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Our Debt to Paul
After Christ Jesus ascended beyond further communication with his disciples, they conceded to three men and later to four the chief responsibility for carrying on the Christian movement. These three were Peter, John, and James; the fourth man was Paul. Peter and this John had been foremost among the Master's disciples from early in his ministry. Incidentally, they were the first men to discover that Jesus had risen from death (John 20:1–9). Although two of the twelve apostles were named James, this James (a brother of Jesus) did not become a disciple until after the crucifixion and resurrection. According to tradition, he was convinced and converted by these events, and especially by a meeting between him and Jesus after the resurrection. Then he became an ardent disciple and one of the three "pillars" of the Christian church at Jerusalem; which was the mother church of that time. (See "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 13.) The facts that Jesus appeared to James after overcoming death and that Peter, John, and James were the pillars of the church at Jerusalem are stated in I Corinthians 15:3–8 and Galatians 2:9. Paul, as is well known, was converted from a persecutor to an ardent disciple by a wonderful experience, including the last known communication by anybody with the risen Jesus. (See Acts 26:9-18 and I Corinthians 15:3-8.)
To estimate justly the services to Christianity rendered by these four men would be difficult or impossible. It can be said, however, that they, more than the other disciples, discerned the true relation between the Jewish "law" and the Christian "way," kept Christianity from becoming only a Jewish sect, and made it a distinct religion of universal scope. It can be said, further, that they contributed conspicuously to the preservation of primitive Christianity and to the course of events which resulted in the discovery of its development and restoration—Christian Science.

April 5, 1930 issue
View Issue-
Refreshment by Prayer
WILLIAM P. MC KENZIE
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"Felt ye the power of the Word?"
ALICE MC CRAY MERRIELL
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Fields Already White to Harvest
MARIAN L. PIERCE
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Ushers of Our Church
SIGGE CRONSTEDT
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Unity
JEAN S. FREEDLANDER
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Glorifying God
EDNA LUCILE QUILLIN
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The Real Man
HELEN WARD BANKS
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God Meets Our Needs
HAZEL HARPER HARRIS
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I have read with interest the review of "Our New Religion,"...
Charles W. J. Tennant, District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland,
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Christian Science cannot properly be classed among...
Albert E. Lombard, Committee on Publication for Southern California,
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One cannot help regretting that your correspondents...
Mrs. Ann P. Hewitt, Committee on Publication for the North Island of New Zealand,
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Our Debt to Paul
Clifford P. Smith
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The Infinite Resources of God
Duncan Sinclair
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Universal Good
Violet Ker Seymer
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The Lectures
with contributions from Sigrid Blytt
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Christian Science has been a great help to me for over...
Daisy Annie Hudson
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Our first healing in Christian Science was that of scarlet...
Philippine V. Holmes
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It is with a sense of gratitude I give my testimony in the...
Theodore Mueller, Jessie H. Mueller
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Each day finds me more grateful for Christian Science,...
Eleanor Woodruff Palmer
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Having been healed of what doctors called "fibroid...
Hettie McNally
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With a deep sense of gratitude for the many blessings I...
Kathryn Scott Dunbar
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About twenty-two years ago Christian Science came into...
Christina Fritze
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Love
LORENE H. TROUSDALE
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from F. W. Norwood, Francis B. Sayre, Charlie Stowe, Edger A. Lowther