The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-23
WILLIAM G. EWING HEARD
HE LECTURES ON CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE AT ENGLISH,S.
He Makes n Strong Plea for the New
Belief-The Bible Is Followed
Closely, He Says.


English's Opera House was well filled
yesterday afternoon with people. who were
there to hear William G. Ewing, of Chi
cago. speak on the subject of Christian
Science" His manner was impressive and
he undoubtedly convinced every one In his
audience of his sincere belief in the doc
trine, If he did not convert them to his
views. He started out by commenting on
the old-time belief that what the father
believed should also be the belief Of the
son, and said, in part:
''You must get rid of the opinions of your
your own. Nowadays no one thinks it
strange that you may diner from your
fathers. No one thinks you are lacking In
the sense of appreciation OF your fathers
respecting these things. Ii is now as IL
was years ago, when people thought that a
child must think of religion and God as his
fathers God and religion, or not think at
ALL am sure no one here would think for
moment of going back to live as our
fathers did several generations ago, and is
there not in this thought for us, and may
we not learn here to-day that man can only
be happy when he has the best tnere is.
And why should we not have the best of
eternity? Our fathers entertained great
many views that not a man or woman In
this house to-day could indulge in with
out losing respect for the opinions or their
fathers and their fathers religion. Our
fathers had some strange opinions OF the
rights of men. Not our fathers before the
flood, nor before the revolution, but our
immediate fathers, within the recollection
of many here, who believed that they had
the word of God and that one man had
the right to own another man; that one
man should have the right to determine
when he should think or whether he should
think at ALL And for no higher reason
than that one mans back was black and
the other white.
RIGHTS OF WOMEN.
sour fathers had some strange ideas
about the rights of women. About the
most striking was that women had no
rights at all. For centuries our fathers
lived, and without complaining, under the
old common law of England, law which
in many respects was the best law that
the world ever knew. The only legal right
that was granted any married woman in
England or in America was the right to
the undivided love of her husband, and If
England's historians are to be believed
most of them got swindled out or that.
During this time no married woman owned
even the strings that tied her shoes. With
In my recollection, in the State OF Illinois,
where lived and practiced, when sweet
girl became a sweeter wife. just that mo-
ment, under the law OF our fathers, that
ed to your fathers for this change which
has come. You are indebted TO the men
who have lived in the last half of the
grandest century the world has ever
known. 1t is by reason of the greater light
In which we live that / believe We may.
without pride and vain display, think We
are better able to judge to-day. notwith-
standing all the experience OF our fathers
in the light in which they lived, than they
If our fathers were mistaken about the
rights of men and women and so many
ia ~ 90 nnxr NJ
them that they may have been laboring
in some degree of error in their thoughts
Of God? However that may be. you must
be impressed with the thought that you
to be held responsible by what you
think and do and not by what your fathers
did. There are great many principles,
Christian principles, concerning which you
of the old churches and the scientists are
In perfect accord.
''You will do what you can to abate dis
tress and to sweeten and purify the home,
and so will we. You believe the Bible Is
the divine revelation of God to man. So
do we. You believe I'm the great COM
mandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all they heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy might. and the sec
neighbor as thy SELF and so do we. And
so you see the old churches and the Chris
tan Scientists are in perfect accord con-
corning all the essential requirements OF a
Christian religion. And is this not suf-
ficient that we should not antagonize each
other?
REVEALED TO THE WORLD.
christian Science was revealed to the
world about thirty years ago by Mary Ba-
ker Eddy She has said time and again
that in her search for the truth which she
has given to the world, in her whole labor
of thirty years in that great work she took
the Bible as her only guide and God as her
>v,1xv oil 1x< ~c11 NOT
set out any of the principles of Christian
Science which one of you may not find In
the Bible. There is no new Bible. and no
construction of the old one. 1t proclafms
no new divinity and no new God. Only the
same God our fathers worshiped. Indeed,
my friends, the very substratum OF Chris
tian Science, its inward principles. is the
declaration that God is all In ALL and this.
/ venture to say. no believer in God will
presume to question. Logically you are
placed in a position where you have either
to declare that God is not all. or you must
admit the theology and divinity of Chris
tan Science. Now, l think the objection
that most of you have is this. and II is
urged very largely by our friends In the
old churches, that it is gross impiety In
any one to assume and declare to the world
that he is clothed with the power of God
to heal the sick The great strength of its
weakness is that there is nothing to hurl ii
against. There is no Christian Scientist
such power. l do not believe that in all
the early years any man has ever been
clothed with the power Of God, and L am
sure no one will ever be clothed with the
power of the majestic God. Just what is
claimed was claimed 1900 years ago. and
that is the power of God to do anything.
Jesus said to the disciples: 1.-THE power is
not Mine, but of the Father working
through Me- Their claim is simply this
that the same loving God that sent His
Son into the world to suffer that men might
know God is our God to-day, the same
yesterday, to-day and forever.
THE SAME AS OF OLD.
eff 1t was the power of God that healed
the sick, and God is as powerful to-day as
ever. is there anything strange in the fact
that the lame do walk to-day, and the
blind do see. as 1900 years ago? Would II
not be rather strange, IL God has not
changed, that some of the miracles OF those
days were not reported to-day? Would IL
not seem strange indeed, if Gods power is
as great now, that he should not point the
road as did Jesus 900 years ago? 1t seems
strange to me that old churches should be
troubled because some lame men should
walk and some blind men see, in a way
not put down In their theology The old
churches say they believe in the power OF
God, but they do not trust ii and practice
1t. The fact is, there never was and Is
not on the face of the earth to-day a
Christian religious organization that die
| not and does not teach that God has the