"Out of the old, into the New"

James J. Rome has a special place in the hearts of those who love the Christian Science Hymnal, for he composed the words of the hymn -

Give me O Lord an Understanding Heart (423)

That he is immortalised (so to speak) in Mrs. Eddy’s The First Church of Christ, Scientist, is so appropriate (pp 61, 62). The words are also set in hymn 69. The Hymnal Notes tell us that the words appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel, January 11, 1913.

I have read that James Rome was the Superintendent of The Mother Church’s Sunday school. He was a Reverend. You can read more about him in the 1987 series They Answered the Call, printed in The Christian Science Journal (April 1987) and later re-printed as a booklet which you might find in your local Reading Room. Of course you can also find it at jsh-online.com - http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1987/4/105-4/they-answered-the-call

Here’s just a snippet to whet your appetite:

His quest for spiritual understanding led him from a career as an ordained Baptist minister to one as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher.

"Out of the Old, into the New" is the way the Reverend Mr. Rome described his entrance into an understanding and practice of Christian Science.² Part of "the old" he left behind was generally poor health. His first contact with Science in 1888 brought healing relief—as well as initial resistance to the teachings of Science because of his orthodox theories. After nearly three years of trying to leave Christian Science alone ("if," he wrote, "it would leave me alone"), he finally consented unequivocally to the fact that he was being led into the truth through Christian Science. There was no turning back from such an admission.

² Journal, Vol. 10, May 1892, pp. 68-72.↑  

The introduction to this series also has this delightful snippet –

            In March 1944 Laura Conant told of how her husband, Albert Conant, the compiler of the Concordances to Mrs. Eddy's writings, obeyed divine impulsion, cut short what he was doing, and returned home in time to save the just completed draft of the Concordance to Science and Health from a fire.

Laura Conant’s article is on JSH-Online.com. It is very inspiring and is titled The Compiling of the Concordances. You can find it in the March 1944 Christian Science Journal. It records what was possibly the first “cut and paste” exercise, when for each entry and to save the many hours of necessary proof-reading, Mr. Conant cut the line of type for the entry and pasted it next to the page number and line.

 Joyce Voysey

Church

Obedience has a prominent place in these writings.  Obedience, not to the personal Mary Baker Eddy, but to Truth, and Love, and Principle which she epitomised and still epitomises in her writings.

As one reads the Clerk’s report about the history of the church to that date (1906), such gratitude is felt for those “honest seekers for Truth” (p. ix Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy) who were brave enough to leave their old churches and go forth with their Leader to found the church.

In speaking of the Communion Sunday of 1880, Mr. Johnson (Clerk) says (p. 50 The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany): “This was indeed the little church in the wilderness, and few knew of its teachings, but those few saw the grandeur of its work and were willing to labor for the Cause.”

Are we still, “a little church in the wilderness”? 

WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness.  Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.  (ibid p. 597)

However, there is no “little” church, is there? 

CHURCH.  The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.

               The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick. (ibid p. 583)

Joyce Voysey

Connections and comprehension

William McKenzie was the outgoing President at the 1906 Annual Meeting.  He speaks so beautifully, from his poetic heart, about Mrs. Eddy.  I love that he writes (p. 39), “Because our own growth in love and unity enables us to comprehend better the strength and beauty of her character.”  And that we can to a slight degree understand his sentiment from our own growth through her teachings.

Oh!  The revelation, reason, and demonstration that brought Mary Baker Eddy and the Cause of Christian Science to this spectacular point of spiritual development in her and her students!

McKenzie speaks of rivalries among the students and warns against them.  He cites, “All’s love, but all’s law” (p. 40). I cannot find that quote.  (I seem to remember having read, “Whatever is not love, is hate.”)  He speaks of criticisms, rivalries, rebellion, pride, arrogance, self-will, lack of mercy, hatred.  He counters these with peacemaking, relinquishing, forsaking, abandoning, wisdom, obedience, meekness, comfort, mercy, blessedness.  All of the last, as examples of Mrs. Eddy’s devotion to the cause of Christian Science and love of mankind.

I love the way the new President, Willis Gross, compares the forty years of the development of Christian Science to the forty years of the children of Israel wilderness experience.  I hadn’t made that connection before this reading. (pp. 42-44)  Lovely to ponder!

Joyce Voysey

Maturing and progress

What a fine record the Boston Herald has given us of the Communion Service and Dedication of the Extension of The Mother Church – so gentle and kind and appreciative.

Imagine the Readers and soloist holding six services in the one day, beginning at 7.30 a.m.!  

The record states that all the services were exactly the same, but, as a First Reader, I feel that each one had its special-ness according to the spiritual impetus of the members of the congregation. I notice that the silent prayer towards the end of the service was of five minutes duration. A long time to be kneeling! A good opportunity to hone humility skills.

Having so recently becoming acquainted with a bound copy of the first volume of The Christian Science Journal, I marvel at the progress the church had made in the twenty years that had intervened. Christian Science had matured.

Joyce Voysey

Abundant giving - ample supply

I ask myself, is this book of the month (The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany Part I) all about giving? Fair chance! I have just now read Holiday Gifts on page 20. “The holidays are coming,” it says. Now this was written in October 31, 1904. In an era when folk actually made gifts with their own hands, was this due advice re Christmas gifts, or perhaps Thanksgiving gifts first? “Send no gifts to her the ensuing season, but the evidences of glorious growth in Christian Science.” 

We of this era can still give her the fruits of her labours for us in our own “glorious growth.”

Giving and receiving. Of course, Malachi 3:10 comes to mind: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

“In the year 1902 our Leader saw the need of a larger edifice for the home of The Mother Church…” we find on page 22. Now I had often wondered if Edward Kimball had, on his own initiative, put forward the motion reproduced beginning on page 7 of our book. So it seems that Mrs. Eddy made the need known, and her faithful stewards saw to it that it was put to the members.

In a letter of greeting to Mrs. Eddy at Annual Meeting 1905, we find this delightful sentence (p. 24): “As the walls are builded by the prayers and offerings of the thousands who have been healed through Christian Science…” Why wouldn’t they give to this great cause – they have been healed by it!

In April the next year (1906) the Board of Directors announced that the building would be dedicated on Sunday, June 10 that year!  How the people worked and prayed!  Send no more money, they are told, sufficient funds are in hand!

An Editorial of June 9, 1906 stated, in part:

   “The significance of this building is not to be found in the material structure, but in the lives of those who, under the consecrated leadership of Mrs. Eddy, and following her example, are doing the works which Jesus said should mark the lives of his followers. It stands as the visible symbol…”

Joyce Voysey

Mothering

Some thoughts on The Mother Church. (I wonder if any church has been nick-named the “Father Church”.)

This building and dedication of the Extension of The Mother Church we are reading about, could it be likened to eagles building their nests - and the eagles’ behaviour towards their young nestlings/fledglings? 

Hymn 207, Mother’s Evening Prayer, tells us that the idea was very much in our Leader’s thought: “Oh Gentle Presence…the nestling’s faltering flight…”   

I did a search about the Mother’s Evening Prayer poem. It was copyrighted in 1893.  Another fact that I was keen to know was whether the Original Mother Church was built before the poem was written. No. The building was dedicated in December 1894. I found this reference to the poem in Adelaide Still’s reminiscences in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Vol. II – “Mrs. Sargent also told me that one evening Mrs. Eddy called her and said, “See what I have written, Laura.” Then she read to her “The Mother’s Evening Prayer” (see Miscellaneous Writings, p. 389) and told her that it had come to her during the past half hour. Very few changes were made to it.” – p. 482, no date given.

