"Christian Science brings to view the great I AM"

For our final contribution for 2021, Joyce Voysey takes a look at the illustrations in Christ and Christmas.

What are we to make of the two pictures, Christ Healing and Christian Science Healing? It seems to me that the illustration Christ Healing has Jesus healing, the mother pleading, the father incredulous. Then in Christian Science Healing, perhaps the idea of a personal Jesus as healer has been replaced by the impersonal Christ Science. The mother (or daughter/sister/friend) in the background has her hands in the attitude of humble prayer.

[Ed. Seeking and Finding. I note the hissing serpent hiding in the shadows behind the woman at the table.]

Christmas Eve. I am reminded of the definition of evening: “Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 586: 1)

Christmas Morn. Definition of morning: “Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress” (SH 591: 23).This is probably my least understood picture. I don’t see the definition in it. Possibly I yearn for the colour of day breaking. (Ed. I love the representation of angels here!)

I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. —Christ Jesus
(Christ and Christmas, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 33:1) The age and childhood of “Life without birth and without end, emitting light!” The babe teaching pure Science to the aged? Before the babe is able to read the words.

Treating the sick. A copy of Science and Health is at rest in a lap. “A lap piled high…” comes to mind. SH 495: 28. “Which of these two theories concerning man are you ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing, dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence, bearing Truth’s signet, its lap piled high with immortal fruits.” This woman has chosen. She is knowing the Truth which will heal this sick one. The first verse on the next page seems to explain the forgoing (ed.: and is a lovely illustration of the ideas in this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on God)i:

For Christian Science brings to view

The great I Am, --

Omniscient power, --gleaming through

Mind, mother, man.

What a comfort is this next verse to one who endeavours to express their thoughts on paper (or computer), or for the student sitting for an exam: ‘Tis the same hand unfolds His power,/And writes the page.’ The picture shows Jesus and a figure which represents Christian Science. The Christ holds her hand and is the source of the writing of the works on Christian Science. Jesus offers the left hand of authority.

Truth versus error. The children are the ones attracted to the teachings of Truth. Truth knocks at the door of consciousness. Very few seem to be receptive.

I can find myself singing along with the vision of The Way.  Saw ye my Saviour – in lusty voice – with hymn 571. This is a hymn one great granddaughter loves to sing along to.

Joyce Voysey

Chaos? Let there be light.

Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary definition sheds light on the concept of “chaos” (see opening paragraph in Christ and Christmas by Mary Baker Eddy and James Gilman):

Chaos: That confusion, or confused mass, in which matter is supposed to have existed, before it was separated into its different kinds, and reduced to order by the creating power of God.

Mary Baker Eddy uses the word chaos in Science and Health and also in her Prose Works. For instance, the first paragraph of the chapter Creation has the first reference to chaos in Science and Health, i.e. “Let there be light,” is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 255:3–6). I think I will now read this chapter in a new light. God didn’t take the chaos of matter and then make more intelligent matter. Matter is still in chaos, until we apply the law of “Let there be light” (Genesis 1: 3).

I like this from Eddy’s Unity of Good p. 56:1: “The chaos of mortal mind is made the stepping-stone to the cosmos of immortal Mind.” [Cosmos: The universe seen as a well ordered whole.] 

As I move on, I wonder if this poem, Christ and Christmas, is about Mrs. Eddy’s discovery of the Christ Science. The passages like “God anoints” and “He appoints” (verse 3) offer clues. Was Christianity in chaos until that discovery was made? And in general, has it not yet come out of it?

 As I read the Christian Science Bible Lesson this week I realise how good it has been to be reading Christ and Christmas at this time. I feel we have been made ready for all that light!

Last Sunday I was ready for church early and the thought came to start reading Science and Health again. Well. The first paragraph of the whole book is a Christmas story! How important the Christmas story is to Mary Baker Eddy’s thought and the discovery of Christian Science!

Joyce Voysey

One lone, brave star circling and shining

It seems to me that every word of this poem (Christ and Christmas) could be worthy of attention. For instance, the first verse:

Fast circling on, from zone to zone,--

Bright, blest, afar,--

O’er the grim night of chaos shone

One lone, brave star.

