0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 16 – The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany – Chpt 6 – First Church of Christ, Scientist Concord, NH

                    Chapter VI 

  	       FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST
                                CONCORD, N.H.

 1	                                  [Concord (N.H.) Monitor]
        
            MRS. EDDY’S GIFT TO THE CONCORD CHURCH
  	                                         
3	    "Beloved Teacher and Leader: — The members
  	of the Concord church are filled with profound joy
  	and deep gratitude that  your generous gift of one hun-
 6	dred thousand dollars is to be used at once to build a
  	beautiful church edifice for your followers in the capital
  	city of your native State.  We rejoice that the prosperity
 9	of the Cause in your home city, where, without regard
  	to class or creed, you are so highly esteemed, makes
  	necessary the commodious and beautiful church home
12	you have so freely bestowed.  We thank you for this
  	renewed evidence of your unselfish love." 

  	    The church will be built of the same beautiful Concord
15	granite of which the National Library Building in Wash-
  	ington is constructed. This is in accord with the ex-
  	pressed wish of Mrs. Eddy, made known in her original
18	deed of trust, first announced in the Concord Monitor
  	of March 19, 1898. In response to an inquiry from the
  	editor of that paper, Mrs. Eddy made the following
21	statement: — 

  	On January 31, 1898, I gave a deed of trust to three
  	individuals which conveyed to them the sum of one
 
                                                          Miscellany                                   158


 1	hundred thousand dollars to be appropriated in build-
  	ing a granite church edifice for First Church of Christ,
 3	Scientist, in this city. 
  	                                            Very truly,
  	                                                    MARY BAKER EDDY 


 6	                  CORNER-STONE LAID AT CONCORD 

  	    Beloved Brethren: — This day drops down upon the
  	glories of summer; it is a glad day, in attune with faith's
 9	fond trust. We live in an age of Love's divine adven-
  	ture to be All-in-all. This day is the natal hour of my
  	lone earth life; and for all mankind to-day hath its gloom
12	and glory:  it endureth all things; it points to the new
  	birth, heaven here, the struggle over; it profits by the
  	past and joys in the present — to-day lends a new-born
15	beauty to holiness, patience, charity, love. 
  	    Having all faith in Christian Science, we must have
  	faith in whatever manifests love for God and man. The
18	burden of proof that Christian Science is Science rests
  	on Christian Scientists. The letter without the spirit
  	is dead:  it is the Spirit that heals the sick and the
21	sinner — that makes the heart tender, faithful, true. 
  	Most men and women talk well, and some practise what
  	they say. 
24	    God has blessed and will bless this dear band of brethren. 
  	He has laid the chief corner-stone of the temple which
  	to-day you commemorate, to-morrow complete, and there-
27	after dedicate to Truth and Love. O may your temple
  	and all who worship therein stand through all time for
  	God and humanity! 
30	                                                  MARY BAKER EDDY

 
                                   Dedication of Mrs. Eddy’s Gift                  159


 1	MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF
  	                     MRS. EDDY'S GIFT, JULY 17, 1904 

 3	    Beloved Brethren: — Never more sweet than to-day,
  	seem to me, and must seem to thee, those words of
  	our loved Lord, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto
 6	the end." Thus may it ever be that Christ rejoiceth
  	and comforteth us. Sitting at his feet, I send to
  	you the throbbing of every pulse of my desire for the
 9	ripening and rich fruit of this branch of his vine, and
  	I thank God who hath sent forth His word to heal
  	and to save. 
12	    At this period, the greatest man or woman on earth
  	stands at the vestibule of Christian Science, struggling to
  	enter into the perfect love of God and man. The infinite
15	will not be buried in the finite; the true thought escapes
  	from the inward to the outward, and this is the only
  	right activity, that whereby we reach our higher
18	nature. Material theories tend to check spiritual at-
  	traction — the tendency towards God, the infinite and
  	eternal — by an opposite attraction towards the tem-
21	porary and finite. Truth, life, and love are the only
  	legitimate and eternal demands upon man; they are
  	spiritual laws enforcing obedience and punishing dis-
24	obedience. 
  	    Even Epictetus, a heathen philosopher who held that
  	Zeus, the master of the gods, could not control human
27	will, writes, "What is the essence of God?  Mind." The
  	general thought chiefly regards material things, and keeps

  	      Copyright, 1904, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. All rights
30	 reserved.

