The great day has come and gone. The new edifice of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, has been duly and formally dedicated to the service of God. The temple has been appropriately consecrated to its divine purpose, and all Christian Scientists rejoice thereat. This house of Love now stands before the world an accomplished fact, and its significance if not fully understood is at least becoming partially manifest even to non-Scientists. The gathering to witness the dedicatory exercises was, perhaps all things considered, the most notable and memorable of any thus far in the history of Christian Science. The keen edge of disappointment felt at the absence of the Teacher and Leader, the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy, was softened by the fact that she was present in spirit, and in her sermon, which was prepared for and read upon the occasion. This remarkable deliverance will be duly published in pamphlet form, so that all may have it to read and ponder, and place away as a happy memento. It would be useless to undertake to describe the intentness with which it was listened to at each reading, or its effect upon its understanding and appreciative hearers. From every standpoint, Scientific, literary and religious, it was without spot or blemish, and peerless in its majestic tone.
From all over the land, —from North and South and West, from New England and from Canada, nay, even from across the sea, came the adherents of Truth and faithful students of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to witness and participate in the ceremonies. It is difficult to accurately estimate the exact number, but from every ordinary method of computation, it is safe to say there were five thousand present; and yet these constituted but a comparatively small part of the students. Notwithstanding every effort was made to reach the entire field with the notice, it is doubtless true that many failed to receive it in time to make the long distances necessary to have put them down in Boston on the day. Had the notice been longer no doubt many hundreds, if not thousands, more would have come. The home-guard was much larger than the van-guard, and yet it is one of the beauties of our glorious Truth, that all could be, and were, present to every practical intent and purpose, and no reason exists why they should not receive as full a measure of the blessing as if they had been there in propria persona. All is Mind; and all whose thought has been sufficiently awakened, can in mental mood and spiritual fact, assemble in "one place and in one accord" as effectually as if the physical personality were perceptible. Yet the privilege of personal presence had its many compensations, and none who came would have failed to come could they have foreseen their blessed experiences.
The unique and beautiful auditorium — indescribable in its rich luxuriousness of harmonious and tasteful arrangement and decoration — was filled to repletion at the first three services, and well filled at the fourth and last.
