Editorial December 10, 1910 Issue

MARY BAKER EDDY

Archibald McLellan

There is a story of a certain old-world philosopher who, when it was asked of him, "What constitutes achievement?" answered, "To be able to reply Yes, every evening, to yourself, when you ask, 'Have I done good to any one today?" It would be difficult to find a more practical and efficatious test of the value of a man's life-work, and it would be impossible to find any one to whom it could be more fearlessly applied than Mrs. Eddy. Her whole life, even before she discovered Christian Science, constituted an expression of an intense tenderness for suffering humanity, and as the years added themselves to years, and she learned more and more of divine Life, Truth, and Love, she came to fulfil absolutely the exhortation of Paul to the church at Colosse, "Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Building in this way for God and not for herself, she built on sure foundations. The Christian Science church which, in the brief space of forty-four years, has literally folded itself around the globe, is in this way founded upon a rock, the rock of divine service. It is a rock against which the storms may beat in vain, for as long as the thoughts of men are turned away from selfish aims, in the endeavor to be able to say, at every close of day, "I have striven to bring healing to the sick, peace to the weary, joy to the sorrowing," they will be learning something of the meaning of consecration.

The depth of man's consecration may be measured by his understanding of divine service. "The song of Christian Science," Mrs. Eddy writes, "is 'Work—work—work—watch and pray' " (Messages to The Mother Church, p.20), and certainly no one has ever put exhortation into practice with more selfess devotion than has she. "I saw before me," she writes on page 226 of Science and Health, alluding to her earlier trials, "the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged." Not once, in all those years of conflict, did she flinch, because not once in all those years did she put her own will before the will of God; and so today the Red Sea and the wilderness lie far behind, and the advancing hosts of Christian Science hear the voice of their Leader, repeating the triumphant words of her Master, "Fear not, little flock."

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