Article December 16, 1922 Issue

Among the Churches

(Current Notes)

Springfield Union

Springfield, Mass.—The services in dedication of the new building of First Church of Christ, Scientist, afforded many of the local attendants, as well as visitors, their first opportunity to inspect the new auditorium; and expressions of pleasure were general at its beauty as well as the convenience of its arrangement. The services served to demonstrate the perfect acoustic properties of the auditorium, for it was not necessary for the Readers to raise their voices above their customary pitch in order to have every word audible in the farthest corner, and there was an utter absence of reverberation.

The notice of dedication was as follows:—

"It is with humble joy and reverent gratitude that this church records to-day the happy consummation of its seven fruitful years of church building, that it may open the doors of its edifice in generous welcome to its fellow-citizens, and dedicate it to the service of the one God, who is Love, who, in the words of the psalmist, 'forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.' Throughout the building experience, this church has come to realize, more than ever before, the import of the words of James in his epistle to the early Christian Church: "Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,' Our prayer for the future usefulness of this church might well be expressed in the words of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in a dedication message to one of the early branches of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, to be found on page 182 of her work, 'The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany': 'May the wanderer in the wilderness of mortal beliefs and fears turn hither with satisfied hope. May the birds of passage rest their weary wings amid the fair foliage of this vine of His husbanding, find shelter from the storm and a covert from the tempest. May this beloved church adhere to its tenets, abound in the righteousness of Love, honor the name of Christian Science, prove the practicality of perfection, and press on to the infinite uses of Christ's creed, namely,—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself."'"

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