The history of every Christian Science church is very much the same. Its achievements must be regarded more from a spiritual than from a material standpoint, for the organization is but the externalization of the spiritual regeneration and development of the individuals composing the church. Its beginning is the healing of some individual who had exhausted all material remedies in a fruitless effort to be cured. This cure is brought to the attention of others who have found no refuge from suffering and sorrow save in God, and in like manner, through the healing ministry of the gospel as taught and demonstrated by Christian Science, they too find surcease from suffering and sorrow and a greater freedom from the thraldom of sin. Thus was marked the humble beginning of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Jacksonville, Fla., which was organized by half a dozen or more persons in 1897.
Church services were held in a small hall, and as others were healed the church gained sufficient strength to warrant the purchase, in the latter part of 1900, of the First Presbyterian church property on the corner of Monroe and Newnan streets. The church building was repaired, and on the first Sunday in January, 1901, the first service was held therein. The conflagration which on the third of the following May devastated so large a part of the city, left the church without a home. Many of the members lost practically all their possessions, and the church sustained an additional loss in the number who moved away. In this time of need Mrs. Eddy was one of the first to send assistance, writing to the directors and enclosing a check for one hundred dollars. In September of that year, however, a little chapel was built on the same lot, and this marked the beginning of the most important and difficult work in the history of the church. The reorganization and reestablishment was begun on a more spiritual foundation. Many obstacles stood in the way, but a few consecrated and loyal workers, who labored in season and out of season, devoted their time and energies to the upbuilding of the church, and their faithfulness is attested by the growth and establishment of that body as a permanent institution in the community.
As the result of the healing of disease and the overcoming of sin, the need of a larger place of worship soon became apparent, and at a meeting held in January, 1908, it was decided to purchase, at a cost of ten thousand dollars, the Jewish synagogue at the corner of Laura and Union streets, a substantial and commodious structure, built of pressed brick and seating about three hundred and fifty people. The interior was redecorated, and services have been held here since February, 1908. During the past year there have been many days when the ushers have with difficulty found seats for all who came, and the purchase of a new lot has been under consideration, the old lot having been sold for fourteen thousand dollars, and the present location, on account of the growth of business in that direction, having become quite unsuitable for a permanent home, though it has quadrupled in value.
