The annual meeting of a Christian Science pupils' association is not merely an event in time; it is a spiritual experience. Established by Mary Baker Eddy and functioning under the sacred provisions which she gives in the Manual of The Mother Church, the yearly gathering of the pupils of the association of an authorized teacher of Christian Science illustrates the perpetual renewing of spiritual inspiration. The meeting typifies the continual reappearing to human consciousness of the Christ, Truth, which, though never absent from spiritual consciousness, often seems humanly to appear more clearly at a time or season of renewed unfoldment, hope, and fulfillment.
In all human experience, order appears as a quality of goodness or godliness. The orderly conditions under which the heavenly experience of an association meeting is provided for are fully set forth in Articles XXVI through XXX in the Church Manual.
In the light of these By-Laws, it is understood that a pupil will not in the same calendar year attend both his own and another association. If a student is called to address the association of pupils of another teacher, an exception is made to this requirement. While there may be an occasional legitimate reason for attending elsewhere, the pupil has a primary obligation to attend his own. If the association of the pupils of a loyal teacher is to meet annually, as the Manual provides, how shall it meet unless the pupils be present? Surely the obligation to be present rests no less upon one than upon all. The student who has had class instruction from an authorized teacher of Christian Science accepted this obligation and should have a continuous expectation of being present at the annual meeting of the pupils of that teacher.
