0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 6 – Retrospection and Introspection – Chpt 8 – Marriage and Parentage

                     MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE 


 1	    In 1843 I was united to my first husband, Colonel George
  	Washington Glover of Charleston, South Carolina,
 3	the ceremony taking place under the paternal roof in
  	Tilton. 
  	    After parting with the dear home circle I went with
 6	him to the South; but he was spared to me for only one
  	brief year. He was in Wilmington, North Carolina, on
  	business, when the yellow-fever raged in that city, and was
 9	suddenly attacked by this insidious disease, which in his
  	case proved fatal. 
  	    My husband was a freemason, being a member in Saint
12	Andrew's Lodge, Number 10, and of Union Chapter, Num-
  	ber 3, of Royal Arch masons. He was highly esteemed
  	and sincerely lamented by a large circle of friends and ac-
15	quaintances, whose kindness and sympathy helped to sup-
  	port me in this terrible bereavement. A month later I
  	returned to New Hampshire, where, at the end of four
18	months, my babe was  born. 
  	    Colonel Glover's tender devotion to his young bride
  	was remarked by all observers. With his parting breath
21	he gave pathetic directions to his brother masons about
  	accompanying her on her sad journey to the North. Here
  	it is but justice to record, they performed their obligations
24	most faithfully. 
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Marriage and Parentage      20


 1	    After returning to the paternal roof I lost all my hus-
  	band's property, except what money I had brought with
 3	me; and remained with my parents until after my mother's
  	decease. 
  	    A few months before my father's second marriage, to
 6	Mrs. Elizabeth Patterson Duncan, sister of Lieutenant-
  	Governor George W. Patterson of New York, my little
  	son, about four years of age, was sent away from me, and
 9	put under the care of our family nurse, who had married,
  	and resided in the northern part of New Hampshire. I
  	had no training for self-support, and my home I regarded
12	as very precious. The night before my child was taken
  	from me, I knelt by his side throughout the dark hours,
  	hoping for a vision of relief from this trial. The follow-
15	ing lines are taken from my poem, "Mother's Darling,"
  	written after this separation: —  

  	     Thy smile through tears, as sunshine o'er the sea,
18	       Awoke new beauty in the surge's roll!  
  	     Oh, life is dead, bereft of all, with thee, — 
  	       Star of my earthly hope, babe of my soul.   


21	    My second marriage was very unfortunate, and from it
  	I was compelled to ask for a bill of divorce, which was
  	granted me in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. 
24	    My dominant thought in marrying again was to get
  	back my child, but after our marriage his stepfather was
  	not willing he should have a home with me. A plot was
27	consummated for keeping us apart. The family to whose
  	care he was committed very soon removed to what was
  	then regarded as the Far West. 
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Marriage and Parentage       21


 1	    After his removal a letter was read to my little son,
  	informing him that his mother was dead and buried. 
 3	Without my knowledge a guardian was appointed him, and
  	I was then informed that my son was lost. Every means
  	within my power was employed to find him, but without
 6	success. We never met again until he had reached the
  	age of thirty-four, had a wife and two children, and by a
  	strange providence had learned that his mother still lived,
 9	and came to see me in Massachusetts. 
  	    Meanwhile he had served as a volunteer throughout
  	the war for the Union, and at its expiration was appointed
12	United States Marshal of the Territory of Dakota. 
  	    It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal
  	history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real ex-
15	istence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. 
  	It is "as a tale that is told," and "as the shadow when it
  	declineth." The heavenly intent of earth's shadows is to
18	chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and
  	turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and happi-
  	ness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being. 
21	    The awakening from a false sense of life, substance, and
  	mind in matter, is as yet imperfect; but for those lucid
  	and enduring lessons of Love which tend to this result,
24	I bless God. 
  	    Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivo-
  	lous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of
27	Truth. To this end, but only to this end, such narrations
  	may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual con-
  	clusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is
30	lost, and the argument, with its rightful conclusions, be-
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Marriage and Parentage       22


 1	comes correspondingly obscure. The human history needs
  	to be revised, and the material record expunged. 
 3	    The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the
  	life of our great Master. His spiritual noumenon and
  	phenomenon silenced portraiture. Writers less wise than
 6	the apostles essayed in the Apocryphal New Testament
  	a legendary and traditional history of the early life of
  	Jesus. But St. Paul summarized the character of Jesus
 9	as the model of Christianity, in these words: "Consider
  	him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
  	himself." "Who for the joy that was set before him en-
12	dured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
  	at the right hand of the throne of God." 
  	    It may be that the mortal life-battle still wages, and
15	must continue till its involved errors are vanquished by
  	victory-bringing Science; but this triumph will come! 
  	God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and being. 
18	The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created
  	through the flesh; for his father and mother are the one
  	Spirit, and his brethren are all the children of one parent,
     21   the eternal good.SHOW ALL