Manual of the Mother Church The First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts

Eighty-Ninth edition

Manual of The Mother Church

The First Church of Christ

Scientist

In Boston, Massachusetts

BY

MARY BAKER EDDY

Discoverer and founder of Christian Science
And author of Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures

PUBLISHED BY THE
TRUSTEES UNDER THE WILL OF MARY BAKER G. EDDY

BOSTON, U.S.A.


Authorized literature of
The first Church of Christ, Scientist
In Boston, Massachusetts

  COPYRIGHT, 1895
  _By_ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
  Copyright renewed, 1923

  COPYRIGHT 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1901
  _By_ JAMES A. NEAL _and_ THOMAS W. HATTEN
  Copyright renewed, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929

  COPYRIGHT, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1908
  _By_ MARY BAKER G. EDDY
  Copyright renewed, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




EXTRACT FROM A LETTER IN "MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS"

_By Mary Baker Eddy_


The Rules and By-laws in the Manual of The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, Boston, originated not in solemn conclave as in ancient
Sanhedrim. They were not arbitrary opinions nor dictatorial demands,
such as one person might impose on another. They were impelled by
a power not one's own, were written at different dates, and as
the occasion required. They sprang from necessity, the logic of
events,--from the immediate demand for them as a help that must
be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause;
hence their simple, scientific basis, and detail so requisite to
demonstrate genuine Christian Science, and which will do for the
race what absolute doctrines destined for future generations might
not accomplish.




TENETS

_of The Mother Church_

_The First Church of Christ, Scientist_

_To be signed by those uniting with The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, in Boston, Mass._

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as
our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We
acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter;
and man in God's image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin
and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But
the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine,
efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus
the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ,
through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet
in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection
served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness
of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in
us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have
them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

MARY BAKER EDDY




HISTORICAL SKETCH


In the spring of 1879, a little band of earnest seekers after Truth
went into deliberations over forming a church without creeds, to
be called the "CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST." They were members
of evangelical churches, and students of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy in
Christian Science, and were known as "Christian Scientists."

At a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, April 12, 1879,
on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted,--To organize a church designed
to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should
reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.

Mrs. Eddy was appointed on the committee to draft the Tenets of the
Mother Church--the chief corner stone whereof is, that Christian
Science, as taught and demonstrated by our Master, casts out error,
heals the sick, and restores the lost Israel: for "the stone which
the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner."

The charter for the Church was obtained June, 1879,[1] and the same
month the members, twenty-six in number, extended a call to Mary
Baker Eddy to become their pastor. She accepted the call, and was
ordained A. D. 1881. Although walking through deep waters, the little
Church went steadily on, increasing in numbers, and at every epoch
saying,

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

On the twenty-third day of September, 1892, at the request of Rev.
Mary Baker Eddy, twelve of her students and Church members met and
reorganized, under her jurisdiction, the Christian Science Church
and named it, THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST.

At this meeting twenty others of Mrs. Eddy's students and members of
her former Church were elected members of this Church,--those with
others that have since been elected were known as "First Members."
The Church Tenets, Rules, and By-Laws, as prepared by Mrs. Eddy,
were adopted. A By-Law adopted March 17, 1903, changed the title of
"First Members" to "Executive Members."