rate the words and works of our Master, a Mind-healing church, without a creed, to be called the Church of Christ (Scientist), the first such church ever organized. The charter for this church was obtained in June, 1879, and during the same month the members, twenty-six in number, extended a call to me to become their pastor. I accepted the call, and was ordained in 1881, though I had preached five years before being ordained.
The first official organ of the Christian Scientist Association was called Journal of Christian Science. I started it, April, 1883, as editor and publisher. To meet the broader wants of humanity and provide folds for the sheep that were without shepherds, I suggested to my students, in 1886, the propriety of forming a National Christian Scientist Association. This was immediately done, and delegations from the Christian Scientist Association of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and from branch associations in other States, met in general convention at New York City, February 11, 1886.
For the last twenty-two years I have endeavored to find new ways and means for the promotion and expansion of Christian Science Mind-healing. I have sought to broaden its channels, and, if possible, to build a hedge round about it that should shelter its pure perfections from the contaminating influences of those who have a portion of its letter, and less of its Spirit. At the same time I have worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest worker in this vineyard of Truth.
As pioneer I stood alone in this conflict, endeavoring to smite error with the falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of Science are costly. Christian Science has won fields of battle, from which its dainty borrowers would have timorously fled. Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and love, have cleared the pathway for Christian Science.
