YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MESSAGE TO THE
MOTHER CHURCH

...JUNE, 1902

MESSAGE to
THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST,
SCIENTIST, OR
MOTHER CHURCH.
BOSTON, June 15, 1902.
BY
REV. MARY BAKER G. EDDY,

pastob bmebitus and author of
' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
Twenty-eighth Thousand.

BOSTON, MASS..
PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH ARMSTRONG,
95 FALMOUTH STREET.
1902.

Copyright, 1902,
By Mary Baker G. Eddv.
All rights reserved.

PRINTED BY
RUMFORD PRINTINC CO.,
CONCORD, N. H.

^essaoe*

THE OLD AND THE NEW COM
MANDMENT.
Beloved Brethren : Another year of
God's loving providence for his people in
times of persecution has marked the history
of Christian Science. With no special effort
to achieve this result, our church com
municants constantly increase in number,
unity, steadfastness. Two thousand seven
hundred and eighty-four members have
been added to our church during the year
ending June, 1902, making total 24,278
members ; while our branch churches are
multiplying everywhere and blossoming as
the rose. Evil, though combined in formid
able conspiracy, is made to glorify God.

The Scripture declares, "The wrath of
man shall praise Him, and the remainder
thereof He will restrain."
Whatever seems calculated to displace or
discredit the ordinary systems of religious
beliefs and opinions wrestling only with
material observation, has always met with
opposition and detraction ; this ought not
so to be, for a system that honors God and
benefits mankind should be welcomed and
sustained. While Christian Science, engag
ing the attention of philosopher and sage,
is circling the globe, only the earnest, hon
est investigator sees through the mist of
mortal strife this day-star, and whither it
guides. To live and let live, without clamor for
distinction or recognition ; to wait on divine
Love ; to write truth first on the tablet of
one's own heart, — this is the sanity and
perfection of living, and my human ideal.
The Science of man and the universe, in
contradistinction to all error, is on the way,
and Truth makes haste to meet and to
welcome it. It is purifying all peoples,

religions, ethics, and learning, and making
the children our teachers.
Within the last decade religion in the
United States has passed from stern Protest
antism to doubtful liberalism. God speed
the right ! The wise builders will build on
the Stone at the head of the corner ; and so
Christian Science, the little leaven hid in
three measures of meal, — ethics, medicine,
and religion, — is rapidly fermenting, and
enlightening the world with the glory of
untrammeled truth. The present modifi
cations in ecclesiasticism are an outcome of
progress ; dogmatism, relegated to the past,
gives place to a more spiritual manifesta
tion, wherein Christ is Alpha and Omega.
It was an inherent characteristic of my
nature, a kind of birth-mark, to love the
church ; and the church once loved me.
Then why not remain friends, or at least
agree to disagree, in love, — part fair foes.
I never left the church, either in heart or in
doctrine ; I but began where the church
left off. When the churches and I round
the gospel of grace, in the circle of love,

we shall meet again never to part. I have
always taught the student to overcome evil
with good, used no other means myself;
and ten thousand loyal Christian Scien
tists to one disloyal, bear testimony to this
fact. The loosening cords of non-Christian
religions in the Orient are apparent. It is
cause for joy that among the educated
classes. Buddhism and Shintoism are said
to be regarded now more as a philosophy
than as a religion.
I rejoice that the President of the United
States has put an end, at Charleston, to
any lingering sense of the North's half-
hostility to the South, thus reinstating the
old national family pride and joy in the sis
terhood of states.
Our nation's forward step was the inaug
uration of home rule in Cuba, — our military
forces withdrawing, and leaving her in
the enjoyment of self-government under
improved laws. It is well that our govern
ment, in its brief occupation of that pearl
of the ocean, has so improved her public

school system, that her dusky children are
learning to read and write.
The world rejoices with our sister nation
over the close of the conflict in South
Africa ; now, British and Boer may prosper
in peace wiser at the close than the begin
ning of war. The dazzling diadem of
royalty will sit easier on the brow of good
King Edward, — the muffled fear of death
and triumph, canker not his coronation,
and woman's thoughts — ^the joy of the
sainted Qiieen, and the lay of angels, hal
low the ring of state.
It does not follow that power must mature
into oppression ; indeed, right is the only
real potency ; and the only true ambition is,
to serve God, and to help the race. Envy
is the atmosphere of hell. According to
Holy Writ, the first lie and leap into perdi
tion began with "believe in me." Compe
tition in commerce, deceit in councils, dis
honor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin
with: "Who shall be greatest?" I again
repeat, follow your Leader, only so far as
she follows Christ.

