WHEN Christ Jesus spoke of the establishment of his church on the rock, he used the Greek word petra. According to an accepted authority, this word means a mass of rock. The context indicates that he was teaching a great spiritual truth concerning the perpetuity of the mission of the Christ, and he was alert to catch a gleam of this spiritual comprehension in his disciple Peter. His spiritual teachings and their resultant healing works must be perpetuated for all ages and peoples. The church he established must be the means of carrying forward this sublime purpose.
A study of the words and deeds of our Master shows that he taught one infinite God, the Father; one Christ, the Son of God; one heaven, which is within spiritual consciousness; and that he founded one church, through which these teachings were to be elucidated and demonstrated. In the book of Revelation we are told that the Revelator saw "one like unto the Son of man" in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, which symbolized the seven churches. Our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 14), speaks of this portrayal of "seven churches, the full number of days named in the creation, which signifies a complete time or number of whatever is spoken of in the Scriptures."
Being a spiritual idea, Church exists in Mind, and hence is permanent, indivisible, universal. In this Church the one God alone is worshiped and adored; His will alone is done; His law is supreme; His Word, the teacher and preacher. In this Church health and harmony reign; peace and love abide; the purity and perfection of being are expressed; divine wisdom, spiritual substance, and heavenly order operate without interruption or resistance. The door of this Church is Christly humility, gratitude, and praise. It is filled with God's ideas, coöperating in eternal, celestial perfection.
