CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR
Committee on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland, to call a relief committee representing the whole of the British Isles.
The members of this committee were asked to administer the fund which was originally intended to assist Christian Scientists who had been placed in financial difficulty by the outbreak of the war. There were families where fathers had been called to the colors, leaving wives and children totally unprepared to earn a living. There were men whose business affairs had been wiped out of existence by the declaration of war. There were students, teachers, artists, who found their livelihood taken away, as it were, overnight, because people felt forced to do without the so-called luxuries of life. Many persons found their income stopped or greatly curtailed because they held securities in some of the countries involved in the struggle. In short, there were many cases where Christian Scientists were faced with the problem of demonstrating that supply is invariable and unlimited. To lift the sense of fear for such as these and so enable them to perceive the ever-presence of God's care, was the aim of the War Relief Fund. In proportion as it was seen that the love which prompted the gifts of Christian Scientists to the fund was the real substance of the help extended, fear was cast out, and individuals were able to dispense with further aid from the fund. Not only so but they were put in a position to help others, thus proving again the spiritual fact that “whatever blesses one blesses all” (Science and Health, page 206). A most interesting illustration of this point which occurred in France through the work of a sculptress will be related in more detail in the chapter devoted to that country.
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