Article October 8, 1932 Issue

The Power and Incentive of Vision

[Original article in German]

ELISABETH JÄNICKE

EVEN as the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians is rightly regarded as a song of love, so the eleventh chapter of Hebrews may be looked upon as a paean of praise to faith. This chapter enumerates some of the wonderful experiences of the religious heroes of the Old Testament, whose steadfast adherence to a vision once perceived enabled them to triumph over every seeming hindrance. How fraught with power is the first verse of this chapter: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"!

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, searched the Scriptures, and studied the life and the works of Christ Jesus. Through this study her faith developed into practical vision, whereby she has brought to innumerable seekers of Truth the unadulterated spiritual knowledge of God and its fruits: freedom from fear and sin and the healing of sickness. Mrs. Eddy had such clear "evidence of things not seen" that she perceived the true sense of Church which was later manifested in the beneficent activities of The Mother Church and its ever increasing number of branch churches.

The first time one student of Christian Science attended a Christian Science Sunday service she was overwhelmingly impressed. On that particular Sunday the announcement concerning application for membership was read. For a number of years this visitor had belonged to the choir of an especially large and magnificent church; but her longing to work actively and more extensively for mankind in the church had been in vain. On reaching the street after this first service in the Christian Science branch church she remarked, full of hope and joy, to the one accompanying her, "This is the church I shall join." In due time this hope was realized, and with it, in a way never before dreamed of, "the substance" of one thing after another. She was also received into membership in The Mother Church.

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