Helpful angel messages

Except for some loved passages, I have always struggled to Revelation from the King James Version of the Bible.  So I was thrilled to find the New International Version (NIV) online on the site www.biblegateway.com, a wonderful site where one can review several different versions of the Bible side-by-side.

 

What I’ve always loved is the continuity and consistency in the Bible: We’ve already discovered that John uses snippets from the Old Testament throughout this book and I was grateful to see that the NIV lists these references at the end of each chapter!  How wonderful.  Well, this continuity and consistency are carried forward too!  Those familiar with Christian Science church services will know about the Explanatory Note, read each week just prior to the sharing of the Lesson-Sermon.  It reminds us that the “canonical writings” (i.e. those in the canon¹) along with the corroborating passages from the textbook Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, are applicable to all ages: past, present, and future.  And of course in Revelation we find passages like “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1: 8) – past, present, future – the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end).

 

1CANON (Dictionary.com)

a list of writings, esp sacred writings, officially recognized as genuine

CHAPTER ONE

Favourite verses: I love verse three (NIV): “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it…”  We can anticipate good results with our reading! I also like the phrase “in the Spirit” of verse 10.  This tells us where John was mentally and spiritually.  We know too, that physically he was at Patmos.  Got the picture?

 

What visionary he was!

 

Headings: NIV provides helpful “headings” within each chapter e.g.

-        at verse four “Greetings and Doxology”

-        at verse nine “John’s Vision of Christ”

CHAPTER TWO - MESSAGES

Although the Ephesian church is working hard and persevering, they have “forsaken the love [they] had at first”.  It seems they need to re-kindle their original vibrancy!

Those at Smyrna need to be faithful; the faithful at Pergamum appear to be holding on to bad teaching as are those in Thyatira. 

 

CHAPTER THREE – MORE MESSAGES

The church in Sardis is told to wake up, to strengthen themselves; those in Philadelphia are enduring patiently and are shown “an open door that no one can shut” but they must “hold on to what [they] have” or the crown may be taken from them.  I’ve always been interested in the message to Laodicea: they are lukewarm!  Neither one thing nor the other. 

Christmas blessings

Christmas blessings to all our readers, past, present and future!  May the light Christ shine through you to bring peace and joy to all in your experience.

Chapter 21

Isn’t it wonderful to come to chapter 21 where John sees the new heaven and new earth; the New Jerusalem.  The dark symbols have been overcome

Mary Baker Eddy has a few things to say about the beast of Revelation 13.

-        “Sin is the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony.  It is moral madness

Allusions and the steps to communion

Do you know what an allusion is? 

Decoding John's Revelation

Edyth Armstrong Hoyt, in her book Studies in the Apocalypse of John of Patmos states that “John is not describing a literal day of judgment.  He is recording the steps of spiritual growth and victory, wherein light and understanding dispel darkness and negative types of thinking.”

 

She also makes clear that she is not interpreting the book but rather translating or decoding it; and she offers a description of the structure as follows:

 

1.0   Introduction/Author’s Preface – Chapter 1

a.      Verses 1 – 3 what the revelation is

b.      Verses 4 – 8 how it blesses

c.      Verses 9 – 20 proofs that John is worthy to give the Revelation.

1.1  Prologue – Chapters 2 and 3 – seven messages to seven churches

2.      Body of the Revelation – seven visions in seven parts each – Chapter 4 – 22:5

2.0   Conclusion/Epilogue – Chapter 22: 6-17 – seven “last” words

2.1  Benediction – Chapter 22: 18 – 20 – three closing statements

 

Note that apocalyptic writers use numbers as a literary device to express completeness; there is no connection to mysticism.  So, we see the numbers one, three, four, seven and twelve and their multiples are used to represent completeness, with twelve being the highest.  Thus, scholars generally, writes Hoyt, assume the following:

·        One is used for One Deity

·        Three for heaven, earth, and sea

·        Four for the four sides of the Tabernacle of Moses

·        Seven for the Sabbath or pause in the moon development every seven days

·        Twelve for the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

How interesting this is.

 

Julie Swannell

Revelation "symbolic, rather than personal or historical"

Much is written about ‘the woman of the ‘Apocalypse.’  (Chapter 12)  Wikipedia has much on the Roman Catholic teaching that the woman is the Virgin Mary.

Wikipedia also gives the definition in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 561:22-25): “The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea.”

Science and Health says further: “As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God’s motherhood” (p. 562:3-7).

