Great stories--great characters

Book Club May 2020: Numbers

Having read the paragraph “Content” in the Introduction to Numbers in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, I am all excited at the promise of great stories to be told.

First. Great characters: Moses, Miriam, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb. (Dear Caleb; a favourite of mine.)

Second. Some of the best known passages in the Bible: Balaam’s talking donkey and the oracles of Balaam; the priestly benediction; the spies returning with a huge cluster of grapes; the manna and the quails; the water from the rock; Miriam’s leprosy; the bronze serpent that healed snakebite; the revolts of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; the magical budding of Aaron’s rod; the man executed for gathering sticks on the sabbath; the daughters of Zelophehad; the apostasy of Baal-peor. And the rituals for a woman suspected of adultery, for men and women taking a Nazirite vow, for cleansing polution from contact with a corpse.

Gee Whiz!

Joyce Voysey

Numbers are our friends

Numbers are our friends. For a start they are indispensable in arithmetic and music. They represent, among other things, accuracy, planning, rhythm, consensus, exactness, discipline, swing, contour, proportion and dimension. Can you think of more?

Composers of music and art rely on numbers. So do engineers, architects, chefs and mathematicians. A child's first lessons inevitably include counting.

Can numbers boss us around? Or does their natural limitlessness empower us?

Adam Dickey once penned a now-famous article called Possession* (see The Christian Science Journal June 1917) in which he points out the absurdity of anyone person or nation owning the multiplication table or any particular number. He writes: 'Let us suppose ... that the figures used in making calculations, instead of being accepted as thoughts, were regarded as material objects. In such a case every mathematician or accountant would have to provide himself with a supply of figures, which would perhaps be made of some durable material like wood or iron, and which he would keep on a shelf or locked in a drawer.'

Then there are the numbers we associate with time and age. Setting a time for the train to depart or the meeting to start is a kind thing to do. And I like what Australian writer Neil Millar has to say about age in his story 'Poet Lurking' (see Shards of Light p, 33):

'No man can outgrow his own youth, either, however much he concerns himself with his age -- which is a very youthful thing to do.'

And so, we launch into reading the Old Testament book of Numbers in this merry month of May.

Happy reading everyone.

Julie Swannell

*Call the Reading Room if you would like to order a copy of this article.

If you've ever felt you were making no progress or that mistakes and difficulties were dogging your path, then this poem by Ruby M. Grogseth may offer hope.  It's on page 54 of Boundless Light, or you can find it either in the bound volumes (17 May 1952 edition of the Christian Science Sentinel) at your local Reading Room (as soon as they open again!) or at jsh-online.com. 

CLIMBING

By Ruby M. Drogseth

When I began the climb
From sense to Soul
My step was buoyant, and
With new-found truth
I swept the path
Of all that hindered
the upward journey.

With heat of noontime
The brambles thickened
And seldom yielded
Without a struggle;
Stumbling and rising,
Slowly I plodded
on toward the summit.

Then the pathway faded,
And waist-deep I stood
In underbrush; the forest
Turned the day to night.
Disheartened and afraid,
Blind with self-pity,
like Hagar, weeping,

I heard God's voice and rose,
Followed His guiding,
And I emerged at last
Far up the mountain;
And to my glad surprise
Found that, through fear and doubt,
I had been climbing.

Climbing reminds of hymns 136  and 501, with words by Violet Hay. There is a most interesting piece about Violet Hay on the Mary Baker Eddy Library site. It begins: 'A dynamic force, Caroline Violet Spiller Hay (1873–1969) was one of the first teachers of Christian Science in the United Kingdom. She was also the religion’s first teacher in South Africa.' 

Hymn 136 is set to an Irish melody while Andrew Brewis wrote the music for 501. Here is the third verse: 

I climb, with joy, the heights of Mind, 
To soar o'er time and space; 
I yet shall know as I am known 
And see Thee face to face. 
Till time and space and fear are naught 
My quest shall never cease, 
Thy presence ever goes with me 
And Thou dost give me peace.

Julie Swannell