The following letter from the Pastor Emeritus was read at the Communion service of the Mother Church June 28, 1903.
My Beloved Brethren:—I have a secret to tell thee, and a question to ask. Do you know how much I love you, and the nature of this love? No: then my sacred secret is incommunicable, and we live apart. But, yes: and this inmost something becomes articulate—and my book is not all you know of me—but your knowledge with its magnitude of meaning uncovers my life, and your heart has discovered it. The spiritual bespeaks our temporal history. Difficulty, abnegation, constant battle against the world, the flesh, and evil, tell my long kept secret—evidence a heart wholly in protest, and unutterable in love.
The unprecedented progress of Christian Science is proverbial, and we cannot be too grateful, nor too humble for this—inasmuch as our daily lives serve to enhance or to stay its glory. To triumph in truth, to keep the faith individually and collectively, conflicting elements must be mastered. Defeat need not follow victory; joy over good achievements and work well done should not be eclipsed by some lost opportunity, some imperative demand not yet met.
