Enlarging our tents

I have read Preface and Chapter 1 of The New Birth of Christianity by Richard Nenneman and made some notes.

COMING HOME

On page 5 I was impressed with his phrase “coming home.” He says, “...man needs a spiritual home.” He explains: "For me, as for others, Christian Science was the means of returning, coming home, to the underlying message in the life of Christ Jesus—for it is the example of his life that is needed today more than theories and doctrines about that life."

On page 6 the theme continues. We find “homeless.” He says that Christian Scientists have found "a sense of purpose and place in a modern world in which man has become increasingly one of the homeless—as assuredly as are the physically homeless in New York City who seek shelter at night in the subterranean levels of Grand Central Station."

What a sad thought: to be spiritually homeless!

I am reminded of Mary Baker Eddy’s words in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H):

I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind.

The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 226:22–2)

She has said too that Love yearns. Oh! How she yearned to bless mankind with the truth of being. Today her students continue that yearning.

 

THINGS TO LEARN

On page 12, Nenneman points out that in today’s world we have found a way to use computers which has demanded that we up-date our knowledge past mere typewriters. (This book was published in 1992. How computers and technology have raced ahead since then.) I am reminded that Christian Science makes demands on students to learn the language of Christian Science, which includes knowing the Holy Scriptures and, for example, the synonyms of God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love (S&H p. 465: 9). Plus, I would add, the scientific statement of being: 

Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?

Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 468:8–15)

 

THE AUTHOR

The reader will be enlightened about Richard Nenneman by reading David Cook’s* appreciation of him which was printed in The Christian Science Monitor of December, 2007.

And there is also information to be found on the Internet about a book published the year after his passing, i.e.

Nenneman, Richard A.  A Spiritual Journey: Why I Became a Christian Scientist. USA: Nebbadoon Press, 2008.

The website csbibliography.org comments:

In his book dedicated to his grandchildren, Nenneman declares up-front that his interest in Christian Science was due not to its healing message, but to Eddy’s deep spirituality and theological answers regarding the nature of God and Jesus’s mission. Nenneman dedicates a chapter each to three great thinkers who prepared his thought for Christian Science: Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James and Dietrich Bonhoeffer—all of whom stressed the importance of personal and independent religious experience over dogma or metaphysics alone. He also documents how certain prophetic thinkers wrestled with similar visions of reality that Mary Baker Eddy articulates in her writings—thinkers he identifies in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and in the flourishing exchange between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Middle Ages. He writes: “By bringing myself up to date on what other religious thinkers have been doing, I thought it remarkable that we were arriving at much the same point” (134).

Nenneman also speculates on his own Christian Science church experience, providing ideas for its rejuvenation and its need to relate to the larger Christian covenant community—the body of Christ—by placing “both spirituality and health in a broader setting than merely individual well-being” (115).

David Cook* finishes his tribute with these words:

His well-lived life brings to mind words he spoke while moderating a panel discussion of Monitor journalists in 1984. "No matter how comfortable each of us may be at home," Nenneman said, "the demands of authentic love should impel us all to enlarge our tents, to include that sense of family that knows no division of time or place."

Joyce Voysey

Ed. On enlarging our tents, see Isa 54: 2

The search for home

I have read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Richard Nenneman’s book The New Birth of Christianity. 

The writing is somewhat complex, and it lacks a rhythm to help the reader find flow in the text. Nevertheless, the topic is an important one - What is the place of Christianity in today’s world, and more particularly, what is the place of Christian Science in today's world?

Some of Nenneman’s basic points are put attractively, e.g. that, like Nicodemus (John 3: 1-13), we all need to seek the answer to how to be born again and thus find a true sense of home. That home the author describes as “that inner place of spiritual peace where we can gather the strength, intelligence, and grace to meet life’s challenges” (p. 12).  A nice description!  He posits that modern scientific discovery will never satisfy that need; that medicine and psychology might seem to have usurped spirituality as the answer to all our troubles, but that there remains that need for spiritual answers to life’s deepest questions.

The core element of Christianity, Mr. Nenneman says, is in looking at and living life from a spiritual standpoint. But he is concerned that these days much of Christianity no longer concerns itself with practice so much as with a system of beliefs. This has weighted it down.

Another trend he identifies is that Christianity has become merely an ethical system, devoid of spiritual force. Many of the Christian churches’ primary involvement is in social justice, while the core elements of Jesus’ Christianity are neglected: how to exercise mental discipline, how to manage relationships with others, and how to manage health.

These are valid questions. So let’s see how they are developed in subsequent chapters.

Marie Fox

The flow of mainstream Christianity

Our book this month – The New Birth of Christianity: why religion persists in a scientific age –  was published in 1992. 

The world has surely moved along in the intervening 33 years. Is the book's message still relevant? What is the message? 

And who wrote this book? 

The author is Richard A. Nenneman. Blog readers may recall that Mr. Nenneman wrote a biography of Mary Baker Eddy titled Persistent Pilgrim: the life of Mary Baker Eddy (published 1997). Our book club read the book in 2016.

In a thoughtful tribute at the time of Nenneman's 2007 passing, The Christian Science Monitor's David Cook described the author and former Monitor editor-in-chief (1988-1992), as having

"a high-octane intellect and love of world affairs... The tall and refined Harvard graduate came to the paper after service as a US Army counter intelligence operative in Germany and an early career in banking." 

https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1231/p08s01-cogn.html.