8

I cordially congratulate our Board of
Lectureship, and Publication Committee,
on their adequacy and correct analysis of
Christian Science. Let us all pray at this
communion season for more grace, a more
fulfilled life and spiritual understanding,
bringing music to the ear, rapture to the
heart — a fathomless peace between Soul
and senses — and that our works be as
worthy as our words.
My subject to-day embraces the First
Commandment in the Hebrew decalogue,
and the New Commandment in the Gospel
of Peace, both ringing like soft vesper
chimes adown the corridors of Time, and
echoing and reechoing through the meas
ureless rounds of eternity.

GOD AS LOVE.
The First Commandment, "Thou shalt
have no other gods before me," is a law
never to be abrogated — a divine statute for
yesterday, and to-day, and forever. I shall
briefly consider these two commandments
in a few of their infinite meanings, appli
cable to all periods — past, present, and fu
ture. Alternately transported and alarmed by
abstruse problems of Scripture, we are lia
ble to turn from them as impractical, or be
yond the ken of mortals, — and past finding
out. Our thoughts of the Bibld utter our
lives. As silent night foretells the dawn
and din of morn ; as the dulness of to-day
prophesies renewed energy for to-morrow,
— so the pagan philosophies and tribal
religions of yesterday but foreshadowed the
spiritual dawn of the twentieth century —
religion parting with its materiality.
Christian Science stills all distress over
doubtful interpretations of the Bible ; it
lights the fires of the Holy Ghost, and

lO

floods the world with the baptism of Jesus.
It is this ethereal flame, this almost uncon-
ceived light of divine Love, that heaven
husbands in the First Commandment.
For man to be thoroughly subordinated
to this Commandment, God must be intelli
gently considered and understood. The
ever-recurring human question and won
der, What is God? can never be answered
satisfactorily by human hypotheses or phil
osophy. Divine Metaphysics and St. John
have answered this great question forever
in these words: "God is Love." This
absolute definition of Deity is the theme for
time and for eternity ; it is iterated in the
law of God, reiterated in the gospel of
Christ, voiced in the thunder of Sinai, and
breathed in the Sermon on the Mount.
Hence our Master's saying, — "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfil." Since God is Love, and infinite, why
should mortals conceive of a law, propound
a question, formulate a doctrine, or specu-

II

late on the existence of anything which is
an antipode of infinite Love and the mani
festation thereof? The sacred command
' ' Thou shalt have no other gods before
me," silences all questions on this subject,
and forever forbids the thought of any other
reality, since it is impossible to have aught
unlike the Infinite.
The knowledge of life, substance, or law,
apart or other than God — Good — is forbid
den. The curse of Love and Truth was
pronounced upon a lie, upon false knowl
edge, the fruits of the flesh not Spirit.
Since knowledge of evil, of something be
sides God, good, brought death into the
world on the basis of a lie. Love and Truth
destroy this knowledge, — and Christ,
Truth, demonstrated and continues to
demonstrate this grand verity, saving the
sinner and healing the sick. Jesus said a
lie fathers itself, thereby showing that God
neither made evil nor its consequences.
Here all human woe is seen to obtain in a
false claim, an untrue consciousness, an
impossible creation, yea, something that is

