Oscar Graham Peeke, C.S.B., of Kansas City, Missouri
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Oscar Graham Peeke, C.S.B., of Kansas City, Mo., lectured on "Christian Science: The Religion of Intelligent Thinking and Victorious Living" Thursday in the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, College Avenue and 62nd street. Mr. Peeke is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. The lecturer was introduced by Mrs. Beuna Lobdell. His lecture follows substantially as it was given:
Almost twenty centuries ago there appeared in a nation which was under the yoke of conquerors a man who understood the meaning of victory better than any individual who had ever walked upon this planet. He was concerned not at all with the material concept of the word, but solely with its spiritual signification. He knew all about victorious living, and showed to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear that by living in obedience to the law of God whatever threatens or assails the happiness and well-being of an individual or nation may be proved to be powerless.
This man was hated and reviled by many who clung to Pharisaical systems because he presented and taught a code of ethics which ran counter to their materialistic and stultifying religious concepts. Regardless of threats, vilification, and efforts to silence him, he continued for three years to preach and teach the gospel of Truth and Love, and to demonstrate by many wonderful works, its great practical value. His every accomplishment was to show humanity that the way to victorious living is through spiritual thinking; and when evil did its utmost to destroy him, he gave an example of the immeasurable power that is attainable by such thinking and living. No one had ever lived among men so nobly and so selflessly as this man — the great Galilean, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus' doctrine, which he declared was not his but the Father's who had sent him, is today acknowledged by many millions of people to be true Christian idealism. But can it be truly stated that the majority of Christians are willing to follow in the way he marked, and which, as he so plainly showed, is the one way which leads to the real victory — victory over the mental enemies which are directly responsible for the various woes that beset mankind? Sickness and disease, poverty and lack, wars and disasters are evil beliefs which Christian Science declares God knows nothing about, and therefore are nothing but supposed effects of false material thinking. While they apparently continue to take their toll, the saddening cry is frequently heard, "Where is God? Does He exist, and if so, why does He allow these things to go on?" Doubtless just such cries were ringing in Jesus' ears when he wept over Jerusalem.
It is well for humanity that the stately operations of Christian Science have brought about the leavening of a great deal of human thought. Its discovery in 1866 by Mary Baker Eddy came at a time when Christianity was at a very low ebb. The grand religion founded by Christ Jesus had come to be grossly misinterpreted and severely mutilated. The mighty works he accomplished, and taught others to do, were declared to be miracles which God intended should not be duplicated in any future age, and the spirit of his life-giving teachings had become chilled by the introduction of dogma and creed.
From the hour of its discovery Christian Science commenced to revivify the sacred teachings of the master Christian. In particular it restored their lost element of healing. As in olden time the forces of evil fight against this demonstrable religion, for Christian Science not only denounces evil, but also uncovers and exposes its secret modes of operation; it strips evil of all false glamour and shows the correct method by which its unreality and nothingness may be demonstrated.
The allness of God and the unreality of matter and evil were revealed to Mrs. Eddy through her deep and constant study of the Bible. In her textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 110), she states: "In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were illumined; reason and revelation were reconciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated." This is an important statement. Mrs. Eddy demonstrated her interpretation of the Scriptures to be correct. She healed as Jesus healed. It is on the unshakable basis of demonstration that Christian Science has proved itself to be the promised Comforter which, as Jesus declared, "will guide . . . into all truth."
Christian Scientists love the Bible. They study it daily in connection with the Christian Science textbook. The Bible and Science and Health are the impersonal preachers in all Christian Science churches and societies throughout the world. The sermons, which are rightly called Lesson-Sermons, for they are studied by students of Christian Science throughout each week before hearing them read in the Sunday service, are comprised of Scriptural texts and their correlative passages from Science and Health. The Lesson-Sermon references are published in advance in the Christian Science Quarterly. Daily study of the Lesson-Sermons enables the students to comprehend more and more clearly God's allness and the nothingness of matter, evil, and mortality.
As an example of this, a man who was quite new in the study of Christian Science went to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. He desired to be freed from a painful condition which had become almost chronic. The practitioner asked him if he had been studying the Lesson-Sermon.
