Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/502

444 her carriage. To him, as representing the church body, she spoke her greeting. Her voice was very weak and she had aged visibly since her last official appearance. This was her last meeting with the general congregation of her church.

The yearning which these people felt toward Mrs. Eddy, and their rapture at beholding her, can only be described by one of the pilgrims. In the Journal, June, 1899, Miss Martha Sutton Thompson writes to describe a visit, which she made in January of that year to the meeting of the Christian Science Board of Education in Boston. She says:

When I decided to attend I also hoped to see our Mother. . . . I saw that if I allowed the thought that I must see her personally to transcend the desire to obey and grow into the likeness of her teachings, this mistake would obscure my understanding of both the Revelator and the Revelation. After the members of the Board had retired they reappeared upon the rostrum and my heart beat quickly with the thought "perhaps she has come." But no, it was to read her message. . . . She said God was with us and to give her love to all the class. It was so precious to get it directly from her.

The following day five of us made the journey to Concord, drove out to Pleasant View, and met her face to face on her daily drive. She seemed watching to greet us, for when she caught sight of our faces she instantly half rose with expectant face, bowing, smiling, and waving her hand to each of us. Then as she went out of our sight, kissed her hand to all.

I will not attempt to describe the Leader, nor can I say what this brief glimpse was and is to me. I can only say I wept and the tears start every time I think of it. Why do I weep? I think it is because I want to be like her and they are tears of repentance. I realise better now what it was that made Mary Magdalen weep when she came into the presence of the Nazarene.

After the pilgrimages were discouraged, there was no way in which her devoted disciples could ever see Mrs. Eddy. They used, indeed, like Miss Thompson, to go to Concord and linger about the highways to catch a glimpse of her as she drove by,