Article January 14, 1911 Issue

"A WEALTHY PLACE."

J. THOS. MUMFORD.

The Christian Science ideal is one of never-ending interest to those who have entered its inner chambers. It is indeed, to use the psalmist's phrase, "a wealthy place" to the weary traveler who has entered and found an abundant supply. I, for one, feel as though I had ended a long, weary journey over barren wastes and desert sands to find a blissful resting-place in the bosom of our Father, God. I have no words to express my appreciation of the joys and pure delights of this place to which I have been led by the unerring wisdom of Spirit. To me now the old beaten paths of what people choose to call orthodoxy are worse than jungles compared with this bright, joyful, ascending way, whose light grows brighter and brighter, even "unto the perfect day."

The old beliefs which I once entertained were like the stone at the door of the sepulcher of Jesus, placed there by superstition and ignorance, and held there by the seals of intolerance. The angel, we read, at the break of day, rolled the stone away and sat upon it,—the attitude of victory. To me the old ways of thinking and preaching are the feeble attempts of mortal sense to hold Christ, Truth, within the narrow limits of finite sense by placing around the religion of Christ Jesus doctrines that would dishonor an earthly potentate. These thoughts, as old as historic time, are thoughts of fear, the fear that "hath torment." I believe that every time a person gives expression to such thoughts he sins against his own life and that of his fellow-man. True, he may do so unwittingly or ignorantly, as I did for so many years, but it is the sowing of evil seed that is sure to produce a bitter harvest. The "wealthy place" I occupy today is more to be desired than all the material wealth of earth, and far more honorable than that conferred by the favor of kings.

I was for many years a minister in the Congregational denomination, but on account of failing vocal organs had to relinquish that work and seek a support for myself and family in other ways. I am convinced that God has led me from that time to the present to bring me into this place of spiritual joy and complete satisfaction. The growing discontent I had experienced for years toward old religious ideas and methods, prepared my thought for the reception of the truth and made it fertile to rapid growth. I started from small beginnings, but did not despise "the day of small things." The first step, in this glorious awakening came to me in a resolve to do away with prejudice, so far as possible, and to accept the truth from any source. The hungry man wants bread, and he does not care whence whence it comes if it satisfy his hunger. I, like many others, had kept the truth from entering my mind by harboring prejudice, and my soul was starving, with our Father's storehouse of infinite supply wide open before my face. Because I thought that no good thing could come out of Nazareth, I closed the door in the face of waiting and proffered blessings.

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