CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS are convinced that the formation and establishment of The Mother Church of Christian Science was divinely sanctioned. It has no material ancestry, no predecessors. It is distinctively The First Church of Christ, Scientist, — the first that has ever been. As the cause of Christian Science itself was ordained of God, so the need of a visible, vitalizing center was supplied, and it has been divinely sustained. Originally organized to meet local needs, it has become the keystone in an arch of zealous worshipers that spans the religious horizon of the whole world. Similar in organization to the many branch churches which in the last thirty years have patterned after it, adopting its form of service and special activities, it yet stands alone, unique and inimitable, the cap-sheaf of a bountiful harvest of Spirit that is perennially in fruitage from the equator to the poles. Without seeking expansion, with the gateway to its membership none too easily entered, its growth in the last ten years has been consistently more rapid than that of any other church organization since the foundation of the Christian religion.
Of its various achievements, not the least is the part it has taken in upholding the hands of its Founder in her valiant efforts to protect Christian Science from adulteration and intrusion of every kind. Since 1875, when the first copy of Science and Health was modestly handed to an incredulous world, its author has made a dauntless and resolute stand to keep its pages clear of all that would be below its high standard. How tremendous a conflict this has been only Mrs. Eddy will ever know, but it is for all of us to appreciate that it is by her indomitable courage and unswerving reliance upon Principle that the integrity of Christian Science teaching has been preserved. Today it is standing beautiful and strong, like a green oak in a thirsty land, a delight to the weary eye and a shelter and rest to the weak and worn. If, as was asserted by one of England's brightest minds, whoever could make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, deserved much and did more essential service than a whole race of those who talked a great deal but did nothing, what shall be said of one who has made whole fields of living green appear? Or where shall we search for words to tell the worth of one who tilled the field until the ripened grain burst its husk and dropped its golden store, to the joy of the hungry multitudes?
In the past there has been much needless criticism because Mrs. Eddy promptly copyrighted all her works and fairly exacted the rights to which she was thereby entitled; because her followers are expected to name the book and author when publicly quoting from her writings; and because they employ as textual helps in the study of Christian Science nothing but the Bible and the writings that have come down to them through their Leader's pen; yet it is by just such wise precautions that our faith has been kept in its original beauty, chaste and inviolate. Sure of the demonstrable truth of the ideas imparted to her, she would have none of questionable origin, and so declined the offering of would-be coadjutors, sincere or well meaning though they might be.