In Mrs. Eddy’s Message to The Mother Church for 1900 we find, “The Revelation of St. John in the apostolic age is symbolic, rather than personal or historical” (p. 12:27-28).

How important this twelfth chapter of Revelation is!  I think I can comprehend to a small degree what Mrs. Eddy says: “The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the glorious results of this warfare.  The following chapters depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error.  The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and then the false.  Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits the true warfare and then the false” (p. 568:5).

 

Joyce Voysey

Angels along the way

Just think.  All who have ever come to Christian Science, have received “the little book” of Revelation, chapter 10, which is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H), by way of an angel.  This has been going on since 1875.  A lot of angels! 

Angels take various forms.  I would claim that Lyman Powell’s biography of Mary Baker Eddy – Mary Baker Eddy: A Life-Sized Portrait – was my angel.  It was a thought direct from God (therefore, an angel in line with the definition in S&H: Angels. God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality) that sent me searching for more understanding of the God that had come to me, comforting me with the thought that God is real and a power in my life.  I believe that Powell’s book, and Science and Health, were right next to each other on the public library shelf.

But, as I see it, there were various angels along the way in the years leading up to my little revelation.  For example: the girl I sat next to at High School, who gave me a book about the shining way; the secretary at the business college I attended, and who was a student of Christian Science (I only discovered this many years later when I met her at church), and who also travelled on the same tram as I did; perhaps the Sunday school teacher, who made sure we sang the old Sankey and Moody hymns which have stayed with me since early childhood; and even the young man I corresponded with for a while.  

I think the book that I remember as being about the shining way, quoted from Proverbs 4:18:  “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”). 

The young man mentioned was a good man, and he quoted from the Bible with a thought that I was a good person.  My reaction at the time was that I was not as good as he claimed.

All of these, I have come to believe, were angels on my path to Christian Science.  All, I am sure, had a more Christly view of me than I had of myself.  In fact, as I keep thinking about my teenage and young woman years, I would say that every practising Christian I was friendly with then was at least a little angel prompting me on my way.  Mostly, they were of the Baptist persuasion, as I remember.

What a debt I owe to all of them.  I have the opportunity “to pass it on” to everyone I meet.  I like Mrs. Eddy’s, “No reproof is so potent as the silent lesson of a good example” (Mis. 126:20-21).
Joyce Voysey

the little book

Mary Baker Eddy’s great poem/hymn Feed My Sheep (affectionately known as "Shepherd") with its “white as wool” and “Shepherd, wash them clean,” comes to mind as we read Revelation Chapter 7 concluding verses – 9-17.  How closely her thought dwelt with the ideas of the Bible!  Does she say somewhere that she was particularly close to Genesis and Revelation?

How one feels a lightening of mood with Chapter 10!  Maybe it is because this is where Mrs. Eddy has begun her explanations and Christian Scientists are familiar with what she has written.  Here we  have the entry of the ‘little book’, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as the Eddy has classified it.  Does this mean that this is where Science takes over?

Joyce Voysey

Working on one side

The message to each of the seven churches is written to the “angel of the church.”  Does my branch church have an angel?  Only one?  Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures (by Mary Baker Eddy) assures us that angels are God’s representatives.  See p. 299:12.  The Glossary also has an “angel” definition; however, I am attracted to the definition of “Children of Israel” for it includes “representatives.”  I love it! 

p. S&H 583:5 - Children of Israel.  The representatives of Soul, not corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting out error and healing the sick; Christ’s offspring. 

Surely this also defines angels.  A recent entry on Evan Mehelbacher’s blog,  http://www.findevan.com/ - “When I thought I lost my wife” -  seems to indicate to me that Evan has earned the right to be called an angel!

Of course, John (the writer of Revelation) did not have individuals in mind when he was addressing the churches.  No doubt he hoped everyone in the churches would seek the substance of his messages.  Mmm.  I wonder if they all understood them.  I must remember that it was on Jesus Christ’s instruction that John wrote these messages.

The website: Images of the Seven Churches of Revelation indicates the proposed location of the churches in Asia Minor.  I find it helpful to get an idea of distance.  It is 187.8 km from Ephesus to Laodicea.  Driving time 2 hours 17 minutes.  Walking time?  As long as it takes, I guess.

In Mary Baker Eddy’s Message to The Mother Church for 1900 we find some wonderful information about the seven churches and the messages to them.  See pp 11, 12, 13, 14.