12

not of God. The Christianization of mor
tals whereby the mortal concept and all it
includes is obliterated, lets in the divine
sense of being, fulfils the law in righteous
ness, and consummates the First Com
mandment, " Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." All Christian faith,
hope, and prayer, all devout desire, vir
tually petition, Make me the image and
likeness of divine Love.
Through Christ, Truth, Divine Meta
physics points the way, demonstrates Hea
ven here, the struggle over, and victory on
the side of Truth. In the degree that man
becomes spiritually minded he becomes
God-like. St. Paul writes: "For to be
carnally minded is death ; but to be spirit
ually minded is life and peace." Divine
Science fulfils the law and the gospel,
wherein God is infinite Love, including
nothing unlovely, producing nothing un
like Himself, the true nature of Love in
tact and eternal. Divine Metaphysics con
cedes no origin, or causation apart from
God. It accords all to God, Spirit, and

13
His infinite manifestations of love — man
and the universe.
In the first chapter of Genesis, matter,
sin, disease, and death enter not into the
category of creation or consciousness.
Minus this spiritual understanding of Scrip
ture, of God, and His creation, neither
philosophy, nature, nor grace can give
man the true idea of God — divine Love —
sufficiently to fulfil the First Command
ment. The Latin omni, which signifies all,
used as an English prefix to the words po-
tence, presence, science, signify all-power,
all-presence, all-science. Use these words
to define God, and nothing is left to con
sciousness but Love, without beginning and
without end, even the forever / AM, and
All, than which there is naught else. Thus
we have scriptural authority for Divine
Metaphysics — spiritual man and the uni
verse coexistent with God. No other logi
cal conclusion can be drawn from the
premises, and no other scientific proposi
tion can be Christianly entertained.

14

LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Here we proceed to another scriptural
passage which serves to confirm Christian
Science. Christ Jesus saith, — "A new
commandment I give unto you that ye love
one another as I have loved you." It is
obvious that He called His disciples' spe
cial attention to His new comma'ndment.
And wherefore? Because it emphasizes
the apostle's declaration, God is Love, — it
elucidates Christianity, illustrates God, and
man as His likeness, and commands man
to love as Jesus loved.
The law and the gospel concur, and
both will be fulfilled. Is it necessary to
say that the likeness of God, Spirit, is
spiritual, and the likeness of Love is lov
ing? When loving, we learn that " God
is Love ;" mortals hating, or unloving, are
neither Christians nor Scientists. The
new commandment of Christ Jesus shows
what true spirituality is, and its harmonious
effects on the sick, and the sinner. No
person can heal or reform mankind unless

IS
he is actuated by love and good will
towards men. The coincidence between
the law and the gospel, between the old
and the new commandment, confirms the
fact that God and Love are one. The
spiritually minded are inspired with tender
ness, Truth, and Love. The life of Christ
Jesus, His words, and His deeds, demon
strate Love. We have no evidence of
being Christian Scientists except we pos
sess this inspiration, and its power to heal
and to save. The energy that saves sin
ners and heals the sick is divine : and Love
is the Principle thereof. Scientific Chris
tianity works out the rule of spiritual love ;
it makes man active, it prompts perpetual
goodness, for the ego, or <I, goes to the
Father, whereby man is Godlike. Love,
purity, meekness, coexist in Divine Sci
ence. Lust, hatred, revenge, coincide in
material sense. Christ Jesus reckoned
man in Science, having the kingdom of
Heaven within him. He spake of man
not as the offspring of Adam, a departure
from God, or His lost likeness, but as God's'

i6

child. Spiritual love makes man conscious
that God is his Father, and the conscious
ness of God as Love gives man power with
untold furtherance. Then God becomes to
him the All-Presence — quenching sin ; the
All-Power — giving life, health, holiness ;
the All-Science — all law and gospel.
Jesus commanded, " Let the dead bury
their dead, and follow thou me ;" in other
words. Let the world, popularity, pride,
and ease concern you less, and love thou.
When the full significance of this saying is
understood, we shall have better practi
tioners, and Truth will arise in human
thought with healing in its wings, regen
erating mankind and fulfilling the apos
tle's saying : ' ' For the law of the Spirit of
Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death." Loving
chords set discords in harmony. Every
condition implied by the great Master,
every promise fulfilled, was loving and
spiritual, urging a state of consciousness
that leaves the minor tones of so-called
material life and abides in Christlikeness.

