"When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard." Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi; So writes Mrs. Eddy in the Preface of the Christian Science textbook.
The outcome of our Leaders fidelity to divine guidance is the Church of Christ, Scientist, consisting of The Mother Church and its branches throughout the world—a unique, uncomplicated organization governed by the Church Manual.
The Rules and By-Laws contained in that slim volume are much more than personal instruction issued for the purpose of governing a human institution. Their author, Mrs. Eddy, says of them: "They were impelled by a power not one's own, were written at different dates, and as the occasion required. They sprang from necessity, the logic of events,—from the immediate demand for them as a help that must be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause; hence their simple, scientific basis, and detail so requisite to demonstrate genuine Christian Science, and which will do for the race what absolute doctrines destined for future generations might not accomplish." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 148;