Another reference on Revelation from Mrs Eddy is on page 280 lines 3-17 of Miscellaneous Writings, where she refers to the opening of the third seal and the balances.  It is in the article The March Primary Class – 1889:

The third picture-lesson is from Revelation, where, at the opening of the seals, one of the angels presented himself with balances to weigh the thoughts and actions of men; not angels with wings, but messengers of pure and holy thoughts that say, See thou hurt not the holy things of Truth.

You have come to be weighed; and yet, I would not weigh you, nor have you weighed. How is this? Because God does all, and there is nothing in the opposite scale. There are not two, — Mind and matter. We must get rid of that notion. As we commonly think, we imagine all is well if we cast something into the scale of Mind, but we must realize that Mind is not put into the scales with matter; then only are we working on one side and in Science.

Joyce Voysey

Kings and Priests unto God

I haven’t got far into Revelation as yet.  But, on finding the phrase “kings and priests” in chapter 1, verse 6, I got to wondering about how many references there may be to Revelation in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings – in addition to the chapter in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H) called The Apocalypse. 

First though, I must look up the phrase “kings and priests” in the concordance to S&H.  There it is on page 141:19-20: “The Bible declares that all believers are made “kings and priests unto God.””

On consulting Concord, I found that “kings and priests” go together in the Bible quite a lot.  Sometimes, as in talking about Josiah, they are the goodies; but most often they seem to be the baddies.  And they had tremendous influence on the thoughts of the people.

Having kings did not seem to be a good idea for Israel.  They asked for a king and got Saul!  It all started when Samuel, the priest, appointed his sons as judges, and they didn’t do the right thing, so the elders of Israel asked for a king.  Samuel consulted God.  This is sad: God tells Samuel to heed the voice of the people “for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”

Israel had kings for about 500 years prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in BC 586. 

Of course, David, who succeeded Saul, is the star among kings.  What a star! – saint and sinner he is reported to have been.  How indebted we are to his musical and lyrical abilities – and for his inspiration. 

The Marginal Heading (in S&H) nearest to the “kings and priests” reference on page 141 is “No ecclesiastical monopoly.”  Concord allows me to set here the relevant passage from S&H –

All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come from the schools and along the line of scholarly and ecclesiastical descent, as kings are crowned from a royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning, Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect followed the understanding of the divine Principle and of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus. For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The Bible declares that all believers are made “kings and priests unto God.”

How blessed mankind is with this view of authority!  “Great as he is good,” comes to mind...how does one find that in Mrs. Eddy’s writings?

I don’t like my chances of finishing Revelation in December.  !!

Written on the next day…

Hello!  Hello! I neglected to consider what might be the qualities “all believers” are endowed with as “kings and priests unto God.” How about this:

As kings do we exercise dominion over all things (see Genesis 1:31) by knowing that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”?

It would seem that there is no place for priests in Christian Science since Wikipedia defines priests thus: A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which also may apply to such persons collectively.

But as previously stated, we are priests unto God when we claim our rights as “spiritualized man.” In other words – we practise Christian Science, serving God and man.

Joyce Voysey

Yea to those who listen and share through writing!

I turned to the preface of the book of Revelation in my beautiful NKJV version.  It has already answered one of my questions:  What does “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” mean?  Surely Jesus Christ knew the truth rather than needing Truth to be revealed to him?  The preface says, “This could be taken as a revelation which came from Christ or as a revelation which is about Christ – both are appropriate.”

Another interesting point: “Because of the unified contents of this book, it should not be called Revelations.”  This is something which has grated somewhat when the book is so named.

The introduction to The Message (by Eugene Petersen) informs me that the book is all about worship.  And it points out: “As the Revelator makes clear, worship must be carried out under conditions decidedly uncongenial to it.”

The topic at a recent Wednesday meeting at our church was “Worship God.” Copies of the following poem were distributed in advance.

"Worship God"

MAUDE DE VERSE NEWTON

From the September 17, 1927 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Whenever through the troublous day
Temptation's woes appear,
When sorrow weighs my spirit down,
A "still small voice" I hear:
"Worship God."

When selfishness and vanity
Invade my consciousness,
The mentor speaks with patient will
My errant heart to bless:
"Worship God."

When out of sin's enslaving toils
I reap the fruits of pain,
Swift comes the healing when I mark
The message true and plain:
"Worship God."

