A "turnabout"

In an article from the August 1982 issue of The Christian Science Journal titled “The Structure of The Mother Church”*, authoritative Christian Science historian Robert Peel gives details of the times when the authority of the Manual of The Mother Church has been challenged.

Here’s some background on one of those instances.

A member of the Board of Directors had been dismissed by the Board and that person went to court. Folk interested in this difficult time for The Mother Church would find it enlightening. The man was John V. Dittemore. The court case was Dittemore v. Dickey. Dittemore lost his case.

In Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, Peel tells us of Dittemore’s "final turnabout" over the matter in 1937, giving the text of his letter to The Christian Science Board of Directors:

As the result of experience over a period of years and a great deal of serious study devoted to the science of government, I have come to the humble conclusion that I made a great mistake in allowing personal differences of opinion and the feelings that developed therefrom to influence me to the extent which they evidently did after Mrs. Eddy passed on.

We were all greatly affected by her demise and held divergent views regarding the policies to be pursued when she was no longer here to direct us. And while I acted upon convictions which I regarded as right at the time, I have since been led to see, and am anxious to go on record as admitting it, that I was wrong in letting personal opinion and matters of policy induce me to depart from Principle.

God’s law does not divide and separate men, it unites them, enabling them to work together and perpetuates this unity. Personal differences that appear irreconcilable disappear as we grow in the understanding of His law and the ability to demonstrate it. Man is properly self-governed only as he enthrones this mighty law in his heart and mind. It annihilates everything unlike itself and I find it has destroyed all sense of personal animosity, all desire to justify self, and brought instead the sincere desire to acknowledge my mistake in organizing what was apparently regarded as an opposition movement, opposed to the Cause of Christian Science, to Mrs. Eddy and her teachings.

I recognise and revere her as having restored to humanity primitive Christian healing and acknowledge The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., as the first church in history to stand for the spiritual and scientific significance of the life of Christ.

I am happy to forward you this letter to us as you may see fit and to sincerely announce as my fervent desire that the Cause which you represent may continue to grow and prosper under your direction.

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. 509-510

In the above-mentioned Journal article, Peel wrote:

The Manual By-Laws are laws of limitation only to such qualities as self-will, rivalry, duplicity, sloth, pride, personal sense, and the self-deluded complacency that assumes it has already reached Christ Jesus' pinnacle of demonstrated spirituality.

Joyce Voysey

*Ed. Anyone wishing to read the Peel article is welcome to call their local Christian Science Reading Room. Subscribers to JSH-Online should be able to click the link. Anyone in Australia who would like a gift subscription should contact the Librarian at Christian Science Society Redcliffe.

Copies of Peel’s book Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority are available for purchase or borrowing from Christian Science Reading Rooms.

Discipline and healing

Article VIII in the Church Manual is titled Discipline. One might agree that every successful endeavour – in business, the arts, sport, relationships – has required some portion of discipline to reach its goal. It often requires self-sacrifice. Gosh!

According to the Oxford dictionary, discipline denotes self-control, self-government, orderliness, obedience, method, regulated activity, routine, regimen, training by exercise, instruction. It is closely related to the word disciple - student, follower, adherent, pupil. Jesus is recorded as saying "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord" (Matthew 10: 25).

The Readers Digest Word Finder explains that both disciple and discipline go back to the Latin discipulus, learner, from discere, to learn.

Thirty-one sections comprise Article VIII, which is sub-titled GUIDANCE FOR MEMBERS. The section titles are:

1.               A Rule for Motives and Acts
2.               To be Read in Church
3.               Christ Jesus the Ensample
4.               Daily Prayer
5.               Prayer in Church
6.               Alertness to Duty
7.               One Christ
8.               No Malpractice
9.               Formulas Forbidden
10.               No Adulterating Christian Science
11.               No Incorrect Literature
12.               Obnoxious Books
13.               Per Capita Tax
14.               Church Periodicals
15.               Church Organizations Ample
16.               Joining Another Society
17.               Forbidden Membership
18.               Officious Members
19.               Legal Titles
20.               Illegal Adoption
21.               Use of Initials “C.S.”
22.               Practitioners and Patients
23.               Duty to Patients
24.               Testimonials
25.               Charity to All
26.               Uncharitable Publications
27.               The Golden Rule
28.               Numbering the People
29.               Our Church Edifices
30.               No Monopoly
31.               Christian Science Nurse

It’s so interesting to see the by-law about the Christian Science Nurse in this Article. In the June 28, 1958 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, Myrtis Holmes Selover’s article “The Nurse’s Important Work” is helpful. She writes

The nurse has the duty of lovingly caring for the patient, feeding and looking after the body, keeping it clean and comfortable. But she has also the more important duty of watching over human consciousness, feeding it with the Christ, Truth.