·        “Fast”-- Nothing can stop it.

·        “Circling” -- I think of a circle and eternity. On a human plane, maybe, the world.

·        “Zone” -- The areas of the world. This brings to mind something a visitor from Boston spoke of at a branch church meeting. He said some folks were reasoning that Australia had a very important part to play in the march of Christian Science around the world. Australia could be considered the last stop before it gets back to its beginning in Palestine. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy speaks of the Southern Cross constellation of stars, Australia’s emblem, as the “Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union…” (575:30-32). Which brings up the question: How is Calvary to be defined in this statement? Dictionary definitions give: “Place outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. An experience of unusual mental suffering.”

We Australians are very interested that Science and Health mentions Australia. Not many countries have that honour: “When wandering in Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their snow huts?” (SH 82:28).

But the poem speaks of “one lone, brave star.” The first painting in Christ and Christmas depicts that one lone, brave star, and it is named the Star of Bethlehem. That star is shown in most of the paintings. It is there with the raising the dead in Christ Healing; it illumines the seeking practitioner of the Christ Science in Seeking and Finding; it is there at Christian healing and Christian Science Healing, and where the young child ponders the truths of the big book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It is not there at the Christmas Eve party, where the illumination is all artificial, nor in the picture Treating the sick. The star gives place to light in Christmas morn, Christian unity, Truth versus error, and The way.

There is a feeling of movement in the first verse: “Fast circling”; also in the next verse: “Spirit sped.” Ah! The speed of light!

What about “chaos”? Chaos: PHYSICS -- the property of a complex system whose behaviour is so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. The formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word “chaos” in her Science and Health; also in her Prose Works. Hello! Here is another study for me!

Joyce Voysey

...neither beginning of days, nor end of life

The poem in Christ and Christmas has many Biblical references. At least one is from the book of Hebrews, as was discovered by Queensland Christian Science practitioner Don Wilson. In his May 2021 article, "Man was never born into matter", in The Christian Science Journal, he writes:

At a Church summit meeting a speaker spoke about Melchizedek. For me the story of this prophet became an area to research in order to understand him spiritually. The first help I received came in Mrs. Eddy’s poem “Christ and Christmas,” where in its Glossary she quoted from Hebrews, “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God” (7:3). 

How lovely to ponder this text. Thank you Don.

Julie Swannell

Revealed unto babes

 Our book for December is Christ and Christmas.

Here's a passage from Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck on this subject:

In March 1893 Mrs. Eddy asked Mr. Gilman to work with her on illustrating a new poem she had written, “Christ and Christmas.” They worked together throughout the spring and summer to get the pictures just as she wanted them. The book was published at the end of November with both Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Gilman listed as “Artists.” 

                                                                                                    - from the Biographical Glossary p. 450

Picking up this book after some years of neglect is deeply satisfying. Its illustrations and poem stop me in my tracks. It is all so very fresh. Each page reveals new details upon each review. Most significant to me is the depiction of light in each of the eleven paintings. 

I wonder which one is your favourite? Perhaps the one which depicts a kindly older gentleman intently listening to the little maid who is reading to him from the Christian Science textbook Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy? That illustration has the caption:

I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. —Christ Jesus
(Christ and Christmas, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 33:1)

Surely a potent message for us this Christmas.

Julie Swannell

He stood and measured the earth.

How well do I know the Bible? Not well enough, methinks.

Chapter three of Habakkuk is a prayer in which Habakkuk asks God to "revive [His] work in the midst of the years" (3:2). How good is the idea of revival, renewal, refreshment. The prayer continues by acknowledging God's glory in heaven and earth, a bright light in the midst of "pestilence" (3:5). 

Then, with verse 6, there is a pause: "He stood and measured the earth." Here is an opportunity for reassessment. A stillness. A humble listening, not a charging forward with one's own agenda. (I am reminded of Mark McCurties' recent lecture about humility (see TalksThatChangeLives.org)). I am also reminded of the old saying: Measure twice; cut once!

