0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

The Message for 1902 is couched in beautiful language, and has a very direct appeal. It was the last of the long Communion addresses, as they were replaced thereafter by a specially prepared Lesson-Sermon. This one is unique, however, on account of its full name; the double title distinguishes it from all the previous Messages, which were addressed to The Mother Church only. The reason for it, as was explained in Chapter III, is that the addition of a fifth Director in 1902 now makes it possible for The Mother Church with its function of external control to give way to the self-governing Branch. If the Pastor Emeritus does not give her approval to the fifth Director's successor (Man. 26) the church can no longer legally remain The Mother Church, although it will continue to be The First Church. Thus 1902 marks the point when church can be liberated from being an ecclesiastical material organization and can be released into its spiritual phase. "The bonds of organization of the Church were thrown away, so thal" its members might assemble themselves together ... in the bond only of Love" (CS] Feb. 1890); although this quotation refers to the dissolving of the first organization it remains the model for the resolving of the second. Very appropriately Message 1902 is emphatically on the theme of Love interpreting itself through love. It has a strongly-marked fourfold structure: THE OLD AND THE NEW COMMANDMENT, GOD AS LOVE, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, and GODLIKENESS. These four sections re...flect the four 'sides' of the city, which brings to earth (love) a foretaste of heaven (Love). They are surely the four 'directors' or cardinal points (see S&H 575-577) by which the individual Christian Scientist can chart his way, find his divine orientation, relate Christianly with others, and be at one with God. Once again the Other Writings reveal their inspired relationship to one another, for this clearly-defined fourfold aspect of Message 1902 expands the sevenfold "numeration table" found in Message 1901, and now shows it at work. While the 'seven' reveal what God is, the 'four' explain how He operates, so that Message 1902 could be described as the calculus of Love.

See  Mary Baker Eddy's Other Writings by John L. Morgan  (1984)



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                       Message for 1902 

  	  THE OLD AND THE NEW COMMANDMENT 

 1	    Beloved brethren, another year of God's loving
  	providence for His people in times of persecution has
 3	marked the history of Christian Science. With no special
  	effort to achieve this result, our church communicants
  	constantly increase in number, unity, steadfastness. Two
 6	thousand seven hundred and eighty-four members have
  	been added to our church during the year ending June,
  	1902, making total twenty-four thousand two hundred and
 9	seventy-eight members; while our branch churches are
  	multiplying everywhere and blossoming as the rose. Evil,
  	though combined in formidable conspiracy, is made to
12	glorify God. The Scripture declares, "The wrath of man
  	shall praise Thee:  the remainder of wrath shalt Thou
  	restrain." 
15	    Whatever seems calculated to displace or discredit the
  	ordinary systems of religious beliefs and opinions wrest-
  	ling only with material observation, has always met with
18	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,
21	engaging the attention of philosopher and sage, is circling
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        2


1	the globe, only the earnest, honest investigator sees
  	through the mist of mortal strife this daystar, and whither
 3	it guides. 
  ...	    To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or
  	recognition; to wait on divine Love; to write truth first
 6	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,
 9	is on the way, and Truth makes haste to meet and to wel-
  	come it. It is purifying all peoples, religions, ethics, and
  	learning, and making the children our teachers. 
12	    Within the last decade religion in the United States has
  	passed from stern Protestantism to doubtful liberalism. 
  	God speed the right! The wise builders will build on the
15	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 en-
18	lightening the world with the glory of untrammelled truth. 
  	The present modifications in ecclesiasticism are an out-
  	come of progress; dogmatism, relegated to the past, gives
21	place to a more spiritual manifestation, wherein Christ
  	is Alpha and Omega. It was an inherent characteristic
  	of my nature, a kind of birthmark, to love the Church;
24	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 doc-
27	trine; 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
30	taught the student to overcome evil with good, used no
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        3