Ms. Selover offers the biblical story of Naaman and the prophet Elisha as an example.  See II Kings chapter 5. In this case, Naaman’s servants took on the role of the Christian Science nurse in encouraging him to yield to Elisha’s gentle request to wash in the river Jordan.

Further on, Myrtis writes:

Often one acts as his own nurse as well as his own practitioner. The qualities described by Mrs. Eddy as necessary in a nurse, particularly that of receptivity, expressed by the one seeking healing, help to bring it about… One must watch that ill-temper, deceitfulness, and a complaining attitude … find no place in one’s thinking. Human consciousness should be watched over, tended, and constantly nourished by the Christ, Truth, that the errors detected there may be cast out and destroyed.

Now I see why this section was included in the article on Discipline! Christian Science nursing is about the discipline of watching consciousness. This work is for every student of Christian Science to take up with joy and vigour. I’m resolving to start right now.

Julie Swannell

A precious guide | Principle-sustained

My current copy of the Manual of The Mother Church The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts is of the 89^th Edition. I see on page 1 (There are no page numbers on the first 5 pages of the book. Sometimes these introductory pages are numbered in Roman numerals – i, ii, iii, iv. v. Mrs. Eddy’s seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, is numbered in this way, though the printed numbers do not appear till page vii.)

 

COPYRIGHT

I see on page 1 that copyright to the Manual was first taken out in 1895, so I suppose that was the first edition. Copyright has not been renewed since 1936. What does that mean?

The early sections of an article titled The Church in Action: From the Directors in the October 1981 issue of The Christian Science Journal is helpful. Some relevant headings include: Copyright of Science and Health—Mrs. Eddy's intent; Mrs. Eddy’s own concern and action; and Steps to keep Science undiluted.

[Ed. I like this sentiment from the article:

From beginning to end, [Mrs. Eddy’s] concern … was far more than a merely legal or commercial one. It sprang from her overwhelming desire to preserve the purity and wholeness of the revelation set forth in Science and Health. Again and again she spoke of the need for protecting her writings from misguided individuals who might attempt to take them over….She even laid down in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. XXV, Sect. 7) certain moral conditions under which the textbook could be published or sold…]

Kevin Ness’ piece, Copyright Ethics, in The Christian Science Journal March 2012, includes the following:

Is it true that Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is no longer under copyright? 

That is true. Generally, under United States law, items first published before 1923 are in the “public domain,” which means that Mrs. Eddy’s original published writings in English are no longer under copyright. In the case of Science and Health, the copyright was extended beyond its normal duration by special legislation in 1971, but this legislation was later reversed by a court decision. However, most non-English translations of Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy’s other published writings still remain under copyright.

 

A PRECIOUS GUIDE: ORDER OF SERVICE

I have before me my second copy of the Manual of The Mother Church. The first one is still around but is somewhat worse for wear. It was a precious guide while I was a First Reader conducting Christian Science church services. It was with me on the desk. Why? Because it holds the Order of Service for those services. Of course, the Manual was also my guide for Wednesday Evening meetings and the Thanksgiving Day Order of Service. And it was by my side when I served as Sunday School Superintendent and as Second Reader.

A little story: There was an inspirational meeting. A certain man was given the task of speaking about the Manual of The Mother Church. The one point that has stayed with me over many, many years was when he said he had inherited a friend’s copy of the Manual. He compared it to his own copy. His was in almost pristine condition and his friend’s had obviously been well used.

Here is an interesting fact. On page 120 we have:

Present Order of Services in The Mother Church and Branch Churches 

Republished from the Sentinel

There is a helpful article titled Coda and Invitation: The Appendix of the Manual of The Mother Church in the December 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal.

 

LEGAL TITLES

When we have occasion to write "The Mother Church" or "The First Church of Christ, Scientist", we are required to use a capital “T”. (Ed. Not so for the branches.)

Art. XXIII. Titles. Sect. 2. “The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” is the legal title of The Mother Church. Branch churches of The Mother Church may take the title of First Church of Christ, Scientist; Second Church of Christ, Scientist; and so on, where more than one church is established in the same place; but the article “The” must not be used before titles of branch churches, nor written on applications for membership in naming such churches.
(Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 70:21)

 

A GEM

And finally, a gem from page 226:14 of Mary Baker Eddy’s The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany, not seemingly apropos of the topic but apropos of everything:

Withdraw God, divine Principle, from man and the universe, and man and the universe would no longer exist. But annihilate matter, and man and the universe would remain the forever fact…

The whole passage reads:

Withdraw God, divine Principle, from man and the universe, and man and the universe would no longer exist. But annihilate matter, and man and the universe would remain the forever fact, the spiritual “substance of things hoped for;” and the evidence of the immortality of man and the cosmos is sustained by the intelligent divine Principle, Love.

