Throughout the world, wherever individual hearts love mankind enough to desire to share Christian Science in the orderly ways provided by Mary Baker Eddy, its Discoverer and Founder, steps are even now being taken to meet the requirements for the organizing of a branch church as outlined in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy.
Sometimes only two students decide to read aloud together on Sunday mornings the Lesson-Sermon, outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly. Appropriate hymns are selected, and perhaps a solo is sung. But however modest the beginning, a divine, omnipotent force begins to accomplish a holy mission in that community through the impersonal preachers, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The Bible presents to human consciousness the gradual unfolding of the Christ, the impersonal Saviour. Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy reveals the perfection of God and of man as His spiritual image, and it also explains the rules of scientific healing. These two divinely inspired books inevitably regenerate individual lives.
A branch church is effective even in its formative stage if it heeds Mrs. Eddy's words in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 50): "The human affections need to be changed from self to benevolence and love for God and man; changed to having but one God and loving Him supremely, and helping our brother man."
And what characterizes this unselfed love which is so indispensable to sound and progressive church building? Such love causes one to walk humbly but not timidly. He who expresses this love knows that unlimited strength and safety lie in the simple, heartfelt acknowledgment that because of its very nature the Church of Christ, Scientist, has universal appeal and universal application. With unselfed love in his heart, one has no desire to muffle the truth or to shield it with conservatism or indifference to humanity's needs, for he remembers Christ Jesus' repeated words to Simon Peter, "Feed my sheep" (John 21: 16, 17). Jesus' love was too magnanimous to be touched or deterred by evil's single barbs or by its accumulated force when ripe for self-destruction. If his love was rejected, he felt no hurt and went calmly on to find a heart prepared to receive the Christ. Can we do less?
There can be no exclusiveness or disdain in the church in which Love is enthroned. If we have the Christly desire to meet the needs of others, we shall find new purpose in daily study; and we shall find increasing opportunities to help others. Think of the dedicated church members who were first attracted to Christian Science because someone loved enough to lend them a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy or a Christian Science Sentinel!
When Christian Scientists begin to think of Church only as their Church instead of recognizing the great measure of comfort, inspiration, and guidance it holds for everyone, stagnation and monotony are liable to creep into their affairs. And if students seek only the company of other students, or if they move in a society concerned only with sociability or intellectuality and neglect opportunities to use talents constructively in community service or in a simple expression of interest in a new neighbor or an unfortunate stranger, the Cause of Christian Science is not being nourished with the spiritual element of Christly love, which is so vital to its expansion. Christ Jesus counseled (Matt. 5:16), "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
The gradual appearing of a church organization is commensurate with the spiritual growth and activity of the individual student. A Church of Christ, Scientist, appears as the evidence of deep and outreaching love cherished and kept vibrant in the consciousness of each student. An example of this continuing demonstration in a rural area of the Middle Western section of the United States immediately follows.
Several Christian Scientists conducted church services and Sunday School exercises in a home for a number of years. These activities were carried on with considerable dedication and with careful attention to the Church Manual. Early in their growth, these students desired to reach out and enlighten those around them, both near and far. They expressed this desire by contributing regularly to The Mother Church and to the Committee on Publication in their state, by publishing announcements of the Christian Science radio and television programs, and by advertising Science and Health in their own and outlying communities. They serviced distribution boxes for Christian Science literature in busy centers in two communities and consistently circulated copies of The Christian Science Monitor, with its superb daily declaration of freedom and spiritual enrichment for everyone.
Within a few years, Monitor subscriptions were going into homes, parsonages, city, college, and school libraries in the amount of several hundred new orders. School subscriptions were steadily maintained, and more schools were added to the list. There were opportunities to give copies of Science and Health to ministers, to schoolteachers, and to other inquirers.
After a time the desire to make the services more available to the community resulted in all the activities being moved to an attractive, ground-floor assembly room in the county courthouse.
This step opened up many new ways to bring Christian Science to public attention. Printed cards, giving time and location of both Sunday School and church services, were delivered or mailed to hotels and motels. Similar announcements were occasionally placed in newspapers in nearby towns. A Christian Scientist who moved into this area found one of these announcements in a newspaper which a friendly neighbor used to wrap around a gift of fresh vegetables. The Scientist and her husband and three children attended the service conducted by the informal group on the following Sunday, and the children were enrolled in the Sunday School. Very soon the mother indicated her desire to participate actively, and she took steps to become a member of The Mother Church.
Love for God and man, together with systematic steps to offer the benefits of Christian Science to all, brings decisive results. Such demonstrated love not only brings fresh vigor and meaning to church activities but also proves that God continually prospers every unselfed gesture of love for mankind. "The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things" (Zech. 8:12).
Every student throughout the world who is engaged in any phase of church work knows the rich blessings it brings. Those who are eagerly serving mankind in an informal group should feel the fullest sense of completeness and grandeur, for it is not only the appreciation of these, but it is all spiritual activities that bring about the inevitable appearing of a branch church. And the process of unfoldment, however gradual, is not only a persistent leaven in the community but also a glowing presence and a protecting force in the affairs of the student and all his associates.
In the early days of the Christian Science movement, our Leader once wrote a letter of thanks to the members of a little church in the Middle West who had given tangible proof of their love for her. She said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 149): "May this sacrifice bring to your beloved church a vision of the new church, that cometh down from heaven, whose altar is a loving heart, whose communion is fellowship with saints and angels. This example of yours is a light that cannot be hid."
