Article April 10, 1909 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from William R. Leaken, Gage E. Tarbell, Hal L. Norwood, W. A. Huff, N. B. Maxey, Elizabeth Earl Jones

Prof. Hermann S. Hering, who lectured on Christian Science at the Grand Opera Hose Feb. 19. was introduced by the First Reader of the Christian Science Society of Asheville, Miss Elizabeth Earl Jones. Miss Jones said in part.—

Christian Science is bringing to the world such a joyous, practical, redeeming sense of life, that it is giving "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," and it has opened wide for the world a door of hope and salvation which Christendom uses daily, the Lord's Prayer, we are told to ask, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven?" And what is it that we ask when we pray thus?

Heaven, to the average mind, suggests a state and condition of absolute and unbroken harmony; no more sin, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death. Heaven seems to speak to us of the full satisfaction of our worthy longings, the fulfilment of our highest hopes, the meeting of our deepest needs. This is our idea of heaven, and if it is yours, and if this is the way we think God's will is done in heaven, then what does it mean when we pray daily, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"? Jesus did not leave us in doubt on this point; he illustrated his meaning. He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, raised the dead, and he commanded his followers to do the works which he did, thus bringing heaven into human experience here and now. Jesus lived the spirit of his prayer, and said to all mankind for all time, "Follow me." This is what Christian Science is teaching us how to do, and it is most reasonable and natural to suppose that the wide-awake, conscientious people of today wish to investigate a religion and science which comes reiterating Jesus' promise: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

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