Joyce Voysey

Animosity? Personal attachment?

In an Extract from a letter in Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy (reprinted on the page preceding the Table of Contents in the Church Manual is this description of the value and necessity of its Rules and By-Laws:

           They ... [are] a help that must be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause...

Students of Christian Science have given proof of those sentiments.

A recent article in the Christian Science Sentinel (October 28, 2024) shares a shift in focus away from a "personal sense of ourselves and others" (Discard the label, p. 7) -

...I held to the first sentence of the By-Law "A Rule for Motives and Acts" from the Manual of The Mother Church (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston): "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 40).

The By-Law continues, "In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness."

The writer continues:

But I kept questioning whether my expression of this Love, if not motivated by a personal sense of affection, could be cold or unfeeling. The focus on me continued to be the stumbling block. I had been seeking to express God's love as though it were some possession to be acquired by me and then bestowed on another rather than basking in the divine Love that shines on all of God's children impartially -- like the sun.

This writer found their freedom as they realized that "unselfed love ... was never to be found in physical distancing but within..." 

Back in 1885, the writer of A Squirrel Story (The Christian Science Journal, May 1885) wrote about not getting on well with a squirrel, who was the “one blot on the summer morn.” A “most unchristian animosity” developed, and revenge ensued until “a vindictive little paw thrust itself quickly through the wires and scratched” the writer’s hand.

But a sweet friendship developed when amusement replaced animosity. “One can hardly be wrathful and amused at the same moment”. The article shares that “After I grew fond of the squirrel, I lost my fear of him” and he returned that loving fearlessness with gentleness and trust.

Julie Swannell

Micah prophesies "The Ruler from Bethlehem"

How wonderful is Micah’s prophecy about the Messiah’s connection with Bethlehem!

The heading in Micah, Chapter 5 (NRSV), is “The Ruler from Bethlehem.” This is where we find verse 2 --

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to rule in Israel…

This is repeated in Matthew 2.

The Notes at the bottom of the page in NRSV explain that --

Bethlehem, a small town five miles south of Jerusalem, assumed importance in the Christian era on account of its association with the birth of Jesus. David, a native of Bethlehem, was anointed there by Samuel (I Sam 16.1-13). Ephrathah is identical with Bethlehem. The relationship between Bethlehem and Ephrathah is unclear. Ephrathah may have been the ancient name for Bethlehem, or it may have been absorbed into Bethlehem. This undistinguished town was paradoxically to be the source of salvation. “me” refers to God.

Joyce Voysey

Musings on Micah and mothers

The name Micah means: “who is like the Lord”. The Introduction to Micah in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible tells me that this “is not a question but an exclamation underscoring the incomparability of the God of Israel.” Is not this a recurring theme of the Holy Book?

Micah’s relative proximity to the Christian era has me wondering about the state of thought that led up to the coming of the Messiah. The Introduction in the NRSV gives much history of the period. I find it rather dazzling.

Just lately I have been impressed by the inclusion of the name of the mothers of new kings, e.g. in 1^st and 2^nd Kings and 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles.

The first example is from I Kings 14:21 --

           And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

In like manner, we are given Moses’ mother’s name in Leviticus 24:11 --

           And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)

Aha! Here we see not only the mother’s name but also the mother’s father’s name also, and sometimes that of his tribe; in Moses’ case the mother is Shelomith, and her father is Dibri of the tribe of Dan.

Now we have a clue here – “Dan” is found in the Glossary chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 583:26) --

DAN (Jacob’s son). Animal magnetism; so-called mortal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the design of error; one belief preying upon another.

Not a good CV!

The entry at I Kings 14: 21 in Dummelow’s A Commentary on the Holy Bible gives me a healthy clue.

           His mother’s name] the name of the mother of each succeeding king (see I Kings 15:10, 22:42; 2 Kings 8:25 etc,) is expressly mentioned because of the position which the queen dowager occupied: see on 2:19.

And I Kings 2:19

Rose to meet her] the queen dowager occupied a very important position at the court of the kings of Israel: cp. I Kings 15:13 and Jeremiah 13:18.

