Treasures for your tool kit

I have now finished reading the book, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Book 2 (Expanded Edition), having made some notes on my way. Here are some gems that appeal to me at this stage of my experience. No doubt a future reading will highlight others.

From Mrs. Eddy:

Page 285. If there is a sense of doubt as to a wise course of action, as a general rule, the thing least pleasant is the one to do.

And – Human reasoning is as material as pain.

Page 294: Mrs. Eddy never wanted flowers in her study, although they made other parts of the home attractive with them. She said, “Because they fade, and I want to think only of life.”

Annie B. White Baker had a lesson in spirituality when she remarked to Mrs. Eddy that she was not spiritual and could not attain to any very spiritual height.

Mrs. Eddy said she must never say that. And she enumerated they ways in which Annie was evidencing her spirituality:

1. Love to be true and to live honestly.

2. Love God and desire to strive for the unfolding of that in yourself which is like Him? Honest, conscientious, diligent in your work. (p, 312)

Page 315: Students do not pray enough. They should go by themselves at least three times a day to pray. Their prayers should consist of much giving thanks, more realization of the perfect as well as the denial of error. There is too much denial of error and too little realization of the perfect.

Pages 349/350. On Christian Science being truly universal, the only Science. Through the Science she discovered, Mrs. Eddy knew of ordinary scientific disciplines: “Electricians would ask me about electricity and chemists about chemistry, and I would answer them instantly and find afterwards that my answers were correct.”

Divine Science is the Science of everything that God created.

Adam Dickey’s entry gives a short history of the inspiration behind his famous article, “God’s Law of Adjustment.”

I have spoken in a previous blog (6.7.22) about clocks and time in Mrs. Eddy’s household. On page 420 we find that, “There was a clock in every room. Each member of the household had his own timepiece, and it was expected to be in perfect running order. In Mrs. Eddy siting room thee were three clocks. In her bedroom there were two, one of which was an old-fashioned alarm clock which she had fastened to the foot of her bed.”

And on page 421 we are told that meals were always on time without summons of any sort. The people and the meal arrived exactly on the hour of the meal.

Page 552 gives us a gem on music and singing:

William Rathvon speaks of evenings of singing with Mrs. Ella Hoag, Mr. Dickey, Mr. Tomlinson, Mrs. Ella Rathvon and he –

Mrs. Hoag and Mrs. Rathvon sang soprano, Mr. Dickey stumbled along under a heavy load of base, while I clawed the scales toward the high notes, trying to contribute a thin tenor, and the Reverend (as we called Mr. Tomlinson) wobbled around in every direction. If we didn’t make music, we certainly did produce a joyful noise.

(Mrs. Hoag or Mrs. Rathvon played the piano.)

Somewhere I found this from Mrs. Eddy: "Prayer is desire."  A nice different touch!

To finish with a lovely story about The Christian Science Monitor:

A man had the belief of consumption and was ordered to go to the White Mountains. In passing through here and making his transfer from one depot to another, he was delayed at South Station. While waiting, he called a newsboy and asked him for a paper, saying, “Any one that’s good will do. I don’t know anything about the Boston papers.” The kid looked him over for a moment, sized up his physical condition, and said, “I guess you need The Christian Science Monitor,” and handed it to him. The man read the editorials and finally turned to the Home Forum page. There, an articled marked “Hope” caught his eye and held it, for hope was something he had lost. He read it and got his first inkling of Science. He wanted to know more and sought the telephone directory. The only thing he could find list ed was The Christian Science Publishing Society, so he called the operator there and said to her, ”Say, what do you do when you’re sick?”

“Why, call a Christian Science practitioner and get well,” was the reply. “Well, connect me with one of them quick, will you, please?” 

You will find, when you read it, that the man was a well man in three weeks time.

Joyce Voysey