Spiritualization of thought: it's the only thing that will prosper and unite our church and keep it safe. It alone must finally help Christian Science stand out, separate and apart, from merely mortal thinking and organization.
Metaphysically seen, consciousness is divine. Job perceived this when he said of God, "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Job 23:13; Consciousness isn't something that needs to be spiritualized or that can be. Scientifically, it is the activity of Spirit. The best way to spiritualize our thinking is to accept the consciousness of divine Spirit as ours. This isn't primarily a matter of time and labor but of inspiration and real love.
To keep safe the Church of Christ, Scientist, and to maximize its usefulness to mankind, we must understand that Church is really Love's divine idea. Just as there is only one kind of consciousness, there is only one kind of Church, the infinite Church, representing the infinitude of Truth and Love. That there is the divine idea, Church, and that we have a church institution doesn't mean there is more than one Church. It does mean that the one Church can be seen in a human way.
Spiritualization of thought leads us to see we, as Christian Scientists, are not merely religious workers; we're on the front line of divine Truth's appearing to mankind. We're involved not just in committee work but in building our reasoning on an eternal basis. This is our highest Church work, and at the same time the basis of protective prayer for our church. Let's live the fact that there is nowhere Truth and Love are not. Christian Science is here not just to move mankind into the edifices of our denomination but to show there is nowhere infinite Love's Church is not.
A potent, fundamental way of strengthening and armoring the institution of church is to spiritually see what Church and man actually are. Human beings may sometimes reject religion. But man never rejects Church. Man and Church, by their divine natures, are inseparable. Church doesn't have material dimensions, nor does man. Neither is squeezed in the palm of time. Both are eternal.
We help the church organization the most when we realize that both Church and man are purely spiritual ideas. If we felt we were dealing only with religion and mortals and trying to unite these two for their mutual benefit and protection, our work as Christian Scientists could be frustrating.
When thinking of our churches and mankind, we ought to do so from the perspective of immortality rather than of mortality. Spirituality is our only aid in doing this. If we look at them mortally, we might see vulnerable organization and fallible mortals. But viewing them immortally, we see divine Truth and its idea as forever one. These are never faced by an enemy, never split by divisive wedges, never needing improvement and protection.
When we get matter out of our thought—the only place matter can even appear to be—we get a much clearer view of invulnerable Church and a much more accurate view of Love-led man. Realizing there can be no matter in Spirit's allness is the heart of spiritualization. It lifts the burden of trying to improve mortality and brings the spiritual joy of recognizing reality.
How Mary Baker Eddy yearned to convey this! She said to a group of her students in 1889: "You have come to be weighed; and yet, I would not weigh you, nor have you weighed. How is this? Because God does all, and there is nothing in the opposite scale. There are not two,—Mind and matter. We must get rid of that notion. As we commonly think, we imagine all is well if we cast something into the scale of Mind, but we must realize that Mind is not put into the scales with matter; then only are we working on one side and in Science." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 280;
We must take this inspired direction in order to see with clarity divinely defended Church and perfect man. The only side to work on is that of total Spirit and total spirituality. Otherwise, we're not working metaphysically but laboring mortally. It's our spiritual living, our live thinking and knowing, that help unify the human expression of Church and arm it against confusion and schism. And in this way we are really serving mankind.
The Christian Science movement is alive; its true center is the spiritual movement of thought. "Hungering and thirsting after a better life," Mrs. Eddy encourages us, "we shall have it, and become Christian Scientists; learn God aright, and know something of the ideal man, the real man, harmonious and eternal. This movement of thought must push on the ages: it must start the wheels of reason aright, educate the affections to higher resources, and leave Christianity unbiased by the superstitions of a senior period." ibid., p. 235.
Shifting our thought from mortality to divine Life, from mortal personality to divine Principle, from materiality to spirituality, is all important. Nothing less can "push on the ages." Nothing less sustains, enriches, prospers, protects the Church of Christ, Scientist. Unquestionably, today's great spiritual hunger can be more fully satisfied by the revelation of the truth of being than by anything else. The Church of Christ, Scientist, stands at the threshold of what is potentially its most productive time.
Christian Science is not trailing behind anything else. It never can. It represents the ultimate truth of being and the full revelation of the allness of Spirit and Love as proved by Christ Jesus. This is what mankind needs. Our understanding of Church as the infinite and safe idea of God can help satisfy that need. It will as we spiritualize our thought. And we'll do this better as we acknowledge the consciousness of Spirit as ours, forever.
