Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/43

Rh study of Mrs. Eddy's life, yet in her autobiography she constantly refers to deep religious experiences of her childhood. As her chief recollection of Bow farm days, she relates a peculiar experience, intended to show that, like little Samuel, she received ghostly visitations in early youth. She writes:

For some twelve months, when I was about eight years old, I repeatedly heard a voice, calling me distinctly by name, three times, in an ascending scale. I thought this was my mother's voice, and sometimes went to her, beseeching her to tell me what she wanted. Her answer was always: "Nothing, child! What do you mean?" Then I would say: "Mother, who did call me? I heard somebody call Mary, three times!" This continued until I grew discouraged, and my mother was perplexed and anxious.

At another time her cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, heard the voice and told Mary's mother about it. "That night," continues Mrs. Eddy's narrative, "before going to rest, my mother read to me the Scriptural narrative of little Samuel, and bade me, when the voice called again, to reply as he did, 'Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.' The voice came; but I did not answer. Afterward I wept, and prayed that God would forgive me, resolving to do, next time, as my mother had bidden me. When the call came again I did answer, in the words of Samuel, but never again to the material senses was that mysterious call repeated."

Mrs. Eddy tells the story of her admission to church member ship and of her discussions with the elders, and Christian Scientists draw a parallel between this incident and that of Christ debating at the age of twelve with the wise men in the temple. "At the age of twelve," writes Mrs. Eddy, "I was admitted to the Congregationalist (Trinitarian) Church." She describes her horror of the doctrine of predestination, while she