Someone once observed that we spend 50 percent of our time thinking about what others are doing and 50 percent doing what others are thinking. There's probably a certain kind of accuracy to this adage. None of us can avoid facing the issue of "others."
The nature of our relationships to others, taken as a whole, is a strong measure of our success as a church. For divine Science to be increasingly known as what it is—the coming of the Comforter to mankind—Christian Scientists obviously need to be what they are supposed to be. Their broad, all-inclusive love should be notable. Often it has been. The newspaper accounts of the dedication service for the Extension of The Mother Church in 1906, for example, frequently remarked on the unusual spirit of the influx of visitors for this occasion. The Boston Herald commented: "There is one thing about it: [Christian Science] is certainly imbued with the spirit of unselfishness and helpfulness...."Quoted in Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 87.
Mary Baker Eddy's powerful dedicatory message set the tone. In "'Choose Ye'" she pointed out that Christian Science doesn't seek "royal solitude," and she concludes the address in ringing words that seem to go out in great, expanding concentric circles from The Mother Church: "Methinks this church is the one edifice on earth which most prefigures self-abnegation, hope, faith; love catching a glimpse of glory."Ibid., pp. 3, 6.
