Notices

From the Directors

Writings about Our Leader

The teachings of the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the other writings by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, furnish more spiritual food than has been fully assimilated by anyone in this age. Hence there is no good reason why a professed Christian Scientist should be eager to seize with avidity anything Mrs. Eddy is reputed to have said or done that she herself has not made public.

Incidents and anecdotes in which she was the central figure, as related to-day by others than those who directly participated in them, are apt to be inexact, if not illusory or imaginative, and therefore should not be invested with undue importance as compared with the words of wisdom and spiritual enlightenment which have come to us direct from her pen, the full significance of which the world is just beginning to appreciate. Personal opinions and interpretations of those once close to Mrs. Eddy are often given more weight than they deserve. Merely because Mrs. Eddy has not specifically repudiated them is no evidence of their validity.

Another form of recital in which Mrs. Eddy is made prominent is the record of impressions of persons who may have been in occasional touch with her and who have written down what they have recalled of her words and actions. The personal characteristics of such a chronicler are commonly reflected in what he writes. If he is temperamentally erratic, what he may set down as having been said or done by our Leader is prone to be colored with his own proclivities and is not to be regarded as entirely trustworthy or informative. In form or substance it may be out of line with her purposes and intentions, and thereby prove mischievous and misleading. Wrong impressions are easily acquired, but are often hard to dislodge.

It is a serious mistake to expect to learn more of what Mrs. Eddy wanted us to know by reading what others have written about her. Those who do so are losing her instead of finding her. She wanted us to know her only as she is revealed in her published writings. On this point nothing could be more definite and direct than what she has written in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," page 120, line 2, where these words appear: "Those who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me."

A Noonday Lecture

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts, announces a free public lecture on Christian Science by Paul Stark Seeley, C.S.B., a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, in the Tremont Theater, Boston, Thursday noon, November 3, at 12.30 p.m. The public is cordially invited. Radiocast Station WNAC, 850 kilocycles.

Admission to The Mother Church

Applications for admission to membership in The Mother Church may be sent to the Clerk at any time throughout the year. It is desirable that applications should be forwarded in ample time so that they may receive the essential preliminary attention before the date of election. The receipt of an application by the Clerk does not make the applicant a member. Applications are acted upon by the Board of Directors, twice each year, as provided by the Manual of The Mother Church, Article XIII, Section 2.

The receipt of all applications is acknowledged by the Clerk; and on the date set for consideration, notice of acceptance or rejection is sent by the Clerk to those whose applications have been received in time. Should an applicant not receive such notice, he is requested to communicate with the Clerk before forwarding a second application.

Application forms may usually be obtained from Reading Rooms and from the Clerks of branch organizations, or they may be secured by addressing EZRA W. PALMER, Clerk, 206 Massachusetts Avenue, Back Bay Station, Boston, Massachusetts.

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