Redemption

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

The Living Bible translates verse 58: O Lord, you are my lawyer! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life.

The Oxford dictionary offers several meanings of the word redeem:

1. compensate for the faults or bad aspects of; do something that compensates for poor past performance or behaviour; atone or make amends for sin, error, or evil; save (someone) from sin, error, or evil;
2. gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment; repay at the maturity date; exchange for goods, a discount, or money; pay the necessary money to clear a debt; free oneself or another from bondage by paying a ransom.
3. fulfil or carry out a pledge or promise.

Here is a passage which shows indisputably that Christian Science does not ignore the need of redemption. The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, here answers a pertinent question:

Is healing the sick the whole of Science?

Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acquiescence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the flesh, from the flesh, — the material world and evil.
(Rudimental Divine Science, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 2:22–7)

Let's review that passage from Lamentations once more - it is so poignant: 

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

No-one is outside Love's liberating embrace.

Julie Swannell

"His compassions fail not"

Eugene Peterson gives an eloquent introduction to the book of Lamentations. He writes of the "two polar events in the history of the Hebrew people: the Exodus from Egypt and the Exile into Babylon" (The Message, p, 1477). The Exodus is the story of freedom and joy. It takes place around 1200BC. The Exile is "the definitive story of judgment accompanied by immense suffering" with the destruction of Jerusalem, its people removed to Babylon in 587BC. 

Some seventy years of exile in Babylon followed, until the great Persian king Cyrus overthrows Babylon and releases the Hebrews. But that is another story.

Second Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 provide background on the fall of Jerusalem. The account in Second Kings explains that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, set fire to the whole city of Jerusalem, starting with the temple, from which they first looted everything made of bronze, silver and gold. There was a lot. We recall the splendour and wealth of the temple built by Solomon. The account in Jeremiah recounts a 19-month siege of Jerusalem, devastating famine, and the final overthrow of king Zedekiah's army by the Babylonians.

Lamentations, written out of the Exile, provides a language in which to process the horror, shock, suffering and sadness of that horrific experience. The Message paraphrases (Lamentations 1): "Oh, oh, oh ... / How empty the city, once teeming with people."

As I read the first chapters of Lamentations, it reminded me of a sorrowful song in a minor key. For example, hear the grief and anger in the author's processing of events as the narrator reasons with God in Lamentations 2: 21 (KJV): "The young and old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied."

But suddenly, midway through chapter 3, there is a switch to an optimistic major key. Lamentations 3: 17-23:

[Plaintive minor key]:

And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

[Transitional passage]:

My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 

[Hopeful]:

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

[Joyous major key]:

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Two hymns come to mind: 97 and 487.

Composer Frank Isley (1831-1887) and author Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) provide an excellent example of a change of mood in hymn 97, which has an explicit key change from a minor to A major –

[Minor key]:

He that goeth forth with weeping, Bearing still the precious seed, Never tiring, never sleeping, Soon shall see his toil succeed;

[Major key]:

Showers of rain will fall from heaven, Then the cheering sun will shine; So shall plenteous fruit be given, Through an influence all divine.

Hymn 487 (words by Thomas Chisholm, music by William Runyan) offers a splendid assurance of God’s “morning by morning” enduring and reliable faithfulness and unfailing compassion. This is surely what we need to hear in the world right now. Shall we sing it today?

Julie Swannell

Eye-opener

A comment in response to the previous post-

What an eye-opener that is! I love the transformation that occurs when we read it in the NRSV. It really is poetic and lyrical in this version, and becomes such an arresting opening stanza to set the tone for what is to follow.

Marie Fox

Hebrew poetry

It's helpful to know that Lamentations is written, not in prose, but in poetry. Lyrical poetry in fact.

This does not mean that it rhymes, either in the original Hebrew or in the translated English. It does mean that we can look for the rhythm of a recurring thought. Let's have a look. Perhaps the very first verse gives us an example. Using the King James Version, I'll set it out line by line, even though the translators chose not to set it out in this fashion. I wonder why.

How doth the city sit solitary,

  that was full of people!

How is she become as a widow!

  she that was great among the provinces,

 And princess among the provinces,

  how is she become tributary!

the NRSVue version (New Revised Standard Version updated edition) has it:

How lonely sits the city

  that once was full of people!

