Moral and mental aspects of healing

A couple of points from my reading of Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck.

THE MORAL ASPECT

Chapter Moral Science (p.  81). The moral aspect of Mrs. Eddy’s system or “science” set it apart from all other healing methods. She saw it as the most important part. In the book, this is illustrated by this report from the Boston Traveller in 1900.

. . . Remarkable as was the man’s physical healing, even more remarkable was the transformation in his thought and life. His wife told Mrs. [Glover] a few days later that she had never before seen him [hug] his children as other fathers did, but on the night of his recovery he called them to him, and taking them in his arms he told them that he loved them; and with tears rolling down his cheeks he said to his wife, “I am going to be a better man.” It is not strange that the happy wife said to Mrs. [Glover], “Oh, how I thank you for restoring my husband to health, but more than all, I am grateful for what you have done for him morally and spiritually.”

The physical healing was of enteritis and bowel stoppage.

In a similar vein we have Samuel Putnam Bancroft (pp. 87-88) writing in 1870:

Mrs. [Glover] did not claim to be a teacher of religion, however, but of a method of healing the sick without the use of medicine. That was what induced us to study with her. The object of some was to regain health; of others, to commercialize the knowledge acquired. They considered it a sound business proposition. Her religious views, while not concealed, were not capitalized. Later, we learned that our success or failure in healing depended on the purity of our lives, as well as on the instruction she gave us.

Advice to possible students: Don’t come into it for the money! Although, at that stage of Mrs. Eddy’s experience she needed to get her message out.

Bancroft again on page 88. He asked how they should metaphysically view the process of teaching. In part she wrote:

When I teach science it is not woman that addresses man, it the principle and soul bringing out its idea. . . My scholars may learn from me what they could not learn from the same words if uttered by another with less wisdom than even my “grain of mustard seed,” hence, it is not the words, but the amount of soul that comes forth to destroy error.

I feel that this could, to a lesser degree, apply to Christian Science lectures.

I had wondered if the Puritan angle would be carried on through the book, but I do not think so.

HEALING OF INSANITY

There was another item I wanted to comment on: the healing by Mrs. Eddy of an insane man. She explained (in part):

He took a chair, and poised it, but I looked upward and he dropped the chair, and asked if I had something to say to him. I said I had, all from the spiritual side, “The first thing is you have no disease of the brain; you need never have been in the insane hospital” (pp. 83-4).

I was taken with the phrase “disease of the brain.” I reasoned that there are other conditions which could be classified as such – dementia, amnesia. The internet tells me that in 2019, one in every eight people in the world live with a mental disorder, with anxiety, depression.

From the Christian Science viewpoint is not every physical disorder a claim of mental disorder?

I typed a few statements of Truth about brain:

•     Brain is not mind. Mortal mind is not intelligence. Only Mind is mind.
•      Any info coming from brain is false. It is brain that sees a deranged mind.
•       All disease emanates from brain which is the theoretical mind in matter.
•       Brain is matter. Matter is no thing.

Joyce Voysey

Practical Christian Science

I read the Introduction to Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (MBE:CH)  by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck (Amplified Edition) a few days ago. This morning, in Prelude, I am delighted to have presented to me a definition of a Puritan (maybe especially, one living in the USA).

But first of all, the writers point out how Puritanism influenced Mary Baker Eddy’s religious experience – “how she thought and lived, how she sought, drew near to, and understood God. This Puritan approach to God was a motivating force behind both her private and public life” (page 15).

Then the writers point out that we must discard our vision of the stereotypical Puritan of rigid extremism.

We read that “‘practicality’ gives a clearer, more precise picture of the Puritan, for whom fulfilling one’s duty to God was the whole purpose of existence. Nothing was more important. Every detail of one’s life could be dealt with correctly only through discernment of the divine will, and this discernment was not to be determined intellectually, but received directly from God Himself through spiritual communion” (ibid pages 15-16).

This reminded me of book I have just finished reading, The Hour of Sunlight, by Sami Al Jundi and Jen Marlowe. Sami is a Palestinian living in the Old City of Jerusalem. I found similarities with the Puritan way of living and the way Sami’s family lived their lives. Incidentally, both of Sami’s parents were blind: he and his siblings were their “eyes” when they went out of the house. Now this is interesting. I cannot find any passages which I can quote to illustrate that impression. I guess one really has to read the book.

Then, back to MBE:CH, on that same page 16, there is a paragraph which talks about religion being both an Art and a Trade.

About trade: “a Trade is not learned by words, but by experience: and a man hath learned a Trade, not when he can talk of it, but when he can work according to his Trade” (Englishman Richard Sibbes, a seventeenth century Puritan preacher). The writers of our book comment that “it would be hard to find a better description than this of Mary Baker Eddy’s expectation for Christian Science and its adherents.”

I move to the present to tell of a man who has just recently been the recipient of an AOM for service to the aeronautical engineering industry.

It started when he built a small light plane while attending university to learn civil engineering. The plane flew and served him for many years. Meantime, he extended his university tenure to aeronautical engineering. That done, he started to build a business. This grew to employ around 40 engineers. They mostly came directly from universities and received outstanding instruction and guidance. Now well established, he saw a need for a certain type of plane especially designed for Australian conditions. He designed it (no doubt giving his employees great experience). And he built it himself! This is no small light plane but a 10-seater.