 

Back to Revelation: I reason that the first three verses i.e. Revelation 1: 1-3, (RKJV titles them “Introduction and Benediction”) signify that John was in touch with, and listening to, the Christ, i.e. “…the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p. 332:9-11).  And John received the Christ message to humanity.  This was the Revelation, which he wrote down; just as Mary Baker Eddy wrote her revelation of the Christ Science communicated to her by the Christ.

Joyce Voysey

Ed.  And aren’t we grateful to writers for capturing ideas and sharing them with the world!

NKJV – New King James Version of the Bible; RKJV – Revised King James Version

De-coding Revelation (the Apocalypse)

This month's assignment is to read the final book of the Bible, Revelation, sometimes called the Apocalypse. 

My teacher in Christian Science gave me a wonderfully interesting book called Studies in the Apocalypse of John of Patmos by Edyth Armstrong Hoyt.  It was first published in 1944.  My copy is a 1963 revised reprint.  There is a typed page inside the cover of this book.  It’s headed “Notes on Edyth Armstrong Hoyt, B.A.” and reads, in part:

Mrs. Hoyt, was a graduate of the University of Minnesota, majoring in Oriental Literature, and subsequently did Graduate Work at Columbia and Chicago Universities….When, in early middle age, she had been confined to a wheel chair with cancer of the spine for seven years, a copy of the Christian Science Textbook was given her.  She turned first to the chapter entitled The Apocalypse, and when she had finished it she said,

“Any woman who could write on the Revelation as Mrs Eddy has done, must be on the right track.” 

She studied the textbook and was healed during the reading.  She spent the rest of her life lecturing and touring on the subject closest to her heart—The Bible.

The Preface to Hoyt’s book Studies in the Apocalypse of John of Patmos, includes the following:

               The book we are working with is one of the greatest in all literature: beautifully coordinated, orderly in development, and admittedly, amazing.  …it was written to be understood.  That is the reason why we are going to become familiar with its literary structure and translate its allusions. …these allusions [are] from various sources, chiefly the Old Testament; therefore, anyone deciphering the allusions (as one is meant to do with Apocalyptic literature) must translate them according to what they meant in the author’s own day.

               Standing at the end of the Bible canon, it is the consummation and completeness toward which all Scripture is moving.  It is indeed the illuminating revelation of the highest Truth for man.

So, what is an Apocalypse?  Hoyt explains that an Apocalypse is “a kind of literature”.  The Hebrew Bible (i.e. the Old Testament) is stacked with various types of literature, for example the short stories of Ruth, Jonah and Esther; the lyric poetry of Psalms; the sonnets of Proverbs 1 – 9.  And just as we refer to the drama of Shakespeare and the poetry of Browning, so we say the Apocalypse of John, or the Apocalypse of Daniel.  Note however, that John writes in Rev 1:1 that he has written the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

We learn from Hoyt that the form of the Apocalypse is a seven-fold structural form which is “identical with that of all vision literature in the Bible and in other Hebrew writings.”  This seven-fold structure develops so that the fourth point is always the climax.

                                                            4

                                             3                            5

2                                                          6

               1                                                                                        7

Note that vision literature “aims to establish eternal spiritual truth; wisdom literature establishes the Hebrew philosophy of every day life; apocalyptic establishes the inspiration and courage made possible by the hope of the imminent appearance of the kingdom of God to end a period of confusion and upheaval.  Apocalyptic was written only in times of persecution to give courage and hope to those persecuted.  More than that, Apocalyptic was always written in code…”  How exciting is this?  We are going to learn to read John’s secret code!

 

Julie Swannell

Learning from each other

The opportunity of reading this book, “Unity of Good,” together, as a book club, has been extraordinary.  Just as a class will be enriched by having students at different levels of understanding, and a team is made more robust by having members from different backgrounds, it sharpens our reading to have input from others; and it keeps us on our toes to have a set time in which to complete a task.

 

From the first page, we are launched into the main topic: Does God know such a thing as sin?  And yet we are told to be careful not to discuss the subject until “practically able to testify, by [our] lives, that as [we] come closer to the true understanding of God [we] lose all sense of error” p. 1. 

 

In page after page, Eddy startles us, makes us laugh, makes us think – hard; she turns her subject over and over and looks at it from an extraordinary number of angles.

 

Here are some particular passages that I have loved for many years, or have caught my new attention during November:

 

Chapter: Caution in the Truth

“Now this self-same God is our helper.  He pities us.  He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers” p. 3.

