The Mount of Olives

From time to time, the New Testament locates Jesus and his disciples in the Mount of Olives. For instance, Luke 21:37 says: "And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives." When we were in Greece and Turkey a couple of years ago, we noticed olive trees thriving everywhere. A little research tells me that they need a Mediterranean climate: hot dry summers and cool wet winters. To me, they offer a sense of timelessness, stability and peace.

Image by Chikilino, from Pixabay

Writing in the January 1926 issue of The Christian Science Journal, Allan Carson writes (The Mount of Olives) that "as night spreads her veil of silence over [Jerusalem's] activities, we catch another view of [Jesus], as he moves quietly away from the throng to the mount of Olives, there, through the still hours of the night, to commune more closely with God and gain inspiration, understanding, strength, and guidance for the work of the following day. We love to follow him in thought, as he slips unnoticed through the gate of the city wall, down over the brook Cedron, up through the quiet garden of Gethsemane, .... and on to the mount."

The Bible Atlas: a pictorial guide to the Holy Lands (written by Dr. Stephen Motyer, illustrated by Brian Delf, published by Penguin Random House 2001/2025) explains that the Mount of Olives is "just to the east of Jerusalem" and from there anyone travelling from Jericho would have had "a wonderful view" of that city. The double page spread on pages 56-57 of the Atlas describes Jesus' betrayal, death and resurrection in five clear and concise paragraphs, each accompanied by beautiful sketches, and a lovely map of the walled city of Jerusalem.

I especially like the sketch of Jesus and his disciples sitting down on the ground to celebrate Passover - when "Jewish families gathered to remember the night when the Israelites left Egypt for the Promised Land", and also the sketch of Judas' betrayal. The commentary explains that when Judas kissed Jesus, it was a signal to the menacing crowd - who were armed with swords and burning torches - that this was the moment they would arrest Jesus.

Julie Swannell

Doris Peel on angels and Ishmael

I have enjoyed reading the poetry that was selected over the past month and was particularly helped by the final post referring to a piece by Todd Nelson in the Christian Science Monitor of May 18. It reminded me that I am often as nourished by enlightened responses to poetry as I am by the poetry itself. So Thank You, Todd, for amplifying my enjoyment of e.e. cummings’ delightful poem, written with such a special feel for childhood’s adventures and wonders.

Though I am a few days late, I would like to add my contribution.

There is a little treasure of a book called Doris Peel, Selected Poems 1955 - 1975 which I happened upon in my bookcase a day or two ago. The frontispiece to this book is like a light which illuminates my appreciation of Doris’s poems. It reads in part:

 

These poems are deceptively simple. What may seem at first glance to be fragmentary, slight, casual, dipping and wheeling like the flight of a gull, reveals in the context of its fellow poems a remarkable centrality of vision,  a structure of relatedness that is both movement and rest, pattern and unpredictability.

 

Doris Peel’s work brings to mind T. S. Eliot’s definition of wit in metaphysical poetry as “a tough reasonableness beneath the slight lyrical grace.” The subsurface tension in this case is between a quick-witted woman and a wide-eyed child - that child who, in New Testament terms, can alone receive the kingdom of heaven.

 

Here is an extract from an early poem.

 

I AM EASILY PERSUADED

                  by the arrival of angels.

The feel of them: the sense of a melodious murmuring

in the air, and the faint stirring

of wings that will shelter me

if I am good.

                 I am much comforted

                             by the intimation of an authority

that has nothing to do with the discipline of nannies.

Angels never scold. Or rap over the knuckles

somebody who has stumbled. Being, themselves, shaped purely

from light, they are all lightness in performance and presence:

with song, not sermon, their special province

                  and laughter (I suspect) more native

to their nature than common--or even uncommon--speech. Not

that they resemble, for a split second, those sanguine earthlings

with their tedious insistence on Sunny-Side-Up. Angels

aren't optimists....

Oh, it is altogether otherwise with angels.

...

                     In what tongue tell

of a murmuring, a stirring, and that sudden incandescent elation

in the air? Or of how, long after the visitants have withdrawn

and room or street appears usual again,

            there is a lingering of intimations

all about, and even the lilt - faint - faint - not yet quite gone -

 

of law caught as laughter:

of power as song.

 

And another excerpt, this time from a poem called

 

WHEN WILL THE FORGIVING OF IT COME TO PASS?

 

Palestinian Village: Occupied Territory

 

This gone-from place,

these windows gaping in a golden glare

of pitiless sun,

      once knew (however poor it was)

life going on.

Once brimmed with breath.

Once throbbed aloud with those

 

who held it, passionately - Ishmael deep -

to be their home.

 

 Marie Fox

Antidote to dullness

 I was reading the May 18 2026 print issue of The Christian Science Monitor. Pages 40-41 feature a poem by e.e. cummings (1894-1962) and an essay by Todd R. Nelson. 