I hope the reader can see my point about this man’s Trade. Practicality indeed!

All that and I am only on the second page of Prelude!

Joyce Voysey

Ed. I note that the word "practical" appears 74 times in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Some of these references come from readers who attest to the practicality of Christian Science in their lives.

Touching lives by our spirituality

 As I open my copy of Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck this morning, I like what it says on the very first page: "Many historical records related to Mary Baker Eddy's life, including those used in this biography, are held at The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. The Library's collections are available for public research."

While I have not visited the MBE Library in person, its rich resources are freely available online at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/  and anyone can ask questions if they can't find answers already on the site. 

So, it's reassuring that our book this month has used those resources in its compilation.

I was interested to read the quotes from Phillips Brooks* and Mary Baker Eddy on the following page, and I wondered about Mr. Brooks. Wikipedia gives this brief summary: "Phillips Brooks was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church..." He is also mentioned in a post on The Mary Baker Eddy Library's site about WWII internees in Hong Kong because he wrote the words to the hymn "O little town of Bethlehem" which some internees had hand-copied for their church services during that harrowing time. (See A Remarkable Story of Persistence.) Readers will enjoy reading this.

Here are the two quotes which appear on one of the unnumbered early pages of our book:

God has not given us vast learning to solve all the problems, or unfailing wisdom to direct all the wanderings of our brothers' lives; but He has given to every one of us the power to be spiritual, and by our spirituality to lift and enlarge and enlighten the lives we touch. -- Phillips Brooks

The secret of my life is in the above. -- Mary Baker Eddy

Let us now open our hearts to that "power to be spiritual" as we read this volume about Mary Baker Eddy and how her life's work has touched and blessed so many lives, then and now.

Julie Swannell

* A search under "Phillips Brooks" on https://jsh.christianscience.com/console yields 270 results! He was a very much respected and quoted theologian. One article which mentions Brooks is "The next 90 years" by Mark Swinney (See Christian Science Sentinel 27th December 2010. If you don't have access to jsh-online, feel free to call your local Christian Science Reading Room to access this article for you.)

On that day

 Gosh, we've almost run out of May and I'm only just coming to grips with Zechariah!

Many commentators believe that these later chapters (9-14) were written at a much later date by a different author. There is certainly a change of tone, and the material is no longer about rebuilding. 

Here are some passages I found of interest as these people learn once more (following their long exile) how to live together as people of the one God.

1. Zech 9: 9-10 prophesies a new king who brings peace for this war-ridden part of the world: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey... he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the end of the earth." (NRSV). It also anticipates the events described in Mark 11:1-11 where Jesus rides a colt (KJV has ass) as he enters Jerusalem. 

2. Zech 9:12 "...I will restore to you double." This reminds me of Bible stories where what was apparently lost was restored, e.g. Job, Ruth, and the man with the withered hand which was "restored whole, like as the other" (Matt 12: 13).  

3. Zech 9: 16 "...the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land..." The references to sheep and shepherds would have resonated with these people. The "shining" image reminds me of Matt 5: 16 where Jesus instructs his listeners to let their light "so shine before men, that they may see [their] good works, and glorify [their] Father which is in heaven".  

4. Zech 10: 10 "I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria; I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon... This reminds me of Jesus' parable of the prodigal son's coming home. It also echoes other prophetic voices, like Isa. 43: 6. 

Chapter 11 condemns the "worthless shepherd who deserts the flock" (v. 17 NRSVUE), the shepherd "who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy..." (v. 16 ibid).

Chapter 12 uses imagery (horses again) to describe turmoil in Jerusalem. The repeated phrase "on that day" or "the day of the Lord", says the SBL Study Bible, "does not refer to end-time events...[but] ... draws upon a rich tapestry of images to describe divine justice" (p. 1310). We are reminded here that unlike pagan peoples who would perhaps blame their gods for their difficulties, these people had learned that the one God was their refuge; they had but to remember Him in their troubles. Verse 8 assures the people that "the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem".

Chapter 13 introduces the idea of cleansing from idolatry, sin and impurity. Verse 1 reads: "On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity" (NRSVUE). 

Chapter 14 seems to prophesy overturning. The phrase "on that day" predominates the text. Some of the events include: "continuous day...not day and not night" (v. 7); "the Lord will be one and his name one" (v. 9); and "Jerusalem shall abide in security" (v. 11).

As I've been reviewing these chapters, I've been thinking I should look up the Glossary definitions of Jerusalem and Day in Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Preceding these and other definitions Eddy writes: "In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scriptural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It contains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning" (p. 579).

p. 584 Day. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love.

"And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night there."

p. 589 Jerusalem. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyranny. Home, heaven.

A nice place to conclude our study.

Julie Swannell

A perfect fit

Well.  Not an easy assignment this.

