Article October 6, 1906 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from W. G. Sears

Mayor W. G. Sears at the New Grand Theatre Sunday afternoon [Aug. 26] introduced Bicknell Young, who lectured on Christian Science. The mayor said in part:—

We have with us this afternoon a duly and regularly qualified representative of the Christian Science religion, who will explain to us and discuss its doctrines. Now, the last fifty years has been an era of development. Probably in no period has there been so much individual thought as during this time. Some say that it has been an inventive age, and others a commercial age, where people have gone wild over the dollar; but I say that during this period there has been more thought over religious doctrines and teachings than ever before. During this period we have probably had the theory of eternal punishment shattered. During this time we have had the well-known Robert G. Ingersoll, a student of such men as Voltaire and Tom Paine. The secular papers of the country took delight in publishing his addresses. His lectures were put into book form, and these books were read and commented upon far and wide. These lectures threw the sectarian press on a strong defence. But Robert G. Ingersoll has passed away and we could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of places where his teachings are advocated, while his books, if you could find them at all, would be on the shelves of second-hand bookstores.

But during all that time he had a contemporary, and that contemporary was Mrs. Eddy. She did not receive the same notices in the secular press; she probably did not receive the same notices in the religious papers; but to-day her book is read more than it was one year ago, more than it was two years ago, and it will go on and on, doing good, because its teachings are right, and fifty years from now it will be read more than it is now. It goes hand in hand with the Bible, but with the Bible always in the lead. The teachings of this contemporary of Ingersoll have increased in power, and to-day we have magnificent churches in which to promulgate the doctrines of Christian Science. We have built up a religious society upon her teachings, composed of some of the best and most intelligent people of the country. It recognizes the good only in man, and unlike some other sectarian churches, is not preaching that the world is growing worse, but that it is growing better. This church has not had the assistance, you might say, of evangelists like Moody and Sankey, or of such orators as Henry Ward Beecher, or of logicians like Talmage and Swing; but nevertheless it has quietly grown. Christian Scientists believe not only in the theory of their religion. but in its practice every day in the week and every hour in the day. On this record it would not seem well for me to stand here to-day and say that Christian Scientists are faddists or cranks. Now, to me,—not a member of any Church, and—to use a commercial term—whose faith is so short that I have been unable to unite with the Unitarian church, although I have attended that church for years and given it my support,—there is something in this religion and its workings, its growth and its results, that is grand and wonderful.—The Journal.

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MRS. EDDY TAKES NO PATIENTS