Charles I. Ohrenstein,
C.S.B., of Syracuse, New York
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Charles I. Ohrenstein of Syracuse, N.Y., delivered a lecture on Christian Science to a large audience in Music Hall last evening. In introducing the lecturer Will S. Sterrett, First Reader of First Church, said:
In both Matthew and Mark's Gospels we are told that giving a cup of cold water in Christ's name is a Christian service.
Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, repeats this statement on page 436 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," of which she is the author.
To the Christianly scientific thought these lectures are like oases in the desert, where we obtain the cup of cold water necessary for our refreshment and comfort in our journey from sense to Soul.
To the material thought these lectures extend the helping hand of brotherly love, tendering that cup of cold water to us, which if accepted will quench our sorrow, sin, sickness — in fact, all inharmony, and bring us the refreshment and comfort of harmony — heaven.
All that is necessary is that we reach out, take this refreshing draught and "all these things shall be added unto you."
So, tonight First Church of Christ Scientist of this city lovingly tenders you a cup of cold water in Christ's name, in the form of this lecture on Christian Science.
It is my pleasure to introduce to
you Mr. Charles I. Ohrenstein, C.S.B., of Syracuse,
N. Y., a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.
Mr. Ohrenstein spoke as follows:
The greatest English writer, Shakespeare, said, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." For ages this has been recognized, and one of the Hebrew proverbs is to the effect that as one thinks, so is he.
All of us would probably agree, that we desire everything that is useful, beneficial, and good, and that we do not desire anything useless, harmful, or bad; consequently, the question, How may the one, the desirable occurrences, be increased in our experience, and the other kind decreased or eliminated? would not be at all new or startling to any one, and a correct answer to it would certainly be of interest and importance to us all.
If thinking, as has been said, is the cause of every result, what kind of thinking is the cause of good results, and what kind of thinking is the cause of bad results?
If we turn to the textbook of our inspired religion, the Bible, we find its first teaching to be that in the very beginning God made all that was made, and that all that He made was not only good, but very good. If we take this teaching together with what has been said, it would certainly mean that, everything being the product of thinking, everything good must be the product of God's thinking, and what is called God must be and is that which alone is able to think — Mind — with everything that is good due to His, Mind's, thinking.
Now let us turn to what is commonly called science. One of the meanings of this word is, "The knowledge of principles and causes." Principle means that which is ultimate, basic; that which is first or primordial, and therefore the first cause. In other words, as God is the beginning of all in theology, so Principle is the basis of everything in Science. It is that which was in the beginning, the source or origin of all. Now, taking this together with our first proposition, that nothing is but thinking makes it so, we again find that everything being the product of thinking, and everything being the product of Principle, everything must be and is due to the thinking of Principle, and Principle like God must be and is the primary, the ultimate consciousness, or Mind.
From the two foregoing deductions it will be seen that pure religion, or Christianity, and pure "knowledge of principles and causes," or Science, are not contrary or antagonistic to each other, but identical; that by Christian Science they are reconciled, and that their identity or sameness is found in Christian Science and only in Christian Science, which teaches just what has been stated about God, just what has been stated about Principle, and that God and Principle are one; that in the beginning God, Principle, made all that was made; that all that He made was good; that all that is good must have, has, purpose: that, having purpose, it must be due to thinking, which could not be the result of anything but Mind; that Mind, therefore, must be and is God, or Principle, the primordial cause of all.
In Christian Science, then, we have one Mind, one Principle or cause of all that made all, and of necessity Mind, or intelligence, made all good; for to have made aught otherwise, this great and only cause would not have been Mind, or intelligence.
