The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, does not derive its authority from the consent of the governed. In its absolute Scientific sense it is the eternal, changeless expression of Spirit, without a visible form to the present finite sense.
It is pure Science to think of the invisible church and its invisible congregation of immortal individualities. It is ideal to the mortal, material sense; but, in fact, it is the only real, and that which we are to be, in consciousness. It is applied Science for us to make this realm of the ideal to mortal sense, the real in our immortal individual consciousness, and dwell "in the secret place of the Most High."
The fact that human beings know each other, in a mortal sense, now, is a prophecy that in the destruction of their mortality by the eternal increase of their immortal, spiritual understanding, of which all are capable, they will all some time realize the real, as individual ideas of Mind, sons and daughters of Spirit.
The transformation from a material to a spiritual consciousness is under divine laws and government, not human. The human consciousness is finally destroyed, as it is the tares; our spiritual consciousness is preserved, as it is the wheat.
The fact that the human mind has no capacity for perfect government is father to another fact, that it must have one. The joy of the race to-day should be in the fact that in Divine Science it has one, in both the letter and the spirit of truth.
Divine Science, that changeless purpose and power of good, has been reduced to human apprehension, and becomes the new name of Christianity, as Christian Science — a religious Science, or a Scientific religion. Its Principle is absolute Good, its rule is absolute non-resistance to it, its result is absolute likeness to it for all who demonstrate it.
There can be no more dispute over its theology than over the principle and rule in mathematics; and it will be as universal in its adaptation to human needs. It is found in the Scientific Statement of Being, page 464, Science and Health, our text-book, by the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science Mind Healing, and our leader, teacher, mother, and guide.
This theology satisfies every demand of human reason, and attracts the pure human affections to their source, wherein reason and affection are satisfied. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
The invisible church and its invisible preacher are one, — "The Holy One." The invisible congregation is one with it as its reflection.
The visible membership of more than seven thousand are never separate from it — though not of it, yet a manifestation of it, in so far as they reflect the Divine attributes of the Infinite Christ.
To formulate human thought and lift it to a point where it can reflect these attributes, as justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, health, and love, has been the work of our Leader in her writings.
The human side of the church propaganda is just as human as the constitution and statutes of our national government.
It is all embodied in our Church Manual, and this is the work of our Leader's Scientific thought. It reflects divine wisdom, and, like all divine methods, makes it easy for each member to go right, and as hard as possible to go wrong.
This Manual is to all branch churches, what our national "Magna Charta," the Constitution, is to all the states in the Union.
The preamble of our national Constitution sets forth the purpose of our government, and makes that the standard of citizenship, following it with the Constitution and statutes as rules of action for all citizens, individual and collective. Thus the Tenets in our Church Manual set forth our purpose and standard of discipleship in Truth, and then follow rules of action, individual and collective, to aid us in attaining the same.
Our national government gives the privilege to its citizens to form states and state governments, with rules of action for citizens of each particular state. The states could not adopt the national Constitution and statutes; if they did they would be nations, and not states. The citizenship of the state is defined by national law, and the national law will punish the offender, though a citizen of a state. Each state in America has its distinct constitution and statutes, and none of them are out of tune with our paternal Government, the national Constitution.
Our Mother Church Manual gives the privilege to its members to form branch churches, but they cannot adopt the Mother Church Rules and By -Laws, else they would appear and be as out of decent order, as children with their parents' garments. Branch churches can make their own forms of government, that fit their needs, and yet keep the letter and spirit of the Mother Church Tenets.
The letter and the spirit of the Mother Church Tenets unite all the branch churches to the Mother Vine in a sense of human propaganda, and the demonstration of them unites us eternally with the invisible Christ — the Church Triumphant.
Our national government has no right to interfere with the affairs of a state while the state acts under the spirit of the national preamble. Nor can the states combine in independent action, without violating the purpose of the national compact, by which the citizens of each state are bound.
Thus we have the United States, because all are national citizens first and always, and thus form one body, or nation.
Nor can the Mother Church have control over the branch churches, only as the members of the branch churches are governed by the Mother Church Tenets. When a member of a branch church is disobedient, at that point he ceases to be a Christian, and cuts himself off. Nor can members of the Mother Church who have formed branch churches, combine in independent action with other branch churches, else they violate the rules of the Parent Church, and thus cut themselves off and suffer loss.
Now, if we go back to Principle, we shall discover the Christ, the invisible King of Power and Glory, revealing itself as Divine Science to Mrs. Eddy, and the Metaphysical Science by which she reduced it to human apprehension in her writings, and the human propaganda by which it is to reach all mankind through a Mother Church and branches, and see that none of them are separated from the Christ, who is now manifesting itself through it all, healing humanity from sin and disease by imparting a scientific theology whose character is real Truth, reaching both the intellect and affections of men through right reason and revelation.
The whole matter is illustrated by Jesus' parable of the vine and branches in the fifteenth chapter of John, and in the first seven verses of the twenty-second chapter of Revelation. The cardinal point of divine order is that the greater and greatest baptize the lower and lowest with Omnipotent Life, Truth, Love.
Sufficient meekness on our part to leave us non-resistant to the action of Love through Truth, gives us the Divine right to membership in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist," the highest honor that can come to us, and empowers us to prove our Christianity as Jesus required it, by preaching the Kingdom of God, Good, and healing the sick. The Christ will appear first where the seven devils are not. Passion, cowardice, egotism, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, and revenge, not only make human consciousness a den of thieves in belief, but they are the would-be murderers of Truth, the stranger within our gates. Let us rejoice that these are but blind forces of error or darkness, that are yielding to the light that is Truth as it is in Christian Science, proving Christianity true in healing from sin and its effects—disease and death—by the same Principle and power that Jesus demonstrated and which his teaching demands of Christians in all ages, as a proof of discipleship.
