Needed: spiritual energy and zeal

Ed. Apologies for the jumbled version of this contribution the other day. Here it is, corrected. Note that you can visit http://csreadingroomredcliffe.blogspot.com/ to get directly to the blog site.

I had very recently gone on a search for the reporting of where Mary Baker Eddy remarked, on visiting her church, that she had found the atmosphere cold. I thought I had searched in Robert Peel’s trilogy of Mary Baker Eddy; perhaps it was in this book. Having no success I wrote to the Mary Baker Eddy Library and got this reply:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding Mary Baker Eddy’s statement about the church being cold.

The quote comes from a letter that Eddy wrote to Septimus and Camilla Hanna on January 17, 1896, after she had visited the Original Edifice of The Mother Church and delivered an address at a church service on January 5. She writes:

I find the general atmosphere of my church as cold and still as the marble floors. God help you dear ones to not be paralyzed with the others. You have done and are doing a great good work. Do not get frightened or weary. [L05130]

At this time Septimus J. Hanna was the First Reader at The Mother Church.

I later paid to get a facsimile of the actual note in Mrs. Eddy’s hand. But I checked Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority again, and found a note I had made in the end papers of the book, which sent me to page 97. Mrs. Eddy had visited the church for the communion service on January 5, 1986 (the Original Edifice it would have to have been on that date). Peel adds, “Later, she explained this a little more fully to the Armstrongs:

My students are doing a great, good work and the meeting and the way it was conducted rejoices my heart. But O I did feel a coldness a lack of inspiration all through the dear hearts (not for me, Oh no, they are loyal to the lightest degree) but it was a stillness a lack of spiritual energy and zeal I felt.

There was a direction to the End Notes to this:

Soon after she wrote in another letter: “Spirituality is so much needed in our ranks that sometimes it is disheartening to go among the oldest students and see its lack.”

Anyway, having the We Knew Mary Baker Eddy book to hand, I read it in a random fashion. I think I started with Judge Hanna. Always a good start!

And so I am required to read the book again. Thank you, Editor.

I hadn’t read the Introduction that last time, so it was good to do that. It points out that the time frame of the entries is significant. 1886-1910. And they are arranged so that the earliest workers’ memories are given first.

I found that the End Notes (pp. 591-619) are numbered to refer to the whole book, not to each chapter. What a boon to the researcher. So much easier that the Peel books. I have placed a bookmark in the back as well as in the body of the book.

The first writer is Jennie E. Sawyer. A very helpful record of the early days of developing a practice. She and her husband made it a cooperative effort, though he was required to travel to help the spread of the good word. Their centre was Wisconsin – a long way from Boston.

They established a church, and it was interesting that their Sunday services and Wednesday meetings did not focus on a sermon from one individual, but on reading from the Bible and selections from Science and Health. The way it is to-day with the Lesson-Sermon.

A couple of gems from page 55, Janette E. Weller’s account:

Mrs. Eddy said: “I am afraid of a Christian Scientist who is never sick, for if he is doing his work, he will have plenty to meet.”

And

“Christian Science is the last revelation that will ever come to humanity. It has come now in books and is established in the world, and it can never be destroyed.”

Joseph Eastaman’s story is a very interesting one. His series, The Travail of my soul, tells of his life as a sea captain, where he relied on God for his safety. Adventure indeed. A dramatic instance of mass mesmerism on his ship and his handling of it is recorded on pages 66 to 68. The Travail of my soul is highly recommended, and can be found on JSH Online.

The Endnotes for Eastaman speak a little about the First Members. I had always been rather vague about this aspect of the early work. On page 593 we find:

The very first First Members were the charter members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, formed in 1892. There were originally twelve, four were members of the new Board of Directors—Ira O. Knapp, William B. Johnson, Joseph S. Eastaman, and Stephen A. Chase—and eight others: Julia Bartlett, Ellen L. Clarke, Janet T. Colman, Mary F. Eastaman, Ebenezer J. Foster-Eddy, Eldora O. Gragg, Flavia S. Knapp, and Mary W. Munroe.

One of the very first acts of the new group was to admit twenty others to serve with the original twelve as First Members. Over time, Mary Baker Eddy appointed others to be First Members, as well. These First Members shared the responsibility of conducting church affairs with the Board of Directors and Eddy.’

On January 10, 1901, the First Members relinquished their role in church government; on Mary 17, 1903, their designation became “Executive Members”; and on July 8, 1908, they were disbanded.

On page 91, Julia Pescott says about Mrs. Eddy’s teaching: “Two things impressed me beyond words to express: First, that Love was our only weapon and would destroy all error that might come to our consciousness. Second, that all Bible passages that came to us in time of great need were messages direct from God.”

Julia also says that she heard Mrs. Eddy praying, “Father, love my enemies” (page 96).

Joyce Voysey