But here it may be asked. Do prevalent theories — theology, the natural sciences — teach this? And if not, are, these conclusions warranted? Frankly, it must be said that, as yet, they do not. It should be noted, however, that Christian Science has already caused marked changes in the thought of mankind, in the teachings of theology and the sciences. In fairness to the more advanced theologians of our day and to the most advanced natural scientists, it must be said that their teachings no longer oppose those of Christian Science as they formerly did. The more advanced theologians no longer teach that God is corporeal, nor do some of the more advanced natural scientists any longer teach some uncreated, hypothetical "Urstoff," protyle, or atom to be the ultimate of all. They recognize that in the ultimate everything must and does resolve itself not "into a dew," but into states of consciousness; that the ultimate of everything must be thought-stuff, not matter-stuff, in order to be capable of translation into thought; that everything must have its beginning in intelligence in order to be intelligible. To deny that consciousness, or Mind, was in the beginning would be to deny a source for the intelligence which we express, the intelligence which everything in nature manifests.
But granted that the unity of Mind, or Principle, and so of cause, is still denied, are we to bid revelation, reason, demonstration, halt until the schools approve them? Go to the thousands who have been restored by the simple truth that has been stated — the truth that God is the only Principle, or Mind — and in proof of it they need but paraphrase the statement of the man who was healed of blindness by the Master: Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that ye say ye know not whether this be Christianity, whether this be Science, and yet, whereas we were carnally minded, sorrowful, suspicious, fearful, discouraged, unfortunate, degraded, sick, now we are spiritually minded, happy, trustful, confident, encouraged, uplifted, successful, well. Mere coincidences these, as the legalized schools would have us believe? If so, how many coincidences does it take to establish the operation of a law or a scientific fact? For there are thousands of just such coincidences, and I stand here as the result of one of them.
But what is this Mind, or Principle, called God, which of necessity thought and projected all in the beginning, and pronounced His every projected idea good, very good, leaving nothing for any other mind to think or to project? Is it a mere philosophic abstraction? What are the so-called "minds many" which arrogate to themselves originality and power to think good and to think evil, and to enforce this thinking and to make it manifest?
On page 110 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook;" and on page 497 of the same book, the first one of the religious tenets of Christian Science reads, "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."
Let us go to the Bible, then, from which are drawn the entire teachings of Christian Science, the book upon the teachings of which Christian Scientists depend for all physical as well as spiritual needs. Let us take the Bible, then, together with its commentary, the Christian Science textbook, and let us see what that great book, which has withstood all of the assaults of the ages, teaches God to be, and to be able to do. Let us see what the one and only Mind, the source and origin of all, is, and what it does for all. Is it the "Rock" upon which all may safely build, — "the stone which the builders rejected," or is it a rope of sand; and is a material foundation together with its carnal mind required to supply our needs, and to make us dwell in safety?
"All are familiar with the fact" says a learned writer, that to the Hebrew of Old Testament times, the name of a person, place or thing was not intended to be merely distinctive, that is, for the purpose of identification, as with us. It was rather intended to indicate or reveal the nature of the person, place or thing. Thus Jacob, for instance, means supplanter, and he was given that name because he supplanted his brother at his very birth. Bethel, meaning house of God, the place of Jacob's dream, was so named because to him, as he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place," and so on. "Indeed this vividness of the perception of a characteristic," says the same writer, "presented that characteristic as an equivalent of the thing itself. Thus a special or new sense or revelation of God, meant the formation of a new designation or synonym for Him." Although metaphorical or poetic, in many instances, these synonyms or additional names for God are seen in the light of Christian Science to be truly descriptive of His nature and attributes, thus increasing our sense of His eminence, imminence and immanence, His highness, nearness and permanent indwelling or nearness; His all-efficiency, all-sufficiency; His love, providence and care for us. To become acquainted with the Bible teaching of God, then, as Christian Science enables all to do, and compels its adherents to do, not through fear or threat, but because of complete reliance on Him, is to learn to know Him as the inspired Bible scribes knew Him, to love Him as they loved Him, to trust Him as they trusted Him, to have more of that peace which all desire, and to be better able to demonstrate His truth or reality, His power and beneficence.