The poem is just wonderful. Here it is:

in Just-

spring     when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles     far      and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's 

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far     and     wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump rope and

it's

spring

and

    the

      goat-footed

balloonMan     whistles

far

and wee

In the accompanying essay, Todd Nelson describes his first encounter with this poem in the seventh grade. He writes: "I look back on that poem as a starting line. I heard the call to poetry... I began to understand that a poet is describing the world, experience, or concepts in a way that antidotes dullness, commonness, and indifference; that stretches the possibilities of language; that sings and beckons. A poem is a discrete vessel of clarity and understanding."

Have a puddle-wonderful day!

Julie Swannell

Woman's Rights

 Some years ago in Queensland the Premier’s wife, Florence Bjelke-Petersen, was elected to be a Senator in the Federal Parliament. 

She was a religious person, and I felt she would need spiritual support in taking on this responsibility. She was more famous for her Pumpkin Scones than her politics!

So I sent her a copy of Mary Baker Eddy’s poem Woman’s Rights. Here are the words:

WOMAN’S RIGHTS

Grave on her monumental pile:

She won from vice, by virtue’s smile,

Her dazzling crown, her sceptred throne,

Affection’s wreath, a happy home;

 

The right to worship deep and pure,

To bless the orphan, feed the poor;

Last at the cross to mourn her Lord,

First at the tomb to hear his word:

 

To fold an angel’s wings below;

And hover o’er the couch of woe;

To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet,

The right to sit at Jesus’ feet;

 

To form the bud for bursting bloom,

The hoary head with joy to crown;

In short, the right to work and pray,

“To point to heaven and lead the way.”

Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, pp. 388:14 - 389:4

I had a very gracious reply from Mrs. Bjelke-Petersen in which she acknowledged Mrs. Eddy’s place. I am sorry that I didn’t keep a record of that reply.

Joyce Voysey

Immediate Action

"The thread that traces the history of man's worship of God is spun of many strands. One of the longest, perhaps the strongest, is poetry." – from the Forward to Ideas on Wings (Christian Science Publishing Society, 1978)

One poem that has inspired and encouraged me is by Marcella Krisel. I'll share the first half here, but I would encourage you to find it on jsh-online.com or ask for a copy from your local Christian Science Reading Room.

Believe me—it wasn't easy

by Marcella Krisel from The Christian Science Journal, January 1977

---

For far too long
I played host to a problem
That I thought was up to me to solve.
I wrestled with it daily—
Denouncing, entreating, resenting it.
Unfortunately, it thrived
On all this attention
And the free room and board.
Finally, at a particularly low point
Of human discouragement
I was spurred into immediate
Action of a different sort
By a flash of insight:

"I can of mine own self do nothing."** 

....

The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy encourages us: “Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can “run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint,” who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement.” (SH 254:2–6)

Julie Swannell

*See posts on Ideas on Wings (available in most CS Reading Rooms) from August 2016 - here's a link.

** John 5:30

A holy air

 I was talking with a friend earlier this evening when she burst out with the first few lines of a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal with such fervour it almost took my breath away.

    "A holy air is breathing round" she began.

    "A fragrance from above" she continued.

We looked it up in the hymn book and found it is number 4!

We completed the verse:

    "Be every thought from sense unbound, / Be every action love."

The joy of the verse spilling out from my friend reminded me of a time, some years ago, when our little congregation in Sydney substituted the recitation of a poem for the usual sung solo in the Sunday church service. The result was uplifting and much appreciated.

The words of the hymn, called "Pater Noster" - "Our Father" - are by Dr. Abiel Abbot Livermore (1811-1892). The very useful Concordance to Christian Science Hymnal and Hymnal Notes (available in most Christian Science Reading Rooms) explains that Dr. Livermore "was a Unitarian minister of Keene, New Hampshire, who later became president of the Theological School at Meadville, Pennsylvania."'

The music, by Dr. Percy C. Buck, employs a "free rhythm melody". Dr. Buck "believed that here was an opportunity to advance the music [at Harrow, where he taught] beyond the square-cut form of the conventional hymn tune" (ibid p 177). "After he left Harrow Dr. Buck found that many of his old boys remembered these tunes and even asked to include them in other hymn books" (ibid).

This might encourage congregations to have a new look at Dr. Buck's hymns. And to revisit hymn 4! Thank you DJ.

Julie Swannell

Sympathy

 I’m reacquainting myself with a wonderful poem in Mary Baker Eddy’s autobiographical work Retrospection and Introspection. 

The poem begins:

Ask God to give thee skill

In comfort’s art:

That thou may’st consecrated be

It appears on page 95, and although Mrs. Eddy does not name the poem, I can state that it is called “Sympathy”.