He replied that he had not, that he did not seem to get much out of the Bible, had never read it to any extent.
"What about Science and Health?" the practitioner inquired. He stated that he had been reading that book just before going to bed, that is, when he was not too tired. "But," said he, "I find it difficult to understand what is stated about God's allness and the nothingness of matter and evil."
The practitioner endeavored to show him that he really should study the Lesson-Sermon, and do so each morning before he went to work, even if it necessitated his getting up a little earlier.
He went away, but came back in a couple of days complaining that he was no better. Asked if he had done as advised, he answered by saying that he had been very busy with other things.
The practitioner then quoted the Scripture, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." "It cannot be said," he continued lovingly, "that you have shown the inclination to be willing or obedient. My part of the work for you has been done. The rest is up to you."
The man left, apparently in a rather rebellious frame of mind. However, he came back rejoicing on the following Monday. He then stated that it came to him quite forcibly that he needed to change his thinking about a lot of things. In a humble and expectant frame of mind he had taken up the study of the Lesson-Sermon, had got out of bed considerably earlier each morning for that purpose. At the end of the week, he said, he was still not at all clear about God's allness. However, as he listened to the familiar words being read in the Sunday service, the truth about that question unfolded to him; and when the service was over he found that he was healed of the physical difficulty as well.
Indicated in the Bible are certain fundamental truths which deeply impress the thought of the earnest student of Christian Science, for they are truths, upon the basis of which all Christian Science demonstrations are made. True dominion over evil is attainable by having a correct understanding of the truth that God is Spirit, the one infinite Mind, the divine Principle of the universe, including man, the Soul of all true existence; that He is Life, Truth, and Love, the only creator, and that His creation is entirely spiritual and altogether good.
The Bible also indicates that God is omniscient, and omnipresent, that is all-power, all-knowledge, all-presence. However, it is oftentimes asserted that because God is the all-knowing Mind, He must know matter, evil, and mortality. But this is false reasoning because if God does know these errors, He being the only creator, must have brought them into existence — a conclusion which is contradictory to the Biblical statement that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Is evil good? Is mortality good? Is matter good? Each is without intelligence and therefore diametrically opposed to the nature of God. Is it conceivable that infinite, divine Spirit or Mind could create anything that has none of the divine characteristics? If it is conceivable that light could produce darkness, then the answer might be "Yes."
Logically then matter, evil, and mortality are not entities. Christian Science shows them to be false concepts of the carnal, or mortal mind, and demonstrates their nothingness, and the allness of God, the divine Mind. This being so, it should readily be seen that the author of these false concepts must also be a falsity, a nonentity. Christian Science declares that the divine Mind is the only Mind that exists, and that the universe, including man, is the spiritual reflection or idea of this one creative Mind. Demonstrations of God's power can be made on no other basis.
Of course the material senses are not in agreement with this. But these so-called senses are illusory — they are the supposed avenues through which the so-called mortal mind falsely claims to control man. They constitute what the Apostle Paul terms "the old man." They should be put off, as he counsels, and as rapidly as possible, for they are at all times deceitful — they can testify only to materiality, to sin, sickness, and death.
The new man, to be put on, of whom Paul also speaks, is the man of God's creating, whose senses are spiritual. As God is Spirit, this new man created in God's likeness must necessarily be spiritual. What is termed mortal man has no true existence. Mortal man can be nothing more than a counterfeit of the real man. Being mortal and material he cannot express true intelligence nor real life. His so-called existence is a dream existence, a dream of life and intelligence in matter. He is depicted allegorically in the second chapter of Genesis as formed from the dust, indicating the insubstantiality and non-intelligence of such a man. Also the prophet Isaiah has this to say: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"
Christian Science says to each of us: Know yourself to be the man that is to be accounted of — the new, or real man. This man is forever new, always manifesting newness of life, beauty of character, freshness of intellect. He is wisely alert, for divine Mind rules his thinking. He lives to love, for he reflects and expresses infinite Love and immortal Life. He rejoices in the consciousness of true dominion, for he is governed by divine Principle and expresses the Soul of all real existence. This is the only man that God knows, therefore should we not all be knowing and demonstrating increasingly these truths about man? We should not say we hope to do so sometime in the future. The Bible tells us that "now is the accepted time." God knows no future, no past, but only the eternal now.