 1	other means myself; and ten thousand loyal Christian
  	Scientists to one disloyal, bear testimony to this fact. 
 3	    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
 6	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
 9	half-hostility to the South, thus reinstating the old national
  	family pride and joy in the sisterhood of States. 
  	    Our nation's forward step was the inauguration of
12	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 government, in its brief
15	occupation of that pearl of the ocean, has so improved her
  	public school system that her dusky children are learning
  	to read and write. 
18	    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 beginning of
21	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
24	thoughts — the joy of the sainted Queen, and the lay of
  	angels — hallow the ring of state. 
  	    It does not follow that power must mature into oppres-
27	sion; 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
30	first lie and leap into perdition began with "Believe in
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        4


 1	me." Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dis-
  	honor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with "Who
 3	shall be greatest?" I again repeat, Follow your Leader,
  	only so far as she follows Christ. 
  	    I cordially congratulate our Board of Lectureship, and
 6	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
 9	and spiritual understanding, bringing music to the ear,
  	rapture to the heart — a fathomless peace between
  	Soul and sense — and that our works be as worthy as
12	our words. 
  	    My subject to-day embraces the First Commandment
  	in the Hebrew Decalogue, and the new commandment in
15	the gospel of peace, both ringing like soft vesper chimes
  	adown the corridors of time, and echoing and reechoing
  	through the measureless rounds of eternity. 


18	                                     GOD AS LOVE 

  	    The First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other
  	gods before me," is a law never to be abrogated — a divine
21	statute for yesterday, and to-day, and forever. I shall
  	briefly consider these two commandments in a few of their
  	infinite meanings, applicable to all periods — past, present,
24	and future. 
  	    Alternately transported and alarmed by abstruse
  	problems of Scripture, we are liable to turn from them as
27	impractical, or beyond the ken of mortals, — and past
  	finding out. Our thoughts of the Bible utter our lives. 
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        5


 1	As silent night foretells the dawn and din of morn; as the
  	dulness of to-day prophesies renewed energy for to-morrow,
 3	 — so the pagan philosophies and tribal religions of yester-
  	day but foreshadowed the spiritual dawn of the twentieth
  	century — religion parting with its materiality. 
 6	    Christian Science stills all distress over doubtful inter-
  	pretations of the Bible; it lights the fires of the Holy
  	Ghost, and floods the world with the baptism of Jesus. 
 9	It is this ethereal flame, this almost unconceived light of
  	divine Love, that heaven husbands in the First Com-
  	mandment. 
12	    For man to be thoroughly subordinated to this com-
  	mandment, God must be intelligently considered and
  	understood. The ever-recurring human question and
15	wonder, What is God? can never be answered satisfac-
  	torily by human hypotheses or philosophy. Divine meta-
  	physics and St. John have answered this great question
18	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
21	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
24	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 doc-
27	trine, or speculate on the existence of anything which is
  	an antipode of infinite Love and the manifestation thereof? 
  	The sacred command, "Thou shalt have no other gods
30	before me," silences all questions on this subject, and for-
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        6


 1	ever forbids the thought of any other reality, since it is im-
  	possible to have aught unlike the infinite. 
 3	    The knowledge of life, substance, or law, apart or other
  	than God — good — is forbidden. The curse of Love
  	and Truth was pronounced upon a lie, upon false knowl-
 6	edge, the fruits of the flesh not Spirit. Since knowledge
  	of evil, of something besides God, good, brought death
  	into the world on the basis of a lie, Love and Truth de-
 9	stroy 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
12	itself, thereby showing that God made neither evil nor its
  	consequences. Here all human woe is seen to obtain in
  	a false claim, an untrue consciousness, an impossible
15	creation, yea, something that is not of God. The Chris-
  	tianization of mortals, whereby the mortal concept and
  	all it includes is obliterated, lets in the divine sense of
18	being, fulfils the law in righteousness, and consummates
  	the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods
  	before me." All Christian faith, hope, and prayer, all
21	devout desire, virtually petition, Make me the image and
  	likeness of divine Love. 
  	    Through Christ, Truth, divine metaphysics points the
24	way, demonstrates heaven here, — the struggle over, and
  	victory on the side of Truth. In the degree that man be-
  	comes spiritually minded he becomes Godlike. St. Paul
27	writes: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
  	spiritually minded is life and peace." Divine Science
  	fulfils the law and the gospel, wherein God is infinite Love,
30	including nothing unlovely, producing nothing unlike
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        7


