Lectures on Christian Science
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LECTURES ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE by PETER V. ROSS Privately Printed by Plainfield Christian Science Church Independent P.O. Box 5619 905 Prospect Avenue Plainfield, NJ 07061-5619 Telephone: 908-756-4669 www.plainfieldcs.com CONTENTS A Foreword About Lecturing .......................................... 1 Promotion of Lectures ................................................... 10 LIST OF LECTURES The Divine Immanence ................................................... 16 The Destiny of Man ........................................................ 35 The Operation of Divine Law in Human Affairs ............ 52 The Purpose and Method of Christian Science ............... 71 An Outline of Christian Science ..................................... 91 Christian Science: What It Is and How It works .......... 108 Assurance to a Troubled World .................................... 129 Power of Endless Life ................................................... 145 The Cornerstone of Christian Science Practice ............ 162 The Promise of a Better World ..................................... 171 A Challenge to the Wrong Thinking of the Ages ......... 187 The Answer to Human Problems .................................. 205 The Challenge to Defeatism ................................... 223 The Unfallen Man ......................................................... 241 ADDENDA Legality of Christian Science Practice .......................... 251 Platform Attire .............................................................. 281 A Closing Word about Lectures ................................... 286 i [Picture of Peter V. Ross here] ii A FOREWORD ABOUT LECTURING Vividly comes to recollection, after the lapse of nearly two score years, the first Christian Science lecture I attended — the building, an old stone synagogue at Post and Taylor Streets in San Francisco; the people, eagerly streaming into the edifice and filling it to the last seat; the speaker, a woman of pleasing dignity, at home on the platform and in her lines. About the middle of the discourse she announced, “If you get what I say during the next ten minutes, you will know what a Christian Science treatment is.” Immediately were the people at attention, because, it is safe to assume, everyone present had heard, perhaps experienced that sickness succumbs to Christian Science treatment; that frustration flees before it, in a word, that Christian Science, understood and utilized, puts the struggling individual on his feet and enables him better to play the part of a man. Naturally everybody in the audience desired to comprehend the process. Well, it must be that I did not get what she said, because I knew little if any more about a treatment when the hour was over than when it began. This does not argue my total unfamiliarity with the procedure, for, months before, on my introduction to Christian Science, I had 1 begun at once to put it into practice and am still with the adventure. The night before the disastrous earthquake and fire in San Francisco I attended another Science lecture. The introducer put in most of his time introducing himself. The lecturer dwelt on the two stories of creation recounted in Genesis. Little was developed, probably, that was not already understood and accepted by those present. Certainly people went away with squared shoulders and beaming faces. They had imbibed the atmosphere of buoyancy and comfort generated from the sum total of their fervent expectations. Always has it been the case that when two or three are gathered in His name healing results. Six months rolled by. A Science lecture to be delivered by a former lawyer was advertised. Now, thought I, comes the opportunity. Here will be a logical and clarifying exposition. The speaker told a few excruciatingly funny stories. Some of them are with me yet. He painted a graphic picture of what an important role Christian Science is playing in the amelioration of human suffering. There were those in the audience who wondered why these men and women, supposedly selected for their ability to expound Christian Science, did not devote their effort to telling what this Science is and how it can be put to work. Finally came a symposium of clergymen called to present the modern idea of God. Most of the arguments were impressive, one of them was particularly so. The next day found me working out a lecture on Christian Science. It was the first one in this book — The Divine Immanence, by name. I discovered that presenting this subject in a way which will really put it across is no easy 2 task. It becomes easy, if ever, only with full under- standing of this Science and wide experience in its practice, supplemented by facility in oral and written expression. The paper finished, I put it aside. There was nothing that could be done with it. This was in the autumn of 1915. Christian Science Committees on Publication, from the various parts of the world, annually assemble