Bicknell Young -- on Christian Science lectures

Ed. Readers may have discovered a section on the Mary Baker Eddy Library website called From the Collections.

In this section of the Library, our faithful correspondent, Joyce Voysey, recently discovered the following interesting information about early Christian Scientist, Bicknell Young (1856-1938), a man with whom many seasoned students of this Science may have had some acquaintance through his writings. Note that it is probable that some work attributed to Young may be falsely represented as his, and readers are encouraged to read the excellent article about this at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/what-do-we-know-about-writings-attributed-to-bicknell-young/

Joyce brings the following information to our attention:

From the Collections: A rich portrait of Bicknell Young

             Why was Bicknell Young regarded as such an effective lecturer? “Young had not the native humor and wit of [Edward] Kimball,” McCrackan* wrote candidly, “nor his faculty for springing a joke on the audience at a tense moment when its receptivity to the deep things of metaphysics was stretched to the breaking point, but Young brought to his work much polished culture, a generous vocabulary, and a pleasing presence.” But McCrackan went on to explain that there was more to it than just that: 

This was true healing work. Kimball and Young both understood that a Christian Science lecture ought not to be a lecture about Christian Science, but ought to be Christian Science itself, uttered and demonstrated.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. * A biographical sketch of Bicknell Young was written by Christian Scientist William D. McCrackan and is quoted from in the MBE Library article quoted here.

A screw loose?

If I may be permitted to speak a little about my church’s Reading Room. Yesterday when we arrived, there were two men at the window where the Bible and Science and Health* are displayed with marked passages from the current week's Bible Lesson.**

One man was reading from the Bible. This man spoke of having a sensation of something rattling around in his brain. They were looking for someone to pray for this man.

We said we could pray for him, although no arrangement was made. We had a short conversation, and I was surprised to find myself repeating the scientific statement of being***, the other chap having mentioned “beings.”

Of course, I began to know the truth about this man – both of them in fact. The other chap was being such a good friend. The phrase “a screw loose” came to mind. I looked up “no screw loose” on JSH Online. Up came an article by Charles M. Carr. (He had been prominent in the Christian Science movement when I was a new student.)

The title of the article was “The Business of Ideas.” Carr was a space [advertising space] salesman working for various magazines, and business wasn’t good. He spoke to a practitioner of Christian Science saying that Christian Science wasn’t working for him about business, though he was confident of healing any physical problems he met with.

I will quote his exchange with the practitioner directly from the article which can be found in The Christian Science Journal of July 1979.

           “…right here in my business Christian Science is not working." "What's that?" he retorted. "Christian Science isn't working here in business," I repeated, "Not now, not for me." "There's a screw loose somewhere," he assured me, "and you can be sure it isn't with God." That began to wake me up.

Quoting again:

A short time later while on a sales trip I thought, "Suppose I were a lawyer. Would I get paid primarily for reading lawbooks? No. If I were a lawyer and just read lawbooks, I probably couldn't pay my bills." Then I could see my mistaken approach toward Christian Science. I was reading the Bible Lesson and the Christian Science periodicals, but not taking the truth, articulating it in my own words, and applying it specifically to the situation at hand.

That last sentence is what I am aiming to make a point of about the Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Women in History series. Surely, those wonderful women had come to “...taking the truth, articulating it in (their) own words, and applying it specifically to the situation at hand.”

I would like to stand up at a Wednesday Testimony Meeting (held in Christian Science churches around the world) and ask the congregation to pray about that man’s problem, but that may not be appropriate. Someone has said that the problems of the world come to the door of Christian Science to be resolved.

Joyce Voysey

*Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

**Christian Science Bible Lessons

*** See Science and Health page 468 – answer to the question “What is the scientific statement of being? This is read at the conclusion of every Sunday service in Christian Science churches and has often been proven to be a healing force.

Working Christian Scientists raising children

Libraries (and I include Christian Science Reading Rooms here) have always been places of discovery for me. I love them and seek them out when possible wherever I go. 

While I've not visited The Mary Baker Eddy Library in person, this month's focus on its website is helping me (and I hope you too) gain a richer appreciation for the work done by those engaged in its mission.

They have a rich -- and seemingly endless -- store of material from which to work. If one is ever tempted to believe that their days are busy, the we'd have to agree that the days of the Leader of the Christian Science movement were exceedingly more so.

It has always been of interest to me to know how others combine their study and practice of Christian Science with raising children. The Mary Baker Eddy Library addresses this very question!

Under the heading "From the Papers", there is a short entry titled "Work and parenting in 1885". I am so grateful that correspondence between Mary Baker Eddy and several mothers have been published in this section.

Especially dear is the correspondence between M. Bettie Bell and Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Bell's twin babies had been taken with "remitting fever" but were soon "entirely well". With gratitude Bell "rejoiced [in her] recent instruction" which had equipped her to "handle the question of Animal Magnetism with surprising success". She concluded - "'The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want' -- many thanks for your patience, charity and tenderness".

Mrs. Eddy wrote back: "God bless the dear ones...."

Bell's response speaks volumes of the tone in her household. She wrote: "My Daisy four years old says - Mama the 'treatment' I like the best is this 'God is Love. He will wash me and make me whiter than snow'". (Ed. Some punctuation changed for ease of reading.)

How the child-like thought enriches our practice!

