True censorship is necessary, but how shall it be exercised? Shall mortal mind or divine Mind set down and apply the rules for the conduct of mankind? Mrs. Eddy's writings strike the keynote of the chord of harmony by which the discords of mortal mind are censored. Her discovery, Christian Science, is the keenest critic or censor before the world today, because it gives that understanding of the unchangeable Principle which is eternal Love, liberating those who are unjustly bound by material laws. To keep one's self in true law and order is to serve God and thus gain freedom, reflecting the light of inspiration in all the walks of life, rendering the sweet essence of obedience to God.
In the course of the growth of the Christian Science organization from a local to a universal body, there came into being the Manual of The Mother Church, written to guard and to guide, to protect and not to punish, and to fold the unthinking sheep in a safe place while the wolves prowled about outside for their prey. After issuing this Manual Mrs. Eddy wrote: "Heaps upon heaps of praise confront me, and for what? That which I said in my heart would never be needed,—namely, laws of limitation for a Christian Scientist" (Miscellany, p. 229).
Evidently, then, the Manual of The Mother Church was necessitated by the limitations imposed upon Christian Scientists themselves through mortal mind. Not their spiritual attainments, but their lack of demonstration forced the Leader of Christian Science to that modern restatement in practical form of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. It may not have occurred to many that natural, spontaneous obedience to Truth and Love and to the inspired Word gives the very results for which the Manual was written. Our Leader needed no Manual of rules and by-laws for herself, nor did Jesus need the Ten Commandments, for he carried them a step farther into metaphysics by his Sermon on the Mount.
