Mrs. EDDY'S description of Christian Science, on page 224 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is full of meaning. She says, "A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrating justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking for admission." While she was here, she formed the voluntary association of those who accepted this practical Christianity, now known as The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, which has branch churches or societies in representative places throughout the whole world. It is, perhaps, likely that many of the adherents of this church have not considered the value of its protection sufficiently; else their gratitude would be deeper for the benefits which they are receiving.
The human heart meeting the problems of life has an innate and deep longing for companionship and friendship. There is often a temptation to loneliness and to a feeling of futility in connection with long continued efforts directed toward personal or selfish ends. Love is the enrichment of life, and love must find expression and return; and so life is enriched by the companionship of those who are like-minded. A multitude of instances will show the truth of that old promise of Scripture which says, "God setteth the solitary in families." Those who were both alone and lonely have, through an acceptance of Christian Science, found themselves brought into kindly relations with others of the same faith; so that their lives are enriched thereby. Such must have been the case in the days of the early church. Christianity, when it was accepted, seemed to produce an exaltation of joy in the hearts of the early Christians. The miseries and uncertainties of life were so great for many of them that the first gleam of hope they had ever known came from hearing for the first time the Christian teaching.
Many of the early accepters of truth were in humble positions. Mental enlightenment liberated many slaves from the bitterness of bondage and made them friendly to their masters, redeeming their lives from the sullen hatred which they had cherished because of their wrongs. The same message of peace and blessedness came to those of high place as well. When one reads over the salutations in the epistle to the Romans, it can be recognized that there must have been a wonderful fellowship, including both the noble and the lowly, as men classify human conditions. The Churches of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world revive this sense of illuminated friendship; and people of many different former attitudes, and of widely diverse conditions in life, find themselves in the church and in its services, united in one joy, exalted by one hope, and inspired by the gladness of knowing aright one God.
