Article March 28, 1925 Issue

"Prayer in Church"*

RALPH G. LINDSTROM

Sometimes generalizations may be dangerous. Careful consideration, however, will justify the unqualified statement that when Christian Scientists fail to apply, or when they misapply, provisions of the Manual of The Mother Church, it is because they have not attained or retained that spiritual altitude which our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, rightly requires of them.

It is a serious mistake for the student of Christian Science to assume that the Church Manual requires only the cursory study commonly deemed sufficient for the constitution and by-laws of human organizations. We must realize that what on superficial observation may seem to be a most simple rule of action has found its way into the Manual in the manner described by its author on page 148 of "Miscellaneous Writings," wherein, referring to the Rules and By-laws of the Manual, she says: "They were not arbitrary opinions nor dictatorial demands, such as one person might impose on another. They were impelled by a power not one's own, were written at different dates, and as the occasion required. They sprang from necessity, the logic of events,—from the immediate demand for them as a help that must be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause; hence their simple, scientific basis, and detail so requisite to demonstrate genuine Christian Science, and which will do for the race what absolute doctrines destined for future generations might not accomplish."

* Church Manual, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 42.

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