Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/475

Rh in the Dark Ages. As Foster Eddy wrote concerning the 1891 edition:

Mother has never had time, until the last two years, to take the numerous gems she has found in the deep mines of truth and polish them on Heaven's emery wheel, arrange them in order, and give them a setting so that all could behold and see their perfect purity. Now here they all are in this new revised "Science and Health."

By the time the 1891 edition was exhausted, about one hundred and fifty thousand copies of Science and Health had been sold since the book was first published in 1875. This did not mean that one hundred and fifty thousand persons owned copies of the book,—there are not half that many Christian Scientists in the world to-day,—but that every Christian Scientist owned several copies. The Journal told them that they could not own too many.

Mrs. Eddy always displayed great ingenuity in stimulating the demand for her books. In 1897, when she first published her book Miscellaneous Writings,—a volume of her collected editorials from the Journal,—she issued the following pronunciamento:

Christian Scientists in the United States and Canada are hereby enjoined not to teach a student of Christian Science for one year, commencing March 14, 1897. "Miscellaneous Writings" is calculated to prepare the minds of all true thinkers to understand the Christian Science text book more correctly than a student can. The Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and my other published works are the only proper instructors for this hour. It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and to sell as many of these books as they can.

If a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist shall fail to obey this injunction it shall render him liable to lose his membership in this church.