I’m going to repeat what the Harper Collins Study Bible has, under the heading Date, Authorship, and Context:

   The book of Zechariah is generally agreed to have been written by more than one hand.  The eight visions and prophetic oracles that make up chs. 1-8 begin with the date October/November 520 B.C.E.  There seems no reason to question this chronological framework, nor for that matter the attribution of the first part of the book to one “Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo.”  According to Zech 7.1, his work continued until 518 B.C.E., which means that he functioned significantly longer than the five months during the year 520 in which Haggai worked.  The two prophets shared the same mission, namely, to advocate the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem. 

   The Judean exiles had returned from their Babylonian captivity after 539 B.C.E, armed with the so-called edict of Cyrus (Ezra 6.3-5), which permitted them to rebuild the holy sanctuary in Jerusalem.  Perhaps they were guided as well by the visionary plan of restoration put forth in Ezek. 40-48, certainly they were animated by the stunning promises of the great prophet of the exile, the author of Isa 40-55 (Second Isaiah).  Reconstruction work began rather quickly under Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah appointed by the Persians; but then for unknown reasons it stopped (see Ezra 5.13-10).  More than a decade later, during the tension stirred up throughout the Persian Empire by the accession of Darius I in 522 B.C.E., first Haggai, then Zechariah sprang into prophetic action.  They stressed the importance of rebuilding the temple so that the elect and restored community of Judah could enjoy the God-given provisions for right relationship and right worship that were to be centred there.  Apparently, their words were heeded, for the temple was completed and rededicated just a few years after the end of their ministries, in 516/5 B.C.E. (see Ezra 6.15). 

I have been interested in the building of the temple and thought about the corner stone, the chief corner stone, and the keystone. 

I found under JSH-Online an article, The Temple by E.A.E. in the July 1904 Christian Science Journal. 

It was amazing, in that the pieces of marble were shaped where they were mined, and, when added to the wall, fitted exactly.  However, there was one piece which just didn’t seem to fit anywhere.  This was The Stone That the Builders Rejected*.  It was rejected right up to the last stone. The keystone at the head of the arch, was needed, and the rejected stone just fitted the bill! 

Thomas Leishman finished his October 1970 Christian Science Journal article (one of a series) on Haggai and Zechariah with this: 

   It is Zechariah who stresses the hopes of his people concerning the coming of the Messiah—termed the "BRANCH" (Zech. 3:8; 6:12) here as in other Biblical passages (Isa. 4:2; 11:1: Jer. 23:5; 33:15). John, in Revelation, apparently attributed great significance to the visions in Zechariah, especially the candlestick and the two olive trees (compare Zech. 4:11-14 and Rev. 11:3, 4).

   Moreover, Zechariah joyously affirmed the coming of the Messianic age, in which promise of prosperity, safety, and the restoration of true religion would be fulfilled: "Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth ; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain" (Zech. 8:3).

Joyce Voysey

Ed. For those who may not yet have a subscription to JSH-online, any Christian Science Reading Room will help you with a copy of the articles mentioned. It's well worth it: they give excellent context to our subject. Thank you to Joyce for her very helpful research. 

* See Matt. 21: 42, Mark 12: 10 and Luke 20:17. Also Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 139: 22.

Nation-building or any reconstruction project.

 There are 14 chapters in Zechariah. One would think it would be easy to read them through in the space of a month, but I still have not done it! What is the problem?

I have no excuse except that I got stuck with the text's apparent density and my dim ability to comprehend its relevance.

So - last night I grabbed one of my study Bibles, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version (5th edition) and took it to bed with me along with a little pencil to mark helpful passages in the commentary at the foot of each page. Oh, what a revelation! (I wonder why it has taken me so long to think about doing this study with this tool.) I quickly reached chapter 10 before falling into a sound sleep. ☺

I'm not sure where to begin now. There is much to share. 

We'll start with the context of this book: the temple of King Solomon (completed in 957BCE) was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586BCE - see II Kings 25:8-21.

Nearly 70 years later, "Zechariah was active in ... 520BCE and 518BCE... early in the reign of the Persian emperor Darius (522-486BCE) and before the rededication of the Temple [new] in 515."

For context, I note that the great Greek philosopher Socrates lived about a century later (c. 470-399BCC), and subsequently Alexander the Great conquered the land of Israel (333/331BCE).

Zechariah's story begins just prior to the laying of the new (second) Temple's foundation stone. Zech. 8: 9 says "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strong--you that have recently been hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets who were present when the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the Lord of hosts" (NRSV).

It continues with a re-assuring promise: "For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground shall give its produce, and the skies shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. ...and you shall be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong" (ibid vv.12, 13). 

But let's now backtrack to what the NRSV calls the book's "oracles", or authoritative messages. These were sometimes obscure or ambiguous. Zechariah gives us 8 "truly distinctive" visions or oracles, which "move beyond ordinary reality" and which are intended to "explain the ways in which God is working ... on behalf of the newly restored community (NRSV commentary, p. 1357). 

Zech 1: 8-17, first oracle: divine horsemen patrol the earth (multicoloured horses grazing among the myrtle trees) - perhaps signifying "peace over all the earth" (NRSV commentary). Verse 8 asks: "how long"? The NRSV commentary suggest that this may refer to "an unfortunate period of time". Have I ever asked "How long, God?"

