Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/302

260 task. Mrs. Eddy had already made an amazing gift to her time which might well be deemed a sufficient work for any one individual to have perfected. In her treatise, “Science and Health,” she had given to the world a new conception of the nature of the Supreme Being and His habitual government of the universe. But having received a spiritual revelation, and having formulated this revelation into a treatise, Mrs. Eddy now apprehended that there existed a socially diffused sense throughout the world that a new age of reasoning was to appear with the dawn of the twentieth century. In apprehending this she realized a fresh work which was laid upon her, the work of bringing into the full glare of the world’s thought a spiritualized realization of the Christ ia n faith.

What then were the tasks of the hour? An effective church organization was the crying need. After that Mrs. Eddy foresaw the necessity of establishing a college of instruction which would serve as a strong center of propaganda. Her book must have a third edition and this edition must be effectively circulated. Teachers and practitioners must be sent forth. It was a great work which unfolded itself in her mind in the very face of the conspiracy to dishonor her in Lynn, directed at her through the persons of her husband and student.

During the summer of 1878 Mrs. Eddy had ventured to carry her work into Boston. She first gave lectures on Sunday afternoons in the Shawmut Avenue Baptist church, and later lectured in the Parker Fraternity building on Appleton street.