Article September 14, 1918 Issue

Obedience to the Manual

Georgia M. McClure

In the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 9) occurs the following: “No member shall use written formulas, nor permit his patients or pupils to use them, as auxiliaries to teaching Christian Science or for healing the sick. Whatever is requisite for either is contained in the books of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Sometimes she may strengthen the faith by a written text as no one else can.”

There has been a series of uncoverings in the writer’s experience which may be of help and value to others who are working to enlarge their own spiritual outlook or that of their patients. A lady asked for help in solving a problem involving physical disability. It was uncovered to the writer in working with her that for fifteen years she had been saving letters from practitioners, which were often referred to when error in some guise had come knocking at the door of her mental home. There was also a book of verses and quotations copied in handwriting, thus giving error an opportunity to pervert truth by the misplacing or leaving out of a word, or by misspelling a word.

Nor was this all. When she had referred to one of these notes she inevitably recalled the occasion of its receipt, and thereby made a reality of a situation which, as we are taught in Christian Science, never existed; for we have no material past, and evil beliefs never had any real power over us. Sometimes after she had gone back to the letters in this way, there had even been a recurrence of symptoms of the former troubles. When the error of this procedure was pointed out to the lady she was most reluctant to part with these false props.

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