Article April 15, 1905 Issue

The Lectures

with contributions from G. A. Brock, Horace H. W. Hebbard, Wm. H. Haynes

A large and appreciative audience, composed principally of local and visiting Christian Scientists, but also numbering many not of this faith, listened attentively to a lecture on the subject of Christian Science delivered in Assembly Hall, Thursday evening [March 9] by Bicknell Young of Chicago. The lecture was given under the auspices of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city. The Rev. G. A. Brock, pastor of the East Avenue Congregational Church, in a very courteous manner introduced Mr. Young, saying in part,—

Your are all aware, friends, that my presence here is not due to the fact that I am a Christian Scientist. I am a Congregationalist, and that very fact leads me to be very generous in my judgments and opinions regarding the faith and teachings of other Christian bodies. History repeats itself, conservatism is always in the saddle, the prophet at the stake, and yet truth crushed to earth must rise again. Congregationalism, according to my history, had to fight against desperate opposition, it was ridiculed, persecuted, driven from its native soil. The iron-hearted men sought freedom of conscience across the wintry seas and founded their religion on the rock-ribbed shores of New England.

In the same way, friends, your faith has been obliged to fight for its existence. But in spite of ridicule, invective, and ostracism the "grain of mustard seed" planted by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy in Boston — the citadel of Congregationalism — has grown during thirty years until its shade reaches unto the uttermost parts of the earth. I was living in Boston when Mrs. Eddy began her work there. I remember even yet the impression her Sunday service made upon my mind. It was in a very small hall near Boston Common. The room was well filled. I expected something extraordinary, as a Harvard undergraduate: I expected to be amused. Not at all; there was intensity, sweetness, quietness, power.

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