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