Zech 1: 18-21, second oracle: four horns and four smiths - perhaps "the totality of nations that destroyed Israel" (ibid), therefore signifying the enemy. 

Zech. 2: 1-13, third oracle: a surveyor measures Jerusalem - the rebuilding of the nation proceeds, and God is a "wall of fire all around it ... and the glory within it".

Zech 3: 1-10, fourth oracle: Joshua and Satan - Satan is the accuser but God rebukes his suggestions. I love how God says to Joshua, who is the high priest: "See I have taken your guilt away" (3:4). The accuser is cast down! And not only is his filthy garment removed, he is now re-clothed in innocence! Complete purification.

Zech 4: 1-14, fifth oracle: a lampstand and two olive trees. I love the image of the two olive trees (vv. 11-14), representing "the two anointed ones". Two witnesses. Two who give us the good oil, the truth, possibly Joshua and Zerubbabel, but readers may think of two books which stand firm in fuelling God's promises.

In this vision, the angel message explains what's really happening during the building process: "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [the governor]: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts" (4:6). 

By the way, in v. 7, it is Zerubbabel who shall "bring out the top stone". Later he also lays the foundation (v. 9). Now, I always thought the foundation stone was at ground level, but the NRSV seems to indicate that in this case it is the top stone of the Temple, and that this stone would have come from the previous temple. Is the text indicating two different stones perhaps?

Zech 5: 1-4, sixth oracle: a  flying scroll - "represents God's covenant-based justice" (NRSV p. 1361) in the face of "the curse" (v. 3). The scroll is approx. 30' long (9m) and 15' wide! NRSV commentary notes that this scroll may have looked like a flying carpet! Spirit's message is unmistakable. 

Zech 5: 5-11, seventh oracle: a woman in a basket - representing wickedness + two women with wings. These are "not cherubim, which were male" (NRSV commentary). Wickedness = Babylon. By the way, the KJV uses the word ephah (an ancient Hebrew dry measure of about 40 litres) indicating an ephah-sized vessel filled with sin. KJV then speaks about a talent of lead.  This refers to the basket's lead cover, which, when removed, revealed the two women with wings. Gosh!

Zech 6:1-8, eighth oracle: four chariots - multicoloured horses again but this time with chariots going out in four directions, which "represent military might and dominion...with the winds as the deity's agents" (ibid). 

An interesting observation is that the Hebrew verb for "go out", sometimes translated "come out" or "go forth" or "went forth" appears multiple times, depending on the translation in these verses. You might see how many you can find and ponder the meaning. Perhaps this indicates movement, action.

Maybe I will stop here. That's a lot to absorb. But there's a lot more that I find I love in Zechariah, and which I didn't know was right here.

Julie Swannell

 

What am I prioritising?

I was interested in Zechariah 1:1 and 7 where Zechariah gives us the exact year of events as occurring during "the second year of Darius". 

Who was Darius? When did he reign? What nation did he govern?

As we research this month's book, it's become obvious that Haggai and Zechariah go together and so the following answers to our questions make sense.

One commentator offers this: "In the second year of King Darius of Persia (520BC), God used a man named Haggai to urge the people to prioritize rebuilding the temple as a symbol of the immediate presence of the Lord among them. The people obeyed the prophetic message and resumed work on the building project" (https://thebiblesays.com/en/commentary/zec+1:1). (Other sources suggest that 520BC may not be quite right, but I think we are in the vicinity.) 

By the way, I'm not quite sure yet how the two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, go together - that will require more study! 

In the meantime, this prompts some questions: 

1. Have I ever had an urgent message to take action of some sort? Have I heeded it or have I procrastinated, allowing other concerns to take precedence? (I am reminded of the Scripture: "...be instant in season, out of season..." (II Tim. 4:2))
   
2. In 2025, what am I prioritizing? How is that working out? (Hmm. Now I'm thinking about the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus instructed us to: "...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33))
   
   
3. Do we need a symbol of the immediate presence of God? (symbol: a thing that represents or stands for something else; a token; a shape or sign)

Julie Swannell

King Uzziah

Isaiah chapter 6 appears in this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson. the chapter begins by telling us that the prophet Isaiah began his work in the year that King Uzziah of Judah died. That year was 739BC.

Who was Uzziah and was he connected to the prophet Zechariah who we are learning about this month?

Second Chronicles 26 informs us that Uzziah became king at the age of 16 and subsequently successfully reigned in Jerusalem for 52 years! 

His mother's name was Jekoliah (v. 3) and "he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord" (v. 4). Moreover "He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God"(v. 5 NIV).

How interesting to make these connections!

Further along in this chapter is one of my most favourite Bible verses:

v. 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" (Isa. 6: 8).

Julie Swannell

 

Discouraged? "The Lord will give thee peace."

A quick review of articles mentioning the word “discouragement” in recent editions of The Christian Science Monitor include stories on church, politics, sport, and home. Murr Brewster’s hilarious April 16, 2025 story about hiding behind her undiscouraged hedge, includes this graphic paragraph:

The big side yard was bordered on two sides by a sprawling laurel hedge with Godzilla’s own ambition. It didn’t grow so much as it reared up. I caught one neighbor pouring used motor oil underneath the hedge, but that did nothing to discourage the thing. Within a year it was a threat to migrating geese.

