EXTRACT FROM A CHRISTMAS LETTER
Beloved Students: – My heart has many rooms: one of these is sacred to the memory of my students. Into this upper chamber, where all things are pure and of good report, – into this sanctuary of love, -I often retreat, sit silently, and ponder. In this chamber is memory’s wardrobe, where I deposit certain recollections and rare grand collections once in each year. This is my Christmas storehouse. Its goods commemorate, – not so much the Bethlehem babe, as the man of God, the risen Christ, and the adult Jesus. Here I deposit the gifts that my dear students offer at the shrine of Christian Science, and to their lone Leader. Here I talk once a year, – and this is a bit of what I said in 1890: “0 glorious Truth! 0 Mother Love! how has the sense of Thy children grown to behold Thee! and how have many weary wings sprung upward! and how has our Model, Christ, been unveiled to us, and to the age!”
I look at the rich devices in embroidery, silver, gold, and jewels, – all gifts of Christian Scientists from all parts of our nation, and some from abroad, – then almost marvel at the power and permanence of affection under the regime of Christian Science! Never did gratitude and love unite more honestly in uttering the word thanks, than ours at this season. But a mother’s love behind words has no language; it may give no material token, but lives steadily on, through time and circumstance, as part and paramount portion of her being. Thus may our lives flow on in the same sweet rhythm of head and heart, till they meet and mingle in bliss supernal. There is a special joy in knowing that one is gaining constantly in the knowledge of Truth and divine Love. Your progress, the past year, has been marked. It satisfies my present hope. Of this we rest assured, that every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger and firmer in understanding and obedience.
Lovingly yours, MARY BAKER G. EDDY (Eddy, Mary Baker, Miscellaneous Writings, p.159:10-17 next page)
WATCHKEEPERS 