Isn't this wonderful?

 Isn’t this wonderful? From Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Healing:

The Lord’s Prayer, understood in its spiritual sense, and given its spiritual version, can never be repeated too often for the benefit of all who, having ears, hear and understand. (15:28-3)

It reminds me of a recent inspired thought.

When I give my testimony at a Christian Science Wednesday evening meeting about being brought to Christian Science through the Christ (as I see it now), I often say something like, “I attended Sunday School regularly at either Church of England (when it was available where I was living at the time), or Methodist. I loved the simple hymns of the Methodist church. But they never got through to me”, “they” being all the Sunday School teachers. (There was no religious teaching in the home, only the insistence that I attend Sunday School and, when I was old enough, become confirmed and take communion.)

But I can see now that every Bible truth spoken, every prayer prayed must have “not returned to me void.” I know for sure that I was certainly taught The Lord’s Prayer. So, I am grateful for every Bible quotation that has gone out from churches and individuals over the many generations.

People have been blessed and are being blessed and will be blessed by that holy book, the Bible. And as Mrs. Eddy wrote, by The Lord’s Prayer.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Readers will be thrilled to read about how The Lord’s Prayer saved a writer from a potentially catastrophic situation. See The Christian Science Journal December 2023, p. 42 Safe and Sound with the Lord’s Prayer.

"In notes almost divine"

After reading Joyce Voysey's interesting post yesterday, I re-read Mrs. Eddy's sermon Christian Healing and was very surprised to turn to the final page - page 20 - where it says that "The following hymn was sung at the close: -

Oh, could we speak the matchless worth,

Oh, could we sound the glories forth,

  Which in our Saviour shine,

We'd soar and touch the heavenly strings,

And vie with Gabriel, while he sings,

  In notes almost divine."

I had never paid any attention to this page in my previous readings of the sermon and I wondered about the tune.

We are so blessed to have the internet! There are several YouTube versions of the hymn, but this one by one-person quartet (G. Michael Eldridge sings all four parts) named Acapeldridge is my favourite. It makes me want to burst with joy.

The listener will note that the personal pronoun I is sung, while our words (above) use we. Much more inclusive methinks.

The tune - Ariel - is sometimes attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), but Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is also a contender, as is James Leach. 

The words are definitely by Samuel Medley (1738-1799)!

Happy listening and happy singing. And may your notes be "almost divine"!

Julie Swannell

Homœopathy and thought

In her sermon Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy comments on the practice of homœopathy as follows: 

    “When studying the two hundred and sixty remedies of the Jahr, the characteristic peculiarities and the general and moral symptoms requiring the remedy, we saw at once the concentrated power of thought brought to bear upon the pharmacy of homœopathy, which made the infinitesimal dose effectual. To prepare the medicine requires time and thought; you cannot shake the poor drug without the involuntary thought, “I am making you more powerful,” and the sequel proves it; the higher attenuations prove that the power was the thought, for when the drug disappears by your process the power remains, and homœopathists admit the higher attenuations are the most powerful” (Christian Healing page 12).

Homœopathy came from Samuel Hahnemann’s reasoning and practice. G.H.G. (Gottlieb Heinrich Georg) Jahr was his disciple. It is his book, namely GHG Jahr’s Manual of Homœopathic Medicine, to which Mrs. Eddy referred in her sermon.

Hahnemann (1755-1843) was German; Jahr (1800-1875) German-French. Both were physicians.

Mrs. Eddy writes quite a lot about homœopathy in both Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and in her Prose Works other than Science and Health. Her experimentation with it was a direct link to her eventual discovery of Christian Science.

I must say I have had fun with the œ in homœopathy. Does anyone recognise it as a diphthong? Rather like the German umlaut (ä) which is written these days mostly in English as “ae.” The King James Bible has a list of signs used in the book on the page before Genesis. These help us with pronunciation of difficult words. Actually, “œ” must be rather rare for it is not listed with others.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. It appears that the œ might be losing favour as the word is often now spelt homeopathy. What a shame to miss all that fun!

Cast out devils - error corrected

On Friday morning I came to page 6:26-27 in Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Healing sermon, where she quotes the following passage from the gospel of Mark:

And these signs shall follow them that believe;

In my name shall they cast out devils… (Mark 16:17, 18 (to 2nd ;)) 

Later,  in our Reading Room, my daughter and I watched the first half of Alec McCowan’s “Solo performance of St. Mark’s Gospel”*. What a masterpiece it is: delivered without notes except for a tiny copy of the Gospel open on the table but turned face down. A mighty demonstration of the actor’s art!

Mr. McCowan informed his audience that he would be presenting Mark’s gospel as given in the King James Version of the Bible. This is significant, because it meant that he would be including the final chapter (#16), a chapter omitted from some translations. In fact, Chapter 16 is very significant from the Christian Science position, for it includes the previously quoted passage**.

Get to the point, you may well cry! Right! At the beginning of the performance, Alec seemed to be emphasising casting out devils. Now, probably he wasn’t emphasising, but the phrase cast out devils stood out to my ear.

