THE Christian Science movement started slowly. Yet, by 1876, ten years after her discovery of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (then Mary Baker Glover) had healed and taught a considerable number of persons. Her students, also, had done some healing. Not all of the beneficiaries had become Christian Scientists; but enough had, so that a movement existed then composed of Mrs. Eddy and her followers. In 1875, a few of them arranged with her for "meetings on the Sabbath of each week" to be conducted by her "as teacher or instructor," which meetings preceded by four years the Church of Christ, Scientist. It can be said, however, that the Christian Science movement was first organized at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1876, when Mrs. Eddy and almost the same students formed the Christian Scientist Association. (See "Retrospection and Introspection" by Mrs. Eddy, p. 43.)
Among Christian Scientists, the word "association" has a particular meaning now which it did not have in 1876. The first Association was not limited to purposes connected with study or teaching; its purposes extended to the entire interest in which Christian Scientists were united. As the preamble to the constitution of the Christian Scientist Association declared, it was "the oldest society of the School of Mindhealing, Christian Science." In short, this Association was not only an association of teacher and pupils; it was also an organization for promoting a distinct religion.
The Church of Christ, Scientist, was organized at Boston in 1879, after having been given its inception by the Christian Scientist Association. A motion by Mrs. Eddy at a meeting of the Association and a vote by the fourteen or fifteen other members who were present gave the Church its initiative. It was distinctly and completely organized a few months later.
