Membership with The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and with one of its many branch churches located throughout the world, is a natural and desirable unfoldment in the progress of the student of Christian Science. However, by whatever road one may approach an active consideration of this momentous step, seeming difficulties in the way may induce arguments which would tempt one to delay temporarily, if not to postpone indefinitely, the achievement of the desired goal. If such be the case, it may not always be so clearly seen that coming into membership with the visible church is the logical consummation of a demonstration which often requires the same kind of healing work as that employed in meeting any other problem, and which brings to the student outward evidence of spiritual reward.
Mrs. Eddy has told us in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 426), that "when the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress." Our first step, then, is to come into a clear, definite realization that a true understanding of the idea of Church, guiding us into a working affiliation with the visible organization, is not only desirable but necessary to our advancement in spiritual dominion. Once this is seen and the determination to achieve our goal is firmly established in our consciousness, successive steps will be unfolded, among them being consistent, orderly study of our Leader's writings and other authorized Christian Science literature, with special study of the Manual of The Mother Church and the by-laws of the branch church to which we are applying for admission.
The negotiation of these necessary steps should offer no serious obstacle to the earnest student. There may, however, arise difficulties peculiar to the individual situation, of a more subtle character, which must be faced and lovingly overcome. Very possibly numbers of loyal adherents to the truths of Christian Science, who have approached this question from the direction of a former affiliation with another religious denomination, have not found it an easy task to replace at once the commonly accepted views of church membership with the spiritual interpretations revealed in the teachings of Christian Science. Undoubtedly, for some, church has been interpreted in terms of doctrinal discussions on the various sacraments; for others, in terms of social amenities, social uplift, and social service; or in terms of family associations, background, and history; or even in terms of business and social prestige. For great numbers church has even been interpreted in terms of an emotional ecstasy growing out of what to them was a deep-seated religious experience.
