In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy describes her Church: "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." Mis., p. 141.
This woman of the centuries, this spiritual seer, fully understood that the building itself is but the outward sign of the inward grace of Christliness that must animate its builders and maintainers. Behind that colossal fulfillment of prophecy is the indispensable element of spiritually directed and animated Christly prayer. The effect of such prayer is to rouse universal thought, drawing it to the highest concept of religion ever known: Christian Science. This embodied prayer was what drew and still draws the spiritually ready heart to the Science of Christ and its healing power over sin and sickness.
What is the community or casual passer-by really seeing when looking at a branch Church of Christ, Scientist? Not so much a physical structure as the collective thought of the members! The prevailing mental atmosphere of the church body is highly indicative either of Christly discipleship or material stewardship. Necessary as the latter is, it is effective and helpful only as it takes second place to the former—in fact, as stewardship emanates from true discipleship.
