Article March 22, 1913 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from Charles J. Dodds, George R. Lunn, Richard L. Rice, Flora Ellis Kirtland, H. Coulson Fairchild

The Alexandra hall was all but filled with an audience of ladies and gentlemen, who assembled to listen to an address on Christian Science teaching by Bliss Knapp. He was introduced by Charles J. Dodds, who said in part,—

I esteem it a great honor to have been invited by the Aldershot Christian Science society to preside over this gathering of earnest men and women whose presence here I take to be indicative of their desire to learn something at first hand—from an authorized lecturer—of the movement which is so profoundly stirring the minds of Christendom throughout the world. "Truth is stranger than fiction," we are told, surely the reception often accorded to truth is equally strange. We recall the reception, or rather the rejection, of one who, two thousand years ago, revealed the truth of God to man by his words and works, and in doing so we rejoice that in our day there is less of the intolerant spirit of antagonism, but rather the contrast of an eager willingness to welcome new light on the old truth. We are learning in these days that the only enemy we as "God's offspring" should fear, is not light but shadow, not intelligence but ignorance. Truth is becoming more of a passion with us today, and mankind everywhere is struggling to manifest its God-given right to be free from all earth-born bonds, while there is also today, more marked than ever in history before, an earnest longing for the truth which the emancipator of mankind long ago said would make us free.

My interest in Christian Science began about four years ago. I was visiting relatives in this town of Aldershot who had embraced this teaching. Having been an orthodox missionary for many years on the Congo, I of course thought that my relatives had erred from the true path, and one purpose of my visit was to show this to them. But, alas for my prejudice, the evidence of peace, joy, and health, in marked contrast to previous experiences there, combined with an utter absence of fear regarding the future, made me pause lest I should harm instead of help by my unwarranted opposition. I could not deny the prompting of my heart, "Surely these are the fruits of the Spirit," and Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Suffice it now briefly to say that I obtained some of the literature of Christian Science and read it with interest. The more I perused it and compared the teaching of Mrs. Eddy with the Bible, the more convinced I became that in Christian Science this age has received the most marvelous illumination upon the ancient Scriptures that has ever appeared, and an interpretation thereof which redeems the words and works of Jesus from the limitations placed upon them by traditional beliefs and which reveals them as practical demonstrations of the power of Truth which Jesus said should follow "them that believe"—and that this is true, really true, for today.

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