We can stand with God, divine Principle. We can listen to God's direction as we go about our everyday duties. 

The following two excerpts from The Christian Science Journal may be of interest.  

EVERY-DAY RELIGION

From the November 1887 issue of The Christian Science Journal

From the New York Evangelist

---

He stood and measured the earth.—HABAKKUK iii. 6.

Every-day religion is the foundation of thoroughness; which is another name for truthfulness or honesty. Workmen who slight their work, whether they make shirts for a living, or sermons, build houses or ships, flocks or families, will be some day or other found out. We want clothes that will not rip, vessels that will not leak, and bridges that will not break down. So we want characters that will stand temptation, and not snap asunder under the sudden pressures of life.

[No title]

By x.

From the November 1885 issue of The Christian Science Journal

---

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, during his residence in Paris, was invited to a company of distinguished men who were skeptics. According to their custom, in conversation, Christianity and the Bible were treated with unsparing severity. One of the company attracted universal attention by asserting, with great confidence, that the Bible was not only a piece of gross deception, but totally devoid of literary merit. Benjamin Franklin asked if he might read them a passage from a book he had just bought. They consented. He read Habakkuk 3: 4-6. The few sentences made a deep impression. The admiring listeners pronounced them superior to anything they had heard or read; and that nothing could surpass them in grandeur and sublimity. They all wished to know what was the name of this new work, the name of this new author, and whether this was a specimen of its merits? "Certainly, gentlemen," said Dr. Franklin, smiling at his triumph; "my book is full of such passages; it is no other than your good-for-nothing Bible. I have read to you a short paragraph from the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk."

Here's the CEV translation of what Ben Franklin read:

Habakkuk 3:4-6 (Contemporary English Version)

4 Your glory shone like the sun,
and light flashed from your hands,
hiding your mighty power.
5 Dreadful diseases and plagues
marched in front
and followed behind.
6 When you stopped,
the earth shook;
when you stared,
nations trembled;
when you walked
along your ancient paths,
eternal mountains and hills
crumbled and collapsed.

I think we shall all be reading our Bibles with renewed interest.

Julie Swannell

Patience in perplexity

HABAKKUK HAS VISION

I found the opening verses of Habakkuk (King James Version) rather hard to take in, so I turned to the Moffatt Translation of the Bible. What a surprise! The opening verses were easy to read. I had forgotten that Moffatt shifts verses around. The canny James Moffatt has shifted verses 5 to 11 to the opening position of the chapter, so that we are given the real crux of the oracle or vision up front, as it were.

 

[Having consulted Moffatt, I wondered about the man. I found that he was Scottish, born in
Glasgow; became a church minister, translator, professor of church history, etc. His Introduction is long. I like the potted history of the Jewish people we find on pages viii and ix, e.g. “Palestine lies between Egypt and Assyria or Babylonia, and the story of the Hebrew clans who became the nation of Israel and then the Jewish people, lies between a captivity in each country.”

But – we are not blogging about Moffatt’s translation.]

 

OVERVIEW

The Introduction to Habakkuk (Haa-buk-kukk) in the New Revised Standard Bible directs: “...one must be attentive with eye and ear to the powerful images of justice and injustice, confidence and doubt, salvation and judgment, God and humankind.” Quite thrilling really.

 

OUTLINE

The Bible Dictionary gives an outline of the book:

I.  Title (1:1)

II.  Dialogue-lament (1:2–2:19)

      A. Lament on the success of the wicked (1:2-4)

      B. God’s response (2:5-11)

      C. Lament on the success of Babylon (1:12-17)

      D. God’s response (2:1-5)

      E. Five woes against the wicked (2:6-19)

III. Hymn on God’s victory over his enemies (2:20–3:19)

 

PROPHECY

Noting “II. Dialogue-lament” above, it occurs to me that we can have a similar dialogue with God. Habukkuk was a prophet.  As students of Christian Science, we are prophets as we work with the Glossary definition of “prophet” In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: Prophet.  A spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth (p.593:4).

