My well-worn copy of Prose Works

As I read the chapter Questions and Answers, I wondered how I reacted to it on first reading...so long ago.  I sort of wished that I was now reading it for the first time. 

My original copy of Prose Works is in a well-used (to say the least) state.  In the early days of my study of Christian Science, the little Group I belonged to didn’t have a Reading Room.  We normally visited the Reading Room in Brisbane city.  But in my travels, one day I passed the Reading Room in Fortitude Valley.  The only copy of Prose Works available there was a quite de-luxe one, with gilt edges to the pages.  I hesitated to pay the price, expecting to get a cheaper binding to match my copies of the Bible and Science and Health.  However, I did pay the price.  The gilt edging is barely discernible now; the front cover and spine are detached; it has marking papers scattered throughout; it has loose pages; and it has hand-written notes in the back pages.  It has been much loved – and well worth the price!

Oops!  I forgot to mention that it went with me to Perth

Favourite Text – Thou shalt have no other gods; Beethoven

Page 28 of Miscellaneous Writings: Speaking of her favourite text, the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” Mrs. Eddy says the commandment means, “Thou shalt recognise no intelligence nor life in matter…”, which says to me that we can equate the commandment with the Scientific Statement of Being which holds such a prominent position in Christian Science and in our church’s Sunday services.  

It may be well to repeat that immortal paragraph here: 

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.  All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.  Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error.  Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.  Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness.  Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.  S&H 468:9

And with Hymn 58, Joy. Father, we Thy loving children, the Notes give us a wonderful note on Beethoven.  Such joy it expresses!  The opening sentence is a delight: “The work of Beethoven (1770-1827) expresses for many people the fullness of music, its glory, joy, beauty, tenderness, sorrow, mirth, struggle, and victory.”

 Joyce Voysey

 Ed.  Every time I see the words “no other gods” I am reminded of the very special healing in Peel’s scholarly and fascinating book “Spiritual Healing in a Scientific Age” which we studied late last year.  See this Blog’s POST dated November 27^th.  The relevant paragraph is –

And when an intruder appeared, the not yet five year old, who had never spoken before, blurted out something he had obviously heard from his family: “No other gods before you” (p. 59).

The Healing Power of Music

Some of our readers may have already read the following article from The Christian Science Monitor, but it's worth another read in light of our recent study of the CS Hymnal.  The writer is Dr. Marie Jureit-Beamish from Principia College.  Her final sentence is a request to all who sing hymns, in church or out: Let your voice be heard, and with every note you sing, make it a prayer for peace.

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The healing power of song

A Christian Science perspective. A conductor tells how she directed her orchestra of young musicians to follow this counsel from Leonard Bernstein: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Articles-on-Christian-Science/2012/0925/The-healing-power-of-song