It is unwise to delay in doing that which is essential to one's well-being and spiritual growth. Oftentimes a statement like this is made: I should like to be a Christian Scientist but am not ready to give up certain things which afford me much personal pleasure. Also, some declare that the way in Christian Science is too straight and narrow. Can these be called statements of intelligent thinking? How could God's way be too straight and narrow? It certainly is a joyous way and a healthful way. Its narrowness is such that none of the inflated beliefs of false pride, self-will, bigotry, or intolerance can be brought into it; nor is there any room in it for the so-called pleasurable beliefs of the senses. Those who enter that way find themselves glad to be rid of all such, useless and harmful baggage. And the straightness of it is the beautiful part about it, for it enables one to keep always in sight the high goal he longs to reach, and which becomes clearer and more lovely as he draws nearer and nearer to it — the goal of true and perfect manhood in Christ. Assuredly this way is the way of peace, harmony, joy, and well-being — the way of true intelligence.
It is well to be familiar with the true definition of intelligence, which is given in Science and Health. On page 469 we read this: "Question. — What is intelligence? Answer. — Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, — Life, Truth, and Love, — named God."
The belief still seems to be quite general that intelligence resides in brain and is manifested through personal sense. This is a mistake which causes a vast amount of trouble. Intelligence, as Christian Science demonstrates, is "the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind." It therefore remains always in that Mind and is manifested through spiritual sense, by reflection. This truth would be more generally understood were it not for false education.
All education should be, and in time will be, based on the Science of true being. Back of all the good that Jesus accomplished was this great truth, that from his early childhood he was constantly acquiring more and more of "the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind" — true intelligence. This also is true of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
Christian Science commends good education. A great deal of the teaching today, however, impresses the learner with the belief that matter is real substance, and that it has life and intelligence. That all has to be corrected sometime. Of how much greater importance it is to learn about the grand realities of true being. All the erudition that the so-called human mind has ever devised is eventually found to be of small importance in comparison with the spiritual understanding by which to demonstrate the sublime truth that God is the only Mind, the only substance, that He is infinite intelligence, supreme wisdom, and that He imparts these divine qualities to all of His children.
Therein lies the practicality and grandeur of Christian Science — its victories and glorious possibilities through the ceaseless unfolding of its beneficent power.
Of inestimable benefit to humanity is the true understanding of the Christ which Christian Science unfolds. It was revealed to Mrs. Eddy that all the mighty works which Jesus accomplished so readily and so naturally were resultant from his perfect understanding of true creation, acquired through his marvelous manifestation of the Christ. This healing and saving Christ, as Christian Science demonstrates, is God's divine nature.
As Mary's son, Jesus spoke of himself as the son of man. However, he rightly claimed and fully realized his divine sonship because of "the godliness which animated him," to use an expression from Science and Health (p. 26). He did not arrogate to himself alone the ability to possess the Christ-consciousness.
The necessity of its attainment by those he taught before sending them out to heal was the focal point of his teaching. They learned that to possess it in sufficient measure to be able to heal as their Master healed, required self-abnegation and great purity of thought, for Jesus' method involved the ability to discern in place of a sick and sinful mortal, only the real, the perfect man, spiritual and immortal. This was Jesus' simple and only method. It is the only way by which his followers can accomplish Christ-healing. It is the way of Christian Science.
Jesus sometimes referred to himself as the Christ because his consciousness was at all times so thoroughly imbued with the Christ-spirit. This was his true selfhood. He disdained and rebuked personal adoration; and never did he teach that salvation is attainable by believing in his personal selfhood as the Christ. As humanity's Way-shower, he made it quite plain that by becoming imbued with that same godliness with which he was constantly animated, and by emulating him in his Christly works, all may attain full salvation from sin, sickness, and death.