 1	Himself, the true nature of Love intact and eternal. Divine
  	metaphysics concedes no origin or causation apart from
 3	God. It accords all to God, Spirit, and His infinite mani-
  	festations of love — man and the universe. 
  	    In the first chapter of Genesis, matter, sin, disease, and
 6	death enter not into the category of creation or conscious-
  	ness. Minus this spiritual understanding of Scripture, of
  	God and His creation, neither philosophy, nature, nor
 9	grace can give man the true idea of God — divine Love — 
  	sufficiently to fulfil the First Commandment. 
  	    The Latin omni, which signifies all, used as an English
12	prefix to the words potence, presence, science, signifies all-
  	power, all-presence, all-science. Use these words to define
  	God, and nothing is left to consciousness but Love, without
15	beginning and without end, even the forever I AM, and
  	All, than which there is naught else. Thus we have
  	Scriptural authority for divine metaphysics — spiritual
18	man and the universe coexistent with God. No other
  	logical conclusion can be drawn from the premises,
  	and no other scientific proposition can be Christianly
21	entertained. 


  	                              LOVE ONE ANOTHER 

  	    Here we proceed to another Scriptural passage which
24	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
27	called his disciples' special attention to his new command-
  	ment. And wherefore? Because it emphasizes the
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        8


 1	apostle's declaration, "God is Love," — it elucidates
  	Christianity, illustrates God, and man as His likeness, and
 3	commands man to love as Jesus loved. 
  	    The law and the gospel concur, and both will be ful-
  	filled. Is it necessary to say that the likeness of God, Spirit,
 6	is spiritual, and the likeness of Love is loving? When
  	loving, we learn that "God is Love;" mortals hating, or
  	unloving, are neither Christians nor Scientists. The new
 9	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 he is actuated
12	by love and good will towards men. The coincidence be-
  	tween the law and the gospel, between the old and the new
  	commandment, confirms the fact that God and Love are
15	one. The spiritually minded are inspired with tenderness,
  	Truth, and Love. The life of Christ Jesus, his words and
  	his deeds, demonstrate Love. We have no evidence of
18	being Christian Scientists except we possess this inspira-
  	tion, and its power to heal and to save. The energy that
  	saves sinners and heals the sick is divine:  and Love is the
21	Principle thereof. Scientific Christianity works out the
  	rule of spiritual love; it makes man active, it prompts per-
  	petual goodness, for the ego, or I, goes to the Father,
24	whereby man is Godlike. Love, purity, meekness, co-
  	exist in divine Science. Lust, hatred, revenge, coincide in
  	material sense. Christ Jesus reckoned man in Science,
27	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 child. Spiritual love
30	makes man conscious that God is his Father, and the con-
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy        9


 1	sciousness of God as Love gives man power with untold
  	furtherance. Then God becomes to him the All-presence
 3	 — quenching sin; the All-power — giving life, health,
  	holiness; the All-science — all law and gospel. 
  	    Jesus commanded, "Follow me; and let the dead bury
 6	their dead;" 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
 9	have better practitioners, and Truth will arise in human
  	thought with healing in its wings, regenerating mankind
  	and fulfilling the apostle's saying: "For the law of the
12	Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the
  	law of sin and death." Loving chords set discords in har-
  	mony. Every condition implied by the great Master,
15	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. 
18	    The unity of God and man is not the dream of a heated
  	brain; it is the spirit of the healing Christ, that dwelt for-
  	ever in the bosom of the Father, and should abide forever
21	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 healing power, that
24	opened my closed eyes. 
  	    Did the age's thinkers laugh long over Morse's dis-
  	covery of telegraphy? Did they quarrel long with the
27	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
30	ignorance and superstition? Whatever enlarges man's
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      10


