Dear Readers of the Journal,—You were called upon a little while ago for financial aid. Many of you have responded to our appeal, and it begins to look as though we were going to have a church Edifice, and that at no very distant period. We thank you for what you have done, and wish you would call upon your friends who are interested in Christian Science, to aid us also. You will find us appreciating all you do for us, and it will be to you " bread cast upon the waters," which you will be sure to receive again before many days. Aid with your mite, and with your thousands, if you will. It will be returned to you many times over, a mine of wealth from which you will obtain health, peace and happiness. It is an investment which you do not need to consider. God will be banker in this case, and you will get all.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, during his residence in Paris, was invited to a company of distinguished men who were skeptics. According to their custom, in conversation, Christianity and the Bible were treated with unsparing severity. One of the company attracted universal attention by asserting, with great confidence, that the Bible was not only a piece of gross deception, but totally devoid of literary merit. Benjamin Franklin asked if he might read them a passage from a book he had just bought. They consented. He read Habakkuk 3: 4-6. The few sentences made a deep impression. The admiring listeners pronounced them superior to anything they had heard or read; and that nothing could surpass them in grandeur and sublimity. They all wished to know what was the name of this new work, the name of this new author, and whether this was a specimen of its merits? "Certainly, gentlemen," said Dr. Franklin, smiling at his triumph; "my book is full of such passages; it is no other than your good-for-nothing Bible. I have read to you a short paragraph from the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk."
