Items of Interest

Dr. Lyman P. Powell, Rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, The Bronx, New York City, is to lecture in Symphony Hall, Boston, on the evening of Tuesday, May 3, on the subject of "Mary Baker Eddy, Educator." Mr. Crosby Gaige, the well-known producer, is sponsoring the lecture. Dr. Powell was educated at Johns Hopkins University. His activities have not been confined to the ministry, but have included newspaper and educational work. For five years he was president of Hobart College, at Geneva, New York.

Dr. Powell is the author of the well-known biography of Mrs. Eddy entitled "Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait," which was issued in 1930 in this country, England, and Australia, has since been translated into Swedish, and now is in process of translation into the German language.

The Christian Science Monitor in a review of Dr. Powell's biography of Mrs. Eddy called the book a "fascinating portrait," and described the author as "a writer who has refused, on the one hand, to fall victim to the present biographical vogue of cynicism, or, on the other hand, to be deterred by the wariness, amounting at times to straight-out prejudice, with which church leaders are sometimes inclined to view such a study." Dr. Powell's book was almost unanimously commended by newspaper reviewers as characterized by dignity and integrity of purpose, and as based on a sympathetic and impartial study of original sources not theretofore available. As one newspaper said, "This volume, then, offers a highly intelligent and wholly comprehensible portrait of Mrs. Eddy, with the essentially immanent background of her work," Since Dr. Powell's book has had so wide a circulation, it is reasonable to expect that his lectures will be equally interesting and instructive, not only to Christian Scientists, but to others, including communicants of other churches.

As a convenience to strangers visiting cities and stopping in hotels, church directories are generally maintained in hotel lobbies. Usually the local Christian Science churches see that their cards are included in such directories and are kept up to date. It has been found that some notation in these cards indicating in each hotel the branch Church of Christ, Scientist, which is nearest, may be helpful to one who does not know the local distances and directions. A traveler writes that often he takes a taxicab to a church in a strange city only to find that he could have attended one nearer. Branch churches can readily anticipate the need for this information by adding brief directions to their printed notices in hotels,

The Mother Church Reading Room formerly located in the building at 206 Massachusetts Avenue, one of the buildings which was demolished to make room for the new Publishing House, has reopened at 60 Norway Street, corner of Massachusetts Avenue. Its new quarters are somewhat larger than the old, and are attractively finished and furnished.

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