THE DESTINY OF ALL HUMANITY

[rv.ros...@gmail.com]

Sent to me September 25 TH , 2005

Loved our talk. Here's the cut and paste and here's the book title:

BOOK: Mary Baker Eddy: Her Revelation of Divine Egoism, by Dr. Ames
Noel


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Most Scientists are entirely unaware of the fact that never once,
throughout that portion of Mrs. Eddy's life-time, when she was
producing an enormous proliferation of literary works, beginning with,
"The Science of Man," in April, 1870, and carrying directly on through
to her last officially published and released copy of, "Message to The
Mother Church, June 1902," on November 13, 1910, Mrs. Eddy neither
turned to nor did she rely upon either her Church, or The Christian
Science Publishing Society, to carry out the enormously important work
of the publishing of her writings which she purposed to be available
to all humanity. Thus, to this day, at its Annual Convention, the
American Publishers Guild continues to identify Mary Baker Eddy has
having been the most successful self-publicist ever known to have
existed throughout the entire history of the United States!

Mrs. Eddy did not confer her trust to either the Church or to the
Publishing Society to carry out this most monumentally important
aspect of her life-mission. What she did do, however, was to enter
into contractual agreements with independent Publisher's Agents whom
she exclusively engaged thorough out her life-time, to carry out the
private printing and distribution of all of her writings. At the time
she departed, her privately contracted Publisher's Agent was Mr.
Allison V. Stewart. Mr. Stewart served Mrs. Eddy faithfully, for many
years. He obediently and meticulously implemented her every wish, and
he personally oversaw the actual manual labor that went into the
printing and the binding of her prolific amount of literary
publications. These literary publications were contracted out to two
of New England's most experienced and highly renowned printing and
book-binding firms. One was Plimpton Press; the other was Cambridge
Press, both of which were located across the Charles River from
Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When Mrs. Eddy completed the task of selecting the testimonies that
were to be included within the chapter, "Fruitage," she gathered them
together and presented them to Mr. Stewart. Each carried a number
which she had applied beginning with 'one' and proceeding upwards.
However, she withheld one testimony from the large group of
testimonies she had selected, and she instructed Mr. Stewart to
request the printer to arrange the laying out of the type in such a
fashion so as to provide for page 700 to be completely full of print,
down to the very bottom of the page. And, upon that page was to
appear that one testimony that Mrs. Eddy had withheld from out of the
envelope that contained all the others. Thus, the final testimony,
which was the one she specifically designated as being the last, is
the one that appears today within the altered edition of the textbook,
on page 698, titled, "A Grateful Testimony."

To understand the symbolic meaning behind Mrs. Eddy's hand picked
final testimony, we must be familiar with the instruction given to us
by the prophet, Isaiah, wherein we are told, "Declaring the end from
the beginning . . . ." Isa. 46.10. Thus, to glean the christianly
scientific interpretation and importance of that which Mrs. Eddy has
so strategically placed at the end of her textbook, we must return to
the very beginning of the textbook in order to understand the
monumental import of Mrs. Eddy's actual and final hand picked
testimony!

Turning to page vii in the Preface of our textbook, we see the divine
manifesto opening with with following:

"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with
blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning
beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day. So shone the pale
star to the prophet shepherds; . . . ." Herein lies the information
that is needed by anyone who is truly wondering about the true
spiritual significance of Mrs. Eddy's hand-picked testimony which she
fully intended to be the one that would conclude her sacred writ.

