Article April 14, 1951 ISSUE

OUR BELOVED LEADER

E. VIOLET J. DICKSEE

Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in referring to The Mother Church, says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 141), "It will speak to you of the Mother, and of your hearts' offering to her through whom was revealed to you God's all-power, all-presence, and all-science." As members of The Mother Church we should ever seek to renew our hearts' offering to her to whom our love and loyalty go out in unbounded measure. Our offerings are not the kind we would bring to some great personal leader in memory of something which has passed, but we bring the gold and frankincense and myrrh of our hearts in recognition of her present leadership.

In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" our Leader writes (p. 120), "Those who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me." It therefore follows that in her writings we have her leadership with us today. We seek and find in these writings guidance for all the various activities of our daily life as we strive to live in accordance with the teachings of Christian Science. As we turn away from her human personality and see her true individuality as the God-crowned messenger, we let into our consciousness a flood tide of light and understanding of her revelation. To understand and acknowledge the messenger to be God-sent is to accept the truth of the message and her divinely inspired leadership.

Sometimes, perhaps, we find ourselves wishing we could have seen her. We wish that we could have had the wonderful experience of instruction from her in the classes she taught. But these thoughts and longings are in reality only the subtle suggestion that some privilege, some impartation of Truth, has passed away because she is no longer visibly present. We can replace these longings with the glorious realization that as we stuck her writings we are indeed receiving her instruction. With what keenness and expectation we should have entered one of her classes! If we bring the same keenness and expectation to our study of her writings, we shall find the very bread of heaven feeding us and drink indeed of the wine of inspiration. Each can climb with her the Horeb heights of revelation and enter with unshod feet the Holy of Holies, where consciousness is cognizant only of God's all-power, all-presence, and all-science.

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