Sunday Services on July Fourth
Extempore Remarks
The great theme so deeply and solemnly expounded
by the preacher, has been exemplified in all ages, but
chiefly in the great crises of nations or of the human race.
It is then that supreme devotion to Principle has espe-
cially been called for and manifested. It is then that we [10]
learn a little more of the nothingness of evil, and more
of the divine energies of good, and strive valiantly for the
liberty of the sons of God.
The day we celebrate reminds us of the heroes and
heroines who counted not their own lives dear to them, [15]
when they sought the New England shores, not as the
flying nor as conquerors, but, steadfast in faith and love,
to build upon the rock of Christ, the true idea of God—
the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.
When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth [20]
Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted
away in the fire of love which came down from heaven.
The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom,
in the rights of conscience.
But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? [25]
Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and
responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve
them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith
we are armored?
Never was there a more solemn and imperious call [1]
than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent de-
votion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and
holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great
battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil [5]
are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the
Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and opera-
tive in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate
malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action
against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and [10]
they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-
bearers.
What will you do about it? Will you be equally in
earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid
zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will [15]
you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great
work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science
which are necessary to the salvation of the world from
error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practi-
cally, and answer aright! [20]