Where, one must wonder, was the shepherd when he beheld the morning's
first faint beam? And what mental quality equipped and prepared the
shepherd to actually catch the morning's first faint beam? In order
to actually behold the "first" of the morning's ever proliferating
beams, mustn't the shepherd have been in and at a place which we read
about later in the textbook where it discloses, "The darkest hour
precedes the dawn"? S&H 96:11. Therefore, is it not entirely correct
to conclude that the shepherd who beholds the "FIRST faint morning
beam," must have been enveloped within the most intensely pitch dark
hour of the night? If such is the case, and we have absolutely no
reason to doubt the veracity of what the textbook tells us, then does
not this fact place an enormous amount of importance on the word,
"wakeful?" Science enables us to understand that the 'density' of the
darkness is never so great as to prevent or impair the 'intensity' of
our wakefulness, –– our conscious receptivity to good which Science
identifies as being the "advanced idea." Therefore, was it not
absolutely essential for the shepherd to be "wakeful" even during that
period of time which the textbook describes as being "The darkest hour
[that] precedes the dawn" in order that he actually qualify, or be
prepared, to behold "the FIRST faint morning beams?"

Notice what happens to the "wakeful" shepherd with the on-coming, or
dawn, of but one –– the FIRST –– of the morning's breaking beams!
The first beam of light that was beheld by the "wakeful" shepherd was
all that was required to anoint his conscious awareness and convert
him into a "prophet shepherd!" Just imagine! One beam of light is
all that is required to confer upon the one beholding it the gift of
prophecy! And so it is in Christian Science! From the moment a
"struggling heart" –– often when wandering aimlessly and fearfully
around within the "darkest hour" of their life-experience –– lifts
thought "wakefully" to behold the very first idea of Mind that bursts
in upon conscious awareness to enlighten thought with the "advanced
idea," –– a prophet is born and its life begins anew!

When our textbook was first available to humanity in 1875, most of
those to whom its message was irresistibly overwhelming and most
gratefully received, happened to be individuals who were going through
trials and ordeals of every name and nature, but to the man, these
varying forms of "the curse on man" constituted for each individual
the "darkest hour" of their lives! The Christ, had indeed, "come to
the[ir] flesh to destroy incarnate error," and feeling these life-
altering changes occur, one by one did an army begin to grow that soon
converted into a massive movement of humanity that was being led and
fed by God's holy Christ in its second earthly advent to humanity!
Unlike the time of its first advent when it appeared personally as
Jesus; in its second advent it reappeared impersonally as Science, and
it embodied itself within a book, the "leaves" [pages] of which are
"for the healing of the nations."

Mrs. Eddy knew, from her own life-experience, that the "advanced idea"
of the impersonal Christ which she inscribed within our textbook and
introduced upon earth would meet and greet the masses of humanity most
often at the "darkest hour" of night! It is when lost in the dark
that thought "wakefully" reaches up and out as it yearns and strains
to catch the tiniest glimpse of light. Read, and mark well, what our
Leader writes of her own "EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT":

"The world was dark. The oncoming hours were indicated by no floral
dial. The senses could not prophesy sunrise or starlight.

Thus it was when the moment arrived of the heart's bridal to more
spiritual existence. When the door opened, I was waiting and
watching, and, lo, the bridegroom came! The character of the Christ
was illuminated by the midnight torches of Spirit. My heart knew its
Redeemer. He whom my affections had diligently sought was the One
"altogether lovely," as "the chiefest," the only, "among ten
thousand." Ret. 23:10=20.

How many were there who, at the "darkest hour" of their respective
lives, picked up "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and
began a spiritual journey that, by the time it is finished, leads
directly into the "city of our God," –– a "city not built with hands,"
where there is no need of Sun or satellite to illuminate it, as "there
is no night there," for "Love is the light of it!" The journey to
this holy City is one that traverses a seven hundred page excursion.
And, upon arrival at the glorious destination, the traveler who
started out as one "leaning" on the sustaining infinite, suddenly
awakens to discover and understand the glorious fact that he/she IS
the Sustaining Infinite! This, dear friend, is the destiny of all
humanity! And thus, is God's Christ Science at work revealing to each
"wakeful" thought the divinity of its humanity!

Can you see now why Mrs. Eddy purposed to have a testimony completely
fill page 700, and that its last words conclude the glorious journey
by declaring, "Through the careful and prayerful study of Science and
Health I have been lifted from sickness to health, from sorrow to
peace, from lack to plenty, and, the most beautiful of all, from
darkness to light."

In Unity of Good,

Dave Nolan