Article November 18, 2013 Issue

Discovering the Christian Science Hymnal

Mark B. Raffles

Some years ago we went on a family vacation to an entertainment park. After a wonderful first day, we were waiting outside a restaurant when our daughter slipped off a ledge and fell on her chin. The deepness of the cut and the amount of blood were disturbing, but we had full confidence in God’s power to care for her.

Back in our hotel room, my wife and I cleaned the wound, and with our arms around our daughter, prayed to know that it was impossible for any of us “under the government of God in eternal Science” to fall from our “high estate” and that “accidents are unknown to God …” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 258, 424). Our firm awareness of God’s presence spilled over to our daughter, who also remained calm.

After our daughter went to sleep, and I was putting our son to bed, my wife spent several hours reading a words-only Christian Science Hymnal she had brought along on the trip. She told me later that she had recalled a hymn that spoke about “each wound and smart,” and after a determined search found those words by James J. Rome in Hymn No. 69. The last two lines gave her confidence that our daughter’s wound was perfectly and gently bound by Truth and Love, and by the healing touch of the Christ: “And with Thy healing touch, each wound and smart / With Christly bands of Love and Truth to bind.”