"I look upon all the world as my parish," said John Wesley. In Psalms we read (40:9), "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation." And in the next verse, "I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation." Inspiring statements such as the foregoing have helped to open the thought of many to the great possibilities of Christian evangelism. Christlike thoughts, constructive speaking, and welldoing exert a mighty influence in leavening the thought of the world parish, "the great congregation," hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
A young man, making a covenant with God, pledged himself to be a missionary preaching Christ to the sick, the sinning, and the sorrowing in foreign lands. Later he learned through Christian Science that his missionary work must first be in his own thinking. His humble acceptance of Christ, Truth, needed nurturing, encouragement, growth in understanding, and maturity. When confronted with the sin and suffering of humanity, he learned to look to the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus. The Master said (John 14:16), "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." Commenting on this statement Mary Baker Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 55), "This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."
The Christian Science student referred to above found in his consciousness false beliefs concerning himself and others which needed to be healed through the acceptance of Christ, Truth. He found that concepts foreign to the nature of man, made in God's likeness, were apparently lodged in thought. Unlovely traits of character, unlike the purity of the Christ which he had promised to preach, were resolutely resisted and cast out. Abundant activity and joy resulted from first preaching to himself, right where he was. He gained the conviction that spiritual ideas, emanating from divine Mind and reflected by mankind, inevitably reach "the great congregation."
