Article April 4, 1908 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from William H. H. Clayton, Leslie L. Gilbert, Robert Q. Grant

Rev. Arthur R. Vosburgh lectured on Christian Science Feb. 23, at the Busby Theater. He was introduced by Judge William H. H. Clayton, for many years on the Federal bench of this district, who said in part,—

I am orthodox in my religious views, but amidst the confusion arising from the various and conflicting opinions of men as to which is the surest, the shortest, the most direct, and, as many contend, the only pathway to heaven, I find myself perplexed and mystified; and when I consider that it is written in the Word that the pathway is so plain that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," that the plan of salvation is so simple that a child can understand it, and that it is so visible and unobscured that "he who runs may read," I wonder how it is that so many zealous, earnest, and learned theologians can find so much to differ about. I have an idea that these differences are more apparent than real; that, after all, if they should get together and sum up the whole matter they would find that there is so much of the necessary elements of religion to which they could all agree, that they might well stop there and call them the essentials, and those other things about which they differ they might call merely the non-essentials.

That faith to which all Christians agree must necessarily be easily understood and possibly be within the comprehension of children and fools, unless salvation is intended only for the intelligent; but where men, and especially learned men, disagree, that simplicity vouchsafed by the Scriptures disappears; one cannot "run" and "read" it, a child would fail to comprehend it, and a wayfaring man, whether a fool or not, would be liable to err. That religion which commends itself to me must be pure and simple, stripped of all mysticism and farfetched and long-drawn-out conclusions. While it is not asked that its correctness must be mathematically determined, neither must it be covered up in enigma, to be guessed at.

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