The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany/Foreword
FOREWORD
| Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet; |
| Lest we forget — lest we forget! |
— Kipling's Recessional
IN these stirring times of church building, when the attention of the whole world is fixed on Christian Science, when the growth and prosperity of the Cause are matters of general wonderment and frequent comment, when the right hand of fellowship is being extended to this people by other Christian denominations, when popularity threatens to supersede persecution, it is well for earnest and loyal Christian Scientists to fortify themselves against the mesmerism of personal pride and self-adulation by recalling the following historical facts: —
1. That Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866, and established the Cause on a sound basis by healing the sick and reforming the sinner quickly and completely, and doing this work “without money and without price.”
2. That in 1875, after nine years of arduous preliminary labor, she wrote and published the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;” that over four hundred thousand copies of this book have been sold — an unparalleled record for a work of this description; that it has healed multitudes of disease and has revealed God to well-nigh countless numbers — facts which prove, (1) that Science and Health does not need to be interpreted to those who are earnestly seeking Truth; (2) that it is not possible to state truth absolutely in a simpler or more pleasing form.
3. That no one on earth to-day, aside from Mrs. Eddy, knows anything about Christian Science except as he has learned it from her and from her writings; and Christian Scientists are honest only as they give her full credit for this extraordinary work.
4. That Mrs. Eddy organized The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., devised its church government, originated its form of public worship, wrote its Church Manual and Tenets, and always has been and is now its guide, guardian. Leader, and wise and unerring counsellor.
5. That Mrs. Eddy founded The Christian Science Journal in 1883, was its first editor and for years the principal contributor to its columns; that she organized The Christian Science Publishing Society, which in 1898, with its assets valued at forty-five thousand dollars, she made over to trustees under agreement to pay all future profits to her church; that at the same time she presented to her church the property at 95 and 97 Falmouth Street, then occupied by the Publishing Society and valued at twenty-five thousand dollars, reserving for herself only a place for the publishing of her works; that she established the Christian Science Sentinel and authorized Der Herold der Christian Science, both of which, together with The Christian Science Journal, are the property of the Publishing Society.
Strive it ever so hard, The Church of Christ, Scientist, can never do for its Leader what its Leader has done for this church; but its members can so protect their own thoughts that they are not unwittingly made to deprive their Leader of her rightful place as the revelator to this age of the immortal truths testified to by Jesus and the prophets.
Deeds, not words, are the sound test of love; and the helpfulness of consistent and constant right thinking — intelligent thinking untainted by the emotionalism which is largely self-glorification — is a reasonable service which all Christian Scientists can render their Leader.