Editorial May 24, 1993 Issue

Heeding our Leader's counsel

The Editors

Students of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and members of the Church she founded, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, have learned to probe her works for guidance and instruction in the practice and living of the Science of Mind-healing. At times we open our hearts willingly to what we find; at other times Christian Scientists are confronted with a rigorous, even trying discipline. But we always find our Leader's instruction fruitful.

Mrs. Eddy refers to herself as "a scribe under orders" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 311). More than anyone else, she was a student of her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and accepted and yielded to the discipline of divine Science revealed to her by God. Her pamphlet No and Yes shares with every student of Christian Science some of the lessons that need to be mastered in order to be effective participants in this Cause. As she explains in the Preface, "It was the purpose of each edition of this pamphlet to benefit no favored class, but, according to the apostle's admonition, to 'reprove, rebuke, exhort,' and with the power and self-sacrificing spirit of Love to correct involuntary as well as voluntary error" (No and Yes, p. v).

It seems timely to point out two paragraphs from this work. In praying about the issues facing our Church, and in heeding our Leader's counsel, we've found that it's not always easy to fulfill the responsibilities Mrs. Eddy places on every Christian Scientist. We readily acknowledge that the instructions she gives apply to all universally and impartially. Her words, as she writes, are directed at "no favored class":

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