Article April 9, 1910 Issue

BREAKING THE BREAD OF LIFE

MAURICE SAUNDERSON.

For many years the writer had the desire not only to be a better man himself, but to be able to help his fellowcreatures in some measure to escape from the sin and wretchedness which enveloped them. Today his heart is full of gratitude for the understanding of divine Love which has come to his consciousness through Mrs. Eddy's wonderful revelation to the world, with its healing and regenerating power for his own needs, and which has also disclosed to him the means to carry out in some degree the command: "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage."

This joyous work of bidding the poor and hungry to the feast is undertaken by a small committee of the Christian Science church in Manchester, England, by visiting and by distributing literature to the working classes in that great, gloomy, and unlovely city. The writer counts his work as a member of this committee a privilege and a happiness that it would be difficult to overestimate, for almost daily it is to see the Christ opening prison doors and making straight the paths. The many public libraries and readingrooms are provided with Christian Science literature, but the threholds of these institutions are seldom or never crossed by the vast majority of the dwellers in the narrow, squalid streets, the toiling thousands who so sorely need something of the joy that is real and the love that can save.

Though not infrequently greeted with reserve and suspicion on his first visit, the visitor as he goes from door to door generally finds his gift of a pamphlet or the Sentinel gladly accepted, and when he can accompany it with an account of those experiences of his own which constrain him to carry the good tidings to others, he is almost sure to arouse a hope in his hearer that will ensure his literature being carefully read. Subsequent visits lead to inquiries and conversations, and the earnest ones are directed to the reading-rooms or to libraries where the text-book may be borrowed and in other ways they may be helped to start on their passage from sense to Soul. How often does the visitor hear the welcome words, "This is just what I have been looking for!" And what greater reward than this could there be? The people of this class work from early morning to night; they have no opportunity of coming in touch with Christian Science unless it is taken to them. The same almost may be said of those in business in this great commercial center: their homes are comfortable, but they have little leisure, and the drudgery and monotony of their lives make them indeed ready for the transforming light of Christian Science. These north-country people are serious-minded and studious, and ready in most instances to give thought to any subject which promises to add to their mental or moral enlightenment.

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