One lone, brave star circling and shining

It seems to me that every word of this poem (Christ and Christmas) could be worthy of attention. For instance, the first verse:

Fast circling on, from zone to zone,--

Bright, blest, afar,--

O’er the grim night of chaos shone

One lone, brave star.

·        “Fast”-- Nothing can stop it.

·        “Circling” -- I think of a circle and eternity. On a human plane, maybe, the world.

·        “Zone” -- The areas of the world. This brings to mind something a visitor from Boston spoke of at a branch church meeting. He said some folks were reasoning that Australia had a very important part to play in the march of Christian Science around the world. Australia could be considered the last stop before it gets back to its beginning in Palestine. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy speaks of the Southern Cross constellation of stars, Australia’s emblem, as the “Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union…” (575:30-32). Which brings up the question: How is Calvary to be defined in this statement? Dictionary definitions give: “Place outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. An experience of unusual mental suffering.”

We Australians are very interested that Science and Health mentions Australia. Not many countries have that honour: “When wandering in Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their snow huts?” (SH 82:28).

But the poem speaks of “one lone, brave star.” The first painting in Christ and Christmas depicts that one lone, brave star, and it is named the Star of Bethlehem. That star is shown in most of the paintings. It is there with the raising the dead in Christ Healing; it illumines the seeking practitioner of the Christ Science in Seeking and Finding; it is there at Christian healing and Christian Science Healing, and where the young child ponders the truths of the big book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It is not there at the Christmas Eve party, where the illumination is all artificial, nor in the picture Treating the sick. The star gives place to light in Christmas morn, Christian unity, Truth versus error, and The way.

There is a feeling of movement in the first verse: “Fast circling”; also in the next verse: “Spirit sped.” Ah! The speed of light!

What about “chaos”? Chaos: PHYSICS -- the property of a complex system whose behaviour is so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. The formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word “chaos” in her Science and Health; also in her Prose Works. Hello! Here is another study for me!

Joyce Voysey

...neither beginning of days, nor end of life

The poem in Christ and Christmas has many Biblical references. At least one is from the book of Hebrews, as was discovered by Queensland Christian Science practitioner Don Wilson. In his May 2021 article, "Man was never born into matter", in The Christian Science Journal, he writes:

At a Church summit meeting a speaker spoke about Melchizedek. For me the story of this prophet became an area to research in order to understand him spiritually. The first help I received came in Mrs. Eddy’s poem “Christ and Christmas,” where in its Glossary she quoted from Hebrews, “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God” (7:3). 

How lovely to ponder this text. Thank you Don.

Julie Swannell

Revealed unto babes

 Our book for December is Christ and Christmas.

Here's a passage from Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck on this subject:

In March 1893 Mrs. Eddy asked Mr. Gilman to work with her on illustrating a new poem she had written, “Christ and Christmas.” They worked together throughout the spring and summer to get the pictures just as she wanted them. The book was published at the end of November with both Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Gilman listed as “Artists.” 

                                                                                                    - from the Biographical Glossary p. 450

Picking up this book after some years of neglect is deeply satisfying. Its illustrations and poem stop me in my tracks. It is all so very fresh. Each page reveals new details upon each review. Most significant to me is the depiction of light in each of the eleven paintings. 

I wonder which one is your favourite? Perhaps the one which depicts a kindly older gentleman intently listening to the little maid who is reading to him from the Christian Science textbook Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy? That illustration has the caption:

I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. —Christ Jesus
(Christ and Christmas, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 33:1)

Surely a potent message for us this Christmas.

Julie Swannell