Article January 11, 1913 Issue

PROMISE OF LIFE

REV. RICHARDS WOOLFENDEN.

One of the compensations of the smoky English town where the writer lives is the spring collection of modern pictures, which is open to the public free during that season of the year, when the promise of life is renewed in many a lesson which these pictures have to tell. Here the crowded denizens of the industrial world may find treasures of joy and hope which their busy life in the mills sometimes seems to have quite exhausted; and here, too, the earnest student of the Science of Life will find food for reflection.

Such was our experience on a recent Sunday afternoon. We were returning from Sunday school, and the day not being favorable for our accustomed walk, at the doors of the art gallery the children turned with the natural request, "Oh, let us go in to see the new pictures." We did so; but who can tell the joy and surprise of our discovery, on coming into the large room, of a picture in oils, hung in a most prominent position, the theme of which was a building that bore the look of familiarity. I could scarcely believe my own eyes, but on borrowing a catalogue from a friend who stood near by, there, sure enough, was the title: "Christian Science Church, Sloane Square" (London). I had not seen the building itself, but was familiar with its outlines through drawings and illustrations, and to find a painting of it in our own public gallery was a joy indeed. It was only the work of a moment to share this unexpected discovery with our friends who were in the room at the time, and to call the children to see another "miracle in stone" (Pulpit and Press, p. 8), which some day will have a larger meaning for them, as it will also for others who may see it in this room for the first time.

Meaning and message both crowded in upon me, as I thought of First Church of Christ, Scientist, London, and the large sum expended for the site and the building, yet an offering of pure gratitude, a sacrifice of love and praise. Then came the lesson which this picture emphasized. On the wall at the left, and separated only by another canvas, was a painting by one of our modern masters, entitled, "The Sentence of Death." It represented a young man sitting in a chair in a doctor's study. The medical man is at his desk, his text-book before him, and judging by the pallor depicted on the patient's face and the far-away look which the artist has put into his eyes, the sentence has been pronounced, and nothing remains but to await his doom. It almost gave one a shock to come across such a picture, and realize what it must mean to the scores of people who would be drawn to see it as a most impressive painting. Then with what gladness did we hail the contrast, for here most truly was an undesigned coincidence, and a lesson which Christian Scientists could not escape. They, at all events, could not be deceived by the last word of materia medica, for side by side with this portrayal of hopeless despair was a representation which might well be entitled "Promise of Life."

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