Ernest Holmes Biography Quotes 17 Report mistakes

Early Life and Background
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes was born in 1887 in Lincoln, Maine, and came of age at a time when the American public was avidly exploring new ideas about mind, spirit, and health. He grew up with a strong curiosity about the relationship between thought and experience and developed into an energetic autodidact with a gift for oratory. As a young man he left New England for the West Coast, eventually settling in Southern California, where a vibrant lecture culture and a receptive public gave him the forum he needed. His older brother, Fenwicke L. Holmes, a minister and writer, was a crucial companion in these formative years. Fenwicke encouraged his reading, co-led study groups, and later became one of his collaborators, ensuring that the developing philosophy had both intellectual rigor and practical reach.

Formative Influences and Intellectual Development
Holmes aligned himself with the broad current known as New Thought, a diverse movement that drew upon idealist philosophy, pragmatism, and the healing ministries that had swept the United States since the late nineteenth century. He immersed himself in the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson for a grounding in self-reliance and the unity of life, and he studied the writings of Judge Thomas Troward, whose lectures on mental causation supplied a methodical, quasi-legal structure for ideas about the creative power of thought. He was aware of and respectful toward the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, an influential New Thought teacher, and he located his own voice within that expanding lineage. Out of this blend Holmes fashioned a public message emphasizing that mind participates in the creative process and that disciplined, affirmative prayer could foster health, supply, and peace of mind.

Los Angeles Lectures and Early Books
In the 1910s and early 1920s, Holmes began attracting large audiences in Los Angeles with talks that combined philosophy, psychology, and practical spirituality. He published concise volumes such as Creative Mind and Creative Mind and Success, which circulated widely among readers who wanted a clear, usable approach to changing habits of thought. These early works established his tone: confident, nonsectarian, and centered on testable practices. Listeners and readers praised his ability to express metaphysical ideas in plain language and to insist on results without adopting a sectarian stance. Fenwicke Holmes often stood nearby as counselor, co-lecturer, or co-author, creating a family partnership that helped to systematize the message.

The Science of Mind and Institutional Foundations
Holmes published his major textbook, The Science of Mind, in 1926. The book synthesized inspirational literature, idealist metaphysics, and what he called spiritual mind treatment, a disciplined, affirmative method of prayer. The following year he founded the Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy in Los Angeles and launched the magazine Science of Mind to disseminate lessons, sermons, and essays. Over time, classes and study groups clustered around the Institute and, eventually, congregations formed. Holmes initially cast his work as educational rather than ecclesiastical, but as the network matured he supported the creation of churches that could house regular services and train ministers.

Colleagues, Students, and Collaborators
The growing movement drew capable organizers and teachers. William H. D. Hornaday, a close associate, helped shape the Los Angeles center and later became a leading minister identified with Founders Church of Religious Science. In New York City, Raymond Charles Barker emerged as a forceful voice who carried the teaching to East Coast audiences. In Hollywood and greater Los Angeles, Robert Bitzer organized and led congregations that adapted the message to an urban environment. Frederick Bailes, with a background in science and a talent for clear exposition, joined the teaching and broadcast work, bringing a practical, persuasive style to the movement. Editors and staff at Science of Mind magazine sustained the publication that kept ideas and lessons flowing to students across the country. Throughout, Fenwicke Holmes remained an essential partner; the brothers even turned to poetry together, publishing The Voice Celestial in the late 1940s, a long work meant to be recited and sung within the community.

Ideas, Method, and Public Voice
Holmes argued that there is a universal, impersonal creative Law that responds to thought, and that prayer, properly understood, is an alignment with this Law rather than a petition to a distant authority. He taught five-step affirmative treatments that move from recognition of the One, through unification and realization, to thanksgiving and release. He drew frequent inspiration from Emerson, framed causation in the disciplined spirit he found in Troward, and appealed to the American ethic of self-improvement. He used the language of mental causation but emphasized compassion, ethics, and service, urging students to combine inner work with responsible action. Radio addresses and public lectures amplified his reach; he was known for clear diction, steady confidence, and a refusal to denigrate other paths.

Personal Life
Holmes married Hazel Durkee Foster in the late 1920s. She was a steady presence at public events and within the organizational life of the movement, hosting, greeting, and advising with tact that matched her husband's public intensity. The couple did not pursue a flamboyant social life; instead, their energy centered on teaching schedules, writing deadlines, and the demands of a growing network of students and ministers. Friends and colleagues frequently remarked upon Hazel's warmth and practical counsel, and upon Ernest's mixture of focus and humor in private settings.

Later Work and Final Years
Holmes continued to publish through the 1940s and 1950s, including This Thing Called You and other midcentury works that restated his message for new audiences. He traveled, taught intensives to ministers, and maintained a busy calendar of Sunday services and weekday classes. With William Hornaday administering major programs in Los Angeles, and with Raymond Charles Barker and Robert Bitzer leading large congregations in their respective cities, the infrastructure of Religious Science solidified. By the 1950s Holmes had grown comfortable with the existence of churches grounded in his textbook, while maintaining his emphasis on education and personal practice. He died in 1960 in Los Angeles, concluding a public career of more than four decades.

Legacy
Holmes left behind a substantial body of lectures, sermons, and books, and he bequeathed a movement that continued to organize itself under the banner of Religious Science. The magazine he founded remained a central organ for teaching and reflection. Colleagues such as William H. D. Hornaday, Raymond Charles Barker, Robert Bitzer, and Frederick Bailes shaped postwar growth, trained ministers, and broadcast the ideas to regional and national audiences. Fenwicke Holmes's companionship and literary support gave the work its earliest scaffolding and continued to color its tone. The themes Holmes championed, affirmative prayer, the creative process of thought, and the unity of life, fed into the broader current of American positive-thinking and self-help literature, while his nonsectarian stance offered an alternative to confessional boundaries. Within the spectrum of twentieth-century American spirituality, his contribution was to give a clear, teachable framework to an optimistic view of mind and Spirit, and to build institutions that could carry that framework forward.

Our collection contains 17 quotes who is written by Ernest, under the main topics: Wisdom - Justice - Freedom - Faith - Teaching.