Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/85

Rh and annual meetings were overcrowded in The Mother Church, they were overcrowded in Tremont Temple, in Symphony Hall, and in the Mechanics Building, and the need was felt of an auditorium that would be of great seating capacity, and one that would have the sacred atmosphere of a church home.

In Mrs. Eddy's Message to the church in 1902 she suggested the need of a larger church edifice, and at the annual meeting of the same year the church voted to raise any part of two millions of dollars for the purpose of building a suitable edifice. The labor of clearing the land was begun in October, 1903, and the corner-stone was laid July 16, 1904.

The first annual meeting of the church was held in Chickering Hall, October 3, 1893, and the membership at that date was 1,545. The membership of this church to-day is 40,011. The number of candidates admitted June 5 of this year is the largest in the history of the church and numbers 4,889, which is 2,194 more than the hitherto largest admission, that of June, 1903. The total number admitted during the last year is 6,181. The total number of branch churches advertised in The Christian Science Journal of this June is 682, 614 of which show a membership of 41,944. The number of societies advertised in the Journal is 267.

Shortly before the dedication of The Mother Church in 1895, the Boston Evening Transcript said: “Wonders will never cease. Here is a church whose Treasurer has sent out word that no sums except those already subscribed can be received. The Christian Scientists have a faith of the mustard-seed variety. What a pity some of our