In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has written (Science and Health p. 450), "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good." Surely every student of the glorious Science of Christianity feels the call for this enlistment the moment he begins to comprehend the message of the textbook. When the healing, redemptive light of Truth begins to banish the darkness of his material concepts, he must needs ask, like Saul of Tarsus, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" How may I best serve this greatest of all causes? How may I aid in the important work of bringing this healing message to my brothers?
That Christian Science is the Comforter, the very "Spirit of truth" promised by the Master, which is destined to establish the reign of harmony and brotherhood on earth, is not questioned by those who have definitely experienced bodily healings or mental transformation through its Christly ministration. So the question naturally arises, What are the necessary steps? Obviously, in due course, church membership will be attained, or in other words enlistment for service in the Christian Science organization.
Now the new recruit in any material army would first be drilled in a manual of arms; and the prospective Christian Science soldier has his Manual. It is called the Manual of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, and by many it is regarded as second in importance only to the textbook. The student of Christian Science, therefore, needs to make this vital little book his companion and guide, and to be thoroughly conversant with its Rules and By-Laws before applying for membership in The Mother Church or in one of its branches.
