portunities of her students by the publication in the Journal of seven fixed rules, which announced that she was not to be consulted regarding the personal or church difficulties of her followers.[1] Her next step was to disorganise the Boston church. Upon this action the Journal of February, 1890, comments as follows:
The dissolution of the visible organisation 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.
After Mrs. Eddy disorganised it, the church continued to hold regular services and, to all intents and purposes, went on just as before with the one important exception that it held no more business meetings and transacted no business. The real reason for this disorganisation seems to have been just that, for the time, Mrs. Eddy wanted no business transacted. Her explanation that organisation was a detriment to spirituality could scarcely have been more than a convenient pretext, for at the same time that she put this check upon the Boston
- ↑
NOTICE.
SEVEN FIXED RULES.
1. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, as to whose advertisement shall or shall not appear in the Christian Science Journal.
2. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, as to the matter that should be published in the Journal and Christian Science Series.
3. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, on marriage, divorce, or family affairs of any kind.
4. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, on the choice of pastors for churches.
5. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, on disaffections, if there should be any between the students of Christian Scientists.
6. I shall not be consulted verbally, or through letters, on who shall be admitted as members, or dropped from the membership of the Christian Science Churches or Associations.
7. I am not to be consulted verbally, or through letters, on disease and the treatment of the sick; but I shall love all mankind—and work for their welfare.
Mary B. G. Eddy.
