CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, a religious belief of which Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, of Boston, was the founder and chief apostle. Her disciples believe in God, in the Saviour, and in the Scriptures, and devote most of their efforts to healing the sick. They claim that matter is non existent and that, as God is spirit, and man, being made in His image, is, there fore, also spiritual and cannot suffer, dis ease is not actual, but a wrong belief, and can be cured by discarding such be lief. Since the promulgation of this doc trine in 1875, its growth has been steady in the United States and its followers have large churches in various parts of the country. Flourishing churches have been organized in many other parts of the world. Many handsome church edi fices have been built in different cities: The mother church is located in Boston, Mass., and those all over the country are its branches. The services are uniform, consisting of meetings on Sundays and on Wednesday evenings. No sermons are preached by a personal pastor, but a sermon made up of selections from the Bible and "Science and Health, with a Key to the Scriptures," written by Mrs. Eddy, is read by two readers, called the first and second readers. This Church is emphatically a healing Church and many cases of restoration to health have been testified to, brought about by at tendance at these meetings.
Christian Science, its adherents claim, is demonstrable Christianity. Through the spiritual understanding of the teach ings of Christ Jesus, its followers are enabled to obey His command to "heal the sick," and do the works that He and His disciples did. The omnipotence, omni presence, and omniscience of God are proved to be true. Christian Science is not mind-cure, as that is popularly understood, because it recognizes but one mind, God. It is not faith-cure, because it does not perform its wonder ful works through blind faith in a per sonal God, but through the under standing of man's relation to God. It is not mesmerism or hypnotism, because it denies absolutely the power of the human mind and human will, and claims no will but God's. Through recognizing the one mind, and man as the reflection of that mind, it forever establishes the brotherhood of man. It is the perfect salvation from the sin, disease, and death, Christ Jesus came to bring. In "Rudimental Divine Science," Mrs, Eddy defined Christian Science as "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the principle and rule of eternal harmony." In 1919 the number of churches and societies in this and for eign countries was given as 1,741.