It should be understood that no one is debarred from the benefit of Christ-healing. Sometimes a person will say, "I think I am too wicked to be healed in Christian Science." That is not so. Christian Science heals sickness and disease by overcoming wicked thoughts in the human consciousness. It matters not how wicked and diseased an individual may consider himself to be, he must, sometime or other — either here or hereafter, through continued suffering or by Christian Science — change his thinking and become regenerated and free. Then why not now? Christ-healing is for all, and "now is the accepted time" — the time to empty the consciousness of whatever the obstructing beliefs may be, so that the Christ may enter in and heal.
Oftentimes people are healed of diseases just by reading the textbook. In such cases the reader becomes so deeply interested in, and receptive to the spiritual truths which illumine the pages of the book, that these truths literally flood his consciousness with their healing light, thus destroying the dark errors of mortal belief which were the cause of whatever happened to be the discordant condition.
Christian Science is the religion of prayer. The motivating power of true prayer is intelligent, that is to say, spiritual thinking — in fact, such thinking is prayer. Thus it may be seen that to pray without ceasing, as Paul admonishes, is both possible and expedient. Prayer enables us to recognize, accept, and utilize God's spiritual bounty, to demonstrate its substantiality and live as victors.
The first chapter in the Christian Science textbook is entitled "Prayer." A Protestant clergyman once said to me, "I wish every child, man, and woman were familiar with the chapter entitled 'Prayer' in Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health." Other ministers have made similar statements, and many sermons based on the truths contained in Science and Health are today being preached from Protestant pulpits.
The spontaneous outpouring of love and gratitude from an overflowing heart to the all-loving Father and Mother of all, whom we understand to be infinite divine Love, is prayer that blesses and heals. Speaking of this I recall the experience of a woman, an acquaintance of mine, a lovely character, who once formulated a letter expressing her gratitude to God. It happened in this way: she became suddenly afflicted with a rheumatic condition, and suffered great pain. She decided to work out the problem alone with God. The pain continued day after day, and night after night, until she was at the point of being discouraged.
One night during the suffering she decided, in order to get her thought away from herself, to answer a letter that a friend had written to her. Having done so, and the pain still persisting, the thought came to her to write a letter expressing her gratitude to God. Immediately she acted on the impulse. In this letter she asked nothing for herself; it was composed principally of a spontaneous outpouring of gratitude, to her heavenly Father.
She commenced by stating her deep love for Him; then she enumerated the many blessings which God had bestowed on her since she had first found Christian Science. More and more came the remembrance of those blessings. More and more became the increase of her gratitude, until it was more than she could put into words. Tears came to her eyes as it became apparent to her that there was so much to be thankful for, far more than she ever before had realized.
She finished and signed the letter, then closed her eyes and continued to ponder gratefully and happily God's goodness and infinite love. Do you not suppose that God answered that prayer? The answer came in the silence of that night, through the realization of her freedom as a child of God, created in His likeness.
She arose, victorious over the error that had bound her. Her heartfelt gratitude — and gratitude is always an essential element in true prayer — had brought the victory.
It should be quite evident that prayer is a vital necessity for healthful and peaceful living. How greatly is a nation benefited by the prayers of those in it who love God supremely and who pray to Him understandingly! The Bible records outstanding incidents of the utilization of the mighty power of God, made available through prayer, to achieve glorious victories. The practical way of achievement is the prayerful way; and there can be no truly satisfying achievement by any other way. The cultivation of selflessness and humility, gratitude and love, is prayer that leads to the recognition of man as God created him, and enables us to cease from taking limited views of Life and of man's glorious possibilities.
On page 264 of Science and Health we read this statement, "When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man."
To "behold and understand . . . all the glories of earth and heaven and man," Christian Scientists contend is a most engaging prospect. These glories become ever more resplendent and spiritually tangible to those who learn to pray intelligently.
Several of the patriarchs of the Bible beheld something of "the glories of earth and heaven and man" because they lived very close to God. Christ Jesus was the most notable of all such exemplars. By precept and example he showed that man in God's likeness is not limited by any material object, boundary, or circumstance. He made it quite plain that by the very nature of his relationship to God, man is endowed with immeasurable power to overcome discordant conditions, that he possesses God-bestowed dominion over all the earth. "Nothing shall be impossible unto you," he declared. How great is the need today to understand that Jesus taught the Science of man's unity with God, and that he meant just what he said.
