The Lectures

with contributions from J. C. Royer, George E. Mitchell, W. A. Purington

Tiffin, O.

Bicknell Young of Chicago, delivered a lecture on Christian Science, Tuesday evening, April 26, in Boos' Hall in this city, before a large and representative audience. The speaker was introduced by Judge J. C. Royer in the following language :—

Ladies and Gentlemen :— I am not a Christian Scientist. I know nothing about its teachings or its doctrines; but I know its aims and purposes are high and lofty, and that it is Christian. Truth existed before we came. It is coeval with time. Truth will be when we go, — it will exist for all time to come. The search after truth is the noblest thing to which we can devote our minds, and I am glad indeed to see so many of the people of Tiffin here to-night in search after truth. From an investigation after truth no one needs to fly. — Correspondence.

Needham, Mass.

When the time arrived for opening the meeting at Town Hall last Monday evening [April 18], a great audience had assembled and all the seats on the floor were occupied. The speaker, Judge Septimus J. Hanna, was accompanied to the platform by George E. Mitchell, who introduced him to the audience and spoke in part as follows:—

I can remember when different sects or denominations were not as tolerant of each other as they are now, when people generally thought that in order to reach heaven one must go by their particular road. Now it is admitted by most people that there are different starting-points, and we read in the Revelation of St. John that there were twelve gates to the Holy City. Which one will swing open to the members of any particular society or branch of God's Church, we have no means of knowing. Certain it is, there are many varieties of belief, and probably no two members of any denomination believe exactly alike on all points. Some believe that heaven comes down to us if we are in the right spirit. It is not strange, then, that, with these various opinions, we should segregate into factions or denominations, with which most people are directly or indirectly connected.
The Needham Chronicle.

Riverside, Cal.

The announcement that Edward A. Kimball of Chicago was to lecture yesterday [April 17] at the Loring on the subject of Christian Science, drew a large and a very attentive audience to listen to him. Many came because they were en rapport with the speaker on the subject, and wished to learn further, while others came from general interest or from curiosity, but it was an audience that paid the strictest attention to what the speaker was saying from the first till the last word. Attorney W. A. Purington, on behalf of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, introduced the speaker.
The Riverside Enterprise.

Mr. Purington in his introduction spoke in part as follows :—

One of the most striking phenomena in the religious world during the last twenty years has been the rapid growth of Christian Science. From a small and insignificant church or society centered about its Founder, its followers are now found in nearly every part of the United States and in many parts of Europe. Hardly less remarkable than its rapid growth, is the character of its remembership. Men and women who were Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews, Catholics, and of no faith at all have been attracted to this new gospel and become its zealous supporters. How is it that men and women of such diverse training, environment, and traditions have been drawn to this new faith and become enthusiastic co-workers therein? How is it that men and women of more than average ability, and many of them persons of brilliant intellectual attainments have been willing to devote so large a part of their time and life in promoting its growth and culture? Perhaps the speaker of this afternoon will answer these questions.

A short time ago, my attention was attracted to a man here in Riverside who was born in Germany, was born and raised a Jew. He afterwards came to this country and became an agnostic, and had no faith in God or future existence. Somehow Christian Scientists here succeeded in interesting him in the subject of Christian Science. From disbelief in the Bible he became a believer therein and came to have faith in a future and higher existence. He now spends a portion of each evening with his wife in studying the New Testament and the life of Christ. For this man, with his early environment and the traditions and prejudices of a Jew to turn about and become a believer in, and a student of the New Testament, and a believer in Jesus Christ, and to regard with respect what he before regarded with contempt, and this at nearly the age of sixty, is a phenomenon to challenge the attention of all classes, believers and disbelievers.

You might well say, "A religion or faith that can do this deserves respect." What honest men and women want to know is the truth. I have seen persons who seemed to care more for their particular "ism" than for the truth. I have seen persons who would even appear willing to suppress the truth to support their particular dogma. I have no patience with such persons. What I want to know is the truth. If there is a truth in Christian Science that I do not now know, I want to know that truth. The truth is the great object of discovery in the religious as in the scientific world. If Christian Science has anything to offer me better than the church to which I now belong offers, I want it.

Correspondence.

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