Alec was well into chapter 1 (right after the healing of Simon’s wife’s mother in verses 30 and 31) when he delivered*** these words:

And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

And all the city was gathered together at the door.

And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. (Mark 1:32-34)

And a little later:

And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. (Mark 1:39)

Further passages follow:

• ·                 In Chapter 3, verse 9, Jesus ordains the twelve disciples and gives them power to cast out devils, while in verse 22 the scribes criticise Jesus, saying that he cast out demons by Beelzebub.
• ·                 Chapter 6:13 records that the disciples “cast out many devils”. Later, John complained: “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.” Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part” (Mark 9: 38-40).
• ·                 Mark 16: 9 - “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.”

Next, I consulted BibleStudyTools.com’s entry under Bible Verses about Satan –

The devil is identified with several figures in the Bible including the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer, Satan, the tempter of the Gospels, Leviathan, and the dragon in the Book of Revelation.

This site then quotes the New International Version (NIV) of the following passage:

1 John 3:8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives many words for "devil" in other languages, but here is one definition:

In the Christian theology, an evil spirit or being; a fallen angel, expelled from heaven for rebellion against God; the chief of the apostate angels; the implacable enemy and  tempter of the human race.  In the New Testament, the word is frequently and erroneously used for demon.

Mrs. Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures defines the term devil in the Glossary:

DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness, and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of the flesh, which saith: “I am life and intelligence in matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind,-- a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image.”

In Christian Healing, following the “cast out devils” quote from Mark 16:17-18, Mrs. Eddy goes on to do some defining: "The word devil comes from the Greek diabolos; in Hebrew it is belial, and signifies "that which is good for nothing, lust," etc. The signs referred to are the manifestations of the power of Truth to cast out error; and, correcting error in thought it produces the harmonious effect on the body" (p. 6:27-4).

Joyce Voysey

* Ed. some excerpts for the interested reader

** Ed. Mark 16: 17, 18 is in fact the chosen text of Eddy’s sermon.

*** Ed. In his inimitable and utterly captivating style

**** Ed. How refreshing is Mrs. Eddy’s explanation over all the others!

Revolution

"We are in the midst of a revolution; physics are yielding slowly to metaphysics; mortal mind rebels at its own boundaries; weary of matter, it would catch the meaning of Spirit." 

Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healing p. 11: 6-9

--------------------------------------

Oxford Dictionary: Revolution. 

1. rebellion, revolt

2. dramatic change, radical alteration, complete shift, transformation, innovation, reorganization, restructuring, reformation, upheaval, shake-up

3. single turn, rotation, circle, cycle

4. orbital motion, turning around, gyration

---------------------------------------------------

Oxford Dictionary: Metaphysics.

- the science of things transcending what is physical or natural

Websters 1828 Dictionary: Metaphysics.

- It is said that metaphysics was the name given to the science by Aristotle...who considered the science of natural bodies, physics, as the first in the order of studies, and the science of mind or intelligence to be the second.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word metaphysics 129 times in her published writings. 

Here's one passage: "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul" Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 269: 14.

I've always loved the idea of replacing things seen with the thoughts that are their essence or true substance. Revolution indeed.

Julie Swannell

Fight the good fight!

I was reminded that The Mary Baker Eddy Library often is very helpful with providing information about the circumstances of something Mrs. Eddy has written – the when and why, perhaps one could say.

So I requested such information from the library about Mrs. Eddy's sermon Christian Healing, but on mentioning this quest to our Editor, she gave me a link to exactly that information. I don’t seem to be able to find that email this morning, but I did find that it is easy to find by googling Mary Baker Eddy Library/Christian Healing.

The following is copied from that article: 

"Christian Healing was Eddy’s first publication for general circulation following Science and Health, which had come out seven years before. 

"Around 1882 two Christian Scientists, Julia S. Bartlett, and Abbie K. Whiting, went door-to-door sharing the pamphlet Bartlett recalled this:

"We obtained a good number of the pamphlet Christian Healing, which was all there was published on Christian Science at that time aside from Science and Health. With these we started out on our mission, selecting one of the best streets and going from house to house, she on one side and I on the other. This was a bold measure for a timid, retiring person, costing many a struggle with self. But that was put aside on meeting the lady of the house who, in every instance seemed much interested in what I had to tell of Christian Science and expressed a desire to meet with us and to learn more about it, and a pamphlet was left for each family to read in the meantime." 

Mary Baker Eddy’s sermon Christian Healing speaks of religion, of the “genius of Christianity”, and of its assailants -- “religious factions and prejudices arrayed against it, the synagogues as of old closed upon it”. She explains that Christianity’s work is to “reason(s) with the storm, hurl(s) the thunderbolt of truth, and still(s) the tempest of error.” See 1:20 – 2:9. 

• The thought came to me that Christian Science is fighting for all Christendom.
• Later: Christian Science is fighting for all who know God.
• Later again: Christian Science is fighting for all mankind.

