OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN 6 L'UlHIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIUHIIHIIIUMUIIIIIliUlUIUUIUIIIIUIIIIIIIllllllllllUIUIIIIlllllllllllUIIIIIIUIIIIUUIIUIIUUIIIIflllllllUIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIinUIIIIHIIUIIIUIIIIIIHIHIIIIIIIIIIIIUHIIIIIiaUIUUIIUIUIIIIIIIllUIUIIIUllllllUIUIIIIlUUillllUUUIIIUIIIIlUIIUIIIIitll I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: THE KEY TO SELF- s auditorium, Jonn . Sidney Braithwaite, A. M., C. S.- - I B., member of the board of lectureship of the Mother church, the First Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston, delivered a free lecture on Christian Science entitled, The Key to under the auspices of First 1 Self-Governme- and Second Christian Science churches of Salt Lake. The speaker was introduced by Warwick A. Tyler. He spoke sub-- . as follows: stantially ' Whenever any form of religious Reaching claims our attention it is clear that we ought to be ready with some kind of test a mental touchstone that we can apply to it to see how much truth it really contains. There are some words of an eighteenth century writer which seems to supply the needed requirement. He says, That is. the truest doctrine which hath a tendency to make .thee live in the best and wisest manner Chris- tian Science nevertheless proposes a further test, for it says that if such doctrine is based on the teachings of Christ Jesus, then it should be found to confer in addition the best health. It is just because Christian Science has helped so many people to a better and wiser manner of life, besides healing them of physical ailments and keeping them well, that so much interest has been aroused in it. The essential sanity and health and optimism which permeate Christian Science are helping to leaven human thought, and to supply the moral qualities that are needed to hold it steadfast in the midst of present storms and beating waves. Need of the Hour. - It is surely correct to say that the great need of this hour is for more constructive thinking. Therp is plenty . , . pf the destructive variety about. What seems to be needed is that kind of mental activity that has love for God . and' man as its impelling motive. .. The first step in any such construc' tive thinking as this must unquestionably be individual 'and Christian Science is the key to as I expect to show in this lecture. Until one has learned how .to govern himself, how can one be ready, as everyone of us should be ready, to take his part in the government of the people? Is it not clear that a nation 'or a movement will be is the. first safe when concern of' the individuals composing tit? The Bible says, He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Mary Baker Eddy. as that has stood the t testJustof timea book will often have by way a short biographical note of prefacethe'about author, so it will not per-- . haps be out of place for me to begin about the discoverer and with founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. What is the place that she occupies in the .unfoldment of Christianity to mankind? Can she be compared to other .great religious teachers and reformers such as Luther, Calvin, Wesley or George Fox? Well,, there is this great difference between 'her work and theirs, that while each one of those men had his distinct message to the age in which he lived, and each one had a certain genius 'for organization not one ever claimed the full measure of the Masters promises. It seems that they did. not see far enough to associate his teaching with the word Science, neither did they dare to advocate physical healing as an essential part of the Masters instructions to his disci- self-governme- nt Self-governme- self-governme- - ; . . a-wor- d - . . . of all ' true law only feiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiitMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiaiiHiiiiiiuiiuiuNiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii large audience in the BEFORE a street I I A Lecture on Christian s Science by John Sidney Braithwaite, M. A., C. S. B.f Member of the Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, delivered at Richards Street Auditorium, Thursday evening, April 20. 1 a 1 I ing released from those traditional! . . . . , . interpretations that have neither - - - - - text-boo- k Self-Governme- Science movement, her dom, her loving warning, her stern g wis- rebuke, and her gentle entreaty, but I think that the world today is more willing to concede these things than it formerly was and to give to her her rightful place, and so I will proceed to deal with some aspects of her discovery. nt self-governme- " Back to the Bible. self-governme- nt, nt -- Perhaps the most important thing that Christian Science doed for the r is that it gives him real So back his Bible. many people haVe let their Bibles go in exchange for the more speculative and uninspired leaders of writings of would-bthought. They have wandered far into theories about health, human nature, death and the hereafter, in many cases only to return by the same door they went in saying as old Omar said: . truth-seeke- . - . 1 . e . There was the door to which I found no key: There was the veil through which I might not see. And just as we may hear nowadays the call of back to the land, reminding men of the essentials of existence, lost sight of in the rush and speculation of the city, so in Christian Science the cry is back to the Bible. There you will find the door you seek to open, and here in Christian Science is the key to it. The very first of the tenets of Christian Science is As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal life. Text-Boo- k As Key. The key which the Christian Science text-boosupplies to the Bible brings . to the . one who is reading it a power of discernment hitherto unsuspected, so that 'lie findd' liimself be k Sci- them and learning to think, clearly, connectedly, first on the Scriptures themselves, and then on every phase, of human experience. One might illustrate the change that this key. makes in ones thoughts about the Bible in this way: Suppose that someone were to take you into a large room filled with furniture, books, pictures and other curios, but so dimly lighted that you could barely distinguish the various objects and certainly could make nothing of them, and then he