Arise take thy journey ...

Front matter

Glass J3Si.'i3-

Book

GoiyrightN" ll6fc.

Contents

Chapter Page

I. City of Truth, . . '. . . -13

II. Appointed Work, . . . . . i8

Preface

The object of this pubUcation is:

I. To announce that the present City of New York is the New Jerusalem of prophecy.

II. To outHne the story of the Appointed Work in its relation to prophecy, and in particular to the revelation of the City of Truth.

III. To illustrate the application of Christian Science to spiritual laws, and Bible sayings.

The abbreviations S. & H., and M. W., throughout the following pages, refer to the volumes Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker G. Eddy.

Acknowledgment is made for assistance rendered in expressing spiritual facts in material language.

The Author.

CITY OF TRUTH. 1 3

Chapter I. City Of Truth

Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. (Zechariah, i:i6.)

And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. (Isaiah, 34:17.)

What is known as the Harlem Line, proclaimed by the Harlem grants and charters, issued by authority of the King of England (1666-1686), recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N. Y., ratified and confirmed by acts of the New York Legislature,^ stretches forth upon the City of New York, from Seventy-fourth Street on the East River, to One Hundred and Twentv-ninth Street on the Hudson.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. (Jeremiah, 30:3.)

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

(Hosea, i:ii.)

The descendants of the original Harlem Patentees have been gathered together, and have appointed themselves One Head.

CITY OF TRUTH. 15

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Breath has come into thousands of descendants of the Harlem Patentees, — their lineage proved; they live and stand '\ip upon their feet," more than forty thousand in all, — ''an exceeding great army."

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (Isaiah, 11:12.)

Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying. We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

The Jewish World estimates that every fourth person in the Borough of Manhattan is a Jew or a Jewess. Few realize that the Jewish tide of immigration for the past quarter of a century has set steadily toward the City of

New York, until to-day nearly seven hundred thousand Jews dwell within its limits; and fewer still appreciate the fact that while these numbers are steadily increasing, the population of Jerusalem, by the official census of 1895, was made up of not more than twenty-five thousand Jews.

Statistics show the incoming to New York of five hundred and sixty-one thousand and seventy Jews between October first, 1884, and July thirty-first, 1902. Of these, four hundred and eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-five permanently settled in the City.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one,

ye children of Israel. (Isaiah, 27:12.)

And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and

1 will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

. . . half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah, 14:2.)

CITY OF TRUTH. 1 7

Is the first City, in the first country of the world, the long-looked-for City of prophecy?

I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. (Ezekiel, 21:27.)

And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola . . . (Judges, 10:1.)

Attention is called in the following pages to the true history of the manner of carrying on the work incident to the recovery of the Harlem rights and properties, under the positive conviction that the City of New York is the prophesied City of Truth, — the New Jerusalem. Let judgment be withheld for a time.

. . . for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:

But if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

arise! take thy journey.

CHAPTER U.

APPOINTED WORK.

A little over two years ago, one of the descendants of the Harlem Patentees, and her attorney, came to New York from Chicago, seeking financial assistance in an effort to recover certain Harlem lands. The claimant had been engaged for several years in the collection of evidence tending to prove her descent, and that of thirty^ nine others, the alleged sole owners of the lands in question.

It was some months before legal investigation of the evidence submitted, and a close scrutiny of the City and State records, disclosed the fact that the early conT ception of the extent of the property involved, and the number of those entitled to an interest therein, had beeii meager in the extreme. It was discovered that the lands sought to be recovered were but a small part of a much larger tract, including extensive, built-up portions of New York City, and that, instead of forty persons, as supposed, the entire number of descendants from twenty-three original Patentees of the year 1666, through both the male and female lines, easily conjectured to be forty thousand in number at the present day, were each and all, as members of a Corporation, vitally interested in the Harlem lands, and entitled to legal notice of every move to be taken in their recovery.

To proceed further in an undertaking, grown in a few short months to* vast proportions; to secure the legal proofs of the lineage of forty thousand living descendants of the Harlem Patentees throughout a period of more than two hundred and fifty years; to supply the time, labor, and funds, necessary to locate each individual of the forty thousand, dispersed over the known world; and, finally, in the face of the Statute of Limitations, to expect the courts to overturn the title to one-half of the City of New York, presented a problem fraught indeed with difficulties; — and yet, from the time when the realization of the immensity of the undertaking had fully dawned, the strangest sense of inward admonition, in the face of overwhelming odds, urged the immediate entrance upon the great work, until, finally, an unaccountable feeling that a wrong must be righted, and that more than personal interests were involved, carried the decision of the question to a higher tribunal.

