Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/465

Rh offerings were used to keep the room supplied with fresh flowers and to maintain the Athenian lamp. Mrs. Eddy showed her appreciation by dedicating to the "Busy Bees" her next book, Pulpit and Press, a thin volume made up of newspaper articles upon the Mother Church and interviews with Mrs. Eddy. This book sold at $1.06 a copy, but Mrs. Eddy announced that each of the 2,600 children who had contributed to her room should have one copy each at half price, fifty cents, postage extra. By this means the author secured an additional sale of 2,600 books, and the children had the advantage of the reduction in price. With the possible exception of the dedication there is certainly very little in this book of press clippings to tempt a youthful reader.

Dedicatory services were held in the Mother Church, January 6, 1895. Four times the service was repeated to audiences that filled the assembly-room, and an address from Mrs. Eddy was read. When her little congregation used to meet in Hawthorne Hall, Mrs. Eddy had usually been on hand to remind them that the gates of hell should not prevail against her; but at the dedication of her memorial church, with its membership of nearly three thousand, she was not present. Her absence must be considered as an indication of her failing strength. Afterward, indeed, she upon two occasions spoke from the pulpit of her new church, but the days on which she could be sure of herself were fewer than they used to be.

From this time on Mrs. Eddy was a name rather than a person in Boston. Her presence there was no longer necessary to her best interests. In obtaining absolute personal control of the Mother Church, with its national membership, she had