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