Article September 2, 1905 Issue

Misstatements Corrected

H. Cornell Wilson

Public Opinion

Editor Public Opinion:—In an article entitled "Wealth of New Religious," published in the July 29 issue of your weekly, Louis Paul Kirby writes of his impressions concerning this particular phase of several religious bodies, and among them he has included the Christian Scientists. He fails, however, to portray correctly this side of the development of the Christian Science church, mainly because he does not see how widely different has been its growth from that of the other organizations referred to. No communistic endeavor has characterized the establishment and growth of Christian Science, founded by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy. No loss of individuality or submission to the dictates of any person attends the acceptance of the teachings of Christian Science, but each follower has the spiritual import of the Master's theology pointed out to him, and is left free to demonstrate its verities by healing sickness and overcoming sin. No creed or religious forms await those who turn to Christian Science, the Science of all that relates to God, which already has been proven to be universal in its application by redeeming mankind from all forms of sickness and sin.

Each congregation or branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, is a separate and self-supporting organization, governed by its own by-laws. These branches maintain Reading Rooms and provide lectures, to which the public have access without charge. Those who have had the benefits to be derived from an honest investigation of Christian Science are the only persons who contribute toward the expenses of this denomination, and the support they render is wholly voluntary.

When Mrs. Eddy and twenty-six others perfected the organization of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, this by no means represented its actual membership or the number of her followers, as Mr. Kirby would have your readers believe. The records of the clerk of the church show the membership to have been 1,512 at the time of the first annual meeting. A large body of Mrs. Eddy's students were scattered throughout this country at that time, whither they had gathered at Boston from time to time, eager to receive instruction in Christian Science. Instead of "The Mother Church" in Boston now having a membership of 15,000, as Mr. Kirby states, the number enrolled at the time of its annual meeting in June, 1905, was 34,063, and there were in all 625 branch churches.

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