0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 8 – Pulpit and Press – Chpt 1 – Dedicatory Sermon

         Pulpit and Press 

  	            DEDICATORY SERMON 

  	                BY REV. MARY BAKER EDDY 

  	First Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass. 
  	                              Delivered January 6, 1895 

 1	    TEXT:  They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy
  	house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. 
 3	 — PSALMS xxxvi. 8. 

  	    A new year is a nursling, a babe of time, a prophecy
  	and promise clad in white raiment, kissed — and
 6	encumbered with greetings — redolent with grief and
  	gratitude. 
  	    An old year is time's adult, and 1893 was a distinguished
 9	character, notable for good and evil. Time past  and time
  	present, both, may pain us, but time improved is elo-
  	quent in God's praise. For due refreshment garner the
12	memory of 1894; for if wiser by reason of its large lessons,
  	and records deeply engraven, great is the value thereof. 

  	                              Pass on, returnless year! 
15	             The path behind thee is with glory crowned;
  	             This spot whereon thou troddest was holy ground;
  	                            Pass proudly to thy bier! 


18	    To-day, being with you in spirit, what need that I should
  	be present in propria persona? Were I present, methinks
 

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 1	I should be much like the Queen of Sheba, when she saw
  	the house Solomon had erected. In the expressive language
 3	of Holy Writ, "There was no more spirit in her;" and
  	she said, "Behold, the half was not told me:  thy wisdom
  	and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard." Both
 6	without and within, the spirit of beauty dominates The
  	Mother Church, from its mosaic flooring to the soft shim-
  	mer of its starlit dome. 
 9	    Nevertheless, there is a thought higher and deeper than
  	the edifice. Material light and shade are temporal, not
  	eternal. Turning the attention from sublunary views,
12	however enchanting, think for a moment with me of the
  	house wherewith "they shall be abundantly satisfied," — 
  	even the "house not made with hands, eternal in the
15	heavens." With the mind's eye glance at the direful
  	scenes of the war between China and Japan. Imagine
  	yourselves in a poorly barricaded fort, fiercely besieged
18	by the enemy. Would you rush forth single-handed to
  	combat the foe? Nay, would you not rather strengthen
  	your citadel by every means in your power, and remain
21	within the walls for its defense? Likewise should we do
  	as metaphysicians and Christian Scientists. The real
  	house in which "we live, and move, and have our being"
24	is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite Soul. The
  	enemy we confront would overthrow this sublime fortress,
  	and it behooves us to defend our heritage. 
27	    How can we do this Christianly scientific work? By
  	intrenching ourselves in the knowledge that our true
  	temple is no human fabrication, but the superstructure
30	of Truth, reared on the foundation of Love, and pinnacled
 

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 1	in Life. Such being its nature, how can our godly temple
  	possibly be demolished, or even disturbed? Can eternity
 3	end? Can Life die? Can Truth be uncertain? Can
  	Love be less than boundless? Referring to this temple,
  	our Master said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days
 6	I will raise it up." He also said: "The kingdom of God
  	is within you." Know, then, that you possess sovereign
  	power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dis-
 9	possess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you
  	maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin
  	or suffer? Our surety is in our confidence that we are
12	indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man's eternal mansion. 
  	Such a heavenly assurance ends all warfare, and bids tu-
  	mult cease, for the good fight we have waged is over, and
15	divine Love gives us the true sense of victory. "They
  	shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house;
  	and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy
18	pleasures." No longer are we of the church militant, but
  	of the church triumphant; and with Job of old we ex-
  	claim, "Yet in my flesh shall I see God." The river of
21	His pleasures is a tributary of divine Love, whose living
  	waters have their source in God, and flow into everlasting
  	Life. We drink of this river when all human desires are
24	quenched, satisfied with what is pleasing to the divine
  	Mind. 
  	    Perchance some one of you may say, "The evidence of
27	spiritual verity in me is so small that I am afraid.  I feel
  	so far from victory over the flesh that to reach out for a
  	present realization of my hope savors of temerity.  Be-
30	cause of my own unfitness for such a spiritual animus my
 

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 1	strength is naught and my faith fails." O thou "weak
  	and infirm of purpose." Jesus said, "Be not afraid"! 

 3	     "What if the little rain should say,
  	        'So small a drop as I
  	      Can ne'er refresh a drooping earth,
 6	         I'll tarry in the sky.'" 