17
The unity of God and man is not the
dream of a heated brain ; it is the spirit of
the healing Christ, that dwelt forever in
the bosom of the Father, and should abide
forever in man. When first I heard the
life-giving sound thereof, and knew not
whence it came nor whither it tended, it
was the proof of its divine origin, and heal
ing power, that opened my closed eyes.
Did the age's thinkers laugh long over
Morse's discovery of telegraphy? Did
they quarrel long with the inventor of a
steam engine ? Is it cause for bitter com
ment and personal abuse that an individual
has met the need of mankind with some
new-old truth that counteracts ignorance
and superstition? Whatever enlarges man's
facilities for knowing and doing good, and
subjugates matter, has a fight with the
flesh. Utilizing the capacities of the hu
man mind uncovers new ideas, unfolds
spiritual forces, the divine energies, and
their power over matter, molecule, space,
time, mortality; and mortals cry out, —
"Art thou come hither to torment us before

i8

the time? " then dispute the facts, call them
false or in advance of the time, and reit
erate, Let me alone. Hence the footprints
of a reformer are stained with blood. Rev.
Hugh Black writes truly : " The birth
place of civilization is not Athens, but Cal
vary." When the human mind is advancing
above itself towards the Divine, it is subju
gating the body, subduing matter, taking
steps outward and upwards. This upward
tendency of humanity will finally gain the
scope of Jacob's vision, and rise from sense
to Soul, from earth to Heaven.
Religions in general admit that man
becomes finally spiritual. If such is man's
ultimate, his predicate tending thereto is
correct, and inevitably spiritual. Where
fore then smite the reformer who finds the
more spiritual way, shortens the distance,
discharges burdensome baggage, and in
creases the speed of mortals' transit from
matter to Spirit — yea, from sin to holiness ?
This is indeed our sole proof that Christ,
Truth, is the way. The old and recurring

19
martyrdom of God's best witnesses is the
infirmity of evil, the modus operandi of
human error, carnality, opposition to God
and His power in man. Persecuting a
reformer is like sentencing a man for com
municating with foreign nations in other
ways than by walking every step over the
land route, and swimming the ocean with a
letter in his hand to leave on a foreign
shore. Our heavenly Father never des
tined mortals, who seek for a better coun
try, to wander on the shores of time disap
pointed travelers, tossed to and fro by ad
verse circumstances, inevitably subject to
sin, disease, and death. Divine Love waits
and pleads to save mankind — and awaits
with warrant and welcome, grace and glory,
the earth-weary and heavy-laden who find
and point the path to heaven.
Envy, or abuse of him who having a new
idea, or a more spiritual understanding of
God, hastens to help on his fellow-mortals,
is neither Christian nor Science. If a
postal service, a steam engine, a submarine
cable, a wireless telegraph, each in turn

20

has helped mankind, how much more is
accomplished when the race is helped on
ward by a new-old message from God,
even the knowledge of salvation from sin,
disease, and death.
The world's wickedness gave our glori
fied Master a bitter cup — which He drank,
giving thanks, then gave it to His followers
to drink. Therefore it is thine, advancing
Christian, and this is thy Lord's benedic
tion upon it: "Blessed are ye when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be ex
ceeding glad ; for great is your reward in
heaven : for so persecuted they the proph
ets which were before you."
Of old the Jews put to death the Galilean
prophet, the best Christian on earth, for
the truths he said and did : while to-day
Jew and Christian can unite in doctrine
and in practise on the very basis of His
words and works. The Jew believes that
the Messiah or the Christ has not yet come ;
the Christian believes that Christ is come

21

and is God. Here Christian Science inter
venes, explains these doctrinal points, can
cels the disagreement, and settles the whole
question, on the basis that Christ is the
Messiah, the true spiritual idea, and this
ideal of God is now and forever, here and
everywhere. The Jew who believes in the
First Commandment is a monotheist, he
has one omnipresent God : thus the Jew
unites with the Christian idea that God is
come, and is ever present. The Christian
who believes in the First Commandment is
a monotheist : thus he virtually unites with
the Jew's belief in one God, and that Jesus
Christ is not God, as he himself declared,
but is the Son of God. This declaration of
Christ, understood, conflicts not at all with
another of his sayings : "I and my Father
are one," — that is, one in quality, not in
quantity. As a drop of water is one with
ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even
so God and man. Father and son, are one
in being. The Scripture reads: " For in
Him we live, and move, and have our
being."

