Here is an entry blogged in the Prayer Watch Forum for
the Northern Australia Church Alive Summit to be held the week-end March 15 and
16 this year. (The last comment didn’t make it to the blog.)
Saturday 11th January, 2014. Today I entered myself onto the Prayer Roster for
Church Alive, so that means I must do something about it! My prayers led
me to Irving Tomlinson’s beautiful hymn O Peace to the world (hymn 236)
which culminates in the phrase ineffable joy.
That, in turn, led me to wonder about the exact meaning of
‘ineffable’. I looked it up in Macquarie Australian Dictionary (on
my tablet – amazing).
Ineffable – that
which cannot be uttered or expressed; inexpressible; unspeakable.
The example given with the definition blew me away: ineffable
joy!!
Ineffable joy must be
a famous phrase. Martin Luther and John Calvin both used it in relation
to predestination and being damned. They reasoned that one could
experience ineffable joy through knowing that damnation!
There is a famous piece in Retrospection and Introspection (p.13:21) where Mrs. Eddy uses the phrase in a
truly ineffably joyous fashion, raising the phrase to its
deserved meaning. She takes the phrase to giddying heights in recounting
her coming to terms with the predestination theory which she had to face on
joining a church as a young person. I here quote it in full:
At the age of twelve I was admitted to the Congregational
(Trinitarian) Church, my parents having been members of that body for a
half-century. In connection with this event, some circumstances are noteworthy.
Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or
predestination, greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved, if my
brothers and sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to
perpetual banishment from God. So perturbed was I by the thoughts aroused by
this erroneous doctrine, that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me
stricken with fever.
My father’s relentless theology emphasized belief in a final
judgment-day, in the danger of endless punishment, and in a Jehovah merciless
towards unbelievers; and of these things he now spoke, hoping to win me from dreaded
heresy.
My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on
God’s love, which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont
to do, seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was
gone, and I rose and dressed myself, in a normal condition of health. Mother
saw this, and was glad. The physician marvelled; and the “horrible decree” of
predestination — as John Calvin rightly called his own tenet — forever lost its
power over me.
How are we to aspire to experience some of that joy?
What is its source? It must come when some wonderful truth is opened up
for us in our prayers. Perhaps it is rare to reach the ineffable
standard, but surely Irving Tomlinson experienced it to be able to sing about
it in his hymn. Hold on! Ineffable may not be as extraordinary as I
have been thinking! A tiny insight of Truth, a mere flash of inspiration
can bring about a wonderful healing. Have we not all had such an
experience? The joy of it! Inexpressible joy, unspeakable joy, ineffable
joy!
Phrases from the second last verse of hymn 236 tie in with
our forthcoming Northern Australia Church Alive Summit’s theme “…like
brother birds….” e.g. stars never contending, blossoms blending in harmony,
bird voices mingling in joyful refrain, God’s loving children remaining in
concord. Yes. Let us expect joy of ineffable quality at our Summit!
Note: This delving into one
aspect of Christian history has illustrated to me how Christian Science has,
and will, upgrade old teachings.
Joyce Voysey
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