Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/441

Rh quarters. There were many expressions of grateful appreciation of the directors and others connected with the Mother Church. One man who came to the meeting at Portland, Oregon, traveled ninety miles over the mountains in a stage-coach before he reached the railroad line. This shows how keen the Scientists are for anything that will be a benefit to them.

What impressed me most and what pleased me most were the evidences of the loving regard in which you are held by Christian Scientists everywhere. Your wise leadership is recognized, and the genuine love for you which is being constantly expressed is so substantial and so potent a force for good that I feel sure it must encourage and sustain you. One gentleman, at the meeting at Los Angeles, said that he did not want the meeting to close without expressing his thanks for what he had got out of it, that the point which had impressed him most was the necessity for shielding and protecting our Leader. He said he could see, as never before, that this was one of the practical ways in which we could prove our gratitude and affection.

The subject matter of the meetings seemed to be interesting and helpful to those who attended, and I sincerely hope, and have every reason to believe, that much good will result from this series of conferences. If the churches and societies of each state are brought into closer fellowship, if the ties are strengthened which unite in a common cause the Mother Church and the branch churches, if individual thought is aroused to more scientific and more consecrated activity, the purposes of the meetings will have been achieved.

And this month of November, 1909, which had witnessed the subsidence of controversy in New