To derive the maximum good from Primary class instruction in Christian Science, we need to go beyond human personalities, human reasoning, and human "styles." There's so much more to teacher selection than asking someone else, "Who's your teacher?" or merely getting in touch with one of the more than two hundred individuals so authorized and listed in the Journal.
The new spiritual growth that class instruction initiates is the result of the action of Truth on the errors of belief— not of the personal influence of one human being on another. Christ Jesus recognized this. He told his disciples, whom he had taught for three years (imagine what his teaching must have been like!), that he would have to leave them before the full impact of his words and example could be felt in their hearts. He said, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." It was this Comforter, which he defined as "the Spirit of truth," and not the man they perceived through the physical senses, that would "guide [them] into all truth."
John 16:7, 13 . The Master knew that all truth and understanding come from God, who is Truth itself. Learning based on the spiritual apprehension of God's nature and presence is far more effective than that based on the pronouncements of mere human beings, no matter how well informed or eloquent. And we must each make our own demonstration of what it means to be the child of God.
Mrs. Eddy, who has provided for class instruction through the Church she founded, recognized that human teachers are needed. And yet throughout her writing she speaks out strongly against all forms of personality worship. So it's not surprising that she protects both pupils and teachers with this important requirement in the Manual of The Mother Church: "The pupils shall be guided by the BIBLE, and SCIENCE AND HEALTH, not by their teachers' personal views."
Man., Art. XXVI, Sect. 6 . How important it is to adhere strictly to this By-Law! Personal influence works directly against the goals of class instruction.
