they prosecute the cause of their church with all their energies and
with entire singleness of purpose. Again, any religion must experience
a great impetus and stimulus from the living presence of its founder
or prophet, and when that presence is as effective as Mrs. Eddy's, it
is a force to be reckoned with. Furthermore, Christian Science is a
novel and sensational presentation of one of the oldest accepted
truths in human thinking, and converts a few time-worn metaphysical
platitudes into mysterious incantations which are quite as effective
by reason of their incoherence and misapplication as because of the
relative truths which they originally conveyed. Optimism is the cry of
the times, and of all the voices which declare it, this is the most
strident and insistent, proclaiming the shortest of all the short
roads to happiness, declaring the secret of a contentment as
impervious of total anaesthesia.

[Note: The next article will deal with Mrs. Eddy's book,
"Science and Health," and will complete this history.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This communion was originally observed once each quarter and then
twice a year. Since 1899 it has been observed but once a year, on the
second Sunday in June. No "material" emblems, such as bread and wine,
are offered, and the communion is one of silent thought. On Monday the
directors meet and transact the business of the year, and on Tuesday
the officers' reports are read. As most members of the branch churches
are also members of the Mother Church, thousands of Christian
Scientists from all over the United States visit Boston at this time.

[2] At the 1898 communion there was no invitation from Mrs. Eddy, but
a number of communicants went up to Concord to see her house and to
see her start out upon her daily drive. In June, 1899, Mrs. Eddy came
to Boston and briefly addressed the annual business meeting of the
church. In 1902 and 1903 there were no formal pilgrimages, although
hundreds of Christian Scientists went to Concord to catch a glimpse of
Mrs. Eddy upon her drive.

[3] February, 1899.

[4] Calvin Frye.

[5] In a notice to the churches, 1897, Mrs. Eddy says:

"The Bible and the Christian Science text-book are our only preachers.
We shall now read scriptural texts and their co-relative passages from
our text-book--these comprise our sermon. The canonical writings,
together with the word of our text-book, corroborating and explaining
the Bible texts in their deno