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This period was so rich in scientific growth, personal teaching and healing work, and the involvement of others, that it seemed hardly possible to imagine that this should be but a beginning. But so it was. Science is a thing of life that is constantly unfolding. Without this constant growth it falls into regression and disintegrates into religiosity.
After 20 years of scientific advance Mary Baker Eddy's work appeared to reached an impasse, as she had evidently realized that the mentality of the age was too narrow in its perception in order for society to keep pace with her still ongoing development of the Science she had discovered. Thus, she closed the doors of her metaphysical college in 1889 and devoted the next two years of her life to incorporate into her textbook an outline for a scientific structure for spiritual development that would carry the leading edge of her Science for all times to come and continue the drive for continuous discovery and development. The outline was presented with a precisely defined architecture and a rich body of detailed definitions, but with an open architecture that makes the structure capable of supporting infinite development.
This development structure became eventually the foundation for the reorganization of her church, but mostly it appears to have been designed for future ages. The creation and establishment of this structure can be classified as Mary Baker Eddy third major accomplishment. It unfolded over a period of nineteen years. If one considers the scientific background behind her work during this period, it comes as no surprise that this period is identified by historians as "the years of authority." Scientific self-government does indeed create a platform for authority.
Mary Baker Eddy may also have recognized that authority and proof in healing is not enough to fully address the broad spectrum of divine metaphysics. The challenge was to provide a link that would bring together the tallest aspect of her Science on one hand, and universal humanity on the other, as a means for uplifting civilization. Such a challenge would be met, logically, if it were possible to establish a universal platform of Science that becomes applicable to all areas of human living, especially to universal history, to universal public policy, etc., in order that the advanced dimension of divine Science comes to light in concrete manifests in meeting the human needs of mankind.
The above, of course, is pure conjecture based on historic events. It is a fact, however, that Mary Baker Eddy set out in early January 1908 - in her 87th year, long past the point when most people retire on their laurels - and moved her entire household from her beloved farm estate in New Hampshire into the middle of the city of Boston in order to establish that newspaper that was so tremendously important to her. The reasons she gave for giving up her cherished home appeared to be limited to what she could say without pointing to the deeper aspects of her Science that no one at her time had been able to discover, much less deal with. She simply defined goal of her paper: "To bless all mankind, and to injure none."
It appears that when the Christian Science Monitor was created, the great need for this unique paper would not be recognized. It appears that she acknowledged that it would not be recognized until the Science that requires it would be more fully understood. That this paper had a unique mission, perhaps a symbolic one, although one that is essential to the entire structure of science that she had created, is evident by the intense personal effort and commitment that she devoted to the project.
Nothing, up to this point, had caused her to give up her home in Concord; not the work of founding her church, not the legal details that were connected with it, not the creating of its governing Manual, the day to day functioning of the church, its branches, nor the construction of the central church organization and its edifice in Boston. But this final project, the launching of her newspaper, was different. Its scope was evidently momentous, and the task vital. Deep beneath the surface it appears that everything she had accomplished in the prior forty years would be incomplete without this final step that formally embraced the world and brought it into the context of the advanced dimension of her discoveries and her science. She formally rendered, thereby, the sum total of her achievements as a foundation for elevating the civilization of humanity.
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Stories about
Sex
from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche
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