Article December 15, 1898 Issue

Last evening, on the invitation of the Kingston congregation...

The Daily Whig

Last evening, on the invitation of the Kingston congregation of Christian Scientists, seven hundred people attended at the City Hall to hear Rev. I. C. Tomlinson of Boston, lecture upon the elements of that faith. He is one of twelve lecturers set apart by the Mother Church at Boston, to familiarize the public with its professions. Edward J. B. Pense, who presided, stated that it was a generous custom amongst denominations of Kingston to ask a representative citizen of another creed to preside at their public lectures, and as he belonged to a profession which takes a kindly interest in all creeds, his position was quite natural. Each church in this age was a mission church, whose chief aim should be aggressive work, and for that aggressive work there was ample material!—not only in the heathen world, but in the communities around us,—right here in the city of Kingston, judging by the absence of a proper proportion of men in the services, and from the need of deeper thought amongst a large number of persons. At any rate, aggressive work is much better directed against outside needs than against a sister community working in His name. The local Christian Scientists had brought this lecturer, at no little expense, to Kingston to explain themselves, and that is a right which every community should be freely accorded, and which was justified by the large attendance. It had been said that the Christian Scientists were doing the work of the evil one. He could scarcely believe that from his knowledge of the earnestness and moral character of members of that congregation, with a number of whom he had long had business and social relations. During the war of the Union a great deal of utter recklessness and disregard of morality pervaded the armies of Virginia. It was said there was no God on the Potomac, and it is certain that chaplains paid more attention to the canteen than they did to the religious condition of the fighters. A half-uniformed man, walking through one of the camps, was asked from what corps he came. He replied that he belonged to the army of the Lord, whereupon he was told that he hailed from a fine corps, with a splendid captain, but that he had wandered a long way from headquarters! The speaker trusted that when Mr. Tomlinson concluded his lecture it would be found that, while he and many of those in the hall might not fully agree with him, that it would be considered that he had not wandered very far from headquarters.

The Daily Whig, Kingston, Ont.

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