Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/317

Rh Prayer; then Mrs. Damon read from Science and Health, after which Mrs. Rice read from the Scriptures. The following record occurs for the meeting on September 5, 1880:

Meeting opened by Mrs. Damon in the usual way. Mrs. M. B. G. Eddy, having completed her summer vacation, was present and delivered a discourse on Mesmerism.

Whole number in attendance, twenty-two.

On the following Sunday the subject was again Mesmerism. Mrs. Eddy's resuming of her duties seems to have been marked by a vigorous return to this subject and by a marked increase in the attendance. On December 12, 1880, the Christian Scientists began to hold their services in the Hawthorne rooms, on Park Street, Boston. Mrs. Eddy usually preached and conducted the services, though occasionally one of her students took her place, and now and again a minister of some other denomination was invited to occupy the pulpit. In spite of the fact that she was always effective on the rostrum, Mrs. Eddy seemed to dread these Sunday services. The necessity for wearing spectacles embarrassed her. When she sometimes wore glasses in her own home, she apologised for doing so, explaining that it was a habit she often rose above, but that at times the mesmerists were too strong for her. She believed that the mesmerists set to work upon her before the hour of the weekly services, and on Sunday morning her faithful students were sometimes called to her house to treat her against Kennedy, Spofford, and Arens, until she took the train for Boston. Certain ones of the students were delegated to attend her from Lynn to Boston and to occupy front seats in the Hawthorne rooms for the