 

Mrs. Eddy gives the name of the poet as A. E. Hamilton. Last year I read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, and noted that he wrote poetry, so I wondered if this poem could possibly have been written by him. (The title of the book is simply Alexander Hamilton. It is a very fine read indeed. And there is a musical Alexander Hamilton!!)

 

As I have written next to the poem in my copy of Prose Works (by Mary Baker Eddy), my research told me that Alexander Hamilton did not write it. Annie Hamilton did. And that Annie was from Dublin, Ireland, and that her dates were 1843-1875. She died at Castle Hamilton, County Cavan, Ireland. She published under initials only.

 

And now I cannot verify that information through the internet!!

 

How the student of Christian Science yearns to be given the “...skill / In comfort’s art”, spoken of in the poem. He knows so well that “...comforters are needed much / Of Christlike touch.”

 

Let us never stop yearning for such skill. And appreciating the wonderful poem.

Joyce Voysey

Outcome and income

Many poems have helped me over the years. One is called “Mind’s outcome: income” by Steven Alan Avey, published in the May 1979 issue of The Christian Science Journal.

The poem employs a lovely rhythm and repetition that invite me to press on to the next idea and are helpful in memorizing. It also employs all seven synonyms for God found in the Christian Science textbook (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy). This encourages the reader to continue on to see the role of each of those synonyms in working out that our income is Mind’s outcome – what Mr. Avey calls “usable ideas that develop themselves into action”. I love this!

I couldn’t quite remember the name of this poem and thought it used the word “outgo”. (It doesn’t; it uses “outcome” instead.) Anyway in my search on jsh-online.com I found a lovely idea that seems relevant to the topic of income. Writing in the Christian Science Sentinel, 29 Jan 1979, Geoffrey Barratt states that “there is no "fixed income," because the "outgo" from God is not limited, the infinite good that floods from eternal Love is not frozen” (More than ‘millionaires’).

We can’t print Avey’s entire poem here, so here’s a morsel:

Mind’s outcome: income

Steven Alan Avey

Yield to Spirit, and

in come usable ideas

that develop themselves

into action.

 

Look to Love, and

practice kinder ways

of caring for yourself

and your community…

I hope everyone can read the whole poem and perhaps pop a copy up on their fridge, where it sat in our family home for many years.

Do you have a favourite poem? Please share it with us.

Julie Swannell

How Jesus loved his audience

Here is one of my favourite poems from the Christian Science periodicals. I pray with this poem when my church has a Christian Science lecture, as it did last Sunday.  

The poem is from the April 1971 issue of The Christian Science Journal:

IN THE MORNING, IN THE SUN By Doris Peel

I love that we have the privilege of knowing, as expressed in the poem, that newcomers are 

"...drawn

by someone who knew about them

what no man ever had known before."

How Jesus loved his audience.  

 Joyce Voysey   

Ed. Dear readers, we are hoping you will be able to access jsh-online to read the poem, because sadly, we can't quote it in full. There is much free content on this site, and non-subscribers can further access several articles or poems each month for free, we believe. Those who do not yet subscribe, are invited to contact their local Christian Science Reading Room librarian, who will be very happy to send you a free copy of this beautiful poem. By the way, trial subscriptions are free. 

Mrs. Eddy's poems: prayerful driving companions

The other day I was driving to the Gold Coast to attend a Christian Science lecture. It's a 90 minute drive if the traffic flowing nicely - it was! ☺ 

I didn't feel like listening to anything, and wanted to pray, so I decided to sing the hymns that have words by Mary Baker Eddy.

After a while I stopped singing and just recited the words. Slowly and thoughtfully. It was a joy and so uplifting.

Readers probably know there are 7 of Mrs. Eddy's poems set to music in our hymn books.

I grew up with them. One of my Sunday school teachers gave me a pamphlet with the those words in them. I'm not sure how old I was. (Gift idea: Hymn books make a welcome gift for those of all ages! Check out the stock in your local Christian Science Reading Room.) I soon learnt them by heart and they have come to my rescue many times. I also learnt to recognize the hymn numbers for these and other special hymns, at least those in the 1932 hymnal - I have yet to come to grips with the numbers in the "new" hymn book.

Here are the titles and introductory lines of those 7 poems:

"Christmas Morn" - Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds / Pursue thy way

"Love" - Brood o'er us with Thy shelt'ring wing / 'Neath which our spirits blend / Like brother birds

"Satisfied" - It matters not what be thy lot / So Love doth guide

"Mother's Evening Prayer" - O gentle presence, peace and joy and power

"Christ, my Refuge" - O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind / There sweeps a strain

"Communion Hymn" - Saw ye my Saviour? Heard ye the glad sound?

"Feed my Sheep" - Shepherd, show me how to go / O'er the hillside steep

The Mary Baker Eddy Library has an excellent page about the background of these hymns. You might like to guess which hymn was written first...it's in the MBEL article.

