After the loss of our late lamented pastor, Rev. D.A.  Easton, the church services were maintained by excellent sermons from the editor of the Christian Science Journal (who, with his better half, is a very whole man), together with the Sunday school giving this flock “drink from the river of His pleasures.”  Oh, glorious hope, and blessed assurance, “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”  Christians rejoice in secret, they have a bounty hidden from the world.  Self-forgetfulness, purity, and love are treasures untold—­constant prayers, prophecies, and anointings.  Practice, not profession,—­goodness, not doctrines,—­spiritual understanding, not mere belief, gain the ear and right hand of Omnipotence, and call down blessings infinite.  Faith without works is dead.  The foundation of enlightened faith is Christ’s teachings and practice.  It was our Master’s self-immolation, his life-giving love, healing both mind and body, that raised the deadened conscience, paralyzed by inactive faith, to a quickened sense of mortal’s necessities,—­and God’s power and purpose to supply them.  It was, in the words of the Psalmist, He “who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.”

Rome’s fallen fanes and silent Aventine is glory’s tomb; her pomp and power lie low in dust.  Our land, more favored, had its Pilgrim Fathers.  On shores of solitude at Plymouth Rock, they planted a nation’s heart,—­the rights of conscience, imperishable glory.  No dream of avarice or ambition broke their exalted purpose, theirs was the wish to reign in hope’s reality—­the realm of Love.

Christian Scientists, you have planted your standard on the Rock of Christ, the true, the spiritual idea,—­the chief corner-stone in the house of our God.  And our Master said:  “The stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner.”  If you are less appreciated to-day than your forefathers, wait—­for if you are as devout as they and more scientific, as progress certainly demands, your plant is immortal.  Let us rejoice that chill vicissitudes have not withheld the timely shelter of this house, which descended like day spring from on high.

Divine Presence, breathe Thou thy blessing on every heart in this house.  Speak out, oh, soul!  This is the new-born of Spirit, this is His redeemed, this, His beloved.  May the Kingdom of God within you—­with you alway—­re-ascending, bear you outward, upward, Heavenward.  May the sweet song of silver-throated singers, making melody more real, and the organ’s voice as the sound of many waters, and the Word spoken in this sacred Temple dedicated to the ever-present God—­mingle with the joy of angels and rehearse your heart’s holy intents.  May all whose means, energies, and prayers helped erect the Mother Church, find within it home, and Heaven.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXT-BOOK.

The following selections from SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, pages 560-563, were read from the platform.  The impressive stillness of the audience indicated close attention.