The Preface of our book indicates that the author's purpose was "an attempt to communicate where Christian Science stands vis-à-vis the historical Christian tradition" (p. viii). And contrary to what others might believe, Nenneman suggests that "Christian Science lies ... near the flow of mainstream Christianity" (p. vi).

So, let’s get reading.

Julie Swannell

For information: The Reading Room at Redcliffe has two copies of this book: one for sale and one in the lending library.

What am I?

On my latest reading of part of the chapter Preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the thought came: This is encouraging the reader to read on and discover why it is important to do so. It will help in the solving of the problems faced in the human existence; how to heal scientifically. Pioneering.

Are all students of Christian Science pioneering?

They have profited from the perusal of this book and they long to share it with the world. If we are being a good example, our pioneering will bring fruits.

How to be a good example?

Let’s look at the question “What am I?” in Mrs. Eddy’s collection called Prose Works. She writes:

“Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing.” (my emphasis)
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 165:15)

Joyce Voysey

Ed. I find it so interesting that the question is WHAT am I? not WHO am I? So, the answer becomes: this is what I can be and do because I am "an active portion of one stupendous whole". 

A healing recipe

"The Bible contains the recipe for all healing." This sentence from page 406 in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is quite an incentive to students of the Bible and those seeking healing. 

A recipe provides ingredients, method or set of instructions, and often a photograph which offers proof of the end product. One must generally adhere closely to the quantities and types of ingredients and to the method offered. The result will then hopefully match the desired result. It is a disciplined but artful approach and the aim is a tasty meal.

I love how Science & Health is full of quotes from the Bible. 

In the Preface, I found the following:

vii: 20 Though empires fall, "the Lord shall reign forever." --> Exodus 15:18 and Psalms 146:10

viii: 12 The question, What is Truth, is answered by demonstration, - by healing both disease and sin; and this demonstration shows that Christian healing confers the most health and makes the best men. --> John 18:38 (Pilate's question)

viii: 21 A vigorous "No" is the response deducible from two connate facts, - the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians, and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of diseases since the flood. --> Antediluvians = those living prior to the Biblical flood (Genesis 6-10)

ix: 18 Today, though rejoicing in some progress, she still finds herself a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ. --> I Cor. 2:16

xi: 16 and 19-21 They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us," - a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, 

    To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],

    And recovering of sight to the blind,

    To set at liberty them that are bruised.

--> Matthew 1:23, Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1

xii: 23 In the spirit of Christ's charity, -- as one who "hopeth all things, endureth all things," and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, -- she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth. - I Corinthians 13:7

Julie Swannell

Discovery and birth

This morning, I can see that the opening paragraph of the Preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy speaks of the discovery of Christian Science. 

The phrase “must give it birth” comes to mind. It is found in Mary Baker Eddy’s autobiographical sketch Retrospection and Introspection (Ret.), in the chapter The Great Discovery:

Jesus of Nazareth was a natural and divine Scientist. He was so before the material world saw him. He who antedated Abraham, and gave the world a new date in the Christian era, was a Christian Scientist, who needed no discovery of the Science of being in order to rebuke the evidence. To one “born of the flesh,” however, divine Science must be a discovery. Woman must give it birth. (Ret. p. 26:17–23 (to 2nd .))

The brief previous chapter in Retrospection and Introspection is entitled Emergence into Light. Readers of this blog would be enlightened through the perusal of those two short chapters.

Ah! I find that Preface speaks of this biographical sketch - see Science and Health p. viii: 24. In fact, there is a great co-relationship between this chapter and Retrospection and Introspection.

Ah! We have access to Mrs. Eddy’s teacher: the Bible - see Science and Health p. viii: 30. 

The Bible was  also her textbook - see Ret. p. 25:3.

Joyce Voysey

Pre-dawn hours

What a wonderful promise Mary Baker Eddy has given us to begin the Preface of her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (vii: 1-2).

Hymn 342 in the Christian Science Hymnal sprang into thought here, particularly the lines in the first verse: "All our blessings show/The amplitude of God’s dear love." 

Here is the whole poem written by Laura Lee Randall, with music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, arranged by R.J. Hopkins:

This is the day the Lord hath made;

Be glad, give thanks, rejoice;

Stand in His presence, unafraid,

In praise lift up your voice.

All perfect gifts are from above,

And all our blessings show

The amplitude of God’s dear love

Which every heart may know.

 

The Lord will hear before we call,

And every need supply;

Good things are freely given to all

Who on His word rely.

We come today to being Him praise

Not for such gifts alone,

But for the higher, deeper ways

In which His love is shown.

 

For sin destroyed, for sorrow healed,

For health and peace restored;

For Life and Love by Truth revealed,

We thank and bless the Lord.

This is the day the Lord hath made,

In praise lift up your voice.

In shining robes of joy arrayed,

Be glad, give thanks, rejoice.

© Words copyright 1932, The Christian Science Board of Directors

Laura Lee Randall was a Christian Scientist; Felix Mendelssohn is, of course, a NAME.

