Scripture meets our every need

I love how we find the Scriptures behind everything that Mary Baker Eddy ever wrote. Her work lives and breathes it. She trusts its message. She encourages us to turn to it to meet our every need. We can see that her Church Manual is her demonstration of Principle and Love in action for her church. So I have been reading this precious volume with new eyes – looking for Scriptural passages and their significance.

But before I share that, may I say how wonderful it is to know that “The Rules and By Laws in the Manual…sprang from necessity, the logic of events…” What a help this is to us as parents, business owners, church members, community leaders, homemakers, responsible citizens, faithful workers. For instance, in perhaps reviewing or formulating the rules of our local community group, we might ask ourselves: Is this rule necessary today? Is this By-law logical today?

But to return to our exploration of Scriptural passages in the Church Manual, here’s some of what I’ve found. I especially noticed the influence of The Golden Rule throughout.

·       p. 15 …we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our…guide…

·       p. 17 …church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master… (and many other references to Christ Jesus, e.g. p. 41 “Christ Jesus the Ensample”).

·       p. 18 “the stone which the builders rejected” (see Matt 21:42, Mark 12: 10, Luke 20: 17, where Jesus quotes Ps 118: 22 “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”

·       p. 18 “hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (I Sam 7:12)

·       p. 28 “That servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” (Luke 12: 47)

·       p. 32 “The readings from the SCRIPTURES shall precede the readings from SCIENCE AND HEALTH.”

·       p. 34 “The Bible, together with SCIENCE AND HEALTH and others works by Mrs. Eddy, shall be his only textbooks...”

·       p. 41 “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” (Prov 15: 1)

·       p. 41 “Thy kingdom come” Matt 6: 10; Luke 11:2)

·       p. 42 “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” (Matt 7:12)

·       p. 43 “…the commandment of the Decalogue” (Ex 20: 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.) This references publishing and plagiarizing MBE’s works.

·       p. 44 The Golden Rule again (Matt 7: 12) under the title “No Incorrect Literature”

·       p. 45 “peace on earth and good will toward men” (Luke 2: 14)

·       p. 47 “overcome evil with good” (Rom 12: 21)

·       p. 47 “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor 6:20)

·       p. 47 “Christ, ‘who healeth all thy diseases’ (Psalm 103:3)”

·       p. 48 The Golden Rule again (Matt 7: 12)

• p. 48 “According to the Scripture they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people.” (Could this refer to II Cor 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
• p. 49 “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt 7: 20)
• p. 51 “admonished in consonance with the Scriptural demand in Matthew 18: 15-17…”
• There are several references (see pp. 25, 55, 68, 89, 91, 94) to the period of “three years” e.g. Readers are elected for a three year period. Jesus’ ministry was three years; Paul spent three years preparing for his ministry*; and Mary Baker Eddy secluded herself for three years before publishing Science and Health. *Gal 1:18 “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.”  
• I like that Article XIV Section 2 “The Lesson Sermon” (page 58) requires that “The correlative Biblical texts in the Lesson-Sermon shall extend from Genesis to Revelation.”
• And I like this on page 60: “A Christian Scientist is not fatigued by prayer, by reading the Scriptures, or the Christian Science textbook.”
• p. 62-63 It’s so good to see that the “first lessons of the children [in Sunday school] should be the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 3-17), the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6: 9-13), and its Spiritual Interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy, Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5: 3-12).
• p. 69 “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt. 10:37.)

Julie Swannell

(Apologies for the odd formatting here...I'll keep working on it.)