Article August 20, 1910 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from C. M. Shaw, W. La Rue Thomas, L. A. Watres, Fred A. Line

In the Public Hall, Burton Road, West Didsbury, on Thursday evening, April 28, the Rev. William P. McKenzie, of Boston, delivered a public lecture on Christian Science. The chair was occupied by the Rev. C. M. Shaw, who, in introducing the lecturer, said,—

I count it a great honor to preside over this meeting, but I value more the opportunity of bearing public testimony to my adherence to, and confidence in, Christian Science. I gladly associate myself with those who, in spite of denunciation and opposition, quietly and unflinchingly uphold, with such well-grounded conviction, a faith which possesses such possibilities of good for mankind. It may be of some interest if, in as few words as possible, I tell you why I, until recently a minister in another communion, left my church and joined the Christian Scientists.

I offer no apology for having changed my convictions. If a man's mind grows, he can no more hold by the formulas in which his earliest convictions found expression than he can wear the clothes of his boyhood. It is not easy for such changes to be made. It is all the more difficult and painful when one cherishes, as I do, sincere respect and affection for the church of one's fathers. Truth, however, and not sentiment, must be given the preeminence. There was a time when I scoffed at Christian Science, ridiculed it in public; but that was when I knew no more about it than could be gained from hearsay or from newspaper paragraphs. It was not on account of its promise of physical benefit that I was drawn to Christian Science. For some time previous to my investigation of the subject I was like many other men in every section of the church, dissatisfied with the state of religion. I was dissatisfied with my own spiritual condition, with the results of my work, and with the work of the churches generally. I was concerned about the drift of the people away from the churches, about the loosening of their hold on religion. The more I studied social questions, in which I was deeply interested, the more dismayed was I at the great gap between the ideal of Christianity and the actual conditions of life as indicated in our social, industrial, and political affairs. I began to wonder at times if our faith had lost its vitality and our labors their fruit fulness.

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