TO every student of Christian Science the season of the Annual Meeting may well be a period in which to measure prayerfully his love and gratitude for our great Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who brought to mankind the pure Science of Christianity, the light of Christ, Truth, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).
The Mother Church and its branches are engaged in a great crusade, an inspired and inspiring activity, the purpose of which is indicated by our Leader as follows (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 226): "The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of this new crusade sounded the keynote of universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ's divine Science."
The word "crusade" basically means "to take the cross," and it is generally regarded as signifying any remedial activity undertaken with great zeal and enthusiasm. At the Annual Meeting season, every Christian Scientist may well ask himself: Have I taken up the cross? That is, Am I meeting and accepting the challenge of the world's ills and helping others to do so? Am I proving myself to be a loyal and active worker in the rich harvest field of Science? And am I doing this daily with zeal and enthusiasm?
