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