In human experience the teaching of children and adults goes on and on in an endless stream. One generation teaches another; the schooled teach the unschooled; the skilled teach the unskilled. Through individual effort and organized systems the vital activity of teaching flows on, all to the end that men may share with one another the light of knowledge.

The greatest teacher in history is Christ Jesus. He taught so well because he understood so clearly. His teachings changed the course of human history. They revealed the supremacy of Spirit's constructive power over destructive material forces, and man's ability, as the expression of God, to demonstrate this fact. Mary Baker Eddy is the greatest teacher since the Master. She taught the spiritual verities which he taught, and made plain how each individual can successfully apply them to his human needs.

After her discovery of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy realized that her work had but begun. She must find the ways to disseminate and establish this God-revealed Christ Science in the consciousness of men. First came the publication in 1875, of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in which she includes a chapter on "Teaching Christian Science." Then she began to teach those desiring spiritual instruction. At first there were very few; later there were many. Between 1876 and 1889 she taught a large number of students. Many of these she sent out to become teachers in their home communities.

In the Manual of The Mother Church Mrs. Eddy provides an orderly system of teaching for the Christian Science movement. Triennially a Normal Class, whose members are chosen to serve as teachers in their respective fields, is taught in Boston. Those thus qualified subsequently hold classes yearly. Each teacher forms an association of his pupils which meets annually, and is addressed by him on subjects suited to support the teaching.

The benefits of class instruction are many. Pupils often express the thought that it has opened a new epoch in their lives, and that its blessings are priceless. Class teaching brings to the receptive pupil a clearer understanding of God and of man. It teaches him how to apply more intelligently, and so more effectively, the truths of Christian Science to the overcoming of evil in himself and others. It greatly aids in preparing him for larger service to mankind. It uncovers the nature of evil and the human will only to show their impotent futility before an understanding of the omnipotence of God. No other teaching deals with such basic verities. No other is so vitally important to the progress and liberation of the human race.

A sacred trust is given to those privileged to teach Christian Science. Their responsibility is to God, to their Leader, and to their fellow men. Mrs. Eddy wrote down in Science and Health the pure Word of God, revealed of Mind, in terms of wisdom's choosing. Here is the final revelation of the Christ Science, which none can improve upon in its substance or in its human terminology.

It is the teacher's privilege and duty to teach this Science without deviation from the revealed Word. How vital this is to the maintaining of the right standard of teaching our Leader thus points out in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 264. 265): "If a teacher of Christian Science unwittingly or intentionally offers his own thought, and gives me as authority for it; if he diverges from Science and knows it not, or, knowing it makes the venture from vanity, in order to be thought original, or wiser than somebody else,—this divergence widens. He grows dark, and cannot regain, at will, an upright understanding. This error in the teacher also predisposes his students to make mistakes and lose their way."

No desire for personal prestige or leadership can have rightful place in the teacher's thought. No least feeling of rivalry, or friction, with his fellow teachers and their pupils can be allowed to root in his consciousness, or to becloud the thinking of his pupils, and so hinder their progress Truthward. His teaching work is not competitive with, but co-ordinate with, the work of all other teachers of Christian Science. He rejoices in the singleness of purpose in which Love has joined them. Correct Christian Science teaching fosters concord and unity between all Christian Scientists and their churches, never discord and dissension.

The teacher's sole purpose is his Leader's purpose, which she stated to a group of her students thus: "In hope and faith, where heart meets heart reciprocally blest, drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose. — to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 207).

Only in the degree of his God-reflected goodness can the teacher "impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science." He prayerfully knows that the work which God has given him to do God will provide the wisdom and ability to enable him to do. His purpose is not to seek honor from men, but to be adjudged faithful by God.

He is mindful, and wholeheartedly obedient to the letter and spirit, of the Manual provision (Art. XXVII. Sect. 5) that neither he, nor others for him shall solicit pupils for his classes. He knows with the Master that "no man can come to me, except the Father . . . draw him," and conversely that nothing can produce separation between him and those whom the Father sends.

He accepts for his classes those applicants whom he is led by the silent guidings of Mind to accept. He listens to no suggestion of selfish ambition to teach large numbers but only desires to teach correctly those who through God's directing and selecting, become his pupils. He prays to be used of God to serve God's purposes in God's own way—the humble son of the all-enlightening Father Mind— unentangled in the net of human ambition and personal sense.

His work is to aid his pupils, during the class term and thereafter, to find and to demonstrate God and their unity with Him. But never does he attempt to control their thinking or to limit their freedom of judgment. His effort always is to help them to find their true individuality and to express it according to the law of God.

Spiritual growth, the teacher well knows, is the one thing most needful for himself and his pupils, that he and they may more fully express God and more helpfully advance the healing, redemptive work of Christian Science. To this end he habitually counsels his pupils to study and to assimilate the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's works, and to apply the ideas therein in their daily lives.

Every hour the teacher keeps open his thought to be taught by the revelation as given in Science and Health. If he does not clearly see the meaning of some statement therein today, he claims in prayer the understanding given of the Father, whereby he can realize the truths provided by God for His son.

He keeps before his pupils and himself the basic fact that there is one God, one Mind; that God has revealed His Word to this age through one revelator, Mary Baker Eddy; that this one God-provided revelation is the substance of all true Christian Science teaching, which must necessarily fully conform thereto. Thus does he make sure that his teaching will, in the degree of his humility and godliness, be what John so beautifully describes as "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God."

Paul Stark Seeley