Article November 10, 1917 Issue

Hymns and Inspiration

CHRISTINE A. EMERY

It is a most interesting experience to meet or to hear from some of the many people who have derived untold benefit from the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal. Far more is being accomplished through this one channel than most of us realize, even though we have had myriad blessings and occasions for gratitude. This is especially true in my own case, for I at first found Christian Science very difficult to understand and therefore very hard to accept. I often looked with awe on those who had been healed of what were called "really serious troubles" by merely reading or studying Science and Health. But the hymns, embodying as they do the Christianly scientific thought, were very comforting and inspiring and of wonderful assistance to me. Unconsciously I memorized many of them, and in times of stress the healing thought in those hymns would come to my mind. This was the more remarkable because until then I had been unable to grasp or to demonstrate the teachings of Christian Science.

At that time I was living in the mountains, remote from a Christian Science church or those interested in it. For several years I had been obsessed with a belief of loneliness which at times was almost despair, and in an effort to bring some of the good things of the outside world to my isolated home I had purchased a talking machine and a supply of records. But however helpful these were, I felt the need of something more dependable, and it was then that a friend who visited me brought Christian Science to my attention. I was unaccustomed to having religion demonstrated on an absolutely scientific basis, and was baffled by its very evident simplicity, not then realizing that like the laws of all true science those of Christian Science must be inexorable and fundamentally simple. So, although I had received wonderful help through the patient, loving efforts of my friend, and still was in need of much greater assistance, I clung to the elaborate ritualistic teachings of the church of which I had long been a member.

When I was in the very depths of despondency, I made the long trip to town to buy new records with which I hoped to amuse and cheer myself through the long winter looming ahead as almost unbearably dreary, and it was then that I heard and ordered all of the records listed as "Christian Science Hymns." These included Mrs. Eddy's hymns: "O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind," "Saw ye my Saviour?" and "Shepherd, show me how to go;" also two by other authors: "Day by day the manna fell" and "In Thee, oh Spirit, true and tender."

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