Church has somewhat the same relationship to edifice that home has to house, and as the work of homemaking is continuous, so church building continues after the edifice is built and paid for. The living Church is shown forth by a church membership in which Love continues to be brought out more and more in human lives. The church with such a membership is the heart and soul of a community.
In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 571), "The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity." This higher humanity involves understanding, good will, mutual confidence, and genuine respect for the rights of others. The Psalmist put it in these words (Ps. 133:1): "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"
Christian Science enables us to discern the spiritual fact of what we behold. When in beholding a neighbor we see a brother, we have taken the first step in transforming a neighborhood into a brotherhood. Having the same Father, brothers share equally the heritage of sonship. As one's appreciation of this sonship increases, his heritage of peace and good will is made more abundant and available. Peacemaking involves preserving and promoting unity in thought and action. The need of such unity is apparent in every type of collective action, and this is particularly true in church building. True peace is nothing less than the demonstration of true brotherhood, the love for God and neighbor, through which divinity is made available to humanity and human relationships assume a diviner nature.
