"I'll go to church with you this one time," said the husband to his wife. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and this newly married couple had just had their first big disagreement. The husband was feeling bad about it and wanted to make it up to his wife, who was a student of Christian Science. When they married, he had made clear that he didn't need God or religion in his life. But going to church one night wouldn't hurt him, he decided.
The selections from the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that were read at the Wednesday evening meeting were not even over when this man knew that the teachings of Christian Science were what he had been looking for all his life. He felt with deep conviction that here was the answer to his problems. And that wasn't all that happened to him that night: he left that church service completely and permanently healed of depending on alcohol.
He had realized that a knowledge of God was far more reliable and satisfying than any dependence on alcohol could be. And later he told a friend of mine, "I have never taken another drink since that Wednesday evening, and that was over thirty years ago. I simply do not care any longer for something that claims to be a power apart from God. I have found God, and that is enough."
Just one inspiring church service changed a man's life. This individual is today a dedicated branch church member.
Hearing my friend relate this healing inspired me. That testimony, together with an incident involving Christ Jesus and a house of worship—an account that I came across in the Bible soon after our talk—caused me to do some serious thinking about the healing atmosphere of church services. Matthew's Gospel tells about the time Christ Jesus went into the temple at Jerusalem "and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple." He said to them, "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Then "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them." Matt. 21:12-14 What, I asked myself, might the Master see in my state of thinking? Were my thoughts about the service and during the service adding to the healing atmosphere? Honesty compelled me to admit that spiritualization and rededication were in order.
He felt with deep conviction that here was the
answer to his problems. And that wasn't all that
happened to him that night: he left the church
service completely and permanently healed of
depending on alcohol.
According to the teachings of Christian Science, we can progressively demonstrate the Christ ideal that characterizes man's selfhood, our real, spiritual identity as the offspring of God, Mind. Ungodlike thinking is never our thought, but only imposed belief. It cannot invade the one Mind, which is reflected in the true consciousness of each one of us. Being alert to disown unloving, destructive states of thought—knowing scientifically their unreality and powerlessness to affect our lives—we reflect more of the divine Mind that Jesus expressed so perfectly.See Phil. 2:5
Nothing else has such a purifying, liberating effect on our thought and behavior as recognizing that we are, now, the very likeness of God Himself! Thinking of ourselves as erring mortals cut off from a God we have to struggle to reach would be working from an unscientific basis. But praying to understand scientifically our true nature as reflecting divine Mind—that Mind which is ever conscious of its own perfection— opens the way to the regeneration preached by the Master.
One thing specifically that will help make our church a "house of prayer" is overcoming the tendency in ourselves to find things wrong with our church and then stop there. This deprives us of the opportunity to do more consecrated praying and to see more clearly the power of Christ, Truth. If even a handful of the members were to replace criticism with humble prayer, what a difference there would be in the healing atmosphere of the service! As we become more alert to throw our mental weight on the side of deep, thorough prayer to solve the problems we see, the tendency to find fault, to tear down (so often unthinking), will fade away. Such criticism will become spiritually repugnant to us, something we increasingly refuse to do.
The New Testament speaks of another area that could profit from the spiritualization of our thoughts and deeds. In James we read, "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." James 3:6
"Oh, but a little harmless gossip won't hurt," someone may say. But no gossip is harmless. And yes, it will hurt those of us who aren't alert enough to keep ourselves clear of it. We don't see one church member walk up and physically harm another, but gossip is something equally damaging to individuals and certainly detrimental to the healing efficacy of the services.
"So I clean up my act by watching my thoughts and words and becoming more dedicated to church," one might be thinking right now, "but does it really make a difference what just one person does?" The Bible assures us that there is saving power in just one individual's alliance with God, good. We read in Ecclesiastes, "There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city." Eccl. 9:14, 15 You and I may never know what our fidelity or wisdom or lovingkindness or consistent prayerful support will add to the healing atmosphere of the services. It may even inspire another to deepen his commitment to church.
These are times for commitment. Some Christian Scientists, noticing the challenges that face their particular branch church and churches in general today, may indeed become discouraged, apathetic. But others, seeing the very same conditions, will feel a surge of love for the healing activity of the services. This is all to the good, since a more sober consecration is one of the best contributions we can make right now. What our Leader said during the Sunday service on July 4, 1886, speaks to the needs of today with vigor and inspiration. Mrs. Eddy asks: "Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?" She then declares: "Never was there a more solemn and imperious call than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent devotion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come."Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 176-177
The services of your branch church and mine need all of the self-purification and prayer we can bring to them. And think what this increased Christliness will lead to: healing for the glory of God and greater spiritual uplift for the entire congregation.
