Article July 12, 1913 Issue

AMONG THE CHURCHES

CURRENT NOTES.

Melbourne, Australia.—The first Christian Science services in Australian prisons have just been held, thus marking an epoch in the local history of Christian Science and of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Melbourne. Sanction of the chief secretary was recently obtained for an initial service to be held in the Melbourne jail and in the penal prison at Pentridge stockade, and arrangements were made with the authorities for holding the former on Wednesday, April 16, and the latter on the Sunday following. These initial services were regarded by the authorities as experimental. Announcement was made to the prisoners by the jail officials, and the attendance, which numbered about fifty at Melbourne jail and one hundred and twenty at Pentridge, was purely voluntary. On both occasions those present evinced great interest and attention. The singing was especially hearty, and the offer of a supply of hymn-books for the prisoners' choirs was gratefully accepted.

At the Wednesday service the lesson for Sunday, April 13, was read; and afterward the first reader briefly pointed out that healing was a great part of the Master's work on earth, and that his injunctions to his followers to preach the gospel were always coupled with the command to heal the sick. For over three hundred years after his ascension, the combined injunction was obeyed by the Christian church, but for the following fifteen centuries the healing of sickness as Jesus healed was lost to the world, until, less than fifty years ago, Mrs. Eddy, a pure and noble woman, discovered that the healing power of Christ was still available for humanity, and in her book entitled "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she has shown that Christian healing includes the cure of sickness as well as of sin. This book has been on the shelves of the prison library for some time, for the use of the inmates.

It is anticipated that the reports of those in charge will be of such a nature that official sanction will be given to hold regular church services in the Victorian jails. In connection with the preliminary sanction, the Melbourne church is indebted to the courtesy and good offices of the under secretary, whose breadth of view and freedom from sectarian bias enabled him readily to recognize in the Monitor a newspaper especially suitable for prison circulation, and admission of the paper to the Victorian jails followed. At present the Monitor is in such demand by the Pentridge prisoners that it has to be passed around in single sheets. Even in that way it only covers one division, and steps will be taken immediately to increase the number of copies supplied.—Correspondence.

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