 

The One Volume Bible Commentary by J.R. Dummelow references Hab. 2: 4 (KJV): “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith”. Dummelow writes: “All that we know of the person of Habakkuk is that he was a great prophet who has left us one of the noblest and most penetrating words in the history of religion…This is one of the profoundest utterances of the Old Testament.” 

 

I will see what some other translations have made of this verse – many are listed in Bible Hub.

 

·        Christian Standard Bible
Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.

 

·        New Living Translation
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

 

·        New International Version
“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness —

 

PATIENCE IN PERPLEXITY RE WORLD SORROW

The sorrow which stirs Habakkuk's...

From the October 1934 issue of The Christian Science Journal

"THE ABINGDON BIBLE COMMENTARY."

THE sorrow which stirs Habakkuk's heart is not a national but a great world-sorrow; and . . . the book suggests that the secret of patience in perplexity is an indomitable faith in the purpose of God and in the ultimate defeat of evil and triumph of good. . . .

Two great and permanent truths expressed by the prophet deserve special mention.

(1) The universality of the divine government of the world. ...

(2) The righteous shall live by his faithfulness.

In other words, righteousness, fidelity, steadfastness constitute elements of permanency which endure forever.

— From "THE ABINGDON BIBLE COMMENTARY."

found on JSH-Online.com

 

“Patience in perplexity.”  Isn’t that what we are needing at this time of world-wide consternation and perplexity.  We can have pure trust in God’s “working His purpose out” as Hymn 82 tells us (Christian Science Hymnal). Irving Tomlinson reports in his Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy: “A helper in Mrs. Eddy's household once said of her: ‘One time she told us not to say there is too much or too little of anything. She said: God governs. He knows best. He will do all things right.’ This shows pure trust.”

 

I think I get a little of the import of the words quoted above: “...one must be attentive with eye and ear to the powerful images of justice and injustice, confidence and doubt, salvation and judgment, God and humankind” as we study the prophet’s message.

 

Joyce Voysey

Write the vision

Many commentaries consider Habakkuk's message to be one of holding the line during times of trial. Although there are just three chapters, much has been written about it. Here's a little background.

In our Bible, The canonical book of Habakkuk lies between Nahum and Zephaniah. It is the fifth last book in the Old Testament. It's easy to miss!

Its historical setting is around 600 BCE when the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, under Assyrian rule, was at its height, with the fabled city of Babylon its centre.

https://www.markmeynell.net/2009/06/16/more-habakkuk-bits-and-bobs/

After stating his case for despair (he complains about the Chaldean government) in chapter one, our prophet takes his stand (Hab. 2: 1). He seeks God's voice. 

He is told to write his "vision" and "make it plain" (Hab. 2: 2). 

Faith Heidtbrink penned her vision in 1986:

Write the vision

By FAITH WALSH HEIDTBRINK

From the November 1986 issue of The Christian Science Journal

---

Write the vision, and make it plain upon
tables, that he may run that readeth it.

(Habakkuk 2:2)

I had practiced my testimony
in all the spare moments of my days,
and, when Wednesday evening came,
the testimony was given.

(Then what? Is good ever past and done?)

That glory of God
so clearly shown me on the mount
still goes on ... still lights my way.
But it can light the way
for others, too,
if only I would write the vision
for all to see.

(Who, me? Write? I don't know how. I don't have time.)

But whose vision is it?
Is it mine ... to keep inside,
or is it His . . . for me to share?
Could I doubt . . . could I even doubt
that He would show me how?

FAITH WALSH HEIDTBRINK

"For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2: 14).

Julie Swannell

Pursuing the "high goal"

Having covered the years of Mary Baker Eddy's life up to 1882, Gill now opens the second part of her biography. Her theme is always to weigh up the evidence she is uncovering against the writing of earlier biographers. 

She explains to the reader her own initial reluctance to treat Eddy's life purpose as God-ordained or God-directed and her subsequent reconciling with the idea that "[w]hat matters, from both a historical and a biographical viewpoint, is whether the [individual's] vision changes the person's life and activates him or her to achieve practical things which...would be placed between difficult and impossible" (297). 

