Article August 2, 1913 Issue

THE LECTURES

with contributions from Frank M. Nye, Albert Hartwig, Emma A. Estes, F. A. Golder, F. L. Haworth, Oliver C. McGilvra, W. Stuart Booth

Virgil O. Strickler delivered an address on Christian Science at the Columbia theater before an audience which crowded the building to its utmost capacity. Many men in public life were present. Mr. Strickler was introduced by Representative Frank M. Nye of Minnesota, who said:—

Truth never changes, but man's apprehension of truth enlarges and expands in accordance with the open mind and sincere purpose. As vines turn to the sun and flowers open to the day, so should men ever struggle toward truth. Men are coming to the apprehension of the great truth that to know God and to know Him aright is eternal life. For the great Teacher who had been encouraged by the response of those who walked and toiled with him said, If you continue in my work, that is, if you rest your life upon this great lesson I have sought to implant, you shall "know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And we are coming to understand that this is the source of power which tends to make a man "every whit whole." The prophets and pioneers of truth have always failed, I think, to receive the sanction of the authorities of the earth at the time of their great message. They have been the outcasts largely of their day, spurned and looked upon with disdain, though they were exponents of truth. True to their mission, they preached the gospel by the wayside; the poor have heard it gladly, and the great suffering masses of humanity have been benefited by its wholesome and vital power.

In modern times we have had one of these messengers, a woman whose life and teachings have resulted in the establishment of a school of thought, to learn more of which we are met here. Of her great contribution to the religious thought of our times I need not speak. It calls for no encomium, for she lives in the hearts of thousands who have been the beneficiaries of her unselfish and Christian teaching, whose lives and experience speak with eloquence not born of ordinary speech. I am not myself a member of the Christian Science church, but for several years have studied somewhat diligently its great teaching, and I am sure that I have derived great benefit from it, and feel that it is a message which is doing great good in this mortal world in which we live. The barriers of prejudice are slowly yielding, and silently, almost as the night melts into the day, the splendid influence of the teachings of this great woman is felt at the very heart of human society.

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