“Put an end to falsities,” “challenge universal indifference,” bear witness to “the Christ mode of understanding Life,” and “proclaim Truth so winningly that an honest, fervid affection for the race is found adequate for the emancipation of the race.” These are just part of Mary Baker Eddy’s directives to the Board of Lectureship in her letter published in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. (See the full letter on pages 248 and 249.)
In the last few months we’ve received some wonderful reports of healing during lectures. Healings of a back injury, double vision, warts, a paralyzed leg, a lump in the breast, and blindness are among them. One person wrote that for the first time in almost 20 years she felt the presence of God. Another said she’d been struggling to feel God’s love for a long time, and now she does. We’ve also heard about healings of financial and employment struggles immediately following a lecture.
Individuals and families have begun coming to church for the first time, and others have returned after many years of having not attended. Members of other faith groups, including clergy, have said that misinformed concepts about Christian Science have been overturned. Soon after hearing a lecture sponsored by a Christian Science college organization (CSO), an assistant chaplain of another denomination shared that she’d helped to correct misconceptions about Christian Science at an interfaith conference when other participants were making untrue statements about it. Medical professionals who’ve attended a lecture have reported that they have been benefited by reading Science and Health. Even folks just within earshot of a lecture, such as prison guards, have asked for the book. One sound technician told a lecturer that he had already read 30 pages of it as he was waiting for people to leave after the lecture.
