A remarkable leader and devoted students

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