Concord, N. H., 1894.
My Beloved Students:— On the 21st day of May A. D. 1894, with quiet, imposing ceremony is laid the Corner Stone of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist," in Boston.
It gives me great pleasure to say that you, principally, the Normal class graduates of my College, and well known physicians, teachers, editors, and Pastors of Churches, by contributions of $1,000 each (reckoning husband and wife as one) have within about three months donated the munificent sum of forty-two thousand dollars for building the Mother Church. A quiet call from me for this extra contribution, in aid of our Church Building Fund, found you all "with one accord, in one place." Each donation came promptly, sometimes at much self-sacrifice, but always accompanied with a touching letter breathing the donor's privileged joy.
The granite for this Church was taken from the quarries in New Hampshire, my native State. The money for building "Mother's Room," situated in the second story of the tower on the northeast corner of this building, and the name thereof, came from the dear children of Christian Scientists, a little band organized by Miss Maurine R. Campbell.
On this memorable day, is laid away a copy of this address, the subscription list on which are your several names in your own handwriting, and your textbook, "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,"—and other works written by your Teacher, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Without pomp or pride, laid away as a sacred secret in the heart of a rock, there to typify the prophecy: "And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest;.... as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Henceforth to whisper our Master's promise; "And upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
To-day, be this hope in each of our hearts, as precious in God's sight as shall be the assembling of His people in this Temple, sweet as the rest that remaineth for the righteous, and fresh as a summer morn, that from earth's pillows of stone, our visible lives are rising to God. As in the history of a seed, so may our earthly sowing bear fruit, exude the juice of that vine whereof our Father is the husbandman, be poured into the cup of Christ, drunk after the manner of Jesus, and inspire the whole race.
To-day I pray, that Divine Love, the life-giving Principle of Christianity, shall speedily wake the long night of materialism, and the universal dawn soon break upon the spire of this Temple.
Does a single bosom burn for fame and power? Then when that person possesses these let him ask himself, and answer to his name in this Corner Stone of our Temple, Am I greater for them? And if he thinks that he is, then is he less than man to whom God gave "dominion over all the earth,"— and the meek who "inherit the earth." Even vanity forbids man to be vain, and pride is a hooded hawk which flies in darkness. Over a wounded sense of its own error let not mortal thought resuscitate too soon.
In our rock-bound friendship, delicate as dear, our names may melt into one, and common dust, and their modest sign be nothingness. Be this as it may, the visible unity of spirit remains, to quicken even dust into sweet memorial such as Isaiah prophesied: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them."
When the hearts of Christian Scientists are woven together as are some of their names in this web of history, earth will float majestically heaven's heraldry, and echo the song of angels,—" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
To the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and especially to the children that I christened, my heart gave birth. And I would remember thee, oh Zion, with healing on thy wings, and thy walls vocal with salvation, and thy gates with praise.
Lovingly yours,
