This wonderful, wonderful book

Finished!

 

William Rathvon passes on advice from Mrs. Eddy about handling church matters.  We often hear it said, “What would Mrs. Eddy say?” or “Mrs. Eddy would not approve of that,” whereas Rathvon reports that she said, “If an issue comes, it must be decided for God.  You must not put upon me the burden of deciding what Science and Health (S&H) declares” (p. 530).

 

The answers are always in the books – the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings.

 

I think we have all wondered just what Mrs. Eddy thought when she healed Mr. Clark.  See S&H 192-3.  “Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and sightless.  The dew of death was on his brow.  I went to his bedside.  In a few moments his face changed; its death-pallor gave place to a natural hue….In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and said: “I feel like a new man.  My suffering is all gone.””

 

It seems to me that the “I” that went to the bedside was the “I” defined in the Glossary to Science and Health p.588:  “I, or Ego.  Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incorporeal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.”

 

The second paragraph goes on: “There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle.  All the objects of God’s creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material.”

 

Rathvon confirms that, in her early healing, Mrs. Eddy did not have to work or argue to bring about the healing.  “I reached the result without the intermediate steps.  If anyone was said to be ill in the next room, I would not have to treat.  I would just know the truth about them, and they would seem to be no more sick or dead than you are” (p. 539).  It seems to be that she didn’t so much think the truth, but could be the truth.

 

I love this from Rathvon: “I was brought up to believe that religion should always be solemn and altogether dolorous.  I know now that it should be just the opposite, and we should have good cheer” (p. 549).

 

And this on page 552 about a group singing in the evenings: “Mrs. Hoag and Mrs. Rathvon sang soprano.  Mr. Dickey stumbled along under a heavy load of base, while I clawed the scales toward the high notes, trying to contribute a thin tenor, and the Reverend (as we called Mr. Tomlinson) wobbled around in every direction.  If we didn’t make music, we certainly did produce a joyful noise.”

 

A bit more about music re space for a choir in the new First Church Chicago building: Mr. Kimball – “We are engaged just now in fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil.  When we get through with them, we will be qualified to take up the church music problem” (p. 556).

 

p. 560: “Only nothing can come from nothing, or better still, nothing but nothing can come from nothing.”  An echo maybe of a song from The Sound of Music?  I wonder….

 

And so, I finish this wonderful, wonderful book, remembering that Mary Baker Eddy was the deepest student of her work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Rathvon finishes his contribution with a reminder that we are indebted to Mrs. Eddy for every aspect of our church life in Christian Science, for she is the light through which it comes to us.  His final sentence regarding her belonging to the present and not the past: “One does not think of sunshine or light, truth or love, as pertaining to the past, but to the everlasting present” (p. 588).

 

Joyce Voysey