THE LECTURES
MADISON, N. J.
Last Sunday afternoon [June 28] about three hundred people attended the lecture on "Christian Science" given in Assembly Hall by Frank H. Leonard of Brooklyn, under the auspices of the Christian Science Society of Madison. In introducing the speaker, Richard L. Remnitz said:—
When a force for righteousness appears in the world we inquire whence it comes. When Christ came he arrested the attention of the Hebrew people, and all classes of the race inquired of him. With almost Christlike power the word is being demonstrated to-day, and mankind are seeking to know whence the power. When Christ came he healed the sick without medicine, and they marveled. In healing the sick he drove out sin, and they marveled. He triumphed over sin, over sickness, and over death. He demonstrated their impotence to oppose Spirit. He gave the same power to his disciples, and he even told them that they would do greater works. His works were raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out sin, preaching the kingdom of God to poor and rich.
Christ Jesus was the great practitioner. He despised the sham of good profession but inaction. When he said that unless we accepted the kingdom of heaven as a little child we should not enter therein, he meant it. He was a doer of the word. There was no patience in him for pharisaism. For many hundreds of years mankind have listened to a theology of inaction; men have not had the courage to submit themselves wholly to God and to do His will to the uttermost. In New York city I heard a minister of the gospel say to other ministers of orthodox churches, who were all deploring what they called spiritual stagnation in the churches, that the membership was not gaining as it should, with one exception. The exception was the Christian Science Church. "Why is it that our gain is not what it should be?" he asked. "It seems to me that we lack the spirit of the Master. What shall we do to get it, and to get it more abundantly?"
The question was not answered. I found this spirit in Christian Science only about two months ago, when it gave new life to me. You can see the power of this spirit in the progress of the Church, in the illuminated faces of its consecrated members,—in their lives of sacrifice,—"doers of the word," are they.—The Modison Eagle.
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.
There was a very large attendance—mostly ladies—in the Town Hall yesterday evening [June 23; also on the following evening] to hear a lecture on Christian Science by Mr. Bicknell Young, of Chicago, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, The Mother Church, in Boston, Mass., U.S.A. The chair was occupied by Rev. Prof. Gosman, D.D. The chairman asked for a cordial—an Australian—welcome for the lecturer. He was presiding to ask the audience to be quiet because he believed that if a man had a message he should be allowed to deliver it. Further, if he had a message he should be allowed to deliver it. Further, if he had a message he was under an obligation to deliver it—and we were also under an obligation to listen. But we were not under any obligation to receive the message unless we were profoundly convinced of its truth, for every one was responsible for his own opinions. No one had a right to impose upon others anything which he considered right, unless those others anything which he considered of its truthfulness; for the imperial authority in all matters is the truth, which, when apprehended and received, harmonizes the discords of our minds and gives us peace and joy. He (the chairman) did not profess to know much about Christian Science, but he professed to know a little about its fundamentals—the things on which it was based—and one of these was that, whether we liked it or not, we were subjects of that great moral order of which the divine Giver was the author and sustainer and guide. He firmly believed that conformity to that moral order would bring peace and happiness; and he further believed—which we all believed by experience—that if we violated that order it would impose its penalties upon us and stir us up in some way or other to avoid those things that were not in harmony with our constitution and were not for our highest welfare.—The Argus.
[We learn from correspondence that the chairman of the evening is a professor of the Congregational Theological Training College of Victoria; also Examiner in Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University. His degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by a Scottish university. The Age and The Herald published large portions of Mr. Young's lecture.—Editor Sentinel.]
NASHVILLE, TENN.
At Watkins Hall last night [May 24] a large audience heard Hon. Clarence A. Buskirk of St. Louis expound the doctrine of Christian Science. H. M. Mason delivered an introductory address, speaking in part as follows:—
Christian people of the world, irrespective of creeds and doctrines, must necessarily unite in the acknowledgment of one God, one Saviour, and therefore in one infallible plan of salvation. This state of affairs existing, all worshipers of God must, inevitably, eventually come to one form of worship and one process of action. Prophetic discernment and Christ Jesus' announcement will surely some time be realized: "There shall be one fold, and one shepherd." The activity of censorious criticism will avail nothing in breaking down barriers and removing differences that at the present time seem to divide and subdivide the people of the world respecting their religious views, but with a God of love who will have all men to be saved, and a compassionate Saviour ever active, reconciling the world to God, intelligently substantive in general thought, the frail walls of doctrinal factions must totter, tumble, and become dissolved, and unity of sentiment and action will finally establish all mankind in the bonds of peace and perfection. Christian Science is a religion. It teaches of God and of man's relationship to God, and its vital force is in its susceptibility of proof. In this religion there is found a healing balm that is applicable, practical, and efficacious in the healing of sickness as in the healing of sin.
Nashville Banner.
