The Work in Germany

O. G.

Thanks to our dear brethren in Truth, who bring us greetings from the branch churches when passing through this city on their travels. Thanks to them for their kindness, for the brotherly spirit they exhibit in proffering help and assistance in thought to the workers collecting around the Berlin Church. Thanks to them for telling us how the work in Germany is being observed. Thanks to the observers, who give us the assurance of the oneness of thought which governs all those working in Truth, and renders them a closely connected and formidable army of God's men.

Frequently have we been told here how much we require the active help from the branches in the home country, because the Germans, as a rule, are so conservative and, on that account, difficult to approach and slow to accept the truth.

My personal experience with Germans, among whom I have a large acquaintance, being myself one by birth, is, that the average business man is rather quick to see his advantage, quick to know a good thing when he sees it, and quick to take a good hold of it. Such methods have given to the German commerce the proud position of being second only to the English. I don't think I should call such men conservative.

There are in this country many doctors and professors working and striving for new discoveries and the gain of knowledge in all the known arts and sciences, in many of which they, as a class, easily take a leading position before their brethren and co-workers. Such men also I would not call conservative. Among the politicians here, there exists a large party of men called Social Democrats who, in their dissatisfaction with existing conditions, would like to turn things upside down and inside out. To call such men conservative would be mildly erroneous, I think. But of this fact I am sure, and I think my co-workers in this field will agree with me, that the above-enumerated progressive and avowedly non-conservative people are not a bit more ready to accept the truth than the so-called conservative Germans.

The belief in conservatism is apt to prove a stumbling-block to the timid, but is not able to keep anybody out of Science.

What, then, is that which seems to make it difficult for the Germans to embrace the new-old idea and so to swell the rank and file of those calling themselves Christian Scientists? Permit me here to refer to my own experience. I find that before I ever heard of Christian Science, the only reason why I had not then accepted and embraced the truth, as I have now, was because I never heard of it. Simple ignorance, and that not any more dense than in others, was the only cause why I did not become a Scientist earlier than I did.

That, dear brethren, is the reason why the Germans find it so difficult to see the truth,—their lack of acquaintance with the teachings of Christian Science. This is the mist which hovers over the stagnant waters, and which is being gently removed by the advancing light,—the illumination that is being brought by the Herold and all our other publications, the ever-increasing sale of which within the borders of this country I am able to report. Not help from outside, but truth and the declaration of it by the workers in this field, is needed to bring about more rapid growth.

The remarkable growth of Christian Science in this field has astonished all the many visitors who have noticed the few active workers, and they have commented on the earnestness of our congregation; surely a fact which speaks volumes for the honesty of the work of our little band of Scientists. They all know that it is their own individual thought and watchfulness which stirs the stagnant waters, and therefore they do not rely on help from others. That such help has been proffered and promised assures us of the kind and brotherly spirit which is entertained for us by the Field in the home country, and for that we are very grateful to all.

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Removing Limitations

August 29, 1903

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