JSH-Online only quotes the hymn, so it must not have been printed separately as a poem in the Christian Science periodicals. The Bible concordance doesn’t give me any clues. Perhaps it was written for the 1932 Hymnal. Anyway, it is a much-loved hymn which expands so beautifully on that opening sentence in Preface.

If I am awake in the pre-dawn hours of a day, I can sometimes see the Evening Star reflected in a window. On occasion, the moon can keep it company. It is very beautiful. I think of myself as a wakeful shepherd, similar to the one Mrs Eddy speaks of next: “The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day” (ibid vii: 2-4). How glorious a vision to that shepherd. And I can share it.

A first-time reader of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, unless they had some Bible, perhaps would not have understood that this paragraph refers to the coming of the baby Jesus. There is no mention of God or the Christ. [My Sunday School teaching left me with a love of the songs I sang there; songs like Jesus Bids us Shine and What a Friend We Have in Jesus, but one might say, No Metaphysics.]

The pale star “shone to the prophet-shepherds” (lines 4-5); the Wisemen beheld and followed the daystar (lines 10-12). I notice that “wakeful shepherd” suggests the present tense, so it can be the present student of the Scriptures and Science and Health who glimpses the glory of Christ.

"Daystar" as a thing of the Bible does not rate well on Google. I find this about Revelation 22:16 satisfies as a reference-point for Mrs. Eddy’s use of it:

The Book of Revelation also uses the imagery of the “morning star” in reference to Jesus Christ. Revelation 22:16 states: “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.” Here, Christ identifies Himself as the “bright Morning Star,” emphasizing His divine authority, eternal nature, and the hope He brings to the world. Bible Hub.

Joyce Voysey

Pale star to guiding star

With just one student, Baker Eddy started teaching around 1867. After establishing the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881, over 4000 students were taught in a 7-year period. More were to follow. What a story of resilience and dedication. 

Her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was subsequently published in 1891 and is still being read and studied by thousands of people around the world today.

The Preface to Science and Health establishes the book's scriptural roots in the opening paragraph. With new-old vocabulary, Mrs. Eddy refers to "prophet-shepherds", "the Bethlehem babe" and the "Wise-men". She sketches a picture of "a night of error" and "benighted understanding" giving way to the dawn of "morning beams" and a "daystar". These opening twelve lines shine with vivid, light-filled imagery unmistakably referencing the Bible. They shine with present promise.

What a lovely project, to be noticing Biblical references in Science & Health. Won't you join us in this adventure? 

Julie Swannell

 

At the beginning

I find those pages without numbers at the beginning of books very interesting and informative. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy these pages do really have numbers, but they are in Roman numerals and don't begin until page vii with the Preface. One can go back and put in iii, ii, and i etc. (except the computer often insists on a cap I instead of i).

Now, here is an interesting point. The Manual of The Mother Church has ordinary numbers on the relative pages, while Prose Works also has the Roman numerals. AI (Artificial Intelligence) puts these numerals in caps. To my understanding AI has it wrong on this occasion! The ordinary numbers are called ordinal numerals or ordinal number words.

In the paperback version I am using, I find there are two unnumbered pages after the endpapers and preceding the Roman-numerated ones.

Page i announces the title and author, and introduces Mary Baker Eddy as President of Massachusetts Metaphysical College and Pastor Emeritus of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts. Then we have the wonderful Cross and Crown registered trademark and Mrs. Eddy’s signature.

Ah! Page ii explains that the Cross and Crown seal and the facsimile signature of Mary Baker Eddy are trademarks of The Christian Science Board of Directors, and are registered in the U.S. and other countries.

The top of the page lists Copyright renewals up till 1934.

Here is part of an interview with Kevin Ness, a legal man in Boston. The excerpt is from the March 2012 edition of The Christian Science Journal.

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.

This means that anyone can make alterations to the textbook and Mrs. Eddy’s other writings and publish the adulterated copy. And they have.

Don’t you love page iii? It quotes from John viii. 32, Shakespeare, and includes Mary Baker Eddy’s wonderful little prayer: 

Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;

And I am blest!

This is Thy high behest:--

Thou here, and everywhere. 

I have been known to include that prayer in Wednesday evening readings. And what a sense of the universality of Christian Science is given with that emphasised everywhere.

Page v has the Contents. I think the order may have changed during the many revisions by Mrs. Eddy of her textbook.

And so on to page vii Preface. We still haven’t reached the actual page 1. But we will with that stupendous chapter Prayer.

Joyce Voysey

With one another

I love team work. Musicians know how important and exciting it can be to work together. So do those who play team sports. Business people feel the power of leaning in to each other's strengths rather than simply going solo. Church-goers experience the connection of singing hymns together. Readers in Christian Science churches have found that sharing their individual inspiration at rehearsal lifts the tone of the Sunday service.

A recent editorial in The Christian Science Monitor quotes musicologist Daniel Chua: "Music is a call toward relationship, toward a new understanding of what it means to be in the world and to be with one another" (Liberation through music - in prison, CSM June 30, 2025 p. 29). The editorial also speaks of "the discipline and shared decision-making that a group performance demands". 

