Article August 21, 1976 Issue

Welcome Home!

JOHN E. CHEAL

Have you seen the photograph generally known as the "Balcony Portrait" of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science? It was taken in 1903 when members of The Mother Church, in attendance at the Annual Meeting, accepted Mrs. Eddy's invitation to visit her at "Pleasant View," her home in Concord, New Hampshire.

We can almost hear the opening words of our Leader's address as she said, with hands outstretched: "Welcome home! To your home in my heart!"^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 170;} A year later, when a group of her followers came to see the new Concord church, Mrs. Eddy wrote to the press, "The number of visitors, about four thousand, exceeded my expectation, and my heart welcomed each and all."^{ibid., p. 173;}

What a tender and expansive sense of love our Leader expressed! What an example for all of us—for every church member, every officer, every committee worker! What a challenge to open our hearts and provide a loving home there for every attendant at our church services, every pupil in our Sunday School, every visitor to our Reading Room, indeed to everyone in our community! What waves of tender love would radiate within and without our churches and communities if we earnestly followed Mrs. Eddy's example and sincerely greeted all who enter the precincts of our thought with the benediction, "Welcome home!"

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Still Waters of Prayer