Independent Christian Science articles

Little Brown Duck Shingebiss (A Chippewa Indian Tale)

Excerpted from “My Book House” (edited by Olive Beaupre Miller)

In his lodge on the shores of Lake Huron lived little brown duck, Shingebiss. When the fierce North Wind swept down from the glittering land of Snow, four great logs for firewood had little brown duck, Shingebiss.

Brave and cheery was Shingebiss. No matter how the North Wind raged, he waddled out across the ice and found what food he needed. Pulling up the frozen rushes that grew in this little pond, he dived down through the holes they left and got his fish for supper. Then away to his lodge he went, dragging a string of fish behind him. By his blazing fire he cooked his fish for supper and made himself warm and cozy.

At last the North Wind shrieked: “Woo-oo-oo! Who dares brave Big Chief North Wind? All other creatures fear him. Only brown duck, Shingebiss, treats Big Chief North Wind as if he were a squaw-breeze!”

So the North Wind sent cold, icy blasts, and he made high drifts of snow, till not a bird or beast dared venture forth save Shingebiss. Shingebiss still went out just as he had before and paid no heed to the weather. He got his fish every day, cooked his supper every night, and warmed himself by his fire. “Ah!” raged Big Chief North Wind, “little brown duck, Shingebiss, cares not for snow or ice! North Wind will freeze his holes, so he can get no food; then Big Chief will conquer him!” So the North Wind froze the holes where the little brown duck fished and heaped his pond with snow.

But when Shingebiss found his holes closed so he could not reach the water, he did not even murmur. He just went cheerily on till he found another pond on which there was no snow. Then he pulled up the rushes there and made new holes for himself through which he could do his fishing.

“Brown Duck shall know who is Chief!” the North Wind howled in anger and, for days and days and days, he followed the little brown duck. He froze up his holes in the ice and covered his ponds with snow.

But Shingebiss walked forth fearlessly, just as he had before. He always got a few fish before each hole was frozen and he still went cheerily home every night dragging his fish with him. “Woo-woo-woo! Woo-woo-woo!” The North Wind now roared in fury. “Big Chief will go to the lodge of little brown duck, Shingebiss. Big Chief will blow in his door, sit down by his side, and breathe icy breath till he freezes.” Now Shingbiss at that moment had just eaten his supper and he was sitting cozily warming his little webbed feet by the blaze of his bright burning fire.

Carefully holding his breath, so Shingebiss should not hear him, quietly, very quietly, North Wind crept up to the lodge. But Shingebiss felt the icy cold come in through the cracks of the door. “I know who is there,” he thought. And begin to sing sturdily: “Ka-neej, Ka-neej, Bee-in, Bee-in, Bon-in, Bon-in, Ok-ee, Ok-ee, Ka-weya, Ka-weya!” And the North Wind knew he was saying: “North Wind, North Wind, fierce in feature, You are still my fellow creature; Blow your worst, you can’t freeze me; I fear you not, and so I’m FREE!”

Then the North Wind was raging, but he kept his voice to a whisper and he said: “Big Chief will freeze him!” So North Wind crept under the door, he slipped up behind little Shingebiss, and sat down by the fire. Now Shingebiss knew he was there, but he paid no heed at all. He kept singing louder: “Ka-neej! Kaneej! Bee-in, Bee-in.”

“Big Chief will stay till he freezes,” whistled the fierce North Wind, and he breathed his iciest breath. But at that moment, Shingebiss leaned over and stirred his fire. A shower of sparks leaped up and the log glowed ruddy gold. The North Wind’s frosty hair began all at once to drip, his icy face started to drip, the tears ran down his cheeks, the mighty puff of his breath grew fainter and fainter and fainter. But Shingebiss still sat warming his little webbed feet by the blaze and he still continued to sing: “North Wind, North Wind, fierce in feature, You are still my fellow creature.”

At length the North Wind gave a shriek. “Big Chief is melting!” he cried. And he rushed headlong through the doorway and flung himself on a snowbank. “Strange little brown duck, Shingebiss,” he murmured weakly to himself. “Big Chief North Wind can’t starve him, can’t freeze him, can’t make him afraid! Ugh! North Wind will let him alone. The Great Spirit is with him.”

The Frozen River

A legend read in Mrs. Eddy’s home many times at her request.

Once a river flowed free and easy over its rocky bed, but one night the temperature of the water dropped a dozen degrees or so, and continued to drop all the next day. By night, a thick coating of ice had formed under which the river flowed.

Accepting the best of it, the river flowed under the ice; but that night the coat thickened, crowding the activities of the river further down the stream. This went on until the river was a frozen mass. “O, dear,” said the river as it tried to move and could not, “Will it ever be possible that I can be free again and move? Will that day ever come?”

A south wind passed by and said, “If the sun would shine on you, it would help you.” The next day the sun did shine on the river, and the river was glad and full of expectations. “Now I shall be free.” But after shining all day, nothing happened; and that evening the river was very despondent. The sun, with more persistence than the river, came again and shone all day, week after week; but still with no obvious improvement. The river became discouraged and almost knew it would never flow again, never be free again.

The cheerful sun kept shining more brightly than ever, and one day the river felt a little loosening; but that night it became solid once again, and the river lost hope. But the sun came again the next day and loosened it again; that night it froze stiff. “How terrible,” said the river. “Every little bit I gain, I lose immediately.” But the faithful sun kept shining. At last, when it seemed all chances of relief were over, the ice broke up into great chunks which floated away so swiftly that the river was thrilled and grateful beyond belief! How easily it had departed! The river was free once more!

So it is with the obstinate case. The first day’s treatment may not melt the ice, nor the second, nor the third, and at night (in doubt or anxiety) it may freeze up again. But when faithfully followed and when the sunlight of Love and Truth is untiringly applied, the change does take place.

