"If He be with us, the wayside is a sanctuary, and the desert a resting-place peopled with living witnesses of the fact that 'God is Love.'" In these comforting words (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 150) Mary Baker Eddy speaks of God, universal Love, available to all. Again, referring to Christ Jesus, she writes (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 91), "When he was with them, a fishing-boat became a sanctuary, and the solitude was peopled with holy messages from the All Father."
The wayside, a fishing-boat, wherever humanity, weary, fearful, suffering, finds God, infinitely loving, infinitely wise, there is sanctuary. Wherever the Christ-healing reaches the human consciousness, destroying erroneous thinking and bringing to light man's sonship with God, there is sanctuary. Sanctuary means safety, protection, peace. The sanctuary which is the realization of the presence of God means healing, joy, freedom, abundance of good.
When Moses was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, a tabernacle was built, which represented to them God's dwelling place. In medieval days the oppressed, the fugitive, guilty or not guilty, the terrified, sought refuge within the walls of a church. This refuge was known as sanctuary. It was for all, and was supposed to be inviolate. However, it was temporary and sometimes subject to violation. No material structure, though representing a concept of the habitation of God, could then, or can now, give real sanctuary.