In this Book of books we find no
word that meant to the Hebrew of its day what the word God has been perverted
into meaning by the people of other climes and of more recent times. Indeed he
was forbidden to make for himself any graven image, mental or otherwise, of the
supreme Being, forbidden to make for himself a magnified or idealized human as
his God, and the Hebrew designations for the Deity were intended to preclude
this. The earliest of these designations were El or Elohim,
meaning strength or power; Yhwh, meaning the existing
one, thus existence or Life; Ehye-Asher-Ehye, "I am that I am," or again, but in other
words, existence: Shaddai, always coupled with El, as
El Shaddai, meaning overpowering strength or supreme
power, and Zabaot, meaning of hosts, usually coupled
with Adonai or El, and thus Lord or strength of
hosts.
But let us hear him who spake as never man spake, who taught both by precept and example as never man taught, whom all of us may with the Magdalen call, Rabboni, Master.
Did his teachings contradict those of the more ancient prophets of Israel? No: they amplified, magnified, glorified them. Like the Hebrews of old, he called God, Eloi — the strength of me or my strength. So closely did this humble Nazarene walk with God, so intimate with Him, so obedient to Him was he, that he called Him, Father; and not merely "my Father," but "our Father," the progenitor or cause of all. So sure was he of this Father's abode that he addressed Him in heaven. — "Our Father which art in heaven," and so provident, so loving of all did he know this universal Father to be, that he recognized that the lily of the field was clothed by Him, the sparrow's fall anticipated by His law; so fully did this Son of God illustrate Him, that his beloved disciple recognized that "God is love," and so proclaimed God.
Christian Scientists, who are striving to be the true Israel, contenders for the one true power, like Israel of old, like the disciples of old, are taught by Science to translate things or mere symbols into thoughts, the thoughts or ideas which are the realities of all symbols. They do this because they recognize, as has been said, that everything indicates purpose, an operation of consciousness, and every purpose an idea; that Elohim, the power that was in the beginning, must be the Principle, the Mind, of all that it purposed and projected — of the universe, including man. Christian Scientists recognize, therefore, that this Mind is their Mind, this power is their power, this existence, or Life, is their life; that this "I am" or universal ego is their true ego or selfhood, and so on. Yes, they recognize that this one Father, meaning provider, protector, guardian, monitor and guide, is their Father.
But here the question may arise, Of what avail is all this, what practical value has all this to the individual, to the mass; how can it be applied?
Christian Science does not theorize: it is practical, demonstrable. Let us look at what humanity calls its mind; the so-called human consciousness; of what is that composed? Much that is good; more that is bad. The good may be termed spirituality or unselfishness; the bad, materiality or selfishness. Where the one is, there love is; there courage, hope, confidence, blessedness, joy, peace, freedom, endeavor, achievement are. It is "the way, the truth, and the life" of Jesus and of every true man made manifest. It "vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, . . . thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things (is able to bear all things), believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things (is steadfast)." It is the reflection of Love which "never faileth." To be thus minded is life and peace, for where love is, there bliss is, there heaven is.
Now what about the other phase of the human consciousness? Is it not plain that where materiality and selfishness are, there abide those qualities which constitute them, greed, dishonesty, pride, aggression, envy, hatred, malice, jealousy, revenge, lust, hypocrisy, and all other abnormalities? And where these abide, there fear is and the torment of fear; for these form what Paul called "the carnal mind," the enemy of its own and of every one's good. To be so minded, it must be evident, is sin, and "the wages of sin is death," the destruction of this consciousness and of its victim, the poor body that merely carries out its suggestions.
We started out with the proposition that everything is due to thinking; that God is the only Mind, and since nothing but Mind can think, that everything must be due to God's thinking, and that everything that is due to God's thinking must be good, beautiful, true, eternal. If what has just been presented is plain, we are now prepared to scrutinize more closely this pretense to mentality which Paul called "carnal mind," and Mrs. Eddy calls "mortal mind," and its so-called thinking — the thinking that projects its phantasm of all "the ills that flesh is heir to," calling it existence; devises its theologies which blame God for the whole project; formulates its sciences which analyze this project and find it real, and everything contrary to it unreal.
