LETTERS TO OUR LEADER

Edinburgh, Scotland, Oct. 22, 1909.

Dear Leader:—The board of directors of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edinburgh, are desirous that you should know of the progress we are making here, so I have been be asked to write and tell you about it. We feel sure you will be glad to hear that we are going to build a church. Eight years ago you started our building fund by a very generous gift which came as a great encouragement to us in our work. The gracious words which you wrote to us at the time seemed to bring you very near to us, and gave us wonderful sense of your loving care for even such a little band as we were, so far across the sea. You have shown us that "space is no separator of hearts" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 150), and we love to remember that Edinburgh is dear to you as your great-grandfather's home, and that tales of Scotland told you in childhood's days are still fresh in your memory.

We want to thank you again for the Monitor, and the grand work it is accomplishing in removing prejudices of all sorts and drawing nations and classes together. I am sure there never was a time when the need for this was more felt than it is now. The work of the Monitor will go deeper than any Act of Parliament or Peace Congress; it is a messenger to announce to the world the approach of the millennium, and to prepare men's hearts to receive it.

Lovingly and loyally, your student's student,
C. Lilias Ramsay,
For the Board of Directors of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edinburgh.

Mrs. Eddy's Reply.

Box G, Brookline, Mass., Nov. 2, 1909.

Miss C. Lilias Ramsay, C.S.B., and Board of Directors,
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Beloved Christian Scientists:—Like the gentle dews of heaven and the refreshing breeze of morn, comes your dear letter to my waiting heart,—waiting in due expectation of just such blessedness, crowning the hope and hour of divine Science, than which nothing can exceed its ministrations of God to man.

I congratulate you on the prospect of erecting a church building, wherein to gather in praise and prayer for the whole human family.

Lovingly yours,
Mary Baker Eddy.

[Telegram.]

Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 5, 1909.

Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, Brookline, Mass.

Dear Mrs. Eddy:—We rejoice to inform you that Third Church of Christ, Scientist, has been formed here. At this our initial meeting we wish to send a unanimous expression of our love and greetings to you, the Discoverer of Christian Science, and our heartfelt gratitude for your ceaseless labors in our behalf; and for the loving wisdom which has protected and made possible the growth and prosperity of this most blessed Cause. We pray that the love which you teach may illuminate the life of every member.

Your loyal followers.
Third Church of Christ, Scientist,
Milwaukee, Wis. 

Mrs. Eddy's Reply.

Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Milwaukee, Wis.

Beloved Christian Scientists:—Accept my love, thanks, and encouragement.

New York, N. Y., Nov. 5. 1909.

Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy.

Beloved Leader:—As our material festival of thanksgiving approaches, it reminds me of the perpetual thanksgiving which true Christian Scientists are rendering to God for the revelation of Truth which has come to them from your pure and unselfish work in Christian Science. I see more clearly than ever that the Mind which was also in Christ Jesus, the pure reflection of infinite Mind, had no elements of the so-called human mind or will-power. I see also that primarily Christian Science is educational in the broadest sense, leading out the human thought from the darkness of mortal belief, based upon a material concept of life resident in matter, to the spiritual concept of Life as God.

At this time, after ten years' study and demonstration of the truth, I desire to give my thanks to you as the Founder and true interpreter of Christian Science to humanity.

With loving gratitude,
Yours loyally,
Robert E. Carey.

Lexington, Ky., Oct. 19. 1909.

Dearly Beloved Leader:—Recently I had an experience which I believe will cause you to rejoice, for it shows that your students are understanding the control which Love holds over all and proving the viper to be harmless (Science and Health, p. 514). just as Paul did nineteen hundred years ago; and that they also realize " 'Tis the same hand unfolds His power, and writes the page" (Christ and Christmas).

In August I spent three weeks at Oil Springs, Ky., and while there went with a party of fourteen to Pilot Knob (one of Daniel Boone's camping-places). On the way down from the Knob, one of the ladies asked me to get her a bunch of mountain pinks, which were growing out of the rocks, and when I reached out to pull them I was bitten by a snake. At first, thinking my finger had been pricked by a thorn, I gave my hand a shake, and reached out again to get the flowers; then I saw the snake, a large copperhead, and I knew what had caused the blood to flow from my finger. The party became greatly alarmed, and looked when I "should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly." My hand did swell, but I refused their sympathy, refused to have my finger cut off, to go to the nearest physician or to send for my wife; but as soon as I reached the hotel (about five o'clock), I telephoned to a Scientist in Lexington for treatment. I ate a good supper, laughed and talked with the guests until half past eight o'clock; then went to my room and studied the Lesson-Sermon; slept all night, and wakened in the morning feeling fine. In thirty-six hours all the swelling had disappeared from my hand. I experienced no suffering in any way, except from a feeling of tightness when my hand was swollen.

