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Ernest
Holmes
The First Religious Scientist
Written by James Reid
"There is a power for good in the universe
greater than you are and you can use it."
The
man who first stated that affirmative
belief, choosing those exact words, was speaking to those sharing the
Twentieth Century with him. Because of him, countless others have discovered
and countless millions yet unborn will discover a rewarding awareness
of their infinite potential.
A
lifelong searcher and student himself, he was inspired to write
a book that would become a textbook, a guidebook, for other searchers
and students. His book, The Science of Mind, correlated "the laws
of science, the opinions of philosophy, and the revelations of religion
applied to the needs and the aspirations of humankind." This correlation,
something completely new to the world, was also the beginning of the
Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy, Inc., where
he and others were to teach and inspire. This, in turn, would lead to
the beginning of the Church of Religious Science, later to become the
United Church of Religious Science.
As
he always insisted, he did not legislate any of the laws that
govern the universe, and he did not invent a secret new way by which
humankind can partake of the unlimited good in the universe. He sought
only to explain the infallibility of the laws and express the essence
of the ever-existent way. No one before him had done that. His work
was to make this modest man "a man for the ages" a pioneering
guide to all humankind.
His
name was Ernest Holmes. He was born January 21, 1887, on a small
farm near Lincoln, Maine. His parents, William and Anna Heath Holmes,
had nine sons. The youngest was named after a poetic young preacher
of that area, Rev. Ernest Shurtleff, who later wrote the hymn, "Lead
On, O King Eternal." In the order of their arrival, Ernest Holmes'
older brothers were: Walter, Luther, William, Charles, Harry (who died
in infancy), Fenwick, Guy and Jerome.
He
acquired "the basics" of education in rural schools:
grammar school in Lincoln, and Gould's Academy in Bethel, Maine. He
once said: "I quit school when I was about 15 and didn't go back
except to study public speaking." From 1908 to 1910, working in
a store to pay his way, he attended the Leland Powers School of Expression
in Boston. The rest of his prodigious learning came from an insatiable
search for what would be most meaningful for any man to know. He was
an omnivorous student of and finally an authority on the universal truths
and imperishable ideas manifested through the ages of literature, art,
science, philosophy and religion. He spent a life-time synthesizing
his discoveries. The result: The Science of Mind.
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His
Method of Learning
Asked
about his quitting school at 15,
he said. "I didn't want to be taken care of, so l went to work. What
I have gathered has been from reading, studying and thinking, working,
experiencing. It is a long, laborious, tough method, but it pays off.
I don't believe there is a real other method.
"What
you will really learn in life will be what you tell yourself,
in a language you understand, that you accept...because it is rational
enough to accept, and inspirational enough to listen to with feeling....
"From the beginning I was a non-conformist, asking so many questions
I drove my relatives crazy." (But he never stopped asking, then or later.)
"Fortunately, I was brought up by a mother who refused to have fear
taught in her family. New England, theoretically, was pretty strict;
but she was a wise woman and she determined we should never be taught
there was anything to be afraid of...." Except for that inner drive
to ask questions, he said, "I wasn't strange in any particular way."
He
saw no visions, had no hallucinations. Even at an early age he
started to study Emerson on his own initiative. About Emerson he said:
"Studying Emerson was like drinking water to me. I have studied Emerson
all my life." At the Leland Powers School in Boston, some of his fellow
students were Christian Scientists; an instructor was a reader in the
Mother Church. He became interested in some of their thinking, especially
about the healings they believed possible by those who prayed in a certain
way. If such things were possible to them, he reasoned, such things
must also be possible to others.
Long
afterward, he elaborated
on this reaction: "Anything anyone has ever done, anybody can do; there
can be no secrets in nature. This I have always believed. There is no
special providence, no God who says, 'l am going to tell you what I
didn't tell any others.'"
He
came to California in 1912
on an exploratory visit. Two years before, his brother Fenwick had sought
a warmer climate for reasons of health. He had written Ernest glowing
reports about the Los Angeles suburb of Venice, where he had become
a "home missionary" and built a small, thriving church. Ernest, too,
liked the climate; he liked "helping out" on Sunday in the church, and
he found a job he liked, as purchasing agent for the city of Venice.
What he especially liked about thejob was that it allowed him plenty
of time to study.
He
found Los Angeles an exciting place: a growing city of progressive
people, in a ferment of expanding their horizons, not only physically,
but mentally and spiritually. It was a community of stimulating intellectuals.
Anything anyone might want to study was taught there. He said, many
years later: "I began to read and study everything I could get hold
of - no one thing. I started from the very beginning with the thought
that I didn't want to take one bondage away from myself and create another.
I have always been very careful about that. "We happen to have the most
liberal spiritual Movement the world has ever seen, yet it is tied together
by the authority of the ages and the highlights of the spiritual evolution
of the human race all of which I have become familiar with, over a long
period of time, studying it and thinking about it...."
