Article April 22, 1905 Issue

The Lecture and the Field

WILLIAM R. RATHVON.

With great wisdom the successive stages of the Christian Science movement have been inaugurated by our Leader. Instituted at times and on occasions opportune and auspicious, they have summoned to their fulfilment the voluntary, unconstrained co-operation of Scientists as individuals and as a body. Mrs. Eddy has nobly performed her share in indicating what is to be done, and it is due to her from us to see that what we do is done well.

The establishment of the Board of Lectureship is a case in point. Among the various media that are at the disposal of the Field for the public dissemination of Christian Science, our lectures in some respects afford the greatest possibilities. A lecture seldom falls on unwilling ears; it is always an authoritative presentation of Christian Science; it is readily conformable to the needs of the hour; it attains the most effective form of publicity, drawing audiences that in point of size and quality are convincing object-lessons to the observing world, and it receives a generous share of attention from the press which is far-reaching in its effects. In view of these and other facts it is to be seen that our lectures are doing valiant service.

That the Field is getting all the good out of them it should, cannot be so confidently asserted, and it may be profitable to consider how we can improve our opportunities by better work. No specific method of procedure can be laid down that will fitly apply to all cases, for each community has conditions peculiar to itself, which must be met in the way best adapted to those conditions; yet there are certain things common to all which must be handled uniformly. The Board of Lectureship has officially made provision for most of these in the printed circulars which are sent to the branch churches. The observance of the instructions they contain, or their neglect, may make or mar the success of our lectures.

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