Discipline and shared decision-making. Isn't that grand? There are many examples of working together in the Bible. Think Nehemiah building the wall, Joshua and his soldiers encompassing the city together. But I didn't realise that our friend Haggai had a team thing going on too. His short book covers a period of just 3 months. (We read about the "second year of Darius" and the 1st and 24th days of the sixth month, the 21st day of the seventh month and the 24th day of the ninth month.) During that time there were three characters working together, encouraging the rebuild of the temple: 

• Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah
• Joshua, the priest
• Haggai, the prophet (followed later by Zechariah)

The tendency of the people was towards secularism. Sound familiar? Zerubbabel, Joshua and Haggai were countering that tendency.

Together they virtually asked: Why not now? 

What a team!

Julie Swannell

Readers might like "Rising and Building" from The Christian Science Journal June 1932 by Glenn Adams Byers. Christian Science Reading Rooms will help you source this article.

Putting God first

Haggai was a visionary encourager. When the temple-rebuild was needed, he was there to see the work was not delayed and would prosper.

I was wondering if Haggai is mentioned anywhere apart from in the book bearing his name. Indeed he is. Here are the two places we read about him in Ezra, from the Authorised King James Version:

Ezra 5:1

Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.

Ezra 6:14

And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

The other nine times we read his name are all in Haggai. Here are two I especially like:

Haggai 1:13

Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.

Haggai 1:2-6

² Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built. ³ Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, ⁴ Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? ⁵ Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. ⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

I was struck by this last passage because I remembered working with the “bag with holes” phrase many years ago when funds seemed never to be sufficient.  

In an article published in the Christian Science Sentinel dated Sept. 30, 1972, Naomi Price (Bags without holes) zeroes in on this type of situation:

“The prophet was referring to the people's shortsighted absorption in material wants. He was warning them that their material-mindedness and lack of enough selfless reverence for God to glorify Him in their lives, and to prove their love for Him by rebuilding His house, were leading to misery and depletion. But many men and women in this twentieth century have the unhappy feeling that this description applies to them, too—that they are working hard for wages that all too quickly vanish under the pressure of high taxation and the continually rising cost of living. They wonder how they can plug the holes in their pockets and have enough to supply the legitimate needs of their families.

“In fact, the solution to modern problems of an inflated economy is to be found in the spiritual message underlying the advice given by Haggai to the people of Judah. He urged them to put God first in their thoughts and to prove that they were doing so by rebuilding "the Lord's house" before decorating their own dwellings. He pointed out that God is the source of all true substance: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," he represented God as saying.”

What rich treasures this book is yielding.

Julie Swannell

I like Mr. Haggai

 I like Mr. Haggai. And I would like one of his ilk to pop up around Jerusalem. And where I am. Please.

I read what Dummelow has to say on our man. (Dummelow: A Commentary on the Holy Bible – very old but still good, I reckon.)

I had a problem. Nehemiah kept nagging at me. What was it that he came back to build? Is this the same task? It has become clear that it was not the same task. Nehemiah’s mission was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Haggai’s was to prod the returned folk into forgetting themselves and building the temple which had been in Jerusalem but been destroyed, the point being that if they built the temple their own lives would be enhanced.

It seems that the building would be quite modest compared to the original.

I found this website to be very informative. The writer compares coming out of Covid with the coming out of the exiles from Persia.

https://wearefaith.org/blog/lessons-from-ezra-nehemiah-and-haggai-and-zechariah-in-this-time/

Joyce Voysey

God-appointed work

Are you inquisitive? This month, let's get inquisitive about Haggai.

Haggai, painting by James Tissot (1836-1902). Held in the Jewish Museum, New York. (25 x 11 cm.) https://www.artbible.info/art/large/225.html

Haggai is new to me. Even though his little book sits right there in the middle of our Bibles, I imagine, like me, some of our readers may have little comprehension of why.

A little research tells me that Haggai was prophesying around 520BCE.

JUDAH, BABYLON AND PERSIA

To get that in perspective, we recall that Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) had destroyed the temple (painstakingly built by Solomon after the death of David his father) at Jerusalem in 586 BCE. This led to the capture and exile of many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants to Babylon. Decades later, King Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians and subsequently allowed the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland, where they set about building a new temple.

REBUILDING THE TEMPLE

Thomas Leishman puts it succinctly in his article Haggai and Zechariah: Rebuilders of the Temple (The Christian Science Journal Oct. 1970):

During the first year of Cyrus' sovereignty over Babylon, the book of Ezra records (1:1, 2), "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" so that he published a decree to this effect: "The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah." According to Ezra the cooperation and generosity of King Cyrus led to the arrival of more than forty-two thousand Jewish folk in Jerusalem (see Ezra 2:64). Thus the way opened for rebuilding their temple and restoring its sacred vessels stolen by Nebuchadnezzar some sixty years before Cyrus' decree (see Ezra 1:7-11).

Meanwhile, King Darius 1 succeeded Cyrus. An interesting titbit about Darius (from the website historycentral.com) is that he “reorganized the Persian Empire into separate provinces called satraps, each with its own governor and tax system. [He also created] a series of 111 post stations with horses … [so that] it became possible to send or receive messages anywhere in the Empire within two weeks.”

Leishman continues Haggai’s story:

His primary mission was to see that the people rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem (see 1:8). His insight grasped the unspoken questionings of the people, making it clear to them that their poverty and want were due to their neglect of God's work, while conversely, attention to that God-appointed work would bring prosperity. Haggai dealt effectively with discouragement and depression, bidding his hearers to be strong and banish fear because God was with them (see 2:4, 5).

