Q: Is it all right for a First Reader to read from Fruitage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy for the Wednesday testimony meeting readings?
A: If you’re asking if there is any Church Manual By-Law that indicates a Reader should not use citations from this chapter, the answer is I haven’t found one. There is no record that Mrs. Eddy even commented on this. Her instructions are specific that the readings at Wednesday meetings should be from the Bible and Science and Health. (She also didn’t specify the King James Version of the Bible, although this is the translation most traditionally used.)
In issues of the Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel many years after Mrs. Eddy’s passing (1938, 1939, 1954), policy directives stated that lines from Fruitage should not be included in the Wednesday readings. A handbook for Readers, published by The Christian Science Publishing Society and circulated for many years, also included this policy. As I recall, the reasoning at that time was that the testimonies in Fruitage were not Mrs. Eddy’s words.
