Communion Of Christian Scientists

Sunday was an unusual day for Christian Scientists, and as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in this city is the Mother Church, the building at the corner of Falmouth and Norway Streets was the centre of attraction for believers in this faith from all over the country. At both morning and afternoon services the capacity of the church was tested to the utmost. Every seat was filled, and in addition to the eleven hundred people thus provided for, there were about five hundred others at each service who stood at the rear and sides of the auditorium, or beside the bounteous display of potted palms, hydrangeas, and pinks which surrounded the platform and reading desks. The reason for the unusual gathering was that the day was being observed as the semi-annual communion, the other similar service of the year coming on the first Sunday in December. Great numbers of non-resident Christian Scientists make a point of being members in the Mother Church, and many come to this city from all over the country to attend these semi-annual communion services. The membership of this Boston church, as announced yesterday, is now about eleven thousand three hundred, and over thirteen hundred new members were received at this communion. For the benefit of the nonresident members, those from this city and vicinity remained away from the morning service and attended in the afternoon; so that in the morning congregation were members from New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and from almost every state, as well as one lady from Florence, Italy.

The first part of the service, as usual, consisted of Scripture reading from Genesis, 1: 26, 27; Proverbs, 8: 22—30; the Lesson-Sermon consisted of John, 14: 1—11, with correlative passages from the Christian Science text-book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy. The lesson was specially chosen for the day. The Scripture was read by Judge S. J. Hanna, the First Reader, while Mrs. Eldora O. Gragg, Second Reader, read the passages from the text-book. This reading closed with this definition of the Christian Scientists’ communion from the Christian Science text-book:—

“This spiritual meeting with our Lord, in the dawn of a new light, is the morning meal which Christian Scientists commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to receive more of his re-appearing and silently commune with the divine Principle thereof. They celebrate their Lord’s victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight. Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our church is built on the divine Principle of Christian Science. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life, by bringing forth the fruits of Love,—casting out error and healing the sick. Our eucharist is spiritual communion with the one God. Our bread ‘which cometh down from Heaven,’ is Truth. Our cup is the cross, our wine the inspiration of Love,—the draught our Master drank, and commended to his followers.”

The tenets of the Christian Science faith were also read. Miss S. Marcia Craft then sang a communion hymn, written by Mrs. Eddy and set to music by William L. Johnson.

At this point, where the usual service would have ended, the First Reader of the Church stepped forward with a message or letter from the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. This message was entitled, “Not Pantheism, but Christian Science,” and was in the main a demonstration that the followers of Christian Science are believers in but one God, recognizing Spirit or Immortal Mind as supreme, as against the belief that mind “sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the animal, and wakes in man.” The message closed with a reference to the present state of war in which the country is involved, in which Mrs. Eddy counselled her followers to pray for the prosperity of the country, that justice, mercy, and peace should continue to characterize the Government, and expressed the hope that the Divine Presence might still guide and bless the President and Congress, and give them wisdom and uphold them with the right arm of his righteousness. The hope was also voiced that divine love might succor and protect the soldiers of the country, whether in camp or in battle, as it did at Manila, when brave men, led by the hero Dewey, and shielded by the power that saved them, sailed through the jaws of death and blotted out the Spanish squadron.

After the reading of this message came the actual service of communion, in which the members of the congregation knelt for a period of silent consecration. The repetition of the Lord’s Prayer ended this part of the service.

The afternoon service, at three, was the same as that of the morning.

Boston Evening Transcript, June 12, 1898.