Here, Gill notes the often derogatory effect of Eddy's gender on the interpretation of her life-work by many commentators. In short, she contends that much of the opposition to Christian Science and its leader has been opposition to the idea of a female religious leader.

And so, chapter 16 "The Massachusetts Metaphysical College" opens a window on the newly widowed sixty-year-old Mary Baker Eddy and her imperative need for "good lieutenants and aides" (302) to help her in her mission. Gill now introduces the reader to thirty-seven-year-old widower, the "incorruptible" (304) Calvin Frye. She suggests that his life in Eddy's employ enabled him to be "in an environment wholly different from his parents' desolate home" (ibid). Here he was a willing and vital participant in a thrilling new movement that "was changing the landscape of American religion and medicine" (ibid). 

Meanwhile, Mrs. Eddy was at work! Gill lists some of the herculean tasks she embarked on at this time and comments that one of her students, Julia Bartlett, "was in awe before Mrs. Eddy's energy and capacity for hard work" (305).

Trials and tribulations abounded, but Mary Baker Eddy kept her eye on "the high goal", a prescription laid out in the Christian Science textbook:

The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 426:5–8)

Julie Swannell

Why read this biography of M. B. Eddy?

Those who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me.
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 120:2–4)

In October 1999, the Christian Science Sentinel produced an edition which focussed on the Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy.

One of the articles in that edition (October 4, 1999) of the weekly magazine was by Gillian Gill, the author of this month's book club book. She answers a question about the importance of knowing about the life of Mrs. Eddy. Here's an excerpt:

MARY BAKER EDDY'S MESSAGE & HER LIFE PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER  

Excerpts from a Q&A session with biographer Gillian Gill

Gillian Gill

...At the start of my research, I was reading all of the published literature on Mrs. Eddy, much of which is extremely critical, often viciously so. And so I started to see that the most important way in which Christian Science was attacked was through the personality of its Leader.

Her message was being blocked, and I would suggest to you that it is still true, that unless we have a clear perception of what she really was and what she really did, we will constantly be dealing with half perceptions, misperceptions, the "facts" as presented by other people.

Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science was immediately perceived by contemporaries as a challenge to the established order. 

...These early negative presentations of Mrs. Eddy continue to be given currency today. Many people writing books don't do original research but go to already existing biographies, and often use the ones about Mrs. Eddy that are negative. 

...Mrs. Eddy was an original thinker—that had its problems and its pluses—but her lack of classical education could have freed her to do what she did. She says, I'm not formally equipped for this; I'm going to do it anyway. This is the only way I can get my message out, and that's what I need to do. And she does it

I am grateful that this author took the trouble to dig deeper in order to dispel some of the myths about Mary Baker Eddy that have been perpetuated down the decades. It is right that these errors be corrected.

Julie Swannell

Final thoughts on finishing the Gill book

I have now finished the whole book (Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill), including all the end stuff. I have noted a few things which I may be able to comment on. I’ll start from the back.

Peel

The very last paragraph of the Notes refers to Robert Peel. Gill writes:

It is hard to overestimate the debt I owe Robert Peel in my own research and understanding of Mrs. Eddy. This is especially true of the first two volumes, which cover Mrs. Eddy’s life up to 1892. The third volume, although the longest of the three, and the one dealing with the movement correspondence and official documentation which I myself had least access to, is also the least satisfying, the most guarded. I found myself consulting Peel Authority in vain for information I knew the author must have had, and it seemed to me that Peel was increasingly being obliged to toe some invisible party line.

p. 700

This is so interesting because Authority is the one most valuable, the most spiritual, in my opinion, to the student of Christian Science. My copy is falling to pieces.

[Ed. I am reminded of the statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 343: 6: "Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method?"]

 

Note to parents

In light of the current pandemic situation there is an interesting note which tells of Mrs. Eddy’s son George refusing to have his son Andrew vaccinated. I gather he thought this was the Christian Science way, but Mrs. Eddy wrote to the parents, “But if it were my child, I should let them vaccinate him and then with Christian Science I would prevent its harming the health of my child” p. 684.23.

