All Christian Scientists are familiar with our Leader's definition of Church, which is in part as follows: "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle" (Science and Health, p. 583). It would be interesting to know how people at large might define their idea of church. Some reverent and broad thinkers have held that the true Church must include the great body of believers who, in all ages, have striven to know God and to keep His law. In the epistle to the Hebrews we find a reference to "the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven," and this shows that above and beyond the human sense is the spiritual reality, known to God. In the same epistle we read that "every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God." From this we learn that the divine Mind is the true builder, and that the human thought, catching a glimpse of the divine idea, reproduces it according to its own sense of things.
Material sense is apt to stop at the outward form and thus lose ofttimes the idea which underlies all form and expression. The temple at Jerusalem was intended to symbolize the true worship, both in the stateliness of its edifice and in the impressiveness of its ceremonial. It was most natural that the Jewish people should love their temple, since it was the symbol of their highest sense of divine worship. More than that, it stood for the coming of that glad day when the light from Mount Zion should illumine the whole world. The tenderness with which every true Christian thinks upon all the sacred associations of Jerusalem is illustrated by a story told of Dr. Bonar and some other ministers who visited the Holy Land a number of years ago. It seems that when they were nearing the city, the little party dismounted and hastened forward on foot to catch their first glimpse of the hallowed place. When they beheld it, these grave, reserved men sank upon their knees in silent but tearful prayer. Doubtless they had in that moment a keener realization of the meaning of the apostle's words, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
As thought turns to our own Christian Science churches, we may inquire what story do they tell to those who pass by, what to those who enter their portals as strangers to our faith? No one can answer so well as our Leader when she expresses the purpose which founded the Mother Church. "To organize a church designed to commemorate die word and works of our Master which should reinstate primitive Christianity with its lost element of healing" (Manual, p. 16).
