There are few, if any, who will deny the truth of the statement that there is an omnipotent and omnipresent power we call God, which is able to do all things at all times, and which is capable of meeting every need of humanity. The doubt has never been so much as to its existence as to its availability. There never had been any definite idea as to how it could be utilized until Christian Science was revealed to the world and explained how it could be applied to all the problems of human experience; not, however, as the working of miracles, but as the operation of established law, of divine power, thus demonstrating the truth of the psalmist's statement that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." It is well known that Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was most discriminating in her use of language in all that she has said and written. Her nomenclature is unique. The great necessity for this will readily be seen when it is remembered that no writer before her time had ever set himself the task which she so courageously assumed, that of fully explaining spiritual things in human language.
In obtaining an understanding of the church founded by Mrs. Eddy in order to preserve her discovery, much may be learned from the name she gave it, "The Church of Christ, Scientist." In the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 583), she defines Church as "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." On the same page she gives us this definition of Christ: "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." A scientist, as we know, is one who is devoted to the study of a particular science—an exact practitioner or demonstrator of the science. Accepting these definitions, therefore, we can conclude that the church according to its name is "the structure of Truth and Love"—"the divine manifestation of God"—acting as the impersonal healer, because of its exact practice and demonstration of Christian Science.
Taking our Leader's definition of Church, as "the structure of Truth and Love," as before quoted, we find the purely spiritual character of the church; we find it to be something more than a material structure or a material organization. This definition reveals a sense which takes it into the realm of metaphysics and defines it as the idea of consciousness, the manifestation of divine Mind or God, who is Life, Truth, and Love. The real church, therefore, is not a material edifice or a material organization, but has its existence in consciousness. Each individual proves his understanding of this church in the proportion that he has built for himself the "structure of Truth and Love," which to him is the "house of God." In the building of this house or temple, as in that of King Solomon, "no sound of hammer" or noise of other tools is heard. The activities are wholly those of demonstration.
