Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, included among the ByLaws in the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, some simple provisions pertaining to church membership. These requirements provide a sheltering defense for students of this Science of Christianity who are qualified to assume the responsibilities of membership.
Membership in The Mother Church and in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, connotes one of the happiest of human experiences. Members of a Christian Science church rejoicingly serve, in order that they may express the gratitude they entertain for lives regenerated through the tender ministrations of Christian Science. Their desire is that the beneficent truth may be brought to all humanity through authorized channels.
Students of Christian Science realize that the Christlikeness of the membership is of major import to the movement. Upon the spiritual attainments of the individual members rests the demonstration of the healing work accomplished throughout the Field. Therefore, qualifications for membership include no cold intellectualism, no merely pedantic familiarity with the letter of Science. Rather do the requirements indicate the need for spiritualization of thought, for cultivation of the graces of Spirit, and for a reverential concept of God and His Christ, as understood in Christian Science.
