THE wonderful spiritual discernment of Mrs. Eddy and her practical judgment concerning the application of spiritual verities to human needs, are well illustrated in her definition of "church" on page 583 of Science and Health. First she presents the pure and profoundly metaphysical definition, in these simple yet most significant words: "The structure of Truth and Love: whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." Then in one comprehensive statement we have the meaning of the word "church" in its human signification—a definition which is complete, practical, and wholly Christ-like in its purpose and application.
With a never-failing insistence she lovingly counseled her followers to strive for a right understanding of the nature of the true church, and to make all their efforts for church establishment and progress in the cause of Christian Science subservient to this understanding of that real church of Christ which was established in human consciousness by Jesus nearly nineteen hundred years ago. and, like a bright thread woven into the warp and weft of a beautiful fabric, and constantly appearing to remind us of the strength and symmetry of its design, we find in our Leader's writings many reminders of the protection which God bestows on those who are called to do His work in Christian Science.
The word "church" appears for the first time in the Bible in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, when, after being questioned by the Master, Peter replied that he understood the Christ to be "the Son of the living God;" or, as explained in Christian Science, the spiritual idea of the divine Principle, Love. Jesus then declared that he would build (or establish) his church "on the God-power" (Science and Health, p. 138). In this connection Mrs. Eddy makes it plain that the true church of Christ can be the outcome in human affairs of Christlike works of healing and reformation alone, works accomplished through a spiritual understanding of divine Principle, and not in any way proceeding from the mere personality of Peter or from his temporal successors.