Also on the MBE Library site is a page of research regarding the frequency of having Mrs. Eddy's poems - as hymns or solos - in church services.

What is sure is that each word and each line of these poems is a healing prayer.

Julie Swannell

Nahum on a lecture tour?

What a puzzler this book, Nahum, is to me.

I like the way the New Revised Standard Version’s sets it out as poetry.

So far I haven’t discovered how the book was shared. Did Nahum go on a Lecture Tour with it. Did he have it “published”? How?

The one angle that satisfies a little is that it is the error that God is punishing, not the people or the country.

We know from the book of Jonah that the Ninevites did reform in his time, but we are told that at a later time they went back to their old ways.

Joyce Voysey

A bully nation collapses

BACKGROUND

"The 7th century BC (700-601 BC) was defined by the peak and sudden, violent collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which dominated the Near East before being destroyed ... by 612 BC." - British Museum

NAHUM’S VISION

In his Introduction to Nahum, Eugene Peterson (The Message) writes: 

“The stage of history is large. Larger-than-life figures appear on this stage from time to time, swaggering about, brandishing weapons and money, terrorizing and bullying.  ... They often manage to get a significant number of people watching and even admiring ... [In contrast], God's characteristic way of working is in quietness...

“Assyria had the whole world terrorized... Assyria (and its capital, Nineveh) appeared invincible. A world free of Assyrian domination was unimaginable. Nahum's task was to make it imaginable...”

NINEVEH (ASSYRIA) FALLS

Writing in the NRSVUE* Study Bible, Peter Dubovský explains the situation:

“The true nature of Assyria, stripped of the veil of propaganda, is revealed, and Assyria ends up humiliated and destroyed. Assyria collapses, while the whole world rejoices. 

“Nahum reverses Assyrian propaganda…”

Assyria – the aggressor-enemy – is punished, and Judah is liberated.

Dubovský explains that the symbols of power, like chariots (Nahum2:13, 3:2), swords (3:3), and lions (2:11-13) were used as propaganda, carved in clay and stone. Today, we would see that on our television screens or posted on the Internet). Nahum calls out these boasting subterfuges.

IMAGES

Nahum gives us a sense of God’s mighty power. In particular, I like the images which relate to water (NRSVUE) —

1:4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers…

1:7-8 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood…

2:6 The river gates are opened; the palace trembles.

WHAT GETS DESTROYED?

We learn in Christian Science and that sin punishes itself. Mary Baker Eddy writes:

“This is a period of doubt, inquiry, speculation, selfishness; of divided interests, marvellous good, and mysterious evil. But sin can only work out its own destruction; and reform does and must push on the growth of mankind.” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, 237:19)

Nahum was a reformer. His writing enabled a new vision. We can catch that vision too.

Julie Swannell

*New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Vivid imagination unsurpassed

Dear readers,

Over the 14 years we have been writing on this blog, we have read all bar two of the books of the Bible. Nahum is one of those two books.

In the June 1934 issue of The Christian Science Journal, there is an interesting piece about Nahum. It’s from Westminster Commentary* and it includes this lovely remark: 

His vivid imagination and his power to express what passes rapidly before his mental eye in vigorous, well-compacted, realistic language are unsurpassed by any of the Old Testament prophets. Expressing himself in as few words** as possible, he sets before his readers the entire scene which he describes in such a way that they are made to feel that it is actually being transacted before their eyes. It is like a picture which an artist sketches… His constructions are classical and idiomatic, and his language forcible and pure; they reveal the intensity of his feelings and create the impression that he is convinced of the certainty of his prediction, the truth of his charge, and the necessity of his denunciation.

The gist of Nahum’s “powerful prophecy”*** is that the flourishing Assyrian nation will be overthrown.

Is Nahum’s message that good always overthrows evil? Let’s take a look and find out.

Julie Swannell

*Aren't we grateful for Bible Commentaries!

**e.g. Nahum 1:9 "...he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time."

***from the Encyclopedia Americana – quoted in The Christian Science Journal June 1934

The Sound of Love

There is a passage in Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving Tomlinson that has particular resonance for me. It is on pages 108-109.

 

Sarah Pike Conger, (who “was the wife of an American diplomat and served with him in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900”) had had an interview with Mrs Eddy in 1897. Her description of how she heard the words of Mrs Eddy that day shows us what might be called “the sound of Love”. Here’s what she wrote (the underlining is mine):

 

“After a few words about the weather and me going to Brazil, she started out in Christian Science, every word sounding in the pure atmosphere of Love. Such a day I never saw before nor since - Love was the key note and all other notes were in harmony with it. Those words of advice and encouragement were from the mother-heart and all was love. To make unforgettable—permanent—her points, she would tell some of her demonstrations. Her words and their intonations—her earnestness—her tenderness—her positiveness—her great understanding awakened and quickened my heart-beats with new life and its activity.

