Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/346

302 necessary to look to the needs of the field at large. Mrs. Eddy realized this need almost before it was apparent, certainly before it was obvious to other eyes than hers. She had done everything hitherto to promulgate her doctrine; now it was forced upon her that she must safeguard it from adulteration and heresy. In her very first class in Chicago there arose a mind to lead a rebellion. Mrs. Ursula Gestafeld was the student who subsequently led a movement of mental scientists in the Western city, and her innovation, counterfeiting the teaching she had received, was but a type of what might and did occur in other localities.

“For many successive years,” Mrs. Eddy writes, “I have endeavored to find new ways and means for the promotion and expansion of scientific Mind-healing, seeking to broaden its channels, and, if possible, to build a hedge round about it, that should shelter its perfections from the contaminating influences of those who have a small portion of its letter, and less of its Spirit. At the same time I have worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest worker in this vineyard of Truth.

“To meet the broader wants of humanity, and provide folds for the sheep that were without shepherds, I suggested to my students, in 1886, the propriety of forming a National Christian Scientist Association. This was immediately done, and delegations from the Christian Scientist Association of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and from branch associations in other states, met in