In reflecting on The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, established by Mary Baker Eddy, it is valuable to consider that within its membership are those from different walks of life. To The Mother Church and its branches come thoughtful seekers for spiritual light from many religious denominations, or from no denomination, and from many different races.
There is no such thing as a certain type of seeker who is attracted to the Church of Christ, Scientist. Frequently what brings inquirers is their quest for healing of their sorrows and afflictions. There are those also who come seeking release from a restrictive sense of life or for the purpose of finding a demonstrable understanding of God and the reason for man's existence. The wealthy and the needy, the high and the lowly, often come bringing with them widely differing theological beliefs and also the results of materialistic education and undesirable traits of character. But these are destined to be laid aside during the reforming and educational process which attends the spiritual awakening of the sincere student.
All members have equal possibilities. According to their readiness through growth in the understanding of Christian Science, all are eligible for the various offices of the church organization; all are entitled to equal respect and consideration; all are entitled to the protecting love of The Mother Church. With a right understanding of this protecting love each church member will do his part in fulfilling the mission of The Mother Church.
The true mother watches over her children with impartial love and affection. But if any child seems to require extra care and patient attention, the mother's loving protection and tender encouragement are never lacking. Thus it is with The Mother Church. No thoughtful member will fail to realize that the word "Mother" as it is used with the name of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, connotes more than a mere designation of a parent organization. The mission of The Mother Church is to save. Thus The Mother Church is vibrant with love and compassionate concern for every one of its members and for all mankind as well.
In the early period of our church membership our own spiritual progress may seem to be the thing in which we are most interested. This progress begins to unfold as we faithfully study and pray and also as we achieve some degree of constancy in spiritual, scientific thinking as taught in Christian Science. But to continue to progress and to be a useful member, we must reflect the love which The Mother Church exemplifies toward our fellow members and have a genuine desire to help build them up—to help them gain a higher understanding of Spirit's reality and of their spiritual and perfect selfhood.
We assume this obligation as we come to comprehend the full import of our membership in The Mother Church and recognize it as our duty and privilege to see that the saving purpose of our Leader's Church is accomplished. Joyously accepting this challenge inspires our thoughts and acts with the unselfed love that implements in the human experience the Love that is divine and universal and exemplified by The Mother Church.
It is divine Love which heals the sick, satisfies the yearning of the troubled, and reveals the perfect nature of Life and the reason for our existence. Through the study of Christian Science, we come to comprehend Love as the basis of Christ Jesus' teachings and his demonstrations of divine power.
What is it in the thinking of mortals which impels them to express unloving censure and condemnation toward their fellow men instead of unselfed love? It is nothing but the spiritually unenlightened and sensuous belief that there is and can be a unity of good and evil in man, or, in other words, a blending of a material nature with the spiritual nature.
Throughout his ministry Christ Jesus was continually accused and condemned by the materialistic Pharisees, who sought to confound him and to destroy him for his scientific teaching of man's perfection and oneness, or unity, with God, a teaching radically opposed to their concept of man as both good and evil, both material and spiritual. This zealous sect was harsh and hypocritical, untouched by the compassionate love of the Christ. There is the well-known incident of the woman taken in adultery, whom the Pharisees accused and sought to condemn according to the Mosaic law. When they brought her to Jesus, he refused to condemn her. He forgave her and said (John 8:11), "Go, and sin no more."
In what has been called his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned (Matt. 5:20), “I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy gives the following definition (p. 592): "Pharisee. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-righteousness; vanity; hypocrisy."
In the light of the teachings of Christian Science, on which The Mother Church is founded, we come to understand that it is corporeal and sensuous belief, blind to the allness of Spirit and the unreality of evil or matter, which holds man to be physical personality, erring and finite, rather than the sinless idea of perfect Mind.
The view of man as physical or mortal, as separate from God, and as having both good and evil elements characterized Pharisaism. But the view of man as God's ideal, one in being with God and wholly good like Him, brings the Christianly scientific realization which exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and spiritualizes the human consciousness, freeing it from its sensuous or material beliefs.
In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says (p. 136), "Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing." Just so did our beloved Leader establish her Church. Christ-healing, with its saving process, is the very foundation of The Mother Church. Spirit's omniscience and matter's nonexistence and powerlessness provide the point at which the battle is joined between Christian Science and materialistic Pharisaism, with its un-Christlike concomitants of accusation, condemnation, and penalty.
In "Unity of Good," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 46): "Jesus said, 'I and my Father are one.' He taught no selfhood as existent in matter. In his identity there is no evil. Individuality and Life were real to him only as spiritual and good, not as material or evil."
It is only through the practice of unselfed love and the denial of a selfhood apart from God that the human consciousness awakens to the point of comprehending the omniscience of Spirit, the only true substance, and the unreality of matter and finite personality. From our persistent effort in this direction there will grow up in us the Christly qualities of humility, loving compassion, forbearance, patience, and forgiveness. Then we shall seek to save our fellow men from materialism rather than condemn and penalize them for their unenlightened belief in it.
May we all pray that we become so aware of our obligations and opportunities that Pharisaism shall not hinder or delay the onward march of The Mother Church in its transforming and saving work for all mankind.