 

“… when I heard her voice utter the words there was a life in them beyond the written word—and they have vibrated in sweet-echoing tones through these years, helping me to remember and to detect the Christ-hand ever pointing the way heavenward.”

 

What is this language of Love which quickens the heartstrings? What does Love sound like? How can we hear it and speak it to others? Sarah Conger writes that Mrs Eddy said, “I have striven earnestly to have my students speak in a language which would be understood.”

 

I am reminded of Mrs Eddy’s poem Christ, my refuge: (See hymns 253-257 and 550-552.)

 

O’er waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain,

And wake a white-winged angel throng
Of thoughts, illumed
By faith, and breathed in raptured song,
With love perfumed.
(Hymn. 253:1, 2)

 

It is Love stirring one to know and feel its presence, its harmony, its light. That is the sound of Love!

 

Marie Fox

A high ideal

Page 244 of this month’s book, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson, tells us that “Mrs. Eddy held aloft a high ideal for her own sex, in religion, in social welfare, and in statesmanship.”

Tomlinson quotes her: “Our sex seems to be needed at this period to lift the darkness and to cheer the faithful sentinels at their posts of love and duty. God sustains you and will bless you in just this way.”

One can claim it for our period as well. Is it still the women behind the men who have more effective influence in our time?

She is not a contemporary figure, but Eleanor Roosevelt comes to mind. It was reported that Dean Rush, Secretary of State (USA) said at her passing, “She would rather light a candle than complain about the darkness.” Possibly a Chinese proverb*.

Those of us who sometimes find it difficult to go to sleep at night should find the following poem helpful. Mrs. Eddy said of it (Twelve Years, page 272):

“I love to think that my life is hid with Christ in God—with Truth in divine Love. Every night I say over to myself this little verse of the hymn**:

“The Spirit’s sweet control

   Freely we will confess,--

   Fly to Thine out-stretched arms of love,

   And there find health and rest.

                      M.J.H. Zink”

Joyce Voysey

*Ed. A little research reveals that American politician and diplomat Adlai Stevenson famously eulogized Mrs. Roosevelt with the statement, “she would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow warmed the world.” Apparently, the source of the saying was 19^th century minister Rev. William L. Watkinson who was quoting Thomas Carlyle***, the famous English essayist. (professorbuzzkill.com) 

**Ed. This hymn - Teach us Thy way, O God - was in the Christian Science hymnal 1889, p. 109, but is not in our current hymnal. To see the music and words for the whole hymn see https://hymnary.org/text/teach_us_thy_way_o_god#pagescans

***Ed. Interestingly, Thomas Carlyle has been mentioned previously on this blog site. Here's the entry:

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) -- a Scottish chap: Sentinel, 25 January 1958. Carlyle is mentioned in Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 33 and The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 154, 193. In the latter reference, Mrs Eddy commends Carlyle's sentiment: 'Give a thing time; if it succeeds, it is a right thing' (My 193: 22).

Beauty everywhere

After reading about the "deep waters" (p. 205, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving Tomlinson) of the Next Friends Suit and Mrs. Eddy's calm trust that she was "safe in His green pastures" (ibid), it is lovely to now read about her love for home.

Those familiar with her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures will recall her statement that "Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre though not the boundary, of the affections" (SH 58).

In speaking of her move to Pleasant View, Tomlinson describes the transformation of "what had once been ugly and desolate into a home of beauty, comfort, and peace" as "a splendid example of her vision and foresight" (p. 211, Twelve Years). Her improvements had made the home "almost unrecognizable from its former dilapidated condition" (ibid p. 212). 

Tomlinson remarked that "there was beauty everywhere" (ibid), including lots of flowers.

This reminds me of John Wyndham's experience in setting up business premises when he returned home after having been a prisoner during WW2. He writes (The Ultimate Freedom p. 87): "The premises had been neglected during the war years and looked uninviting and dull to say the least. Again the irresistible urge to beautify came over me. But there seemed to be no way of paying even the smallest amount for such an undertaking."

"My Bible companion book had told me that "Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color" (SH 247). This Mind, which I had learned to trust and listen to, I felt would point the way." 

He was able, step by step, to transform the space such that: "Soon the reception room was a glory of color and beauty, with new desks, built in seats for clients, and a large colored illuminated mural of an orchard in blossom. There were also beautiful arrangements of fresh flowers to feast the eyes on" (p. 89, The Ultimate Freedom).

Blog readers will be most interested to read Tomlinson's observations regarding Mrs. Eddy's intense love of all things beautiful in Twelve Years, especially pp. 211-214. 

He summarizes: "Mrs. Eddy was a deep lover of beauty. She held beauty as symbolizing the purity, the loveliness of Soul" (p. 213). 

Julie Swannell

My breakfast read

I am very much enjoying reading the Irving Tomlinson’s Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy. 

I find it works for me to leave the book on the dining table where it has become my breakfast read.

