Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/119

Rh beyond cavil. The immense membership of the body is proof positive that it supplies these persons, most of whom were already nominal Christians, something they did not find in other communions. It affords refutation of the notion that spiritual and mystic mediation has been drowned out in this so-called commercial age. The Christian Scientists set a good example to other denominations in requiring their church edifices to be fully paid for before they are dedicated. It is to be said for Christian Science that no person's spiritual aspirations were ever deadened or his moral standards debased through its agency. Its communicants are cheerful and shed sunshine about them — no insignificant element in true Christianity.

The dedication of a Christian Science temple at Boston serves to call attention to one of the most remarkable religious movements that this country or any other country has ever known. It has not been very many years since Christian Science was announced as a discovery of Mary Baker Eddy of Concord, N. H. The few thousand persons who followed Mrs. Eddy during the first years of her preaching were the objects of much ridicule, but despite the obstacles put in the way the church has continued to grow. Its growth in numbers is remarkable, but even stranger is its increase in wealth. The temple which has just been dedicated at Boston cost two million dollars, and is one of the finest places of worship in the world, at least it is the largest in New England. This Mother Church is absolutely free from debt. After but a few years, Christian Science has congregations in every