Mrs. Eddy says she discovered Christian Science in 1866. She studied the Scriptures and the sciences, she declares, in a search for the great curative Principle. She investigated allopathy, homœopathy, and electricity, without finding a clew; and modern philosophy gave her no distinct statement of the Science of Mind-healing. After careful study she became convinced that the curative Principle was the Deity.
[New York Tribune, February 7, 1895]
[Extract]
Boston has just dedicated the first church of the Christian Scientists, in commemoration of the Founder of that sect, the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, drawing together six thousand people to participate in the ceremonies, showing that belief in that curious creed is not confined to its original apostles and promulgators, but that it has penetrated what is called the New England mind to an unlooked-for extent. In inviting the Eastern churches and the Anglican fold to unity with Rome, the Holy Father should not overlook the Boston sect of Christian Scientists, which is rather small and new, to be sure, but is undoubtedly an interesting faith and may have a future before it, whatever attitude Rome may assume toward it.
[Journal, Kansas City, Mo., January 10, 1895]
[Extract]
Growth of a Faith
Attention is directed to the progress which has been made by what is called Christian Science by the dedication at Boston of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist." It is a most beautiful structure of gray granite, and its builders call it their "prayer in stone," which suggests to recollection the story of the cathedral of Amiens, whose architectural construction and arrangement of statuary and paintings made it to be called the Bible of that city. The Frankish church was reared upon the spot where, in pagan times, one bitter winter day, a Roman soldier parted his mantle with his sword and gave half of the garment to a naked beggar; and so was memorialized in art and stone what was called the divine spirit of giving, whose unbelieving exemplar afterward became a saint. The Boston church similarly expresses the faith of those who believe in what they term the divine art of healing, which, to their minds, exists as much to-day as it did when Christ healed the sick.