Prompted by the references to the eagle which “stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him…” in a recent Christian Science Lesson-Sermon, I went on a JSH-Online hunt to see what might have been written in the Christian Science periodicals about that topic. I came across this delightful piece which, very unusually, is not attributed to any author or publication –

"I am sure it was the Lord that led me to church that day”

From the February 1890 issue of The Christian Science Journal

"I am sure it was the Lord that led me to church that day. The sermon was all about the eagle stirring up her nest. The minister said that young eagles are timid and do not like to venture forth—are afraid to try their wings—and the old bird often stirs up her nest, and destroys her home entirely, if necessary, so that they shall learn to use their wings. And then, if they still refuse to make the attempt, the eagle pushes them off the high, rocky ledge and soars away, and pretends to forget them—flying upward until she is a mere speck in the blue sky. He told how the little eaglets, forced to use their wings, do the best they can to save themselves and to follow their mother. Apparently alone and forsaken, with the mother-bird far, far above them, they must fly or be beaten to death on the rocks! But let the wings of one of those eaglets begin to tremble with real weakness, and the bird begin to fall—swift as lightning the mother-bird darts down from her immense height, swoops under the little fledgling, and bears him up on her strong wings to herself. Forgotten? Not a bit of it! Only being taught the lesson necessary to its life."

On Thursday, I spent the morning in our Reading Room. There I found a book I hadn’t realised was there – the first bound volume of The Christian Science Journal. I had a wonderful time with it. Mrs. Eddy herself was the Editor and how she must have worked to produce it! There is so much to indicate the way the Cause of Christian Science was built up. We find articles that have been included in her Prose Works, including all those wonderful questions and answers in Miscellaneous Writings. There are many un-attributed pieces such as the above (it appears some 7 years later in the Journal). There are jokes about how stupid mortal mind is. I wrote down one piece, presented as a dialogue (http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1883/10/1-4/a-little-nonsense-now-and-then):

                Sceptic: “Have you tried the faith-cure?”

                Believer: “I have.”

                S: “Do you believe in it?”

                B: “I do.”

                B: “Certainly, I was cured of my faith.”

At that time Mrs. Eddy advertised that she, “receives calls Monday to Friday 3-5 p.m. This was 1883.

I find I have not answered the questions I asked at the beginning.  Perhaps something will develop…

Joyce Voysey

Giving and receiving

The story of the building of the extension of The Mother Church is very inspiring. What were the thoughts of Christian Scientists then, as they pledged "with startling grace" (Eddy, p.9) the extraordinary sum of up to two million dollars to see it through to its completion?

Perhaps the following thoughts, among many other, were in their hearts: immense gratitude for Christian Science and its Leader; a practical knowledge that this building was needed to accommodate the large numbers of worshippers; and an overflowing love for God because they had been healed!

Mrs. Eddy's response to the pledge was swift and to the point, and based on the teachings of St. Paul: "Behold, now is the accepted time." Eddy tells us that "A lost opportunity is the greatest of losses." The word now is an interesting one. It means: at the present time or moment; immediately or at once; at this time; as matters stand (Macquarie Pocket Dictionary).

Let's take a look at Paul's sentence, with help from Bible Gateway: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Corinthians%206:2

2 Corinthians 6:2 (CEV) |

That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved.

 

2 Corinthians 6:2 (ERV) | 

I tell you that the “right time” is now. The “day of salvation” is now.

 

2 Corinthians 6:1-10 (MSG) | ...now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped.

 

No putting it off. This is the moment. There is no other moment in which to act but right now. We can't act yesterday or tomorrow, a moment ago or in a moment's time. We can only act now. God, Mind, IS now, eternally. And students of Christian Science have grown to love "We own no past, no future, we possess only now. If the reliable now is carelessly lost in speaking or in acting,..." (p. 12).

