Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/424

370 The healer had no Board of Missions back of him; he was thrown entirely upon his own resources. His income and his usefulness to Christian Science alike depended upon the number of patients he could attract, interest, influence, and heal. While this condition must have had its temptation for the healer of not very rugged integrity, it was wonderfully advantageous to the cause as a whole. Never, since religions were propagated by the sword, was a new faith advertised and spread in such a systematic and effective manner. When the healer went to a new town, he had first to create a demand for Christian Science treatments, and, if he could demonstrate successfully enough to make that demand, not only was his career assured, but he had laid the foundation of a future Christian Science church. The files of the Journal abound in letters from healers which show exactly how this demand was created.

Take the case of Mrs. Ann M. Otis, a healer at Stanton, Mich. She was called to Marquette to treat a young man who was suffering from a heavy cold on his lungs. As his father and brother had both died from "quick" consumption, his mother and sisters were in frantic alarm and his friends had already consigned him to go the way of his family. Under Mrs. Otis' treatment he recovered. The cure was noised about the town by his grateful relatives, and so many patients poured in upon the healer that she had to remain there for weeks.

Wherever the new religion went, it had the advantage of novelty. It was much talked about, was discussed at social gatherings and in women's clubs. Josephine Tyter, a healer at Richmond, Ind., writes in the Journal, September, 1888:

"It is one year next month since I came to Richmond. I