IN 1866, there was but one Christian Scientist in all the world, a gentle New England woman, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science.
Ten years later Mrs. Eddy and six of her students formed the Christian Scientist Association at Lynn, Massachusetts, to promote this unique religious movement; and in 1879, as we are informed on page 17of the Church Manual, "a little band of earnest seekers after Truth went into deliberations over forming a church without creeds, to be called the 'Church of Christ, Scientist.' " This church, numbering twenty-six members, was then the only Christian Science church in all the world. In 1892, it was reorganized and named The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Why has the Christian Science religion extended all over the world in a little over half a century? The answer to this question also may be found in the Historical Sketch just mentioned; for at that meeting of the Christian Scientist Association (ibid.), "on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted,—To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing."
