Through systematic study and practice of Christian Science we can demonstrate our salvation from the collective and individual claims of the flesh, or belief of life apart from God. The equipping of students to understand and utilize the Science of Christ, Truth, was of utmost importance to Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer of this Science. To this end she wrote the textbook, Science and Health, founded The Mother Church, and established the inspired system of teaching, class instruction. To purify, regenerate, and further educate class-taught students, she provided in the Manual of The Mother Church a By-Law that begins, "The associations of the pupils of loyal teachers shall convene annually."Man., Art. XXVI, Sect. 6.
Associations are founded on the ever-available Word. The Word of God, divine Science, is the power that sustains an association, even when the teacher is no longer available. What a time for progress with the Word! Students are taught to look to God and His law for health, holiness, and direction. As the same By-Law goes on to say, "The pupils shall be guided by the Bible, and Science and Health, not by their teachers' personal views."Ibid.
Personal worship of a teacher is not true discipleship. It breaks the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me,"Ex. 20:3. and would choke the ingredients most necessary to an association's continuity: the prayer, study, and practice of each student. Does the good stream of the association dry up when the teacher is no longer personally present? Neither fount nor stream originates in teachers. The fountain, or source, of class instruction originates in the heart of Love, in the self-revealing God. What God knows of Himself and His ideas is divine Science; and reflecting God, man bears witness to this Science and expresses it. The real man is soundly spiritual, reflecting what God knows and is.