But, discouragement is not usually funny. It can become entrenched, and it can show up at inconvenient times. It may need some wrestling to be replaced by hope and encouragement.

The prophet Zechariah had the tough job of encouraging a discouraged nation. How did he do it? My KJV study Bible’s book of Zechariah opens with this telling paragraph

               Zechariah prophesied to a group of discouraged Israelites, announcing that it was a new day for God’s chosen people. He sought to inspire those who had returned from captivity to rebuild the temple and rededicate their lives to the Lord. The message of encouragement involved surrealistic visions and vivid poetic images, focused on a reversal of God’s judgment, and called for a reversal of the people’s behavior.

Zechariah knew the way forward wasn’t going to be easy. It would require work, diligent work involving a reassessment of how people conducted their everyday lives.

Chapter One sets the pace:

v. 3 “… ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’…”

v. 8 “In a vision during the night, I saw a man sitting on a red horse that was standing among some myrtle trees in a small valley. Behind him were riders on red, brown, and white horses.

v. 9     I asked the angel who was talking with me “My lord, what do these horses mean?”

v. 10    The rider standing among the myrtle trees then explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent out to patrol the earth.”

v. 11     Then the other riders reported to the angel of the Lord, who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have been patrolling the earth, and the whole earth is at peace.”

v. 16    …“My Temple will be rebuilt…”

v. 18    Then I looked up and saw four animal horns.

v. 19    What are these? I asked the angel who was talking with me. He replied, “These horns represent the nations that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

Those words are quite encouraging. Angel messages always are.

One writer has shared the following:

Discouragement should never be admitted into consciousness on any pretext. It is never a part of good and can never be made to serve any legitimate end. It is always a harbinger of evil and never a messenger of good, and for that reason it should not be listened to or believed in by anyone who places his trust in the triumph of good. James Noble Hatch, The Christian Science Journal March 1918 “Overcoming Discouragement”

James Montgomery’s words from hymns 77, 78 touch the heart of the matter:

Place on the Lord reliance; / My heart, with courage wait; / His truth be thine affiance, / When faint and desolate: / His might thy heart shall strengthen, / His love thy joy increase; / Thy day shall mercy lengthen: / The Lord will give thee peace.
(Christian Science Hymnal 77:2)

Julie Swannell

The volume turned up

Take yourself to 500 years before Christ Jesus' sojourn on earth.

King Cyrus of Persia has granted the captive Israelites permission to return to Judah (538BC). 

A commentator writes: "The chosen people had just come through one of the worst experiences possible in the ancient world. Their homeland was devastated by invading armies, their capital city and temple were plundered and flattened, many of their people and leaders were killed, and most of the rest were carried off into pagan lands. The returnees who made the long trek back to Judah were faced with the challenge of re-establishing Jerusalem and the temple." (The book of Ezra gives some background.)

The commentator continues: "The remnant that came out of the captivity was the only hope for the future of Israel. Based on the track record of previous generations, strong language would be necessary to penetrate the stubborn shoulders, closed ears, and rock-hard hearts of God's people... Poetry served this purpose well because it allowed for language with the volume turned up."

"Zechariah used a mix of genres. His sermons, poetry, and oracles of judgment and salvation were typical of the prophetic genre. But his visions had similarities with apocalyptic literature, like Daniel."  Holman KJV Study Bible

I'm looking forward to finding out more about this prophet, his message, and his method of communication.

Julie Swannell

"...life is not lost; its influence remains..."

As I write, Easter Monday is almost over and with it news of the passing of Pope Francis. 

The Christian Science Monitor published this: 

The first Latin American pontiff, he was celebrated for his humble style and concern for the poor, but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change. From his first greeting as pope of a simple “Good evening” to his embrace of refugees and the downtrodden, the Argentine-born pope signaled a different tone for the papacy, stressing humility over hubris for a Catholic Church beset by scandal and accusations of indifference. –AP

It may be timely to reprint the tribute paid by Mary Baker Eddy on the passing of Pope Leo XIII in 1903:

ON THE DEATH OF POPE LEO XIII, JULY 20, 1903

The sad, sudden announcement of the decease of Pope Leo XIII, touches the heart and will move the pen of millions. The intellectual, moral, and religious energy of this illustrious pontiff have animated the Church of Rome for one quarter of a century. The august ruler of two hundred and fifty million human beings has now passed through the shadow of death into the great forever. The court of the Vatican mourns him; his relatives shed “the unavailing tear.” He is the loved and lost of many millions. I sympathize with those who mourn, but rejoice in knowing our dear God comforts such with the blessed assurance that life is not lost; its influence remains in the minds of men, and divine Love holds its substance safe in the certainty of immortality. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1 : 4.)
(My. 294:22–7)

The Easter message of resurrection is particularly relevant. Mrs. Eddy wrote: 

I love the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and not of death. Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his resurrection.(Mis. 180:16–19)

And from Scripture:

And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
(Acts 4:33)

What a comforting message.

