As a result of following Jesus' injunction in the Sermon on the Mount, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," a Christian Scientist who moved to Pittsburg in 1895 was enabled to sow the first seeds of the truth which heals. A resident, whom the physicians pronounced in the last stages of tuberculosis, asked for help and was healed, and so the healing work was begun. Finally others became interested in this great truth which makes men free, and a few students of the textbook began to meet at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson-Sermon.
After meeting in this way for about a year, and seeing the need of holding public services to assist in spreading the truth, they rented a hall in the business part of the town, and soon a Sunday school was organized. As the congregations grew it became necessary to change the meeting place to larger quarters, and at a meeting held on May 6, 1898, it was decided to organize First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pittsburg, Kansas. That these few brave workers were in earnest is evidenced by the fact that when they made application for a charter there were but seven members. A practitioner who had come into the field saw the need of a reading room, and lovingly gave a room for that purpose until a fund for one was started by a twenty-five dollar balance left from a Christian Science lecture given in October, 1904. During the following year nearly four hundred dollars' worth of literature was sold at the reading room.
As another way of spreading Christian Science a distribution committee was organized early in the history of the church, and the literature placed in hotels, railway stations, libraries, schools, and other public places where it was acceptable. When a call came through the Sentinel for funds for building the extension to The Mother Church, the entire amount in the local building fund was sent, the members knowing that the branches could not grow without the watering of the vine. The congregation continued to meet in rented quarters until Sept. 5, 1907, when a lot was purchased at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Walnut Street, where a small building was erected for immediate use as a church, to be used later as a Sunday school room. This was ready for use in September, 1908.
