Article July 30, 1932 Issue

Today there are certain signs of the nearer fulfillment...

Miss Lucia C. Warren, —Tuesday evening, June 7, 1932

Today there are certain signs of the nearer fulfillment of Mrs. Eddy's prophecy, "If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name" (Pulpit and Press, p. 22). Her premise is the faithful living of her followers; her conclusion, that the Christian churches will accept sufficient of her teachings to heal the sick. The glorious fulfillment of this prophecy none of us doubt; but are we looking for the signs? We welcome the growing amity toward our faith; but we may think, Why do they not become Christian Scientists; why desire only to take into their own churches the good they see in ours?

The period has largely passed when storms of protest are openly aimed at Christian Science by those who are honest, but misinformed. The period has passed when misrepresentation of Christian Science can gain a ready hearing. The time has come when Christian Science is touching deeply and widely the lives of others. Some of the signs are: a religious vocabulary increasingly influenced by ours; doctrines leaving old standpoints to which our Leader as a child could not subscribe; a press respectful and reluctant to misrepresent us, willing to publish as good news excerpts from our Christian Science Quarterly Lesson-Sermons and lectures; groups in schools, churches, and even in medical colleges, inviting Christian Scientists to address them, and listening sympathetically, in some cases permanent interest being engendered; an invitation from a prominent university for a Christian Scientist to give the baccalaureate address; the writing of a biography of Mrs. Eddy, sympathetic, even laudatory, by an Episcopal clergyman who loves his own missionary parish; the giving of lectures by him on Mrs. Eddy to promote the general good; the healing of the sick now recognized by many outside of Christian Science as something which Christ Jesus taught to be necessary and possible through prayer.

Why these signs? Because, first, Mrs. Eddy's teaching is an inherently vital, spiritual force; secondly, the lives of Christian Scientists are attesting "their fidelity"; thirdly, Christian Scientists are daily demonstrating divine Love's government, and are exemplifying the wisdom, good judgment, foresight, and courage which are the natural result of applying Mrs. Eddy's statement, "The time for thinkers has come" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Pref., p. vii).

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