Biblehub.com informs us that the “Second Temple was completed in the sixth year of King Darius’s reign, as noted in Ezra 6:15.” Instrumental in the work were Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua the high priest. It took many years to build.

It was to stand until Roman forces destroyed it in 70 AD.

Julie Swannell

Meeting the case

Mary Baker Eddy was raised in the Christian faith and epitomised Christian qualities like kindness and compassion throughout her life. She loved her fellow man, animals, and nature. But her life trajectory was to extend her Christianity to be scientific and practical. Her discipleship included strict discipline and insight in meeting cases involving both sin and disease. 

Her students were not always immediately successful in their healing work and the book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer* offers examples of her instructions in some of these cases. One example (see p. 376-377) comes from a worker in Mrs. Eddy's home, Mrs. Ella Sweet, who sustained a strained ankle and "quite a wound" to her face as a result of an accident during a visit to the building site of a Christian Science church in Concord. 

When Mrs. Sweet tried to hide the difficulty, Mrs. Eddy questioned her about the incident and the "help ... being given". Mrs. Sweet responded that "she was handling the false claim of accidents." 

"Mrs. Eddy replied, 'That will not meet the case. Animal magnetism is trying to separate you from me and I need you.' She talked a little and complete healing followed."

A little further on the book (p. 381-384) is the account of how Mrs. Eddy responded to "a hard-boiled, belligerent bunch of old-timers ... [who] hoped and expected to 'dig up' a lot of scandal" about her. 

One of the reporters, a Mr. Weadlock, was very ill - "he had lost his voice entirely and was not able to speak a word" (p. 381). He had "an extremely painful growth on this throat ... which at times completely overwhelmed him" (p. 384). 

Furthermore, he was angry that Mrs. Eddy had asked her representative to convey, by telephone, a message specifically to him, "the head man" (ibid). After the call, the account continues: "when the reporter turned away from the phone, he could not only speak perfectly, but he was completely healed" (p. 381).

The authors of our book note that "one can see Mrs. Eddy's insightfulness, wisdom, leadership, and tenderness, but most of all her love for her students" (p. 391). Christian qualities indeed.

She was also diligent, and encouraged her students to be diligent. To Septimus J. Hanna she wrote: 

    "I beg of you to have rules like the Medes and Persians that change not. Make them imperative and unalterable viz.: That certain hours you cannot be seen nor communicated with. Do not let the caller in at those hours, nor a letter or message be sent to you. Had not I established this system for myself, I never could have accomplished what little I have done" (p. 402).

In a similar vein she wrote to Clara E. Choate: "We must have system. This great Cause cannot progress in a desultory fashion. Everything must be done decently and in order" (p. 428).

Love and Principle - terms for God - work hand in hand to meet our challenges. 

Julie Swannell

*by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck (Amplified Edition)

"My darling, I love you."

In the gospel of Mark, chapter one, we read about Jesus "preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God" in Galilee.

Here, by this large and beautiful freshwater lake (approx. 53kms around) he encountered some fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew. He invited them to leave their fishing nets and join him to "become fishers of men". They did.

Next, he encountered two more brothers, James and John. They also accepted the invitation to join Jesus. 

These five came to Capernaum, on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called Jesus' second home. They went into the local synagogue, where Jesus astonished them with his authoritative teaching. (One blogger writes that the synagogue was "school, meeting place, courtroom, and place of prayer" and explains that the Greek word synagogue means assembly.)

So, here we are in the community meeting-place. Jesus is teaching, when suddenly "a man with an unclean spirit" shouts out: "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." 

What an affront! Was the man indignant, annoyed, angry? Why did he express such antipathy to Jesus' teaching? 

What happens next is so interesting. Did Jesus shout back? Did he take offence? Was he dismayed and disappointed? Certainly this was not a sign of welcome or appreciation. The man was apparently deeply disturbed. 

We have no indication as to how the others in the synagogue reacted, but Jesus remained undisturbed in face of this push-back. With total conviction, he "rebuked him, saying Hold thy peace, and come out of him." And it was so. 

This story came to mind as I read in Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer of a child born blind.  As Mrs. Eddy "began to talk to her of God, Truth and Love ... the child ... stamped her foot and said, 'I hate you. I hate you. I could sit up all night to hate* you.'" 

Mrs. Eddy's response? "My darling, I love you. I love you, why I could sit up all night to love you!" (p. 290, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck). The child was healed. She could see.

I was struck by a corollary to these two occurrences. This month, as I take up our book of the month each day, I have sometimes felt a reluctance to read about Mrs. Eddy's healing work. What Paul calls the "carnal mind" and Mrs. Eddy terms "mortal mind" -- the so-called mind which is "not subject to the law of God" (Rom. 8:7) -- can sometimes sound like our own voice, our own instincts. But when I realised that this reluctance, the "push-back" was a spurious suggestion, not a message from God, I pushed on with the reading until I was again appreciating its wonderful ramifications for the world.

Julie Swannell

*A study of the word "hatred" in the concordances to the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings - in printed books or online in Concord - is illuminating. (I love Concord! It's such a worthwhile investment.) 

