It is widely known that Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, established the precedent of dedicating Christian Science church edifices only after they have been fully paid for. When the Original Mother Church edifice was in the process of construction and her followers were laboring faithfully to supply the necessary money and to see that the construction work was not allowed to cease, our Leader inspired her followers to give evidence of willingness to pay the price of steady spiritualization of thought and life.
Mrs. Eddy wrote her followers a cheering and inspiring letter, which includes the following statements (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 141): "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, our prayer in stone, will be the prophecy fulfilled, the monument upreared, of Christian Science. It will speak to you of the Mother, and of your hearts' offering to her through whom was revealed to you God's all-power, all-presence, and all-science. This building begun, will go up, and no one can suffer from it, for no one can resist the power that is behind it; and against this church temple 'the gates of hell' cannot prevail."
From this spiritually powerful utterance by our Leader, we conclude that The Mother Church and the completion of its edifice are the fulfillments of Biblical prophecy. Hence the branches of this divinely empowered Church are prophetically endowed with the same irresistible might of Spirit to complete their structures. That is, their visible edifices and the inward order of spiritual development in the lives of the members unfold to completion under divine authority. This involves our paying the price of the building by parting with money and paying the price of spirituality by parting with material sense.