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How
the Speaking Started
An
engineer who
frequented his purchasing office became curious about the books on philosophy
and metaphysics and assorted other subjects he had around him, and asked
to borrow some of them. After a while, the engineer suggested inviting
a few friends to his house one evening and having Ernest talk to them.
"That was the first talk I ever gave," he later revealed.It led to others,
in the homes of other friends.
One
evening, a lady informed him that she had told the librarian
at the big Metaphysical Library, then at Seventh and Grand, that he
would talk there the following Thursday. "Talk on what?" he asked. Her
answer was: "What you have been talking about to us here. You're better
than any of the people we hear there." He investigated. The hall rented
for $1.00 a class, and the admission price per person was 25 cents.
He decided to talk on Thomas Troward and the Edinburgh Lectures. Enough
people showed up, and stayed, so that he went home with a $5.00 gold
piece, after paying his rental. It was a heady experience The year was
1916.
Within
the next two years
he was speaking to thousands of people a week in Los Angeles. He wondered
how he might fare in other places, and began speaking around the country.
He soon had a national reputation as a man who stimulated others to
think for themselves. Wherever he went, people wanted to hear his message.
They were ready for what he was already embarked upon, the great synthesis
that would result in the book, The Science of Mind. He said later "It's
true that you learn from yourself in doing."
He
decided to halt the long speaking tours,
confine his speaking to the Los Angeles area and concentrate on completion
of the book. The year was 1925. Perhaps because he lacked a formal education,
he never considered himself a professional writer. Yet he wrote prolifically,
and most persuasively, on every subject that deeply interested him.
His first book, published in 1919, bore the title: Creative Mind. Even
that early, he was beginning to find answers to his impelling search.
The Science of Mind was first published in 1926. (His revised edition,
now translated into numerous other languages, including Japanese,was
first issued in 1938.)
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And
the Consciousness Grew
In
1926 he started speaking
each Sunday morning in a theatre in the Ambassador Hotel that seated
625. Within a year, latecomers couldn't get in. The Sunday morning talks
were moved in November 1927, to the Ebell Theatre, which seated 1295.
Within a year, that also, was too small an auditorium.
During
the next few years progressive moves were made - one being to
the beautiful Sala de Oro of the Biltmore Hotel. In 1934 the services
were moved to the large Wiltern Theatre, at Wilshire and Western, with
a seating capacity of more than 2800. There, too, before long, hundreds
were turned away every Sunday.
In
1926, far-sighted friends - important people in Los Angeles -
had begun to urge him to form a corporation and organize for the inevitable
growth of what he was teaching. He said, "No, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to start a new religion or be responsible for it." But
the friends persisted. As he expressed it later: "They argued this was
something they thought valuable, and the greatest thing in the world,
and finally convinced me.
A
Board of Governors
was chosen, and we became incorporated as a non-profit religious and
educational organization--the Institute of Religious Science and School
of Philosophy, Inc, it was called." The incorporation date was February,
1927. Ernest Holmes was 40 years old. The purpose of the Institute was
to furnish instruction not only in the Science of Mind, with Ernest
Holmes' book as the textbook, but also to offer lectures by recognized
authorities on diversified, allied subjects.
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Soul-Searching,
Mind-Searching
Like
the university professors who soon were speaking at this new
center of learning, throngs of students were attracted there by its
climate of soul-searching, as well as mind-searching. Both instructors
and students discovered that this unassuming, self-educated American-born
philosopher, Ernest Holmes, was very practical and highly inspirational.
This discovery was something they wanted to share with others.
In
other ways, also, 1927
was to be a milestone year for both Religious Science and its founder.
Headquarters and offices, including Practitioner offices, as well as
a library and lecture halls, were established at 2511 Wilshire Boulevard.
The
organizing of the Institute led to the launching only a few months
later of a monthly magazine: Religious Science. The Institute was not
yet equipped to enroll all the would-be students who wanted to attend.
The magazine was created in an effort to sustain and build the interest
that the Institute already had generated by word-of-mouth.
In
Vol. I, No.1 of Religious Science, there was this announcement
by Ernest Holmes: "The purpose of this magazine will be to instruct
ethically, morally, and religiously, from a scientific viewpoint of
life and its meaning. "A semi-religious periodical, ethical in its tendency,
moral in tone, philosophical in its viewpoint, it will seek to promote
that universal consciousness of life which binds all together in one
great Whole... "It will also be the purpose of Religious Science to
present to its readers a systematic and comprehensive study of the subtle
powers of mind and spirit, insofar as they are now known; and to show
how such powers may be consciously used for the betterment of the individual
and the race."
Like
so many other ideas
of Ernest Holmes, that first issue contained features that have endured.
One was a meditation for each day of the month; it was a one-line meditation,
at the top of a page, in the first issue. Also, there was a listing
of Religious Science Practitioners. That first issue carried eight names;
one was Anna Holmes, Ernest's mother.
