IN olden Bible times rearing the temple was a sacred service; prophet and patriarch counted it holy work. Moses sought God's instruction for every detail of the tabernacle, and received from on high the pattern in the mount. The prophet Haggai, when reproving the people for their neglect to build the second temple, reiterates, "Consider your ways," and points out that their spiritual deficiencies and failure to build brought upon them droughts, hunger, loss of wages and property. But from the day they builded, God blessed them.
Like all activities provided or implied in the Manual of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, building a church is a means of developing the Christ-qualities. It calls into action imperative Scriptural and scientific injunctions. After health and supply have been individually gained through the faithful application of Christian Science, participation in the work of church building will serve to sift out the more unyielding errors in character, will search out the mental and moral corners hitherto unswept by spiritual understanding, will separate and weigh and measure the wheat and the chaff.
A church, as a church, develops its individuality and character through this work. A church, as a church, has its opportunities of applying the Golden Rule. As long ago as in 1896 Mrs. Eddy pointed out that divine Love's bestowals upon The Mother Church were in proportion to its love for others (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127). The spirit of brotherliness among Christian Science churches has at times been touchingly exemplified in one church turning over its building fund to another church. Not that any church truly builds which shirks its full individual part in the erection of its own edifice; but the church which has completed its edifice has by no means finished its task, nor can it drift idly along. It must be vigilant against stagnation, for we are warned in the Scriptures against lukewarmness. Its own spiritual expansion is measured by its interest in the achievements of its fellow churches, and its prosperity is inextricably interwoven with the achievement of new branch churches. If a Christian Science church wishes to be true to its charge to continue to build spiritually, it must give active and whole-hearted assistance to other churches which are building.
