ONE HOLY CHURCH

Humanity has always worshiped some form of deity. Under the stars or in grand edifices mankind have sought a god to worship, have reached beyond the mortal for a power stronger than that conceived by a limited material sense of life and intelligence. Wherever people have come together to entreat an unknown god for favors, or, in more enlightened states of thought, to praise God for His goodness, there a sense of church has come into being.

Often mankind has offered prayers to God as though He were afar off, as a Being wholly separate from man, but having the power to give or withhold good or evil. Can we be grateful enough for the revelation in Christian Science that man is one with God as idea, that he is indeed the very expression of God's being? Our worship in Christian Science leads us into newness of life, in which we do not struggle to reach the ear of a far-off God, but we endeavor to quiet the material senses that would prevent our hearing what ever-present Mind is saying. We need be in no certain spot or assume no particular attitude to commune with our Father-Mother God. We need only turn away from the clamor of the material senses, which argue separation from God, to find our oneness, or unity, with Him and to commune with divine Spirit.

Mary Baker Eddy, whose discovery of Christian Science is teaching mankind to demonstrate an entirely new concept of life, founded her Church upon the rock of Christ-healing and led her followers, those hungry to understand God, to a clearer worship of God as Love. In "Miscellaneous Writings" she says (p. 150): "'If God be for us, who can be against us?' If He be with us, the wayside is a sanctuary, and the desert a resting-place peopled with living witnesses of the fact that 'God is Love.'" Christian Science teaches those seeking the Christly way that communion with God builds in consciousness the invisible structure which is set forth in Mrs. Eddy's definition of spiritual "Church," found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 583): "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." Mrs. Eddy goes on to define "Church" as a human institution: "The Church is 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."

Although Mrs. Eddy knew that the real Church is not in a material place, she recognized the need for the outward evidence of the healing work that came about because of the recognition of man's unity with God. Through her steadfast prayer and absolute reliance on God's guidance every step of the way, The Mother Church and its branches came into being. She knew that her Church had the mission of reinstating primitive Christian healing, and in establishing The Mother Church, she has provided a home for all those who yearn to follow in the footsteps of the master Christian and to emulate his healing works.

Mrs. Eddy recognized that each individual must work out his own salvation, but she provided through the channels of The Mother Church for the counsel and continual refreshment of individuals and branch churches. Members can constantly turn to our Leader's writings and to the authorized periodicals and lectures for inspiration and renewal. The Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy is an unfailing guide and guardian, and Christian Scientists turn to it with gratitude for this bulwark which safeguards our beloved Cause.

Like a parent who loves and wisely guides each child, The Mother Church asks the obedience of each branch church through its adherence to Truth. However, each branch is free to grow according to the demonstration of its members. And thus Churches of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world join hands in holy purpose, but each must establish its own individuality within the framework of this world-wide healing ministry.

There should be deep affection on the part of the members of each branch church for The Mother Church and for all of its branches. There is no place for rivalry, negative criticism, or even comparison in this sacred relationship. Similarly, when a tree grows, each branch takes form, in its own time, and each contributes to the whole.

Does a church seem small outwardly? Church is infinite, never confined to four walls. The Church of Christ, Scientist, is universal. Wherever one individual is striving to know God, there we find the healing and saving Christ, the proof of the power of God to heal—evidence of the Church Universal and Triumphant.

There is no unimportant Church of Christ, Scientist. It is always the greatest influence for good in any community, for it declares the Christ, Truth, in that place. Let us never discount the effect of the work of our church, but magnify it. Every piece of literature prepared for distribution, every committee meeting held in the interest of the periodicals, every service held, every lecture given as the result of prayer, glorifies God and must send out its blessings in ever-widening circles.

Churches are not potent because of the number of their members, but because of the healing work that is accomplished. If the thought of the members is expansive and unselfed, resulting in healing, Church is truly demonstrated. But if pride in a material structure and overemphasis on organization and outward show have dimmed the vision of the Christ, the evidence of Church is small indeed, no matter how large or pretentious the material structure.

Attendance at church services in order to glorify God and to receive more of the Christ into consciousness is to join hands with the multitudes who followed the Master, hungry for the spiritual food with which he fed them. Today in the religion of Christian Science we have the Comforter, which he promised would come.

Appreciating the good in fellow members, rejoicing in their progress, seeing the oneness of Mind when differences of opinion seem to arise—all these actions cement members of a church in the bonds of perfectness. To be true to each other as Jesus was true to mankind is to see our brother always as the perfect image of the Father. May we always value our brother's perfect identity so that we may know him in the way of which Paul speaks (I Cor. 3:16), "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

We lift our brother's burden by seeing each one as, in reality, the pure temple of God. Serving God first through the activity of Christ in consciousness will ensure the prosperity of the church. As healing becomes paramount in each activity and in individual lives, grateful hearts pour forth their gratitude for lives redeemed by giving of their substance. It is the healing of sin, sorrow, disease, and lack that manifests the presence of "the structure of Truth and Love," and progress in church building follows as naturally as the flower opens its petals in grateful thanks for the sun's caressing rays.

This sequence was proved in the experience of a branch church in a large city. For a number of years the church had occupied business quarters. Although a lot had been purchased soon after the church was organized, a sense of lack had prevented the building of the edifice. A large debt was incurred, and when salaries were cut and other retrograde steps were taken in the effort to lessen the debt, it increased, instead of diminishing. With each backward step the mesmerism of lack deepened until the membership woke to the fact that human methods alone would accomplish nothing. The one thing needed was a right concept of Church, expressed in healing.

With this need in mind, every activity of the church was seen to have its place in the healing of mankind. The Reading Room, Sunday School, and committee work, each was seen to be a part of the healing mission. And the healing of the youngest pupil in the Sunday School, every book and piece of literature sold in the Reading Room, every right thought and deed, became stones in the demonstration of the invisible Church, which soon was manifested in the outward temple.

So inspired were the members that giving became paramount, both in money and in living. The debt vanished as salaries were raised and as thought was expanded. Soon a part of the church edifice, which was adequate for the need at that time, was built, and so generous was the giving that a ten-year loan was paid off in two years and eight months. In a few years more the completed edifice rose to proclaim the rejoicing in the hearts of those to whom Christian Science healing had become daily and hourly church building in each individual consciousness.

Christian Scientists do not worship church edifices, nor do they worship Mrs. Eddy. They love and revere her as their Leader. With unselfed love and to save her Church from the pitfalls that come from dependence upon human personality, she wrote in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 34), "Obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ." Thus Christian Scientists in their healing and saving ministry turn always to the Christ for guidance, and their gratitude is unspeakable for all that Mrs. Eddy has given to the world.

Today in many places over the world the temple of God is rising in grateful hearts. And songs of praise from those redeemed from all forms of error are resounding. Thought, glorified, is lifting up the christ-idea, which brings every hungry heart home to the consciousness of man's oneness with infinite good.