 

These faithful adherents were told that their generosity would be returned to them by God (p. 13: 29). There would be no loss, reiterating the promise of Malachi Chapter 3 that our grateful, happy and needed generosity will result in bountiful blessings. I like how Eugene Petersen puts it in The Message:

 

Malachi 3:8-11 (MSG) | 

^8-11 “Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day.
“You ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’...
“Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams."

Now...and then...

Julie Swannell

 

What's in our bank account?

Isn’t “Our Leader’s Thanks” remarkable and wonderful? 

Who, but she would form the phrase, “bankrupt in thanks”? And “I…will draw on God for the amount I owe you.” This was gratitude for the way in which Christian Scientists rallied to provide the funds to build the Extension to The Mother Church. JSH-Online gives us the opportunity to read of the Branch Churches efforts at raising these funds.

Joyce Voysey

God's timing - the child's example

I have been glimpsing a little of what Mrs. Eddy means by telling us that we must do things NOW. She refers to children doing that naturally – “The good they desire to do, they insist upon doing now” (p.13/14). Having a batch of great-grandchildren around, I realise that I see that in all they do. Mrs. Eddy goes on to say, “They speculate neither on the past, present, nor future, but taking no thought for the morrow, act in God’s time.”

I must do likewise, but I note that, “Whatever needs to be done which cannot be done now, God prepares the way for doing” (p. 12).

Joyce Voysey

"Choose ye today"

 

This morning I have added another mark to “Choose ye.”  I am taken with the idea that “the iron in human nature rusts away” (p.4).

 

By the way, I am interested that the chapter title, "Choose ye", is in inverted commas. As far as I can see it is not a complete quote but rather part of a sentence in Joshua 24:15, and using “you” rather than “ye.”

 

14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

 

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

However, we do find “Choose ye” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures where it appears as the Marginal Heading “Choose ye to-day” (p. 360).

 

Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought shall be real to you, — the material or the spiritual?  Choose ye to-day Both you cannot have. You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the real and the unreal.

Joyce Voysey 

 

 

"A persuasive animus"

7.6.15.   Having now re-read the Foreword, I am thinking that it was perhaps dictated to Mr. Strang by Mrs. Eddy. To me, it reads like her writing.

9.6.15.  This morning I read the first page of Mrs. Eddy’s “Choose Ye” (page 3 of our book) and was thrilled with her definition of Christian Science in the second paragraph. I loved it so much - such a feeling of goodness - and I have sometimes experienced it as a “persuasive animus”, an “unerring impetus”, “an ever-present help.” Then I read the Lesson Sermon on God the Preserver of Man from the Christian Science Quarterly. How the first section's Bible verses equated with that definition for me. This is not something one can put into words. Except to say that it gives a warm feeling around the heart.

Here is an excerpt from Section 1 of this week's Bible Lesson:

2 | Deuteronomy 32:9–13 (to 1st ;)

For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields;

 

About the “warm feeling around the heart”, readers may like to look up (on JSH-Online) my testimony from the June 1973 edition of The Christian Science Journal.

Joyce Voysey

Ethic of reciprocity

Mary Baker Eddy's Message on the Occasion of the Dedication of the Extension of The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, June 10, 1906 is titled "Choose Ye" and comprises Chapter 1 of our book.

I guess many readers have read it at least several times over the past two years, and many will have studied it in detail as directed by the Directors of The Mother Church.

It is a wonderful message. So full of light and vigour and action and now-ness!

I love the emphasis on the Golden Rule and was pleased to see the following from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule:

The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim,^[1] ethical code or morality^[2] that essentially states either of the following:

• One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (directive form).^[1]
• One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (cautionary form, also known as the Silver Rule).^[1]