Julie Swannell

The deep significance of the blood of Christ

When I came to the following passage in Mary Baker Eddy’s Prose Works (other than Science and Health), the thought came that we do not have to find the word Easter to be able to speak about the idea of Easter. Could it be that the whole story of the New Testament, of Jesus the Christ, is the Easter story? Here’s the passage:

The blood of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel. The real atonement — so infinitely beyond the heathen conception that God requires human blood to propitiate His justice and bring His mercy — needs to be understood. The real blood or Life of Spirit is not yet discerned. Love bruised and bleeding, yet mounting to the throne of glory in purity and peace, over the steps of uplifted humanity, — this is the deep significance of the blood of Christ. Nameless woe, everlasting victories, are the blood, the vital currents of Christ Jesus’ life, purchasing the freedom of mortals from sin and death.

This blood of Jesus is everything to human hope and faith. Without it, how poor the precedents of Christianity! What manner of Science were Christian Science without the power to demonstrate the Principle of such Life; and what hope have mortals but through deep humility and adoration to reach the understanding of this Principle! When human struggles cease, and mortals yield lovingly to the purpose of divine Love, there will be no more sickness, sorrow, sin, and death. He who pointed the way of Life conquered also the drear subtlety of death.

It was not to appease the wrath of God, but to show the allness of Love and the nothingness of hate, sin, and death, that Jesus suffered. He lived that we also might live. He suffered, to show mortals the awful price paid by sin, and how to avoid paying it. He atoned for the terrible unreality of a supposed existence apart from God. He suffered because of the shocking human idolatry that presupposes Life, substance, Soul, and intelligence in matter, — which is the antipode of God, and yet governs mankind. The glorious truth of being — namely, that God is the only Mind, Life, substance, Soul — needs no reconciliation with God, for it is one with Him now and forever.
No and Yes, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 34:18–23 (np)

 I find now that the Easter theme begins at the outset of the Essay Is There no Sacrificial Atonement – see page 33 which opens with: “Self-sacrifice is the highway to heaven.” [Ed. Readers are encouraged to read the entire article/sermon.]

So. I wonder where this line of reasoning will take me.

By the way, isn’t this a wonderful truth?—

The glory of human life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and death.  (No and Yes 33:23-24)

I should add that so far I have only gained a tiny bit in the understanding of Mrs. Eddy teaching in this passage.

Joyce Voysey

Dawn

Our April topic is "Easter messages - especially from the New Testament" and it made me wonder where the name Easter comes from. This is from Britannica:

There is now widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (“dawn”) and became eostarum in Old High German, the precursor of the modern German and English term. The Latin and Greek Pascha (“Passover”) provides the root for Pâques, the French word for Easter. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday

Dawn is a lovely way to think about Easter.

I decided to open my Bible to John. My eyes fell upon John 12:42 which records that many of the chief rulers believed Jesus but were too afraid to go public.

Chapter 12 reports on Jesus’ visit to siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany followed by his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem where he announces that “the hour is come” (v. 23).

John 12: 37-43 (KJV) explains the scene:

But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.

Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. [emphasis added] 

The Message (Eugene Petersen) paraphrases verses 42 and 43:

On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn't come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God's glory. 

The truth of what Jesus had spoken and demonstrated had dawned on their thought, but the pull of world opinions was apparently a force they failed to resist.

Julie Swannell

Needed: clarity of mind

Robert Peel has painstakingly recorded the different personalities of some early students of Christian Science. Many had great promise but fell by the wayside, some lured by visions of power and prestige; some mixing it up with Eastern thought – preferring “ascetic withdrawal from the world” to “commitment to active living” (p. 280, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial); some drawn to theosophy; some conflating it with “New Thought optimism” (ibid. p. 283); some falling into hypocrisy and selfishness; others founding their own churches like the Church of the Divine Unity (Scientist) – see page 305.

This tireless biographer points out the difference between “wishful thinking” and “exacting fact” (p. 305) and quotes Mary Baker Eddy's "new pamphlet Rudiments and Rules of Divine Science" published in 1887:

           A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain Jews, whom St. Paul had hoped to convert from mere motives of self-aggrandizement to the love of Christ, these so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress, by blinding people to the true character of Christian Science,--its moral power, and its divine efficacy to heal.

            The true understanding of Christian Science Mind-healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the deification of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you of timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness and toil, under which she needed miraculous vision to sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this Science.

            Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial pp 281-282

An unrepentant student claimed that if Mrs. Eddy “had no more monopoly on Christian Science than the first writer of a textbook on mathematics has a monopoly on that subject” (p. 318). Peel responds –

           A captious critic might reply that theoretically any number of people could deduce Newton’s theory of gravitation from the same facts which led Newton to it, but that a “restatement” of it by a high-school boy who had been studying it in an elementary physics course might justly be considered a trifle redundant, not to say questionable.

It occurs to me that everyone has access to all the notes of the musical scale but it was only Beethoven who wrote the Ninth Symphony and to whom the credit will always be given.

Whatever the criticism or confusion or enmity or disloyalty, Peel points out the ‘the villain, from Mrs. Eddy’s point of view, was [not the people, but]… the human mind’s resistance to the impersonal demands of truth…” (p. 319).