 1	facilities for knowing and doing good, and subjugates
  	matter, has a fight with the flesh. Utilizing the capacities
 3	of the human mind uncovers new ideas, unfolds spiritual
  	forces, the divine energies, and their power over matter,
  	molecule, space, time, mortality; and mortals cry out,
 6	"Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" 
  	then dispute the facts, call them false or in advance of the
  	time, and reiterate, Let me alone. Hence the foot-
 9	prints of a reformer are stained with blood. Rev. Hugh
  	Black writes truly: "The birthplace of civilization is not
  	Athens, but Calvary." 
12	    When the human mind is advancing above itself towards
  	the Divine, it is subjugating the body, subduing matter,
  	taking steps outward and upwards. This upward ten-
15	dency 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
18	spiritual. If such is man's ultimate, his predicate tending
  	thereto is correct, and inevitably spiritual. Wherefore,
  	then, smite the reformer who finds the more spiritual way,
21	shortens the distance, discharges burdensome baggage,
  	and increases the speed of mortals' transit from matter
  	to Spirit — yea, from sin to holiness? This is indeed our
24	sole proof that Christ, Truth, is the way. The old and
  	recurring martyrdom of God's best witnesses is the in-
  	firmity of evil, the modus operandi of human error,
27	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
30	walking every step over the land route, and swimming the
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      11


 1	ocean with a letter in his hand to leave on a foreign shore. 
  	Our heavenly Father never destined mortals who seek
 3	for a better country to wander on the shores of time dis-
  	appointed travellers, tossed to and fro by adverse circum-
  	stances, inevitably subject to sin, disease, and death. 
 6	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
 9	to heaven. 
  	    Envy or abuse of him who, having a new idea or a more
  	spiritual understanding of God, hastens to help on his
12	fellow-mortals, is neither Christian nor Science. If a
  	postal service, a steam engine, a submarine cable, a wire-
  	less telegraph, each in turn has helped mankind, how
15	much more is accomplished when the race is helped on-
  	ward by a new-old message from God, even the knowl-
  	edge of salvation from sin, disease, and death. 
18	    The world's wickedness gave our glorified Master a
  	bitter cup — which he drank, giving thanks, then gave
  	it to his followers to drink. Therefore it is thine, advanc-
21	ing Christian, and this is thy Lord's benediction upon
  	it: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and per-
  	secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
24	falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
  	for great is your reward in heaven:  for so persecuted they
  	the prophets which were before you." 
27	    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
30	practice on the very basis of his words and works. The Jew
  
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      12


1	believes that the Messiah or the Christ has not yet come;
  	the Christian believes that Christ is come and is God. 
 3	Here Christian Science intervenes, explains these doctrinal
  	points, cancels the disagreement, and settles the whole ques-
  	tion on the basis that Christ is the Messiah, the true spir-
 6	itual idea, and this ideal of God is now and forever, here and
  	everywhere. The Jew who believes in the First Command-
  	ment is a monotheist, he has one omnipresent God:  thus
 9	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
12	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
15	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 the ocean, a ray of light one with the
18	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." 
21	    Here allow me to interpolate some matters of business
  	that ordinarily find no place in my Message. It is a privi-
  	lege to acquaint communicants with the financial transac-
24	tions 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
27	who annually favor us with their presence on Communion
  	Sunday. 
  	    When founding the institutions and early movements of
30	the Cause of Christian Science, I furnished the money from
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      13


 1	my own private earnings to meet the expenses involved. 
  	In this endeavor self was forgotten, peace sacrificed, Christ
 3	and our Cause my only incentives, and each success in-
  	curred a sharper fire from enmity. 
  	    During the last seven years I have transferred to The
 6	Mother Church, of my personal property and funds, to the
  	value of about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars;
  	and the net profits from the business of The Christian Sci-
 9	ence Publishing Society (which was a part of this transfer)
  	yield this church a liberal income. I receive no personal
  	benefit therefrom except the privilege of publishing my
12	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
15	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;
18	paying for it the sum of $4,963.50 and interest, through my
  	legal counsel. After the mortgage had expired and the note
  	therewith became due, legal proceedings were instituted by
21	my counsel advertising the property in the Boston news-
  	papers, and giving opportunity for those who had previously
  	negotiated for the property to redeem the land by paying
24	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
27	conveyed to me, by my counsel. This land, now valued at
  	twenty thousand dollars, I afterwards gave to my church
  	through trustees, who were to be known as "The Christian
30	Science Board of Directors." A copy of this deed is pub-
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      14


 1	lished in our Church Manual. About five thousand dollars
  	had been paid on the land when I redeemed it. The only
 3	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. 
 6	    I suggest as a motto for every Christian Scientist, — a
  	living and life-giving spiritual shield against the powers of
  	darkness, — 

 9	                     "Great not like Caesar, stained with blood,
  	                      But only great as I am good." 