22

Here allow me to interpolate some mat
ters of business that ordinarily find no place
in my Message. It is a privilege to ac
quaint communicants with the financial
transactions of this church, so far as I
know them, and especially before making
another united effort to purchase more land
and enlarge our church edifice so as to seat
the large number who annually favor us
with their presence on Communion Sun
day. When founding the institutions and early
movements of the cause of Christian Sci
ence, I furnished the money from my own
private earnings to meet the expenses in
volved. In this endeavor self was forgot
ten, peace sacrificed, Christ and our cause
my only incentives, and each success in
curred a sharper fire from enmity.
During the last seven years I have trans
ferred to the Mother Church, of my per
sonal property and funds, to the value of
about $120,000; and the net profits from
the business of the Christian Science Pub
lishing Society (which was a part of

23
this transfer) yield this church a liberal
income. I receive no personal benefit
therefrom except the privilege of publish
ing my books in their publishing house,
and desire none other.
The land on which to build The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, had
been negotiated for, and about one half the
price paid, when a loss of funds occurred,
and I came to the rescue, purchased the
mortgage on the lot corner of Falmouth
and Caledonia (now Norway) streets ;
paying for it the sum of $4,963.50 and in
terest, through my legal counsel. After
the mortgage had expired and the note
therewith became due, legal proceed
ings were instituted by my counsel adver
tising the property in the Boston newspa
pers, and giving opportunity for those who
had previously negotiated for the property
to redeem the land by paying the amount
due on the mortgage. But no one offering
the price I had paid for it, nor to take the
property off my hands, the mortgage was
foreclosed, and the land legally conveyed

24
to me, by my counsel. This land, now
valued at $20,000, I afterwards gave to my
church through trustees, who were to be
known as " The Christian Science Board
of Directors." A copy of this deed is pub
lished in our Church Manual. About
$5 ,000 had been paid on the land when I
redeemed it. The only interest I retain in
this property is to save it for my church. I
can neither rent, mortgage, nor sell this
church edifice nor the land whereon it
stands. I suggest as a motto for every Christian
Scientist, — a living and life-giving spiritual
shield against the Powers of Darkness, —
" Great not like Caesar, stained with blood.
But only great as I am good."
The only genuine success possible for any
Christian — and the only success I have ever
achieved — has been accomplished on this
solid basis. The remarkable growth and
prosperity of Christian Science are its legit
imate fruit. A successful end could never
have been compassed on any other founda
tion, — with truths so counter to the common

25
convictions of mankind to present to the
world. From the beginning of the great
battle every forward step has been met (not
by mankind, but by a kind of men) with
mockery, envy, rivalry, and falsehood — as
achievement after achievement has been
blazoned on the forefront of the world and
recorded in Heaven. The popular philoso
phies and religions have afforded me neither
favor nor protection in the great struggle.
Therefore, I ask : What has shielded and
prospered preeminently our great cause,
but the outstretched arm of Infinite Love?
This pregnant question, answered frankly
and honestly, should forever silence all
private criticisms, all unjust public asper
sions, and afford an open field and fair
play. In the eighties, anonymous letters mailed
to me contained threats to blow up the hall
where I preached ; yet I never lost my faith
in God ; and neither informed the police of
these letters, nor sought the protection of
the laws of my country. I leaned on God,
and was safe.

26

Healing all manner of diseases without
charge, keeping a free institute, rooming
and boarding indigent students that I taught
"without money and without price," I
struggled on through many years ; and
while dependent on the income from the
sale of Science and Health, my publisher
paid me not one dollar of royalty on its
first edition. Those were days wherein the
connection between justice and being ap
proached the mythical. Before entering
upon my great life-work, my income from
literary sources was ample, until, declin
ing dictation as to what I should write, I
became poor for Christ's sake. My hus
band. Colonel Glover, of Charleston, South
Carolina, was considered wealthy, but
much of his property was in slaves, and I
declined to sell them at his decease in 1844
for I could never believe that a human
being was my property.
Six weeks I waited on God to suggest a
name for the book I had been writing. Its
title. Science and Health, came to me in
the silence of night, when the steadfast

