Article August 9, 1919 Issue

"I will dwell in the house of the Lord"

JESSIE C. E. KIRBY

One dictionary defines the word dwell thus: "To keep one's attention fixed, make one's abode, spend one's time, live in, at, or near." While Cruden writes, "To dwell signifies to abide in, to inhabit, to have a fixed residence in a place."

The writer remembers many years ago reading the autobiography of an American actress. The name of the actress and every detail of the book have faded from memory, with the exception of one fact, which was that in relating incidents of her professional career she laid great stress on the absolute necessity of being word perfect in the scenes she was playing. It was not enough, she asserted, to be able to repeat her parts under ordinary circumstances, such as during rehearsal or when she had recently memorized them. She did not consider herself really word perfect until she knew her part so well that she could mentally repeat it while running to catch a train, or even when she found herself under some stress arising out of one of the many activities which filled her busy working day.

The memory of this insistence upon absolute accuracy appealed very forcibly to the writer, who often put it to the test by applying it to many lesser problems, so that when some years ago she became interested in the study of Christian Science she immediately applied the test to the memorizing of certain passages in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," commencing naturally with the "scientific statement of being" on page 468.

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