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.
