which since she left Boston she had ceased to colour, and which was now soft and white. They used to talk among themselves about her "final demonstration" in those days, the idea being that she was husbanding her strength to perform some one final wonder which would convince the world. Sometimes, in their fireside speculations, they encouraged one another in the hope that, when the time came, Mrs. Eddy would even demonstrate over death. They seem to have expected that this last triumph would come, not as a mere prolongation of life, but as a sort of definite combat, a struggle from which she would rise transfigured.[1] While Mrs. Eddy's triumph over death was never an openly avowed belief of the church, it was the fearful hope of many a devoted creature. These credulous and fervent souls used to go upon pilgrimages to Concord, see the venerable Mother through their tears when she addressed them briefly from her balcony, and go away saying that she had the figure of a girl, that her face was as full and smooth as the face of a young woman.
As soon as Mrs. Eddy withdrew from secular life and became inaccessible to the majority of her followers, legends began to grow up about her. She realised this well enough, and, at her request, her adopted son bought a notebook and set down in it some of her wonderful sayings and doings. One of the
- ↑ We may here print a letter to the New York Evening Journal, July 1, 1904, signed by Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson, who organised the first Christian Science church in New York:
"Any suggestion or question of a successor to Mrs. Eddy as the Leader of the Christian Science movement is one that could not be entertained nor considered by any loyal Christian Scientist. Mrs. Eddy is and ever will be the only Leader of the Christian Science movement. There is no question among loyal Christian Scientists as to her continuing to lead them on to the demonstration of eternal life, through faith in God and the understanding of the law of the spirit life in Christ Jesus, which sets us free from the law of sin and death."
Whatever Mrs. Stetson may have meant by "eternal life," such declarations were interpreted literally by simple-minded believers.
