AS in so many other localities, gratitude for healing was the inspiration for the first established work of Christian Science in Oakland. It was in April, 1885, that regular meetings were instituted in the home of one who had experienced "the healing of the seamless dress," for the purpose of studying the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." So marvelous was this first case that it proved a strong incentive to an investigation of the teaching which had wrought so great a change. The meetings were sustained by a large attendance, and soon other cases of healing added to the interest.
In the interim between the summer of 1886 and that of 1889, public meetings and teaching were carried on with marked success by two students of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. By this time the need for more workers was strongly felt, and two other students of the college, who for a year previous had been laboring in a neighboring city, were invited to settle in Oakland. Their coming gave a new impetus to the already successful propaganda. Hopeless sufferers were healed, and in their turn became ministrants.
For some time meetings had been held in a small hall, earlier accommodations having been outgrown, and the overflow necessitated removal to still larger quarters. So the work of teaching and healing continued, and on Oct. 16, 1895, a number of the older students met and organized as a branch of The Mother Church in Boston, obtaining a charter as an incorporated body under the laws of the state. When the largest hall obtainable began to overflow, the church was strong enough to take steps toward securing a site on which to erect the edifice which had now become a necessity.