Inspiration

Notes from Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck, the chapter Appendix B – Biographical Glossary.

Mrs. Emilie B. Hulin recorded this re Mrs. Eddy’s Primary class in November 1888:

Mrs. Eddy was showing in class the definition of God . . . and showing that “Mind” is the “all seeing.”

She said that through the understanding of this she had healed a man of blindness whose eyeballs had been destroyed, and the eyeballs were restored whole. Someone in the class asked, “Well, if Mind is all that sees, why was it necessary for the eyeballs to be restored?”

Mrs. Eddy replied: “Ah, I anticipated that you would ask that question. The effect of Christian Science is this. Science restores that standard of perfection which mortal mind calls for. If the eyeballs had not been restored, no one would have believed him when he said he could see.” (p. 459)

Mrs. Eddy gave Mr. Kinter a run-down of his duties and made a point of saying:

“Do you drink coffee and tea? Because if you do, you won’t get any here We don’t have either. We drink cocoa shells, --it is a real nice drink and our faithful cook serves it good and hot.” (p. 467)

Carol Norton was told by Mrs. Eddy:

“Woman’s spiritual leadership will not supersede that of man, because man will rise to the possession of a spirituality and love that is ideal. Then there will be fulfilled the vision of genuine sex co-operation.” (p. 481)

These are a few passages which inspired me. I hope the reader of this blog will search the book for his or her own inspirations. All with reference to Mary Baker Eddy’s wonderful gift of healing.

Joyce Voysey

Essential reading

I would that every student of Christian Science could read the last pages of the section of the book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) by Yvonne Cache Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, namely, Appendix A – More Advice for Healers.

Of course, to read the whole book is the ideal.

It is available on JSH-Online under Biographies.* 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. *And copies can be borrowed or purchased from your local Christian Science Reading Room. (For those in Australia, especially Queensland, see BooksThatChangeLives.au.)

Observations

Joyce sent in these observations on our book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (von Fettweis and Warneck)

About birds and animals

Pages 334 and 335 give incidences of healing of birds and animals, notably Mrs. Eddy’s little bird called May which had a broken foot and the commotion made in response by her loving companion-bird Benny, and a goldfish which she had found dead. Three days later May was “perfectly well, hopping about her cage and singing joyously” while the fish was soon restored.

 

Misconception

Page 339 reminds us that we must not think of Christian Science as merely a method of curing people without medicine. This is a misconception which must be addressed.

 

Hints for Readers in Christian Science churches and other addressors

When I read this: “When Mrs. Eddy entered the room where the class was assembled, it seemed as if she always surveyed the class, and it seemed as if she was looking into each face and seemed as if she was mentally greeting each one and seeing only the real man of God’s creating” (p. 352), the thought came that this would be an excellent practice for Readers in Christian Science churches. Then, “And why not everyone who is in the position of addressing an audience?” [Ed. And maybe every musician, dancer, chorister or actor performing for an audience?]

 

Absent from the workplace

Page 362 tells of a workman who was “suffering from a trouble that his mother had had for a long time. The man was not a Christian Scientist, so Mrs. Eddy met him on the plane of his own thought.”

“She said, ‘No doubt your mother was a very estimable lady, but if she had been a drunkard, would you feel that you had to be a drunkard because she had been?’”

“The man was healed...”

 

“He was not dead”

There are a few reports of Calvin Frye having been in what seemed to be a state of death being recalled by Mrs. Eddy. One account says, “Miss Still heard one of the workers say to Mrs Eddy a few days after this incident, “Can I say that you brought Calvin back from death?” and Mrs. Eddy said, “No; he was not dead” (p. 368).

 

Gender and a benediction

We sometimes wonder about speaking of God as He or She. Doesn’t that make the thought more material? The thought came that Genesis 1 speaks of man being made male and female. Here, surely, is the same thought. What we have to do is get a correct understanding of that male and female of God’s creating.

Mrs Eddy wrote to a student (p. 372): “My prayer is that our one Father-Mother Love hallow your life with His everpresence; and your way be the path of pleasantness…”. So, we have "Father-Mother….His everpresence". I love it when I have to pay attention to what Mrs. Eddy is implying for us to gain from.

Would not that full quote would be an excellent benediction:

“My prayer is that our one Father-Mother Love hallow your life with His everpresence; and your way be the path of pleasantness—pure, holy, a beacon light to save the wrecks upon earth’s siren shoals; to lure the wanderer, help the weak, and comfort the weary.”

Joyce Voysey                     

Love more for every hate

There is so much to ponder, consolidate, and act on in our book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (by von Fettweis and Warneck). 

Mrs. Eddy was a prolific letter writer. We might sometimes think we have much to do and cope with: she had so much more, but accomplished all she did through an absolute reliance on God's direction and an outpouring of love for mankind. 

Her reliance on God's message coming to her from the Bible is well illustrated in the example given on pages 95-96. After teaching a class in March 1872, she felt the need to do more for her students but wasn't sure what was required of her. The book quotes from the flyleaf of one of her Bibles (she had many), where she had written:

    Before writing Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, I had asked God for weeks to tell me what next I should do, and each day I opened the Bible for my answer, but did not receive it. But when I grew to receiving it, I opened again and the first verse I looked at was in Isaiah 30:8. 

