A precious guide | Principle-sustained

My current copy of the Manual of The Mother Church The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts is of the 89^th Edition. I see on page 1 (There are no page numbers on the first 5 pages of the book. Sometimes these introductory pages are numbered in Roman numerals – i, ii, iii, iv. v. Mrs. Eddy’s seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, is numbered in this way, though the printed numbers do not appear till page vii.)

 

COPYRIGHT

I see on page 1 that copyright to the Manual was first taken out in 1895, so I suppose that was the first edition. Copyright has not been renewed since 1936. What does that mean?

The early sections of an article titled The Church in Action: From the Directors in the October 1981 issue of The Christian Science Journal is helpful. Some relevant headings include: Copyright of Science and Health—Mrs. Eddy's intent; Mrs. Eddy’s own concern and action; and Steps to keep Science undiluted.

[Ed. I like this sentiment from the article:

From beginning to end, [Mrs. Eddy’s] concern … was far more than a merely legal or commercial one. It sprang from her overwhelming desire to preserve the purity and wholeness of the revelation set forth in Science and Health. Again and again she spoke of the need for protecting her writings from misguided individuals who might attempt to take them over….She even laid down in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. XXV, Sect. 7) certain moral conditions under which the textbook could be published or sold…]

Kevin Ness’ piece, Copyright Ethics, in The Christian Science Journal March 2012, includes the following:

Is it true that Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is no longer under copyright? 

That is true. Generally, under United States law, items first published before 1923 are in the “public domain,” which means that Mrs. Eddy’s original published writings in English are no longer under copyright. In the case of Science and Health, the copyright was extended beyond its normal duration by special legislation in 1971, but this legislation was later reversed by a court decision. However, most non-English translations of Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy’s other published writings still remain under copyright.

 

A PRECIOUS GUIDE: ORDER OF SERVICE

I have before me my second copy of the Manual of The Mother Church. The first one is still around but is somewhat worse for wear. It was a precious guide while I was a First Reader conducting Christian Science church services. It was with me on the desk. Why? Because it holds the Order of Service for those services. Of course, the Manual was also my guide for Wednesday Evening meetings and the Thanksgiving Day Order of Service. And it was by my side when I served as Sunday School Superintendent and as Second Reader.

A little story: There was an inspirational meeting. A certain man was given the task of speaking about the Manual of The Mother Church. The one point that has stayed with me over many, many years was when he said he had inherited a friend’s copy of the Manual. He compared it to his own copy. His was in almost pristine condition and his friend’s had obviously been well used.

Here is an interesting fact. On page 120 we have:

Present Order of Services in The Mother Church and Branch Churches 

Republished from the Sentinel

There is a helpful article titled Coda and Invitation: The Appendix of the Manual of The Mother Church in the December 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal.

 

LEGAL TITLES

When we have occasion to write "The Mother Church" or "The First Church of Christ, Scientist", we are required to use a capital “T”. (Ed. Not so for the branches.)

Art. XXIII. Titles. Sect. 2. “The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” is the legal title of The Mother Church. Branch churches of The Mother Church may take the title of First Church of Christ, Scientist; Second Church of Christ, Scientist; and so on, where more than one church is established in the same place; but the article “The” must not be used before titles of branch churches, nor written on applications for membership in naming such churches.
(Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 70:21)

 

A GEM

And finally, a gem from page 226:14 of Mary Baker Eddy’s The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany, not seemingly apropos of the topic but apropos of everything:

Withdraw God, divine Principle, from man and the universe, and man and the universe would no longer exist. But annihilate matter, and man and the universe would remain the forever fact…

The whole passage reads:

Withdraw God, divine Principle, from man and the universe, and man and the universe would no longer exist. But annihilate matter, and man and the universe would remain the forever fact, the spiritual “substance of things hoped for;” and the evidence of the immortality of man and the cosmos is sustained by the intelligent divine Principle, Love.

Joyce Voysey