Dummelow says at Jer. 13:1

The date of this prophecy is shown pretty clearly by the word ‘queen’ (v. 18), which means queen-mother, namely, Nehushta, mother of Jehoiachin. The queen-mother had always a high position, and in Jehoiachin’s case this would be specially so, owing to his tender years.

And Jer. 13:13,

...The kings practised polygamy; hence the high position taken by the queen-mother…

Relative Bible Lens from the Christian Science Bible Lesson for October 21-27, 2024, subject: Probation After Death --

The book of Hosea is the first of the 12 Minor Prophets (followed by the writings of Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). Minor doesn’t denote importance but rather brevity of content in contrast to the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel). A commentary notes that “each of these short books gives a glimpse into the spiritual landscape and history of Israel, challenging the status quo through prophets called to speak on God’s behalf.”

Joyce Voysey

Ed. I like the idea that the minor prophets offers  “a glimpse into the spiritual landscape”!

Is Micah relevant to us today?

This morning, after having read the seven short chapters of Micah from the King James Version of the Bible and done a little extra research in the pages of The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel, I asked myself: 

1. How well do you know the Bible? 

2. Can you distinguish between the prophets? 

3. Do you have a favourite passage in Micah?

The answer to the first question is: Day by day my hope is to learn something new and apply it in my daily experience. 

The answer to the second question is: Hmm. I've got some way to go before I can clearly distinguish between them.

The answer to the third question is not so easy. There are quite a few passages that capture my great interest.

I really like the concept of the "remnant". I think of a remnant of fabric. It can be shoved into a corner and forgotten, or it can be redeemed. With a little inner vision, we can see its potential for re-use. We can bring it into the light of day and regard it with fresh eyes and fresh possibilities. I've done it recently by creating pretty carry bags out of discarded fabric. What may seem old and no longer useful can be re-fashioned - perhaps a memory, a failing church, a missed education. Micah tells us that God says: "I will gather the remnant who are left. I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. Yes, your land will again be filled with noisy crowds! Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you" (Micah 2: 12-13, NLT). What a glorious promise.

Next, I like the analogy of mountain-top thinking which leads to peace. Here, "The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear" (Micah 4: 3-4, NLT). "Nothing to fear". Another glorious promise to lean on in our daily walk and conversations - no more cutting remarks, no more hard feelings, no more resentment (swords and spears). Instead, may we tend to the gardens of our own thought. 

Another remarkable passage comes from chapter 5 in Micah. "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf" (Micah 5: 2 NLT). This "ruler of Israel" - and there had been many up to this point - was revealed in due time as Christ Jesus. The King James Version makes it clear that this ruler is and has always been present: "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5: 2).

Micah holds hidden treasure. Ready to be mined and put to use.

Julie Swannell

What's the mental atmosphere in your town?

 The prophet Micah lived around 700BC, was a contemporary of Isaiah, and prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He lived near Jerusalem in Judah.

I've just read his short book from my beautiful pink-bound and tabbed New Living Translation version which I love using. I have also studied the first 8 paragraphs of Thomas Leishman's article about Micah titled "Micah: the peasant seer" from the September 1969 edition of The Christian Science Journal. It was part of the brilliant series The Continuity of the Bible which was later printed as a series of books. (Some Christian Science Reading Rooms may have copies of these books for interested readers.) 

Leishman speaks of Micah as comparing the downfall of Samaria to a contagion - a downward spiral created by rampant idolatry.

Micah also warns against the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and, with tongue in cheek, he identifies various places with their mental animus. Leishman quotes from Moffatt's Bible, and readers will surely enjoy his translation:

     "Weep tears at Teartown ... grovel in the dust at Dustown ... fare forth stripped, O Fairtown ...! Stirtown ... dare not stir" (Micah 1: 10 - 11).

It bears wondering if we today are alert to the mental atmosphere surrounding us. The Discoverer of Christian Science, uses the phrase "mental atmosphere" in her writings, e.g.

    Let no clouds of sin gather and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental atmosphere. (Miscellaneous Writings 1883--1896, p. 355: 26-28 Let)

and

    ... the reformer continues his lightning, thunder, and sunshine till the mental atmosphere is clear. (Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 9: 14-16)

But Micah's message was not all thunder and lightning, as we shall see as we read on.

Julie Swannell

Taking class instruction with Mary Baker Eddy

Ongoing work of The Mary Baker Eddy Library team includes publishing digitally all of Eddy's correspondence. 

