truthfulness, fidelity, consecration, and humility" (p. 352). It seems obvious that Mr. Hill himself exemplified just these qualities. He had found the "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13: 46) and he gave his all for that. 

Julie Swannell


   

The high bar and "necessary effort"

Alfred Farlow speaks of "the folly of excuses". He had to swallow some humble pie when rebuked for an error which at first did not seem to be his. He writes: "Of course, no person ever progressed without some mistakes. Nevertheless, our experience with the Leader of the Christian Science movement demonstrated the fact that one can approximate perfection far beyond the ordinary belief ... if he realizes the importance of it and makes the necessary effort" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Vol. 1, Expanded Edition, p. 209).

Right...

Julie Swannell

Annie Knott - Christian Science healer

The reminiscences of Mary Baker Eddy's students in the book We Knew Mary Baker Eddy are delighting and inspiring and stopping me in my tracks. There are many valuable lessons shared; insights recounted.

Scotland-born Annie Knott is an example of someone coming to Christian Science through the healing of a friend, followed by "many [other]  cases of healing" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy book 1 expanded edition p. 158), including her one and a half-year-old son who had swallowed carbolic acid. The doctors "said there was no hope" (ibid, p. 159), but he was completely healed through the application of Christian Science. 

After taking "class instruction [in CS] from one of Mrs. Eddy's students" (ibid), Mrs. Knott soon had "patients coming to [her] daily for help" (ibid).

In early 1887, Knott received a request from Mrs. Eddy to come to Boston. This seemed impossible to her, especially as she had only returned from taking Normal Class in Boston just a few weeks before. However, a follow-up request conveyed the urgency of the demand for obedience and, despite its seeming "sacrifice of time and money" (p. 167), the "address at the meeting of [Eddy's] students in Tremont Temple was wonderful" (p. 168). Knott notes that at this time several of Eddy's students were actively trying to destroy Christian Science.

Mrs. Knott mentions three necessary qualities for progress: perception, reception, and conception - see page 173-4.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, she offers two joyful examples of barrenness reversed (pp. 176-7) and she shares her part in the successful resolution of proposed medical legislation to restrict the practice of Christian Science in Michigan - see pp. 185 ff. She was able to provide convincing proof of the efficacy of CS healing in a case of contagion.

Julie Swannell

Practical Philanthropy

Page 382 (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy vol 1 expanded edition) gives us an insight that could be useful in to-day’s confronting financial climate. Folk are seeking relief from lack brought on by the consequences of the global pandemic. I read this morning about a woman who had not had a meal for two weeks, having started to to try to eat the blank pages of her diary. (See The Christian Science Monitor "In Queens, residents become the coronavirus safety net", 22^nd June, 2020.)

John Salchow speaks of Mrs. Eddy sponsoring the paving of Pleasant Street. He reports that “money was tight and everyone was hard up. It was even proposed to have soup kitchens for the poor. But as members of the household told me, Mrs. Eddy said: ‘They do not want soup kitchens. They want work.’ And so she helped to provide work by contributing heavily for road construction” (p.382).

Of course, these are different circumstances today, but it is something to be kept in mind always.

On the same page Salchow records that Mrs. Eddy purchased a Yale automobile. Her motive in doing so is of interest: it was not for her convenience, but for the sake of the horses which drew her carriage. The machine, Salchow says, “must have seemed like some horrible demon to the horses as I drove it around them when they were out exercising, but they gradually got used to it” (382-3).

Now for a funny. “Mr. Joseph Mann tried to drive the car once, but it jumped a stone fence and landed in the lot, so he decided to leave it alone after that” (383).

And on the loyalty of Calvin Frye, Mrs. Eddy’s secretary and general helper: Salchow noticed something which touched him very much and illustrated to him just how loyal Calvin was. He was ever alert to any call from Mrs. Eddy in the night time. The very thick carpet at his bedside had two holes worn at his bedside which were, “a silent witness to many long vigils in the night, when (he), instead of retiring, had sat on the side of his bed alert and ready for his Leader’s slightest call” (386 and 387).

Joyce Voysey

Confronting sensuality

 A Christian Science practitioner does not give advice. This is illustrated, for me, by the report by Calvin C. Hill in this month's book, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Volume 1, Expanded Edition. Hill was in Mrs. Eddy’s presence quite a lot, performing tasks for her like searching for students who were worthy of being called to work in her home. At one time she asked if he had any questions for her. He didn’t seek her advice, but asked her to point out something in Science and Health that he could work with. He said, “I wish you would point me to some place in your book that will enable me to overcome the thought of lust and sensuality” (WKMBE p. 338). And Mrs. Eddy replied, he said, most emphatically, “I will!” (ibid).

Mrs. Eddy talked for some time in a most uplifting manner. The effect was that Mr. Hill found he was "a different man" who felt that he could say of himself that he had "experience[d] a measure of spiritual 'new birth' on that wonderful day. However [he goes on to say] later I had to learn that being lifted up by another, even by our Leader, is not working out one’s own salvation – which is to say that there is no vicarious atonement. I saw that I had to work my own way up the hill of Science, that I had to prove in my own experience the truth she had affirmed to me – I had to work it out in demonstration” (pp. 339-340).

