Among the hundreds of thousands who have found the "philosopher's stone" in Mrs. Eddy's little book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," I am one, and like the leper I come back to give thanks, honor to whom honor is due. I used to read the fifth verse of the first chapter of James and wonder at it. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that give to all men liberally, and upbraid not; and it shall be given him." Finally I accepted that little verse at full value and found that as a man trusts and proves himself worthy of wisdom he will "receive in the same degree." It is a fact that "no true prayer remains unanswered, for God to whom it is addressed is the one who inspired it." But to pray a true prayer one must first discard all other gods and become trustful as a little child. Thus praying to the almighty, all-loving God, prayer will be answered. We should pray in the same spirit that a little child asks its mother for bread and milk, knowing that it will receive because it is within its right; that the mother gives for love, and so does our Father-Mother God give to those who love and trust Him, and that, as Jesus said, "your Father know what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."
I prayed in the spirit of a child, and wisdom said to me as it did to Abraham Lincoln, When you find a church that accepts Christ's undivided garment, that garment for which theology has been casting lots for so many hundred years, cling fast to her, for she has the truth and will lift you up. Twelve years ago, when I walked into the little granite church on Norway and Falmouth Streets, I felt that wisdom had led me aright, and now I have no doubt. Christian Science has wiped the dust from my eyes. It has baked the meal that Christ leavened, and given to the tired, hungry world the bread that come down from heaven,— the bread of Love. It stands for the day-dawn of heaven, and interprets the most beautiful and perfect idea ever expressed, "God is love," so that all who would be true can understand, and be filled with that Mind which was also in Christ Jesus. I have read and pondered "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" alone in the mountains of Alaska, far away from the petty and false ways of modern civilization; alone in the fever-stricken "low veldt" of South Africa, with the lions roaring around my camp-fire, and not one flaw have I found in the Principle which it interprets It is as true as the compass, and has searched out and destroyed many faults in myself, and I have put it to heartbreaking and fierce tests in the life of a prospector in the out-of-the-way places of the earth. Science and Health is without doubt the key to "The Good Book" which contains the true philosophy of life, in which is written, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Said Livingston to the young men of the University of Edinburgh, on his return from Africa, "Always remember, no matter where you go, even unto the ends of the earth, there God is also."
Christian Science is to this material age like water found in the midst of the desert. It broke into my life like a sunburst on a dark and dreary day. Although I have let the clouds come up, and fierce storms brew and break, nevertheless it has been my guardian angel through dangers and hardships, through sickness and sin, and has taught me to put my trust in God, to love my fellow-men, to keep the Ten Commandments, and to be happy. It has enabled me to understand that "it is the spirit that quick; the flesh profit nothing;" that in God "we live, and move, and have our being." God is all, and although He moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform, He still rules, and with a balance so just that a sunbeam will tip it up and down. Truth, the great righter of human wrong, stands watching, weighing, and waiting, while time goes rolling down towards that sublime age of the brotherhood of man when hate is gone out of the hearts of men, and Love alone is king. When that day dawns, the day of which the wise and lovable Lincoln spoke in his Philadelphia speech, when he said, "Happy day; Mind shall live and move, the monarch of the world," then Christian Science will have done its perfect work and the promise of the Master will be fulfilled, "On earth peace, good will toward men," and he will have drawn all men to him. Then will our Leader hold her rightful place in the hearts of men and be found sitting humbly and lovingly at the feet of Christ, honored by all for her faithful service in restoring to the world the undivided garment of Truth.
