I recently had a fresh proof of how obedience to the provision of the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy, the basic governing law of the Church of Christ, Scientist, actually results in healing. It happened on a Wednesday. I had awakened that morning with a deep throbbing pain that I had not experienced before. It disappeared initially after just a few moments of prayer in Christian Science.
The pain came back during the day. My wife and I arrived at the Wednesday evening testimony meeting rather early that evening, and just as we sat down the pain started in again. Then I remembered the provision in the Church Manual entitled "Prayer in Church." It reads, "The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively." Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 5. For the moment, it seemed to me that I needed the prayer more than the congregation did. But then I remembered the emphasis that Mrs. Eddy has placed on obedience to the Manual provisions. One of the early workers in Mrs. Eddy's Church recollects her as saying: "Every By-Law in the Manual is inspired. I did not write them any more than I wrote Science and Health (showing that both came to her through revelation). I study Science and Health constantly.
"Teach your students, patients, and everyone, to be loyal to the By-Laws, and they will be blessed." Quoted in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979), pp. 117–118.
