Mrs. Eddy's move to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1891 was not a retirement from founding Christian Science. During the next almost twenty years, although largely secluded from the world—in Concord and later in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts—she stayed very active. Revisions of Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, attention to a constant flow of correspondence, decisions about the future structure and operation of the Church of Christ, Scientist, occupied her days. In 1908 she founded The Christian Science Monitor. Mrs. Eddy explained her seclusion to her followers in nearby Concord in the following way: "I shall be with you personally very seldom. I have a work to do that, in the words of our Master, 'ye know not of.' From the interior of Africa to the utmost parts of the earth, the sick and the heavenly homesick or hungry hearts are calling on me for help, and I am helping them."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 147;
What a record of spiritual achievement and dedication these years contain! It is clear that at this time Mrs. Eddy was listening more intently and loving more widely than ever before; that she was battling right out on the frontiers of advanced, Christianly scientific thinking; and that personal withdrawal was simply the prelude to deeper mental and spiritual outreach.
To me, this mental pathway traced by the Leader of Christian Science is something that can be emulated in some degree by each of us. By choice or circumstance most of us have our precise sphere, of greater or lesser scope—though one may well expect to enjoy broadening horizons. But there need be no restriction of our thoughts; they can go as wide and deep as our spiritual vision allows. Like our Leader, we can reach out to "the sick and the heavenly homesick."
