Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/463

Rh the time when all should listen to the voice of Love, and hearing it, we should follow implicitly whether we understand or not, and the way will be made plain."

"Experience, and above all, obedience, are the tests of growth and understanding in Science," Mrs. Eddy wrote to her students through the Journal.

Members of all the Christian Science churches in the field began to apply for admission to the Mother Church; it was an expression of zeal and loyalty which all earnest believers were eager to make. Mrs. Eddy's direct personal control of the Boston church soon meant the direct personal control of a membership reaching from Maine to California.

The Boston congregation, which had been meeting in public halls for fifteen years, was at last to have a home, and the building of the Mother Church was about to begin. It was to be a memorial, as Mrs. Eddy said, "for her through whom was revealed to you God's all-power, all-presence, and all-science." An inscription across the front of the building was to proclaim, as it does to-day, the name of Mrs. Eddy and the title of her book.

The financial distress of 1894 caused a temporary check in the growth of the building fund, and, to give the work a fresh impetus, Mrs. Eddy made a personal appeal to fifty prominent Christian Scientists, asking them to contribute $1,000 each. Her request was instantly complied with. On May 21, 1894, the corner-stone of the Mother Church was laid.