Obedience rightly understood is one of the most potent factors in bringing about a demonstration of Christian Science. There are two states of thought found among Christian Scientists, both of which are called obedience. One is the mere following of the letter of a request made by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy; the other is the fulfilling in form of some of the requirements of The Mother Church, while at the same time retaining a desire to follow one's own inclinations. For example, a student goes through the Lesson-Sermon daily, subscribes for the periodicals, attends the Sunday services and Wednesday evening testimony meetings; but unless his heart is in his acts, none of these performances are the result of true obedience. Jesus referred to this condition when he said, "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."
In her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (pp. 8, 9) Mrs. Eddy refers to this mental condition thus: "I sometimes advise students not to do certain things which I know it were best not to do, and they comply with my counsel; but, watching them, I discern that this obedience is contrary to their inclination. Then I sometimes withdraw that advice and say: 'You may do it if you desire.' But I say this not because it is the best thing to do; but because the student is not willing—therefore, not ready—to obey." One who indulges this phase of unwilling thought, believing it to be obedience, receives little from following the behests of our Leader or of her church, because he does not entertain a correct sense of willing service.
Willing obedience, on the contrary, is the open sesame to true service; it fits thought to receive that understanding of God which means demonstration of His presence and power. In willing obedience there is no sense of a human self. The only self taken into consideration is that which joyfully and unquestioningly follows the right and needful course.
