"When all material streams are dried . . . ."

Material, human existence should be orderly and peaceful, but orderly and peaceful material existence is not the Way or the way to the Way. For most of mankind, even in the most pleasant times and circumstances the harrowing vicissitudes of matter, of mortal mind, hold sway, a fantastic simulacrum peopled with the golems of mystification. These phantasms are entirely false and unreal and subservient to the putative juggernaut of the lie of life in matter with its multitudinous fears.

Mr. Hartsook's latest issue of "The Banner" should disabuse us of any pollyannish hope that the ongoing Walpurgisnacht in Boston is going to "melt,/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew" anytime soon. That unholy madness will only pass away when echt Christian Scientists prayerfully unsee it and live Love and Christ to the exclusion of anything else.

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The position taken by a comment to the second entry previous to this one that pablum (my term) has its place in the periodicals is a precarious one. When did pap ever really benefit "honest seekers for Truth"? "Fruitage" in S&H [the italics command refuses to cooperate, not for the first time] is a record of wonderful healings from those who only had the book. No class instruction, no Prose Works, no practitioners, not even an experienced Scientist to talk to. Even the relatively buff writing in the periodicals in those early days was apparently unknown or unavailable.

The more recent homeopathic version of "The Christian Science Standard of Healing" illustrates the peril to which bromidic fluff can abandon the unwary or uninformed when what they need is pure, healing, and straightforward truths. And there is no better place to go for those than Mrs. Eddy, and her writings and the Bible should be dog-eared vade mecums for any Christian Scientist. Judicious reading in the periodicals can be helpful, but it isn't essential. Reading the Peel biography of MBE would probably be more fruitful. Also, as Dr. John Tutt has written, probably more than once, "the readiness is all". Dumbing down will still not benefit Alfred and Alice Unready.

Misbelief in the Misbegotten

Unless we have been unwaveringly faithful to the words of Christ Jesus, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and the duties these exemplars place upon the obedient, we could peck open our little shells only to discover that stubborn heads rather than starving hearts have chosen our place of worship. Soulless Christian Science is little more than a dry theological husk.

Martin Luther wrote: "For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel." Daniel Defoe adds to his verse version of that statement: ". . . and 'twill be found, upon examination,/The latter has the largest congregation." Is the worship in this chapel the result of a willingness to snub the Church Manual and the ethical and moral standards of Christian Science in order to chase after a painted drab from Back Bay? Have some misunderstood that keeping up with the times does not mean swimming foolishly with great whites?

Could worshipping in the chapel mean that some of us have disregarded our desiccated affections in order to batten on the fatty tissue of the letter? Have we become metaphysical martinets, scuffling with punctilious and self-righteous dedication over any perceived or suspected peccadillo or transgression? If so, maybe some mental housecleaning with the bracing disinfectant of pure Christian Science is in order.

Note: "mego": "my eyes glaze over". My apologies again. I couldn't find the term in a dictionary either.

Staying With The Mother Lode

The recent reading of a selection of pamphlets and leaflets published roughly from 1939-1965 has led me to think about the thousands of articles published over many decades in the periodicals. A general observation, of one reader at least, is that the older the better--with noteworthy exceptions, of course. Many articles and editorials are, naturally, topical, but Mrs. Eddy never implies, to my knowledge, that writings in the periodicals are transitory or have an intrinsically limited shelf-life. Some of the fine articles written in response to WW's I and II, for example, are still helpful and surprisingly relevant today in our war on cataclysmic economic woes.

On the other hand, many of these thousands of articles from past years are real yawners and seem now, at least, like printed filler material. Those from the Journal, especially, often read like abstract exercises in metaphysics and word spinning. Reading them, the editor's proofreading abbreviation "mego" comes frequently to mind. For me, old Sentinel articles and editorials come more often nearer to the heart.

Two pamphlets illustrate, again for me, this contrast. "A Prophet with Honor" is a splendid collection of three addresses and one article, all unattributed and undated. That these articles uncompromisingly emphasize the necessity for a proper reverence for Christ Jesus and Mrs. Eddy gives them an added relevance, which highlights the shameful Church behavior of recent years. The other pamphlet, "The Pattern of the Mount", contains three articles from the Journal and one from the Sentinel. One of the Journal articles is probably a "classic", yet there is to me an almost dry, academic atmosphere about them. They don't seem to impart the uplifting, fresh inspiration of the writings in "A Prophet with Honor".

So get to the point, you say! Of course, it may all be a question of one's need and preference at the moment, but when one thinks of all those long unread articles from more than a century of writing, he may well wonder what Mrs. Eddy really expected. Even in her own day the writing in the Journal and the Sentinel was frequently found wanting. My conclusion is that we should never venture far from the mother lode of the Bible and writings of Mary Baker Eddy. In fact, we should stick to them like a tick. No matter how inspired and uplifting other writers may be, "nobody does it better" than the Bible and Mrs. Eddy, as a James Bond film theme song says.

Briefly, in response to some comments to the second entry prior to this one, the word "crack" was meant as in "crack army troops", i.e., first rate. The title was just a corny carney's cry to capture the busy reader's attention. A more dull equivalent would have been "the first rate and the third rate". My apologies if that was a little too cute. The idea was that the third rate creeping into our Church has done to it what the same compromises and corner-cutting have done to the world economy.

There was also no attempt in that entry to belittle any reader in any church. It is certain that there are many conscientious and dedicated readers, but it is still felt that the best reading is to an extent undercut by spiritual, ethical, and moral waywardness in a church. Churches are no stronger than the weakest links in their spiritual makeup.

"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite . . . ."

Mankind is going through a period of almost unprecedented turmoil. For decades, millions of otherwise good people have stood witness with bovine tranquility to humanity's sating of itself on greed, depravity, salacious pleasures, violence, cruelty, hatred, rape, murder, and anything that provided instant gratification. Now the tab, with its crushing gratuity added, has arrived at the table of men and nations. And few of us, perhaps, have hands that are wholly clean. The idol of the great deity Geegaw, once so devoutly worshipped, today stands in silent and sullen reproach, and the same venal politicians who helped create the crisis are being called on to alleviate the results of some of their own corruption.

If ever there were a time to heed the command of James 4:8, this is it: "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." To make Sarah F. Adams' wonderful words (hymns 192/93) a constant companion isn't a bad idea either. Mrs. Eddy advises us in "Retrospection" (70: 18-19): "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity." To undertake this duty would obviously provide every one of us with full-time employment, with guaranteed overtime, and help lift our troubled thoughts above the unholy spectacle unfolding before us. As we purge our thoughts of every insidious particle of error hiding there we not only bring healing Truth to our own experience, but to the Church and world as well. A consciousness spiritualized is the reign of God made manifest.

The Crack and the Gimcrack

Are Christian Science churches still needed? For those who come expecting the equivalent of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and get instead second-rate rockabilly, possibly not. Because a structure has a sign outside reading Church of Christ, Scientist, "it ain't necessarily so".

As we know, Mrs. Eddy gives us the definition of church briefly and clearly in Science and Health. An institution which calls itself a Christian Science church but fails to make a persistent and honest college try at demonstrating that definition is a sham. Sincere seekers of Truth have a right to expect the genuine article when they attend a Christian Science Sunday Service or Wednesday Meeting. To fail them is a betrayal, to be a fig tree which bears no figs.

Anyone can mouth uplifting words, but only unquestionable and legitimizing proofs and demonstration matter. A church deceptively padded with counterfeit substitutes isn't of much account in enriching poor humanity's affections, and neither is a publication bloated with soigne babble.