Article January 19, 1899 Issue

Dedicate a Church

Christian Scientists of Clinton, Iowa, Dedicate their Handsome New Structure.

The new church edifice of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, was formally dedicated Sunday, November 6, with appropriate ceremonies, and hundreds attended the services held through the day. Owing to the limited size of the auditorium the dedication service held at half past ten was repeated at three and again at half past seven, and those who attended the first and second were so notified, so that each audience was a new one, yet at each service the church was packed with auditors.

The address of welcome, delivered by S. Jerome Schenck at each of the services, was in part as follows:—

In January, 1897, this church was organized, and incorporated under the laws of the state of Iowa, with five members. From that time forward the interest was one of spiritual advancement, although each attending step was fraught with ordeals seemingly insurmountable, and only by the utmost reliance in God, the divine Principle of all Good, was the path made clear, and the labor of each individual member made to shine forth as the radiance of the midday sun. The need of a home for this faithful little band of Christian Scientists began to be manifest, and when the new organization was six months old, with seventeen members, a church site was purchased on which to build a house of worship. A building committee was appointed and instructed to report plans for the erection of a church. After much deliberation, it was decided to remodel the building already on the lot in which to hold services until such time as it was deemed expedient to begin the construction of such a church as had been contemplated. To repair this building and furnish it suitably for a temporary home in which we could meet was no small undertaking to this little band of earnest Christian Scientists, for there seemed a lack of funds, even at the very start, and although our worldly supply seemed limited, from the beginning our trust was not in the material or earthly, but in "Him who doeth all things well;" for had we not been taught that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof"? Then why should we not put our full trust in Him who gives us Life, Truth, and Love, and understand through the infinite Mind that there is always plenty and to spare? Yet in this our infancy the pathway was not through flowery beds of ease, nor could we sit down and realize that we had an easy task before us.

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