Mary Baker Eddy approved the designation of herself as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. For it was definitely clear to Mrs. Eddy that her work as Discoverer, evidenced in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and her work as Founder, expressed in the Manual of The Mother Church, was both God-inspired and God-directed. This being true, it was not surprising that various subtle and blatant Satanic suggestions should be voiced against both the Discoverer and her spiritual discovery and also against her work as Founder.

Mrs. Eddy did not hesitate to appeal to the Federal Court to protect her copyright of Science and Health from infringement, and judgment was rendered in her favor. Likewise, The Christian Science Board of Directors rightly and successfully defended legally Mrs. Eddy's work as Founder when the validity of the Manual of The Mother Church was attacked. And thus it is that loyal, consecrated Christian Scientists appreciate, accept, and abide by both Science and Health and Manual as they endeavor to support their beloved Leader's demonstration of organized church activity for the salvation of mankind. They honor Mrs. Eddy as both Discoverer and Founder, not because of legal interpretation, however, but because of their inviolable understanding that God made her such in fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy.

Among the inspired and inspiring words of counsel, instruction, and admonition found in the Manual is "A Rule for Motives and Acts" (Art. VIII, Sect. 1), which is of such deep importance that Mrs. Eddy indicated it should be read on the first Sunday of each month in The Mother Church and in all of its branches throughout the world. In addition to this, many students of the Science of Christianity read and ponder this Rule frequently in connection with their endeavor to obey its divine guidance.

The instruction in this "Rule for Motives and Acts" is so immense and far-reaching in its meaning that as one endeavors to obey it, he learns that it is indeed correlative to and an amplification of the Golden Rule voiced by our Master, Christ Jesus, "All things whatsover ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

For our present purpose let us consider briefly the first sentence in this Rule: "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church." Of course every right thinker will agree that animosity, shown in ill will, resentment, enmity, and the like, is undesirable and even harmful in its effects upon those who accept and express this evil. Undeniably mankind would be happier, healthier, and more harmonious if animosity and its ilk were ruled out of the thoughts and lives of men; and Christian Science in its practical presentation of Christ Jesus' teachings shows how this desirable correction may be realized here and now.

It will also be admitted that mere personal attachment of one person to another often results in contention and conflict, in fear and jealousy, in disappointment and grief. This is due to the fact that selfishness in varying degrees and forms is always involved in mere personal attachment.

Christian Science points the way to happy, helpful, and harmonious human relationship by showing that what is truly admirable and permanently lovable in each individual is not found in personal adornment and attractiveness, but in the spiritual qualities one expresses, such as unselfishness and patience, goodness and gentleness, fidelity and firmness for the right. Genuine attachment and love, then, must be for God, divine Principle, and for the qualities which bespeak divine Mind, Truth, and Love. Evidently Christ Jesus had this in thought when he said to one who had addressed him as "Good Master": "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God."

But the personal attachment that occasions the most trouble for mankind individually and collectively is the ingrowing attachment to one's own sense of self, which seems to be inextricably bound to the sense of self as a mortal physicality. This is the natural consequence of the generally accepted belief that each individual lives in and is dependent upon a material organism; that each has a personal, private mind; and that therefore one's sense of existence is definitely limited, fallible, and insecure. This begets what has been termed nature's first law, self-preservation. Thus it is that most men uninstructed by Christian Science and not living up to its spiritual rules are inclined to be motivated by self-interest and by the fears which are aroused by and are associated with the limitations of personal sense. The sowing of such seeds of error in human thoughts inevitably brings a harvest of discord, disease, and death in human experience.

Mrs. Eddy succinctly summarizes this situation when she states in Science and Health (p. 262). "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin." Conversely, then, the foundation of immortal, immutable harmony is the true sense of man's origin; and Christian Science both states this truth of man and shows how it can be demonstrated here and now. Of course the Master referred not to mere personal attachment when he counseled men to love their neighbor as themselves. The selfhood one is to love is evidently the true, spiritual expression, or reflection, of our Father Mind and Mother Love, which is also the truth of one's neighbor, who therefore is both loving and lovable.

Christian Science is the restatement of Christ Jesus' teachings and the reinstatement of his Christianly scientific practice, whereby sin and sickness, death, and all discord were declared to be unreal because they were not of God, Truth and Love. On that scientific, spiritual basis the Master healed all manner of disease, freed men from the shackles of sinful habits, and disproved every phase of the belief of life and mind in matter, including what is termed death.

Because Jesus knew that the Christ, Truth, he exemplified is ever present and ever available to all, he gave an unequivocal promise in these words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Believing on Christ Jesus involves much more than a blind acquiescence or belief in him as the Son of God; it means that we must understand his words, which explain his works. Our Master knew definitely that God, good, is the only Father, the only creator of all that is true and eternal; and thus he healed sickness, declaring that it was from Satan, the liar, and father of lies. He knew the truth of God and of man made in God's likeness, and thereby he freed men from the bondage engendered by the beliefs that evil and matter are real and causative, and that man can be subject to a suppositional law unlike God's law of life, harmony, and perfection.

Following thus the teachings of the master Christian, we see how to attach or relate our thought of good, peace, and happiness, as well as our sense of health, to God, divine Mind and Love. And we learn to identify as God's reflection every expression or characteristic which is true, attractive, and lovable, no matter by whom it is manifested. It has been said truly that when we think about self or people, trouble grows, but when we think about God, trouble goes. Thus Christian Science enables us to rise above mere personal attachment to approximate the vision of our Master, who ever looked to the Father as the great Giver of all good.