Article February 2, 1907 Issue

"THE BIRTH OF A NEW FAITH"

IRENE C. FRANCIS

Chicago, Ill., Jan. 6, 1907. Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, Concord, N. H.

Beloved Leader:—Day by day the greatness of your work for mankind and the magnitude of the Christian Science movement are growing upon my consciousness. Not long since I listened to a lecture delivered by a distinguished professor of one of the large eastern universities. His subject was "The Birth of a New Faith." After reviewing the religious development of mankind, touching briefly on the world's great religions and schools of philosophy, and the influences which from prehistoric times had prepared their way, he said in substance that the world was on the eve of the greatest spiritual advancement it had yet known, and that all thinking men could feel the leaven of this coming religion already at work. He then went on to say what the characteristics of this religion would undoubtedly be. In the first place, he said, it must be universal and not fettered by ceremonials; that it must be natural, not supernatural; again, it would be reasonable, for reason and revelation must coincide, and science and art must be reconciled with it. In concluding he said that this religion would be the understanding of the infinite realities of things as here and now, not afar off, and the enthroning of Love in the hearts of mankind.

How I did long to say to him and to the audience, "Behold, this prophecy is fulfilled, even here in our midst today. Christian Science embodies all that you are looking for!" I think I realized as never before how your great self-sacrificing labor of love for mankind, in presenting Christian Science to the world, is placing its stamp on the world's thought, though the world does not always recognize it. I thank God for this great truth of Christian Science, and rejoice that I am seeing the light and trying to follow it.

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