Article January 2, 1932 Issue

Lo, the Signal!

ANNA FRIENDLICH

A mother teaches her child the traffic signals and way signs—not as danger signals, but as signs of protection insured by obedience. Impelling this instruction is an affection, self-forgotten, strong, resolute, wise, ceaselessly alert to guard.

A signal light flashed by divine Love is Section 6 of Article VIII in the Manual of The Mother Church, by Mary Baker Eddy. Under the heading of "Alertness to Duty" this By-Law reads: "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned." Error of any kind cannot escape the searchlight of infinite and perfect divine Love.

This "Thou shalt" in the Manual is a beneficent command to defend ourselves daily against what our Leader has designated "the highest attenuation of evil" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 260). Effectually to defend is to comprehend the unreality of the evil named, and to enact what we understand by ordering our lives in conformity with our understanding. Such obedience to this By-Law calls into expression a fundamental understanding of the basic facts of Christian Science. It requires the application of the highest truths we know; and the true test of our work lies in the results made manifest. Experience quickly informs us that results are not obtained by perfunctory reading, repetitions, or formulas, but, Per contra, by mental convictions reached through divine Science, and admitted only because understood.

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