IN the course of human progress ideals of government have advanced from autocratic to democratic forms, from despotic sovereignty to "government of the people, by the people, for the people," as Abraham Lincoln phrased it. As a nursery of that phase of moral awakening known as the social conscience, democracy represents the highest type of human government. The guiding star of Principle, which, dimly recognized, has piloted mankind to the point where the democratic ideal is winning its way among the nations of the earth, has in these latter days shone forth in the clear, definite revelation of Christian Science.
This Science shows that in order to be secure, democratic institutions must rest on the rock of an intelligent, demonstrable understanding of Principle, instead of the shifting sands of human political economy, material sociology, and experimental psychology. Up to the present time political, social, and religious systems inspired by the democratic ideal have to a large extent succumbed to materializing tendencies and fallen into decadence. Christian Scientists are therefore confronted with the proposition of maintaining the integrity of their organization by making the demonstration over foes which in the past have led to the undoing of organization.
Like every development which has come about in the orderly unfolding of Christian Science, the Manual provided for the guidance of The Mother Church and its branches was the result of demonstration. Because of its comprehensiveness and adaptation to the requirements of spiritual growth, this unique code has already justified itself in ways that mere human foresight could not have anticipated. The manner in which our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, came to adopt, one by one, the rules embodied in this denominational handbook, as related by her in a letter on page 148 of "Miscellaneous Writings," illustrates the fact that the thought which waits humbly and expectantly on God is led to build even better than it knows. Time alone can disclose the full significance of the divine plan which is being worked out as a consistent whole in the successive stages of the Christian Science movement, in The Mother Church and in its branches throughout the whole world.