should begin- to tell you of their great interest and priceless value. You might say to him all that you say about these things may be perfectly true, but it hardlyests me because I cant see them in ihis dim light. But if the light were, turned iip it would ail be quite different You could see the things then, study them and form your own estimate of them. That is what the Christian Science does for the Bible. It turns up the light,, so that one may read and understand passages, that before seemed meaningless. Health and It is through this very study of the Bible in conjunction with the Christian Science key that one finds a new health, and a truer sense of what health really means. And also one begins to learn something about and brings with 'it a sense of authority, the authority which 'comes of right thinking. . It was of this kind of authority, as illustrated in the life of the Master, that it was written on one occasion that the spectators were amazed and questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What mew doctrine is this? .For. with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits and they do obey him. nothing but strict adherence to the truth could qualify- for this demonstration. Mrs. Eddy brought to Christianity that which it had hitherto lacked the Science of its teaching. Nothing could be added to the spirit of the Masters teaching, but the age was demanding its scientific and systematic explanation. Mrs. Eddy supplied both. Her book, Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, in the textbook of Christian Science, and her Church Manual provides the rules by which this healing system becomes an integral feature of the Church of Christ. These two books never can be separated nor superseded. One might dwell at (Considerable length on Mrs. Eddys deeply spiritual nature, her unselfed and statesmanlike leadership of the Christian far-seein- - ence; nor' common sense tp support', - ' - f ..... i i cniitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiMiiuiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiuaiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiuuiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiuuiuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiuiiiji. pies throughout all time. They did not know how to do so, and, in some instances where - healing occurred, they even feared lest it should result in a darkening of their message, through a building up of their own personality, in place of the Christ. And, mind you, they- were not very wide of the mark in estimating this danger, but Mrs. Eddy saw it too and faced it. She fearlessly insisted on healing as an essential feature of Christianity, but she also saw - that understood to ble found applicable to the smallest human experience, even to t2 a sparrow, as Jesus pat it ' In providing a new set of denote God Mind, Spirit, ciple, Life, Truth, Lon - Science is not asking-yothose words as though they in. themselves some magical The . value of these terms is bring to the material thong, telligible idea of God wjiiJ It to' reach up and gain book light, "wliere before all was' i I God. Christian Science explains to us.that in the life of Christ Jesus, the Mind that created the Universe! and keeps it going, was become articulate , in human experience, so that all false . knowing belief and its hour was come, literally quailed before him. The divine Principle which holds all things in its orderly grasp was expressing itself in the thoughts and acts of one man. And Christian Science reveals to us that this same Mind, or Principle, which found such clear expression in Jesus, must 'inevitably be here' also .with us today, only waiting for us to give it expression as he. did to prove its,, divine origin, and the unreality of all .that seems opposed to it. Consider what this really means not that we are any longer to think of God as a man who has been here on earth and left- it again for an in-- , definite period, not that He is a gigantic personality living, at., an immense distance from His creation, nor again that He is a vast abstraction possible to. understand, but that He is divine Mind,. or Principle, eternally - unchangeable, present everywhere and all the time, the' source and' origin . . And "in this process of , the thought from the limited to them terial point of view ' itual, one may find harm and healing, for ' it is them faith in Christian Science, then see that we do not need) human being,- whether in the priest or doctor, to take cut spiritual or physical welfan Indeed, they cannot do sa 1 work out our own salvation. 8ome Reminiscences The first time. I heard of Science was some twenty - wheqj someone told me Christian Scientists as a strange sect of people that ed in the United States of I do not remember all the told me about them, but made to appear as wild oi worshipped Mrs. Eddy; ify things were going wrong, other way and declared they right; that they said that it when it was cold and cold was hot; that it was not to wash, and so forth, all of intended to present them in of a good joke. Some of j have heard the same sort d ments, no doubt. It is that I smiled on hearing tin do .remember also whole story in my thought myself, Probably that is id correct, and if it should hag there are some people who a a stand against the mesmerk tions of the material senses, i this standpoint, and in the i Christ, healing the sick, it 1 all unlikely that they hare of something approaching A and I1 should like to hear M quite I it. It was some throe years k an opportunity occurred tel know more about Christian I when a friend kindly lent. ml of the textrbook. I had hmj menced to study it before what had previous1 y beencatew the subject, was a mere cam the true statement of theand too, that with this book in his hands a man would his own parson and bis oj but that he would, in facton ter able to look after his and physical welfare than could possibly do for hihas subsequent experi- ice this view. Source of Human Fj ..That Christian Science oj, unusual stand on the suftp: 1 - ., - . . five material senses is and I hope to mak- it veL the Christian Science PJJJ point really is. C"e tne erous. passages frc: i ence text-boo- k by way but let one short one , Eddy writes in Pcienc The corporf (p. 489): the only source of submit that this ia statement, and profound, I mean 1 a i er |