From the Press

[The Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle]

Even among the fighting men of Europe, the men who face showers of shell and bullets, the Christian Scientists are doing missionary work. How do the doctrines of Mary Baker Eddy appeal to the Poilus? In the midst of battle Christian Science must appear the height of folly or the only logical religion to embrace.

A while ago there arrived in the mails to the Paris bureau of the Eagle a copy of a French trench journal, Echo des Gourbis (Gourbi being French soldier slang for a bombproof). It was a very well written and well printed little sheet, and among the articles there was one headed "La Science Chrétienne," which naturally attracted attention. Ordinarily the trench papers do not refer to matters of religion; if the French soldiers have any religious sentiments they keep them to themselves. They neither write nor talk about them, and to men facing the scorching breath of death ordinary preaching must seem terribly futile. And of all doctrines, that of Christian Science, with its particular views of suffering, bodily injuries, and death would seem the most strange or the most consistent.

I have visited the reading room of the Christian Scientists at 194 rue de Rivoli and have learned that so far about three hundred and fifty thousand booklets, in French and English, have been sent out from Paris to the French soldiers at the front. The British are being served from London. Now the recently arrived American fighters are also being equipped with Christian Science booklets. Copies of The Christian Science Monitor are sent to all the camps.

"And what success have you had among the fighting Poilus?" I asked. "Very good," was the answer. "We have received nearly 1200 letters asking for more literature, and now that Science and Health has been published in French and English, we are receiving numerous demands. The letters are most wonderful. Many of the soldiers say they have been helped by Science. One Poilu writes that he used to tremble with fear when a shell broke close to him, but now he knows no fear whatever. Like so many of his comrades he has learned to protect himself by Science. We also have letters from men in the submarines who say they have studied Science during the long night watches at sea. A commander of a gunboat at Gallipoli writes he went through the whole campaign unscathed. He had been able to protect not only himself but his crew and his boat by using Science. Only this morning we received a request from a Serbian officer at Cannes for a copy of Science and Health in French. Among the Americans who are preparing to fight we find that the study of Christian Science is growing fast. To the men at the front, surrounded as they are by misery, destruction, and death, Christian Science is a great consolation; it is one pure thing to which they can hold fast."

In addition to sending booklets the Christian Scientists have aided many of the war sufferers by more material means—money, clothing, and food. A new reading room will be opened soon at 6 avenue de l'Opera, a more central location than that of the present reading room, which has been open since 1898. There are also two Christian Science churches in Paris, in which services have been held continually since the war started. [The Living Church]

Christian Scientists have made admirable provision for maintaining the religious loyalty of their men in the Army. Not only are Christian Science meetings held regularly, but also, according to a report of their Camp Welfare committee, whenever anyone in uniform is found who is interested in Christian Science he is offered a textbook, Quarterly, and song book in vest pocket size, and a subscription to The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor is being placed daily in many of the Y. M. C. A. huts, in camp libraries, and in many of the barracks of the officers and men. About ten thousand copies [now nearly thirty thousand] are daily distributed in the camps, as stated in this report of the Camp Welfare committee of the Christian Science organization. And yet we wonder why Christian Science grows! Do we hear churchmen rise to offer funds for supplying The Living Church and other churchly literature to our men at the front? [Rutland (Vt.) Herald]

If all the doctors go to war, there is still the refuge for those who remain at home of becoming Christian Scientists—a sect of people who, by the way, maintain remarkably good health.

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