The Striking Progress of Christian Science

Editor

Under the above heading a recent issue of the New York Sun contains an editorial of considerable length from which we quote the following:—

"The meeting of Christian Scientists at their Mother Church at Boston, last Sunday, to commune together and to listen to a written address sent by Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of the cult, was an assemblage whose profound significance cannot be denied. So great was the attendance, estimated at ten thousand, that four different services identical in character had to be held during the day and evening in order to accommodate the crowd, and in it were representatives from European countries, some of them of social distinction.

"It is folly to pooh-pooh this Christian Science movement. As a practical manifestation of contemporary religious enthusiasm it has become of grave temporary importance, at least. Nor is its progress among obviously inferior minds and wild visionaries so remarkable as the appeal it is making to intelligences conventionally respectable. The message of Mrs. Eddy to her followers gives astonishing statistics of the growth of the Mother Church at Boston, which we must assume to be correct, in the absence of detailed contradiction. She tells of a membership in it of 21,631, and of a gain of 2,496 since November. All told, the cult has over five hundred organized churches, and by some of these, as we know by observation in New York and Chicago, for example, really imposing edifices of great cost have been erected. Where the money has come from for their rapid building has seemed a mystery, which may be explained by the assertion in the Sun by one of Mrs. Eddy's prominent followers that she expends a large part of the profits from the sale of her Science and Health, the text-book of the cult, in assisting in the propagation of its doctrines. In London, also, there is a prosperous Christian Science Church, and the circumstance that among the foreign representatives at the meeting at Boston on Sunday were included the Earl and Countess of Dunmore, Lady Victoria Murray, Lady Mildred Murray, and Lady Ramsay indicates very suggestively a social sphere into which the doctrines of Mrs. Eddy have penetrated.

"Obviously such a movement cannot be whistled down the wind. It is one of the most striking of the religious phenomena of our day, and it seems to be growing perhaps more remarkably than any other, outside of the greatest organized churches of Christendom."

The fact that the editor of so conservative a paper as the New York Sun has, by force of the circumstances, come to the above conclusion, is not only significant but gratifying to Christian Scientists. While Christian Scientists of themselves require no such endorsement at the hands of those outside the ranks, being so firmly grounded in the principles of their faith that they need no bolstering up, yet to have intelligent and thinking people awaken to the fact that Christian Science has become an important factor of the religious world cannot be otherwise than pleasing.

We are glad to notice also the kindly recognition of Mrs. Eddy's relation to the work, and her well-known generosity in finacially supporting the movement of which she is the head. The world is coming to understand and appreciate the wisdom of her course in laying a foundation, through her long years of labor, whereby she was enabled to render needed financial aid. This she has magnanimously done, and that the Sun should thus refer to her is especially gratifying to those who are familiar with the real situation.

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