How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
SO MANY PEOPLE are familiar with those words by Phillips Brooks. At Christmastime they resonate in stores and on street corners, in churches and on television programs. You can probably turn on the radio today and hear them sung in varying degrees of reverence on one of those nonstop Christmas music stations that having sprung up in recent years.
But so many people may not realize how pointedly this beloved Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," proclaims, right in our midst, God's gift of healing. It's not an overstatement to say that these words come close to expressing Mary Baker Eddy's concept of Christian Science—the very Comforter spoken of in Bible prophesy, which Jesus promised his followers he would pray God would bring the world for all time.
We may not realize how often (and "how silently") God's voice, His Christ, is speaking here on earth. And that's at the heart of what you'll read about in the following pages. You could truly say that the thoughts expressed in Brooks' words are alive in "The Comforter—Love's giving never ends," by Fenella Bennetts (p. 30). And in Rob Gilbert's insights into the study and practice of Christian Science (p. 22). And not by any means least in the healings and inspirations, the thoughts and prayers, that each contributor offers up in this issue. Each is a glimmer in the healing light of true Christmas, which Brooks went on to describe this way:
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