  	    Is not a man metaphysically and mathematically num-
  	ber one, a unit, and therefore whole number, governed
 9	and protected by his divine Principle, God? You have
  	simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with
  	your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you
12	will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions
  	in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating deific
  	Principle. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each of Christ's
15	little ones reflects the infinite One, and therefore is the
  	seer's declaration true, that "one on God's side is a
  	majority." 
18	    A single drop of water may help to hide the stars, or
  	crown the tree with blossoms. 
  	    Who lives in good, lives also in God, — lives in all Life,
21	through all space. His is an individual kingdom, his dia-
  	dem a crown of crowns. His existence is deathless, for-
  	ever unfolding its eternal Principle. Wait patiently on
24	illimitable Love, the lord and giver of Life. Reflect this
  	Life, and with it cometh the full power of being. "They
  	shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy
27	house." 
  	    In 1893 the World's Parliament of Religions, held in
  	Chicago, used, in all its public sessions, my form of prayer
 

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 1	since 1866; and one of the very clergymen who had pub-
  	licly proclaimed me "the prayerless Mrs. Eddy," offered
 3	his audible adoration in the words I use, besides listening
  	to an address on Christian Science from my pen, read by
  	Judge S. J. Hanna, in that unique assembly. 
 6	    When the light of one friendship after another passes
  	from earth to heaven, we kindle in place thereof the glow
  	of some deathless reality. Memory, faithful to goodness,
 9	holds in her secret chambers those characters of holiest
  	sort, bravest to endure, firmest to suffer, soonest to re-
  	nounce. Such was the founder of the Concord School of
12	Philosophy — the late A. Bronson Alcott. 
  	    After the publication of "Science and Health with Key
  	to the Scriptures," his athletic mind, scholarly and serene,
15	was the first to bedew my hope with a drop of humanity. 
  	When the press and pulpit cannonaded this book, he
  	introduced himself to its author by saying, "I have come
18	to comfort you." Then eloquently paraphrasing it, and
  	prophesying its prosperity, his conversation with a beauty
  	all its own reassured me. That prophecy is fulfilled. 
21	    This book, in 1895, is in its ninety-first edition of one
  	thousand copies. It is in the public libraries of the prin-
  	cipal cities, colleges, and universities of America; also
24	the same in Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia,
  	Italy, Greece, Japan, India, and China; in the Oxford
  	University and the Victoria Institute, England; in the
27	Academy of Greece, and the Vatican at Rome. 
  	    This book is the leaven fermenting religion; it is
  	palpably working in the sermons, Sunday Schools, and
30	literature of our and other lands. This spiritual chemi-
 

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 1	calization is the upheaval produced when Truth is neutral-
  	izing error and impurities are passing off. And it will
 3	continue till the antithesis of Christianity, engendering the
  	limited forms of a national or tyrannical religion, yields to
  	the church established by the Nazarene Prophet and main-
 6	tained on the spiritual foundation of Christ's healing. 
  	    Good, the Anglo-Saxon term for God, unites Science to
  	Christianity. It presents to the understanding, not matter,
 9	but Mind; not the deified drug, but the goodness of God — 
  	healing and saving mankind. 
  	    The author of "Marriage of the Lamb," who made the
12	mistake of thinking she caught her notions from my book,
  	wrote to me in 1894, "Six months ago your book, Science
  	and Health, was put into my hands.  I had not read three
15	pages before I realized I had found that for which I had
  	hungered since girlhood, and was healed instantaneously
  	of an ailment of seven years' standing.  I cast from me the
18	false remedy I had vainly used, and turned to the 'great
  	Physician.' I went with my husband, a missionary to
  	China, in 1884.  He went out under the auspices of the
21	Methodist Episcopal Church.  I feel the truth is leading
  	us to return to Japan." 
  	    Another brilliant enunciator, seeker, and servant of
24	Truth, the Rev. William R. Alger of Boston, signalled
  	me kindly as my lone bark rose and fell and rode the rough
  	sea. At a conversazione in Boston, he said, "You may
27	find in Mrs. Eddy's metaphysical teachings more than is
  	dreamt of in your philosophy." 
  	    Also that renowned apostle of anti-slavery, Wendell
30	Phillips, the native course of whose mind never swerved
 

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 1	from the chariot-paths of justice, speaking of my work,
  	said: "Had I young blood in my veins, I would help that
 3	woman." 
  	    I love Boston, and especially the laws of the State where-
  	of this city is the capital. To-day, as of yore, her laws
 6	have befriended progress. 
  	    Yet when I recall the past, — how the gospel of healing
  	was simultaneously praised and persecuted in Boston, — 
 9	and remember also that God is just, I wonder whether,
  	were our dear Master in our New England metropolis at
  	this hour, he would not weep over it, as he wept over
12	Jerusalem! O ye tears! Not in vain did ye flow. Those
  	sacred drops were but enshrined for future use, and God
  	has now unsealed their receptacle with His outstretched
15	arm. Those crystal globes made morals for mankind. 
  	They will rise with joy, and with power to wash away, in
  	floods of forgiveness, every crime, even when mistakenly
18	committed in the name of religion. 
  	    An unjust, unmerciful, and oppressive priesthood must
  	perish, for false prophets in the present as in the past
21	stumble onward to their doom; while their tabernacles
  	crumble with dry rot. "God is not mocked," and "the
  	word of the Lord endureth forever." 
24	    I have ordained the Bible and the Christian Science
  	textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,"
  	as pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in
27	Boston, — so long as this church is satisfied with this
  	pastor. This is my first ordination. "They shall be
  	abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and
30	Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." 
 

