Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/394

348 Concord. This does not mean that she was unwilling to receive her students when she could fittingly arrange to do so. At the June communion service in 1895 a telegram from her was read to the congregation in which she invited all members who desired to call upon her to go to Pleasant View on the following day. About two hundred responded to this invitation, and Mrs. Eddy threw her house open, receiving them with great kindness, shaking hands with all, and conversing with many at length. This general reception was repeated in 1897, when she was obliged to receive nearly three thousand guests. She could not personally greet such a large company, so she received them en masse, making a lengthy address and having refreshments served upon her lawn.

Mrs. Eddy sent no message of invitation in 1898, but a great many students made the pilgrimage to Concord nevertheless, and were obliged to content themselves with seeing her start on her drive. It became generally known to her church that their Leader was not pleased to have these annual visits take the appearance to the world of a pilgrimage of adoration, for it had begun to be spoken of as though she had withdrawn from daily intercourse with them only to secure a personal adulation greater than that accorded to any living woman. This of all things Mrs. Eddy desired to avoid, for the charge of apotheosis lurked behind any demonstration of her students’ affection. So for several years such visits were discouraged.

But in 1901, the year in which Mrs. Eddy was