At this season the thoughts of Christian Scientists the world over are turning with eager interest and keen anticipation to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, expectantly awaiting the reports of its government and the fruition of its activities. Likewise are the thoughts of much of the world centered with close observation upon the internal politics of the United States, which during the coming months will carry on the presidential election campaigns, the results of which will play an important role in shaping world policies of stabilization and peace. Throughout the world, humanity's great need is to gain a truer sense of God's government and to reflect His government in individual lives.
To this end Mary Baker Eddy has given her followers certain daily admonitions which, if alertly and intelligently observed, will prove of inestimable value to the Christian Scientist in making him a more spiritually-minded church member and a better citizen. One student, through consulting the Concordance to Mrs. Eddy's writings other than the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," drew up for himself the following list of seven such admonitions, which he prefaced with daily prayerful pondering of the definition of Church (Science and Health, p. 583) and the requirements for joining the church as outlined on page 35 of the textbook, lines 20 through 25. In this reference our Leader makes it plain that uniting with the church is no mere outward form or ceremony, but spiritual regeneration—the new birth—expressed in bringing forth the healing fruits of Truth and Love.
The admonitions in the order in which the student listed them are as follows. The first four are in the Manual of The Mother Church: 1. Article VIII, Section 6, wherein is pointed out the duty of each member of the Church to be alert and defend himself each day against, the aggressive suggestions of evil; 2. Article VIII, Section 1, which gives him a rule to govern his motives and acts; 3. Article VIII, Section 4, which outlines the prayer that he shall pray each day for himself and for all mankind; 4. A sentence from Article XVII, Section 2, which gives this pertinent reminder: "Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years." Obedience to this little sentence would banish doubt, discouragement, grief, or depression, for none of these can exist in the heart wherein gratitude and love actively abide each day. As one realizes that his daily experience mirrors forth his daily thinking, the priceless worth of this loving counsel of our Leader's is obvious. The Christian Scientist knows that gratitude is more than lip service. It is the continual acknowledgment of the spiritual fact of God's allness and of man's oneness with God, lived in our daily lives.