Of course, Mrs. Eddy's vast correspondence was either hand-written or -- with the invention of the typewriter in 1870 -- typed by her secretaries, who over the years included her students such as Calvin Frye, Irving Tomlinson and Adam Dickey. Additionally, the faster method of telegraph was used when the matter was urgent. 

Some research reveals that letters were either hand delivered or sent via the United States Postal Service, which used trains to carry the mail at a distance. Interestingly, Benjamin Franklin was this institution's first Postmaster General, a position he had accepted in July 1775. At that time, George Washington had sought to champion "the free flow of information between citizens and their government as a cornerstone of freedom" (thoughtco.com article by Robert Longley, updated July 28, 2021).

While we might think that with tools such as email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS available to us today, communication has become speedier, we might ponder the speed at which Mrs. Eddy responded and corresponded with two prospective students: Mrs. Ruth Ewing, wife of the US District Attorney for Illinois, and a Miss Willsi. Here is what the article "From the Papers: A letter that launched two careers" on the Mary Baker Eddy website reports:

Ellen Brown Linscott, who had taken Eddy’s Primary class in 1883 and Normal class in 1885, was actively healing and teaching in Chicago. On August 19, 1886, she wrote this in a letter to Eddy:

I think I wrote you about two ladies who wish to join your first class in Sept. One of them Mrs. Ruth or rather, Mrs. W. G. Ewing is the wife of the United States District Attorney for Illinois. Just such a woman as you want, one who is able to talk, write, and will make a fine healer too. The other is Miss. Willsi a lovely character, and both are people of social position: Will write you their addresses….1

The class Linscott referred to began on August 30, 1886—only 11 days later. Nevertheless, on the day the class began, both Ruth B. Ewing and Lucinda Willsie were in attendance. And they both went on to have significant careers that contributed much to the cause of Christian Science over the following four decades.

It seems these ladies were on fire and time disappeared in their quest to take forward steps in Christian Science.

"All God's servants are minute men and women." (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 158: 19 (only))

  Julie Swannell

One world

Libraries are vital parts of their local community.

In July this year, the Mary Baker Eddy Library hosted a Community Arts Program called ONE WORLD 2024, a series of events and activities highlighting four diverse part of the globe, for their local neighbourhood. 

The program ran over four Tuesdays from 10am to 1pm each week and included indoor and outdoor activities.

Indoors, one could visit the Mapparium and the How do you see the world exhibit, watch a video of kid-friendly stories from around the world sourced from The Christian Science Monitor*, and enjoy free book-giveaways.

Outdoors, one could watch dance and listen to stories from Japan, Jamaica, Ireland and India or be part of a team of painters working on a mural designed by Alex Cook. The project was led by local artist Josh Winer.

The promo says that children were drawn to the vibrancy of it all. I like that.

Julie Swannell

* Read or buy The Christian Science Monitor at Christian Science Reading Rooms. This amazing, trustworthy, thoughtful, uplifting, and informative news source is also available online for a very reasonable price by subscription.

Bicknell Young -- on Christian Science lectures

Ed. Readers may have discovered a section on the Mary Baker Eddy Library website called From the Collections.

In this section of the Library, our faithful correspondent, Joyce Voysey, recently discovered the following interesting information about early Christian Scientist, Bicknell Young (1856-1938), a man with whom many seasoned students of this Science may have had some acquaintance through his writings. Note that it is probable that some work attributed to Young may be falsely represented as his, and readers are encouraged to read the excellent article about this at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/what-do-we-know-about-writings-attributed-to-bicknell-young/

Joyce brings the following information to our attention:

From the Collections: A rich portrait of Bicknell Young

             Why was Bicknell Young regarded as such an effective lecturer? “Young had not the native humor and wit of [Edward] Kimball,” McCrackan* wrote candidly, “nor his faculty for springing a joke on the audience at a tense moment when its receptivity to the deep things of metaphysics was stretched to the breaking point, but Young brought to his work much polished culture, a generous vocabulary, and a pleasing presence.” But McCrackan went on to explain that there was more to it than just that: 

This was true healing work. Kimball and Young both understood that a Christian Science lecture ought not to be a lecture about Christian Science, but ought to be Christian Science itself, uttered and demonstrated.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. * A biographical sketch of Bicknell Young was written by Christian Scientist William D. McCrackan and is quoted from in the MBE Library article quoted here.

A screw loose?

If I may be permitted to speak a little about my church’s Reading Room. Yesterday when we arrived, there were two men at the window where the Bible and Science and Health* are displayed with marked passages from the current week's Bible Lesson.**

One man was reading from the Bible. This man spoke of having a sensation of something rattling around in his brain. They were looking for someone to pray for this man.

