Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. II. Cor, vi: 17, 18.
Has the time come for Christian Scientists to withdraw from the older churches, and to gather into Communions of their own? It would seem so. The logic of events unmistakably points in that direction. The fact that now in about two hundred communities they have either formed churches of their own, or have gathered in little groups to study the Sunday-School lessons of the Quarterlies issued by the Christian Science Publishing Society, surely warrants such a conclusion.
When it is considered, as it ought to be, that the assembling of these groups to study the lesson by themselves means preparation for the time when they shall have churches of their own; also, when it is borne in mind that many of these people do not attend any service whatever in the older churches, have in fact withdrawn from them, and are earnestly inquiring how they shall proceed to form Communions of their own, we are brought face to face with the full significance of our present position. Then, too, there is the call for pastors to feed and guide them; above all, there is the great solicitude of our teacher and guide that capable, honest, experienced pastors may be secured for these rapidly increasing churches. Certainly these things show the great need of the hour; and I am not anticipating or forestalling, if I present a few phases of the question for discussion. Not to do so, indeed, would indicate negligence on my part; since, now that the hour has struck, we must he prepared to meet it intelligently, earnestly, With what light can be thrown upon it.