I’ll share two passages that have provoked my thought.

On page 77, Tomlinson recounts that he and his sister were to take up the roles of First and Second Reader In Concord, New Hampshire. When Tomlinson asked Mrs Eddy’s advice about making adequate provision for both home and work, Mrs Eddy’s reply indicates that she recognised that keeping house was a full time occupation for a woman. If she would do the role of healer and Reader well, then that would require all her care and effort, and she couldn’t be expected to keep house as well. “All one’s time is none too much for this and also that of the Readership.” What kindness to his sister!

And what perception of the obligations and commitment involved in doing our work the best we can in any sphere. It requires all our care. This gives an idea of the passage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures where Mrs Eddy writes: “The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible” (SH 199:21–22).

This tells me that we need to be wholly committed to God’s work, whatever that may be; that we cannot spread our fire and hope to succeed. It also reflects kindness and insight into the demands placed on women at that time, and of not wanting to overburden Mary Tomlinson. Very touching.

The second passage is on page 89, and this is a big one that we all must confront. Mrs Eddy asked: “What was it that made Jesus the Messiah?” Her answer was that he “loved righteousness and hated iniquity” (Hebrews 1:9). 

She then proceeded to explain that the true Christian must not close his eyes to wrong-doing. He must be willing to uncover the evil in himself and others; to take steps to unmask the wrong-doer and bring the evil-doing to an end. We are not to draw back from our duty of exposing error and thus causing it to be destroyed.

Mrs Eddy said she herself found this so hard. She said she would rather - as we all would - “dwell on love alone and get away from error…”. But she said that would not do; it would allow error to increase.

My favourite sentence here is “We are to do right and leave the consequences to God.”

 Marie Fox

She asked that the lessons be prepared at once.

This week I was alerted to a webinar produced by The Mother Church for Reading Room librarians and workers. The topic (on christianscience.com) is “The Bible Lessons and the ‘prosperity of Christian Science.’” 

I especially appreciated hearing from a lady in California who had shared the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson with a young woman whose family had found themselves homeless. The young woman took an interest in what she had been given to read and soon started coming to church. Her family recently found a home.

There are many references to the Christian Science Bible Lessons in our periodicals. You might start your research in jsh-online.com by typing “Lesson sermon” in the search bar. Among the many articles there is one from The Christian Science Journal of May 1899. It was written by Irving Tomlinson, who served on the Bible Lesson Committee for many years from its inception. Here’s an excerpt:

          The Maker of the Christian Science sermons is God, for He "made all that was made." Humanly speaking, God's agents do His work. As Christ Jesus said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." The subjects for these sermons, as is quite well known, were furnished by our Leader. These subjects cover the essentials of Christianity. As has been observed, they follow the order she was wont to employ in teaching her classes. ...

Irving Tomlinson gives further background in his book Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (amplified edition) on p. 187. Here he points out that once Mrs. Eddy was sure of God's direction, she permitted no delay in carrying it out:

Not only the verbal form of the subjects of the Christian Science Bible Lessons, but their order in the Christian Science Quarterly is entirely Mrs. Eddy's arrangement. …

When in the summer of 1898 Mrs. Eddy sent down the topics for the new lessons, she asked that the lessons be prepared at once. This meant the immediate arrangement of twenty-six lessons—there being only a week's time in which to plan for the first lesson of July 3, 1898…

With the entire Bible from which to select and six hundred pages of Science and Health open to the Bible Lesson Committee, I found, as a member of this committee, that there was opportunity for endless variety. …

A more recent contributor to the periodicals (Michael Mooslin, “Me, we, and them”, Christian Science Sentinel 3 March 2025) wrote:

Mrs. Eddy explained that we don’t attend church to worship God but to express Him. “We study these lessons six days,” she continued, “then we go to Church to express God for the world—to give the world a treatment” (William Curtis Coffman, Memoirs of a Christian Scientist, 1955, p. 3).

I love that “the Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers” (Explanatory Note read prior to the Lesson-Sermon at each Christian Science church service).

Julie Swannell

More interesting quotes from "12 Years"

More interesting quotes from Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving Tomlinson:

 

Page 172

On one occasion, Mrs. Eddy said to a member of her household that the way to establish the Cause through reason is through writing and preaching, teaching and lecturing. This is temporal. But the way to establish the Cause through revelation is by healing, and this is permanent.

 

Page 173 – Lecture note re delivering the same lecture in various parts of the Field. Mrs. Eddy sent the author this recommendation:

“I suggest that you prepare a lecture with a view to giving it to the reporters and so make one answer for several places. Take the questions uppermost in the public mind and answer them systematically in Science.”

 

Mrs. Eddy saw the value of the reporting of lectures in the newspapers. Today we have many more lines of communication with the public; more complications for the lecture committees.

