Article December 8, 1945 Issue

Authorized Teaching

GEORGE CHANNING

Teaching Christian Science is a defined activity of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. It must conform to certain requirements set forth by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in the Manual of The Mother Church, Articles XXVI through XXX. When conforming to these By-Laws, Christian Science teaching is genuine, valid, authorized, that is, clothed with the right to be. Without such conformity it is unauthorized, without right, so far as the Christian Science church and its loyal adherents are concerned.

The purpose of Mrs. Eddy's requirements for teaching should be obvious to anyone who reads her many statements on the subject. It is to preserve the accuracy of the letter of instruction and the rightness of the spirit of the instructor, so that Christian Science will continue progressively to demonstrate its power and lose none of its efficacy for good throughout the ages.

Authorized teaching is designed, by virtue of its insistence on correctness, rightness, or righteousness in every detail, to ensure the present capacity of the teacher's thought, as well as the pupil's, to accept the enlarged understanding which infinite Truth unfolds. This teaching is intended to center the attention of those aspiring to teach or to be taught upon the things of God. To know God and His creation demands that one be receptive to divine ideas, and that one exclude from consciousness every wrong or limiting motive or desire of the carnal mind.

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