The heading of this part of the chapter is “Confronting sensuality,” and it goes on from page 338 to 340 with this so valuable a teaching on that confronting subject. I am reminded that the word “sensuality” is used in the Glossary of Science and Health five times. And it and other derivatives of have about three-quarters of a column in the Concordance to Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures. Mr. Hill does not mention any of them in his account. Surely, we can profit by finding out for ourselves what Mrs. Eddy’s book has to say on the matter.

Joyce Voysey

Incredible accomplishment - never in haste

A link to a great lecture -- 'Time is not a factor in your life' (see link below) -- popped up in my in-box the other day. The message is plain - it's not more time that we need; it's right ideas. How grateful I was to have this reinforced a few moments ago as I pondered a looming deadline. I picked up We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol. 1 Expanded Edition to continue my reading of Julia Bartlett's recollections. Miss Bartlett makes the following observations: - 'Work seemed to be accumulating constantly, and it was marvelous what our Leader accomplished' (p. 70). - '...it seemed almost incredible that [The Christian Science Journal] could be added to the work already being done' (ibid). - '...she did not falter or delay' (ibid) - all letters 'had to be written by hand' (ibid) - '[Eddy] never appeared in haste, [and Bartlett] marveled at the pile of letters (Eddy] would write or the amount of work she would do in a little time' (ibid). One evening, when Julia Bartlett was so tired that she couldn't even hold her pen, her teacher 'rebuked the error' (p. 71) and she was able to complete the work at hand. At one point, Bartlett was treating 70 patients a day, her 'work taking [her] far into the night' (p. 74). 'Many who became interested in Christian Science at that time later were teachers and healers themselves, going out into different cities and filling responsible positions, and one [Mr. Ira O. Knapp] was made one of the first Directors of The Mother Church by our Leader' (ibid). What an example of a 'meek and bold defender' (Hymnal no. 392) was Julia Bartlett. And what an inspiration to know that we too can move beyond being intimidated by the mortal measurement called time, and trust God to order our moments and our days. Julie Swannell “Time is not a factor in your life” with Dave Hohle, CSB How can we begin to gain spiritual freedom from limitation associated with time and age? This talk distinguishes between time and timelessness, age and agelessness, and encourages freedom from mortal limitations associated with time by understanding more about the spiritual nature of life. This understanding leads to more freedom, more productivity, and more harmony.

A leader's keen discernment

 Annie Knott was appointed as a lecturer and for some time was not being called on to give lectures. Mrs. Eddy told her, “You must rise to the altitude of true womanhood, and then the whole world will want you as it wants Mother” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy vol 1 Expanded Edition, pp. 191-2). And, '“I would like to know who has the most intellect, the man or the woman? And then she laughingly added, “There is not any such thing as intellect, but I mean who reflects the most intelligence, the man or the woman? Take Adam and Eve, was it not the woman who first discovered that she was in error and was the first to admit it?”' (ibid p. 192). Mrs. Knott found this to be a new definition of intelligence.

Are we willing today to admit we have been in error on some matter?

Yes. Mrs. Knott started to have calls to lecture.

Alfred Farlow tells us how to interview Mary Baker Eddy - see page 211 of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy vol 1 Expanded Edition. Aren’t we, as members of Christian Science churches, often to be found saying, “I wonder what Mrs. Eddy would say”? The answers are all in the books.

And don’t we sometimes berate ourselves for not being able to assimilate more of Science? Emma Newman recorded Mrs. Eddy writing with thanks to Newman's father for a sermon of his which was published in The Christian Science Journal, pp. 294-300, October 1893. Eddy's note read: “God bless you and every day show you a little more of Infinite Love. Just your daily bread, more you will not digest” (WKMBE p. 240). Just enough bread to digest at a time. How wise! 

Now here is a condition which one would think Mrs. Eddy would never talk about – hermaphrodite mentality. At the time of the "Next Friends" suit, Hermann Hering says of the work done in spiritual defence: ‘The trial was a very stubborn fight, and there seemed to be no progress made and little indication that Truth would win out. There was some very subtle work going on, and finally Mrs. Eddy sent word to these workers, “You must know that there is no hermaphrodite mentality.” From that time on things began to break. The power of evil was taken away, and very soon the trial was ended’ (ibid p. 450).

The reader is not likely to recognise that big word, I presume. But it is a condition much talked about in our time. My dictionary defines it: A person or animal having both male and female sex organs or other sexual characteristics, either abnormally (in the case of some organism) or as the natural condition.

One stands in awe at Mrs. Eddy discernment of the situation!

The foregoing is the result of my having started to read our book of the month some time before it was announced. I made notes in the back of the book and referred to them for this writing. I am currently up to page 251 with Daisette McKenzie.

Joyce Voysey