A History of the New Thought Movement

The founder of the Order of the White Rose and the College of Divine Sciences and Realization, Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. J. F. C. Grumbine, began his work in Geneseo, Ill., in 1894, and with the publication of a quarterly magazine, Immortality, in Chicago. Mr. Grumbine was a Universalist, then a Unitarian minister. He was one of the pioneer New-Thought lecturers and teachers, and has taught many hundreds of students in Boston and other parts of the United States, in Australia and England. His College of Divine Sciences and Realization is a correspondence school and has taught students from all parts of the world. Mr. Grumbine calls his ideal “Universal Religion,” and endeavors to show that science is both divine and natural. He is lecturer to the Psycho Science Society, in Cleveland, whose church buildings include an auditorium and parsonage.

In Philadelphia, Pa., the pioneer teachers were Miss Ellen M. Dyer and Miss Christian. A Truth Centre flourished there for a time, and later gave place to the Unity Centre and the Truth Centre. In Washington, D. C., the pioneer teacher and healer was Miss Emma Gray, of the Christian Science Institute, now known as the National New Thought Centre, under the leadership of Miss Gray and Dr. Ricker. Miss Gray is vice-president of the International New Thought Alliance for the District of Columbia and Maryland. Mrs. Florence Willard Day began her therapeutic work in Washington in 1898, and established The Temple of Truth in 1904.

Starting with borrowed capital amounting to $30.00, Mrs. Elizabeth Towne, then Mrs. J. H. Struble, has gradually built up a publishing house and a magazine, Nautilus, which has probably had the largest circulation of any New-Thought periodical. Mrs. Towne began with the publication of a four-page pamphlet in her home in Portland, Oregon. Later, she moved to Holyoke, Mass., where with her husband, Mr. William E. Towne, she has developed the publishing business and taken an active part in New-Thought propagandism. Nautilus, sold extensively on the newstands, has taken the place of many of the earlier magazines, and is typical of the New Thought in its most popular and prosperous form.

Unity, Kansas City, is still the representative magazine of the branch of the movement known as practical Christianity. Its editors and their associates have not identified their activities with the therapeutic movement in general, but have widely extended their influence by organizing The Society of Silent Unity, which has many thousands of members throughout the world. Every day at noon and every evening at nine o’clock the members of this society go apart for a brief period of meditation on the “class thought” sent out by the magazine each month. The thought for the noon meditation for April, 1919, was “Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces,” and for the evening, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help.” This society was organized in behalf of the absent healing department of the Unity work. Extensive work through correspondence is one of the activities centering in Kansas City, where is located The Unity School of Christianity, with a fine modern building, containing a large auditorium and class-rooms. No fees are demanded for membership in the Society of Silent Unity, but members are asked to make voluntary contributions to defray expenses. Every month the magazine prints testimonials as to the value of its work in behalf of the sick and those seeking prosperity and improved conditions. The announcement of the Society says, “You can become a member of this Society and receive its help, if you have faith in the power of God. We will pray to the Father in secret and he will reward you openly.

The Unity movement is operated as a corporation under the name of Unity School of Christianity. Remuneration is based on whatever those benefited are moved to give. The Unity Tract Society is the publishing department of the work. The Unity buildings cover more than an acre and the publications reach 500,000 people.