We said we could pray for him, although no arrangement was made. We had a short conversation, and I was surprised to find myself repeating the scientific statement of being***, the other chap having mentioned “beings.”

Of course, I began to know the truth about this man – both of them in fact. The other chap was being such a good friend. The phrase “a screw loose” came to mind. I looked up “no screw loose” on JSH Online. Up came an article by Charles M. Carr. (He had been prominent in the Christian Science movement when I was a new student.)

The title of the article was “The Business of Ideas.” Carr was a space [advertising space] salesman working for various magazines, and business wasn’t good. He spoke to a practitioner of Christian Science saying that Christian Science wasn’t working for him about business, though he was confident of healing any physical problems he met with.

I will quote his exchange with the practitioner directly from the article which can be found in The Christian Science Journal of July 1979.

           “…right here in my business Christian Science is not working." "What's that?" he retorted. "Christian Science isn't working here in business," I repeated, "Not now, not for me." "There's a screw loose somewhere," he assured me, "and you can be sure it isn't with God." That began to wake me up.

Quoting again:

A short time later while on a sales trip I thought, "Suppose I were a lawyer. Would I get paid primarily for reading lawbooks? No. If I were a lawyer and just read lawbooks, I probably couldn't pay my bills." Then I could see my mistaken approach toward Christian Science. I was reading the Bible Lesson and the Christian Science periodicals, but not taking the truth, articulating it in my own words, and applying it specifically to the situation at hand.

That last sentence is what I am aiming to make a point of about the Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Women in History series. Surely, those wonderful women had come to “...taking the truth, articulating it in (their) own words, and applying it specifically to the situation at hand.”

I would like to stand up at a Wednesday Testimony Meeting (held in Christian Science churches around the world) and ask the congregation to pray about that man’s problem, but that may not be appropriate. Someone has said that the problems of the world come to the door of Christian Science to be resolved.

Joyce Voysey

*Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

**Christian Science Bible Lessons

*** See Science and Health page 468 – answer to the question “What is the scientific statement of being? This is read at the conclusion of every Sunday service in Christian Science churches and has often been proven to be a healing force.

Working Christian Scientists raising children

Libraries (and I include Christian Science Reading Rooms here) have always been places of discovery for me. I love them and seek them out when possible wherever I go. 

While I've not visited The Mary Baker Eddy Library in person, this month's focus on its website is helping me (and I hope you too) gain a richer appreciation for the work done by those engaged in its mission.

They have a rich -- and seemingly endless -- store of material from which to work. If one is ever tempted to believe that their days are busy, the we'd have to agree that the days of the Leader of the Christian Science movement were exceedingly more so.

It has always been of interest to me to know how others combine their study and practice of Christian Science with raising children. The Mary Baker Eddy Library addresses this very question!

Under the heading "From the Papers", there is a short entry titled "Work and parenting in 1885". I am so grateful that correspondence between Mary Baker Eddy and several mothers have been published in this section.

Especially dear is the correspondence between M. Bettie Bell and Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Bell's twin babies had been taken with "remitting fever" but were soon "entirely well". With gratitude Bell "rejoiced [in her] recent instruction" which had equipped her to "handle the question of Animal Magnetism with surprising success". She concluded - "'The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want' -- many thanks for your patience, charity and tenderness".

Mrs. Eddy wrote back: "God bless the dear ones...."

Bell's response speaks volumes of the tone in her household. She wrote: "My Daisy four years old says - Mama the 'treatment' I like the best is this 'God is Love. He will wash me and make me whiter than snow'". (Ed. Some punctuation changed for ease of reading.)

How the child-like thought enriches our practice!

Julie Swannell

Three remarkable women

What a cornucopia of goodness you have opened up for us, Editor, with the direction to The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Women in History series. I have selected some pieces that appealed to me.

Miss Jeannie Dove

“Thanks to Jeannie Dove (1917–2000) and other pioneers, Christian Science took root in Ghana. Her career as a spiritual healer and teacher aided its growth not only in her own country but throughout West Africa.

“Dove faced an unexpected challenge a few years after she began teaching Christian Science. She rented the house where she lived and maintained an office for her healing practice. Learning about her expanding responsibilities, her landlord assumed that she was subsidized by a foreign missionary organization, like some others in Ghana. In fact, Christian Science practitioners and teachers are not employees of the Christian Science church but are paid by their patients and pupils. The landlord substantially raised her rent, to the point that Dove feared she would be forced to leave the city and find a secular job in order to survive. This was a threat not just to her but also to the modest beginnings of Christian Science teaching in West Africa.”