  	The only genuine success possible for any Christian — and
12	the only success I have ever achieved — has been accom-
  	plished on this solid basis. The remarkable growth and
  	prosperity of Christian Science are its legitimate fruit. A
15	successful end could never have been compassed on any
  	other foundation, — with truths so counter to the common
  	convictions of mankind to present to the world. From the
18	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 achieve-
21	ment has been blazoned on the forefront of the world and
  	recorded in heaven. The popular philosophies and reli-
  	gions have afforded me neither favor nor protection in the
24	great struggle. Therefore, I ask:  What has shielded and
  	prospered preeminently our great Cause, but the out-
  	stretched arm of infinite Love? This pregnant question,
27	answered frankly and honestly, should forever silence all
  	private criticisms, all unjust public aspersions, and afford
  	an open field and fair play. 
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      15


 1	    In the eighties, anonymous letters mailed to me con-
  	tained threats to blow up the hall where I preached; yet I
 3	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. 
 6	    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 strug-
 9	gled 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
12	were days wherein the connection between justice and be-
  	ing approached the mythical. Before entering upon my
  	great life-work, my income from literary sources was ample,
15	until, declining dictation as to what I should write, I became
  	poor for Christ's sake. My husband, Colonel Glover, of
  	Charleston, South Carolina, was considered wealthy, but
18	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. 
21	    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 stars watched
24	over the world, — when slumber had fled, — and I rose
  	and recorded the hallowed suggestion. The following day
  	I showed it to my literary friends, who advised me to drop
27	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
30	prayer. It was to me the "still, small voice" that came to
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      16


 1	Elijah after the earthquake and the fire. Six months there-
  	after Miss Dorcas Rawson of Lynn brought to me Wyclif's
 3	translation of the New Testament, and pointed out that
  	identical phrase, "Science and Health," which is rendered
  	in the Authorized Version "knowledge of salvation." 
 6	This was my first inkling of Wyclif's use of that combina-
  	tion of words, or of their rendering. To-day I am the happy
  	possessor of a copy of Wyclif, the invaluable gift of two
 9	Christian Scientists, — Mr. W. Nicholas Miller, K.C., and
  	Mrs. F. L. Miller, of London, England. 


  	                                     GODLIKENESS 

12	    St. Paul writes: "Follow peace with all men, and holi-
  	ness, without which no man shall see the Lord." To attain
  	peace and holiness is to recognize the divine presence and
15	allness. Jesus said: "I am the way." Kindle the watch-
  	fires of unselfed love, and they throw a light upon the un-
  	complaining agony in the life of our Lord; they open the
18	enigmatical seals of the angel, standing in the sun, a glori-
  	fied spiritual idea of the ever-present God — in whom there
  	is no darkness, but all is light, and man's immortal being. 
21	The meek might, sublime patience, wonderful works, and
  	opening not his mouth in self-defense against false wit-
  	nesses, express the life of Godlikeness. Fasting, feasting,
24	or penance, — merely outside forms of religion, — fail to
  	elucidate Christianity:  they reach not the heart nor reno-
  	vate it; they never destroy one iota of hypocrisy, pride,
27	self-will, envy, or hate. The mere form of godliness,
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      17


 1	coupled with selfishness, worldliness, hatred, and lust, are
  	knells tolling the burial of Christ. 
 3	    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
 6	otherwise, all are ready to seek and obey what they love. 
  	When mortals learn to love aright; when they learn that
  	man's highest happiness, that which has most of heaven in
 9	it, is in blessing others, and self-immolation — they will
  	obey both the old and the new commandment, and receive
  	the reward of obedience. 
12	    Many sleep who should keep themselves awake and
  	waken the world. Earth's actors change earth's scenes;
  	and the curtain of human life should be lifted on reality, on
15	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 willing to wait on God,
18	and to be wiser than serpents; to hate no man, to love one's
  	enemies, and to square accounts with each passing hour. 
  	Then thy gain outlives the sun, for the sun shines but to
21	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
24	His tenure, confers happiness:  conscious worth satisfies
  	the hungry heart, and nothing else can. Consult thy every-
  	day life; take its answer as to thy aims, motives, fondest
27	purposes, and this oracle of years will put to flight all care
  	for the world's soft flattery or its frown. Patience and res-
  	ignation are the pillars of peace that, like the sun beneath
30	the horizon, cheer the heart susceptible of light with prom-
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      18


