IN an inspired declaration our beloved Leader states that "the Magna Charta of Christian Science means much," that it is "essentially democratic" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 246, 247), and then she defines the essence of its democracy in a striking and inclusive phrase: "Its government is administered by the common consent of the governed, wherein and whereby man governed by his creator is self-governed." And she continues, "The church is the mouthpiece of Christian Science." There is much food for thought in these pregnant sentences. Unflinchingly they recognize the mighty spiritual fact that human action, unless it is inspired by God, the source of all real action, falls short of meeting the ultimate test of true democracy.
Every Christian Scientist has learned, to some extent at least, to seek within the divine consciousness for "that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The world's concept of democracy, swinging broadly away from the tyranny of earlier systems and beliefs, is apt to attribute a conclusiveness to the mandates of the popular will which the logic of events may fail to sustain. Mrs. Eddy makes this very clear in her statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 225): "The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking." Recognizing that "one with God is a majority," no one need fear to suffer from walking a second mile with those whose views he may perchance not fully share, yet who, whether in home, church, business, or state, are intrusted with the accomplishment of a common purpose.
It will be noted that all three of the Synoptic Gospels include the parable in which Christ Jesus exposes the betrayal of trust through which evil maliciously attempts to possess the vineyard: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our's." When Mrs. Eddy, in 1892, reorganized The Mother Church and committed it to the government of God anew, she was not without experience of the attacks of the carnal mind upon forms of government less spiritually conceived. Only her sublime faith in God had enabled her to bring the church organization through those earlier stages of growth when animal magnetism, sanctimoniously masked in the forms of democracy, strove bitterly to usurp the divine direction.
Since "the church is the mouthpiece of Christian Science," we may find within The Mother Church, administered in obedience to the Church Manual, which our Leader has bequeathed to all the generations to come, the fullest expression of true, spiritual democracy in the world to-day. Every member of The Mother Church has a part in this democracy, and shares the responsibility for its continued unfoldment. If he fails to guard himself against the temptations of apathy, envy, criticism, disobedience, and pride, he is in danger of finding himself cut off from his divinely-bestowed inheritance.
True democracy is orderly, just, and kind. It assumes individual faithfulness. It operates without meddlesomeness; it is effective in proportion as it is sought in Principle, and not in person or position. It protects the right thinker, and restrains the evildoer. Its basis being divine, it stands secure in the face of temptation and sin. Only the humble in heart can appropriate the benefits which it confers without distinction of birth, or rank, or worldly gifts.
Mortals find it easy to detect the shortcomings of their fellow-men; but they are not commonly so ready to recognize their own. In the administration of the far-reaching interests comprised within the universal activities of The Mother Church, the Church Manual assigns certain specific duties to various offices. The Christian Science Board of Directors, in particular, is intrusted with many definite responsibilities affecting the well-being of the church members generally. And to every member, without exception, there is committed the privilege of demonstrating a greater measure of obedience to the "Rule for Motives and Acts," which appears on page 40 of the Manual.
And could any humanly conceived activity serve as potently and lovingly to aid those who hold office in our Cause, as the humble, silent, individual prayer which rises on the wings of self-forgetfulness to proclaim, "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever"? "Church laws which are obeyed without mutiny are God's laws," says our Leader (Miscellany, p. 203). The clamor for collective action to solve this church problem or that—another's problem, frequently—may be only the plea of mortal mind that it can be saved by going outside of God's law. It overlooks or denies the grandest privilege ever unfolded to mankind in the search for the lost paradise—the privilege of individual demonstration, of proving, each for himself, that "the kingdom of God is within you," as our Master declared.
Obedience to the By-laws of The Mother Church does not abridge individual rights or opportunities. On the contrary, as the experience of every loyal Christian Scientist testifies, such obedience unfolds a fuller consciousness of freedom, safety, and harmony. He who believes that his success and happiness are dependent upon the enjoyment of some official post or emolument, or who still cherishes some disappointed hope of popular recognition, may find it hard to accept this; yet, if he is sincerely striving to put God's law first in his affections, he too can prove that nothing has been taken from him, and that he is the richer for his self-mastery. The caprice of kings and the acclaim of minds many can confer no honors which satisfy as do the blessings which we win for ourselves through whole-hearted reliance upon God.
However distinct they may be in their mode of functioning, the branch churches in the Christian Science movement can prosper only as they loyally abide in the parent vine, and as the mesmeric influences of personality are recognized to have no power in the divine order of government. The Christ-idea, or Truth, which Mrs. Eddy has revealed to the world, the Comforter of promise, destined "to rule all nations with a rod of iron," is sufficient to the fulfillment of its mission.
As human thought comes into harmony with the requirements of Christian Science, the freedom of self-government within God's law becomes increasingly manifest. There is in reality no other democracy than this. Disease, sin, and death will forfeit their false claim to power in the measure of our understanding of the compelling activity of the divine will and purpose. Rising to greater heights of self-abnegation, we awake to realize more clearly the bountiful provision which infinite Love has already prepared to satisfy each need. And as we share the secrets of unselfishness with our fellow-man, our freedom of action becomes enlarged without any interference with his own. The Apostle John exclaimed, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
