"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 Then in Christian Science Healing, perhaps the idea of a personal Jesus as healer has been replaced by the impersonal Christ Science.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