Time will test the Science’s claim. If time shall make it good; if time
shall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man and
banish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and content–why, then
Mrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if
she did not hit upon that imperial idea and evolve it and deliver it, its
discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think. It is
the giant feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of Christian
Science, the auxiliary features are of minor consequence [Let us still
leave the large “if” aside, for the present, and proceed as if it had no
existence.]
It is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her
plunder. (No, find–that is the word; she did not realize the size of
her find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance
with the inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and
by stages only, and never furnishes any mind with all the materials for a
large idea at one time.
In the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the mental-
healing detail And perhaps mainly interested in it pecuniary, for she was
poor.
She would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils,
and her commerce would grow. She would inspire in patient and pupil
confidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would not
fail of that.
There probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to
think there was something deeper in her teachings than they had been
suspecting–a mystery beyond mental-healing, and higher. It is
conceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little
by little, and from respectful became reverent. It is conceivable that
this would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to
wonder if their secret thought–that she was inspired–might not be a
well-grounded guess. It is conceivable that as time went on the thought
in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into conviction.
She would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more than
once, by a mysterious voice –just as had happened to little Samuel.
(Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient
reminiscence, now, and it could have a prophetic meaning for her.
It is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within
her would give a new and powerful impulse to her philosophizings, and
that from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of
body and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of God–the central and
dominant idea of Christian Science–and that when this idea came she
would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven.
CHAPTER XI
[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a
scheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all people, working her mind on a
plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing,
discovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in
sincerities–to be frank, I find it a large contract But I have begun it,
and I will go through with it.]
CHAPTER XII
It is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her
and in the authenticity of her heavenly ambassadorship was not of the
lukewarm and half-way sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere. Her
book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of convert-
making, and within six years she had successfully launched a new Religion
and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of eager
students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary that we are
almost compelled to accept her statement (no, her guarded intimation)
that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human being
unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies could
hardly put up such a hand as that without supernatural help.
From this stage onward–Mrs. Eddy being what she was–the rest of the
development–stages would follow naturally and inevitably.
But if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different