And yet, other students captured the essence of this Science and stayed the course. Peel describes Stephen A. Chase, Joseph Armstrong, and Edward Bates as “men of superior ability” (p. 296). 

Additionally, two men “would stand before the general public as Christian Scientists more prominently than anyone save Mrs. Eddy herself” (p. 297): Alfred Farlow and Edward A. Kimball. These men shared the “qualities of humility, common sense, and breadth of outlook, but Kimball brought to Christian Science a large clarity of mind which made his service to the growing movement almost unique” (p. 298). Peel applauds the “spiritual power and logical persuasiveness” of his lectures which drew “overflow audiences” (p. 299).

Annie Macmillan Knott -- "a tiny, feminine figure with a voice deep as a man's and a heart stout as a lion's" (p. 301) provides an example of one who rose "to the altitude of true womanhood" (p. 302) to fulfil lecturing duties.

How grateful we are for current faithful lecturers, practitioners and teachers of Christian Science who are holding the banner aloft with meekness and might. 

Julie Swannell

It's all about love

James Henry Wiggin* was a big help to Mrs. Eddy in “sprucing up” the text of Science and Health. However, he had added quotations from other authors, as for instance in the chapter epigraphs. Mrs. Eddy later dispensed with these, except for Martin Luther’s “Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen!” now found on page 268 of Science and Health.

I am reminded that literary people are frequently inclined to quote previous literary authors, it seems to me, to “keep the ball rolling.” Peel says she was “stripping the book down to basic Christian Science and eliminating the Victorian gingerbread” (Peel, p. 381).

I find the following point very interesting. On page 401, Peel writes about Mrs. Eddy’s work on revising Science and Health:

In the fiftieth edition she divided the chapter “Prayer and Atonement” into two separate and enlarged chapters. They had not yet been placed at the beginning of the book, where they would later go as the best possible introduction to the metaphysical topics that followed, but they already showed Mrs. Eddy's deepening conviction that the letter of Christian Science could be understood only through the spirit of Christ.

Mrs. Eddy’s exceptional expression of love is illustrated in her student Janet Colman’s** reminiscences –

I can see one thing truthfully that if I were asked today after all my experience with our Leader [1914] which was the greatest of them to me I would say this: I always found her loving her enemies, always ready to do them good, always would see those who had injured her if she could help them even before one who had been loving and kind to her.” [See Note 90, page 402.]

Now. I would love to share something from an article by Michael Mooslin in the March 3, 2025 Christian Science Sentinel titled Me, we, and them. The article mentions Mary Baker Eddy’s approach to church participation. I shall copy the whole paragraph:

According to a reminiscence by an early student of Christian Science, when asked what she would like to do if she were active in church work, Mrs. Eddy answered, “to serve on the Lesson Committee.” (This committee of The Church of Christ, Scientist, prepares the weekly Bible Lessons published in the Christian Science Quarterly, which are studied daily by students of Christian Science and then read aloud as the Sunday sermon in The Mother Church and all of its branches.) Mrs. Eddy explained that we don’t attend church to worship God but to express Him. “We study these lessons six days,” she continued, “then we go to Church to express God for the world—to give the world a treatment” (William Coffman, Memoirs of a Christian Scientist, 1955, p. 3).

 Joyce Voysey

Ed.

*See Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Trial, p. 379-385.

**There is a lovely photo of Colman in the centre photographs section.

Aiming high

On page 280 of our book Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial by Robert Peel, there is a useful explanation of the phrase the Word must become flesh*. Here is the relevant paragraph: 

Eastern thought might deny the reality of matter in terms that suggested Christian Science, but the latter insisted, along with traditional Christianity, that the Word must become flesh—the absolute must be experienced humanly as redemption and transformation, not merely as nonattachment and abstraction.  Moreover, the self-denial or surrender of will at the heart of Christianity meant commitment to active living, not ascetic withdrawal from the world.  Neither the mystic’s ecstasies nor the adept’s mental techniques were an adequate substitute  for the ethical imperatives and healing outreach of practical Christianity.

 Note 84 (on the same page) re Caroline D. Noyes tells us of the “high estimate Mrs. Eddy put on Mrs. Noyes’s potentialities—and the rugged demand she made on her most committed students”. When Mrs Noyes claimed that she had “done the best that [she] could”, Mrs. Eddy said, “On, no, you haven’t. Go right back and do better.” Peel notes that she “returned to Chicago—and did do better”! 

It seems unbelievable that some students worked without the Christianity of Christian Science in their healing work. See paragraph about three students—Swarts, Plunkett and Hopkins (bottom p. 280 to top p. 281). See also a quote (p. 313 last paragraph) from a letter from Mrs. Eddy to Mrs. Gestefeld, ““I have not been able to learn from your lips what your feelings are on the “Christian side of this Cause.”  Yet that, she added “is the only side.”” 

Oh dear! On page 293 we find an Eddy quote “...I am not doing for my church a tithe of what is needed.” One asks oneself, “What fraction of what is needed am I doing?” 

