Things to be Thought Of MARY BAKER EDDY          The need of their teacher's counsel, felt by students, especially by those at a distance, working assiduously for our common Cause, — and their constant petitions for the same, should be met in the most effectual way.          To be responsible for supplying this want, and poise the wavering balance on the right side, is impracticable without a full knowledge of the environments. The educational system of Christian Science lacks the aid and protection of State laws. The Science is hampered by immature demonstrations, by the infancy of its discovery, by incorrect teaching; and especially by unprincipled claimants, whose mad ambition drives them to appropriate my ideas and discovery, without credit, appreciation, or a single original conception, while they quote from other authors and give them credit for every random thought in line with mine.          My noble students, who are loyal to Christ, Truth, and human obligations, will not be disheartened in the midst of this seething sea of sin. They build for time and eternity. The others stumble over misdeeds, and their own unsubstantiality, without the groundwork of right, till, like camera shadows thrown upon the mists of time, they melt into darkness.          Unity is the essential nature of Christian Science. Its Principle is One, and to demonstrate the divine One, demands oneness of thought and action.          Many students enter the Normal class of my College whom I have not fitted for it by the Primary course. They are taught their first lessons by my students; hence the aptness to assimilate pure and abstract Science is somewhat untested.          "As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." As mortal mind is directed, it acts for a season. Some students leave my instructions before they are quite free from the bias of their first impressions, whether those be correct or incorrect. Such students are more or less subject to the future mental influence of their former teacher. Their knowledge of Mind-healing may be right theoretically, but the moral and spiritual status of thought must be right also. The tone of the teacher's mind must be pure, grand, true, to aid the mental development of the student; for the tint of the instructor's mind must take its hue from the divine Mind. A single mistake in metaphysics, or in ethics, is more fatal than a mistake in physics.          If a teacher of Christian Science unwittingly or intentionally offers his own thought, and gives me as authority for it; if he diverges from Science and knows it not, or, knowing it, makes the venture from vanity, in order to be thought original, or wiser than somebody else, — this divergence widens. He grows dark, and cannot regain, at will, an upright understanding. This error in the teacher also predisposes his students to make mistakes and lose their way. Diverse opinions in Science are stultifying. All must have one Principle and the same rule; and all who follow the Principle and rule have but one opinion of it.          Whosoever understands a single rule in Science, and demonstrates its Principle according to rule, is master of the situation. Nobody can gainsay this. The egotistical theorist or shallow moralist may presume to make innovations upon simple proof; but his mistake is visited upon himself and his students, whose minds are, must be, disturbed by this discord, which extends along the whole line of reciprocal thought. An error in premise can never bring forth the real fruits of Truth. After thoroughly explaining spiritual Truth and its ethics to a student, I am not morally responsible for the misstatements or misconduct of this student. My teachings are uniform. Those who abide by them do well. If others, who receive the same instruction, do ill, the fault is not in the culture but the soil.          I am constantly called to settle questions and disaffections toward Christian Science growing out of the departures from Science of self-satisfied, unprincipled students. If impatient of the loving rebuke, the student must stop at the foot of the grand ascent, and there remain until suffering compels the downfall of his self-conceit. Then that student must struggle up, with bleeding footprints, to the God-crowned summit of unselfish and pure aims and affections.          To be two-sided, when these sides are moral opposites, is neither politic nor scientific; and to abridge a single human right or privilege is an error. Whoever does this may represent me as doing it; but he mistakes me, and the subjective state of his own mind for mine.          The true leader of a true cause is the unacknowledged servant of mankind. Stationary in the background, this individual is doing the work that nobody else can or will do. An erratic career is like the comet's course, dashing through space, headlong and alone. A clear-headed and honest Christian Scientist will demonstrate the Principle of Christian Science, and hold justice and mercy as inseparable from the unity of God.   Excerpted from Miscellaneous Writing by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 263-266

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