This still room

One room in the original Mother Church was built especially for the Pastor Emeritus, Mary Baker Eddy.
Joseph Armstrong describes how work on this room provided additional opportunities to overcome limitations. He writes: 'The workmen were asked how long it would take [to complete the arch for the doorway to Rev. Mary B. Eddy's Room], and the reply was, "It is six days' work to set and finish the arch ready to fill in around it"' (p. 68, The Mother Church).

But this declaration did not have to determine the outcome. Armstrong continues: 'Arrangements were made with them to labor on continuously till the job was ended. The Scientists remained in the building that night to render all assistance possible, and a midnight meal was furnished the workmen. At six o'clock the next morning, in exactly twelve hours instead of six days, the arch was completed...' (ibid, emphasis added).

This special room was furnished with gifts from near and far. Especially tender was the gift of a bookmark from two young girls. It quotes Whittier:

As so I find it well to come,
For deeper rest, to this still room;
for here the habit of the soul
.......................................
Feels less the outer world's control;
And from the silence, multiplies
By these still forms on every side,
The world that time and sense has known
Falls off, and leaves us God alone.

I never quite understood the value of this room (now closed to the public) until reading this poem. For me, the substance of the room lies not in its structure, the materials with which it is built, or the items of beauty with which it was decorated. Rather, the essence of it is the spiritual qualities it epitomises. And especially dear are the features described by Whittier in concepts of stillness and silence and deeper rest where 'the world that time and sense has known falls off'. That sounds like true church to me. 

Julie Swannell

Readers might enjoy clicking into the Mary Baker Eddy Library article about this room: The Most Beautiful Thing I Ever Saw in My Life