Truth has always been present, but the promise of the Comforter is the promise of the coming of a deeper and more widespread understanding of Truth than was earlier received. This new effulgence of eternal light comes as the result of the continual activity of the Christ in transforming human thought. The line of spiritual unfoldment reaches across the boundaries of time and unites everyone in the embrace of Christianity and Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God." Science and Health, p. 271;
The Church of Christ, Scientist, and the Cause of Christian Science are outward evidence of the spiritual activity of the Christ and its Science. This Science has come in accordance with biblical prophecy. In the Old Testament, spiritual discernment repeatedly testified to the coming of the Messiah. These prophecies were fulfilled in the life and practice of Christ Jesus. He lived the power of Truth. He taught and demonstrated the Christ. Always aligning himself with his Father, divine Love, he showed mankind the way to healing and eternal life. But Jesus indicated that there was to be a further flowering of the truth when mankind would more readily receive it. Speaking to his disciples, he said of the Comforter, or "Spirit of truth": "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John 16:12, 13;
Jesus did not limit his concept of Church to a group of people and a physical structure. He consistently turned away from the material sense of things to the spiritual reality, the divine idea. Even the institution we call church can never be confined to a material form, for it is the evidence of the power of Truth and Love washing away error.
As we gain a deeper understanding of Truth and Love—an understanding inseparable from practice—the presence of the divine structure, Church, and its blessing for the world will become more apparent. Through the gradual yet inevitable yielding of material beliefs to the absolute reality of Life divine, we discern the nature of Church.
Each healing that comes as the result of this spiritualization brings to light more of the divine structure. Because the substance of Church is spiritual rather than physical, it is not subject to decay. Spirit cannot be under the government of matter, for infinite Spirit excludes matter. Spiritual understanding eliminates matter, which is a misconception of Spirit, or Life. God's eternal law is one of progress, of divinity revealing all good. His law alone governs man and the universe. His Church Universal and Triumphant must continue to unfold until that time when all mankind recognizes its presence.
The physical senses may testify to a decline in our church, but their picture can be reversed. These senses—themselves the result of the false belief that there is intelligence in matter—are unable to perceive spiritual reality. The senses cannot upset the allness of God or the advancing action of His Science, because they are unable to cognize Him at all. Being contrary to Truth, the testimony of the physical senses must yield to spiritual understanding.
The light of the Comforter, divine Science, cannot be dimmed; it does not recede but is progressive. Spiritual illumination is governed by God's law of good, not by so-called laws of decay.
The true substance of Church is the activity of divine Spirit. We recognize this activity in our growing understanding and proofs of divine power. There is, there can be, no reversal in the development of Truth. Each day Church can only grow more apparent to receptive human thought, but we need the vision of the Christ to see through the mists that would hide the divine reality. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot be reversed, but the reverse of error is true. An improved belief cannot retrograde. When Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understanding, and sin, disease, and death disappear." Science and Health, p. 442;
The human mind is unable to grasp the continuity of Truth's unfolding. Periods of spiritual enlightenment seem to be followed by periods of the resistance of the carnal mind to the new effulgence. But what appears as the greater presence of evil is in reality the self-destruction of error as the light of Truth is brought to bear upon it. Gradually the mist of materiality is being dispersed and the allness of Spirit is being recognized.
After posing the question of how we should accomplish the Christianly scientific work needed to defend our divine heritage, Mrs. Eddy gives this answer: "By intrenching ourselves in the knowledge that our true temple is no human fabrication, but the superstructure of Truth, reared on the foundation of Love, and pinnacled in Life. Such being its nature, how can our godly temple possibly be demolished, or even disturbed? Can eternity end? Can Life die? Can Truth be uncertain? Can Love be less than boundless?" In affirming the victory that divine Love gives us through this assurance, she adds, "No longer are we of the church militant, but of the church triumphant; and with Job of old we exclaim, 'Yet in my flesh shall I see God.'" Pulpit and Press, pp. 2-3;
Church can only become more and more apparent. It is the reality of divine Science breaking through the mist of material sense. Each expression of Love, each healing, each life transformed by Truth, is an unmistakable evidence of the continual revelation of Church. It is our sacred duty to perceive this and to continue to labor, contributing our individual demonstration of Christian Science to our church.
Paul encouraged Christians to build wisely upon the Christly foundation already laid. "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. . . . Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" I Cor. 3:9, 16. Inasmuch as we recognize man's unity with God and demonstrate this understanding, we are that temple of God. Obedient to His commandments, we magnify Him. Our church is the evidence of the universal presence of God. The continual unfolding of divine good goes on, regardless of the false testimony of the senses. This unfolding propels the awakening of mankind to what already is true—that God is All.
Truth is transforming the world. Our demonstration of Truth and Love is bringing us into the full understanding of the present activity, strength, and power of Church. Instead of withdrawing from the challenge of today—limiting, out of ignorance or fear, what cannot be limited—let us reach out and embrace our church in the assurance of victory, even as Church is embracing us.
