Article July 4, 1908 Issue

A NATION'S WEAL

WILLIAM BERNARD THOMPSON.

Four years of war, just prior to the discovery of Christian Science, had cost the American nation a half million of its noblest sons,—men who knew no fear; in fact, as brave soldiers as ever faced a cannon's mouth or dared the bayonet's thrust. Both sides thought they were in the right, and were patriots in their own minds. The ill effects of this war our nation may feel for many generations, but those of the immediate period of course bore the brunt of the conflict and its effects. It is only necessary to visit a Soldiers Home, either North or South, to witness what war does even to those who survive. Then, too, how many widows and orphans there are as the direct result of this struggle. Yes, we still find them everywhere throughout the Southern and Eastern States. Praise God, brothers of the Southland and the Northland, this can never happen again within our borders, for the nation has grown to even higher ideals, and they are those of fellowship and brotherhood,—to do good, to make peace, as our honored President has done.

But it is not the object of the writer to tell of this thrilling historical time of forty-five years ago, but the result to this nation, as a nation, of the discovery in 1866 of Christian Science and its effects for good— how it has aided in bringing about these higher ideals of peace and brotherhood. To illustrate, we will take the case of one young man, whom the writer has known from boyhood, such a one as went to make up that half a million slain between '61 and '65. No better father and mother a boy ever had; he was brought up in the good old-fashioned way,—taught to obey, to attend church and Sunday School, and family prayer was the rule. One would naturally think that such training should have had good results, but the immediate effect seemed to be of the opposite nature. In early manhood the young fellow came to the conclusion that religion was a farce—that they who professed it were insincere (except mother and father)—and for his part he would have none of it; still, for the dear mother's sake, he attended church as before, but not to pray.

How fast bad habits seem to grow! Soon he had formed new acquaintances, those who gambled and swore and drank. He soon did all these, except, let us say, the drinking; and he said he avoided this because he saw that the man who did not drink could win from those who did. As these habits seemed to secure a stronger hold on the young man, he gradually stayed out later and later, until morning would still find him in the rear room of the saloon or gambling den. And what of that young man's mother! Her hair whitened fast under the strain; one can almost hear her sigh of relief, when in the early morning hours she at last knows her darling son is once more safe in his bed, and the dumb appeal of her loving eyes the next day, when about dinner time he comes down,—cross, crabbed, sick of himself and this kind of a life; but how is he to break away from it? Many times he resolved to leave it forever; but each time the resolution would go the way of all such—to the winds of hell. Finally sickness came,—sickness unto death, the doctors said, and he did not know where to turn. It was useless to think of his old companions, or the physicians, or the old church; but he did not want to die, he wanted to live.

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