Tasted, Swallowed, or Chewed and Digested?

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon, from "Of Studies"

A reader inquired about the source of an MBE quote I used in a recent entry. It was from the so-called Blue Book, a collection of notes taken by a Divinity class student of Mrs. Eddy, some of her watches, letters, etc. It is available from The Bookmark. Quite possibly many (most?) Primary class teachers have proscribed this and like publications with a skull and crossbones, and if so their teaching should be respected. With these types of materials great care and wisdom should be employed in their use. Certainly avoid anything passed around clandestinely in a plain paper wrapper or samizdat-like documents.

Christian Scientists have all they need in the Bible and published writings of Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible lessons and periodicals also provide useful fodder for spiritual growth, though since circa 1980, or maybe post-Phinney (periodicals) and Fanning (Monitor), these have, for many, sadly wandered like little lost sheep. Often good articles from the past are much more helpful and inspiring, and I notice groups of them are being reprinted for sale by the Church. Save your money and instead go to a Reading Room, find the bound volumes, and make exciting discoveries of your own.

The Bookmark also has class papers of Samuel Greenwood, Martha Wilcox, and Dr. John Tutt, as well as some of others I am not familiar with. Many of these papers are splendid, though they may also be on many teachers' list of verboten temptations. The Bookmark also has useful, safe, and convenient collections of articles and/or lectures of stalwarts like Paul Stark Seeley, Dr. Tutt, and Milton Simon. Class-taught students should also have their own association papers, and they may be sufficient. None of this reading matter is a substitute, of course, for the Bible and published writings of Mrs. Eddy, but the best from past years can often beautifully illumine a student's study and prayer. Certainly not all official publications are worth one's while either, e.g., that decidedly homely maiden by Bliss Knapp, "The Destiny of the Mother Church", whose plain face only endeared itself to the Mother Church, contrary to denials, because of a lollapalooza of a dowry. Those who fail to read Destiny or Gill, to pick another favored child, will not be spiritually hamstrung by the omission.

Anything by Greenwood, Wilcox, Seeley, Simon, Gwalter, or Tutt, to name but a few, whether authorized or strictly forbidden, is guaranteed to be far more spiritually uplifting than yet another blitheringly sodden makeweight interview. "Who has time to read all these other wonderful materials when the Bible and writings of Mrs. Eddy are far from being fully digested, understood, and demonstrated?" one might reasonably ask. Another questioner might just as reasonably ask "Who has time to fritter away on a blog when better healing work would be far more beneficial to humanity?" Well, someday I might have a satisfactory answer to those questions--if they need one.