Human thought is inclined to regard a resplendent material structure in which God is praised with dignified, artistic ritualistic ceremony, as the correct idea of Church. Although such a church may be the outcome of much that is good, it may be far from expressing the idea of Church which Jesus presented. Many of us at some time may have belonged to such a church as the former, and we may have wondered, perhaps, why it did not do the healing work of Jesus and his early followers; why it seemed to lack the faith of those times; and why the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes seemed to its members so impracticable and so much more difficult to obey than they did in those early Christian days. We may have puzzled over this until enlightened by Christian Science.
We find on page 583 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the definition of "Church" as, in part, "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle," a definition which is in accord with Jesus' declaration that they who worship God "must worship him in spirit and in truth." We learn also that the material sense of church proves its right to exist by demonstrating its divine Principle. And it proves its usefulness by awakening the sinner, healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowing, annulling the claims of matter, and revealing the glory and power of Spirit. In contemplating such a church, we turn away from the material, human, mortal concept toward the spiritual concept—that true Church founded on the Rock, the Christ, Truth, which demonstrates healing. As someone has said, "The day the truth about God and man and the universe, as taught in Christian Science, dawns upon our consciousness . . . that day have we laid in our consciousness the foundation of Church." In other words, the birth of the spiritual idea in individual consciousness may be said to be the beginning or the first stone in the building of a Christian Science church.
In the rearing of the structure, we learn that it is not a question of how big or how small a material edifice we erect, but how much truth and love there is in the hearts of those who constitute the membership. As individual members we are impelled to ask ourselves, How much of our thinking, our seeking, our activity, rests upon divine Principle? It is not a question of how long we have attended, or of how many years we have been members, but of how much truth we have demonstrated. Demonstrating Church means demonstrating truth and love, proving that we understand Truth and are reflecting it in being truthful, true to God, to our fellow-man, and to the right and true sense of self; that we understand divine Love, and are reflecting it in being loving at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances.