27
stars watched over the world , — when slum
ber had fled, — and I rose and recorded the
hallowed suggestion. The following day
I showed it to my literary friends, who ad
vised me to drop both the book and the
title. To this, however, I gave no heed,
feeling sure that God had led me to write
that book, and had whispered that name
to my waiting hope and prayer. It was
to me the still small voice that came to
Elijah after the earthquake and the fire.
Six months thereafter Miss Dorcas Rawson,
of Lynn, brought to me Wycliff's transla
tion of the New Testament, and pointed
out that identical phrase, " Science and
Health," which is rendered in the Author
ized Version " Knowledge of Salvation."
This was my first inkling of Wycliffs use
of that combination of words, or of their
rendering. To-day I am the happy pos
sessor of a copy of Wycliff, the invaluable
gift of two Christian Scientists, — Mr. W.
Nicholas Miller, K. C, and Mrs. F. L.
Miller, of London, England.

28

GODLIKENESS.
Saint Paul writes : " Follow peace with
all men, and holiness, without which no
man shall see the Lord." To attain peace
and holiness is to recognize the Divine
presence and AUness. Jesus said: "I
am the Way." Kindle the watchfires of
unselfed love, and they throw a light upon
the uncomplaining agony in the life of our
Lord ; they open the enigmatical seals of
the angel — standing in the sun, a glorified
spiritual idea of the ever-present God — in
whom there is no darkness, but all is light,
and man's immortal being. The meek
might, sublime patience, wonderful works,
and opening not his mouth in self-defense
against false witnesses, express the life of
Godlikeness. Fasting, feasting, or penance,
— merely outside forms of religion, — fail to
elucidate Christianity : they reach not the
heart nor renovate it, they never destroy
one iota of hypocrisy, pride, self-will,
envy, or hate. The mere form of Godli
ness, coupled with selfishness, worldliness,

29
hatred, and lust, are knells tolling the
burial of Christ.
Jesus said: " If ye love me, keep my
commandments . " He knew that obedience
is the test of love ; that one gladly obeys
when obedience gives him happiness.
Selfishly, or otherwise, all are ready to
seek and obey what they love. When mor
tals learn to love aright ; when they learn
that man's highest happiness, that which
has most of heaven in it, is in blessing oth
ers, and self immolation — they will obey
both the old and the new Command
ment, and receive the reward of obedience.
Many sleep who should keep themselves
awake, and waken the world. Earth's act
ors change earth's scenes ; and the cur
tain of human life should be lifted on reality,
on that which outweighs time; on duty
done and life perfected; — wherein joy is
real and fadeless. Who of the world's lovers
ever found her true ? It is wise to be will
ing to wait on God, and to be wiser than
serpents, to hate no man, to love one's
enemies, and to square accounts with each

30
passing hour. Then thy gain outlives the
sun, for the sun shines but to show man
the beauty of holiness and the wealth of
love. Happiness consists in being and in
doing good ; only what God gives, and
what we give ourselves and others through
His tenure, confers happiness ; — conscious
worth satisfies the hungry heart, and noth
ing else can. Consult thy every-day life ;
take its answer as to thy aims, motives,
fondest purposes, and this oracle of years
will put to flight all care for the world's
soft flattery, or its frown. Patience and
resignation are the pillars of peace, that,
like the sun beneath the horizon, cheers the
heart susceptible of light with promised joy.
Be faithful at the temple gate of conscience,
wakefuUy guard it ; then thou wilt know
when the thief cometh.
The constant spectacle of sin thrust upon
the pure sense of the immaculate Jesus
made him a man of sorrows. He lived
when mortals looked ignorantly, as now,
on the might of divine power manifested
through man, only to mock, wonder, and

