Christian Science teaches that evil under any guise must not be permitted to masquerade in or as the individual's experience, directly or indirectly. One who is not actively confronting error with the understanding that error is nothing because God is All and creates only that which is good is in some measure acted upon by the very claims he should unmask.
In Article VIII of the Manual by Mrs. Eddy, Section 6 is entitled "Alertness to Duty." The first sentence reads, "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind."
The progress of the individual Christian Scientist, the advancement of the Cause of Christian Science, and the very welfare of humanity are dependent in no small measure on the obedience of each church member to this By-Law. Accordingly the alert student recognizes any tendency to ignore or to slight this duty as a claim of animal magnetism and joyously fulfills the purpose of his enlistment as defined in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (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. Sickness to him is no less a temptation than is sin, and he heals them both by understanding God's power over them. The Christian Scientist knows that they are errors of belief, which Truth can and 'will destroy."
