Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/457

Rh various conveyances on the Falmouth Street property, and she desired that it should not directly appear in future transactions. She now had the land deeded to her student, Ira O. Knapp. Mr. Knapp then conveyed the property to three trustees, Alfred Lang, Marcellus Munroe, and William G. Nixon, who were to hold it for the purpose of building a church thereon. The trust deed by which the conveyance was made was of such an unusual character that Mr. Nixon insisted upon having the title examined before the trustees should place on the lot a building paid for by Christian Scientists residing in all parts of the United States. After examining it, the Massachusetts Title Insurance Company refused to insure the title, and, in spite of Mrs. Eddy's argument that "the title was from God, and that no material title could affect God's temple," the three trustees returned all the donations to the building fund which they had received, and resigned. The property was now conveyed by Mr. Knapp to Mrs. Eddy (who had in reality been its owner all the while) for a consideration of one dollar, and Mrs. Eddy began all over again.

On September 1, 1892, Mrs. Eddy conveyed this much-bandied-about plot of ground to four new trustees: Ira O. Knapp, William B. Johnson, Joseph S. Eastaman, and Stephen A. Chase, who were pledged to erect upon the site, within five years, a church building costing not less than $50,000. Among the provisos of the trust deed were the following:

That in this church there should be no services "which shall not be in strict harmony with the doctrines and practice of Christian Science as taught and explained by Mary Baker G. Eddy in the seventy-first edition of her book, entitled Science