Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/541

Rh also 295 Christian Science societies, not yet incorporated into churches, thirty of which are in foreign countries.

In reading these figures one must bear in mind the fact that thirty years ago the only Christian Science church in the world was struggling to pay its rent in Boston.

An effective element in the growth of the church is the fact that a considerable proportion of Christian Scientists make their living by their religion, and their worldly fortunes as well as their spiritual comfort are in their church; they must prosper or decline with Christian Science, and they prosecute the cause of their church with all their energies and with entire singleness of purpose. The perfect system under which the church is organised provides for the constant advertising, by the Publication Committee, of the religion, of the church, and of Mrs. Eddy; and this has been perhaps the greatest factor in the growth of the church. There is an impression to-day that the Christian Science church numbers its members by hundreds of thousands; and this impression was created and is continued by the exaggerated statements of Mrs. Eddy herself, and of her leading church officers, and by the insistent work of the Publication Committees.

Christian Science itself presents, superficially, an old and well-worn truth, besides much that is fallacious and absurd; and the secret of its popularity lies in the fact, not that it has played tricks with metaphysical platitudes, but that it has adapted them to the buoyant spirit of the times.