 

Tomlinson has given us a whole chapter on home – "At Home"

 Isn’t this wonderful? Page 211

On one occasion, as I recall, Mrs. Eddy said to the members of her household: “Home is not a place but a power. We find home when we arrive at the full understanding of God. Home! Think of it! Where sense has no claims and Soul satisfies.” (My emphasis)

 

Mrs. Eddy said to the author (page 212):

 “A home should be something more than four walls. There should be about it noble trees, beautiful shrubbery, flowers, vines clambering over the house, and a rose garden.”

 

Mrs. Eddy loved children and saw their innocence and purity which she sometimes found lacking in the older folk. Tomlinson recounts (page 232):

One day at the dinner table the story was told of a young boy of three whose mother was ill. He crept into her lap and began to talk to her of Science. He had been told that he was Love’s little boy, and he said, “… Mamma, say ‘the scientific statement of being,’ repeat the Lord’s Prayer.” The mother obeyed and was soon well. Mrs. Eddy said, “… We must all return to the simplicity, love, and gentleness of the child.”

Joyce Voysey

While others slept, she watched

In Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, author Irving Tomlinson writes with appealing freshness and clarity. Furthermore, he offers the reader deep insights into what lay underneath the surface of events.

For instance, he mentions how Mrs. Eddy "advanced under God's guidance, in the founding of the Christian Science movement" and how "while others slept", she "faithfully watched as a mother watches over her babe" (p. 118) -- painting a tender picture of mother and infant.

He then observes her motivation in founding the Christian Science periodicals, "including The Christian Science Monitor", explaining that "it was not merely a journalistic or literary venture; it was a spiritual, life-dispensing message, designed to bring salvation to humanity, to serve as an entering wedge of release from mortality, from its terrors, agonies, despairs, and failures. It was designed to bring life to all; to enter into the history of each individual, to rehabilitate his experience, and to shape his destiny. As Mrs. Eddy prayed to be shown how best to bring this truth to humanity, the answer came to her" (pp. 118-119).

As an on-hand observer in her household, Tomlinson writes with authority that: "It was an inspiring experience for those associated with the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science to see that no extremity daunted her. When unlooked-for opposition endeavored to upset the tiny craft of the newborn Cause, Mrs. Eddy, wise, forbearing, alert, guided it safely through stormy waters."

This analogy makes me think about Jesus and the sea. This story from John's Gospel was no doubt a beacon to Mrs. Eddy.

16  And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,
17  And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
18  And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
19  So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
20  But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
21  Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.
(John 6:16–21)

Julie Swannell

Some gems from Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy

In Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, Irving Tomlinson shares many quotes from Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

 

Here is a quote (page 87) that I have not found anywhere else:

“One time she told us not to say there is too much or too little of anything. She said: God governs. He knows best. He will do all things right.”

 

And page 95 tells us that, “She once contrasted sympathy and compassion by referring to the feeding of the multitude by Jesus, by saying that Jesus had compassion and fed them; he sympathized with them, he would have suffered because of their hunger.”

 

Same page: “When we are talking to one who is not a Christian Scientist, in speaking of a disease, she continued, we are not to say that So-and-so has a belief. Say plainly that he is sick. And she quoted Paul’s admonition, ‘I had rather speak five words with my understanding. . .than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.’”

 

Page 98: “Error comes to you for life, and you give it all the life it has.”

 

Page 106, 1^st para.: “Each day there should drop from your lips some manna to heal and bless others.”

 

And “Desire is prayer. Words without desire are not prayer.”

 

Page 109: “I have striven earnestly to have my students speak in a language which would be understood,” Mrs. Eddy said. “It is not right for one to say to a poor sufferer, wracked with pain, ‘Nothing ails you. You have no pain. You are not suffering.’ I have said to students making this mistake, ‘The next time you visit a patient tie a string to your tongue.’”

 

Page 156: “At supper one evening she commented, ‘I do not believe in too much organization in church. The churches are over-organized. Were I to have charge of a church today, I should have it founded on the Bible. I should talk to them from the Bible. I should direct their thought to the Bible, and I should expect them to be obedient to the Bible.’”

Joyce Voysey

Mrs. Eddy and the clergy

The Longyear Museum website has a helpful biography of the author of our book Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy. Here is a portion: 

IRVING C. TOMLINSON ...earned his Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Akron University in Akron, Ohio, in 1884, and his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Tufts University in Boston in 1888. After an earnest study of Christian Science, which included Primary class with Mrs. Eddy’s student Flavia Knapp, Irving gave up the pulpit, joined The Mother Church in 1897, and became a Journal-listed practitioner. 

In 1898, he was invited by Mrs. Eddy to attend her last class, and he served intermittently on the Bible Lesson Committee until 1927. 

...From 1899 until 1910, Rev. Tomlinson served Mrs. Eddy in various ways, including as an associate secretary and a member of her Chestnut Hill household.

