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.

Authorized teaching is done in classes. This is one of its essential characteristics. A Primary class may be held once a year by each Christian Scientist authorized to teach. The purpose of a Primary class is to aid the pupil in acquiring a systematic method of practice, based on a correct understanding of God and a progressively awakening love for Him.

A Normal class is held every third year (the first having been held in 1907) under the auspices of a Board of Education, appointed by The Christian Science Board of Directors, the over-all directing and administering Board of the Christian Science church. The teacher of the Normal class is a member of the Board of Education and is authorized to teach. The purpose of the Normal class is to improve the pupil's systematic method of practice, based on a correct understanding of God and a progressively awakening love for Him; and further, to prepare each graduate of the class to teach Primary classes in Christian Science. There is no other way by which anyone may obtain authority to give class teaching than by receiving a certificate from the Board of Education that one has satisfactorily completed the work of the Normal class.

Another characteristic of authorized teaching is the requirement that pupils, as well as the teacher, be "selected." They must show definite qualifications. There is no room for promiscuity in authorized teaching. Referring to Primary classes, the Manual of The Mother Church declares (Art. XXVI, Sect. 2), "Christian Scientists who are teachers shall carefully select for pupils such only as have good past records and promising proclivities toward Christian Science."

Referring to prospective members of the Normal class, the Church Manual makes it clear that, among other qualifications, they must have been successful practitioners of Christian Science healing for three years and be able to supply evidence of their being qualified for the class, and be thorough English scholars. With regard to the selection of teachers, the Church Manual provides (Art. XXVII, Sect. 5), "Teachers of Christian Science must have the necessary moral and spiritual qualifications to elucidate the Principle and rule of Christian Science, through the higher meaning of the Scriptures."

This necessity for selection is further emphasized by the fact that all classes, Primary or Normal, are limited to thirty members. Christian Science class teaching is available only to those selected for membership in a class formed in accordance with the Manual's provisions.

No one is authorized to invite anyone to take class instruction. The desire for such instruction must unfold in the pupil, and the pupil must seek it from the authorized teacher to whom he feels divinely led. He thus offers himself to receive this teaching under God's directing of the prospective teacher. Since Primary classes are held yearly, he applies yearly until accepted or led, under prayer, to apply to another authorized teacher. As the Normal class is held every third year, he who feels himself worthy to become a teacher may apply triennially to the Board of Education, as long as he feels worthy, or until he has been accepted.

"Selection," then, is the process by which teacher and pupil are able, under demonstration, to see their respective status unfold. Such selection should indicate the readiness of the person selected for this particular step at the time he should take it. This selection does not imply inferiority of the person not selected, nor does it indicate that such a person will not be ready for this particular step at some other time. Each one must ultimately be taught all truth of God, and each must progressively unfold in accord with the law of God which governs his being. No one can be denied one iota of the truth he needs to know. No one can ever be separated from God's love for him.

Mrs. Eddy's prescribed requirements for authorized teaching show plainly how zealous she was to preserve the purity of instruction within her church. These requirements, when obeyed faithfully operate to authorize the teaching she knew to be necessary for the growth of her church and the fulfillment of her mission. They operate also to expose any so-called teaching that is without authority. They show, for instance, that no book or paper purporting to give class instruction to anyone who acquires and reads it can possibly give class instruction that is valid or desirable. They show, too, that no individual or group of individuals seeking class instruction can possibly receive it if the one claiming to do the teaching has not qualified as a teacher under the Rules in the Manual.

It is clear from the Manual that an authorized teacher has a continuing relationship to his selected pupils. His obligation to them requires that he hold annually an association meeting of the pupils he has taught, and that, although he must not dominate his pupils, he must hold himself responsible for their spiritual progress after he has taught them, as well as during the period of class teaching.

