Christian Science circled the earth and became a world religion in less than half a century. It has taken its place among the recognized Christian denominations having adherents in all parts of the world. When we seek to ascertain the particular manner in which this has been achieved, there unrolls before us a historic sequence in religious expansion more wonderful than any which has been recorded since early Christianity permeated the Roman Empire.
The discovery of Christian Science came in God's way and in due time. It was revealed to a New England woman and set down for human acceptance in the English language. Mrs. Eddy's discovery took place in 1866, and the publication of the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in 1875. It is doubtful, looking over the whole field of world conditions during the period bounded by those years, whether any part of the globe was as well suited as New England to receive and shelter a woman's spiritual discovery, and it is likewise worthy of notice that the headquarters of the Christian Science movement was planted and remains in this same New England.
Now, the moment Christian Science had obtained a footing in Great Britain, Science and Health started on its voyage around the world, pursuing a way already indicated by the English language and already taken by the Bible. Christian Science literally encompassed the globe by following the circle drawn by the British people, using as stopping places the many dependencies, colonies, and commonwealths established by them, all speaking the language of the Christian Science text-book. Furthermore, as the British Empire contains somewhere within itself practically every type of government of which the human mind can conceive, from the absolute autocracies of the Orient to the direct democracies of the Antipodes; and as, like the United States, it shelters representatives of all the great divisions of the human race,—the white, the black, the brown, the red, and the yellow, yet all understanding the same language,—so Christian Science straightway found itself in touch with practically every existing phase of human thought.
