Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/483

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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

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but now that she worked through other people, her plans were not executed so rapidly, and she had time to change her mind before her first decision was made public. It was now possible for her executives to present questions to her with some care. They kept Mrs. Eddy informed upon the affairs of the Boston church and upon what went on in the field, but petty annoyances they kept from her. Her inability to interfere hourly gave her assistants an opportunity to execute her wishes temperately and successfully. Mrs. Eddy, the "Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science," was still in the field, through her executives, as active and powerful as ever; while Mrs. Eddy, the woman, with her disturbing personal idiosyncrasies, was safely housed at Pleasant View, surrounded by devoted and sympathetic persons whose constant care it was to calm and soothe her.

After she first took up her residence at Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy visited Boston four times, and on each occasion remained in the city only a few hours.^[1] In her retirement she has not been cut off from such of her followers as she has wished to see. By a by-law of the church, Mrs. Eddy is empowered to send for any Christian Scientist, wherever he may be, and to bring him to Pleasant View, to serve her for as long as twelve months, if need be, in whatever capacity she may designate; his recompense

↑ The first of these was on April 1, 1895, when she came unannounced, bringing the members of her Concord household with her, and inspected, for the first time, the newly completed Mother Church. She spent the night in the building, occupying the folding-bed in the Mother Room, while her attendants slept all night in the pews. The next month, on Sunday, May 26, Mrs. Eddy went again to the Mother Church and spoke from the pulpit for twenty minutes. Again, in February, 1896, she preached in the Mother Church, returning to Concord in a private car the same afternoon. She made her fourth visit to Boston on Monday, June 5, 1899. She spent the night in her Commonwealth Avenue house, then occupied by Septimus J. Hanna, the reader of the Mother Church, and on Tuesday afternoon she appeared at the annual meeting of the church, held in Tremont Temple. Mrs. Eddy addressed the meeting briefly, and returned to Concord the same afternoon.

[1] The first of these was on April 1, 1895, when she came unannounced, bringing the members of her Concord household with her, and inspected, for the first time, the newly completed Mother Church. She spent the night in the building, occupying the folding-bed in the Mother Room, while her attendants slept all night in the pews. The next month, on Sunday, May 26, Mrs. Eddy went again to the Mother Church and spoke from the pulpit for twenty minutes. Again, in February, 1896, she preached in the Mother Church, returning to Concord in a private car the same afternoon. She made her fourth visit to Boston on Monday, June 5, 1899. She spent the night in her Commonwealth Avenue house, then occupied by Septimus J. Hanna, the reader of the Mother Church, and on Tuesday afternoon she appeared at the annual meeting of the church, held in Tremont Temple. Mrs. Eddy addressed the meeting briefly, and returned to Concord the same afternoon.

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