at The Mother Church in Boston to confer on official matters. While attending the conference held in October, 1918, I slipped my lecture to one of the Church Directors as we chatted in his office, not telling him what it was. He read it that night. I know, because his wife, who chanced to meet me on a west-bound train the next day, related one of my stories set forth in the document. Over three years thereafter, early in March, 1922, to be exact, a telegram came from the Board of Directors, asking me to come to Boston without delay, prepared to rehearse my lecture. A train is not the best place to practice public speaking. I well recall, for example, a brakeman catching me at work from the rear platform and ordering me inside in behalf of personal security. Arriving in Boston Saturday, I at once sought out a school of expression or oratory. There were three in the directory. For some reason the Curry School at Copley Square attracted me. A young man there took me in charge and gave me a thorough going over for an hour or so. The next day, Sunday, he worked with me another hour, and Monday morning still another. An ideal instructor, perfectly fitted for the task, he handled me about as roughly as I could stand. But I took it and profited immensely. Dr. Curry’s last book is one of the best of the many works on public speaking. He continually 3 emphasizes the necessity for the development of the interiors of the speaker. With it comes pretty much everything necessary to a pleasing platform production. In other words there must be an aroused man first, last, and all the time if the audience is to get anything worth while. An awakening of the whole nature is requisite. “True work in expression must necessarily be associated with a discovery of one’s self.” He states, if I remember accurately, that the reading of poetry is one way to develop the learner’s latencies. Be that as it may, I kept up my practice, formed long before, of reading verse, aloud as opportunity presented. No doubt this habit has influenced me tremendously in the right direction. The Directors, as they looked me over, appeared none too enthusiastic. However, they presently handed me my portfolio. Indeed they had no choice. There was a vacancy. They could find no one to fill it. A schedule of lectures had to be carried out. Returning to San Francisco, I set my affairs in order and made ready for the road. My first appearance was in the Orpheum Theater in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1922. When the manager of the house saw the people pouring in, he sought out the lecture committee and demanded thirty dollars additional rental. He got it, too. Hardly an unfavorable omen, you will admit. From Harrisburg my journey led me westward, with lectures here and there on the way. In Berkeley, California, a letter forwarded by the Directors overtook me. It had been written to them by a lady in Texas who had heard my discourse. She was very much to the point, stating, in effect, “Mr. Ross may be suitable for some lines of Science work, but he will never do as a lecturer. The people go to sleep on him.” 4 This good woman never dreamed that her letter would be called to my attention, nor did she imagine how stimulating would be her frank opinion. From that time on when anybody voiced something commendable about my work, her criticism came to mind. She would not have written as she did if there were not substantial foundation. Probably her opinion was a composite of the opinions of her friends. Exaggeration, you may say. True, but every interesting writer or talker exaggerates. No one has a right, you know, to be dull or tedious. So it was that the struggle for self-improvement became a fixed habit and continued to the night of my last lecture twenty years afterward in Miami. In San Fran• cisco Ella Atkinson Putnam frequently coached me; in Los Angeles Theodore Bergey, formerly of Chicago, put me through the paces from time to time. Both of them accomplished wonders in getting my voice out of the throat. My most merciless instructor was a record of a broadcast of my lecture made by a New Yorker. Three or four sentences were enough to take at a time. Nobody suspects how bad his voice is until the phonograph tells on him. No critic like a mechanical critic, so ruthlessly searching and accurate is it. You cannot accuse it of bias or prejudice. You know it is telling the awful truth. Trips abroad furnished a continuous inspiration from the polished diction and mellowed tones of the foreigner. My fundamental mistake lay in assuming, from what the Directors told me and from the general practice of Science lecturers, that a lecture must be committed to memory and recited verbatim. Now a speech, as everybody should know by this time, cannot be delivered 5 effectively in that way. It must be done extemporane- ously. Then the words are charged with thought, because one cannot step out in front of an audience, knowing only in a general way what he will say, and get away with the adventure without doing some fast thinking.