How like a widow she has become,

  she that was great among the nations!

She that was a princess among the provinces

  Has become subject to forced labor.

Thomas Leishman’s article The Genius of Hebrew Poetry (see The Christian Science Journal Feb. 1940) is excellent on this subject. 

I love this opening. It is engaging…one wonders what has caused this state of affairs. Let's read on in our Bibles, dear friends.

Julie Swannell

 

Starting out with Lamentations

My New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible gives me some introductory facts about the book of Lamentations.  

1. The Book of Lamentations consists of a series of five mournful poems.  Together they constitute a moving expression of grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and exile of its people by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.  A concise summary of this historical background can be found in 2 Kings 25: 8-21.  (Introduction) 

2. The authorship of Lamentations is disputed. The introductory section Authorship and Date of Composition ends thus:  "...it is best to seek to understand Lamentations not as an utterance of Jeremiah, but rather as the composition of an anonymous exilic author (or authors) who gave eloquent poetic expression to the sense of bewilderment, anguish, and loss felt by many of the people.  The vividness and local color found in this book, as well as the freshness and intensity of feeling expressed in it, suggest that the author was a Judean survivor remaining behind in the land and writing in close proximity to the catastrophic demise of the nation in 586 B.C.E." 

II Kings 25:8-21 itemises the precious temple furnishings which were taken away to Babylon: the bronze, gold, and silver, all of which are itemised in the account of the building of Solomon's Temple. See I Kings 6:1-38, 7:1-51, II Chron. 3:1-17, 4:1-22, 5:1-14.  (These are listed in Garland's Subject Guide to Bible Stories.)

Joyce Voysey

Isn't this wonderful?

 Isn’t this wonderful? From Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Healing:

The Lord’s Prayer, understood in its spiritual sense, and given its spiritual version, can never be repeated too often for the benefit of all who, having ears, hear and understand. (15:28-3)

It reminds me of a recent inspired thought.

When I give my testimony at a Christian Science Wednesday evening meeting about being brought to Christian Science through the Christ (as I see it now), I often say something like, “I attended Sunday School regularly at either Church of England (when it was available where I was living at the time), or Methodist. I loved the simple hymns of the Methodist church. But they never got through to me”, “they” being all the Sunday School teachers. (There was no religious teaching in the home, only the insistence that I attend Sunday School and, when I was old enough, become confirmed and take communion.)

But I can see now that every Bible truth spoken, every prayer prayed must have “not returned to me void.” I know for sure that I was certainly taught The Lord’s Prayer. So, I am grateful for every Bible quotation that has gone out from churches and individuals over the many generations.

People have been blessed and are being blessed and will be blessed by that holy book, the Bible. And as Mrs. Eddy wrote, by The Lord’s Prayer.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Readers will be thrilled to read about how The Lord’s Prayer saved a writer from a potentially catastrophic situation. See The Christian Science Journal December 2023, p. 42 Safe and Sound with the Lord’s Prayer.

"In notes almost divine"

After reading Joyce Voysey's interesting post yesterday, I re-read Mrs. Eddy's sermon Christian Healing and was very surprised to turn to the final page - page 20 - where it says that "The following hymn was sung at the close: -

Oh, could we speak the matchless worth,

Oh, could we sound the glories forth,

  Which in our Saviour shine,

We'd soar and touch the heavenly strings,

And vie with Gabriel, while he sings,

  In notes almost divine."

I had never paid any attention to this page in my previous readings of the sermon and I wondered about the tune.

We are so blessed to have the internet! There are several YouTube versions of the hymn, but this one by one-person quartet (G. Michael Eldridge sings all four parts) named Acapeldridge is my favourite. It makes me want to burst with joy.

The listener will note that the personal pronoun I is sung, while our words (above) use we. Much more inclusive methinks.

The tune - Ariel - is sometimes attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), but Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is also a contender, as is James Leach. 

The words are definitely by Samuel Medley (1738-1799)!

Happy listening and happy singing. And may your notes be "almost divine"!

