Daily study of the weekly Lesson-Sermon is an important element in the systematic spiritual growth of every student of Christian Science. The Lessons are published in the Christian Science Quarterly, and the twenty-six subjects were chosen by Mary Baker Eddy.
At one time a well-meaning committee of workers at The Mother Church presented Mrs. Eddy with a proposal to double the number of subjects so that there might be a different subject for each week of the year. But the Discoverer of Christian Science was emphatic in her reply. She said, "Tell the committee the original subjects were given of God—they are sufficient, and they will remain forever." Irving C. Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966), p. 145
In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy refers to the Lesson as "a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends." Manual, Art. III, Sect. 1 The same might be said of the progress and prosperity of each student. When you study the Lesson, it is distinctly your Lesson, and what you get from it is what the impersonal pastor—the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy—is speaking to you.