Ed.: Read the remarkable way this situation was resolved at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-jeannie-dove/

Bette Graham (inventor of Liquid Paper)

“I have had the hardest time getting others to understand that the company’s success was not because of an unusual ability on my part, but because of the direct effect of this clear recognition that Spirit [God] is substance—a recognition available to everyone.

“In a 1978 interview with the Journal, she elaborated on … the atmosphere of equality within her company: From the company’s beginning, there has been a long-range plan to elevate our practice of business… I worked to base business on the spiritual value of man. The employee’s thinking has been the most valued asset…” 

I am not a fan of Liquid Paper. Having been a typiste (Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s name for a female typist), I was quite adept at rubbing out and typing over. There was always a duplicate to correct as well, and perhaps more copies! 

Ivimy Gwalter

Lucy and Henry Gwalter left these calling cards when they visited Pleasant View, Mary Baker Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, in June 1901.

The designation “Mrs. Henry Gwalter” reminds me of my very first business meeting as a new member at my first branch Church of Christ, Scientist. The Clerk read from his minutes: “Mrs. Doug S…..”  Mrs. S… was on her feet immediately.  “I am Mrs. Barbara S….”.  A big lesson for me.

I have been in awe of Ivimy Gwalter since my early years as a student of Christian Science. More recently I came across her submission as10-year-old to the Christian Science periodicals.  (I haven’t been able to turn it up at this time.)

The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s account of Ms Gwalter includes the following:

“Ivimy Gwalter’s life of service, as well as the lives of her parents, may be summed up in this extract from one of her Journal editorials: 

"The Christian Scientist is not merely an observer; he is a doer. Thus in his evaluation of the affairs of his church, of the politics of his country, or of the state of the nations he is not satisfied to sit idly by and look on either approvingly, critically, fearfully, or rebelliously. Rather does he, through consecrated and alert obedience to the inspired admonitions of his Leader and through daily study of her writings in conjunction with the Scriptures, so enlarge his spiritual understanding and spiritualize his thought and outlook that he is found agreeing always with Truth, never with error, acknowledging God’s allness, error’s nothingness, and man’s true self-identification or oneness with God.”

Ed.: Readers are invited to visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library website and listen to  the Women in History series: Listen to Women of History from the Mary Baker Eddy Library Archives, a Seekers and Scholars podcast episode featuring Library staffers Steve Graham and Dorothy Rivera.

Joyce Voysey

 

Spiritual activist: Dorothy Maubane

Many of our readers will be familiar with the name Dorothy Maubane (1943-2004). Some may have heard her speak about Christian Science in her role as a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship. Some may have read about her in the pages of the Christian Science Sentinel and Journal.

Dorothy Maubane's story appears in the Women of History series on the Mary Baker Eddy Library website, where she is called a spiritual activist.  See: Women of History: Dorothy Maubane - Mary Baker Eddy Library 

Her story is truly inspiring. She faced enormous hardships and yet she kept on. (I am reminded of the story of Nien Cheng - see Life and Death in Shanghai - who kept on loving and living despite having lost her husband and child during China's Cultural Revolution and being imprisoned and subjected to thought-control.)

Maubane experienced a transformation of thought as she sought help for a physical healing from a Christian Science practitioner. She was healed as she "exchanged hatred for love".

When the time came for her to take Christian Science Class Instruction, she requested that the fee be waived. Her teacher refused! She later related what blessings resulted, especially in how she self-identified. She no longer regarded herself as "poor, disadvantaged, deprived."

The MBE Library shares how Dorothy chose not to "shut down" in the face of prejudice and hatred but to open up, reach out, and love her fellow man. When her husband was framed for a crime he did not commit and soon afterward passed on, friends expected her to spiral downward. She did not. Instead her spiritual activism buoyed her; her forgiveness touched the perpetrators. She went into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing.

An especially interesting encounter occurred in the early 1990s while Dorothy was lecturing in East Jerusalem. An advisor to Yasser Arafat (the then-leader of the PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization) attended her lecture and confronted her about her insistence on forgiveness. She was able to speak from her own experience.

There are 40 notes attached to the article from the MBE Library. Most reference Maubane's own writing for the Christian Science periodicals. I shall be digging into those very soon on jsh-online.com. Those who don't yet subscribe to jsh can always ask for articles to be emailed by the Librarian of your local Christian Science Reading Room. Or drop in and bring this blog post with you so they can help you with your research.

How wonderful it is that this library exists. How wonderful are each of our readers, shiny lights all.

