One lone, brave star circling and shining

It seems to me that every word of this poem (Christ and Christmas) could be worthy of attention. For instance, the first verse:

Fast circling on, from zone to zone,--

Bright, blest, afar,--

O’er the grim night of chaos shone

One lone, brave star.

·        “Fast”-- Nothing can stop it.

·        “Circling” -- I think of a circle and eternity. On a human plane, maybe, the world.

·        “Zone” -- The areas of the world. This brings to mind something a visitor from Boston spoke of at a branch church meeting. He said some folks were reasoning that Australia had a very important part to play in the march of Christian Science around the world. Australia could be considered the last stop before it gets back to its beginning in Palestine. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy speaks of the Southern Cross constellation of stars, Australia’s emblem, as the “Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union…” (575:30-32). Which brings up the question: How is Calvary to be defined in this statement? Dictionary definitions give: “Place outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. An experience of unusual mental suffering.”

We Australians are very interested that Science and Health mentions Australia. Not many countries have that honour: “When wandering in Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their snow huts?” (SH 82:28).

But the poem speaks of “one lone, brave star.” The first painting in Christ and Christmas depicts that one lone, brave star, and it is named the Star of Bethlehem. That star is shown in most of the paintings. It is there with the raising the dead in Christ Healing; it illumines the seeking practitioner of the Christ Science in Seeking and Finding; it is there at Christian healing and Christian Science Healing, and where the young child ponders the truths of the big book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It is not there at the Christmas Eve party, where the illumination is all artificial, nor in the picture Treating the sick. The star gives place to light in Christmas morn, Christian unity, Truth versus error, and The way.

There is a feeling of movement in the first verse: “Fast circling”; also in the next verse: “Spirit sped.” Ah! The speed of light!

What about “chaos”? Chaos: PHYSICS -- the property of a complex system whose behaviour is so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. The formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word “chaos” in her Science and Health; also in her Prose Works. Hello! Here is another study for me!

Joyce Voysey