Article July 24, 1926 Issue

Spreading the Good News

LUCY HAYS REYNOLDS

According to the Scriptures, as recorded in the book of Acts, two men prayed. One, by the name of Cornelius, prayed to know God; the other, Peter, prayed to help others to know God. As a result of their prayers, both men had a vision in which they were given divine commands which, though they were strangers to each other, brought them together for the godly purpose of the one receiving and the other imparting the truth. To-day, in these times of world fermentations, there is many another Cornelius who is earnestly crying out for a knowledge of the truth. There are also many loving hearts who, like Peter, having found the truth, yearn to share it with their fellow-man. Surely, the desire that reaches out hungering for righteousness is of God and God-directed, while the heart that is longing to be of service to its fellow-men is also of God and God-directed. Such desires being one in purpose and fulfillment, it is not surprising that those in whose hearts these desires are burning should again be brought together in answer to their prayers and through the working of spiritual law.

The Peter of to-day has the Bible and all the revealed writings of Mary Baker Eddy through which to present the truth to the Cornelius of the present time. He has also the Christian Science periodicals, the gift of our beloved Leader to humanity, to offer every honest seeker. The periodicals, with their messages of truth, have the possibilities of performing similar mission to that of Peter in lifting human thought out of darkness into light. And the world, like Cornelius, is waiting to receive these precious messages of truth, for it is awakening to a new mental state; it is crying out for spiritual light with a louder and more earnest cry than ever before. Well does Mrs. Eddy describe this situation in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 124), where she says, "The fruition of friendship, the world's arm outstretched to us, heart meeting heart across continents and oceans, bloodless sieges and tearless triumphs, the 'well done' already yours, and the undone waiting only your swift hands,—these are enough to make this hour glad." Thus, the time has come for a wide spreading of the periodicals; it is the need of the hour all over the field. In meeting this need, it is quite natural that new ways and means for extending the circulation of the literature should unfold, and that Christian Scientists in their gratitude for the periodicals should love to do this work.

Throughout the world are committees of the different branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, formed for the purpose of promoting the circulation of the periodicals in order the better to respond to this present-day cry of humanity to know God. These committees are learning to carry on their work through prayer and vision. Each worker discovers, sooner or later, that if he is to be at-one with the true purpose and method of extending the blessings of the literature, he must deal with whatever suggestions he finds in his consciousness that stand between him and a true vision of the periodicals. The committees, therefore, do not go forth to distribute the literature indiscriminately; nor do they look merely to material methods or personal endeavors to carry on their work. Instead, they seek to let function in their activities the same spiritual law on which Peter depended, knowing that it is just as necessary to-day to pray for guidance in serving one's fellow-men as it was in the days of old, if there is to be a coming together appointed of God. Indeed, if the efforts to bless humanity through the spreading of the periodicals are to prove effectual, the activities connected therewith must be the result of "prayer and fasting" until the work is placed upon a demonstrable basis.

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