Now, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time, all explanations of her religion except such as she shall let on to be her own?

I think so.  I think there can be no doubt of it.  In a way, they will be her own; for, no matter which member of her clerical staff shall furnish the explanations, not a line of them will she ever allow to be printed until she shall have approved it, accepted it, copyrighted it, cabbaged it.  We may depend on that with a four-ace confidence.

THE NEW INFALLIBILITY

All in proper time Mrs. Eddy’s factory will take hold of that Commandment, and explain it for good and all.  It may be that one member of the shift will vote that the word “all” means all; it may be that ten members of the shift will vote that “all” means only a percentage; but it is Mrs. Eddy, not the eleven, who will do the deciding.  And if she says it is percentage, then percentage it is, forevermore—­and that is what I am expecting, for she doesn’t sell all herself, nor any considerable part of it, and as regards the poor, she doesn’t declare any dividend; but if she says “all” means all, then all it is, to the end of time, and no follower of hers will ever be allowed to reconstruct that text, or shrink it, or inflate it, or meddle with it in any way at all.  Even to-day —­right here in the beginning—­she is the sole person who, in the matter of Christian Science exegesis, is privileged to exploit the Spiral Twist.  The Christian world has two Infallibles now.

Of equal power?  For the present only.  When Leo XIII. passes to his rest another Infallible will ascend his throne; others, and yet others, and still others will follow him, and be as infallible as he, and decide questions of doctrine as long as they may come up, all down the far future; but Mary Baker G. Eddy is the only Infallible that will ever occupy the Science throne.  Many a Science Pope will succeed her, but she has closed their mouths; they will repeat and reverently praise and adore her infallibilities, but venture none themselves.  In her grave she will still outrank all other Popes, be they of what Church they may.  She will hold the supremest of earthly titles, The Infallible—­with a capital T. Many in the world’s history have had a hunger for such nuggets and slices of power as they might reasonably hope to grab out of an empire’s or a religion’s assets, but Mrs. Eddy is the only person alive or dead who has ever struck for the whole of them.  For small things she has the eye of a microscope, for large ones the eye of a telescope, and whatever she sees, she wants.  Wants it all.

THE SACRED POEMS

When Mrs. Eddy’s “sacred revelations” (that is the language of the By-laws) are read in public, their authorship must be named.  The By-laws twice command this, therefore we mention it twice, to be fair.