Mrs. Eddy's clarity of thought and wisdom of action are clearly shown here, as in every step she took for protecting and anchoring her church on the rock which is Christ, Truth. She knew that her requirements for authorized teaching would, by their inherent demands, impel every teacher and pupil who desires to know God and to do the works of Christ Jesus to keep thought devoted to the high goals of class teaching. She knew that these requirements would induce the progressive correction of every seeming straying of teacher or pupil from the pathway of selflessness and Christlike purpose. She knew that this required self-control, the reflecting of God's control, would nourish, enrich, and protect the impartation of truth from teacher to pupil. She let Love, God, authorize Christian Science teaching, and her true followers can afford no departure from her high concept of Love's directing.

So close is the relationship of teacher and pupil that the faithful teacher imparts, knowingly and unknowingly, to his pupils the benefit of his own spiritual status and the inspiration attendant upon his progress. Such an authorized teacher discovers with increasing clarity that his authority is proceeding from the divine Father, and as such his influence for good is beyond challenge.

Unfortunately the reverse is also true. The authorized teacher who, forgetting to be watchful, lets into thought the suggestion that the requirements are not important and acts accordingly, will impart weakness to his pupils and strip himself of authority to teach. Such a teacher will find The Mother Church compassionately ready to aid in restoring his clarity of vision. But if he persists in his false course he may compel notice to be taken of his self-depreciation until such time as his self-appreciation as God's servant is restored to him and he acts accordingly. Meanwhile his pupils may lose their status as selected students and be compelled to seek selection elsewhere by again submitting proof of their worthiness of authorized instruction.

Such occurrences are rare. They should not come at all; but they can be retrieved, wiped out in the way of God's appointing for the destruction of error. The honest heart can always establish and reestablish its fidelity to the requirements of God.

It must be clear that if an authorized teacher can, under the supposititious conditions of mesmerism, lose his status, it is impossible and unthinkable that one who never had the teacher's status could usurp it by a short-cut, so to speak, and set himself up as able to teach! Even if such a pretender had come upon substantially the words of some faithful teacher's instruction, he would not thereby be able to teach. The required conditions for teaching would be lacking, and the unction of Spirit would be absent. Disobedience, so long as it persists, is a most serious flaw in anyone's attempt to teach the glorious, sacred truths of being.

Obedience requires, for one thing, the personal presence of the teacher in the classroom to render his pupils class taught. He cannot be impersonated by someone else, nor can he be represented by a proxy. The attempt to benefit through instruction from one claiming to know and impart what an authorized teacher would say or has said, not only is futile but may be positively harmful. The poison of disobedience, of disrespect for right conduct, envelops the disobedient and disrespectful one, and it contaminates him who gives it even the attention and interest born only of curiosity.

There is, of course, perfectly valid Christian Science teaching which is not authorized in the sense in which class teaching must be. Such teaching flows from the healing effects of Christian Science. It is the illumination which floods thought whenever one is benefited by Christian Science treatment or yields to the spiritual persuasion which comes through witnessing with open heart its beneficial effects upon others. Such teaching is authorized in its own way. God, the author of all right teaching, is as much the source of its power as He is of the efficacy of correct class teaching. There is no violation of authority when such teaching is imparted. He who has reached the spiritual status necessary to impress human thought with the healing presence of God has already accepted all right rules and found authority for his work in the innocence and righteousness of his heart.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy referred to this in Article XXX, Section 7, of the Manual, which is headed "Healing Better Than Teaching" and includes the sentence, "Healing the sick and the sinner with Truth demonstrates what we affirm of Christian Science, and nothing can substitute this demonstration." But the reaching of this summit of thought and achievement is the crowning glory of demonstration, to which class teaching, in this age, necessarily contributes. There is profound meaning in the words of Christ Jesus (John 6:45): "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."

The clear following of spiritual rules is foundational. The issues are too great to permit teaching to be threatened with error or impurity. Mrs. Eddy knew this. Christian Scientists know it. And wisdom, as reflected by our Leader, demands our single allegiance to and support of authorized Christian Science teaching.

Copyright, 1945, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston 15, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918. Published every Saturday. Cost of re mailing within the United States: 1 cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. Foreign, including Canada, Newfoundland, and Pan-American countries: 1½ cents for each two ounces or fraction thereof.