TO Christian Scientists, the word church has come to mean more than a mere physical structure where people may go to worship. They are learning that the only real and living Church is the spiritual expression, or manifestation, of God.
Mary Baker Eddy defines Church in its spiritual sense as "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583) . Church, therefore, exists in and of consciousness. Creeds and doctrines are not Church. As understood in Christian Science, Church is a subjective experience, established in consciousness, and there maintained by Mind. Only as Christian Scientists individually demonstrate divine Mind—Truth and Love—can there be a Church of Christ, Scientist.
Science and Health states (p. 35): "Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are newborn of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love,—casting out error and healing the sick." What does it mean to be "newborn of Spirit"? It means to begin to think from the basis of Spirit as All and of man as spiritual, and therefore to cease thinking from the standpoint of nationality, material education, culture, race, or environment. As we cease to entertain restrictive viewpoints, the limitations that are imposed by them drop away from us.
