Who Can Afford It?

A. WARENDORFF

In The Mother Church Manual (Art. VIII, Sect. 14) our beloved Leader says, "It shall be the privilege and duty of every member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this Church;" and in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 352) she says, "My desire is that every Christian Scientist, and as many others as possible, subscribe for and read our daily newspaper."

About eight years ago the writer, who at that time had been interested several years in Christian Science, and had received what to human sense seemed a wonderful healing, was subscribing for and reading The Christian Science Journal, Christian Science Sentinel, and The Christian Science Monitor. In addition to this, he was studying the Lesson-Sermon daily. At a church meeting held for the especial consideration of the circulation of our periodicals, he was awakened to the duty of subscribing for Der Herold, which he had not been taking, and which had been published but for a short period. Although unable to read German himself, an opportunity shortly afterwards presented itself to pass his copy on to an employee who understood very little English. After this man had finished reading the copy, he passed it along to a German family in the apartment house where he was living; and this family, in turn, passed it on to five other families, which resulted, ultimately, in six people subscribing for and reading Der Herold.

After the yearly subscription had lapsed, the writer, believing that his work was finished, because some good seed had been sown, did not renew his subscription to Der Herold. This subscription was not allowed to lapse because of shortage of funds; but the subtle error was listened to which said: Well, you don't read German; and, besides, you have already read these articles as they appeared in the other periodicals, for they are reprints. Thus, error did its work, and for a while stopped the sowing of the good seed. The employee mentioned above was raised from what seemed likely to be his deathbed through the ministrations of Christian Science; and he can trace this healing to his reading of that first copy of Der Herold. He is now a regular attendant at the Christian Science church, and reads the lessons daily.

Recently, at a branch church meeting, subscriptions were taken for our publications, and the writer subscribed for all of them. He sent his check for twenty dollars to cover the entire subscription; and figured out that this cost was equivalent to, approximately, five and a half cents a day. The question he asked himself on his way home that night was, Can you afford to be without any of the literature which Mrs. Eddy has given to the world as a demonstration of Truth to this age, when it costs so little?

Humanity prays daily, "Give us this day our daily bread." Christian Science is a direct answer to this prayer. May not one of these messengers of Truth, which Mrs. Eddy has given us, contain the very spiritual food needed to solve some particular problem that has been baffling us, or some one to whom we may pass it on? The writer finds it very difficult to keep his thought filled with truth and love while reading some of the daily newspapers of the present day. Many of these papers contain articles positively unfit to bring into the pure atmosphere of home, especially where there are children, so filled are they with the evil accounts of the world's doings.

Mrs. Eddy established all of our periodicals; and for this reason alone we should be willing to be obedient, and subscribe for and read them; for did not the word come to her, Publish ye! When over the age of fourscore years, when most people retire from all secular affairs, our Leader came to Boston and established The Christian Science Monitor. This newspaper may be said to correspond with her definition of the river Pison, as given in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 593), which reads thus: "The love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality." Often, a single copy of the Monitor given to a stranger will kindle his love for the good and beautiful.

Who can afford to miss the opportunity of sowing the good seed? The Christian Science movement is the greatest agency in the world to-day for establishing Christ's Christianity; and through it is being fulfilled the prophecy of Habakkuk, "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." If there be any who are now remiss to their duty, as was the writer eight years ago, and who are not satisfactorily meeting all of their problems in Christian Science, let them awaken to their "privilege and duty."

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