"The glories of earth and heaven and man" — Jesus beheld with marvelous and constantly increasing clarity of vision the glories of the earth of God's creating, and of man as God's perfect likeness, and he indicated that his followers should also do so. A favorite topic of his was the kingdom of heaven, here at hand, a joyous and harmonious sense of life to be acquired by intelligent thinking and victorious living. He taught that we should reject false material sense testimony and realize the presence of this kingdom, because it is not far off, but within us — within the consciousness of the man of God's creating, the man we all should know ourselves to be.
To his spiritual consciousness the earth was marvelously beautiful. He was always conscious of the real earth just as he was always conscious of the real man. While to human sense he was asleep in a boat at a time when the elements were boisterous, his spiritual consciousness — his true selfhood — was awake, alert, and aware only of the tranquil elements of the earth of God's creating. He demonstrated his perfect discernment of this reality when, in a moment of time, he stilled the storm. It is to be noted that he also rebuked the unspiritualized thought of his fearful disciples.
To a consciousness so spiritualized no mortal mind discord could present itself as a power to disrupt the harmony of God's good earth. In this earth abide the living creatures in their true state, as God created them, the cattle, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, all of which are pure, perfect, harmonious, and deathless, and over all of which God gave man dominion — the dominion of tenderness and love reflected from Himself.
Jesus demonstrated his perfect discernment of "the glories of earth and heaven and man" when, feeding a multitude, he supplied a human need. To human sense there were only a few loaves and fishes at hand. To his spiritualized consciousness, however, there was neither lack nor limitation, but always the limitless bounty which the earth of God's creating continually brings forth, the only earth that really exists, in which it is not necessary to plant seed to grow wheat, with which to produce flour for making bread, nor any need to cast nets into the sea to catch fish. In this earth every needful thing is always at hand. Jesus made use of the seed that is within itself, which is spoken of in the Science of Genesis. "The seed within itself," we read in Science and Health (p. 508), " is the pure thought emanating from divine Mind." This is the seed, or the thought, which heals, regenerates, and supplies all human needs.
The point in all this is, that there was nothing supernatural about anything that Jesus accomplished, all was divinely natural, hence the simplicity of it all. Intelligent thinking is a simple process. It requires self-abnegation, of course. However, Christian Science shows us what a marvelously satisfying, health-giving, and life-giving attainment it is to behold even a little of the glories of true creation, and have the ability to demonstrate in some measure their reality. Christian Science declares to us today that we are all God's children. The only earth in which we live is God's good earth, right here, the only heaven is within us, within our true consciousness, and the seed within itself — "the pure thought emanating from divine Mind" — comes ceaselessly to all of us even as the sun ceaselessly gives light to all alike. Through spiritualization of thought "the seed within itself" may be recognized, appropriated, and utilized by each one of us to supply human needs, to bless, to save, to heal, to promote longevity, to demonstrate immortality.
We all must learn to demonstrate over all finite concepts. In Science and Health (p. 258), it is stated, "Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God." Finity is unknown to God, for God is the one Mind, infinite and eternal. Anyone should be able to see the incongruity of believing that infinite Mind could be expressed in, or know anything about, finite things. It should appear just as incongruous to believe that we, as ideas, or reflections of that Mind are subject to so-called laws of limitation. We need to know that we live in the kingdom of God, of infinite Mind, which has no boundaries, no limits. In this kingdom man's capabilities are measured only by the good which ceaselessly unfolds to him.
Then whatever is right for us to do, let us do, prayerfully, gratefully, and with assurance of our God-bestowed ability. "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us," declared Paul. This being so, every human problem that appears to be difficult can be mastered through intelligent thinking — through reflecting the divine Mind. Fear is an insidious foe which claims to cause the wreckage of many an honest and altruistic purpose. But why be afraid? Why lack the decision to go ahead with what one knows to be right? God's man can know no fear. It is a glorious thing to understand that fear is an illusion of false material sense, and that we indeed are "more than conquerors through him that loved us."
