Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/418

364 Christian Science is its rapid growth. When the National Christian Science Association, formed at Mrs. Eddy's house in Boston, January 29, 1886, was little more than a year old, one hundred and eleven professional healers advertised in the pages of the Christian Science Journal and twenty-one academies and institutes taught Mrs. Eddy's doctrines.

In April, 1890, the Journal contained the professional cards of two hundred and fifty healers, men and women who were practising in all parts of the country, and nearly all of whom were depending entirely upon their practice for a livelihood. Thirty-three academies and institutes were then teaching Christian Science. These "academies" were very unpretentious—simply a room in which the teacher met her classes. In some institutes there were two teachers; usually there was but one. The "graduates" of these institutions sometimes went on to Boston to take a normal course under Mrs. Eddy, but oftener they went immediately into practice. By 1890 there were twenty incorporated Christian Science churches which announced their weekly services in the Journal and which met in public halls and schoolhouses, while ninety societies not yet organised into churches were holding their weekly meetings. The first Christian Science church building was dedicated at Oconto, Wis., in 1887.

When Mrs. Eddy established herself in Boston in 1882, there was but one Christian Science Church, a feeble society of less than fifty members, which had been already shattered by dissensions and quarrels. It is certainly very evident that such an astonishing growth in the space of eight years can be accounted for only by the fact that Mrs. Eddy's religion gave