So it is with Christian Scientists and their activities in Tokyo, Kyoto, and other places in Japan. And when Noel D. Bryan-Jones, a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, visited there for nearly twenty days last September and October, he let every earnest worker know: "You are important. The Mother Church is vitally interested in your welfare and in the welfare of your branch church, society, or informal group.
"The members are 'the leaves of the tree,' healing of disease and strife each nation in which the tree is situated," the lecturer reiterated in informal talks with Christian Scientists. "Each active member, like a leaf, 'breathes' for The Mother Church, demonstrates the inspiration needed for its continued growth. . . . You can take encouragement from the fact that the vast spiritual forces supporting The Mother Church are supporting you, so long as you remember you are a part of the whole tree and not a separate entity."
Some Japanese confess that it sometimes seems difficult to present Christian Science to non-Christians who have no knowledge of Christ. Mr. Bryan-Jones suggested that this need not be so: "A Christian with a rigid, preconceived idea of Christ is sometimes more difficult to convince than one who only knows that somewhere there is a good God and wants to find Him." Any sincere inquirer, whatever his background, may be ready to recognize Christ as the divine manifestation of God, good, he pointed out. Truth is more powerful than tradition.
