Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/499



MRS. EDDY ADOPTS THE TITLE OF "MOTHER"—BEGINNING OF THE CONCORD PILGRIMAGES—MRS. EDDY HINTS AT HER POLITICAL INFLUENCE—THE BUILDING OF THE MOTHER CHURCH EXTENSION

the opening of the Mother Church in Boston, Christian Science was generally recognised as an established religion. The church had now a general membership of 1,500 and a substantial house of worship; and although the very foundation and fabric of the church was a denial of the visible and material, nothing served to give it recognition and standing like this actual sign of its existence. At the World's Congress of Religions in Chicago in 1893, Septimus J. Hanna, who was then pastor of the Mother Church, read an address, composed of selections from Mrs. Eddy's books, which attracted favourable attention, and Mrs. Eddy, as the founder of the church, became