Judge not from appearances. It was neither the first day’s sun, nor the last that melted the ice. It took both, and all the days in between, to overcome the condition that had been growing and intensifying for months or maybe even years.

It took seven times around the walls of Jericho to reduce those walls to dust, and who shall say which was the most effective trip, the first or last? Spiritually, man is already free; and if he can get this established firmly in his mind and hold to it, regardless of the appearance, the demonstration is made. Never give in to discouragement, my friend. Keep persisting as cheerfully as the sun, and your victory is assured!

Separation of Truth and Error

From the July 1889 issue of The Christian Science Journal by

The most insidious form of evil — the highest attenuation of error concocted by mortal mind to oppose Christian Science, is that one taught in Chicago and recently illustrated in New York. The teaching and the scandal are related as cause and effect. It is not with personalities we have to do, but with error.

The formula of this error is, “God is all; God is good; there is no evil.” So far this is Science. Science adds to this abstract formula, “There is no evil — i. e., evil has no Principle or permanence—but we are in the sense of evil; this sense is a false sense, is error, and our problem is how to work out of the error.” Science says we work out of it by uncovering it—the error must be seen before it can be cast out. Science recognizes the warfare that the apostles speak of, the enmity between the flesh and Spirit. It declares, “The way is strait and narrow that leads to the understanding that God is Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, whereby we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, now or hereafter, but certainly before we can reach the goal of Spirit, or Life, as God.” — Science and Health.

But error takes up the scientific formula at the point — “there is no evil” — and says, “Therefore there is no evil for you to get out of; all you have to do is to deny its existence.” Error does not want to be uncovered, that is what it fears, what it wants is to be denied in this way; for to stop at denial is to confound Truth with error. Science says, “Cast out error;” error says, “Do not see me.” Science says, destroy: error says, deny. Science destroys the sense of sin; error teaches man “to sin without a sense of sin.”

The next inevitable step in error is — “If there be no evil I can commit no sin.” This devil’s logic first breaks down the eternal wall of separation between Truth and error, and then—to human sense—spans the impassible gulf that separates Good and evil. This conclusion of error once reached, the moral anchorage is lost, and the bark drifts helpless amid the surging waves. Whether it will finally be swallowed up by “free love” or other forms of gross sensualism, or by pantheism, theosophy,—the higher attenuations of error—is a matter of individual predilection, the play of forces of mortal mind that none can calculate.

The subtle poison of this error is working far and wide. Its emissaries have been active. Many have partaken of it; many who are sincere and honest in purpose, good and lovable — by human standards — in thought and life.

Sin’s necessity is “to destroy itself, and so yield to the government of God, wherein is no power to sin.” “To destroy sin is Love’s method of pardon.” What a lesson in Love, and in Love’s methods is the incident that suggests these lines. It is the higher human consciousness of Science that brought on this consummation of error, this rushing to its own destruction. “Be still, and know that I am God,” is its word to us. This error clung to us, and we knew not how to free ourselves from the standing reproach to Christian Science carried in the untruthful assumption of its name. But as we honored God, as we saw Science Divine, He worked for us, and the destruction through the methods of Love is more complete than any that human means could have devised. But this miserable affair is only an incident. The error bears in its womb uncounted scandals and falls; this incident has simply uncovered the error. It is now so plain that he that runs may read. It is our work to dig up and destroy every root of it. The separation between Truth and error must be complete.

A duty rests on every student. It is to correct two errors of the press. The first relates to a personality. The personality prominent in the history has never been connected with nor recognized by any Christian Scientist or Christian Scientist Association. It has to the contrary been repeatedly denounced to the public through the channels and persons authorized to speak for Christian Science, as unworthy to use the name of Science.

The second point that should be brought out in the press is the true teaching of Christian Science as to “free love.” In the chapter on Marriage these words are found. “The last infirmity of evil, that would fasten on mankind a new burden of guilt, is named Free Love; but the very boldness of depravity exposes its deformity.” In that chapter and in the article “Conjugal Rights” are the authoritative teachings of Christian Science on the institution of marriage. No argument is so forcible as these terse periods. Every student living in a place where a daily or weekly paper has published the statements, mixing Christian Science with the conjugal insanities that have manifested themselves in the rush of the swine for the sea, should meet such statements with a few lines of Truth, better than columns of argument.

The Master Silversmith

Malachi 3:3 says, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says, “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.” If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Mrs. Eddy and the Bible

Mrs. Eddy refers to the Bible specifically over 600 times in her writings, and she incorporates hundreds of Scriptural quotations in her articles and books.

The following was found in one of Mrs. Eddy’s Bibles, penned by her on note paper.

Bible

  • It is a book of laws to show the right and wrong.
  • It is a book of wisdom that condemns all folly.
  • It is a book of Truth that condemns all error.
  • It is a book of Life that shows the way from everlasting death.
  • It will puzzle the most skillful Anatomist and critic.
  • It exposes the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad.
  • It is the best covenant that was ever agreed to, the best deed that was ever sealed.
  • It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity an unequalled narrative.
  • Author — God

Thoughts on Church

  • Before each service know that God brings the seeker for Truth to our door.
  • Know that this service is the very presence of the Christ.
  • Make a law that each one present will be healed, blessed and enlightened.
  • Work to establish a healing atmosphere.
  • Know that there is no resistance to the service and that Truth cannot be opposed.
  • Animal magnetism cannot interfere with the service.
  • Everyone present is receptive and open to the Christ, Truth. Each one present has the Mind of Christ.
  • Pray for the congregation throughout the service.
  • Know that God’s blessing for the congregation cannot be reversed, but goes out to heal all mankind.
  • After the service, ask God where you can be of most help in the foyer.
  • Live God’s love in the foyer.

Love is the liberator.