Article November 16, 1929 Issue

The Mother Church

J. ROSCOE DRUMMOND

MRS. EDDY'S largest contributions to Christianity may be said to be threefold: the discovery of Christian Science, the writing of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the founding of the Christian Science church. The same Christ, Truth, which unfolded to her consciousness this Science and which inspired the textbook, also led the way, impelling each step which she took in the establishment of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. These achievements of Mrs. Eddy's life-work were demonstrations wrought through God-given wisdom, each essential to the Cause of Christian Science and to its unity; each essential to our comprehension of the full work of our Leader and to our understanding of her place in history; each essential to the individual demonstration of spiritual perfection.

There are five distinct steps marking Mrs. Eddy's founding of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, to which especial attention is invited in this connection. These steps are the execution and recording of the Deed of Trust, the establishment of The Christian Science Board of Directors implicit in that Trust, the organization of the First Members, their abolition, and the writing of the Church Manual. These steps marked the course of Mrs. Eddy's establishment of The Mother Church upon a permanent basis, the development of a church organization which would rise above mortal strife and the conflicting opinions of material dogmas, and the protection and maintenance of this church, unique and permanent in its government. All of these acts were prompted by the same unerring light which revealed divine Science to this age, and which guided our Leader's pen in its statements.

A brief examination into the background and effect of these steps will indicate the far-reaching significance which attaches to them in the establishment and continuation of The Mother Church. The founding of The Mother Church was not to rest exclusively in a material title. Even its human basis must contain the elements of permanency. The Deed of Trust constituted this basis. The discovery of a statute to give legal sanction to the new organization of her church was a demonstration made in the face of contrary legal opinion and opposition from some of her students. She employed her own attorney, who discovered a little used statute by which her contemplated bequest of the Falmouth Street lot for The Mother Church could be made valid without the necessity of an ordinarily incorporated church.

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