Page 336 gives a Jewish rabbi’s estimate of Christian Science (Maurice Lefkovits, The Attitude of Judaism toward Christian Science): 

Christian Science is more than a mere healing association.  It is primarily a religious organization.  It is a church. ... 

And it is a Christian religious organization. It is a Christian church community. … Its central figure is Christ Jesus. … It is he who is the original source and supreme sanction of Christian Science. There is hardly a page in “Science and Health” … on which the name of Christ Jesus does not occur once or more often. … 

           … Christian Science does not believe in the deity of Jesus, but it does believe that he was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God; and it supplements this belief with the statement that thus far only he, and no one else, has had such consciously divine descent. Christian Science rejects the belief that the blood of Jesus atones for the sins of those professing faith in him, but it emphatically upholds the belief that he, of all men, was the Wayshower, that he, infinitely more than any one else, manifested the Christ spirit, and thus he pre-eminently pointed and still points man’s way to salvation. 

I like Note 39 on page 350: “These two forms, masculine and feminine, both appear in the words of Jesus to Peter recorded in Matthew 16:18: “Thou art Peter (petros), and upon this rock (petra) I will build my church.”” 

Page 377 has interesting information about the revision of Science and Health in 1888/89.  Mrs. Eddy employed Joshua Bailey, editor of The Christian Science Journal, to assist: 

The same qualities in Joshua Bailey which led her to choose him as editor of the Journal caused Mrs. Eddy to turn to him for help in the new project. At the end of 1888 she asked him to go through the book sentence by sentence and suggest rearrangements of material that would bring together scattered passages dealing with a single topic. He was not to change, delete, or add to her words except for necessary transitions. It was largely a scissors and paste job … Shortly after the work had begun, she wrote Bailey: “Your motives aims, and transfiguration are all known to me. I agree with your arrangement so far; perhaps our dear God will change it[;] if so amen.” Several times she had him stop work altogether, and eventually she wrote that she had had to throw aside all the work that he had done and start again. But the experiment was instructive, and at least one major recommendation by Bailey bore permanent fruit. In September, 1889, Frye wrote him, “Mrs. Edy consents to having you impersonalize [the chapter] ‘Reply to a Critic’...” 

The reader may wish to read around this paragraph for a better understanding of the matter.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. *John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Unbounded love - the Knapp family

Ira and Flavia Knapp and their four children lived on a farm in Lisbon, New Hampshire. Lisbon is situated just south of Littleton in the upper north west of the state. It was named after Lisbon in Portugal. 

The couple took class instruction with Mrs. Eddy in 1884. Ira Knapp is described by Robert Peel in Mary Baker Eddy: the years of trial (2nd edition) as "a farmer with the flowing beard, blazing eyes, and invincible rectitude of an Old Testament prophet" (p. 236).  

Peel recounts that some time before this, Flavia had been "healed by Christian Science after years of invalidism" and afterwards "she walked to the next farm and back with her four children dancing around her for sheer joy at seeing their mother able to go out again" (ibid).

But at first the couple found the healing work difficult. Their teacher encouraged them to stay the course - "stand the test" and "be faithful over a few things" (p. 237). They did.

We next read about the Knapp family on page 337 when Mrs. Eddy sought "a little rest and perspective" (p. 336) and stayed at their farm at Lyman, New Hampshire. Peel says that here "she found solace in the four Knapp children, in the simple farm life so familiar to her from her own childhood, in the woods and fields through which she went walking... and in the unbounded love of all the Knapps" (p. 337). The family later moved to Boston.

The Longyear Foundation have lovely tributes to Ira Knapp ("an obedient disciple") and Flavia Knapp.

Hymn 59 from the Christian Science Hymnal comes to mind as I contemplate this family.

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.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 59:2, 3)

https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/united-states/new-hampshire

Julie Swannell

Early workers

In the formative years of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy was learning that not every student would adhere to her exact teachings. There were many tangents. Further, she could not alone do all the teaching. On page 218 of Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial (2^nd edition), author Robert Peel observes --

One thing was clear to Mrs. Eddy. If the purity of Christian Science was to be maintained, she must train qualified students to become teachers and not leave its propagation to the mercies of every cheerful rascal who chose to appropriate its name.

Peel also observes that

“[f]or the most part the students were not, at this time, wealthy or prominent or brilliant people” (ibid. p. 220).

And, for some reason I was surprised to read about the number of students from outside major towns and cities:

“more than half of Mrs. Eddy’s students came from rural districts and small towns, and the pattern of country visits to patients on lonely farms was a prominent part of the total Christian Science picture” (ibid).

What follows on pages 220-222 is a revealing and tender picture of a small band of earnest and faithful workers who were not just talking about Christian Science but giving their all to practice it and thereby to bless mankind.

A comment from Eddy’s pen provides insight into the lives of these early workers, their goals and their sacrifices, as well, of course into Mrs. Eddy’s own life:

The rare bequests of Christian Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which the dainty borrower would have fled. Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and love, have cleared its pathway.

The motive of my earliest labors has never changed. It was to relieve the sufferings of humanity by a sanitary system that should include all moral and religious reform.

          Retrospection and Introspection, p. 30: 3-9

Today’s sincere students have the same motive.

Julie Swannell