Inasmuch as divine law endows every individual with the ability to do good under all circumstances, no one is ever without the means of contributing to the betterment of his home and of his community. By the same token every church member may always be doing something which will promote the prosperity and success of his church, a fact which places a responsibility upon his shoulders which cannot be shaken off or evaded. But while every one may be doing some of the things he should do, so slothful is human nature in responding to spiritual demands that no one is doing all he might.
What is our church? We know that it is not an edifice, for if that were destroyed the church would still exist and could reproduce its outward structure; so that a real church is not physical but metaphysical, as must also be the real nature of the work which is required. A church organization, then, is necessarily made up of the aggregate good thinking of its members, their collective spiritual understanding united for the purpose of systematic and orderly achievement. The prime importance of having right thinking members is therefore apparent, for a church can do no more than the reflected goodness and love of its members makes possible. Only as the units of an organization are honestly striving to possess and to express the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, can it justly claim to be a Christian Science church equipped for works of righteousness.
On page 19 of the "Church Manual" we read that The Mother Church was founded on "the understanding and demonstration of divine Truth, Life, and Love, healing and saving the world from sin and death;" and on page 20 of "Pulpit and Press" Mrs. Eddy says, "From first to last The Mother Church seemed type and shadow of the warfare between the flesh and Spirit, even that shadow whose substance is the divine Spirit, imperatively propelling the greatest moral, physical, civil, and religious reform ever known on earth." Thus it can be seen that the mission of our church involves the entire redemption of humanity, physically, morally, and spiritually, and in no other way may this be brought about except by its members showing forth in their own lives the redemptive power of divine Truth and Love.
