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CSEC ON-LINE REFERENCE LIBRARY |
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February, 1899 MARY BAKER EDDY
To-day, with the large membership of seventy-four communicants, you have met to praise God. I, as usual at home and alone, am with you in spirit, joining in your rejoicing, and my heart is asking: What are the angels saying or singing of this dear little flock, and what is each heart in this house repeating, and what is being recorded of this meeting as with the pen of an angel? Bear in mind always that Christianity is not alone a gift, but that it is a growth Christward; it is not a creed or dogma, — a philosophical phantasm, — nor the opinions of a sect struggling to gain power over contending sects and scourging the sect in advance of it. Christianity is the summons of divine Love for man to be Christlike — to emulate the words and the works of our great Master. To attain to these works, men must know somewhat of the divine Principle of Jesus' life-work, and must prove their knowledge by doing as he bade: "Go, and do thou likewise." We know Principle only through Science. The Principle of Christ is divine Love, resistless Life and Truth. Then the Science of the Principle must be Christlike, or Christian Science. More than regal is the majesty of the meekness of the Christ-principle; and its might is the ever-flowing tides of truth that sweep the universe, create and govern it; and its radiant stores of knowledge are the mysteries of exhaustless being. Seek ye these till you make their treasures yours. When a young man vainly boasted, "I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men," Epictetus made answer, "And I with many rich men, but I am not rich." The richest blessings are obtained by labor. A vessel full must be emptied before it can be refilled. Lawyers may know too much of human law to have a clear perception of divine justice, and divines be too deeply read in scholastic theology to appreciate or to demonstrate Christian charity. Losing the comprehensive in the technical, the Principle in its accessories, cause in effect, and faith in sight, we lose the Science of Christianity, — a predicament quite like that of the man who could not see London for its houses. Clouds parsimonious of rain, that swing in the sky with dumb thunderbolts, are seen and forgotten in the same hour; while those with a mighty rush, which waken the stagnant waters and solicit every root and every leaf with the treasures of rain, ask no praising. Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance. Pliny gives the following description of the character of true greatness: "Doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read; and rendering the world happier and better for having lived in it." Strive thou for the joy and crown of such a pilgrimage — the service of such a mission. A heart touched and hallowed by one chord of Christian Science, can accomplish the full scale; but this heart must be honest and in earnest and never weary of struggling to be perfect — to reflect the divine Life, Truth, and Love. Stand by the limpid lake, sleeping amid willowy banks dyed with emerald. See therein the mirrored sky and the moon ablaze with her mild glory. This will stir your heart. Then, in speechless prayer, ask God to enable you to reflect God, to become His own image and likeness, even the calm, clear, radiant reflection of Christ's glory, healing the sick, bringing the sinner to repentance, and raising the spiritually dead in trespasses and sins to life in God. Jesus said: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Beloved in Christ, what our Master said unto his disciples, when he sent them forth to heal the sick and preach the gospel, I say unto you: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Then, if the wisdom you manifest causes Christendom or the disclaimer against God to call this "a subtle fraud," "let your peace return to you."
I am patient with the newspaper
wares and the present schoolboy epithets and attacks of a
portion of Christendom: Rest assured that the injustice done by press and pulpit to this denomination of Christians will cease, when it no longer blesses this denomination. "This I know; for God is for me" (Psalms). And in the words of St. Paul, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" "Pass ye the proud fane by, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 148-151 |
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