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A
Statement of Purpose
In
October, 1929, the magazine was to acquire a new cover design,
a new makeup inside, and a new name: Science of Mind Magazine. It was
a reflection of the proven appeal of this new teaching, and the book
that explained it.
A
new "Announcement" assured all readers: "As one of many channels
for giving to the world the invaluable truths of Science of Mind, this
magazine will, to the utmost ability of the organization behind it,
serve men and women everywhere; seeking to help them realize their greatest
good, not alone in a far-distant future, but Here and Now."
The
magazine recently celebrated its 70th birthday, a milestone achieved
not by a limited circulation among like-minded religionists. From the
beginning, it has been sent out into the marketplace by those confident
of its appeal to anyone willing to listen.
Today
it has a
world-wide circulation. Each issue is read by tens of thousands. But
let us return, for a moment, to 1927, lest we forget another event that
made that a special year for Ernest Holmes. On October 23, 1927, in
Los Angeles, he was married to widowed Hazel Durkee Foster. They were
to be inseparable companions for thirty years.
On
April 16, 1935,
the organization founded by Ernest Holmes was reincorporated as the
Institute of Religious Science and Philosophy. On August 1, 1935, the
Institute, having outgrown its quarters on Wilshire at the corner of
Carondelet Street, moved to 3251 West Sixth Street. A new home office
building, named The Holmes Center, was completed on this site in 1990.
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Recognized
the World Over
In
1945, in
recognition of his book, This Thing Called Life, Ernest Holmes was awarded
the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by India's famed Andhra
Research University. Among several other honorary degrees bestowed on
him in recognition of his writings and his work were L.H.D. in 1945
from what is now the California College of Medicine, University of California
at Irvine, and Litt. D. in 1949 from the Foundation Academic University
of Spiritual Understanding, Venice, Italy.
Even
earlier, in 1942, he was named Commander of the Cross by the
Association of the Humanitarian Grand Prize of Belgium, and in 1944
he was named honorary member of the Eugene Field Society, a national
group of authors and journalists.
In
1949, he began a popular radio program at 4 p.m. each Sunday
on the Mutual network. It too, was titled: "This Thing Called Life."
Each Sunday hisng words were: "There is a power for good in the
universe greater than you are and you can use it." Millions heard him;
millions heeded him.
The
growth of the Institute and the number
of its graduates; the demand for edition after edition of Emest Holmes'
book, The Science of Mind; the constantly increasing readership of Science
of Mind Magazine; the response to his radio program; and the interest
shown in talks on Science of Mind by other speakers, wherever they appeared,
all led to a change of name for the nonprofit religious and educational
corporation, Institute of Religious Science. On January 4, 1954, it
became, officially, the Church of Religious Science.
By
then, even Ernest Holmes
was convinced that the world wanted such a church. As he expressed it
later: "I finally came to see that all this had to be organized so it
wouldn't fall apart. And we have a wonderful, democratic, responsible
organization, governed by a Board made up of laymen as well as Ministers."
In 1956 a special bequest made possible a half-hour TV program, "This
Thing Called Life," once a week for 26 weeks, with Ernest Holmes visible,
as well as audible, to still another fascinated audience. For the greater
part of each half-hour, he was alone in front of the camera, not by
his choice, but by the viewers' choice. On May 21, 1957, he lost his
chosen life-companion.
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Founder's
Church Dedicated
In
January, 1960, he presided at the dedication of Founder's Church
of Religious Science, Los Angeles. It was built at a cost of more than
$l,500,000 on property at the corner of Sixth and Berendo Streets, adjacent
to what is now The Holmes Center home office building.
The
magnificent organ
in Founder's Sanctuary is a memorial to Hazel Holmes, and on the lower
level of Founder's is a beautiful chapel, serene and inspiring like
the mind of Ernest Holmes: The Holmes Memorial Chapel.
Ernest
Holmes made his transition
to the next experience on April 7, 1960, in Los Angeles. He left no
children. But he left all humankind an enduring legacy: the way of life
he called Religious Science.
On
that way
of life, he said this in 1958:
"We
have launched a Movement which, in the next 100 years, will be the great
new religious impulsion of modern times, far exceeding, in its capacity
to envelop the world, anything that has happened since Mohammedanism
started. "We have to have the same faith in what we teach and practice
that the scientist has, or the gardener has, and when that great simplicity
shall have plumbed and penetrated this density of ours, this human stolidness
and stupidity, this debauchery of the intellect and the soul, something
new and wonderful will happen. It is the only thing that will keep the
world from destroying itself...."
Ernest
Holmes: The First Religious Scientist is published by: SCIENCE
OF MIND COMMUNICATIONS United Church of Religious Science 3251 W Sixth
Street, P 0 Box 75127 Los Angeles, California 90075 213/388-2181 The
original manuscript has been updated, where appropriate, to reflect
current statistics.
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