Article January 4, 1913 Issue

THE LECTURES

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

with contributions from Robert Nall, Jack M. Jackson, Ruth C. Beaupre, Charles H. Tucker

Bliss Knapp, who delivered a lecture on Christian Science under the auspices of the Sydney church, was introduced as follows by Robert Nall:—

Your presence in such large numbers this afternoon, especially in view of the fact that this will be the third Christian Science lecture delivered in Sydney within a month, is conclusive evidence that the search for a solution of the problems of life has not lost its fascination; indeed, there probably never was a time in the history of the world when the hunger for a greater, a more satisfying knowledge of God, was more manifest than it is now. Most men have a sense of their obligation to the great creator. That sense, however faint it may be, is the genesis of true religion, and it only needs to be awakened to make them alive to the divine call which at some time or other comes to every man—the call to right thinking, to righteousness; the call to realize in all its fulness what God is to him and what he is to God; the call to a full recognition of his responsibilities as a spiritual being.

When we take the time to ponder over these sacred things, quite a host of questions arise, all of which may be focused in this, What is life and whence comes it? These questions are personal, as fresh today as they were thousands of years ago. We are even at this moment in the midst of a recrudescence of a controversy relating thereto, which nearly fifty years ago made good Christians tremble for the ark of the Lord and cry out in despair for the future of Christianity. And yet, see how wonderful are the ways of God! At the very time when Darwin's "Descent of Man" appeared there was in manuscript a book, very shortly afterward published, which, ushered into the world in the most modest way, has done and is doing more than any other, except the Bible, to unfold the truth to human consciousness, to strengthen men's faith in a living, ever-present God, absolute good, and to prove that a right understanding of God and His relation to man is the key that unlocks the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

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