Julie Swannell 

New duties. Who, me?

Isaiah 6:8 offers a beautiful example of one who is listening and receptive to God's instructions and who is ready to step up to new duties, even as he or she feels completely inadequate. It reads:

Then I heard the Lord asking, "Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?" I said, "Here I am. Send me." (NLT)

One of the judges appointed to protect the Israelites from enemies such as the Midianites, Amalekites and Amorites was the agricultural man, Gideon. He was minding his own business, quietly keeping out of harm's way as he was working at threshing wheat -- in the winepress no less* -- when an angel message startled him into work that would be much more ground-breaking and way out in the open.

So here he was under a big old oak tree when he finds himself addressed as “a mighty man of valour” and assured that “the Lord is with thee” (Judges 6:12). Gosh, he thinks, but “if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us…” (ibid 6:13).

He has his doubts. Do we?

There follows a lovely conversation – a to-ing and fro-ing:

God: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (v. 14)

Gideon: “Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold my family is poor …. and I am the least in my father’s house.” (v. 15)

God: “Surely I will be with thee…” (v. 16)

Gideon: “If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.” (v. 17)

What followed was more introspection as Gideon seeks additional proof that the message indeed came from God.

At one point, he gets the idea to pull down the Baal altar and the adjacent big pole (KJV inexplicably translated it as “grove”) erected by his dad years before. It’s like a shrine to Baal, “king of the gods” (Britannica web site) of the Canaanites. This incurs the wrath of the Baal-worshippers (vv. 29 and 30), but Gideon’s dad himself stands up for his son. He suggests that Baal should be his own defender. It seems at this point that all opposition scampered off (v. 33)!

Gideon faced up to the seeming forces of evil that stood in his way. Do we? Or does personal sense (“Someone else should be doing this work; I’m the problem here; I’m no good at this”) try to trick us into giving up?

Soon, he was asking for help. And they responded to that call. They came from the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali (v. 35). Are we humble enough to ask for help?

He was at a crossroad** in his life. He needed reassurance as to the direction he was to take. Here the story of the woollen fleece “wet with dew”*** is both charming and inspirational. Gideon, who was also called Jerubbaal because of his work in throwing down the altar of Baal, really did get the message that God was directing his path.

Chapter 6 was the preparation. Chapter 7 is the work carried out by Gideon and his army.

The work of gathering a suitable work-force lay before him. Twenty-two thousand who had applied for the job were let go. They were afraid (Chapter 7 verse 3). A further ten thousand, however, remained: ready to work. Too many. It might appear that mere physical numbers would be credited with their future success.

There would be a test of character. All might be willing, but which of them would forsake a deep, refreshing drink of water. Those who got down on the knees, put their faces right in the water, and were oblivious to what was going on around them, were sent home. Those who merely quickly scooped up a handful of water – there were just 300 of them – were chosen as the select group of warriors needed for the work.

The opposition was overwhelming and intimidating. They were “like grasshoppers (The Message by Eugene Peterson says locusts) for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side” (Judges 7: 12).

But Gideon apparently stayed calm. He hatched an inspired plan. They were each given food (v. 8), a trumpet (probably the horn of an animal), a lamp, and a pitcher (an earthenware pot which would temporarily hide the torchlight) (Judges 7: 16). They split into three groups. They were on watch until Gideon gave the word to blow the trumpets, break the pitchers, and shout: “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon” (see vv. 18-20).

Utter confusion broke out in the camp of the opposition. Gideon had won the day for his people and his shining example remains for us today.

Gideon is mentioned by the author of Hebrews when recounting the blessings of faith. See Hebrews 11: 32:

           And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak… Who through faith … out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

Julie Swannell

*One commentator suggests that for Gideon to be threshing wheat in the winepress, there must have been no grapes to press i.e. that enemy had destroyed the whole crop of grapes.

** See “On the job hunt – with God” by Bethany Davenport Protzmann, from the June 2010 issue of The Christian Science Journal. Bethany quotes John Greenleaf Whittier, who mentions dew in these words from hymn 49:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness, / Till all our strivings cease; / Take from us now the strain and stress, / And let our ordered lives confess / The beauty of Thy peace.

At a crossroads herself, Bethany writes: “I felt the freedom to release my attachment to a paycheck and find a job to fulfill my emotional, financial, and spiritual needs.”

*** I am reminded of Samuel Longfellow’s words from hymn 218-220 and 542:

               O Life that maketh all things new, / The blooming earth the thoughts of men; / Our pilgrim feet, wet with Thy dew, / In gladness hither turn again.