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
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