Mrs. Eddy's paragraph referred to above ends with words from Martin Luther: “I am weary of the world, and the world is weary of me; the parting will be easy”, and Eddy also quotes his friend and defender, the German theologian “gentle Melanchthon”: “Old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon” (p. 2: 9).

I am reminded of the old hymn Fight the Good Fight which I have been singing for most of my life – in Sunday School (Methodist in the 1930s) and in Christian Science churches since the 1960s.

This fight, I find, is urgent. I recall how, during World War II, everyone was enlisted in their own way to the fight to overthrow the very evident evil of Nazi thinking and acting.

Students of Christian Science have enlisted to fight the seeming totality of evil. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good” (470:17-22), and in Mrs. Eddy’s Message to The Mother Church for 1901 we find: “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen sin, disease, and death, and he overcomes them through Christ, Truth, teaching him that they cannot overcome us. The resistance to Christian Science weakens in proportion as one understands it and demonstrates the Science of Christianity” (15:7).

Hymns 59-61 Christian Science Hymnal

Fight the good fight with all thy might,

Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;

Lay hold on Life, and it shall be

Thy joy and crown eternally.

 

Run the straight race through God’s good grace,

Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;

Life with its way before us lies,

Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

 

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near;

He changeth not, and thou art dear;

On Him rely and thou shalt see

That Christ is all in all to thee.

I posted the foregoing earlier today, but had a wonder about the author of the hymn. I searched on the internet (his name is recorded in our hymnal of course): Irish-Anglican clergyman, John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875).

There are some lovely comments about the hymn on Hymnal.net. 

(Editor: The comments have been transcribed exactly as posted, i.e. without grammatical corrections.) 

• From Nigeria: “This is one of my favourite hymn, it motivates me and strengthens me. This inspirational hymns also reminds us that we would be faced with trials, temptations and challenges but that we should trust in God with all our heart and lean not on our understanding nor strength. By doing so, we shall surely triumph.”
• From London: “I have MS and have a particularly bad couple of days. But this night I had it’s 1.30 AM I was awoken with the last verse running around my head. Faint not, nor fear, His arms are near/He changeth not, and thou art dear. Thank you for internet for reminding me of the rest. And thank you Lord for loving me and sending me this just when I needed You! AMEN!”
• From Benin: I was just feeling weary, lonely and defeated when suddenly I remembered this song and after singing and listening to it, I became joyous with hope and encouragement. Thank You Holy Spirit, my ever present Lover and friend.

Joyce Voysey

On poetry, procrastination, and fresh opportunities

 The Mary Baker Eddy Library explains that the young Mary Baker grew up on poetry, that one of her teachers drew her mother’s attention to Mary’s poetic talents, and that Mary once believed she would become a poet. The Library also explains a lovely incident where Mary had lost consciousness and her brother Albert continued to read her verses from Night Thoughts, a poem by Englishman Edward Young (1683?-1765), until she recovered.

Eddy quotes four lines from this poem in her sermon Christian Healing.

The full poem is available at the Gutenberg Project. This site also provides commentary by the Rev. George Gilfillan and gives helpful background:

…in 1741, Young’s wife … Lucia … expired. He now felt himself alone, and blasted in his solitude. But his grief did not sink into sullen inactivity. He made it oracular, and distilled his tears into song. The “Night Thoughts” were immediately commenced, and published between 1742 and 1744. This marvellous poem was all composed either at night, or when riding on horseback—an exercise, by the way, which gives a sense of mastery and confidence, stirs the blood, elevates the animal spirits, and has been felt by many to be eminently favourable to thought and mental composition. 

Two extracts appear below. (The second is the passage quoted by Mrs. Eddy in Christian Healing, page one.)

This long but readable poem is in nine parts and is written in blank verse, which means that while the lines don’t rhyme, they are metered. Further, blank verse often uses iambic pentameter, a style adopted famously by William Shakespeare, e.g.

da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM
When I / do count / the clock / that tells  / the time
(Source: Wikipedia).

Readers can decide whether or not Young uses iambic pentameter.

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality.

Night I. On life, death, and immortality.

Humbly inscribed to the right honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq., Speaker of the House of Commons.

By Edward Young

Lines 393-398

Procrastination is the thief of time;

  Year after year it steals, till all are fled,

  And to the mercies of a moment leaves

  The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

  If not so frequent, would not this be strange?

  That 't is so frequent, this is stranger still.

Lines 417-420

At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;

  Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;

  At fifty, chides his infamous delay,

  Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;

The theme of procrastination and delay reappear at the end of Eddy’s sermon, but here offer the reader the glad tidings of “fresh opportunities”:

        Tireless Being, patient of man's procrastination, affords him fresh opportunities every hour; but if Science makes a more spiritual demand, bidding man go up higher, he is impatient perhaps, or doubts the feasibility of the demand. 

(Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 19: 18-21)

Julie Swannell