Article February 9, 1952 Issue

OUR FIRST TENET

RICHARD P. VERRALL

The paramount importance of a knowledge of the Scriptures in their application to the welfare and salvation of mankind was never more truly expressed than when Mary Baker Eddy wrote the first tenet of Christian Science. It reads (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."

Mrs. Eddy was able to make this positive assertion because she had discovered through her study of the Bible the underlying healing truth which is implicit in the Scriptures and which, when understood, is as demonstrable today as it was in apostolic times. Furthermore, through the practical application of the rules for living laid down in the Bible she was able to elucidate her discovery so clearly that the reading of her writings has since restored innumerable victims of so-called incurable diseases to health and usefulness.

Referring to her authorship of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy wrote (ibid., p. 126): "The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no other guide in 'the straight and narrow way' of Truth." Later, to protect her revelation from personal opinions and interpretation of the Scriptures, she ordained the Bible and Science and Health as the only pastor of all Churches of Christ, Scientist. She thus centered the attention of her followers upon the inspired Word of the Bible as being the only safe and infallible guide to eternal Life. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 and also in her Message for 1902 she admonished them to study the Bible and our textbook, Science and Health, and to follow her only so far as she followed Christ. This counsel recalls the Master's similar instruction to the people of his time (John 5:39), "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." Thus it becomes progressively evident that the Word of God, as it is unfolded in both the Old and the New Testament, is "our sufficient guide to eternal Life." Mrs. Eddy's great contribution to human welfare lies in her insistence upon obedience to the rules laid down in the inspired Word of the Bible.

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