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
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