IN the Church Manual by Mrs. Eddy can be found "A Rule for Motives and Acts," which reads: "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously" (Art. VIII, Sect. 1). In providing this Rule, Mrs. Eddy has given us a most effective daily means of disciplining our thoughts.
One sometimes hears mankind described as creatures of habit, implying that men, knowingly or unknowingly, are subject to habits, which have the power to control their actions. Aren't we all familiar with the small whispering that goads us into pushing that car horn or that urges us to snap back if someone's correction embarrasses us or, even more subtly, that tricks us into seeing ourselves as loving and another as hateful? Thus the demands of the mortal senses would attempt to deprive us of our calm serenity, our joy, our harmony.
One of the insidious claims of mortal mind is the tendency to criticize destructively. When it is obvious what one bad apple can do in the way of spoiling a whole barrel of good apples, we can readily see that if we are to demonstrate our advancing dominion over the claims of material existence, it is mandatory that we get rid of habitual destructive criticism in our thinking. If we permit this specific form of error to remain unchallenged and uncorrected, if we indulge its usurping methods, it will eventually culminate in much to be repented of.
