Article August 30, 1924 Issue

The Sheltering Wing

ARTHUR L. HITCHCOCK

Mention of the brooding wings of birds and fowls usually brings thoughts of protection and shelter, and possibly the reminder of a mother's tender care and loving solicitude. And so, lessons may be learned which serve to turn thought to the diviner sense of protection, even to the overbrooding love of the infinite Father-Mother as in Christian Science we learn God to be.

By observation we know that the little feathered mother, at all times, and often at the hazard of her own comfort and well-being, gathers and shelters her brood, and especially when danger threatens, thereby exemplifying unselfishness, patience, and love. And the trust and confidence of the little ones illustrate, in turn, obedience to a wisdom higher than their own confidence and contentment. Not infrequently these little creatures are gathered to shelter by the mother's peculiar call before the reason is observable to the human eye; for she has perhaps sighted the threatening hawk while he is yet a long way off, and carefully conceals her darlings beneath her sheltering wing lest the enemy dash down upon them to their destruction.

The Christian Science organization offers a refuge, in a far higher and holier manner, in its institution known as The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, founded and established by Mary Baker Eddy, which is gathering beneath its kindly and far-reaching wing multitudes of mortals who are seeking comfort and the healing of their woes through spiritual rather than material means. Those who have already found this covert from the storms of mortal mind can fully appreciate that passage in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 152) wherein Mrs. Eddy says, "Thus founded upon the rock of Christ, when storm and tempest beat against this sure foundation, you, safely sheltered in the strong tower of hope, faith, and Love, are God's nestlings; and He will hide you in His feathers till the storm has passed."

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