 1	ised joy. Be faithful at the temple gate of conscience,
  	wakefully guard it; then thou wilt know when the thief
 3	cometh. 
  	    The constant spectacle of sin thrust upon the pure sense
  	of the immaculate Jesus made him a man of sorrows. He
 6	lived when mortals looked ignorantly, as now, on the might
  	of divine power manifested through man; only to mock,
  	wonder, and perish. Sad to say, the cowardice and self-
 9	seeking of his disciples helped crown with thorns the life of
  	him who broke not the bruised reed and quenched not the
  	smoking flax, — who caused not the feeble to fall, nor
12	spared through false pity the consuming tares. Jesus was
  	compassionate, true, faithful to rebuke, ready to forgive. 
  	He said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
15	least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
  	"Love one another, as I have loved you." No estrange-
  	ment, no emulation, no deceit, enters into the heart that
18	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
21	of what he did are we doing? Yet he said, "The works
  	that I do shall he do." When this prophecy of the great
  	Teacher is fulfilled we shall have more effective healers and
24	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 follow
27	him, ended in the downfall of genuine Christianity, about
  	the year 325, and the violent death of all his disciples save
  	one. 
30	    The nature of Jesus made him keenly alive to the  
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      19


1	injustice, ingratitude, treachery, and brutality that he
  	received. Yet behold his love! So soon as he burst the
 3	bonds of the tomb he hastened to console his unfaithful
  	followers and to disarm their fears. Again:  True to his
  	divine nature, he rebuked them on the eve of his ascension,
 6	called one a "fool" — then, lifting up his hands and bless-
  	ing them, he rose from earth to heaven. 
  	    The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he
 9	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 offense
12	against me that I cannot forgive. Meekness is the armor
  	of a Christian, his shield and his buckler. He entertains
  	angels who listens to the lispings of repentance seen in a
15	tear — happier than the conqueror of a world. To the
  	burdened and weary, Jesus saith: "Come unto me." 
  	O glorious hope! there remaineth a rest for the righteous,
18	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. 
21	    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
24	besets thy path? — a spiritual behest, in reversion, awaits
  	you. 
  	    The great Master triumphed in furnace fires. Then,
27	Christian Scientists, trust, and trusting, you will find divine
  	Science glorifies the cross and crowns the association with
  	our Saviour in his life of love. There is no redundant
30	drop in the cup that our Father permits us. Christ
 
   
Message to The Mother Church - 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy      20


 1	walketh over the wave; on the ocean of events, mounting
  	the billow or going down into the deep, the voice of him
 3	who stilled the tempest saith, "It is I; be not afraid." 
  	Thus he bringeth us into the desired haven, the kingdom
  	of Spirit; and the hues of heaven, tipping the dawn of
 6	everlasting day, joyfully whisper, "No drunkards within,
  	no sorrow, no pain; and the glory of earth's woes is risen
  	upon you, rewarding, satisfying, glorifying thy unfaltering
 9	faith and good works with the fulness of divine Love." 

  	                   'T was God who gave that word of might
  	                      Which swelled creation's lay, — 
12	                   "Let there be light, and there was light," — 
  	                      That swept the clouds away;
  	                   'T was Love whose finger traced aloud
15	                      A bow of promise on the cloud. 

  	    Beloved brethren, are you ready to join me in this prop-
  	osition, namely, in 1902 to begin omitting our annual
18	gathering at Pleasant View, — thus breaking any seeming
  	connection between the sacrament in our church and a
  	pilgrimage to Concord? I shall be the loser by this change,
21	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 gratefully appreciating the privilege of meet-
24	ing you all occasionally in the metropolis of my native
  	State, whose good people welcome Christian Scientists.
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