At the close of an earnest prayer to God for guidance, — for some sign to determine the question cit issue, — in the presence of a witness, after declaration made that the Good Book alone could solve the problem, the answer was found by opening to the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy, at the eleventh verse:

And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.

Born in 1864, and tracing back on the paternal side through Lord Norbury, of Ireland, to the time of William the Conqueror (1066), thence by direct line to the house of Toulouse, of France, and on the maternal side through a line of Revolutionary patriots, including successive Governors of the State of New Jersey, the leader of the enterprise to recover the Harlem rights and properties justly lays^ claim to an illustrious ancestry. Brought up with all that luxury could proffer, successful to a degree in worldly affairs, blessed with a wife, children, and fortune, one feature alone was wanting to fill the cup of earthly happiness, — health ; — the one crowning essential of life had failed, and following this failure came the conviction, evolved by an experience of eight years with medical science, that relief by drugs was not to be expected.

Then it was that an invokmtary transition from things secular to matters reHgious, brought about by the heahng influence of Truth, occurred in a hfe theretofore devoted to worldly ends alone.

At the close of the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, — notwithstanding all the skepticism born of irreligion, and the scoffing at the treatment administered, — health was instantaneously restored.

The explanation of the so-called miracle, while simple in itself, tended to elucidate the healiiigs of Jesus, and the apostles.

Was this force of Spirit, that healed ''congestion of the blood vessels," in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the same power that opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus by the wayside, in the early part of the first century, and caused the cripple to leap for joy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple?

Did Christ's command, Heal the sick ! portend a literal following in his footsteps without recourse to drugs? Are the material laws at last to surrender to the laws of Spirit? Has a legacy slumbered through the centuries, and can the works that Jesus did be accomplished to-day through the understanding of the Principle he lived and demonstrated, as revealed in Christian Science?

22 ARIS^:! TAKE THY JOURNEY.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John, 14:12.)

To learn the application of this newly-discovered force in human affairs became the mainspring of life. An exhaustive study of all literature bearing upon the subject followed, while the teachings of the Bible appeared in a new light. The more this Christ-Science was studied, the more wonderful it grew. That remarkable volume. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the 'little book" of Revelation;

. . . Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey, (Revelation, 10:9.)

literally eaten up by Christian Scientists ; the "Comforter" of prophecy,

. . . whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, (John, 14:26.)

not only opens the door of human knowledge to the hidden sayings, and ''dark sentences" of the Bible, but brings to light

. . . things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world, (Matthew, 13:35.)

among others, that all is Mind and Mind's Idea ; there is no life in matter, and man is immortal, — a mental, not a physical being.

With misgivings at first, the heaUng of simple cases alone was attempted. Within a year, however, many patients daily received treatment, — the healing of all manner of diseases, organic and functional, bearing witness to the astonishing fact that a Principle had been discovered, known to Moses and the prophets, although hidden from the world since the early centuries of the Christian era.

As the understanding of this Christ-Principle developed, the power to reflect Truth increased in proportion, until such diseases as valvular heart trouble, congestion of the lungs, hip disease, chronic stomach troubles, locomotor ataxia, and such habits as drunkenness, and the use of drugs, — one and all yielded to treatment.

Of the many healings effected, two will serve to illustrate this power of divine Mind over matter. The first was a case of water on the knee, where the patient, as the result of an accident, had been lying for ten weeks with the limb greatly swollen, and suffering excruciating pain. Seven physicians had passed judgment on the case, pronouncing it of the most serious nature, some even maintaining that the patient would be a cripple for life. The effect of the first treatment was immediate. In twenty-four hours the swelling had decreased until the limb was almost normal in size. The following day the patient could bend the knee, and on the fifth day after the first treatment all sign of the trouble had disappeared.

The second was a case of Graves disease, deemed by materia medica incurable, that yielded in like manner to the alterative effects of Truth. In three months the trembling of the hands ceased, protruding eyes receded, and other symptoms resulting from what is termed "thyroid poisoning" disappeared, — a complete return to a normal condition of harmony.

This all-powerful influence of Mind, successfully applied in the healing of disease, became as well the prominent feature of control in business matters. Convinced of the truth embraced in Christian Science, its adoption as a religion brought with it from partner and friend of years standing the request for the dissolution of an eminently successful Wall Street firm, necessitating, through ignorance of this new-old religion, the re-establishment of a business career at a time when prejudice was at its height. For two years thereafter, —

-every step g-uided by the power of Life, Truth, and Love, — success was never in doubt. During the period mentioned, an incident occurred on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, worthy of mention as an illustration of the effect of the impersonal power of Truth.