 

Gill's perspective

Re care of children. The author (Gillian Gill) gives her perspective:

... the Christian Scientists I have met in the course of my research seem to have their children given routine injections, follow careful and sensible preventative health-care strategies, take their children to traditional doctors in critical situations, and resort only in extreme emergencies to surgical procedures and medications such as painkillers and antibiotics. This seems to me a stoic but not unenlightened policy which many traditional physicians would endorse.

p. 678.12

 

Calvin Frye diary note

Calvin Frye recorded in his diary in October 1893:

Mrs. Eddy’s charge to Mrs Monroe and myself.

The first thing in the morning call on God to deliver you from temptation and help you to be awake. Then do your chores, not as a dreary hashish eater but with a clear sense of what to do and just how to do it.

Then sit down and first get yourself into a consciousness of your power with God and then take up the outside watch. Sit until this is clear if 2 hours.

p. 693.18

 

Demonstration and understanding

As I read Gillian Gill’s biography of Mary Baker Eddy, I was reminded that Mrs. Eddy says that Christian Science is not understood until demonstrated. “We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 323:14–16). So, Gill does not speak at length about the Science; after all the biography is of Mrs. Eddy as a person, and what science can be understood by one who doesn’t study and demonstrate it?

 

Capitalisation

One of the first things I noticed about the text of the book was the way “The Mother Church” was capitalised. In a majority of cases, “the” is lower-case, but there are some instances where it is capitalised, as Mrs. Eddy directed it should be*. I wonder if this is typist’s error or a deliberate intention of the author.

*Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 70:21-- Titles. Sect. 2. “The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” is the legal title of The Mother Church. Branch churches of The Mother Church may take the title of First Church of Christ, Scientist; Second Church of Christ, Scientist; and so on, where more than one church is established in the same place; but the article “The” must not be used before titles of branch churches, nor written on applications for membership in naming such churches.

 

Building The Mother Church

I found the author’s synopsis of the building of the Original Mother Church to be even more exciting that Joseph Armstrong’s in his book Building of The Mother Church.

 

Mrs. Eddy

I find it gratifying that she doesn’t just use “Eddy” in referring to her subject. She always has “Mrs. Eddy.”

Joyce Voysey

Weighing up the evidence

In my reading so far, it seems that biographer Gillian Gill is endeavouring to provide a balanced view of her subject Mary Baker Eddy by weighing up the various points of view against available evidence and attempting to set the record straight.  

Thus, she firmly debunks critical writers such as Milmine, Dakin, and Bates and Dittemore, whose accounts, Gill avers, are often simply hostile fabrications, while also pointing to specific evidence brought to bear on related circumstances by biographers such as Robert Peel and Jewel Spangler Smaus. One example is Eddy's marriage to Daniel Patterson. 

At this time, the then Mary Baker Glover had been widowed for about nine years, her son George had been taken from her, her mother had passed on, and her father had remarried. Mary was residing with her older sister Abigail Tilton in a situation in which she had little or no autonomy. Gill weighs up Mary's reasons for accepting Patterson's marriage proposal and concludes that it was "desperation" (Gill's Mary Baker Eddy, 1998, page 100) that persuaded her.

This book offers the reader a thoughtful and thorough view of a complex life and reminds the student of Christian Science to always consult their textbooks, the Bible and Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures when weighing up a matter and seeking light and direction. 

"In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 341:11 (only))

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalms 118:8)

Here, this week's Bible Lesson is helpful where the Psalmist states that "the upright ... will have no fear of bad news" (Ps 112: 4, 7) where "news" may be rendered "rumour", because "their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord".

Julie Swannell

Excellent notes on Robert Peel

This is quite a book (Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill) we are reading this month!  We have neglected a treasure, I feel.

I went in search of the beginning of the notes and opened on a page and a half about Robert Peel. Excellent.

It is in the Appendix under The Essential Published Source Books. Page 581*.