Julie Swannell

Homœopathy and thought

In her sermon Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy comments on the practice of homœopathy as follows: 

    “When studying the two hundred and sixty remedies of the Jahr, the characteristic peculiarities and the general and moral symptoms requiring the remedy, we saw at once the concentrated power of thought brought to bear upon the pharmacy of homœopathy, which made the infinitesimal dose effectual. To prepare the medicine requires time and thought; you cannot shake the poor drug without the involuntary thought, “I am making you more powerful,” and the sequel proves it; the higher attenuations prove that the power was the thought, for when the drug disappears by your process the power remains, and homœopathists admit the higher attenuations are the most powerful” (Christian Healing page 12).

Homœopathy came from Samuel Hahnemann’s reasoning and practice. G.H.G. (Gottlieb Heinrich Georg) Jahr was his disciple. It is his book, namely GHG Jahr’s Manual of Homœopathic Medicine, to which Mrs. Eddy referred in her sermon.

Hahnemann (1755-1843) was German; Jahr (1800-1875) German-French. Both were physicians.

Mrs. Eddy writes quite a lot about homœopathy in both Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and in her Prose Works other than Science and Health. Her experimentation with it was a direct link to her eventual discovery of Christian Science.

I must say I have had fun with the œ in homœopathy. Does anyone recognise it as a diphthong? Rather like the German umlaut (ä) which is written these days mostly in English as “ae.” The King James Bible has a list of signs used in the book on the page before Genesis. These help us with pronunciation of difficult words. Actually, “œ” must be rather rare for it is not listed with others.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. It appears that the œ might be losing favour as the word is often now spelt homeopathy. What a shame to miss all that fun!

Cast out devils - error corrected

On Friday morning I came to page 6:26-27 in Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Healing sermon, where she quotes the following passage from the gospel of Mark:

And these signs shall follow them that believe;

In my name shall they cast out devils… (Mark 16:17, 18 (to 2nd ;)) 

Later,  in our Reading Room, my daughter and I watched the first half of Alec McCowan’s “Solo performance of St. Mark’s Gospel”*. What a masterpiece it is: delivered without notes except for a tiny copy of the Gospel open on the table but turned face down. A mighty demonstration of the actor’s art!

Mr. McCowan informed his audience that he would be presenting Mark’s gospel as given in the King James Version of the Bible. This is significant, because it meant that he would be including the final chapter (#16), a chapter omitted from some translations. In fact, Chapter 16 is very significant from the Christian Science position, for it includes the previously quoted passage**.

Get to the point, you may well cry! Right! At the beginning of the performance, Alec seemed to be emphasising casting out devils. Now, probably he wasn’t emphasising, but the phrase cast out devils stood out to my ear.

Alec was well into chapter 1 (right after the healing of Simon’s wife’s mother in verses 30 and 31) when he delivered*** these words:

And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

And all the city was gathered together at the door.

And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. (Mark 1:32-34)

And a little later:

And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. (Mark 1:39)

Further passages follow:

• ·                 In Chapter 3, verse 9, Jesus ordains the twelve disciples and gives them power to cast out devils, while in verse 22 the scribes criticise Jesus, saying that he cast out demons by Beelzebub.
• ·                 Chapter 6:13 records that the disciples “cast out many devils”. Later, John complained: “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.” Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part” (Mark 9: 38-40).
• ·                 Mark 16: 9 - “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.”

Next, I consulted BibleStudyTools.com’s entry under Bible Verses about Satan –

The devil is identified with several figures in the Bible including the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer, Satan, the tempter of the Gospels, Leviathan, and the dragon in the Book of Revelation.

This site then quotes the New International Version (NIV) of the following passage:

1 John 3:8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives many words for "devil" in other languages, but here is one definition:

In the Christian theology, an evil spirit or being; a fallen angel, expelled from heaven for rebellion against God; the chief of the apostate angels; the implacable enemy and  tempter of the human race.  In the New Testament, the word is frequently and erroneously used for demon.

Mrs. Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures defines the term devil in the Glossary:

DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness, and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of the flesh, which saith: “I am life and intelligence in matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind,-- a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image.”

In Christian Healing, following the “cast out devils” quote from Mark 16:17-18, Mrs. Eddy goes on to do some defining: "The word devil comes from the Greek diabolos; in Hebrew it is belial, and signifies "that which is good for nothing, lust," etc. The signs referred to are the manifestations of the power of Truth to cast out error; and, correcting error in thought it produces the harmonious effect on the body" (p. 6:27-4).