In his book  Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, the former clergyman, Tomlinson, writes that

Mrs. Eddy taught a number of clergymen who had become interested in her teachings. She was always happy to have ministers of the Gospel as her students. Nor as a rule would she accept any tuition fee from them for instruction in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College; and if two persons made application with one of them a minister, and only one could be admitted, the clergyman was usually the one favored. 

There were however some clergymen during those years who were bitterly denouncing Christian Science and its Discoverer." See p. 82. 

Tomlinson offers a lovely story about “Mrs. Eddy’s friendly attitude toward the clergy" on page 83.

Julie Swannell

Two parts to the discovery of Christian Science

On page 43 of Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Amplified Edition), author Irving Tomlinson tells us that Mrs. Eddy made the following remark at the time of the “Next Friends” law suit:*

I said to the masters that the discovery that the unmedicated pellet produced the same effect as the medicated pellet was the falling apple which led to the discovery of Christian Science. This must be taken with another fact. I have said that my recovery from a fall in Lynn when I opened the Bible and read there of the healing dated the discovery of Christian Science. The first was the enlightenment of the human understanding, the second was the revelation from the divine Mind.

Ah! I can see that point, as it can occur in comparatively minor ways in our own lives, particularly as students of Christian Science.

For some reason I am reminded of an article I found on JSH-Online by our author Rev. Irving Tomlinson, entitled Only a Belief (Christian Science Sentinel Oct 20, 1898). It tells of the loss of two gold teeth which turned out to be not lost. I hope readers may be able to find it for themselves (Ed. or ask a Reading Room librarian to source it for you).

* For “Next Friends suit” see Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority by Robert Peel (available in Christian Science Reading Rooms).

Joyce Voysey

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd"

In our March book Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Expanded edition) by Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson, MA, CSB, I was interested to read about Mary Baker Eddy and Shakespeare. I knew she was familiar with Shakespeare's work.

 

Doesn’t Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (written by Mary Baker Eddy) have a Shakespearean quote (from Hamlet) on page iii, set between a quote from John’s gospel and a poem by the author?

There is nothing either good or bad,

but thinking makes it so.

 

Tomlinson tells us that she was able to quote from Macbeth Act 5, scene 3. He writes (page 17):  Mrs. Eddy addressed us by repeating the following from Macbeth act V, scene 3 –

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d,

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?

 

He goes on,

These lines were repeated without hesitation, and with the accent and intonation which indicated a familiarity that might be expected of a noted actor. I asked two longtime workers in Mrs. Eddy’s household if they remembered it as a quotation often used by Mrs. Eddy. Both said that they had never heard her use the lines before.

 

One can certainly understand why those lines were so meaningful to Mrs. Eddy.

 

On page 30 we find a passage which tells us of Mrs. Eddy’s handling of an unruly child in the school she started in Tilton for children 8 to 10 years. (This would have been before she discovered the Christ Science.)

 

I shall copy it here.

A mother whose ten-year-old son was so ungovernable that she had sent him to the reform school came to me and begged that I take her boy into my school. I hesitated but at last yielded to her entreaties. The first day the boy behaved very badly. I asked him to remain after the others had gone and I could see him looking for a chance to escape. His eyes glanced to the door and to the windows as if he would break away. I fastened the door and put the key in my pocket. He looked up at me defiantly and said, “Shan’t I go out and get you a stick?” I talked gently to him of God, and the rude boy melted and the tears ran down his cheeks. Then I read to him from the Bible and I prayed with him until I knew my prayer was answered. We went home together hand in hand. When at home he amazed his mother by asking for the Bible and going apart with it to read and pray. The dear boy became transformed. A short time later he joined the Congregational Church and grew to be an honorable and upright man.

 

Another gem on page 31:

Mrs. Eddy once told of moving to North Groton, New Hampshire, in 1855 when she was Mrs. Patterson: “It was a beautiful spot, and among other good people there was one saintly man who was known as Father Merrill. I went to this good man and asked him if we could not on the Sabbath day hold a prayer meeting in the schoolhouse. He said, ‘Oh no, there would be no one attend. The people don’t care for such things and it would do no good.’ He yielded to my entreaties, and the following Sunday at three o’clock was appointed for our prayer meeting. The day dawned fair and beautiful, and three o’clock found Father Merrill and myself at the little school ready for the service. Congregation or no congregation we were resolved upon our service and we two held our service of prayer and praise. Fervent indeed were the offerings laid upon God’s altar that beautiful Sabbath afternoon. A service was announced for the following Sunday at the same time and place, and when the hour arrived there were three others present. The following Sunday there came together a good congregation and before the month was out the schoolhouse could not hold all who sought admittance. We opened the windows that those without might share the service.”

This reminds me of the ten Boom sisters (Corrie and Betsy) getting a prayer group going in a Nazi concentration camp. See Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place.

Joyce Voysey