service had closed the large vestry room and the spacious lobbies and the sidewalks around the church were all filled with awaiting multitude. At 10:30 o'clock another service began, and at noon still another. Then there was an intermission, and at 3 p. m. the service was repeated for the last time.
There was scarcely even a minor variation in the exercises at any one of these services. At 10:30 a. m., however, the scene was rendered particularly interesting by the presence of several hundred children in the central pews. These were the little contributors to the building fund, whose money was devoted to the “Mother's Room,” a superb apartment intended for the sole use of Mrs. Eddy. These children are known in the church as the “Busy Bees,” and each of them wore a white satin badge with a golden beehive stamped upon it, and beneath the beehive the words, “Mother's Room,” in gilt letters.
The pulpit end of the auditorium was rich with the adornment of flowers. On the wall of the choir gallery above the platform, where the organ is to be hereafter placed, a huge seven-pointed star was hung — a star of lilies resting on palms, with a centre of white immortelles, upon which in letters of red were the words: “Love-Children's Offering — 1894.”
In the choir and the steps of the platform were potted palms and ferns and Easter lilies. The desk was wreathed with ferns and pure white roses fastened with a broad ribbon bow. On its right was a large basket of white carnations resting on a mat of palms, and on its left a vase filled with beautiful pink roses.
