Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-11
TELLS PRINCIPLE OF
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
BICKNELL YOUNG ADDRESSES
THOUSANDS
Beautiful Shrine Auditorium Thronged
by Large Crowd of Interested
Listeners, Who Hear Flo.
quent Speaker

A magnificent audience assembled at
Shrine auditorium yesterday afternoon
to hear Bicknell Young, C. s. B., of
Chicago. explain the principle and
practice of Christian Science. Mr..
Young was introduced by G. NJ. Giffen,
first reader Second Church Of Christ,
Scientist, under whose auspices the
lecture was given. Mr.. Young spoke
in part as follows:
Christian Science attracts attention
primarily because of its practical value.
The manifold benefits accruing from a
knowledge of its teachings are more or
less known and acknowledged. That it
has healed many cases of disease, uni
versally considered to be incurable by
other systems of healing. that 1t i'm
proves people morally and spiritually
while healing them physically. and
that IL has reformed thousands of sim
ners and drunken and debauched reo-
pie and made them useful Christian
men and women, are facts generally
conceded and easily verified. When to
these are added the further facts that
Christian Science employees one and the
same method for both regeneration and
healing and that both are accomplished
without the use of any drugs or other
material remedies and without manipu-
lation or physical contact of any kind.
the investigator, accustomed as he is
to associate the word science In heal
ing the sick with the use of material
remedies and regeneration with mere
belief in God, begins to wonder how
Christian Science can be tustinably so
called and how It accomplishes all the
good works with which 1t Is truly ac-
credited.
Basis Of Practice
That human thought has not always
been correct in foundation is self-evi-
dent when we remember that there are
many contradictory opinions and beliefs
concerning God, some of them unrea-
sonable, unnatural and even grotesque.
II the right idea is to be gained. wrong
beliefs must be put aside. Christian
Science gives definitions of God which
are found to be universally acceptable
and satisfying to human reason. 1t
declares that God, as Cause and Gre
ator, must be infinite Intelligence, and
it makes this fact clear to us and avail
able through the use of the word Mind
as a synonym for the word God. 1t
declares that God is Mind and that
Mind is God. 1t never confuses the
use Of the word Mind In this relation
ship, however, with what is ordinarily
called a mortals mind, supposedly de-
pendent upon matter or brain for In
telligence, but on the contrary, uses 1t
always in the divine sense. The thought
of God as humanity personal has made
His omnipresence seem impossible, but
when we understand that He is Mind,
His omnipresence is natural, reason
able, and real to US. In fact, 1t Is clear
that this constitutes the actually of
all true existence. Christian Science
therefore, in this process Of correcting
human beliefs and opinions, and CIV
ing a scientific basis for religion, takes
away the old personal thought con-
corning God and establishes a. better
one.
Accounts for EVIL
Admitting as all Christians do, at
least ostensibly. that the Ten Com
mandments originate in God, is 1t not
inevitable to conclude that they ex-
press truth of science? Practically the
first of them, ''Thou shalt have no 9TH
err gods before me-" is all-inclusive. 1t
comedies with the omnipotence, omni-
science and omnipresence of God, that
is. the all power, all knowledge. and
ali presence of God or Good. 1t clearly
means that there is no power, knowl-
edge. or presence to evil. The average
human being, however, who believes
that evil is sure to happen and that 1t
Is Iar more pOWcIlul tudh 6OOu, iiiido
that the statements of the all power,
knowledge, and presence Of God seem
at variance with actual experience. Yet
he is forced to admit that to acknowl-
edge God as the sole Cause and Gre
ator Is to conclude that there is only
one power, God, Good, and that to adj
NIT any other is to break the first COM
mandment Christian Science recon-
Giles the average Christian to these
statements and others which he has
said he believed and enables him to
actually believe them. 1t shows that
the first commandment, ever declaring
the one God, declares the one way of
science.
Assembling sin, sickness and death to
God has never accounted for them. On
the contrary, it has tended to perpet-
nate them, and to cause fear and help
Iessness. Christian Science ever strict
Iv demands that the basis or Principle
Of ali being shall be continually recog-
nized. and shows that at first the be-
ginner does not need to fasten his
thought upon evil and endeavor to ac-
count for it. He has never been able
to do SO by any theories or thoughts
which have come to him from ordi-