Article November 21, 1931 Issue

From the Directors

The Christian Science Board Of Directors

The progress of our movement has been marked by certain outstanding undertakings successfully terminated. The first of these milestones was the building of the original Mother Church, in 1894. The next was in 1904, when the present imposing temple of worship was begun. It was finished in 1906 without suspension of work from lack of funds or any other cause.

Another of these landmarks of progress is the building of the new Publishing House, now in process of preliminary construction. It is signifcant that all three of these signs of the times were begun under conditions that ordinarily would be regarded as decidedly unpropitious. The corner stone of the original edifice was laid in 1894 in a period of financial depression. The members of the church were then comparatively few in number, their material resources were limited, and no outside financial aid was available, nor did they seek it. Instead, they kept hold of the hand of God; and in due season they reaped for they fainted not. Their building was completed free of debt within the time set, and in face of difficulties that could only have been surmounted by implicit reliance upon the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of divine Principle. A full recital of the heroic sacrifices of that valiant band of Christian Scientists would not only be encouraging but inspiring to their fellow workers of to-day. In our Leader's words, "Not a mortgage was given nor a loan solicited, and the donors all touchingly told their privileged joy at helping to build The Mother Church.... Even the children vied with their parents to meet the demand" (Pulpit and Press, p. 8).

Approximately ten years after the original church was built steps were taken to build the much needed extension. At the Annual Meeting of 1902, in Mechanics Hall, a resolution was unanimously passed on behalf of the Christian Scientists of the world to raise any portion of two million dollars for a new church edifice as an extension of the original Mother Church. Quite an ambitious undertaking for a church which then had but twenty-four thousand members! (See The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 8.) In July, 1904, the corner stone was laid; and two years later, June, 1906, the church was dedicated and paid for. This was during a period of severe financial stringency, when conditions outwardly were anything but auspicious.

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