present. The pastor was an old-school expounder of the strictest Presbyterian doctrines. He was apparently as eager to have unbelievers in these dogmas lost, as he was to have elect believers converted, and rescued from perdition ; for both salvation and condemnation depended, according to his views, upon the good pleasure of infinite Love. However, I was ready for his doleful questions, which I answered without a tremor, declaring that I could never unite with the church, if assent to this doctrine was essential thereto * * * * To the astonishment of many, the good clergyman's heart also melted, and he received me into their communion, and my protest along with me." Mrs. Eddy continued a member of the Congregational Church until after she organized a church of her own.
It was in 1866, after many disappointments and sorrows which culminated in invalidism, that she met with an accident while living in Lynn, Mass. As a result she found herself in a critical condition, and in her extremity her thoughts turned to God, and, as she afterwards more fully realized, she thus came in touch with the divine influence, and was instantly healed. This experience caused her to ponder upon the subject of spiritual healing. She was impressed that what she had experienced on the momentous occasion above mentioned might be repeated in all cases of sickness and disorder, if mortals could but understand how to approach the infinite Spirit. For the next three years she made a constant study of this subject, searched the Scriptures night and day, and finally arrived at the conclusions which, in 1875, she set forth to the world in her text-book, "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures." She attached the name "Christian Science" to her teaching, and at once began to put her ideas to a practical test by healing the sick. The propaganda of her system of thought was effected by the circulation of her book and also by the personal instruction which she gave to those who sought it. In 1879 she estab-