This concept describes a "reciprocal", or "two-way", relationship between one's self and others that involves both sides equally, and in a mutual fashion.^[3][4]
This concept can be explained from the perspective of psychology, philosophy, sociology and religion. Psychologically, it involves a person empathizing with others. Philosophically, it involves a person perceiving their neighbor as also an "I" or "self".^[3][4] Sociologically, this principle is applicable between individuals, between groups, and also between individuals and groups. (For example, a person living by this rule treats all people with consideration, not just members of his or her in-group.) Religions figure prominently in the history of this concept.^[1][5]
As a concept, the Golden Rule has a history that long predates the term "Golden Rule", or "Golden law", as it was called from the 1670s in England and Europe.^[1][6] As a concept of "the ethic of reciprocity," it has its roots in a wide range of world cultures, and is a standard way that different cultures use to resolve conflicts.^[1][5] It has a long history, and a great number of prominent religious figures and philosophers have restated its reciprocal, "two-way" nature in various ways (not limited to the above forms).^[1]
Rushworth Kidder notes that the Golden Rule can be found in the early contributions of Confucianism. Kidder notes that this concept's framework appears prominently in many religions, including "Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the rest of the world's major religions".^[7] According to Greg M. Epstein, " 'do unto others' ... is a concept that essentially no religion misses entirely."^[8] Simon Blackburn also states that the Golden Rule can be "found in some form in almost every ethical tradition".^[9] All versions and forms of the proverbial Golden Rule have one aspect in common: they all demand that people treat others in a manner in which they themselves would like to be treated.

So this sentence from Eddy is startling: "When, by losing his faith in matter and sin, one finds the spirit of Truth, then he practices the Golden Rule spontaneously; and obedience to this rule spiritualizes man, for the world's nolens volens cannot enthrall it." (The First Church of Christ, Scientist p. 4). [The little phrase nolens volens was completely unfamiliar to me. Dictionaries have: willy-nilly, willing or not, whether a person wants or likes something or not...An example of nolens volens is a mother telling her children whether they want to or not, they're attending the family dinner.]

What a wonderful standard by which to guide our decision-making.

Julie Swannell

Notes on Lewis C. Strang and Rudyard Kipling

The First Church of Christ, Scientist by Mary Baker Eddy – the book for June, 2015

Joyce Voysey writes:

First up.  Thank you Julie, for your introduction.  Great definitions of “fortify.”

I noticed that the Foreword was not signed by Mrs. Eddy, so I looked it up on JSH-Online.  The article begins with this:

 

“Lest we forget”

By LEWIS C. STRANG

From the April 28, 1906 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 [It is a pleasure to give prominence in our columns to the following letter, which emphasizes so clearly and in few words Mrs. Eddy's leadership of the Christian Science movement, and the reasons therefor; the right relationship of Christian Scientists to her, to Science and Health, to the Church Manual, and to The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, which she has founded "on the rock, Christ." It is a just tribute to the magnitude and success of her labors for this Church and for humanity.—EDITOR.]

And it signs off with Lewis C. Strang, Pleasant View.  Of course, Lewis Strang was one of the secretaries working for Mrs. Eddy at Pleasant View, her Concord home.

In my JSH-Online hunt, I looked first for ‘Kipling’ regarding the introductory quote mentioned by Julie.  I will have to go back and read some of the items.  They looked interesting.  I will report.

Meantime, Lewis Strang:

There are no reminiscences of Lewis Strang in the We Knew Mary Baker Eddy books. Here is an interesting insight -

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., Oct. 22, 1906.

Dear Mr. McLellan:—Will you through the periodicals kindly impress upon those who contribute to such funds as the Concord Street Fund just closed by our Leader, that they should never make out their checks, drafts, etc., payable to Mrs. Eddy. Checks, etc., payable to Mrs. Eddy, require her personal endorsement, and this labor, insignificant in a single instance, becomes, when the instances are multiplied, a serious encroachment upon her time and attention.

Sincerely yours
Lewis C. Strang, Associate Secretary

I had to consult Robert Peel’s Years of Discovery to find out more about Mr. Strang. Hello!  He had been a drama critic before coming to Pleasant View (p.258).  He was one Mrs. Eddy’s students named in the Next Friends suit (p. 280).   

