Article June 1, 1918 Issue

The Lectures

with contributions from Duncan Webb, Robert E. Buffum, Walter G. Hayes, J. D. Sherwood, Willis J. Abbott

Halifax, Yorkshire, England (First Church).—John W. Doorly, lecturer; introduced by Major Duncan Webb, who said in part:—

A good many years ago, before I became a Christian Scientist, I was engaged in writing an article, called "The Reconciliation of Theology and Science." I had been working at this subject and pondering it over about two years, when one day, sitting in my study at home, I suddenly found myself, as it were, standing on a vast plain. It was very dark, but I could just see, by a flicker of light, away on the distant horizon. Wherever I went I saw nothing but ruins—ruins of temples, ruins of places, ruins of churches, ruins of business houses. Everything was a ruin.

Overwhelmed at the scene of awful desolation, I said, "Are there no foundations anywhere?" Then somehow I became conscious of a voice which said: "These are the ruins of human beliefs; this is the law of the elimination of error. Move toward the Light." I at once started to obey, but I very soon found that Truth is not reached at a single bound; that it is approached step by step. I also discovered that the propelling power is this law of the elimination of error, under pressure of which we are compelled gradually to give up error, and thus to advance step by step toward Truth. As I pondered over these things I made a further advance; for I realized that this elimination of error must, in the fullness of time, ultimate in the destruction of all error, and I asked myself, "What will the final state of man be?" I dimly recognized that this final state of man must be perfection, and then the words of the great Teacher came to my thought, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." At this point I came to a complete standstill. I could discern perfection, but I could not express it, until Christian Science came to lead me on. Who is the perfect man? Christ is the perfect man, and Christian Science, which is founded entirely on the Bible, teaches the practice of the perfect man—the Science of Christ; that is why it is called Christian Science.

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