CHRISTMAS FOR THE CHILDREN

Methinks the loving parents and guardians of youth ofttimes query: How shall we cheer the children’s Christmas and profit them withal? The wisdom of their elders, who seek wisdom of God, seems to have amply provided for this, according to the custom of the age and to the full supply of juvenile joy. Let it continue thus with one exception: the children should not be taught to believe that Santa Claus has aught to do with this pastime. A deceit or falsehood is never wise. Too much cannot be done towards guarding and guiding well the germinating and inclining thought of childhood. To mould aright the first impressions of innocence, aids in perpetuating purity and in unfolding the immortal model, man in His image and likeness. St. Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, … but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., December 28, 1905

(Eddy, Mary Baker, Miscellany, p.261:1-20)

MRS. EDDY’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

MY HOUSEHOLD

Beloved: A word to the wise is sufficient. Mother wishes you all a happy Christmas, a feast of Soul and a famine of sense. Lovingly thine, MARY BAKER EDDY

Box G, Brookline, Mass., December 25, 1909

(Eddy, Mary Baker, Miscellany, p.263:3-11)

My Beloved Brethren: My heart greets you with Christmas joy. Continue, fellow-worshippers, vigilant in that whereto God calleth thee. Unity imparts the spirit of the trinity. Opinions of men are not substitutes for Science. Be patient with misjudgement. Christ Truth overcometh error. Today is tomorrow understood. Love maketh right prosperous. Pure hearts and clean hands upbuild the cause Church of Christ, Scientist. Have one God; live in conformity therewith, obedient thereto, governed thereby. With love, Mother

Mary Baker Eddy     (Grekel, Doris, The Founding of Christian Science, p.373)

Do Christian Scientists love God as much as they love mankind? Aye, that’s the question. Let us examine it for ourselves. Thinking of person implies that one is not thinking of Principle, and fifty telegrams per holiday signalize the thinking of person. Are the holidays blest by absorbing one’s time writing or reading congratulations?  I cannot watch and pray while reading telegrams; they only cloud the clear sky, and they give the appearance of personal worship which Christian Science annuls. Did the dear students know how much I love them, and how I need every hour wherein to express this love in labor for them, they would gladly give me the holidays for this work and not task themselves with mistaken means.  But God will reward their kind motives, and guide them every step of the way from human affection to spiritual understanding, from faith to achievement, from light to Love, from sense to Soul.  (Eddy, Mary Baker, The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p.233:28-14)

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H.

February 7, 1897

            Anatomy is the sign of the dragon. Knowledge of God is the reward of diligent seeking. One God. One Mind. Love is the only power.   Mary Baker Eddy   (Carpenter, Gilbert, Collectanea of Items By and About Mary Baker Eddy, p.147)

Mrs. Eddy once said, “Don’t deny person and material mechanism without holding the real in thought.”   Mary Baker Eddy   (Carpenter Jr, Gilbert, 500 Watching Points, #281.)

One day while out driving, Mrs. Eddy noticed a piece of soft fur under the harness of one of the horses.  When she asked that it was there for, she was told that it was to protect a chafed place on the pony’s shoulder.  When the pony was unharnessed after the drive, the place was healed.  (Carpenter, Gilbert, Fragments Gathered From Unpublished Items Ascribed to Mary Baker Eddy, p.89)

There is no self-mesmerism to hide me from Truth, or Truth from
me.   Mary Baker Eddy   (Oakes, Richard, Course In Divinity and General Collectanea, p.69)