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Monday, 15 September 2025

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

1 comment:

  1. When I think of "daystar," I first think of Daystar here in Florida, the Christian Science nursing facility near Miami. Then I think of Venus or another planet that might appear in the morning.
    Deborah

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