Article August 10, 1899 Issue

The Lectures

with contributions from Josephine T. Moore, Harriet E. Werner, F. W. Georgeson, Judge Seeds

Ingomar Theatre was well filled Wednesday evening, Jully 19, with intelligent auditors who gathered to listen to the lecture of A. A. Sulcer, M.D., C.S.B., of Riverside, Cal., on the subject: "The Science of Christian Science." There were present citizens of Eureka, Fortuna, Rohnervile, Ferndale, Arcata, and other towns, special trains having been run from the various points to accommodate those desiring to attend. The train from Eel River Valley brought more than one hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen. There were in attendance about seven hundred and fifty people, all of whom, with the exception of about twenty or thirty who found it necessary to move in and out of the theatre, paid close attention to the speaker. There was a seeming desire among those who had gathered to listen and catch every word, that they might give the subject a proper hearing. The speaker was introduced by Mrs. F. W. Georgeson, as follows:—

In coming before you this evening to perform the task, new and rather difficult for me, of introducing the speaker of the evening, I am comforted by the thought that it is not necessary for me to break the news that you are to listen to a lecture on the much mooted question of Christian Science. Every great reform in the religious or scientific world, back to the time of the tragedy on Calvary, has met with opposition, stubborn resistance, or persecution, varying in degree with the civilization and characteristics of the people involved. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Christian Science, challenging both the religious and the scientific world to new issues, should meet with opposition.

Before proceeding to my task, I wish to mention two things which these lectures are not intended to do. They are not for two distinct reasons, for the purpose of coming back at our assailants on the old Mosaic, eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth doctrine. First, because this is not the Christ way, therefore not Christian, and anything less than Christian must be less than Christian Science. Again, because we feel no enmity for our brethren who have so mistakenly undertaken the task of passing judgment upon what many of them undoubtedly believe to be the doctrine of Christian Science. I have never yet seen or heard an onslaught against Christian Science. All efforts purporting to be such are in reality the attempt of some individual to prove his conception of Christian Science unworthy of consideration or respect, and I need not add that these malformations are quite generally entitled to all that is said against them.

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