IN 1908, as a comment on a letter, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Forty years ago I said to a student, 'I can introduce Christian Science in England more readily than I can in America.'" See The Christian Science Journal, Vol. 26, pp. 297-298. Forty years before 1908 (1868) was near the beginning of the Christian Science movement. Evidently, she looked for the development of the Christian Science movement in the British Isles long before it had a single adherent there. Her acts and letters show, also, that she kept up a continuous interest in this subject. For instance, in 1888 and 1889 she considered going to London to teach a class or classes there. For one reason, a counterfeit teaching, involving misrepresentation of Mrs. Eddy, was hindering the introduction of genuine Christian Science. Presumably, she decided against going because she had much else to do and because her students could attend to the immediate need in the British Isles. That Mrs. Eddy continued to regard London favorably, not discouraged by persistent difficulties there, is shown by a letter dated April 15, 1899, in which she spoke of that city as "the most important field outside of the United States."
In the British Isles, Christian Science was an almost unknown subject until May 26, 1885, when the London Times published a two-column letter from a Boston correspondent, with a column of editorial comments thereon. Headed "Mental Healing in Boston, U. S. A.," the letter presented Christian Science as the largest division or section of mental healing, and presented it in a respectful way. Naming Mrs. Eddy as the Leader of the Christian Scientists, it distinguished them from other mental healers because, it stated, they have a theology which they regard as essential to their theory. As regards healing, the correspondent found an abundance of positive testimony from people, undoubtedly honest, who claimed to have been cured by Christian Science of organic disease of long standing, but he was difficult to convince; he was disposed to assume other explanations for such extraordinary recoveries. The following excerpt is from the above-mentioned letter: "Hawthorne Hall, where the Christian Scientists worship, is thronged for an hour before the time for service each Sunday. So eager are people to hear that after the standing room is all taken people crowd around outside the doors, where they can catch only an occasional word or two. The service consists of ordinary devotional exercises preceding a sermon by Mrs. Eddy."
The editors of the Times were disposed to scoff. They reviewed the Boston letter fairly, but they alluded to it as "entertaining," and they attributed the success achieved by Christian Science to the credulity of the Boston people. The following excerpts from the editorial illustrate its tone: "In these latter days the world refuses to be profoundly moved by the birth of a new faith. . . . Boston still retains a large share of the fresh receptiveness of an earlier age. ... It is agitated to its centre by the appearance of a system which we find it hard to classify, since it is at once an art, a science, and a religion." Of course, the compatibility of religion and Science has become more evident everywhere since 1885. At that time, Mrs. Eddy's first book on Christian Science had been published only ten years, and the Church of Christ, Scientist, had been founded only six years.