Joyce Voysey

Ed: * Gill writes: "No biographer in the history of Christian Science has known the archival materials at The Mother Church as well as Robert Peel did, and no one has read them more closely or more astutely... Peel's massive three-volume work--Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Discovery (1966), Years of Trial (1971), Years of Authority (1977)--was first published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston and later by the Christian Science Publishing Society."

Note that all three Peel biographies are now available online to subscribers of jsh-online.com. 

Gill has my attention better now

 Book Club Sept. 2021  – Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill

There is something of interest already. All the other biographies that I can think of have a colon and a few words to show the approach the writer has taken of Mrs Eddy’s life and work.

I must say that I have resisted reading this book ever since it was first published. The cover is so black for one thing, and I couldn’t seem to come to terms with the writing.

Thank you editor Julie for giving me a push.

As I have been reading the Preface (which is long), I wondered if Gill refers to and quotes Robert Peel’s Trilogy of Mary Baker Eddy – The Discovery, The Trial, The Discovery. So I looked his name up in the Index. I was delighted with the first reference:  “...Robert Peel, Mrs. Eddy’s most brilliant, informed, and judicious biographer…”  (top of page 40)  There are over 60 mentions of Peel in the Index. Gill has my attention better now.

It seems Peel had a more full access to The Mother Church Archives than was extended to Gill. Peel’s books were published in 1966 (Discovery), 1971 (Trial), 1977 (Authority). Gill’s in 1998.

So Gill is going to give us a "warts and all" record of dealings of the Board of Directors of The Mother Church that seemed to be less than perfect. As she found it. “...nothing covered that shall not be revealed" Luke 12:2 (KJV). The full citation reads: "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."

Perhaps this book might have been the catalyst which prompted the more recent publications such as Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, and the expanded We Knew Mary Baker Eddy.

I will get on with the Introduction.

Joyce Voysey

"the maid arose"

 Taking a leaf out of Joyce's book, this morning I turned to our book Stories of Healing: Jesus and his followers to research a healing in this week's Bible Lesson on Christ Jesus.

Stories of Healing: Jesus and his followers, page 69 showing Jesus greeting the crowd upon his return 

from Gadara west across the sea of Galilee to Roman-occupied Capernaum.

The story occurs in Matthew 9 and it's about the healing of a 12 year old girl who had died. Her father, a man in charge (a "ruler") in the local synagogue, was distraught. But he was probably one of "a great multitude" who "followed [Jesus] because they saw his miracles" (John 6:2), the most recent of which was the way he had healed a man of paralysis (Matt 9: 2-8) and a woman of an chronic (12 years) health problem related to blood (Matt. 9: 20-22). 

Because the mourners at the girl's house treated Jesus with disrespect when he announced that she was not dead but merely sleeping, the Master sent them packing. Our book explains that according to Jewish customs:

    "when someone died, people visited the person's family to show their love and to help them. The usual mourning period...was seven days. Jews also followed certain rituals to show their grief. People who were mourning wore clothes made of sackcloth--a rough, dark-colored material made of goat's or camel's hair.... Immediately after a person died, the family hired "mourners" (usually women) to weep and wail..."        p. 268

Soon the girl was alive and well. 

Marjorie Macartney's poem "If Jairus's daughter had spoken" in the August 1986 issue of The Christian Science Journal offers a nice insight into this healing:

If Jairus's daughter had spoken

Marjorie Macartney

Jesus said I was not dead.
He knew the light of Life shone in my heart.

The voice of Truth, with awakening touch,

Spoke with dominion, "Maid, arise."

That Word of God brought me, not back,

But forward to the revelation of where I'd always been,

Always am, always will be--living in God.

I do not live again but never died.

The warmth of resurrection melts the frost of fear,

Love is the pasture where His lambs skip fearlessly.

Only the myth of mortality is consumed,

Never the one, the ever-present Life.

Imagine what an impact this healing would have had, not only on the girl's family and friends, but also on those who worshipped at the local synagogue. This was indeed proof "of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick" as noted by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 135.

Julie Swannell