During Mary Baker Eddy’s lifetime, Bible Lesson Committees were given the freedom to compile lessons in whatever way they felt best communicated the spiritual ideas that constituted each lesson. However, in the years after her passing, various guidelines were developed that narrowed their options. It became standard for the Golden Text and Responsive Reading to be taken from only one book of the Bible (always the King James Version), and for every lesson to consist of six sections, containing no more than four references from the Bible and five from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
Through the years, misperceptions grew about these guidelines, beginning with the notion that they were put in place by Eddy herself. People have surmised that the six sections were designed so that people could read one section per day. Or that the six sections were biblically ordained and correspond with the offering of two rows of six cakes outlined in Leviticus 24:5–9.
In fact, Eddy gave no instructions concerning the mechanical structure of the Bible Lesson. However, in the Deed of Trust establishing The Christian Science Publishing Society, she specifically authorized its Board of Trustees to make changes to the Quarterly and to direct and supervise the publication “so as to promote the best interests of the Cause” (see Articles 7 and 8). Apart from that, she made it clear that the primary considerations in compiling the lessons are metaphysical correctness and clarity, which are entirely consistent with her teaching that ideas, not form, constitute true substance.
