From the INTRODUCTION.
THAT we in America are living in the presence of one of the most remarkable spiritual movements known to history will not be questioned by any thoughtful person who is cognizant of current events, where a new religious movement that a few years ago was as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, heeded by few, has become a great moral and religious factor in the nation and the world. Fifteen years ago Christian Science had no church building; today there are hundreds of handsome church edifices, besides the magnificent temple in Boston, which cost two million dollars to erect; while the spread of the faith among the people and its wonderful influence in bringing health, peace and happiness while kindling anew spiritual idealism in tens of thousands of hearts, speaks of the presence of a truth vital to help in a world hungering and thirsting for something better than the husks of dogmatic and creedal theology and the materialistic externalism of forms and rites.
Nor is this all. The new truth crossed the seas and has already been gladly received in various quarters of the globe. Seldom in history has a religious movement spread so swiftly and appealed so compellingly to highly intellectual and deeply earnest men and women; and the rapid growth has been made in the face of a persistent campaign of misrepresentation, misinterpretation and slander rarely surpassed in the annals of spiritual advance.
This fact suggests an objection constantly advanced against Christian Science by those who are more given to echoing the sophistry of conventionalism than to thinking for themselves. It is claimed that Mrs. Eddy never received a university education, is not what is termed a learned woman; but this is merely the repetition of an objection that has been advanced time and again against great moral leaders and reformers.