“She tells me to do something, gives me a rule, shows me the correct way…"
/Mrs. Eddy’s leadership:
I was particularly interested in the desire of her workers to call her “Mother,” and her willingness to be called by that name. “Mother” brings a thought of gentleness, nurturing, and firmness. However, what stood out to me was the humility required of the workers to let her be “Mother,” and to let her lead them and discipline them. I think this leadership continues now through the Church Manual, and through her writings.
As I seek out that kind of humility that the early workers had, to allow Mrs. Eddy’s leadership to lead me, I find that Science and Health becomes more and more an open book. She tells me to do something, gives me a rule, shows me the correct way and I see it more quickly and am eager to remember it and put it into practice. The directions in the Manual to do or not do something are a real comfort rather than a restriction when I strive to know this humility in my heart.
Also, the idea that we all express the Mother-Love of God helps me see fellow church members as a family, supporting and encouraging each other. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, “…mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal.” (S&H 60:8-10) If my love for fellow church workers includes more of this immortal “purity and constancy,” I will see them in their true light, reflecting Love with harmony and good works. This is a “living love.” It is the “phoenix fire”… “the bond of perfectness, the thousandfold expansion that will engirdle the world…” (My 164:20) It isn’t a matter of many minds believing this. It is claiming it for myself and recognizing that in this unity of “living love,” the “thousandfold expansion” is already going on and it includes all mankind, even my fellow church members. As we all watch, work, and pray for the Mind of Christ to be in us, proofs of healing are inevitable. The impulse is Spirit and it is unstoppable. “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light (unity in “living love”): and there was (and is) light.” (see Gen 1:2,3)