The invisible Church of the living God, the real Church, is of necessity spiritual. Mary Baker Eddy defines "Church," in part, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 583) as, "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle."
The human organization is a representation of the real Church. In proportion as each church member holds to the true concept of Church, and lets the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" be in him, is the church built upon the rock, Christ. It is therefore necessary for every member to strive at all times to keep in his thinking the spiritual qualities which proceed from divine Principle. Mere personal opinions as to what should or should not be done then give way to the leading of Truth.
As the church triumphant is unfolded to human consciousness, the church militant will appear and prosper. This shows church building to be a continuous activity. We must guard against the error which would have us believe that church building begins with the start of the erection of the material structure and ends with the completion of this structure. Error cannot prevail against the real Church, but it would claim to be able to resist the spread of Truth. Impetuosity would trick us into advocating error under the guise of need for action. We must be equally alert that error under the guise of some short cut does not blind us to the scientific, right way to proceed with right activity. Thus shall we prove true the second part of Mrs. Eddy's definition of "Church" (ibid., p. 583) as "that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick."
