CSEC LIBRARY -- The US and Great Britain

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In the year 1898, following the formal declaration of war between the United States and Spain, The London Chronicle published a poem entitled "Greeting from England." This poem came to Mrs. Eddy's attention and was made the occasion by her for a prophetic utterance in reply to the sentiments therein expressed. Her reply, entitled "The United States to Great Britain," was published in The Christian Science Journal of June, 1898, and with the poem to which it was the reply it appeared in other publications. We are glad to republish both of these poems in order that Christian Scientists may have opportunity to ponder the metaphysical significance of Mrs. Eddy's words.

The Christian Science Board of Directors
Christian Science Sentinel, February 17, 1917

Greeting from England
[The London Chronicle, 1898]

America! dear brother land!
While yet the shotted guns are mute,
Accept a brotherly salute,
A hearty grip of England's hand.
Tomorrow, when the sulphurous glow
Of war shall dim the stars above,
Be sure the star of England's love
Is over you, come weal or woe.

Go forth in hope! Go forth in might!
To all your nobler self be true,
That coming times may see in you
The vanguard of the hosts of light.

Though wrathful justice load and train
Your guns, be ev'ry breach they make
A gateway pierced for mercy's sake
That peace may enter in and reign.

Then, should the hosts of darkness band
Against you, lowering thund'rously,
Flash the word, Brother, o'er the sea
And England at your side shall stand

Exulting! For though dark the night
And sinister with scud and rack,
The hour that brings us back to back
But harbingers the larger light.

"Greeting from England"
The London Chronicle, 1898
Christian Science Sentinel, February 17, 1917
The Christian Science Monitor, January 12, 1942

The United States to Great Britain
MARY BAKER EDDY
[Boston Herald, May 15, 1898]

Hail, brother! fling thy banner
To the billows and the breeze;
We proffer thee warm welcome
With our hand, though not our knees.
Lord of the main and manor!
Thy palm, in ancient day,
Didst rock the country's cradle
That wakes thy laureate's lay.

The hoar fight is forgotten;
Our eagle, like the dove,
Returns to bless a bridal
Betokened from above.

List, brother! angels whisper
To Judah's sceptred race, —
"Thou of the self-same spirit,
Allied by nations' grace,

"Wouldst cheer the hosts of heaven;
For Anglo-Israel, lo!
Is marching under orders;
His hand averts the blow."

Brave Britain, blest America!
Unite your battle-plan;
Victorious, all who live it, —
The love for God and man.

"The United States to Great Britain" by Mary Baker Eddy
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 337 - 338

A Significant Prophecy
[The following editorial was originally published in The Christian Science Journal for December, 1898, in a period when Mrs. Eddy was in frequent correspondence with the Editor of the Journal. It is republished here (Christian Science Sentinel, March 14, 1942) because of its interest in relation to world affairs today.]

   The love of the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy for our flag, and her perception of its symbolic significance, have been heretofore referred to. Her letter in reply to Mr. Ormond Higman's letter, published in the November Journal, in which she acknowledges the gift of a beautiful flag of the Dominion of Canada, indicates that her love for the national emblems is not confined exclusively to the flag of our own country. Strong as is her devotion to her native country and its institutions, her love reaches out beyond its borders to other countries. And why not? Her works are reaching around the world. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is going out as a missionary into almost every part of the habitable globe, and naturally her love is commensurate therewith.

   There seems to be some peculiar significance attaching to the English-speaking countries in connection with the future evangelization of the world. There is a general turning toward them with the indefinite yet eager expectancy with which the more helpless ever look toward those from whom they hope for succor. Our Leader evidently discerns this, and is it not likely that this accounts for her promise to place side by side, in token of brotherly love and unity, the Anglo-American flags? They both stand for liberty, for the Christianization of humanity. And while the leavening process of divine Love in its regenerative work of leavening the whole lump of humanity, seems to have been slow, and its human agents remiss of duty in many palpable respects, nevertheless the process has never ceased, and it is not for the poor perception of mortal sense to judge critically of the Divine purpose and method.

   It is yet true that
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
   The Divine purpose moves certainly forward, even though it seems at times to be in ways the opposite of those generally expected. It is manifest to the discerner of the signs of the times that the horizon is brightening. The day of humanity's redemption draws nigh. What if the clouds seem dark? What if there are wars and rumors of wars? These were prophesied by the Nazarene prophet as preceding "the end," — the dawn of the brighter day, the new era, which is surely coming, else the Bible promises are vain and Jesus' words idle.

   As to the Anglo-Saxon relations of the future our Leader's remarkable poem¹ in reply to that other remarkable poem² . . . was, as we sincerely believe, a prophetic forecast. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Higman, an Englishman, should have so clearly seen this. His beautiful reference to it in his letter, and the fact that it inspired him to the presentation of the flag of his country to its author, evidences his keen perception of its meaning.

   When the Anglo-Saxon alliance shall come it will be pillared on more substantial ground than that of mere commercialism. The two flags will float side by side in a deeper unity than that of fleshly ties. They will float as the unified emblem of a brotherly love as broad as the teaching of the great Nazarene. They will stand as the signal for the restoration of Israel. They will herald the dawning of the millennium. They will speak in mute eloquence of the forthcoming redemption of the race. They will, in the fulness of time, blaze forth the story of the building up of the waste places. They will wave over a people who have made the desert-valleys to bloom with resurrection flowers, — the roses of Sharon. They will float over a people whose God is one God, and whose mission it shall be to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons throughout the world. . . .

   Let us nevertheless profit by all the signs of the times, and turn our faces more and more toward the God who hath "dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth."

(1.) "The United States to Great Britain," first published in the Boston Herald, and to be found now in "Poems" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 10)
(2.) "Greeting from England," published in The London Chronicle, and reprinted in the Christian Science Sentinel for February 17, 1917, and The Christian Science Monitor for January 12, 1942.

"A Significant Prophecy"
Editorial by Judge Hanna
The Christian Science Journal, December, 1898
Christian Science Sentinel, March 14, 1942

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