Joyce Voysey

* Ed. some excerpts for the interested reader

** Ed. Mark 16: 17, 18 is in fact the chosen text of Eddy’s sermon.

*** Ed. In his inimitable and utterly captivating style

**** Ed. How refreshing is Mrs. Eddy’s explanation over all the others!

Revolution

"We are in the midst of a revolution; physics are yielding slowly to metaphysics; mortal mind rebels at its own boundaries; weary of matter, it would catch the meaning of Spirit." 

Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healing p. 11: 6-9

--------------------------------------

Oxford Dictionary: Revolution. 

1. rebellion, revolt

2. dramatic change, radical alteration, complete shift, transformation, innovation, reorganization, restructuring, reformation, upheaval, shake-up

3. single turn, rotation, circle, cycle

4. orbital motion, turning around, gyration

---------------------------------------------------

Oxford Dictionary: Metaphysics.

- the science of things transcending what is physical or natural

Websters 1828 Dictionary: Metaphysics.

- It is said that metaphysics was the name given to the science by Aristotle...who considered the science of natural bodies, physics, as the first in the order of studies, and the science of mind or intelligence to be the second.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word metaphysics 129 times in her published writings. 

Here's one passage: "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul" Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 269: 14.

I've always loved the idea of replacing things seen with the thoughts that are their essence or true substance. Revolution indeed.

Julie Swannell

Fight the good fight!

I was reminded that The Mary Baker Eddy Library often is very helpful with providing information about the circumstances of something Mrs. Eddy has written – the when and why, perhaps one could say.

So I requested such information from the library about Mrs. Eddy's sermon Christian Healing, but on mentioning this quest to our Editor, she gave me a link to exactly that information. I don’t seem to be able to find that email this morning, but I did find that it is easy to find by googling Mary Baker Eddy Library/Christian Healing.

The following is copied from that article: 

"Christian Healing was Eddy’s first publication for general circulation following Science and Health, which had come out seven years before. 

"Around 1882 two Christian Scientists, Julia S. Bartlett, and Abbie K. Whiting, went door-to-door sharing the pamphlet Bartlett recalled this:

"We obtained a good number of the pamphlet Christian Healing, which was all there was published on Christian Science at that time aside from Science and Health. With these we started out on our mission, selecting one of the best streets and going from house to house, she on one side and I on the other. This was a bold measure for a timid, retiring person, costing many a struggle with self. But that was put aside on meeting the lady of the house who, in every instance seemed much interested in what I had to tell of Christian Science and expressed a desire to meet with us and to learn more about it, and a pamphlet was left for each family to read in the meantime." 

Mary Baker Eddy’s sermon Christian Healing speaks of religion, of the “genius of Christianity”, and of its assailants -- “religious factions and prejudices arrayed against it, the synagogues as of old closed upon it”. She explains that Christianity’s work is to “reason(s) with the storm, hurl(s) the thunderbolt of truth, and still(s) the tempest of error.” See 1:20 – 2:9. 

• The thought came to me that Christian Science is fighting for all Christendom.
• Later: Christian Science is fighting for all who know God.
• Later again: Christian Science is fighting for all mankind.

Mrs. Eddy's paragraph referred to above ends with words from Martin Luther: “I am weary of the world, and the world is weary of me; the parting will be easy”, and Eddy also quotes his friend and defender, the German theologian “gentle Melanchthon”: “Old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon” (p. 2: 9).

I am reminded of the old hymn Fight the Good Fight which I have been singing for most of my life – in Sunday School (Methodist in the 1930s) and in Christian Science churches since the 1960s.

This fight, I find, is urgent. I recall how, during World War II, everyone was enlisted in their own way to the fight to overthrow the very evident evil of Nazi thinking and acting.

Students of Christian Science have enlisted to fight the seeming totality of evil. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good” (470:17-22), and in Mrs. Eddy’s Message to The Mother Church for 1901 we find: “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen sin, disease, and death, and he overcomes them through Christ, Truth, teaching him that they cannot overcome us. The resistance to Christian Science weakens in proportion as one understands it and demonstrates the Science of Christianity” (15:7).

Hymns 59-61 Christian Science Hymnal

Fight the good fight with all thy might,

Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;

Lay hold on Life, and it shall be

Thy joy and crown eternally.

