  Substance of my Address at the National Convention in Chicago, June 13, 1888 The National Christian Scientist Association has brought us together to minister and to be ministered [10] unto; mutually to aid one another in finding ways and means for helping the whole human family; to quicken and extend the interest already felt in a higher mode of medicine; to watch with eager joy the individual growth of Christian Scientists, and the progress of our common [15] Cause in Chicago,—the miracle of the Occident. We come to strengthen and perpetuate our organizations and institutions; and to find strength in union,—strength to build up, through God's right hand, that pure and undefiled religion whose Science demonstrates God and [20] the perfectibility of man. This purpose is immense, and it must begin with individual growth, a “consum- mation devoutly to be wished.” The lives of all re- formers attest the authenticity of their mission, and call the world to acknowledge its divine Principle. Truly [25] is it written:— “Thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth would'st teach; Thy heart must overflow, if thou another's heart would'st reach.” Science is absolute and final. It is revolutionary in [1] its very nature; for it upsets all that is not upright. It annuls false evidence, and saith to the five material senses, “Having eyes ye see not, and ears ye hear not; neither can you understand.” To weave one thread of [5] Science through the looms of time, is a miracle in itself. The risk is stupendous. It cost Galileo, what? This awful price: the temporary loss of his self-respect. His fear overcame his loyalty; the courage of his convictions fell before it. Fear is the weapon in the hands of [10] tyrants. Men and women of the nineteenth century, are you called to voice a higher order of Science? Then obey this call. Go, if you must, to the dungeon or the scaf- fold, but take not back the words of Truth. How many [15] are there ready to suffer for a righteous cause, to stand a long siege, take the front rank, face the foe, and be in the battle every day? In no other one thing seemed Jesus of Nazareth more divine than in his faith in the immortality of his words. [20] He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;” and they have not. The winds of time sweep clean the centuries, but they can never bear into oblivion his words. They still live, and to-morrow speak louder than to-day. They are to-day [25] as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight God's paths; make way for health, holiness, universal harmony, and come up hither.” The gran- deur of the word, the power of Truth, is again casting out evils and healing the sick; and it is whispered, “This [30] is Science.” Jesus taught by the wayside, in humble homes. He spake of Truth and Love to artless listeners and dull [1] disciples. His immortal words were articulated in a decaying language, and then left to the providence of God. Christian Science was to interpret them; and woman, “last at the cross,” was to awaken the dull senses, [5] intoxicated with pleasure or pain, to the infinite meaning of those words. Past, present, future, will show the word and might of Truth—healing the sick and reclaiming the sinner— so long as there remains a claim of error for Truth to [10] deny or to destroy. Love's labors are not lost. The five personal senses, that grasp neither the meaning nor the magnitude of self-abnegation, may lose sight thereof; but Science voices unselfish love, unfolds infinite good, parody on Tennyson's grand verse, it would read [5] thus:— Traitors to right of them, M. D.'s to left of them, Priestcraft in front of them, Volleyed and thundered! [10] Into the jaws of hate, Out through the door of Love, On to the blest above, Marched the one hundred. |
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