Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/64

36 dedicatory Message from their teacher and Leader, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy.

The telegram from the church to Mrs. Eddy was read by Mr. Edward A. Kimball of Chicago, and the five thousand present rose as one to indicate their approval of it.

Beloved Teacher and Leader: — The members of your church have assembled at this sacred time to commune with our infinite heavenly Father and again to consecrate all that we are or hope to be to a holy Christian service that shall be acceptable unto God.

Most of us are here because we have been delivered from beds of sickness or withheld from open graves or reclaimed from vice or redeemed from obdurate sin. We have exchanged the tears of sorrow for the joy of repentance and the peace of a more righteous living, and now with blessed accord we are come, in humility, to pour out our gratitude to God and to bear witness to the abundance of salvation through His divine Christ.

At this altar, dedicated to the only true God, we who have been delivered from the depths increase the measure of our devotion to the daily life and purpose which are in the image and likeness of God.

By these stately walls; by this sheltering dome; by all the beauty of color and design, the Christian Scientists of the world, in tender affection for the cause of human weal, have fulfilled a high resolve and set up this tabernacle, which is to stand as an enduring monument, a sign of your understanding and proof that our Supreme God, through His power and law, is the natural healer