For years after I became a student of Christian Science, the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy was merely a little book of rules to me. I opened it for the Tenets and for the By-Laws "Daily Prayer," "A Rule for Motives and Acts," and "Alertness to Duty." See Man., pp. 15-16 and Art. VIII, Sects. 1, 4, 6.
After struggling for more than ten years over my concern with the problems of someone who had not even sought my help, I turned to my Christian Science teacher, but I could not grasp her explanation. When the visit was over, she said: "Now don't you go around asking different teachers and practitioners about this question. Go straight to God!"
I felt helpless and rejected. I consoled myself with a story I had heard in childhood about tiger cubs tossed by the mother tiger into a rapid river and left to swim to shore by themselves. Little did I know then that it was the Mother-love of God that was weaning me from a personal sense of teacher and friend, and turning me directly to God. All I could do was to pray and listen for divine guidance.