 

Run the straight race through God’s good grace,

Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;

Life with its way before us lies,

Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

 

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near;

He changeth not, and thou art dear;

On Him rely and thou shalt see

That Christ is all in all to thee.

I posted the foregoing earlier today, but had a wonder about the author of the hymn. I searched on the internet (his name is recorded in our hymnal of course): Irish-Anglican clergyman, John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875).

There are some lovely comments about the hymn on Hymnal.net. 

(Editor: The comments have been transcribed exactly as posted, i.e. without grammatical corrections.) 

• From Nigeria: “This is one of my favourite hymn, it motivates me and strengthens me. This inspirational hymns also reminds us that we would be faced with trials, temptations and challenges but that we should trust in God with all our heart and lean not on our understanding nor strength. By doing so, we shall surely triumph.”
• From London: “I have MS and have a particularly bad couple of days. But this night I had it’s 1.30 AM I was awoken with the last verse running around my head. Faint not, nor fear, His arms are near/He changeth not, and thou art dear. Thank you for internet for reminding me of the rest. And thank you Lord for loving me and sending me this just when I needed You! AMEN!”
• From Benin: I was just feeling weary, lonely and defeated when suddenly I remembered this song and after singing and listening to it, I became joyous with hope and encouragement. Thank You Holy Spirit, my ever present Lover and friend.

Joyce Voysey

On poetry, procrastination, and fresh opportunities

 The Mary Baker Eddy Library explains that the young Mary Baker grew up on poetry, that one of her teachers drew her mother’s attention to Mary’s poetic talents, and that Mary once believed she would become a poet. The Library also explains a lovely incident where Mary had lost consciousness and her brother Albert continued to read her verses from Night Thoughts, a poem by Englishman Edward Young (1683?-1765), until she recovered.

Eddy quotes four lines from this poem in her sermon Christian Healing.

The full poem is available at the Gutenberg Project. This site also provides commentary by the Rev. George Gilfillan and gives helpful background:

…in 1741, Young’s wife … Lucia … expired. He now felt himself alone, and blasted in his solitude. But his grief did not sink into sullen inactivity. He made it oracular, and distilled his tears into song. The “Night Thoughts” were immediately commenced, and published between 1742 and 1744. This marvellous poem was all composed either at night, or when riding on horseback—an exercise, by the way, which gives a sense of mastery and confidence, stirs the blood, elevates the animal spirits, and has been felt by many to be eminently favourable to thought and mental composition. 

Two extracts appear below. (The second is the passage quoted by Mrs. Eddy in Christian Healing, page one.)

This long but readable poem is in nine parts and is written in blank verse, which means that while the lines don’t rhyme, they are metered. Further, blank verse often uses iambic pentameter, a style adopted famously by William Shakespeare, e.g.

da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM
When I / do count / the clock / that tells  / the time
(Source: Wikipedia).

Readers can decide whether or not Young uses iambic pentameter.

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality.

Night I. On life, death, and immortality.

Humbly inscribed to the right honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq., Speaker of the House of Commons.

By Edward Young

Lines 393-398

Procrastination is the thief of time;

  Year after year it steals, till all are fled,

  And to the mercies of a moment leaves

  The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

  If not so frequent, would not this be strange?

  That 't is so frequent, this is stranger still.

Lines 417-420

At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;

  Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;

  At fifty, chides his infamous delay,

  Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;

The theme of procrastination and delay reappear at the end of Eddy’s sermon, but here offer the reader the glad tidings of “fresh opportunities”:

        Tireless Being, patient of man's procrastination, affords him fresh opportunities every hour; but if Science makes a more spiritual demand, bidding man go up higher, he is impatient perhaps, or doubts the feasibility of the demand. 

(Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 19: 18-21)

Julie Swannell

Zephaniah speaks for today's conflicts

 

Oh, my goodness! 

Zephaniah 2: 4-7 may present parallels with current conflicts in Israel. 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Readers will find lots of helpful ideas with which to pray about this and other conflicts at https://jsh.christianscience.com/console. 

Ed. Here's a link to The Voice Bible for this selection, from the BibleGateway.com site.

The great day of the Lord

Unlike the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) sets out the book of Zephaniah in metrical form so that it looks like a poem (the whole book following the subscription).

The phrase “the great day of the Lord” in Zeph. 1:14 caught my attention –

The great day of the Lord is near,

near and hastening fast….

 

I wonder if those words call to mind for our readers a hymn. I hear hymn 82 in the Christian Science hymnal: “God is working His purpose out”. The second verse refers to hastening time (italics added):

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea?

Here is the whole hymn (words by Arthur C. Ainger:

God is working His purpose out

As year succeeds to year,

God is working His purpose out

And the time is drawing near;

Nearer and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

 

What can we do to work God’s work,

To prosper and increase

The brotherhood of all mankind,

The reign of the Price of Peace?

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

 

March we forth in the strength of God

With the banner of Christ unfurled,

That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth

May shine throughout the world;

Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin,

To set the captives free,

That the earth may be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

In his Continuity of the Bible Series in The Christian Science Journal October 1969, namely Zephaniah: The Dawn of Seventh Century Prophecy, Thomas Leishman suggests that invasion by an enemy—namely "Scythians, great hordes of wild and savage tribesmen"—"symbolized the wrath of God soon to be vented upon a nation that had openly embraced idolatry". It seems that, to Zechariah, “the great day of the Lord” had everything to do with this invasion. The KJV translates: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly…” (Zeph. 1:14).  

I see that the phrase is echoed in other books of the Bible, and much scholarly writing can be found about it.

I would say that, as the hymn implies, the Christian Science “day of the Lord” is one of the triumph of good over evil. Students of Christian Science often share their inspired interpretations of Bible passages through poetry and hymns*, surely in the way David and other inspired writers of the Psalms have done through poetry and songs.

On first reading, Zech. 1:2, 3 which has God “consuming all things from off the land”, is possibly alarming. But the idea came to me that all "things" will be changed from the material to the spiritual. The “day of the Lord” is come through Christian Science. All will be well!

Joyce Voysey

*Another Christian Science hymn comes to mind: “This is the day the Lord hath made”. Are there any more that readers can think of?

 

 

Following the crowd?

Readers of this blog may be familiar with the work of Bible scholar Thomas L. Leishman. His thorough discourses on each and every book of the Bible for the pages of The Christian Science Journal are remarkable, and are now at our fingertips with the advent of that indispensable resource for the student of the Bible, JSH-online.com. 

Leishman's short article Zephaniah: The Dawn of Seventh-Century Prophecy (October 1969, The Christian Science Journal) is very helpful. (Most Christian Science Reading Rooms will be able to help you locate this and other articles for you.)

Here we discover that the people of Judah were being drawn away from worshipping God. What was influencing them? Leishman explains that with "the dawning of the seventh century B.C. the influence of the pagan empire of Assyria was becoming stronger in the affairs of the Hebrew people." 

Furthermore, their king, Manasseh, was not setting a good example. Leishman sets out Zephaniah's three-pronged argument:

"...the prophet outlines three main points, sometimes described as the Menace (Chap. 1), the Admonition (2:1 to 3:8), and the Promise (3:9–20)."

The Menace: "He envisions the approach of a terrible doom, in the course of which the Scythians will be invited to have part in the sacrifice of the chosen people (see 1:7). God, he assures them, "will cut off the remnant of Baal" (verse 4), all traces of the degrading worship so typical of Manasseh's day, and has no patience with the blank apathy and lazy inactivity of those who are inclined to ignore God completely (verses 12–14)."

Blank apathy | Lazy inactivity | Ouch!

Readers can find for themselves the Admonition and the Promise and will be glad to read about the "faithful and righteous remnant" who heeded the prophet's warning and resisted the local crowd-think.

Mary Baker Eddy might have been commenting on the role of the prophets when she wrote:

"As silent night foretells the dawn and din of morn; as the dulness of to-day prophesies renewed energy for to-morrow, -- so the pagan philosophies and tribal religions of yesterday but foreshadowed the spiritual dawn of the twentieth century -- religion parting with its materiality." (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4: 28). 

Julie Swannell

Think for yourself

Perhaps one of the outstanding messages of the great prophets of the Bible is that we can take nothing for granted. We must think for ourselves.

In a Christian Science Monitor editorial titled “Anni’s letter” (print: 25/9/23), Mark Sappenfield draws our attention to a letter from Anni Ulich to her children dated “Berlin, Fall 1977”. In it, Anni urges her children: “Never stop thinking on your own”.

