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T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S And right they are. There are some entire denominations 'which would he shaken with a mighty battle if some general organ or *widely recognized leader should shout Are! The condi tion is tense. The match is plose to the magazine. The official fight is near, or else the big churches must submit to a peaceful conquest under the new theology, give up their higher commis sion, and witness the day when God shall raise up agencies to take their place." Poor Deluded Folks! The Brooklyn Tablet (Roman Catho lic) contained the following query from a poor deluded church member, and the answer given is enough to make an in telligent person weep: Q.— A friend of mine places written petitions on the statue of the Blessed Virgin. This form of devotion does not appeal to me. I should like to know if the Church ever advocated such devotion to Our Lady? A.— There is nothing wrong or superstitious about this practise. It is but a simple manner of expressing our faith and our confidence in the inter cessory power of the- Immaculate Mother of God. It is a childlike and beautiful way to ask Her and by the written word of prayer to obtain from Her Divine Son the favor one needs. Though the Church has never advo cated this as a public devotion, never theless she permits it as a private de votion for those who find in it a suit able and convenient means of praying to Our Blessed Lady. Hence, if one does not care for this method of peti tioning the Queen of Heaven he is in no way obliged to do so. Mark Twain jotted down the many powers which, through The Mother Church Manual, Mrs. Eddy lodged in her own hands. In enumerating them he says: flil Üë AYE! AYE!
“We may now make a final footing- up of Mrs. Eddy, and see what she is, in the fulness of her powers. She is, The Massachusetts Metaphysical Col lege; Pastor Emeritus; President; Board of Directors; Board of Education; Board of Lectureships; Future Board of Trustees; Proprietor of the Publishing House and Periodicals; Treasurer; Clerk; Proprietor of the Teachers; Pro prietor of the Lecturers; Proprietor of the Missionaries; Proprietor of the Readers; Dictator of the Services; sole Voice of the Pulpit; Proprietor of the Sanhedrin; Sole Proprietor of the Creed (Copyrighted); Indisputable Autocrat of the Branch Churches, with their life and death in her hands; Sole Thinker for the First Church (and the others); Sole and Infallible Expounder of Doc trine, in life and in death; Sole Permis sible Discoverer, Denouncer, Judge, and Executioner of Ostensible Hypnotists; ' Fifty-handed God of Excommunication —with a thunderbolt in every hand; Appointer and Installer of the Pastor of all the Churches—The Perpetual Pastor—Universal, Science and Health, ‘the Comforter’. “ There she stands, painted by herself. No witness but herself has been allowed to testify. She stands there painted by her acts and decorated by her words (Christian Science, p. 259f.). “ The prophetic little verse which is printed upon the title page of every edi tion of Science and Health until this dream was realized, is now understood. It reads: I, I, I, I itself, I The inside the outside, the what and the why, The when and the where, the low and the high, All is I, I, I, I itself I. “ Of her newly perfected Mother Church she could truthfully say: ‘All is I, I, I, I itself I.’ ”
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