Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/126

98 impress the most determined skeptic. Forty thousand people truly make up a mighty host, but these, it is declared, are but a twentieth of the Christian Science army in this country to-day, and this is the wonderful growth of less than a score of years. Christian Science may be anything that its foes try to prove it to be, but that magnificent church, holding five thousand people, dedicated free from debt, and the centre of an enthusiasm and reverence of worship such as religious annals hardly parallel in modern times, is a tangible reality, and critics who seek the light must have done with scoffs and jeers if they would deal with the phenomenon with any effect.

The last issue of the Christian Science Sentinel contains a rather remarkable announcement to the effect that friends were requested to send no more money for the building of the church which was recently dedicated at Boston. This structure cost about two million dollars, and all of the funds required to build it were raised in a little less than three years. It was dedicated absolutely free of debt, and no member of the church anywhere, in this country or elsewhere, was asked to contribute a dollar. Contributions were entirely voluntary. No resort was had to any of the latter-day methods of raising money. The record is one of which any church might well be proud.

The erection in Boston of the two-million-dollar church of the Christian Scientists and its dedication free from debt has been a wonderful achievement, but as our