CHAPTER VIII
DEDICATORY MESSAGES TO BRANCH CHURCHES
First Church of Christ, Scientist,
Chicago, Ill.
BELOVED Brethren: — Most happily would I comply with your cordial invitation and be with you on so interesting an occasion as the dedication of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago. But daily duties require attention elsewhere, and I am glad to say that there seems to be no special need of my personal presence at your religious jubilee. I am quite able to take the trip to your city, and if wisdom lengthens my sum of years to fourscore (already imputed to me), I shall then be even younger and nearer the eternal meridian than now, for the true knowledge and proof of life is in putting off the limitations and putting on the possibilities and permanence of Life.
In your renowned city, the genesis of Christian Science was allied to that olden axiom: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church;” but succeeding years show in livid lines that the great Shepherd has nurtured and nourished this church as a fatling of the flock. To-day the glory of His presence rests upon it, the joy of many generations awaits it, and this prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled among you: “I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”
177