Julie Swannell

Three remarkable women

What a cornucopia of goodness you have opened up for us, Editor, with the direction to The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Women in History series. I have selected some pieces that appealed to me.

Miss Jeannie Dove

“Thanks to Jeannie Dove (1917–2000) and other pioneers, Christian Science took root in Ghana. Her career as a spiritual healer and teacher aided its growth not only in her own country but throughout West Africa.

“Dove faced an unexpected challenge a few years after she began teaching Christian Science. She rented the house where she lived and maintained an office for her healing practice. Learning about her expanding responsibilities, her landlord assumed that she was subsidized by a foreign missionary organization, like some others in Ghana. In fact, Christian Science practitioners and teachers are not employees of the Christian Science church but are paid by their patients and pupils. The landlord substantially raised her rent, to the point that Dove feared she would be forced to leave the city and find a secular job in order to survive. This was a threat not just to her but also to the modest beginnings of Christian Science teaching in West Africa.”

Ed.: Read the remarkable way this situation was resolved at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-jeannie-dove/

Bette Graham (inventor of Liquid Paper)

“I have had the hardest time getting others to understand that the company’s success was not because of an unusual ability on my part, but because of the direct effect of this clear recognition that Spirit [God] is substance—a recognition available to everyone.

“In a 1978 interview with the Journal, she elaborated on … the atmosphere of equality within her company: From the company’s beginning, there has been a long-range plan to elevate our practice of business… I worked to base business on the spiritual value of man. The employee’s thinking has been the most valued asset…” 

I am not a fan of Liquid Paper. Having been a typiste (Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s name for a female typist), I was quite adept at rubbing out and typing over. There was always a duplicate to correct as well, and perhaps more copies! 

Ivimy Gwalter

Lucy and Henry Gwalter left these calling cards when they visited Pleasant View, Mary Baker Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, in June 1901.

The designation “Mrs. Henry Gwalter” reminds me of my very first business meeting as a new member at my first branch Church of Christ, Scientist. The Clerk read from his minutes: “Mrs. Doug S…..”  Mrs. S… was on her feet immediately.  “I am Mrs. Barbara S….”.  A big lesson for me.

I have been in awe of Ivimy Gwalter since my early years as a student of Christian Science. More recently I came across her submission as10-year-old to the Christian Science periodicals.  (I haven’t been able to turn it up at this time.)

The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s account of Ms Gwalter includes the following:

“Ivimy Gwalter’s life of service, as well as the lives of her parents, may be summed up in this extract from one of her Journal editorials: 

"The Christian Scientist is not merely an observer; he is a doer. Thus in his evaluation of the affairs of his church, of the politics of his country, or of the state of the nations he is not satisfied to sit idly by and look on either approvingly, critically, fearfully, or rebelliously. Rather does he, through consecrated and alert obedience to the inspired admonitions of his Leader and through daily study of her writings in conjunction with the Scriptures, so enlarge his spiritual understanding and spiritualize his thought and outlook that he is found agreeing always with Truth, never with error, acknowledging God’s allness, error’s nothingness, and man’s true self-identification or oneness with God.”

Ed.: Readers are invited to visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library website and listen to  the Women in History series: Listen to Women of History from the Mary Baker Eddy Library Archives, a Seekers and Scholars podcast episode featuring Library staffers Steve Graham and Dorothy Rivera.

Joyce Voysey

 

Spiritual activist: Dorothy Maubane

Many of our readers will be familiar with the name Dorothy Maubane (1943-2004). Some may have heard her speak about Christian Science in her role as a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship. Some may have read about her in the pages of the Christian Science Sentinel and Journal.

Dorothy Maubane's story appears in the Women of History series on the Mary Baker Eddy Library website, where she is called a spiritual activist.  See: Women of History: Dorothy Maubane - Mary Baker Eddy Library 

Her story is truly inspiring. She faced enormous hardships and yet she kept on. (I am reminded of the story of Nien Cheng - see Life and Death in Shanghai - who kept on loving and living despite having lost her husband and child during China's Cultural Revolution and being imprisoned and subjected to thought-control.)

Maubane experienced a transformation of thought as she sought help for a physical healing from a Christian Science practitioner. She was healed as she "exchanged hatred for love".

When the time came for her to take Christian Science Class Instruction, she requested that the fee be waived. Her teacher refused! She later related what blessings resulted, especially in how she self-identified. She no longer regarded herself as "poor, disadvantaged, deprived."

The MBE Library shares how Dorothy chose not to "shut down" in the face of prejudice and hatred but to open up, reach out, and love her fellow man. When her husband was framed for a crime he did not commit and soon afterward passed on, friends expected her to spiral downward. She did not. Instead her spiritual activism buoyed her; her forgiveness touched the perpetrators. She went into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing.

An especially interesting encounter occurred in the early 1990s while Dorothy was lecturing in East Jerusalem. An advisor to Yasser Arafat (the then-leader of the PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization) attended her lecture and confronted her about her insistence on forgiveness. She was able to speak from her own experience.

There are 40 notes attached to the article from the MBE Library. Most reference Maubane's own writing for the Christian Science periodicals. I shall be digging into those very soon on jsh-online.com. Those who don't yet subscribe to jsh can always ask for articles to be emailed by the Librarian of your local Christian Science Reading Room. Or drop in and bring this blog post with you so they can help you with your research.

How wonderful it is that this library exists. How wonderful are each of our readers, shiny lights all.

Julie Swannell