Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/461

Rh of such an occurrence until a year later. Then, on October 3, 1893, the first annual meeting of the Mother Church was held in Chickering Hall. The clerk announced in his report that "Since the meeting in which the church was formed, there have been held seven special and four quarterly meetings. It is in the records of those meetings that the history of the church is contained, but its doings could not be profitably set forth in a report of this kind."

This was the first open official meeting. Up to this time few Christian Scientists knew that a meeting for the selection of church officers had been held in the fall of 1892, but supposed that there was still no formal organisation of the body other than the "voluntary association" which Mrs. Eddy had advocated as a means to spiritual grace, and under which the Massachusetts law allowed the trustees to receive funds.

Boston Christian Scientists had supposed that Mrs. Eddy did not wish to organise her new church under the old charter because, as she had stated, she felt that material organisation was a hindrance to spiritual growth. But when her new church began its operations, they were confronted by a solid formal organisation which had been effected without the knowledge or consent of the church body as a whole. In addition to the usual church officers, Mrs. Eddy had chosen twelve charter members, whose duty it was to ballot upon every candidate for admission to the church and these twelve were the only persons permitted to vote upon such candidates. All the original members, some of whom had been identified with the church for twelve years, were considered as "candidates" for admission to the new church, and were balloted upon by the twelve just