Church defined by Mary Baker Eddy Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Glossary pg 583 with reader notes

Church

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Church defined by Mary Baker Eddy

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The Church to which The Mary Baker Eddy Institute is affiliated 

CHURCH:  
The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.   

Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy ~  [Chpt. 17 Glossary – Pg. 583]
Mary Baker Eddy

Notes for Readers by The Mary Baker Eddy Institute [MBEI]

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WHAT happened and HOW did it happen? 

1. Mary Baker Eddy [MBE] was given a prognosis of death by her physicians in 1866 due to a fall on the ice.
2. Being an avid student of the Bible, she opened her Bible and was healed by reading it.
3. She did not understand how this occurred so she embarked on an intense search.
4. During her pursuit, she started a church and later discovered that it was not constructive to continue it so closed it.
5. She later was convinced that most individuals needed the support of others also seeking this new way of life so she opened another church expecting it to be on a purely spiritual basis.
6. She was incorrect in her expectations and ended up with churches all over the world and a huge bureaucracy to manage the entire organization.
7. She wrote a “Manual” which included reference to “Deeds of Trusts with Estoppel Clauses” to place controls on the important functions of the “Church” whereby her signature was required to continue these provisions at short term intervals.
8. The “Manual” clearly stated it was a Manual for the “Church” in Boston, MA and that no “Branch Church” could utilize the By-Laws used by the Boston Church for their “Branch” but that the “Branch” had to be clearly self-governed.

9. In spite of intense pressure multiple times from the Board of Directors to convince her to remove the restrictions, she refused each and every time based on it being God that dictated those restrictive provisions.
10. Upon her passing, the Board of Directors were successful in convincing a “Judge” that she certainly did not mean what she wrote in the “Manual”. Thereupon, the judge gave them approval to assume the controls written in the Manual which belonged exclusively to Mary Baker Eddy. They ignored the Estoppel Clauses severely limiting the authority of the Boston church.
11. Due to the above, the momentum was exhausted in 1950 and the steep decline in all phases of what began as the greatest event ever to happen worldwide led by America would accelerate to nearly total extinction. The “field” BLINDLY ignored everything that was the opposite of Mary Baker Eddy’s instructions and followed like “SHEEP”.
12. Now, instead of 40 or 50 Branch Churches in the largest cities, there are perhaps 2 or 3 with an INACTIVE small membership. The revolutionary concept which was the seed was swallowed up by the evils which commonly plague many large entities.