Loyal Christian Scientists MARY BAKER EDDY          Pen can never portray the satisfaction that you afforded me at the grand meeting in Chicago of the National Christian Scientist Association in 1888. Your public and private expressions of love and loyalty were very touching. They moved me to speechless thanks.          Chicago is the wonder of the western hemisphere. The Palmer House, where we stopped, is magnificent and orderly. The servants are well-mannered, and the fare is appetizing. The floral offerings sent to my apartments were superb, especially the large book of rare flowers, and the crescent with a star.          The reception in the spacious rooms of the Palmer House, like all else, was purely Western in its cordiality and largeness. I did not hold interviews with all with whom I desired to, solely because so many people and circumstances demanded my attention that my personality was not big enough to fill the order; but rest assured my heart's desire met the demand.          My students, our delegates, about one thousand Christian Scientists, active, earnest, and loyal, formed a goodly assemblage for the third convention of our National Association, — an assemblage found waiting and watching for the full coming of our Lord and Christ.          In Christian Science the midnight hour will always be the bridal hour, until "no night is there." The wise will have their lamps aglow, and light will illumine the darkness.          Out of the gloom comes the glory of our Lord, and His divine Love is found in affliction. When a false sense suffers, the true sense comes out, and the bridegroom appears. We are then wedded to a purer, higher affection and ideal.          I pray that all my students shall have their lamps trimmed and burning at the noon of night, that not one of them be found borrowing oil, and seeking light from matter instead of Spirit, or at work erroneously, thus shutting out spiritual light. Such an error and loss will be quickly learned when the door is shut. Error giveth no light, and it closes the door on itself.          In the dark hours, wise Christian Scientists stand firmer than ever in their allegiance to God. Wisdom is wedded to their love, and their hearts are not troubled.          Falsehood is on the wings of the winds, but Truth will soar above it. Truth is speaking louder, clearer, and more imperatively than ever. Error is walking to and fro in the earth, trying to be heard above Truth, but its voice dies out in the distance. Whosoever proclaims Truth loudest, becomes the mark for error's shafts. The archers aim at Truth's mouthpiece; but a heart loyal to God is patient and strong. Justice waits, and is used to waiting; and right wins the everlasting victory.          The stake and scaffold have never silenced the messages of the Most High. Then can the present mode of attempting this — namely, by slanderous falsehoods, and a secret mind-method, through which to effect the purposes of envy and malice — silence Truth? Never. They but open the eyes to the truth of Benjamin Franklin's report before the French Commissioners on Mesmerism: "It is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of the human mind."          "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice."          No evidence before the material senses can close my eyes to the scientific proof that God, good, is supreme. Though clouds are round about Him, the divine justice and judgment are enthroned. Love is especially near in times of hate, and never so near as when one can be just amid lawlessness, and render good for evil.          I thunder His law to the sinner, and sharply lighten on the cloud of the intoxicated senses. I cannot help loathing the phenomena of drunkenness produced by animality. I rebuke it wherever I see it. The vision of the Revelator is before me. The wines of fornication, envy, and hatred are the distilled spirits of evil, and are the signs of these times; but I am not dismayed, and my peace returns unto me.          Error will hate more as it realizes more the presence of its tormentor. I shall fulfil my mission, fight the good fight, and keep the faith.          There is great joy in this consciousness, that throughout my labors, and in my history as connected with the Cause of Christian Science, it can be proven that I have never given occasion for a single censure, when my motives and acts are understood and seen as my Father seeth them. I once wondered at the Scriptural declaration that Job sinned not in all he said, even when he cursed the hour of his birth; but I have learned that a curse on sin is always a blessing to the human race.          Those only who are tried in the furnace reflect the image of their Father. You, my beloved students, who are absent from me, and have shared less of my labors than many others, seem stronger to resist temptation than some of those who have had line upon line and precept upon precept. This may be a serviceable hint, since necessities and God's providence are foreshadowed. I have felt for some time that perpetual instruction of my students might substitute my own for their growth, and so dwarf their experience. If they must learn by the things they suffer, the sooner this lesson is gained the better.          For two years I have been gradually withdrawing from active membership in the Christian Scientist Association. This has developed higher energies on the part of true followers, and led to some startling departures on the other hand. "Offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come."          Why does not the certainty of individual punishment for sin prevent the wrong action? It is the love of God, and not the fear of evil, that is the incentive in Science. I rejoice with those who rejoice, and am too apt to weep with those who weep, but over and above it all are eternal sunshine and joy unspeakable.   Excerpted from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 275-279

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