Oh dear!  On page 388, note 3, we find a mention of our book and its Foreword by Strang.  The sad bit, “Strang…later left the church and became bitterly hostile to her.”  I can only feel great compassion for him.

 

And now Kipling –

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Arnold J. Walker
From the March 18, 1967 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

From an article in The Cadle Call Indianapolis, Indiana

He is a very intelligent, cultured, normal sort of a man. Coming in for an interview he said, "I don't know what's wrong with me. I have plenty of friends; ... I have an enviable job; I have a nice home; I am free to go where I want to and yet I am wretchedly unhappy. Something is missing ... that is all-important but I don't know what it is." I ... said, "My friend, I know what is missing in your life. ... You have everything but love, and the only source of love—that is, satisfying, eternal love—the only source, is God."

Years ago the inimitable Rudyard Kipling was very ill with typhoid fever. ... As he lay there he kept mumbling something to himself. The family tried to find out what he wanted, but with no success. One morning the nurse bent over his frail form and said. "Mr. Kipling, what do you want?" For a few moments the restlessness left him, he opened his eyes slowly and said feebly, "I want God." Undeniably this is the cry of a restless bewildered age. Everybody needs God. And God is love.

Our sophisticated age praises the mind, but the mind without love is a curse capable of a thousand selfishnesses and ten thousand evils. ... When Jesus [taught] that God is love, he meant that love is the characteristic and principle by which He acts.

 

The following item is excerpted from April 6, 1899 Christian Science Sentinel. The article, Interesting and Suggestive, included a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times and this letter quotes an article titled The World of Doctors. The letter apparently appeared in the New York Times March 22, 1899.

Interesting and Suggestive
with contributions from John C. Turner, Thomas W. Organ
From the April 6, 1899 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

EXCERPT -

The Work of the Doctors.

To the Editor of the New York Times: — Your editorial on "Pneumonia and the Doctors" has, I am pleased to note, incited much comment more or less suggestive and instructive…It is more than probable that Mr. Kipling would have recovered had there been neither doctor, nurse, nor drug within a thousand miles of his rooms. Mr. Kipling is "tough" and fortunately survived the attack of both disease and doctors. I am speaking from experience, for I have been "attacked" both by the pneumonia and by the doctors, and consider an attack by the former far less dangerous than the latter…Years ago I became convinced that a doctor is no more a therapeutical necessity than is a saloon a social necessity…The coming man will neither drink wine nor swallow drugs. He will know better…

Thomas W. Organ.
New York City, March 19, 1899

June book: Part 1 of The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany

For June we are reading PART 1 of The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany. There are just two chapters plus an Appendix (“As Chronicled by the Newspapers”).

 

 “The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany”

Foreword - from The Christian Science Journal of May 1906:

There are some lively words in the opening paragraph of the Foreword - stirring, growth, prosperity, wonderment, frequent comment, right hand of fellowship, popularity, persecution. And then a caution to "earnest and loyal Christian Scientists" to "fortify themselves".

Dictionary.com tells us that fortify carries the following meanings:
1. to protect or strengthen against attack; surround or provide with defensive military works.
2. to furnish with a means of resisting force or standing strain or wear: to fortify cotton with nylon.
3. to make strong; impart strength or vigor to: to fortify oneself with a good breakfast.
4. to increase the effectiveness of, as by additional ingredients.
5. to confirm or corroborate: to fortify an accusation with facts.
6. to set up defensive works; erect fortifications.

And then we see why Eddy has opened the Foreword with Kipling's Recessional, which includes the familiar "Lest we forget". We are reminded - or rather cautioned - to be mindful of several cogent historical facts that had brought the Christian Science church to that moment and which demonstrate that success always requires work, even "arduous preliminary labor" (requiring much energy and vigor, full of hardships, difficult).

How can we not be grateful as we fortify ourselves today by remembering those very same facts.

Julie Swannell