Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/526

466 brethren." It is a diabolical attempt to separate me from you, as my Leader and Teacher. . ..

Oh, Dearest, it is such a lie! No one who knows us can believe this. It is vicarious atonement. Has the enemy no more argument to use, that it has to go back to this? It is exhausting its resources and I hope the end is near. You know my love for you, beloved; and my students love you as their Leader and Teacher; they follow your teachings and lean on the "sustaining infinite." They who refuse to accept you as God's messenger, or ignore the message which you bring, will not get up by some other way, but will come short of salvation. . ..

Dearly beloved, we are not ascending out of sense as fast as we desire, but we are trusting in God to put off the false and put on the Christ. This lie cannot disturb you nor me. I love you and my students love you, and we never touch you with such a thought as is mentioned.

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But Mrs. Stetson's protestations of loyalty availed her nothing. She was more than ever kept under surveillance by Mrs. Eddy's directors, and when at last, in December, 1908, it be came known that Mrs. Stetson had formed elaborate plans to extend her church system in New York, Mrs. Eddy was acutely alarmed. Mrs. Stetson, with her church behind her, had, without consulting Mrs. Eddy it would seem, completed her plans for building a magnificent new church on Riverside Drive, New York. This church, so it was announced, was to "rival in beauty of architecture any other religious structure in America," and it was to be built by Mrs. Stetson, and managed by her and an advisory board. Although Mrs. Stetson explained that the proposed new church would be organised regularly as a branch of the Mother Church in Boston and in accordance with the regulations laid down by Mrs. Eddy in the Church Manual, it was evident that Mrs. Eddy regarded the plan as a scheme of Mrs. Stetson's to rival the great Boston temple and to build up a church system of her own.