224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for principle, not for personality. Others can not take my place, 

 even if willing to do so. I therefore remain at my post, work- 

 ing for the generations to come, never looking for a present 

 reward." 



" I have clung to Truth most closely in the hour of its trial. 

 The weapons of mortal selfishness, envy, ambition, and hatred 

 that have opposed, have often pierced the human heart, but ' none 

 of these things have moved me/ . . . Twenty-two years I have 

 planted and watered 'in labor and travail, working day and 

 night.' " 



"Hoping all things, enduring all things — in the spirit of 

 Christ's charity — ready to bless them that curse me, glad to bear 

 consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, I commit 

 these pages to honest seekers for Truth in this age and to pos- 

 terity." 



As to the reflections of the same character on the tens of thou- 

 sands of devoted students who are laboring to spread the glad 

 tidings she has brought, to alleviate and, finally, to destroy the 

 supposed ills of humanity — real to sense, but not to Truth — they 

 are left to the judgment of those who have followed these few 

 words, so unworthy of their great theme. 



It is proper to refer to the declaration of the signs of " decad- 

 ence" of Christian Science. Its founder began in 1867 with a 

 single student. Since that time she has taught nearly four 

 thousand, the number increasing every year — not to speak of 

 the pressure for admission to her classes of hundreds she is 

 obliged every year to refuse. " Science and Health " had an in- 

 significant sale during the years following its publication in 1875. 

 But this, too, has steadily increased yearly, until it has reached 

 a sale of forty thousand copies. A large proportion of the stu- 

 dents from the classes of its author have become healers and 

 teachers, so that, while for obvious reasons no exact statistics of 

 their number can be given, it is certain that some hundreds of 

 thousands are to-day " in " Science — that is, living, according to 

 their several understandings, the " Life that is Spirit." Among 

 those who receive " Science and Health " as a revelation of divine 

 Truth are many of the most gifted and honored men and women 

 not only in this country but in England. 



Christian Science is no " craze." The readers of " The Popular 

 Science Monthly " will judge for themselves whether the words 

 of its founder are words of soberness or of delusion. She says : 

 " I have never supposed this century would present the full fruits 

 of Christian Science, or that sin, sickness, and death would not 

 continue for centuries to come ; but this I do aver, that, as a re- 

 sult of my teaching, old age and decrepitude will not come so 

 soon — that already health is restored and longevity increased by 



