"O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and
fear
No ill,—since God is good, and loss is
gain."
—Poems, by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 4).
Doubtless many people have questioned the truth of these words by Mrs. Eddy when they read or heard them for the first time. To be glad for the scalding tear, for deferred hope, which "maketh the heart sick," for ingratitude and disdain, seems in ill accord with the ordinary philosophy of human life; while the assertion that "loss is gain" may appear, upon first thought, to be a paradox. It is only as the realization becomes clearer that the gaining of spiritual understanding comes in proportion to the loss of materiality, that the seeming inconsistency of the statement begins to disappear.