The passage in Isaiah reads: "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever." She had grown to receive God's message! And she obeyed the direction!

Her outpouring love for mankind included her wish that Christian Scientists love more. A letter to a student observed this, which again is based on Scripture (p. 166):

    Oh may this Easter Sunday carry you my prayer..."Little children love one another" ... you must love all. No matter if they persecute you even, you must love all. But you must love especially the brethren. You must meet with them, cheer them, in their labors, point the way of love to them and show them it by loving first, and waiting patiently for them to be in this great step by your side, loving each other and walking together. This is what the world must see before we can convince the world of the truths of Christian Science.

Walking together is a lovely idea. I recently read about an ad hoc group of women who get together to walk and chat. The article in The Christian Science Monitor is titled: Walking, talking and bonding: Why social strolls are on the upswing. No jogging. No coffee shops. No set agenda. No money. Just walking and talking. Listening and sharing. 

A poem by Mrs. Eddy comes to mind: Mother's Evening Prayer, which we sing often in church (hymns 207-212 and 539-540). Here's a verse from that poem, which surely came to her as a result of her own experience:

O make me glad for every scalding tear,

For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!

Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear

No ill, --since God is good, and loss is gain.

This prompts the question: how can I love more (dictionary: affection, enjoyment, concern, delight, benevolence, kinship) and not hate (dictionary: anger, contempt, disgust, bias, aversion, hostility)? Christ Jesus is our example, but that might be a discussion for another day.

Julie Swannell

Let Him do the work

 On page 129 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes of the "reformatory mission" of [divine] Science. This aligns with a sentiment pronounced publicly by Mary M. B. Glover (as she was at that time known) in the Lynn Transcript of January 20, 1872:

"Well knowing as I do that God hath bidden me, I shall steadfastly adhere to my purpose to benefit my suffering fellow beings, even though it be amid the most malignant misrepresentation and persecution" (p. 99 Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Amplified Edition) by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck).

A beautiful example of this beautiful purpose on page 83 (ibid). The date was 1868. A "raving maniac" had escaped from a "mad-house" and had threatened her with a chair. She "looked upward", whereupon "he dropped the chair, and asked if [she] had something to say to him". The account continues:

"I said I had, all from the spiritual side, 'The first thing is you have no disease of the brain; you need never have been in the insane hospital.' Then came the comfort and relief, and the poor maniac fell on his knees before me; he was cured" (ibid, p. 83-84). Readers here will enjoy reading the paragraphs that follow this account, where Eddy speaks of the "anointing of Truth like the dew or the gentle rain, coming upon that poor, agonized brain" (p. 84).

Mrs. Eddy never claimed those healing works as being the result of her own ability. Indeed, when asked "if she could restore the blind--She replied no, but God could, if we would let Him do the work" (p. 109).

This is much to ponder from this book.

Julie Swannell

Looking up

In my last blog I recorded Mrs. Eddy as having said, “I looked upward.” I believe I have read this statement or one like it in at least one part of our book under discussion, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck.

Then I noticed that Jesus was also recorded as having looked up to heaven. See Mark 7:34, 6:41 and Matthew 14:19 with Luke 9:16*. The last was at the feeding of the 5,000 men + women and children – “And looking up to heaven, he blessed…” I am sure some of the other biographies of Mary Baker Eddy record her doing so.

How both Jesus and Mary Baker blessed, through their looking up and away from matter to the healing Christ.

One of the remarkable things in the book is the number of times we read of Mrs. Eddy being busy revising her book Science and Health. On page 206: “Mrs. Eddy devoted herself throughout 1902 to reading the new revision from beginning to end. As a result, she corrected and standardized the capitalization of words relating to God, removed repetitious sentences and paragraphs and added a little new material.”**

Indeed, she wrote to Albert F. Conant, who was compiling a Concordance to her book, “My ‘last changes of Science and Health’ may continue so long as I read the book!” (p. 206).

Page 208 contains a facsimile of Science & Health’s page 232. The compositor at the printing house would have to decipher her many hand-written revisions. A challenge to any typist too. I was one, and my husband was a compositor.

On page 210, there is a paragraph (in a letter from Mary Baker Eddy to a practitioner) which perhaps paraphrases the purpose of her book:

“Demonstration is the whole of Christian Science, nothing else proves it, nothing else will save it and continue it with us. God has said this—and Christ Jesus has proved it.”

 Joyce Voysey

*And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
(Mark 7:34)

And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
(Mark 6:41)

And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
(Matt. 14:19)

Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.
(Luke 9:16)

**Ed. I found this in the MBE Library at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/the-140th-anniversary-of-science-and-health/

"Since the first edition, Science and Health—retitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1883—went through more than 400 revisions, ranging from minor changes to major reworkings of the text. Eddy constantly reshaped and refined its message, striving to make her textbook on healing clearer and stronger."

Resident physician

At a recent testimony meeting, a friend shared Mary Baker Eddy’s raising of Calvin Frye from death.

I subsequently decided to look up all the references to Mr. Frye in our book Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by von Fettweis and Warneck. After resisting the work for a while, I found the task was actually easy – there is an alphabetical index at the back of the book and Calvin Frye’s entries appear on page 607.

