Strict rules govern the practice of Christian Science, and a practitioner is faced with a serious penalty for deviating from them — he will lose the power to heal.
Success in the Christ method of healing has always been subject to wholehearted faith in Truth and uncompromising fidelity to the rules of divine Principle. There were multitudes present when a man came to Jesus and implored him to heal his son. The boy was an epileptic, and the disciples had failed to cure him. Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?" He then healed the child himself. Later he told his disciples that the reason they were not successful was their lack of faith. He went on to say, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Matt. 17:17, 21;
Now, centuries later, there is still no room for quackery in the practice of spiritual healing. The rules of Christian Science are uncompromising, and in her writings Mrs. Eddy specifies a number of them. For example, she warns against:
