Article December 19, 1908 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from Henry G. Snyder, W. A. Bahlke, C. E. Herring, F. D. Luther, William Schellinger

Francis J. Fluno, M.D., of Oakland, Cal., spoke on Christian Science to an audience of about one thousand people at Overholser Opera House, Oct. 18. He was introduced by Henry G. Snyder, dean of the Law School of Epworth University, who said in part,—

If one not connected with its organization may be permitted to speak of it, I should say that Christian Science purports to have discovered, in a literal reading of the Bible story of creation and of the life-doctrines of Jesus, an expression of that philosophy which affirms the reality of the eternal and the relativeness or unreality of the merely transitory. It thus presents a paradox in that it is both an exact orthodoxy and at the same time a medium for the expression of one of the newest and most unique of religious thoughts. It proceeds upon the theory that those things, and those alone, are real and vital which in the eons of eternity will continue a constantly developing existence; an inevitable corollary of which is a negation of the reality, in the sense of permanency, of those incidental influences which qualify a physical existence. It does not necessarily ignore, but emphasizes the merely relative character of temporalities.

Christian Science thus focuses the attention and thought upon what all Christians recognize as eternal, viz., the things of Spirit. It looks to the well-spring whence flows a pure crystal stream of life, unpolluted by materialism and lust. Its object is to keep the stream unpolluted—clean and healthy, mentally, morally, physically. It seeks the pure gold, and extracts it from the lode, with a single eye for the unalloyed. Should alloy creep in, its doctrine is a finingpot which purges the pure gold and throws off the alloy. Inevitably this dwelling of the thought upon cleanliness and godliness must be followed by pure living. Thus its object is to harmonize the daily thought and deed with the essence of these eternal virtues. In other words, it is not a religion or science of deferred hopes and ideals, but one which literally interprets Christ's injunction, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," and offers to all sorts and conditions of men—the lame, the halt, the blind, the oppressed and downtrodden, those who are footsore and weary and sad—surcease from their affliction and an entrance into a larger and fuller life of happy, healthful reality.

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