 

“Let us respect the rights of conscience and the liberty of the sons of God, so letting our ‘moderation be known to all men.’  Let no enmity, no untempered controversy, spring up between Christian Science students and Christians who wholly or partially differ from them as to the nature of sin and the marvellous unity of man with God shadowed forth in scientific thought.  Rather let the stately goings of this wonderful part of Truth be left to the supernal guidance” p. 5.

 

Chapter: Seedtime and Harvest

“Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities” p. 11.

 

Chapter: The Deep Things of God

“Science reverses the evidence of the sense in theology, on the same principle that it does in astronomy” p. 13

 

Several times (I’ve skipped to and fro all over this book this past month) I tripped over Eddy’s reference to “Burgess, the boatbuilder” on p. 14.  Wikipedia gives a good run-down on William Starling Burgess, a boat-builder from Boston (1878 – 1947), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Starling_Burgess), but I’m unsure what “the Volunteer” is; I imagine it is a boat which was much better than the boats used by the Puritan’s.  Any clues anyone?

 

Chapter: Ways Higher Than Our Ways

“A lie has only one chance of successful deception, - to be accounted true.  Evil seeks to fasten all error upon God, and so make the lie seem part of eternal Truth” p. 17.

 

“…evil ties its wagon-load of offal to the divine chariots, - or seeks so to do…” p. 17.

 

Chapter: Rectifications

“How is a mistake to be rectified?  By reversal or revision, - by seeing it in its proper light, and then turning it or turning from it” p. 20.

 

Chapter: A Colloquy

“If we observe our mental processes, we shall find that we are perpetually arguing with ourselves; yet each mortal is not two personalities, but one” p. 21.

 

I would really love to read this chapter with a friend: one to speak for EVIL, the other for GOOD.  Perhaps someone will come to the Reading Room one Monday and we can read it together!

 

Chapter: There is no matter

“Brain … is only matter within the skull, and is believed to be mind only through error and delusion.  Examine that form of matter called brains, and you find no mind therein” p. 33.

 

Chapter: Is there no death?

“The sweet and scared sense of the permanence of man’s unity with his Maker can illumine our present being with a continual presence and power of good opening wide the portal from death into Life…” p. 41.

 

Chapter: Suffering from others’ thoughts

“Sorrow is the harbinger of joy” p. 57.

 

Julie Swannell

What's the reason for your faith?

The Chapter Credo in Unity of Good (pp. 48 – 54) gives Mrs. Eddy’s personal Creed.  As a child I had to learn the Apostles’ Creed to become a member of the Church of England (Anglican now); I think I was probably 11 or 12 years old.  I had no idea what it meant, although the vow stated that this was what I believed.  Today I looked up the Apostles’ Creed on the Internet and here is what I found.

1.               There are various translations from the Latin given in Wikipedia.  Here is the one I would have learned, I gather, from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer - ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Common_Prayer}

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,

Born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

Was crucified, dead, and buried:

He descended into hell;

The third day he rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;

The holy Catholick Church;

The Communion of Saints;

The Forgiveness of sins;

The Resurrection of the body,

And the Life everlasting.

Amen.

 

2. Apostles' Creed (www.ccel.org/creeds/apostles.creed.html)

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day he rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

1l. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

3. Apostles' Creed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Apostles' Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum or Symbolum Apostolicum), sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol".^[1] It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.

The Apostles' Creed was based on Christian theological understanding of the Canonical gospels, the letters of the New Testament and to a lesser extent the Old Testament. Its basis appears to be the old Roman Creed. Because of the early origin of its original form, it does not address some Christological issues defined in the Nicene and other Christian Creeds. It thus says nothing explicitly about the divinity of either Jesus or of the Holy Spirit. This makes it acceptable to many Arians and Unitarians. Nor does it address many other theological questions that became objects of dispute centuries later.

The first mention of the expression "Apostles' Creed" occurs in a letter of 390 from a synod in Milan and may have been associated with the belief, widely accepted in the 4th century, that, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, each of the Twelve Apostles contributed an article of a creed.^[2][3][4]

The Creed I learned doesn’t mention man, except as “body” perhaps, whereas, Mrs. Eddy has “Do you believe in man?” as the second question in her Credo.  Her man is the sinless, perfect reflection of Soul, coexistent with his Maker.  It is significant that one of Mrs. Eddy’s questions is “What say you of woman?” She says that woman is the highest species of man.  What a difference from the treatment of women in many religions and societies!

Joyce Voysey (posted early 1/12/13)