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)

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Julie Swannell