 
                                                          Miscellany                                   160


 1	Mind much out of sight. The Christian, however, strives
  	for the spiritual; he abides in a right purpose, as in laws
 3	which it were impious to transgress, and follows Truth
  	fearlessly. The heart that beats mostly for self is seldom
  	alight with love. To live so as to keep human conscious-
 6	ness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and
  	the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is
  	Christian Science. 
 9	    It is of less importance that we receive from man-
  	kind justice, than that we deserve it. Most of us
  	willingly accept dead truisms which can be buried
12	at will; but a live truth, even though it be a sapling
  	within rich soil and with blossoms on its branches,
  	frightens people. The trenchant truth that cuts its
15	way through iron and sod, most men avoid until
  	compelled to glance at it. Then they open their
  	hearts to it for actual being, health, holiness, and im-
18	mortality. 
  	    I am asked, "Is there a hell?" Yes, there is a hell for
  	all who persist in breaking the Golden Rule or in dis-
21	obeying the commandments of God. Physical science
  	has sometimes argued that the internal fires of our earth
  	will eventually consume this planet. Christian Science
24	shows that hidden unpunished sin is this internal fire, — 
  	even the fire of a guilty conscience, waking to a true sense
  	of itself, and burning in torture until the sinner is con-
27	sumed, — his sins destroyed. This may take millions of
  	cycles, but of the time no man knoweth. The advanced
  	psychist knows that this hell is mental, not material, and
30	that the Christian has no part in it. Only the makers of
  	hell burn in their fire. 
  	    Concealed crimes, the wrongs done to others, are mill-

 
                                   Dedication of Mrs. Eddy’s Gift                  161


 1	stones hung around the necks of the wicked. Christ Jesus
  	paid our debt and set us free by enabling us to pay it;
 3	for which we are still his debtors, washing the Way-shower's
  	feet with tears of joy. 
  	    The intentional destroyer of others would destroy him-
 6	self eternally, were it not that his suffering reforms him,
  	thus balancing his account with divine Love, which never
  	remits the sentence necessary to reclaim the sinner. 
 9	Hence these words of Christ Jesus: "Depart from me, all
  	ye workers of iniquity.  There shall be weeping and
  	gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and
12	Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
  	God, and you yourselves thrust out."  (Luke 13 : 27, 28.) 
  	He who gains self-knowledge, self-control, and the king-
15	dom of heaven within himself, within his own conscious-
  	ness, is saved through Christ, Truth. Mortals must
  	drink sufficiently of the cup of their Lord and Master
18	to unself mortality and to destroy its erroneous claims. 
  	Therefore, said Jesus, "Ye shall drink indeed of my
  	cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am
21	baptized with." 
  	    We cannot boast ourselves of to-morrow; sufficient unto
  	each day is the duty thereof. Lest human reason becloud
24	spiritual understanding, say not in thy heart:  Sickness is
  	possible because one's thought and conduct do not afford
  	a sufficient defence against it. Trust in God, and "He
27	shall direct thy paths." When evil was avenging itself on
  	its destroyer, his preeminent goodness, the Godlike man
  	said, "My burden is light." Only he who learns through
30	meekness and love the falsity of supposititious life and
  	intelligence in matter, can triumph over their ultimatum,
  	sin, suffering, and death. 
 
                                                          Miscellany                                   162


 1	    God's mercy for mortal ignorance and need is assured;
  	then who shall question our want of more faith in His
 3	"very present help in trouble"? Jesus said: "Suffer
  	it to be so now:  for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
  	righteousness." 
 6	    Strength is in man, not in muscles; unity and power are
  	not in atom or in dust. A small group of wise thinkers
  	is better than a wilderness of dullards and stronger than
 9	the might of empires. Unity is spiritual cooperation,
  	heart to heart, the bond of blessedness such as my beloved
  	Christian Scientists all over the field, and the dear Sun-
12	day School children, have demonstrated in gifts to me
  	of about eighty thousand dollars, to be applied to build-
  	ing, embellishing, and furnishing our church edifice in
15	Concord, N. H. 
  	    We read in Holy Writ: "This man began to build, and
  	was not able to finish." This was spoken derisively. 
18	But the love that rebukes praises also, and methinks the
  	same wisdom which spake thus in olden time would say
  	to the builder of the Christian Scientists' church edifice
21	in Concord: "Well done, good and faithful." Our proper
  	reason for church edifices is, that in them Christians may
  	worship God, — not that Christians may worship church
24	edifices! 
  	    May the loving Shepherd of this feeble flock lead it
  	gently into "green pastures . . . beside the still waters." 
27	May He increase its members, and may their faith never
  	falter — their faith in and their understanding of divine
  	Love. This church, born in my nativity, may it build
30	upon the rock of ages against which the waves and winds
  	beat in vain. May the towering top of its goodly temple
  	 — burdened with beauty, pointing to the heavens, bursting
  
