In June, 1907, there were in all 710 branch churches. Fifty-eight of
these are in foreign countries: 25 in the Dominion of Canada, 14 in
Great Britain, 2 in Ireland, 4 in Australia, 1 in South Africa, 8 in
Mexico, 2 in Germany, 1 in Holland, and 1 in France. There are also
295 Christian Science societies not yet incorporated into churches, 30
of which are in foreign countries.[26]

In reading these figures one must bear in mind the fact that
twenty-nine years ago the only Christian Science church in the world
was struggling to pay its rent in Boston.

One very effective element in the growth of the church has been the
fact that a considerable proportion of Christian Scientists--probably
about one tenth--make their living by their faith, and their worldly
fortunes as well as their spiritual comfort are in their church; they
must prosper or decline, rise or fall, with Christian Science, and
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