Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/121

Rh as a class, so far as the writer knows them, are happy, gentle, and virtuous. They are multiplying without efforts at proselytizing; they are in no wise at war with society; and they have little of the spirit of bigotry. The dedication of their great church in Boston is a material evidence of their prosperity; and it may be said that if their opinions seem visionary, there is nothing in them to attract any class save the moderately well-to-do, the intelligent, and the well-behaved. It has been said cynically that a religion prospers according to the pledges which it holds out to its votaries; and though Christian Science promises nothing in the way of gratifying the passions or attaining dominion over others, yet it has rare lures for weary hearts, — physical health and spiritual peace.

Those of us who do not accept the doctrine of Christian Science are possibly too prone to approach it in a spirit of levity, too often disposed to touch upon it with the tongue of facetiousness. Too often we see only its ridiculous phases, attaching meanwhile no importance to the saneness and common sense which underlie many of the practices in its name. And many of us have missed entirely its tremendous growth and the part it has come to play in the economy of our social and religious life. To those of us who have overlooked these essentials of its hold upon the public, certain statistics brought to light by the great meeting of the church now being held in Boston will come in the nature of a revelation. In 1890 the faith had but an insignificant following. To-day its adherents number hundreds of thousands, and if the