Looking out upon this material sense of existence can anyone deny that in its greatest satisfactions, gains, losses; in its rejoicings, carousings, griefs, mournings, its whole entity trembles, quakes with foreboding and with fear? And is this strange? Does not everyone know that but a little while, and all that it holds dear, its all-in-all, will be gone; that it is all a shadow, the solution of which is dissolution? Do Christian Scientists deny this? No. Christian Scientists recognize it all as does no one else. They recognize that it is all due to the carnal mind's misconception of everything, a misconception in which nothing is or can be due to God, Spirit; in which everything is separate and separated from Him; in which everything ultimates in selfism, selfishness and all its fears, — fears that come of the partaking of this misconception of being, — the belief in powers, pretences, thoughts that are not only not emanations from God, good, but are contradictions of Him. Materiality — this kind of mind — means not only to fear, it is fear, torment, misery; for behind it stalks its doom, mortality, destruction.
Let us look upon the world's restlessness, hurry, bustle; its driving and its driven; its extortion, inhumanity, and misery of every kind — its pride, arrogance, oppressions; its independence of Principle, God, and its dependence upon everything else; its debauchings and debauched; its private strifes and public wars; its carnage, suffering, insanity, sickness, death! and then let us remember that, "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Are the things that we have enumerated, the products of right thinking, the thinking of that Spirit, or Mind, which "beareth witness with our spirit (the good in human consciousness), that we are the children of God"? Is it not all the product of that pretense to mentality which says, I am something, an independent thinker, altogether separate from God and His creation! Is it not all the product of this selfism and its disobedience to God, good, cowering in abject fear, a selfism that should be ashamed and hide its nakedness as of old? And is not the whole world groaning under this pall of materiality and its fears? Fear is the one great enemy of mankind, and fear is due to darkness, the opacity of materiality. Christian Science, "the light [that] shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not," the Truth that all shall ultimately know, has come to liberate mankind from this monster, by liberating them from all that causes fear, — selfism of every kind.
Fear! The cause of all our ills, say you?
Let us see. Let us take the very first trouble which was enumerated, — restlessness, a very common trouble. Is one ever restless because of confidence? Confidence means assurance not fear. Hurry, extortion, these do not look at all related; yet they are cut from the same piece of cloth. Is not the one due to a fear of loss and the other to the fear of not having a sufficiency? Pride, is not that the fear of failure to be esteemed? And how does anyone who is afraid feel, — good or bad, dis-eased or at ease? The hurrying, bustling, worrying individual — is it not a common saying that he will worry himself sick, worry himself into the grave? Did any of you ever know a frightened man to succeed in a game of any kind, in business, or in life? And the debauchee, the one that makes his life a gala day at others' and his own expense, does not he always fear that his enjoyment will be his ultimate undoing?
Yes, but, here some one may say, how about the innocent, the good people, the religious people, how about them?
Are not they afraid? Has not their
education from early infancy been to fear, to fear everything in the world
above it and beneath it? Have not all been taught to fear all kinds of weather,
hot, cold, wet, dry; to fear the results of missing a meal or two, and to fear
everything they eat as possibly harmful; to fear inoculation by germs, and to
fear not to be inoculated with them; to be afraid because of what they have
inherited, and because of what they have not inherited? And with all the love
and respect that we have for all people, have not practically all been taught
to fear not only for everything in this life, but for the hereafter, not only
for their bodies but for their "immortal souls" as well? Take a good,
sainted mother, who has been taught that God will damn those who do not believe
as she has learned to believe; let the son or daughter of this mother turn from
that particular belief — not to waywardness, but to Christian Science, let us
say, and be healed by it. Is not that good, saintly mother, in many, many
instances, tormented with misgiving, foreboding, fear, about that son's or
daughter's soul? Let me say that in my practice I have known many just such
cases. Are there not others afraid of what the world may think? The so-called
human mind or consciousness, at best,
is but a mass of misgiving, of miserable fears, and of their torments; fears
and torments which the right, the Christ consciousness, heals. How, say you? By
thinking; right thinking, spiritual thinking, Christianly scientific thinking,
Christian Science thinking.