From the very depths of my heart, I thank you for showing us how to make this demonstration, for showing us how to prove that nothing shall hurt or destroy. I had been telling my friends that ours was a demonstrable religion, and I had the privilege of proving it.

With gratitude and love.
Oscar R. King.

Lexington, Ky., Nov. 3. 1909.

Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, Brookline, Mass.

Dearest Leader:—The day after Mr. King telephoned for treatment, I met the state regent of the D.A.R. (Mrs. C. D. Chenault). and her first question was, "Are you the lady who treated Mr. King yesterday?" She said that two members of their chapter had come from Oil Springs, Ky., that morning and attended their meeting. They were both in the party that went to Pilot Knob, and they told her of Mr. King's experience,—of how he was bitten by the snake, of his refusing all material aid, and of how marvelous his recovery seemed to them. One of the ladies stayed awake all night, expecting him to die. Mr. King is our Second Reader, and a prominent jeweler here. "The grandeur of the word, the power of Truth, is again casting out evils and healing the sick; and it is whispered, "This is Science' " (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 99).

With deep love and gratitude.
Helen Rogers.

Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. I, 1909.

Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, Brookline, Mass.

Dear and Revered Leader:—Among the many thousands of testimonials of gratitude to you for the dear Science that is so helpful and so uplifting, this truly heartfelt expression of mine may not be amiss, in that it tells of Truth's transforming power,—Truth found through the study of your inestimable gift to the race, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." My espousal of the tenets of Christian Science came, not from the healing of physical ills, but because of a hunger for spiritual food, which I could not find in the fold of my former religious affiliation and out of which I had drifted in my search for truth.

After putting the current cults and isms to the test, and finding them only Dead Sea fruit, which fell to ashes at the test of even slight investigation, it was my good fortune to hear a lecture on Christian Science by the Hon. Clarence A. Buskirk, and it proved to be the turning-point in my career. I began at once to investigate the Science which his masterful logic presented so clearly, and my inquiries soon led me into the presence of a Christian Science practitioner, a high-souled, earnest, conscientious man, who answered my questions carefully, and lovingly withal, and who gave me a Sentinel and a few tracts to read. After this I secured a copy of Science and Health and read it through to my dear wife, who agreed with me that herein we had at last found the truth for which we had so long been hungering.

A continued study of this truly wonderful book led me, after a period of six months, to abandon the practice of medicine, in which I had been engaged for ten years, and to resign from the faculty of a medical college in which I had lectured for eight years, since which (now nearly two years) I have been engaged in a wholly different occupation. Some of my friends predicted that I would starve, saying that it was business suicide to abandon a profession which up to that time had been my sole mode of supply; but the result has proven otherwise, and we have realized in very truth that "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494). We have found a growing joy and satisfaction in the reading and study of the Bible, through having its inspirations made clear by the use of the truly wonderful key you have given us in our text-book, and we are glad beyond expression that we have so priceless a treasure.

We have just passed through a most satisfactory experience in receiving class instruction from one of your own students, and truly feel that we have "enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 450), and find added inspiration from "Miscellaneous Writings," "Unity of Good," the Journal, Sentinel, and Monitor. The absolute and irrefutable logic of your writings appeals to us as nothing else could, and we realize that we are, in the largest conceivable sense, your grateful debtors therefor. Life brightened, its possibilities enhanced through the ability to employ our faculties, capacities, and powers in a wider range of usefulness, gives us a joy beyond words.

I might extend this letter indefinitely and still be unable to portray adequately my sense of gratitude to you. so I will say that my life henceforth shall be devoted to the further acquirement of this inexhaustible Science, and its employment to best ends.

Sincerely yours.
D. H. Snoke, M.D.

Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 5. 1909.

Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy.

Dearly Beloved Leader:—I have longed for five years to send my love, gratitude, and appreciation of your loving labors for humanity. Christian Science has indeed made life worth the living. Your book Science and Health is the most precious thing I possess, and the dear Mother Church is always a joy and inspiration. Then comes the monthly blessing from the Journal; the weekly encouragement of the Sentinel; and, as if that were not enough, the Monitor brings us daily cheer. These are but a few of the beautiful manifestations of God's ever-presence which you are so constantly showing us, both by example and teaching. It is my earnest desire to make richer the spoken words of gratitude, by helping to lift mankind out of ignorance.

Lovingly and gratefully yours.
Anne F. Fiske.