Rembrandt and Timothy

Rembrandt's painting of the child Timothy with his grandmother Lois is wonderfully descriptive, especially in its use of light and shade. 

The author of the two Timothy letters in the Bible has Paul saying to this exceptional young man (who Paul first met on his second major voyage when Timothy was still a teenager): 

"For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well" (2 Timothy 1:5).

How precious is the network of friends and family around us. Mary Baker Eddy once wrote to a student of Christian Science: 

"You, dear one, are God's appointed to stand if others do not...Not but you can go apart to pray--this we all need to do, and I want you to do it. But note this, do not go where, if you get frightened, you have no one well skilled in truth to encourage you and neutralize error with Truth."

So then, when Paul and his friends were assaulted by hostile Jews and Gentiles (Acts 14: 5-7, 19-20), with Paul being almost stoned to death, how important it was that "the disciples stood round about him" with the result that he was able to continue on to Derbe the very next day. 

Together they fought "the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6: 12), and this network of believers was an encouragement to them all and surely enabled them and their families to continue in their Christly work of healing and of establishing church communities "before many witnesses" (I Timothy 6:12). 

Julie Swannell

Ancestry and Adam

The other day I opened the Bible to Zechariah 1:1. It begins by telling us about Zechariah's immediate ancestry – the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet. Then I realised that it is a general practice in the Old Testament to state right at the beginning, the writer's parentage. If we turn to the New Testament, we find really serious ancestry recorded for Jesus in Matthew – from Abraham to Joseph, Mary's husband.

I was fascinated at Luke's placement of Jesus' genealogy. I couldn't find it for a while, but there it is in chapter 3. Luke starts at Jesus and goes back past Abraham all the way to Adam, who he declares was the son of God. (In Christian Science, we might question that.)

I can see a similarity now between the Bible's recording of lineage, and Mrs. Eddy's brief mention of her forebears. She was so in tune with the Scriptures that she would instinctively follow its pattern.

I was satisfied that I had covered all that I wanted to about genealogy, so I turned back to Retrospection and Introspection - the Faith-cure chapter - and there we find the closing words, “the race of Adam” (p. 55:8). 

Mortals are indeed descended from Adam, but note how Science and Health defines that name in its Glossary: “Error; a falsity; the belief in 'original sin', sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, – of God and His creation; a curse; ...” p. 579:15). This is the reason mortals need Christian Science: it is the Christ teaching about true manhood. This is the antidote for mortality.

The “platform” in Science and Health (pp. 330-340) gives further instruction on the word Adam. See page 338. It has been my habit when on duty in my church's Reading Room to tune in to the continuous reading of Science and Health on JSH-Online. Last Thursday it was at these numbered paragraphs. The reading is exquisite, the reader being a man with a beautiful English-style accent. Could it be Australian?

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Importantly, Eddy writes (Ret. p. 21:13-15, 25-27) "It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real existence...Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth." 

Familiarity with the life of Mary Baker Eddy

In the chapter Foundation-stones (from September's book Retrospection and Introspection pp 56-58), I find a war theme: "War is waged between the evidences of Spirit and the evidences of the five physical senses; and this contest must go on until peace be declared by the final triumph of Spirit in immutable harmony" (p. 56:12-15).

In this chapter, there is one “I” to tell us that this is part of Mary Baker Eddy's story. (With Eddy, it is never, “This is what I say is true”, but “This is what God has shown me to be Christian-scientifically true: the universal truth which is God in action.”) She writes: "The following ideas of Deity...I found to be demonstrable rules in Christian Science..." (p. 56:1).

Then in the chapter Sin, Sinner, and Ecclesiasticism, we read: “Christian Science gives vitality to religion ...” (p. 66:3).  How quiet is that vitality. 

Merriam-Webster (dictionary) lists the following for "vitality":

1.     Lively or animated character

2.     Power of enduring

3.     The peculiarity distinguishing the living from the un-living

4.     Capacity to live and develop; also: physical or mental vigor especially when highly developed.

It seems so important for us to grasp even a little of what Christian Science teaches about sin.

In my research of JSH-Online to seek what other students have written about our book, I found the following, titled History, by Archibald McLellan, in the June 29, 1907 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.

"In these days when so much is being written about our Leader and Christian Science, it is well for us to remember that Mrs. Eddy has not left the world in ignorance of her early history, nor of the early history of the Cause which she has founded. We do not need to turn for information on these subjects to the alleged histories which have been published by unfriendly magazines and newspapers...

"The study of this book is important to Christian Scientists...and every Christian Scientist should be as familiar with it as they are with our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.""  (Emphasis added - J. Voysey.)

And here is how the Editor of The Christian Science Journal of December, 1891, welcomed the new work:

"The new book, Retrospection and Introspection, by the author of Science and Health, is a treasure of Love; and is a wonderful adjustment of the questions of thy day, to the students of Science and Health. It disentangles many a vexed problem which has caused severe and prolonged struggles. In our great need the Light has come."

Joyce Voysey