Mind alone can think. By a perfectly logical process Christian Science has shown that God is Mind. If this is true, then "it must follow as the night the day" that there is only one real Mind, just as there is only one real God, and that one infinite; that every true, good, beautiful, pure, loving, healthy, normal thought, feeling, action, and effect must be the emanation, the product, of this Mind. These right, pure, holy, uplifting, healthy thoughts come to each and every one of us, and prompt, impel, compel all of us, in some degree at least, to conform with them in action, to externalize them. Every projected thought of Mind, every created thing appeals, speaks to us, unfolds itself to us, until we understand its nature, purpose; know that God indeed made all, and that all is as God made it, very good. To do this is to love and not to fear. To do this is to conceive God's concepts, to perceive them, to know something of what God knows. It is the unfoldment, the revelation of God's ideas, the discovery of the meaning of God's hieroglyphics. It is to cry out with the poet,
O world as God has made it! all is beauty
And knowing this is love, and love is duty.
What further can be sought for or declared?
To know that God, good, is the only Mind, Spirit, Life, Principle, Truth, or reality, is to know that God is the one and only Ego, or self of all. It is to claim no separate selfhood. It is to "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," to be the male and female of God's creating. It is to learn what Christian Science alone teaches us, — to be the reflection of Mind, of Love, and so to be man. Is this desirable? Yes. Is it possible? "With God all things are possible." Has it ever been done? Yes; by him who said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;" and, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Is it being done now? In every case healed by Christian Science, something of this marvel due to right thinking and the operation of its law has taken, does take place. Incidentally the result of this legitimate thinking is the Christian uncovering, the laying bare of sin, of every thought contrary to the truth of good. This is the forgiveness of sin, by the destruction of it, and the recovery, the restoration of the sinner, the victim of sin, to purity, harmony, health, usefulness. It is prayer in its highest sense; a holy communion with God in which thought is uplifted, strengthened, and refreshed; in which every unholy, unhealthy thought, every thought of inability is shown as an imposition and a fraud that would cheat man out of his birthright. It is God's answer to prayer, to the longing to be what God made man, in which God says to everyone and about everyone, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Does all this mean that Christian Scientists deprecate or depreciate all that human intelligence has achieved, the progress of mankind; that they inveigh against the arts, the many inventions and conveniences which the sciences, the crafts, have evolved and developed for the use of men? No people appreciate these things more, no people avail themselves more of these things than do Christian Scientists; and this applies particularly to those things that have to do with the saving of time, of labor, the doing away with drudgery, the maintenance of order and of cleanness. It should be noted that it has been stated that much of what is good is reflected by the human consciousness, and no good thing of which this reflection is productive is condemned by Christian Science. It is the carnal, sensual, debased sense, the false claim to mentality to which humanity has clung as unavoidable, inevitable, and as incapable of elimination from the human consciousness, that Christian Science uncovers for us, and asks us to abandon by disclaiming and disowning it, and by persistently reclaiming for ourselves the Christmind, Love, which, as our textbook states (Science and Health, p. 494), "always has met and always will meet every human need."
Love is the incentive of all true effort and achievement. Mrs. Eddy had, and teaches us to have, the highest appreciation for all that is truly helpful, uplifting, and ennobling to mankind, whether it be the religions, art, music, mechanical device, or scientific discovery. As to order and cleanness when taught as Christian Science teaches them, they mean not merely making "clean the outside of the cup and the platter," but the purification of the thought itself. This will be seen as the truest sanitation, and it results in the promotion and preservation of the individual and public health, for, if nothing is but thinking makes it so, the purification of thought surely expresses itself in a clean body and clean, wholesome surroundings.