Fear not! Be not dismayed! These are loving admonitions which Christian Science reiterates to us all today. Consider the lad David when he went out to meet Goliath of Gath. He had no fear; and it is significant that before he overcame the giant, he spoke to him words which have come down to us through the centuries as being indicative of the immeasurable power which is always available, through intelligent thinking, to bring victory in a just cause. They are words that should be, and let us hope are, being given serious thought by countless Christian people: "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel" — the armies of those who are on the side of God.
The victorious life of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science stands out like a beacon light in the darkness of a war-weary world. Mrs. Eddy sought no worldly honors; hers was a life of loving service and self-sacrifice; and yet no one can truthfully gainsay the magnitude of her victories. She proved her dominion over the most subtle and malignant forms of evil that claim to array themselves against the harmony of man. She penetrated the hard ambiguities of scholastic theology, and clarified for all time and for all humanity the teachings of Jesus concerning the demonstrable Christ. Through her, both the simplicity of the Christ and its immeasurable power for good in human affairs is being understood and demonstrated more and more throughout the world.
Mrs. Eddy has given the world the purest and most beneficial literature outside of the Holy Scriptures. Also in her Church Manual are outlined various activities which she established for the definite purpose of leading humanity into truly intelligent ways of thinking and living. Shortly before she passed from human vision, she established The Christian Science Monitor. This great international daily newspaper is acclaimed by its contemporaries as being one of the best and highest type newspapers in the world. Naturally this is so, for it accomplishes, and will always continue to accomplish, the object she intended for it, which is as she states in her book entitled "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 353), "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."
As has been the case with every pioneer of truth, Mrs. Eddy was evilly spoken of. She was reviled and threatened — and for what? Because she discovered and re-marked the way of Christ's demonstrable Christianity; because scholastic theology resented being roused from its complacency to be shown that the rejected stone of pure demonstrable Christianity was in process of being set in its proper place — to become the head of the corner of true spiritual building; because she wrote the textbook of Christian Science, which exposes evil's secret and subtle methods of enticing its victims, and shows the way to prove God's allness, and evil's nothingness and consequent powerlessness; because she made plain the great hindrance of creeds and dogmatic theological teachings to the attainment of true salvation; because the demonstrable Christ was her only ideal.
None of the evil thoughts and
endeavors deterred her, however, from carrying out her God-ordained purpose to
bless humanity with her discovery of Christian Science. She was divinely
protected, divinely directed, divinely inspired. Christian Scientists revere
and love her. They accept the counsel she gave to her students, that they
follow her only so far as she followed Christ. That she was a true follower of
Christ her works do show. In all that she accomplished she was motivated by her
love for God and her Christly affection for humanity. She lived to love and
knew so well that, as she states in her poem entitled "Love" (Poems,
p. 7), "Love alone is Life."
And is it not love that the world needs more than anything else today? Christian Science demonstrates the law of Love. Christian Science is indeed the promised Comforter; it has proved itself to be so to a great host of people who believed themselves to have been comfortless. In fulfillment of Biblical prophecy Christian Science is binding up the brokenhearted; it is giving to those who mourn the oil of joy, and for the spirit of heaviness the garment of praise. Its feet are indeed beautiful upon the mountains, for it bringeth good tidings of the coming of a new and true order in international relationships, one which will be established and energized by increasingly intelligent thinking.
Men and women are seeing ever more clearly that, because of false material concepts, the balance of power in the human consciousness has too long been held by lethargy, vacillation, greed, doubt, and fear, causing individuals and nations to drift like rudderless ships with the tide of unintelligent thinking.
Intelligent reliance on the one Mind is the necessary steadying influence in all human affairs. It is the guarantee of victory over the aggressive forces of evil, and is the safeguard of true democracy. Such reliance will enable us to pray intelligently and effectively for all mankind, for the safety of our valiant soldiers in near and far-off lands, on the seas, and in the skies. It will enable us also to stand undismayed and confident of the ultimate triumph of right; and while thus standing, to behold and understand more and more, "the glories of earth and heaven and man."
[Delivered Sept. 16, 1943, in Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, College Avenue and 62nd Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, Indiana, Sept. 17, 1943.]