31
perish. Sad to say, the cowardice and self-
seeking of his disciples helped crown with
thorns the life of Him who broke not the
bruised reed, and quenched not the smok
ing flax, — who caused not the feeble to fall,
nor spared through false pity the consuming
tares. Jesus was compassionate, true, faith
ful to rebuke, ready to forgive. He said,
" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me." " Love one another as I have
loved you." No estrangement, no emula
tion, no deceit, enters into the heart that
loves as Jesus loved. It is a false sense of
love that like the summer brook soon gets
dry. Jesus laid down his life for mankind ;
what more could he do? Beloved, how
much of what he did are we doing ? Yet
he said, " The works that I do ye shall do."
When this prophecy of the great Teacher
is fulfilled we shall have more effective
healers and less theorizing ; — faith without
proof loses its life, and it should be buried.
The ignoble conduct of his disciples towards
their Master, showing their unfitness to fol-

32
low him, ended in the downfall of genuine
Christianity, about the year 325, and the
violent death of all his disciples save one.
The nature of Jesus made him keenly
alive to the injustice, ingratitude, treachery,
and brutality that he received. Yet behold
his love ! So soon as he burst the bonds of
the tomb he hastened to console his unfaith
ful followers and to disarm their fears.
Again : True to his divine nature, he
rebuked them on the eve of his ascension,
called one a "fool — " then, lifting up his
hands and blessing them, he rose from
earth to heaven.
The Christian Scientist cherishes no
resentment ; he knows that that would harm
him more than all the malice of his foes.
Brethren, even as Jesus forgave, forgive
thou. I say it with joy, — no person can
commit an offence against me that I cannot
forgive. Meekness is the armor of a Chris
tian, his shield and his buckler. He enter
tains angels, who listens to the lispings of
repentance seen in a tear — happier than the
conqueror of a world. To the burdened

33
and weary, Jesus saith : " Come unto me."
O glorious hope ! there remaineth a rest
for the righteous, a rest in Christ, a peace
in Love. The thought of it stills complaint ;
the heaving surf of life's troubled sea foams
itself away, and underneath is a deep-
settled calm.
Are earth's pleasures, its ties, and its
treasures taken away from you? It is
divine Love that doeth it, and sayeth, "Ye
have need of all these things." A danger
besets thy path? — a spiritual behest, in
reversion, awaits you.
The great Master triumphed in furnace
fires. Then, Christian Scientists, trust,
and, trusting, you will find divine Science
glorifies the cross, and crowns the associa
tion with our Saviour in his life of love.
There is no redundant drop in the cup that
our Father permits us. Christ walketh
over the wave ; on the ocean of events,
mounting the billow or going down into
the deep, the voice of Him who stilled the
tempest saith, — "It is I, be not afraid."
Thus he bringeth us into the desired

34
haven, the Kingdom of Spirit ; and the
hues of Heaven, tipping the dawn of ever
lasting day, joyfully whisper, — No drunk
ards within, no sorrow, no pain ; and the
glory of earth's woes is risen upon you,
rewarding, satisfying, glorifying thy unfal
tering faith and good works with the ful
ness of divine Love.
'T was God who gave that word of might
Which swelled creation's lay, —
" Let there be light, and there was light,''
That swept the clouds away, —
'T was Love whose finger traced aloud
A bow of promise on the cloud.
Beloved brethren, are you ready to join
me in this proposition, namely, — In 1902
to begin omitting our annual gathering
at Pleasant View, — thus breaking any
seeming connection between the Sacrament
in our Church and a pilgrimage to Con
cord? I shall be the loser by this change,
for it gives me great joy to look into the
faces of my dear Church members ; but in
this, as all else, I can bear the cross, while

35
gratefully appreciating the privilege of
meeting you all occasionally in the metrop
olis of my native State, whose good people
welcome Christian Scientists.

3\t&t Ollfttrtlf of OIl?rtst. ^rtftttiat.
763 (Siinptl »tvttt.

C( &,^iy ^ .V ;

(fitU rtt^t-^vr^o itr -fiuxcti -z.^iv

' 1 1 icl v-L^ dj

I I'i/ I 1 L

(yLdCtri.

CO' ilf^ : c fn r- I V . ^ i ^l

/A:

'. n^v

^J'liM /li./zt^-C/it

If.

(jh-'u^ y'u.

v

-ti'i ti

-d.

-/«t y^