It has been charged that Christian Science is suggestion, hypnotism. You have heard, in a brief way, something of the reason for the faith, the confidence, that is in us: enough to enable you to ponder this subject, and, I trust, enough to give you the desire to learn more of it so that you may be able to apply it and be benefited by it. This you can best do by obtaining the textbook of this Science, the book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, which presents the whole doctrine of this Science. Brief as the statement that has been made here is, I am sure that you are able to see that the practice of this Science is the very opposite of hypnotism or suggestion.
The practice of this Science blesses him that practices it, and him upon whom it is practiced. It is a benediction and a blessing to both. It benefits all mankind and cannot possibly do violence to any. Hypnotic suggestion, the exercise of the human will, the dominance of the weaker by the stronger carnal mentality, on the other hand, is an infraction of both the human and the divine right of self-government. This infraction injures those who practice it and those over whom this baneful influence is used.
It must be evident from what has
been said that far from being the practice of such a baneful influence as this,
Christian Science is the only method that lays it bare in all its hideousness.
It is from the influence of the wrong thinking of each and every one over each
and every one, of all over all, that Christian Science has come to save mankind
by teaching them the truth; the truth that there is only one Mind: that this Mind of God; that
"man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed
by his Maker, divine Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 106). It was
this truth that Jesus came to teach mankind, as his words, "Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free," attest. It is this truth
that Christian Science is again teaching.
It would hardly be possible to speak at any length of any great achievement, any great discovery, without saying a word about those instrumental in bringing it about. This applies to religion as it does to activities in other spheres. When we think of the uplifting, ennobling, and emancipating influence of monotheism, Moses stands before us as its great formulator, proclaimer, leader. When we think of Christianity and its marvelous achievements for mankind, then — irrespective of any and all deviation from its compassionate ministry, irrespective of the rending of the seamless robe — the figure of the humble Nazarene rises up in thought entreating our submission to, our admission of, his gracious love. Let us but think of any of the great and good denominations that have sprung up from the one parent vine of his teachings, and their founders stand before us reminding us of their toil, their sacrifices and achievements for us all. Thus we see Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Roger Williams, Channing, Mrs. Eddy, and the host of them, who, protesting against wrong, helped to usher in the right. God's freedmen were they all, protesting against some illegitimate bond, and helping to free others.
From the time of Abraham, of Moses, yes, from the time that men commenced to think, all thinkers have been protestants. To look upon the limitations of mankind and to think, has, of necessity, meant to protest. Had there been no protest, had not these protestants achieved the freedom of our time, of our country, Christian Science would not now be known, for Christian Science is the ultimate of all protest, the ultimate of all protestantism, and the means of complete emancipation. It is the protest against the subjection of mankind to aught but God, divine Spirit, or intelligence, divine Life, Truth, and Love.
In the light of this, is it strange that Christian Science should have come when it came, where it came? It came when divine intelligence and Love had prepared the way for it, and the place for it. Christian Scientists recognize, appreciate, all this, and doing so they love all those who have made possible the coming of this Truth.
Nor is it strange that it should have come through a woman, as it is sometimes claimed. Has not woman, without any pride or pomp of any sacerdotal vestments, always loved the truth, lived the truth, depended on the truth of God, divine Love, more than men? Has not she always been the natural minister of mankind, rendering the tenderest, most sacred service? Has not she hoped all things, borne all things, endured all things, suffered all things; has she not been most steadfast, the last with the Savior at the cross, the first to see the risen Christ?
Was it strange that another Mary, Mary Baker Eddy, should have loved the Truth, discovered the Truth, which Science is, and revealed it to us all?
No woman's life is so well known as is that of Mary Baker Eddy. Half a century of it was spent under the closest public scrutiny. Who of us here could stand to have his every act from earliest infancy bared to the public gaze, as was done in the case of this noble woman? But with the white light of truth shining on its every page, her life stands as an example of devotion, of purity, of toil, of sacrifice, and of love.
