Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/385

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WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WORLD
339

the type of organization under which she conceived the spiritual compact of her church to rest.

It was not without action, however, that she brought about the firm foundation of a Christian Science church which should be unassailable as the rock of her doctrine. Mrs. Eddy had been clearing the way before her for an activity which was to eventuate in the building of the Mother Church in Boston, not simply as a structure of stone, but as a structure of legal compact from which should flow order in the conduct of church affairs. Her first step in this work was to request that the local Boston church dissolve its organization. After this was done in obedience to her request she published in the Journal for February, 1890, the following notice:

The dissolution of the visible organization of the church is the sequence and complement of that of the college corporation and association. The college disappeared that the spirit of Christ might have freer course among its students and all who come into the understanding of Divine Science. The bonds of the church were thrown away so that its members might assemble themselves together to “provoke one another to good works” in the bond only of love.

With the National Christian Scientist Association adjourned in New York this same year, the bonds of organization were entirely loosed and what the future held in store for them Christian Scientists were unable to discern. They had now to live the life and perform the works which a living faith