Letters to our Leader

with contributions from D. Eloise Brownell, John C. McQuinton, Althea G. Downs

Philadelphia, November 1, 1903.

Beloved Leader and Teacher:—Gratitude and thanks are not all my message to-day. There is even more than this in my heart as I review the experiences of years and the memory of lost opportunities. I want to be forgiven for every thorn upon which I have caused you to tread, for every sin of omission or commission which has hampered your upward flight, for every pang you have suffered through my disobedience.

For the Concordance, the Manual, and later, the crowning blessing of all in the Teachers' Association, I cannot express my gratitude. Through fulfilling the law of love yourself, you have made it possible for those who follow you to catch glorious glimpses of the promised land, and God grant that we may not fail to enter in because of murmuring or disobedience. I want to thank you, and thank you again, for your faithful guidance and patient example. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." To be called not only your loving but your obedient student is the earnest wish of my heart,

D. Eloise Brownell.

Chestertown, N. Y., January 16, 1904. Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, Concord, N. H.

Beloved Leader:—It is a joy to begin the new year with a tribute of love and allegiance to the great cause of Christian Science and to you whom God has chosen to lead, and to show us the way so faithfully, so lovingly, you who have borne the standard of Christ so high, that however clouded the hour, we could see it there strengthening, guiding us on.

In gratitude for a healing that demonstrated to me the truth of Christian Science,—the Christ-truth,—I opened a reading room in this little summer resort in the lower Adirondacks where Sunday and Wednesday evening services have been held, filling the room with summer guests,—thereby "sowing beside all waters."

With lowly, loving gratitude I testify to many cases of healing of sin and disease, of drunkenness, profanity, consumption, abscess and carious bone, Bright's disease, ulcerated kidneys, delirium tremens, epilepsy, and many minor conditions of discord. I have had the privilege of several seasons of annual Communion services at the Mother Church, and of hearing the voice of Love speak to me through you from the balcony at Pleasant View; I have placed in the public library and reading room here, copies of your books, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and "Miscellaneous Writings," also a copy of the Sentinel weekly.

Hoping it might interest you I enclose this prayer on ribbon. It is an exact copy of one lost by a soldier during the Civil War, in the streets of Charleston, S. C. It was on ribbon and doubtless given by a mother to the loved one on his going to war.

I am devoutly thankful for Christian Science, the Christ-truth, and for the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer as given in our text-book.

With reverence and love,
Your loyal follower,
(Mrs.) Althea G. Downs.

Kansas City, Mo., November 26, 1903. Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, Pleasant View, Concord, N. H.

Beloved Leader:—Uneducated, unhappy, unbelieving, unhealthy, uncouth, a rough railroad man, my whole life one of lost opportunities, Christian Science—the Word of God—finds me, to-day, happy, contented, prosperous, healthy, receiving the highest education that mortal man can possibly conceive, that of loving my neighbor as myself and "loving God supremely" (Science and Health, p. 167). I want to thank you. I love you and I thank our Father-Mother God for His great message, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." One sweet privilege I have lost: I do want to call you my very own dear mother, but I be obedient.

Lovingly,
John C. McQuinton.

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