Mary Baker Eddy was born a protestant. In her early girlhood this evidenced itself. She was deeply religious. Much as she longed to unite with the church of which her parents were members, the Congregational church, the doctrine of predestination greatly troubled her. In her book, "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 13), she tells us that she was unwilling to be saved, if her brothers and sisters, who had not then professed religion, "were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God." Notwithstanding her parents solicitude and the entreaties of their good pastor, she stood by her protest. Her earnestness, sincerity, and self-evident devoutness moved all to tears, and she was admitted, together with her protest.
This position on the part of a mere child indicated the breadth and depth of the religious convictions which ever after characterized her as a woman. With all this firmness, Mrs. Eddy, also when but a little child, showed the tenderness and kindness which Christianity implants.
Though the youngest of the family, whenever discord of any kind threatened or occurred, Mary was the peacemaker. This she continued to be, and "blessed are the peacemakers."
Mrs. Eddy's one desire was to save. Like the Master, whose humble follower she was, she came not to "condemn the world," but to save the world. She saw the world's wrongs, but her gaze was ever fixed on God's omnipotence. This made her a great protestant, and as thousands can attest, a great emancipator. But beyond and above all this, her life showed that God, as the only cause of all, is not only our Father but our Mother, and she showed this by manifesting divine mother love. Her protest was tempered by this love, by the broadest Christian charity. She loved those of other denominations, of other schools of healing, and of the other scientific schools. She loved with her whole heart this great, free country. She saw its mission and its destiny, and had the utmost confidence in its ability to fulfill them. She prized the equality, the opportunity, the freedom of all alike under its flag. She taught her followers to emulate her in all this. Doing this, and remembering that the highway of this Science, this Christ, Truth, had to be prepared, Christian Scientists prize their country, and love all that made it, and all that makes it what it is. In peace they have stood with it, worked for it, and in the hour of trial they are found marching shoulder to shoulder with those that defend their country's honor, their country's, and the world's, liberties.
[Delivered Dec. 2, 1919, probably at Music Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, and published in a newspaper dated Dec. 3, 1919, name and location unknown. The title of this lecture on this site was originally "Principle Forms Basis of Christian Science," but has since been determined to be the title given above. Occasionally subheadings were placed at the very beginnings of lectures, and at the time this lecture was prepared for this site, such a subheading may have been taken, instead, to have been the lecture's title.
[This lecture is believed with a high degree of certainty to have been delivered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The man who introduced Mr. Ohrenstein was identified, above, as Will S. Sterrett of First Church. The Christian Science Sentinel shows that W. S. Sterrett of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Cincinnati, Ohio, introduced Willis F. Gross (June 23, 1917 issue); that William S. Sterrett of the same church introduced Paul Stark Seeley (July 13, 1918 issue); and that W. S. Sterrett of the same church introduced Dr. Walton Hubbard (July 5, 1919 issue). The Music Hall in Cincinnati was built in 1878 and the Sentinel reports that it was used as the site of lectures, for example, by Bicknell Young (Feb. 2, 1907, and Feb. 7, 1914 issues), Virgil O. Strickler (Feb. 10, 1912 issue), the Rev. William P. McKenzie (Aug. 2, 1913 issue), and Jacob S. Shield (Oct. 30, 1915 issue). The Cincinnati Post carried an advertisement for a lecture by Ohrenstein at the Music Hall on March 10, 1918 (in its March 8 issue) and a brief report of Ohrenstein's lecture Christian Science: The Knowledge of Salvation, which was given on Feb. 10, 1922 (in its Feb. 11 issue). The Post, however, may not have been the newspaper that printed the lecture, inasmuch as no full reports of lectures have been found by this site in that publication in this period.
[In a brief announcement stating that this same lecture was to be given Jan. 11, 1920, in Syracuse, New York, The Oswego Daily Times of Jan. 5, 1920, stated: "Mr. Ohrenstein has recently returned from an extended lecture tour through Alaska. It is stated on good authority that two miners walked fifty-seven miles each way from Yukon to attend one of these lectures."]