Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/41

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NOW AND THEN
13

do, they insist upon doing now. They speculate neither on the past, present, nor future, but, taking no thought for the morrow, act in God's time.

A book by Benjamin Wills Newton, called “Thoughts on the Apocalypse,” published in London, England, in 1853, was presented to me in 1903 by Mr. Marcus Holmes. This was the first that I had even heard of it. When scanning its interesting pages, my attention was arrested by the following: “The church at Jerusalem, like a sun in the centre of its system, had other churches, like so many planets, revolving around it. It was strictly a mother and a ruling church.” According to his description, the church of Jerusalem seems to prefigure The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

I understand that the members of The Mother Church, out of loving hearts, pledged to this church in Boston any part of two millions of money with which to build an ample temple dedicate to God, to Him “who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's,” — to build a temple the spiritual spire of which will reach the stars with divine overtures, holy harmony, reverberating through all cycles of systems and spheres.

Because Christian Scientists virtually pledged this munificent sum not only to my church but to Him who returns it unto them after many days, their loving giving has been blessed. It has crystallized into a foundation for our temple, and it will continue to “prosper in the