While seated for a few moments during business hours, quietly reflecting divine Love through the channels of thought, a broker in the next seat turned and said: "I have had neuritis in my arm for several days, and it has entirely disappeared while you have been sitting here, — I beheve it is that Science of yours."

While the proofs of the eflicacy of the God-thought were daily in evidence on the New York Stock Exchange, the result of its application to the purchase and sale of securities was particularly prominent on the ninth day of May, 1 90 1, — the date of the greatest panic Wall Street ever experienced.

For months, amid the wildest speculation, stockvalues had been steadily rising, until excitement in financial circles had reached fever-heat. Early on the day mentioned, reaction setting in, and prices beginning to fall, a panic followed. The god of fear turned men to maniacs, and, in the wild scramble to liquidate, confusion Avorse confounded ended in pandemonium. Amid such surroundings, through the realization that "perfect Love casteth out fear," orders for the purchase and sale of more than fifty-six thousand shares of stock, distributed throughout the list, were personally executed under the law of harmony.

This Christ-Principle, appHed to business, and effecting the cures of water on the knee, and Graves disease, was the same Truth that healed the ten lepers nineteen centuries ago, — one only returning to give thanks. Rejected of men in the early part of the first century, and scoffed at to-day by the ''wise and prudent," it nevertheless stands forth revealed and demonstrated, through the teachings of Christian Science, as the second coming of Christ, —

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John, 14:17.)

Without further hesitation, accepting the sign given, in obedience to the command.

I

. . . Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them,

(Deuteronomy, 10:11.)

the great work of the recovery of the Harlem rights and properties was inaugurated.

And after the manner of the coming of the first Bible leading, came the forty-fourth verse of the thirty-second chapter of Jeremiah:

Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord.

At first reading, the words of the reference appeared to be utterly without application to the Town of New Harlem, and its revival into active being; but later, upon reading Dr. Poole's prophetic utterance in Anglo-Israel, that "some of these days" the evidences mentioned would be found, ''to the great confusion of the unbelievers, and the great joy of all Bible students, especially the Anglo-Israelites," the interpretation of the passage became a revelation.

Of the many difiiculties standing in the way of a resurrection of the Town of New Harlem into its ancient rights and properties, under the patents of the King of England of 1666- 1686, and the tracing and locating of forty thousand townspeople, as above described, one of the formidable proved to be the total disappearance from public view of the Harlem Town and Court records. The absence of these records from the public depositories was of more than passing significance to the successful recovery of the Harlem lands and privileges. They contained, among other historical, genealogical, and legal records of the greatest value and importance to the descendants of the Harlem Patentees and the project in hand, all the deeds, mortgages, wills, and other instruments covering the transfers of the various portions of Harlem lands by the freeholders and inhabitants of the Town. Upon the discovery that these ancient and valuable Harlem records were missing, — for years purposely withdrawn from public view, — the hidden meaning of the reference became apparent.

These missing Harlem records would undoubtedly disclose how men had bought "fields for money," and had subscribed and sealed "evidences," and taken "witnesses" to the various transfers of Harlem lands, while the promise of the closing words, "I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord," remains to be fulfilled.

Twelve times the Word came to open the Scriptures and read, — never twice on the same day, — all between the fifteenth day of September, 1901, the date of the inception of the Appointed Work, and the twenty-fifth day of December following.

Oppressed with the weight of the magnitude of the undertaking, and impressed with its consequences to so many thousands of those interested in the lands and properties, in the ordinary routine of business on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the Word came for the third time. Open and read ! Telephoning at once to a Scientist at the office, the request was made to "open the Bible and read the first verse seep," — and the twenty-fifth verse of the twenty-sixth chapter of I. Samuel was read in reply:

Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

This reference was accepted as a divine intimation of the success that would attend the work, and that all obstacles would be finally overcome; and is included among these leadings, although the act of opening the Bible was performed by another.

And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. (I, Samuel, 3:20.)

Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say. Who can stand before the children of Anak!

Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee. (Deuteronomy, 9:1-3.)

Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

These five individual leadings, typifying not only the acquisition, but the permanent occupation of the

Harlem lands, and directing their division by lot, — taken in connection with the inspiration of what had gone before, — led up to the earnest study of Bible prophecies.

The book of Zechariah in particular claimed attention,' and in the second and third chapters, upon reading the passages :

. . . Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein,

. . is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

. . . behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH, (Zechariah, 3:8.)

a strange influence or sensation was experienced. At first, coming in the nature of a hint, — like the nudge of an elbow, — in effect, conveying the thought reduced to words : "You're that young man, — you're the one, — you're the BRANCH," the feeling grew from possibility to probability. Then began a struggle to overcome the indescribable awe accompanying a personal connection with matters of Holy Writ, and the fear attendant upon the assumption of the responsibiUties involved, should the revelation mentioned prove to be true.

