Suppose Church wasn't here—that Sunday and Wednesday services, Reading Rooms, Sunday Schools, lectures, college organizations, and other church activities we take for granted, weren't part of our experience. For those whose lives have been given needed substance and structure through these activities, that is unimaginable. How could the comfort, healing, and spiritual support provided to so many people be subtracted from their experience? The fact is, Christian Science has been discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, and the Church has been founded by her. Thousands have found in its teachings not mere religious platitudes or doctrinal words but the very Christ, or Truth itself, and the healing that results from embracing Christ.
At a juncture in Christ Jesus' ministry when it became obvious that passively "going along" with him wasn't all that was involved in embracing and following Christ, some had second thoughts about what Jesus' teachings meant to them. They'd probably been grateful for healings and reassurances of God's love. But when practicing genuine Christianity required going against the materialistic mental current of society's status quo, the gospel says that many "went back, and walked no more with him." Then Jesus asked his closest disciples if they, too, would leave. Peter's response shows that, for him, discipleship wasn't about accumulating comforts or finding the easiest path but was about finding what is true and lasting: "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." John 6:66, 68.
In our own experience, the realization must come that the Science of Christianity we've been given is not merely a good thing that we "use" to bring us more personal happiness and comfort. It is much more. It is the promised Comforter, the precious truth of all real being, which is worth everything to practice and to share. Our gratitude for this Science and for its effect in our lives is more than words can express, although we pray for the words to express it.