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 1	    All praise to the press of America's Athens, — and
  	throughout our land the press has spoken out historically,
 3	impartially. Like the winds telling tales through the
  	leaves of an ancient oak, unfallen, may our church chimes
  	repeat my thanks to the press. 
 6	    Notwithstanding the perplexed condition of our na-
  	tion's finances, the want and woe with millions of dollars
  	unemployed in our money centres, the Christian Scientists,
 9	within fourteen months, responded to the call for this
  	church with $191,012. Not a mortgage was given nor a
  	loan solicited, and the donors all touchingly told their
12	privileged joy at helping to build The Mother Church. 
  	There was no urging, begging, or borrowing; only the
  	need made known, and forth came the money, or dia-
15	monds, which served to erect this "miracle in stone." 
  	    Even the children vied with their parents to meet the
  	demand. Little hands, never before devoted to menial
18	services, shoveled snow, and babes gave kisses to earn a
  	few pence toward this consummation. Some of these
  	lambs my prayers had christened, but Christ will rechristen
21	them with his own new name. "Out of the mouths of
  	babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." The
  	resident youthful workers were called "Busy Bees." 
24	    Sweet society, precious children, your loving hearts and
  	deft fingers distilled the nectar and painted the finest
  	flowers in the fabric of this history, — even its centre-piece,
27	 — Mother's Room in The First Church of Christ, Sci-
  	entist, in Boston. The children are destined to witness
  	results which will eclipse Oriental dreams. They belong
30	to the twentieth century. By juvenile aid, into the build-
 

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 1	ing fund have come $4,460.¹  Ah, children, you are the
  	bulwarks of freedom, the cement of society, the hope of
 3	our race! 
  	    Brothers of the Christian Science Board of Directors,
  	when your tireless tasks are done — well done — no Del-
 6	phian lyre could break the full chords of such a rest. May
  	the altar you have built never be shattered in our hearts,
  	but justice, mercy, and love kindle perpetually its fires. 
 9	    It was well that the brother whose appliances warm
  	this house, warmed also our perishless hope, and nerved
  	its grand fulfilment. Woman, true to her instinct, came
12	to the rescue as sunshine from the clouds; so, when man
  	quibbled over an architectural exigency, a woman climbed
  	with feet and hands to the top of the tower, and helped
15	settle the subject. 
  	    After the loss of our late lamented pastor, Rev. D. A. 
  	Easton, the church services were maintained by excellent
18	sermons from the editor of The Christian Science Journal
  	(who, with his better half, is a very whole man), together
  	with the Sunday School giving this flock "drink from the
21	river of His pleasures." O glorious hope and blessed as-
  	surance, "it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
  	kingdom." Christians rejoice in secret, they have a bounty
24	hidden from the world. Self-forgetfulness, purity, and
  	love are treasures untold — constant prayers, prophecies,
  	and anointings. Practice, not profession, — goodness, not
27	doctrines, — spiritual understanding, not mere belief,
  	gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence, and call down
  	blessings infinite. "Faith without works is dead." The
30	foundation of enlightened faith is Christ's teachings and

  	      ¹This sum was increased to $5,568.51 by contributions which
  	 reached the Treasurer after the Dedicatory Services.

 

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 1	practice. It was our Master's self-immolation, his life-
  	giving love, healing both mind and body, that raised the
 3	deadened conscience, paralyzed by inactive faith, to a
  	quickened sense of mortal's necessities, — and God's
  	power and purpose to supply them. It was, in the words
 6	of the Psalmist, He "who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
  	who healeth all thy diseases." 
  	    Rome's fallen fanes and silent Aventine is glory's tomb;
 9	her pomp and power lie low in dust. Our land, more
  	favored, had its Pilgrim Fathers. On shores of solitude,
  	at Plymouth Rock, they planted a nation's heart, — the
12	rights of conscience, imperishable glory. No dream of
  	avarice or ambition broke their exalted purpose, theirs
  	was the wish to reign in hope's reality — the realm of
15	Love. 
  	    Christian Scientists, you have planted your standard
  	on the rock of Christ, the true, the spiritual idea, — the
18	chief corner-stone in the house of our God. And our
  	Master said: "The stone which the builders rejected, the
  	same is become the head of the corner." If you are less
21	appreciated to-day than your forefathers, wait — for if
  	you are as devout as they, and more scientific, as progress
  	certainly demands, your plant is immortal. Let us rejoice
24	that chill vicissitudes have not withheld the timely shelter
  	of this house, which descended like day-spring from on
  	high. 
27	    Divine presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every
  	heart in this house. Speak out, O soul! This is the new-
  	born of Spirit, this is His redeemed; this, His beloved. 
30	May the kingdom of God within you, — with you alway, — 
 

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 1	reascending, bear you outward, upward, heavenward. 
  	May the sweet song of silver-throated singers, making
 3	melody more real, and the organ's voice, as the sound of
  	many waters, and the Word spoken in this sacred temple
  	dedicated to the ever-present God — mingle with the joy
 6	of angels and rehearse your hearts' holy intents. May all
  	whose means, energies, and prayers helped erect The
  	Mother Church, find within it home, and heaven.SHOW ALL