Pulpit and Press Part 9

They are demanding the right to help make the laws, or at least to help enforce the laws upon which depends the welfare of their husbands, their children, and themselves. Why should our selfish self longer remain deaf to their cry? The date is no longer B.C. Might no longer makes right, and in this fair land at least fear has ceased to kiss the iron heel of wrong. Why then should we continue to demand woman's love and woman's help while we recklessly promise as lover and candidate what we never fulfill as husband and office-holder? In our secret heart our better self is shamed and dishonored, and appeals from Philip drunk to Philip sober, but has not yet the moral strength and courage to prosecute the appeal. But the east is rosy and the sunlight cannot long be delayed.

Woman must not and will not be disheartened by a thousand denials or a million of broken pledges. With the a.s.surance of faith she prays, with the certainty of inspiration she works, and with the patience of genius she waits. At last she is becoming "as fair as the morn, as bright as the sun, and as terrible as an army with banners" to those who march under the black flag of oppression and wield the ruthless sword of injustice.

In olden times it was the Amazons who conquered the invincibles, and we must look now to their daughters to overcome our own allied armies of evil and to save us from ourselves. She must and will succeed, for as David sang--"G.o.d shall help her and that right early." When we try to praise her later works it is as if we would pour incense upon the rose.

It is the proudest boast of many of us that we are "bound to her by bonds dearer than freedom," and that we live in the reflected royalty which shines from her brow. We rejoice with her that at last we begin to know what John on Patmos meant--"And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." She brought to warring men the Prince of Peace, and He, departing, left His scepter not in her hand, but in her soul. "The time of times" is near when "the new woman" shall subdue the whole earth with the weapons of peace. Then shall wrong be robbed of her bitterness and ingrat.i.tude of her sting; revenge shall clasp hands with pity, and love shall dwell in the tents of hate, while side by side, equal partners in all that is worth living for, shall stand the new man with the new woman.

(_Christian Science Journal_, January, 1895.)

EXTRACT.

THE MOTHER CHURCH.

The Mother Church edifice--The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, is erected. The close of the year Anno Domini, 1894, witnessed the completion of "our Prayer in Stone," all predictions and prognostications to the contrary notwithstanding.

Of the significance of this achievement we shall not undertake to speak in this article. It can be better felt than expressed. All who are awake thereto have some measure of understanding of what it means. But only the future will tell the story of its mighty meaning or unfold it to the comprehension of mankind. It is enough for us now to know that all obstacles to its completion have been met and overcome, and that our temple is completed as G.o.d intended it should be.

This achievement is the result of long years of untiring, unselfish, and zealous effort on the part of our beloved Teacher and Leader, the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, who nearly thirty years ago began to lay the foundation of this temple, and whose devotion and consecration to G.o.d and humanity during the intervening years have made its erection possible.

Those who now, in part, understand her mission, turn their hearts in grat.i.tude to her for her great work, and those who do not understand it will, in the fulness of time, see and acknowledge it. In the measure in which she has unfolded and demonstrated Divine Love and built up in human consciousness a better and higher conception of G.o.d as Life, Truth, and Love,--as the Divine Principle of all things which really exist,--and in the degree in which she has demonstrated the system of healing of Jesus and the Apostles, surely she, as the one chosen of G.o.d to this end, is ent.i.tled to the grat.i.tude and love of all who desire a better and grander humanity, and who believe it to be possible to establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth in accordance with the prayer and teachings of Jesus Christ.

(_Concord Evening Monitor_, March 23, 1895.)

TESTIMONIAL AND GIFT.

To Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, from The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

Rev. Mary Baker Eddy received Friday, from the Christian Science board of directors, Boston, a beautiful and unique testimonial of the appreciation of her labors and loving generosity in the cause of their common faith. It was a facsimile of the corner-stone of the new church of the Christian Scientists, just completed, being of granite, about six inches in each dimension, and contains a solid gold box, upon the cover of which is this inscription:

"To our Beloved Teacher, the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, from her affectionate Students, the Christian Science Board of Directors." On the under side of the cover are the facsimile signatures of the directors, Ira O. Knapp, William B.

Johnson, Joseph Armstrong, and Stephen A. Chase, with the date, "1895."

The beautiful souvenir is encased in an elegant plush box.

Accompanying the stone testimonial was the following address from the board of directors:

BOSTON, March 20, 1895.

To the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy, our beloved teacher and leader:

We are happy to announce to you the completion of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

In behalf of your loving students and all contributors wherever they may be, we hereby present this church to you as a testimonial of love and grat.i.tude for your labors and loving sacrifice, as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, and the author of its text-book, "SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY To THE SCRIPTURES."

We therefore respectfully extend to you the invitation to become the permanent pastor of this church, in connection with the Bible, and the Book alluded to above, which you have already ordained as our pastor.

And we most cordially invite you to be present and take charge of any services that may be held therein. We especially desire you to be present on the twenty-fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, to accept this offering, with our humble benediction.

Lovingly yours,

IRA O. KNAPP, WILLIAM B. JOHNSON, JOSEPH ARMSTRONG, STEPHEN A. CHASE, _The Christian Science Board of Directors_.

REV. MRS. EDDY'S REPLY.

BELOVED DIRECTORS AND BRETHREN:--

For your costly offering, and kind call to the pastorate of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist," in Boston--accept my profound thanks. But permit me, respectfully, to decline their acceptance, while I fully appreciate your kind intentions.-If it will comfort you in the least, make me your Pastor _Emeritus_, nominally. Through my book, your text-book, I already speak to you each Sunday. You ask too much when asking me to accept your grand Church edifice. I have more of earth now, than I desire, and less of heaven; so pardon my refusal of that as a material offering. More effectual than the forum are our states of mind, to bless mankind. This wish stops not with my pen--G.o.d give you grace.

As our Church's tall tower detains the sun, so, may luminous lines from your lives, linger, a legacy to our race.

MARY BAKER EDDY.

March 25, 1895.