When I read Historical Sketches by Clifford Smith in May this year, I made a note: “Scientific testing – page 148.” It has now come to my attention again. It is in the chapter Mrs. Eddy as Leader. The following extract begins on page 147:
Not only did Mrs. Eddy
learn to depend implicitly on God for discernment and direction throughout her
leadership of the Christian Science movement, but she also learned to study the
lessons of experience in a scientific way. Her attitude toward these subjects
could be illustrated by many excerpts from her letters. When writing to The
Christian Science Board of Directors in 1895 she said, “And from long tests
I know that He will show me the way that is just, and then I will follow it.”
And when writing to the Directors in 1908 she expressed her thought in these
few words: “Be wise from inspiration and experience.”
As is the practice of all scientists, she tested and observed. A
sentence/statement in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
seems to illustrate this for me: “That body is most harmonious in which the
discharge of the natural functions is least noticeable” (478:18-20).
My branch church is currently
working metaphysically about church, so I wondered what I could find about
church in Smith’s book. I had rushed through the latter part of the book last
month but recalled a section entitled Early History of Christian Science in the
British Isles. Together with the chapter Early History of Christian Science in
Germany, they form the last two chapters in the book.
I knew
that Longyear Foundation (https://www.longyear.org/),
which is devoted to everything related to Mary Baker Eddy and her church and
its early workers, would help. It did.
A Google search of “Longyear
churches in England” brought to light a very good article which gives a very
full account of Mrs.
E. Blanche Ward’s connection with starting Christian Science church services
in England. Here is an interesting titbit –
In
the years ahead the question of daily supply was often to be an acute one for
her. She had renounced a settled income and a sheltered life that she might
continue in the healing work and bring up her little sons in Christian Science.
When she moved to Bedford, she had no patients, but more than all else she
desired to impart the truth of Christian Science to others. “I felt
impelled to say nothing audibly but to preach the gospel continuously,
silently, mentally, alone.” She realized, as she said in her biographical
sketch, that this truth could not be withheld from the people. Within a short
time she had a large practice, with many patients coming from London seeking
healing and knowledge of Christian Science. It soon became clear to her that
she must move to London.
In
1894 she took a house at Hammersmith with a drawing room large enough to
accommodate meetings. Christian Science services began the same year in that
room. There were many healings and the interest in Christian Science reached to
the highest levels of British society. A larger drawing room for services was
soon needed and she moved to 142 Portman Mansions which was more centrally
located. In 1896 this drawing room was overflowing and Mrs. Eddy advised taking
a hall, and opening services to the public. The first services held in Portman
Rooms were in February 1896 with Mrs. Ward as First Reader and three other
Scientists taking turns as Second Reader.
I am sure readers of the blog
will be delighted to read about Mrs. Ward on the Longyear site.
The next person of interest on
the Longyear site is Adam
Dickey. It includes some facts about Mr. Dickey I had not been aware of. There
seems to have been a great compatibility of thought between Mrs. Eddy and Mr.
Dickey:
Mr. Dickey became Mrs.
Eddy’s private secretary through whom business matters often came to her.
Between them there existed a compatibility of thought and action which greatly
facilitated her work. His sole purpose, as he saw it, was to help her fulfill her
mission for God and mankind. In the Pink Room at Chestnut Hill there hangs a
picture of Mr. Dickey, placed there by Mrs. Eddy near the portraits of Dr. Asa
Eddy and herself.
In matters which required
a decision from the standpoint of wisdom, Mr. Dickey tells us, “She was always
able to appeal to the divine Mind and get her answer,” but there were “times
when she seemed to bend beneath the heavy load that mortal mind had placed upon
her and it was then that she really yearned for human aid and sympathy.”
…When a request for a
German translation of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was
approved by Mrs. Eddy, she directed Mr. Dickey to oversee this work. Miss
Florence M. Dickey of Kansas City, Adam Dickey’s sister, has left this record
of the initial steps in this work: “When the committee appointed by The
Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church met to translate the
textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, from English into German, the
first day of their meeting Mr. Archibald McLellan told them that
Mrs. Eddy had instructed Mr. Dickey to ‘watch the translation and to guard the
metaphysical meaning of each line.'”
The German translation
of Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures was copyrighted in 1912, and a report later
submitted to the Board of Directors about Mr. Dickey, included this statement
by Frau Oldenburg (formerly Fraulein Schultz): “The German Christian
Scientists’ gratitude to our Leader for her precious gift of the translation is
inseparably bound up with unceasing gratitude to Adam H. Dickey for the
stupendous work he did during all those months of the translation. Only his
great love for our Leader, for her textbook and his dutiful care to carry out
her wish could have enabled him to self-sacrificingly ‘watch’ in never ceasing
patience and encouraging love. Indeed, his ‘works do follow’ him.” (Rev. 14:13)
The Longyear article also tells of Mrs. Dickey’s
involvement in those early days of the Christian Science movement. She was
right there alongside him up until his call to be that steadfast helper of his
beloved leader. [Mrs Lillian Dickey is shown seated at a meal among Mrs
Eddy's workers in a photo on page 420 (in Adam Dickey's account) of We Knew
Mary Baker Eddy Volume II Expanded Edition.]
Joyce
Voysey
1 comment:
I love this: “I felt impelled to say nothing audibly but to preach the gospel continuously, silently, mentally, alone.”
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