THE strength of the Christian Science movement rests in large measure on the fact that it appeals to the deepest and most enduring loyalties of which mankind is capable. These loyalties, superlatively exemplified in the life of our Leader, made it inevitable that she should found The Mother Church, that her work might be continued. Without the organized unity of this church, it is by no means certain that we should have been able to retain Christian Science in its simplicity and purity, or to gain our present-day freedom in the practice of it. A fidelity to Principle less complete than that which moved our Leader might have stopped short of establishing this essential institution; but Mrs. Eddy's vision apprehended the scope of Love's eternal purpose, and she fulfilled the destiny which that vision gave her, that she might thereby endow humanity.
Neither divine Love nor divine law can be restricted to any one time or place or people. Spiritual truth is both eternal and universal. The natural sponsorship for the revelations of such truth is a universal church, which, through the centuries, shall nourish in the experience of multitudes the spiritual wonders through which revealed Truth finds expression. Divine Science is not abstract. It finds its natural fruitage in the art of spiritual living, the beauty and utility of which unfold endlessly— the art of spiritual living including the art of spiritual healing. The function of The Mother Church is not alone the preservation of the letter of Christian Science, but the cultivation also, in the lives of its members, of the essential derivative of Science, the art of correct living. There is no art comparable to this in beauty, in inspiration, or in enduring appeal. There can be, therefore, no institution more vital to the welfare of humanity than the guardian church which is identified with this art and its underlying law.
The Mother Church has proved itself in fact what it was in intent, the very stronghold of spiritual liberty. Triumph over every attack on its integrity has served to strengthen its unity, extend its influence, and widen the horizon of its future. Unfolding Christian thought inevitably unfolds that universality of the truth which foretells an ultimate manifestation of unity. The Mother Church stands as the climax of this process. It bears a message to mankind as universal as are the rules of logic or mathematics, and renders a service which progressively validates in human experience the sacred thesis of the eternal nature of Christian Science supplying spiritual armament as "a cover and a defence adapted to all men, all nations, all times, climes, and races" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 127).
