Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/345

Rh followed him, and for some time did Mrs. Eddy's housework. Returning ill to Lawrence, she underwent a severe surgical operation, and at last died in reduced circumstances at the home of a relative. Lydia was an ardent Christian Scientist, and almost until the day she died stoutly declared that she "did not believe in death."

From the day Calvin Frye entered the service of Mrs. Eddy, he lived in literal accordance with the suggestion of that passage in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy reminds us that Jesus acknowledged no family ties and bade us call no man father. Mrs. Eddy demanded of her followers all that they had to give, and Mr. Frye, certainly, complied with her demand. When his father, Enoch Frye III., died, on April 22, 1886, four years after the son had entered Mrs. Eddy's service, Calvin went down to Lawrence to attend the funeral, but his precipitate haste indicated a short leave of absence. On the way to the cemetery he stopped the carriage and boarded a street-car bound for the railway-station, in order to catch the next train back to Boston. By the time his sister Lydia died, four years later, Calvin had become so completely absorbed in his new life and duties that he did not acknowledge the notification of her death, did not go to her funeral, and did not respond to a request for a small amount of money to help defray the burial expenses. For him family ties no longer existed, and death had become merely a belief.