The chapter first appeared in the 226th edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which was announced as ready for distribution in the Christian Science Sentinel dated January 30, 1902. Two of Mary Baker Eddy’s students, Edward A. Kimball and William P. McKenzie, oversaw the production of this edition and compiled “Fruitage” from testimonies Mrs. Eddy sent them for that purpose.
Almost all the testimonies were replaced in 1906 and 1907, although it’s not clear why these changes occurred.
In October 1906 Eddy sent her student Edward Norwood a group of testimonies and asked him to select some for “Fruitage,” stating: “Please read carefully all the Testimonials in the copy and select those which you consider the best and place the most attractive testimonials at the commencement of the chapter on ‘Fruitage.’”1 Norwood was responsible at this time for supervising the proofreading of the plates for the new 1907 edition of Science and Health. He received a package of testimonies clipped from the Christian Science Sentinel and the Journal, and individually pasted onto sheets. He records in his reminiscence: “A large number of pages of Sentinel testimonies was sent me, and I was directed to select the best of them, revise them, prune them, mentioning not more than two diseases, and giving each a title. In fact, a new ‘Fruitage’ was put in. This, itself, was quite a job, but of course I was glad to do it.”2
We have in our files Norwood’s accepted and rejected testimonies. The earliest date on any of them is October 1901. None of the testimonies he edited came from the 1902 edition, and most appeared in the Christian Science periodicals between 1902 and 1907. The bulk was from the Sentinel, with a few also from the Journal. Only one testimony from the 1902 edition of “Fruitage” also appeared in 1907 edition, titled “Desire for Liquor and Tobacco Disappeared.” It appears on pages 693-694 of today’s edition. We don’t know why this single testimony appears in both editions, and Norwood’s papers do not include a draft of it.
When announcements of the new 1907 edition began to appear, they made no special mention of the changes to “Fruitage.”