In the book, Mr. Frye (1845-1917) is generally referred to as Eddy’s “personal secretary” (e.g. p. 52) a position demanding discipline, diligence, energy, attention to detail, trustworthiness, and a deep love of the cause of Christian Science. He served in this role from 1882 to 1910 (p. 446).

But, of special interest to me was Mrs. Eddy’s reference (in a 1903 letter to the Christian Science Board of Directors) to Mr. Frye as “resident physician at our College on Columbus Avenue, Boston”, one who had “stood by [her] side to help [the Cause of Christian Science] 21 years” and “one of its oldest actors and faithful laborers in the vineyard of our Lord” (p. 447).

The term “resident physician” I had not heard before.

The book also shares several distinct healings of Calvin Frye during his time with Mrs. Eddy. I’ll try to gather them up here.

1891

An occurrence was witnessed and recounted by Eddy’s student Captain Eastaman to Arthur Maxfield. Maxfield related that after ushering Eastaman into Eddy’s house, Frye lost his footing and “suddenly pitched head first to the foot of the stairs, apparently with a broken neck caused by the fall” (p. 168).

Aroused by the noise, Mrs. Eddy appeared at the “head of the stairs and said what is the matter?” She thrice instructed him to “get up”. He did. “Calvin Frye’s diaries show that his daily work for Mrs. Eddy went on completely uninterrupted and unhampered by this incident” (ibid).

1903

John Salchow writes: “It was my privilege to witness a healing at Pleasant View in 1903 which was the result of Mrs. Eddy’s own understanding of the truth” (p. 365). Salchow’s sister (Mrs. Eddy’s maid at the time) had found Mr. Frye dead. Salchow checked and saw Frye “crumpled up at his desk”. Shortly, Mrs. Eddy came to Frye’s room and asked “over and over again, ‘Calvin, do you hear me?’” Finally, after about five minutes (according to Salchow’s recollection) Calvin replied faintly, “Yes, Mother, I hear you.”

1905

One evening, “George Kinter, a worker in Mrs. Eddy’s home”* was instructed by Eddy to see why Frye had not responded to her call. “George found [Frye] slumped in a chair…. he had no pulse, he was stone cold—and rigid.” When Mrs. Eddy was “informed of this, [she] came immediately to the bedroom and began at once to treat him, … [She] continually denied the error and declared the Truth with such vehemence and eloquence for a full hour, as I never had heard on any other occasion…” (p. 256).

The report continues: “After an hour, Calvin moved a little and then spoke in very low tones: ‘Don’t call me back. Let me go, I am so tired.’ To which Mrs. Eddy replied, ‘Oh, Yes, -- We shall persist in calling you back, for you have not been away. You have only been dreaming…’” (p. 257).

Date not identified

Clara Shannon recorded a different incident involving Calvin Frye. When Ms. Shannon went to his room, she “saw him lying on his back on the carpet, apparently lifeless” (p. 363). Mrs. Eddy came as soon as she was told about it. Shannon recalled the “tenderness” and “expressions of love” uttered by Eddy, as well as her “severe” rebuke of “the error that seemed to be attacking him” in her rousing metaphysical treatment.

 Shannon recounts that to her plea “Oh, Mother! Couldn’t you let him sit down a few minutes?” Mrs. Eddy replied: “No, if he sits down he may not waken again—he must be aroused—we mustn’t let him die—he is not quite awake yet!” (pp. 363-4). Soon, Mrs. Eddy made him laugh heartily, before telling him to “go back to his room and his ‘watch’” (ibid).

The postludes to this experience seem especially important:

1.     “[Mrs. Eddy] explained to me [Clara Shannon] that when you speak the truth to anyone, if the truth you speak causes him to laugh, cry, or get angry, you have reached the thought that needed correction” (ibid).

2.     Miss Shannon later asked Calvin what he was doing when they thought he was dead. “He replied at once, ‘I was in the pantry, eating custard pie’” (p. 364).

Nov. 9, 1908

Irving Tomlinson related an incident when three students “strove to restore” Calvin Frye, who was “unconscious and apparently in a death stupor” (p. 366). Mrs. Eddy had her students bring him to her, sensing the urgency. She “commanded [him], with the voice of authority, to awaken from his false dream. At first she met with no response, but this did not discourage her. She redoubled her efforts and fairly shouted to him her command that he awake. In a few moments he gave evidence of life, partly opened his eyes, and slightly moved his head. Seeking to rouse him, Mrs. Eddy said, ‘Calvin, don’t commit self-murder.’ He replied ‘I don’t want to live.’

“‘Disappoint your enemies and live,’ she commanded. ‘Say that you do want to stay and help me.’

“Then he took his first stand and answered, ‘Yes, I will stay.’”

The account relates his full restoration.

Our book identifies this account as appearing in Irving Tomlinson’s Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy: Amplified Edition, pp. 64-66; corroborated in Adam Dickey, Memoirs, pp. 107-112. (See p. 367.)

I love how the patient – Mr. Frye – was empowered to make the choice to live.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
(Deut. 30:19)

Julie Swannell

 

*George Kinter was employed by Mrs. Eddy to “assist Mr. Frye” who, she told him “had too much to do”!! (p. 466).