Anni Ulich has written extensively for the Christian Science magazines. Her article “Demonstrating her life purpose” (The Christian Science Journal October 2011)* praises biographer Robert Peel for his books** on the life of fiercely independent thinker Mary Baker Eddy, and points to her "clear vision about the purpose of her life":

"When the first volume of Robert Peel’s biographies came out, I couldn’t stop reading. I found myself again and again in tears of joy and gratitude because I realized that Mrs. Eddy was not someone who came down from a fairytale heaven—she was a woman, like myself, who was always striving to keep her balance, her health, her happiness, and her peace. To me, the outstanding thing about her was that she had a clear vision about the purpose of her life. And that she did whatever was necessary and possible to express, demonstrate, and live that purpose. As I understand it, this purpose has much to do with Eddy’s conviction of being one with the Divine, and of her radical understanding and vision of the complete goodness and love of God. 

"I was so grateful that Peel took her down from that pedestal of personal adulation where so many of her followers had put her."

The prophet Zephaniah*** seems to have had a clear vision of the purpose of his life and fearlessly wrote: 

“So get yourselves together. Shape up! … Seek God, all you quietly disciplined people who live by God’s justice. Seek God’s right ways. Seek a quiet and disciplined life. … Gaza is scheduled for demolition …” (The Message, Zeph. 2: 1, 3, 4 (portions).

Thinkers never allow us to drift along!!

Julie Swannell

*Thank you to Joyce Voysey for finding this article.        

**Robert Peel’s trilogy: Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority

***Tucked away in my copy of The Reforming Power of the Scriptures: A biography of the English Bible by Mary Metzner Trammell and William G. Dawley (CSPS 1996), I discovered my lift-out Bible Time-Line. It’s a fascinating document. (Redcliffe’s Reading Room may have at least one copy if someone doesn’t have one.) Note the distinction between Zephaniah and Zechariah: although they are separated in the Bible by just Haggai, Zephaniah lived about 100 years earlier than Zechariah.

The period of the great prophets looks something like this:

ISRAEL DIVIDED (NORTH-Israel, SOUTH-Judah) 922-721 BC

Amos

Hosea

I Isaiah (1-39)

Micah

JUDAH STANDS ALONE 721-587 BC

Zephaniah

Jeremiah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Ezekiel

Destruction of Jerusalem

EXILE IN BABYLONIA 587-538 BC

Lamentations

II Isaiah (40-55)

PERSIAN RULE 538-333 BC

Edict of Cyrus allows Jews to return to homeland.

III Isaiah (56-66)

Temple rebuilt (Jerusalem)

Haggai

Zechariah

Proverbs compiled.

Malachi

Obadiah

Ezra

Psalms compiled.

Nehemiah’s governorship of Jerusalem

Joel  

Calendars and events

I did some wondering about how the years were recorded before they were numbered AD (anno Domini or after the birth of Jesus*), and BC (before Christ).

A quick Google search reveals that the BC/AD system was apparently invented in 525AD by Dionysius Exiguus. The birth of Christ Jesus was represented as year 1. Dionysius reasoned that this occurred 753 years after the foundation of Rome.  (The Romans generally described years based on who was consul, or by counting forward from the founding of the city of Rome—753BC in our calendar today.) He was wrong because Jesus was born under Herod the Great, who it is believed died in 4BC. 

I find it interesting that with Dionysius’ method there was no Year 0. (So, in more recent times, the powers that be had it right when they pronounced 2000 to be the millennium—something fussed about at that time.)

The ancient Greeks counted years from the first Olympic Games, which correlates to 776BC.

The Jewish calendar starts from their idea of when the world was created, i.e. 3760BC. Meanwhile, the Muslim calendar begins with the Hijra, the migration of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622AD.

These days, BC is often replaced with BCE (before the common era); and CE (Common Era) can be used instead of AD.

At this point I can finally comment on Zephaniah. In the very first paragraph we have an example of how events were discussed historically— “the word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah...in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah...”  My New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) gives Zephaniah’s dates as 640-609BCE.

Of course, there were oral historians in those days.

What a lot of scholarship has gone into the Bible!

Joyce Voysey

*Ed. The Latin text means “in the year of our Lord”.