A second reading of the lines quoted served only to redouble the energy and force of the feeling described; until, with the deepest veneration, the Bible, as in former like situations, was opened for the word of God upon the subject at the second verse of the sixty-sixth chapter of Isaiah :

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

And again, a few days later, at the thirteenth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy:

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

and finally, at the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh verses of the eleventh chapter of I. Kings :

II

And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.

And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.

If the eleven Bible leadings, coming in the manner described, were of divine origin, but one interpretation was possible, namely, that a chosen one had come for a purpose undisclosed, except in the eleventh divinelyrevealed Scriptual leading, wherein man and purpose are for the first time joined and clearly defined.

In the year 1666 the Duke of York, brother of Charles II., King of England, through Governor Richard Nicolls, issued a grant or charter to the freeholders and inhabitants of Harlem, incorporating the Town of New Harlem as a part or parcel of the greater City of New York, and conveying to the Town, through its Trustees in the charter named, all lands on Manhattan Island north and east of a line stretched by the description of the grant across the City of New York, from Seventy-fourth Street, on the East River, to One hundred and Twenty-ninth Street on the Hudson.

This line, commonly known as the Harlem Line, crossing the city as described, served to divide the lands of the freeholders and inhabitants of Harlem on the east from the lands of the City of New York, and formed, as well, the western boundary of what was known as the sixth or ''out-ward" of the City.

A second grant by the same authority, in 1667, and a third, issued in 1686, by command of the English King, through Governor Thomas Dongan, ratified and confirmed the first.

Between the years 1772 and 1824, the line in question became the subject of Colonial and State legislation. In the first year mentioned, an act of the Colonial Assembly was passed appointing commissioners to "settle and ascertain" the line of division between the Township of Harlem and the lands of the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of New York. On the third of April, 1775, a further act was passed confirming the proceedings of the commissioners, appointed by the preceding act, and settling the line as it runs to-day under the ancient grants and charters above described ;

while in 1820 and 1823, acts of the Legislature of the State of New York, supplementary in nature, were passed in reference to the establishment of the line mentioned. Manifestly, therefore: —

In 1666 the King of England stretched forth a line

over the City of New York.

In 520 B. C, Zechariah the Prophet wrote of the line that should stretch forth upon Jerusalem.

Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. (Zechariah, 1:16.)

Is New York, with its famous Liney the prophesied City of Truth, — the New Jerusalem? Will the City of New York — in the land of Shinar (the land of two rivers, — East and Hudson, — Zechariah, 5:11) — experience in the restoration of the Harlem rights and properties, the overturning predicted by Ezekiel the Prophet ?

I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. (Ezekiel, 21:27.)

Three months had now passed in the work of the recovery of the Harlem lands, and progress made sufficient to disclose the immensity of the undertaking, and to develop a number of seemingly serious obstacles to its successful accomplishment.

Under the principles of the English Common and Statute Laws, adopted by the decisions of the higher American courts, it was discovered that the ancient grants and charters of 1686 formed a Corporation, as above described, known as the Town of New Harlem ; that under these same grants a gigantic Trust was also formulated, — never terminated, — and would never end except, perhaps, by act of the Body-Corporate itself, or by decree of some Court of competent jurisdiction. The Town of New Harlem, therefore, until the happening of such an event, had never been, and would never be, erased from the civic map. The Town-Corporation was the owner of all lands above the Harlem Line not previously legally alienated, and under this principle of law, in the settlement of the Harlem rights and properties, the validity of the titles to one-half of the City of New York would necessarily be called in question.

Under these conditions, and among other essentials of the undertaking, as many as possible of the forty thousand living descendants must first be traced through parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, back to the Patentees of 1666, and the lineage of each recorded, and proved.

An outline of the nature of the Harlem claims must, secondly, be brought to the attention of the descendants, traced as indicated, with legal notice of the steps taken and to be taken in their recovery ; and thirdly, the parties in interest gathered together in a Town meeting, and such meeting held within the limits of the present City of New York itself, before an appeal to the courts could be instituted.

To meet the remarkable exigencies of the situation above described ; to face the odium attaching to the leadership of an enterprise on its face revolutionary in character; to bring to public notice flaws in practically all the titles to lands above Seventy-fourth Street in New York City, — guaranteed by the most wealthy and powerful Trust and Title Companies in the world, — must, perforce, be accomplished by divine help alone.

If the opening of the twentieth century marks the "latter days" of error, and the advent of the New Jerusalem consciousness, or reign of Spirit; if the time is when