Why is it that we immediately and instinctively realize there can be no unethical practice of Christian Science? Isn't it because the practice of this Science is the practice of God's invariable law, and this law permits no deviation from the rule of Principle, Truth, and Love? Mary Baker Eddy, the one who discovered and founded the Science of Christ, once answered the question, "How would you define Christian Science?" in this way: "As the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony." Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1; The practice of this law is a healing practice and an ethical practice.
The invariability of God's law is our assurance that it is always available and always completely applicable to our human needs. But this law's invariability is two-pronged. It is unvaryingly available, but in God's way. We cannot vary divine law to suit our personal purposes. We must accept it as it is, as God has established it in His infinite wisdom. We must conform to its requirements with our whole heart if we are to be in the line of its action and its blessings. We cannot willfully or ignorantly transgress God's law and expect at the same time to benefit from its self-enforcing action.
Human law is effective only as it is enforced. God's law, however, is self-enforcing. It does not depend upon someone to make it effective; it is always operative everywhere. Obedience to this law, honest conformity of our thoughts and actions to its operation, opens and fits our heart to receive its infinite blessings. Disobedience to it closes our thought to its benefits, so that we forfeit them. Thus God's law invariably enforces itself.
So it is with Truth. Since Truth is God, a departure from truthfulness, however harmless and trivial it may seem, is nevertheless a departure from God and a forfeiture to that degree of the divine power that is always operating to bless.
Those who are becoming interested in Christian Science, and are seeking to apply divine law for themselves or others, soon find that they are blessed by this law as they keep their thought and conduct consistent with it. If they are not completely obedient to it, their problems are not fully resolved. It is His will that is done, not our own, and we need to place ourselves in harmony with it. Ethical and moral conduct is the visible evidence that we are thinking and reasoning consistently with God's law.
One who is engaging in immoral practices finds that his ability to invoke the power of God's law is proportionately weakened, for a departure from the line of its operation separates him from the fruit of its operation. Immorality is a denial of the inherent validity of Love and Principle and Truth, and it separates one from the fruit that they bear after their kind. Ethics and morality may seem to be merely human arrangements, but they go much deeper than that. Divine law cannot be practiced successfully in Christian Science healing without complete conformity to the highest standards of ethics and morality.
The ethics of Christian Science practice is not a mere human code of conduct. It is the result of the application of divine law to human conduct, and from this standpoint can be seen as a code of spiritually based requirements.
A search of Mrs. Eddy's writings, particularly the Manual of The Mother Church, to find the rules of conduct that she has established for the members of her Church in their practice of Christian Science is richly rewarding. Article VIII, Section 22 of the Manual includes the requirement: "Members of this Church shall hold in sacred confidence all private communications made to them by their patients; also such information as may come to them by reason of their relation of practitioner to patient." Isn't such confidentiality an inevitable consequence of conformity to Principle? The divinely loving practitioner does not violate this confidence, does not even divulge the name of a patient directly or indirectly in order to impress someone or to attract other patients or for any other reason. He is conscious of the invariability of God's law and its statement in the Church Manual, perceiving its preeminence above human concepts either of good or of evil.
The practitioner who is impelled by God's law of love is, of course, completely willing to reduce his charges in special cases, as Section 22 of Article VIII requires. And he is equally willing to be obedient to Mrs. Eddy's divinely inspired requirement given in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: "Christian Science practitioners should make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities." Miscellany, p. 237; And, as Mrs. Eddy instructs elsewhere, he should honestly earn his payment.See Rud. 14:4-7; The patient, on the other hand, obedient to the divine requirement in the Manual that "gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years," Man., Art. XVII, Sect. 2; is happy to make his payment according to this standard. As the Bible says, "The labourer is worthy of his hire." Luke 10:7;
The Golden Rule of Love of course precludes a practitioner from endeavoring to monopolize the healing work in his area.See Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 30. His love for the new practitioner or any other practitioner is no less than for his own patients. His love conforms to the law of divine Love, which, being invariable, is necessarily universal and all-embracing.
This love is expressed also in his constant alertness to help the patient see how to do his own work. Far from any attempt to hang on to a patient, a primary aim of the practitioner is to encourage the patient to realize that his help comes directly from God without any personal intermediary. He lovingly encourages the patient to turn to the Scriptures and to Mrs. Eddy's writings and to learn better how to go straight to God for help.
Mrs. Eddy did not attempt to codify the ethics of Christian Science in a single set of rules for the conduct of Christian Science practitioners. God's law is invariable, but human experience varies widely. The Manual of The Mother Church, which Mrs. Eddy prepared for the government of her Church and its members, and her other writings are replete with examples of the application and operation of God's law of love. The ethical conduct of both practitioner and patient demonstrates their understanding of divine law and the degree of their willingness to conform to its requirements.
Our willingness to let the Father's will be done in preference to our personal desires measures our readiness for the true and lasting and infinite joy that comes with the living of divine Love.