                                                 A Kindly Greeting                             163


1	into the rapture of song — long call the worshipper to
  	seek the haven of hope, the heaven of Soul, the sweet sense
 3	of angelic song chiming chaste challenge to praise him who
  	won the way and taught mankind to win through meekness
  	to might, goodness to grandeur, — from cross to crown,
 6	from sense to Soul, from gleam to glory, from matter to
  	Spirit. 


  	                                     ANNOUNCEMENT 

 9	    Not having the time to receive all the beloved ones who
  	have so kindly come to the dedication of this church, I
  	must not allow myself the pleasure of receiving any of
12	them. I always try to be just, if not generous; and I
  	cannot show my love for them in social ways without
  	neglecting the sacred demands on my time and attention
15	for labors which I think do them more good. 


  	                               A KINDLY GREETING 

  	    Dear Editor: — When I removed from Boston in 1889
18	and came to Concord, N. H., it was that I might find
  	retirement from many years of incessant labor for the
  	Cause of Christian Science, and the opportunity in Con-
21	cord's quiet to revise our textbook, "Science and Health
  	with Key to the Scriptures." Here let me add that,
  	together with the retirement I so much coveted, I have
24	also received from the leading people of this pleasant city
  	all and more than I anticipated. I love its people — 
  	love their scholarship, friendship, and granite char-
27	acter. I respect their religious beliefs, and thank their
  	ancestors for helping to form mine. The movement of
  	establishing in this city a church of our faith was far from
 
                                                          Miscellany                                   164


 1	my purpose, when I came here, knowing that such an
  	effort would involve a lessening of the retirement I so
 3	much desired. But the demand increased, and I con-
  	sented, hoping thereby to give to many in this city a
  	church home. 


 6	                     ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GIFTS 

  	                                TO THE CHICAGO CHURCHES 

  	    My Beloved Brethren: — I have yearned to express my
 9	thanks for your munificent gift to First Church of Christ,
  	Scientist, in Concord, of ten thousand dollars. What is
  	gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focus-
12	ing light where love, memory, and all within the human
  	heart is present to manifest light. 
  	    Is it not a joy to compare the beginning of Christian
15	Science in Chicago with its present prosperity? Now
  	[1904] six dear churches are there, the members of which
  	not only possess a sound faith, but that faith also possesses
18	them. A great sanity, a mighty something buried in the
  	depths of the unseen, has wrought a resurrection among
  	you, and has leaped into living love. What is this
21	something, this phoenix fire, this pillar by day, kindling,
  	guiding, and guarding your way? It is unity, the bond
  	of perfectness, the thousandfold expansion that will
24	engirdle the world, — unity, which unfolds the thought
  	most within us into the greater and better, the sum of
  	all reality and good. 
27	    This unity is reserved wisdom and strength. It builds
  	upon the rock, against which envy, enmity, or malice
  	beat in vain. Man lives, moves, and has his being in God,
30	Love. Then man must live, he cannot die; and Love
 
                                           Acknowledgment of Gifts                     165


 1	must necessarily promote and pervade all his success. 
  	Of two things fate cannot rob us; namely, of choos-
 3	ing the best, and of helping others thus to choose. 
  	But in doing this the Master became the servant. The
  	grand must stoop to the menial. There is scarcely an
 6	indignity which I have not endured for the cause of
  	Christ, Truth, and I returned blessing for cursing. The
  	best help the worst; the righteous suffer for the unright-
 9	eous; and by this spirit man lives and thrives, and by
  	it God governs. 


  	          TO FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, NEW YORK 

12	    Beloved Brethren: — I beg to thank the dear brethren of
  	this church for the sum of ten thousand dollars presented
  	to me for First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Concord,
15	N. H. Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for
  	goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of
  	one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with
18	universal good. Thus may each member of this church
  	rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the
  	scientific response:  I am able to impart truth, health, and
21	happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason
  	for existing. 
  	    Human reason becomes tired and calls for rest. It has
24	a relapse into the common hope. Goodness and benevo-
  	lence never tire. They maintain themselves and others
  	and never stop from exhaustion. He who is afraid of
27	being too generous has lost the power of being magnani-
  	mous. The best man or woman is the most unselfed. 
  	God grant that this church is rapidly nearing the maxi-
30	mum of might, — the means that build to the heavens,
  	 — that it has indeed found and felt the infinite source
 
                                                          Miscellany                                   166


 1	where is all, and from which it can help its neighbor. 
  	Then efforts to be great will never end in anarchy but
 3	will continue with divine approbation. It is insincerity
  	and a half-persuaded faith that fail to succeed and fall
  	to the earth. 
 6	    Religions may waste away, but the fittest survives;
  	and so long as we have the right ideal, life is worth living
  	and God takes care of our life. 


 9	                                TO THE MOTHER CHURCH 

  	    My Beloved Brethren: — Your munificent gift of ten
  	thousand dollars, with which to furnish First Church of
12	Christ, Scientist, of Concord, N. H., with an organ, is
  	positive proof of your remembrance and love. Days of
  	shade and shine may come and go, but we will live on and
15	never drift apart. Life's ills are its chief recompense;
  	they develop hidden strength. Had I never suffered for
  	The Mother Church, neither she nor I would be practising
18	the virtues that lie concealed in the smooth seasons and
  	calms of human existence. When we are willing to help
  	and to be helped, divine aid is near. If all our years were
21	holidays, sport would be more irksome than work. So,
  	my dear ones, let us together sing the old-new song of
  	salvation, and let our measure of time and joy be spiritual,
24	not material. 


  	                       TO FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST,
  	                                        NEW LONDON, CONN. 

27	    Beloved Brethren: — I am for the first time informed of
  	your gift to me of a beautiful cabinet, costing one hundred
  	and seventy-five dollars, for my books, placed in my room
30	at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Concord, N. H. 

 
                                               Religious Freedom                            167


 1	Accept my deep thanks therefor, and especially for the
  	self-sacrifice it may have cost the dear donors. 
 3	    The mysticism of good is unknown to the flesh, for
  	goodness is "the fruit of the Spirit." The suppositional
  	world within us separates us from the spiritual world,
 6	which is apart from matter, and unites us to one another. 
  	Spirit teaches us to resign what we are not and to un-
  	derstand what we are in the unity of Spirit — in that
 9	Love which is faithful, an ever-present help in trouble,
  	which never deserts us. 
  	    I pray that heaven's messages of "on earth peace, good
12	will toward men," may fill your hearts and leave their
  	loving benedictions upon your lives. 


  	                           THANKSGIVING DAY, 1904 

15	    Beloved Students: — May this, your first Thanksgiv-
  	ing Day, according to time-tables, in our new church
  	edifice, be one acceptable in His sight, and full of love,
18	peace, and good will for yourselves, your flock, and the
  	race. Give to all the dear ones my love, and my
  	prayer for their health, happiness, and holiness this
21	and every day. 


  	                                RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 

  	    Beloved Brethren: — Allow me to send forth a paean
24	of praise for the noble disposal of the legislative question
  	as to the infringement of rights and privileges guaran-
  	teed to you by the laws of my native State. The con-
27	stituted religious rights in New Hampshire will, I trust,
  	never be marred by the illegitimate claims of envy,
  	jealousy, or persecution. 
30	    In our country the day of heathenism, illiberal views,

 
                                                          Miscellany                                   168


 1	or of an uncultivated understanding has passed. Free-
  	dom to worship God according to the dictates of en-
 3	lightened conscience, and practical religion in agreement
  	with the demand of our common Christ, the Holy One
  	of Israel, are forever the privileges of the people of my
 6	dear old New Hampshire. 
  	                                           Lovingly yours,
   	                                                 MARY BAKER EDDY 

 9	BOX G, BROOKLINE, MASS.,
  	          April 12, 1909SHOW ALL