Christ Jesus said, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love” (John 15:9). The Church of Christ, Scientist, is an evidence of God’s love for us. Our continuing and deepening love of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is an evidence of our love for God, or Truth. And it is our love for the church that enables the church itself to continue in love.
To love the church spiritually and practically, each of us must first find Church in his own consciousness. We need to recognize what Church is from the standpoint of divine Mind, God, and to discern what Church is not. Church is the spiritual idea of Truth. Absolutely speaking, it embodies all that it needs for perfect functioning and full success. It is all-embracing as the expression of divine Love, on which it rests. Because God is, Church is; Truth and Church, the idea of Truth, coexist eternally. The real Church neither shrinks nor grows; its present wholeness unfolds endlessly. Church cannot be split into denominations, competing for converts and prestige. It is not endangered by materialism or marred by theological debates. It is unimpeded by changing social patterns and is inaccessible to human skepticism. As an idea in Mind, Church flourishes in an ideally hospitable environment, and is perfectly understood by Mind.
As church members we need to refresh ourselves constantly with the scientific view of Church. We need to share Mary Baker Eddy’s vision of Church in order to understand and promote in the most intelligent and fruitful way the organization that is its outcome. We must advance from a spiritual basis.
Our continuance in love connotes church growth, a broadening sense of church, an attractive openness of thought that embraces the community, progressive action, church unity, and, above all, healing. The church that is continuing in love is adding to its adherents and members. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Millions of unprejudiced minds—simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert—are waiting and watching for rest and drink” (p. 570).
Where are these “unprejudiced minds”? Multitudes of them are hiding behind a mask of indifference or unthinking opposition to Christian Science. Picture Paul before his conversion, when he was known as Saul. To his friends and colleagues, he must surely have seemed one of the least likely men in the country to become a Christian. But what a single-minded and devout Christian he became!
Some of the Sauls we know may be potential Pauls, more ready for the truth than we had dreamed. Is our love such that it enables us to see behind the mask and perceive the unprejudiced thought? It is a role of the Christ to invite all men to the truth. When love directs us to extend an invitation to a friend, acquaintance, or stranger to read the textbook, Science and Health, or attend a lecture, that invitation has behind it the winning persuasiveness and the irresistible warmth of the Christ. The invitation is not in one place and the Christ in another, but both come together as one.
The real Church neither shrinks nor grows; its present wholeness unfolds endlessly.
To develop our churches, we must not be content to confine our work within the bounds of the branch but be living stones in our everyday surroundings. Church is an active thing; it is not static or inert, because it is a divine idea. Church is something that exists because it expresses the activity of God, and this activity is seen humanly each time a church member’s love brings scientific spirituality into play to heal discord and limitation.
When a Christian Scientist is spiritually alert and a discerning metaphysician, Church can be in evidence at an executives’ luncheon or a sales convention. When a church member maintains his spiritual inspiration and awareness of reality, he can experience Church in his contacts in a supermarket, in a jet plane, at a university tutorial. This broader, scientific sense of Church does not detract from the office of a branch church. Far from it. As Church is expressed more in weekday lives, there is no question of the beneficent effect this will have on the growth and prosperity of our branch churches.
Continuance in love impels action; it brings an inpouring of fresh ideas and their successful application. Conservatism, in the sense of a tendency to cling to methods and attitudes outgrown, is a form of materiality. Inertia is the foe of progress. In physics, to use the language of the layman, inertia is the tendency of material objects to stay in the same place. In metaphysics, inertia is the tendency of materialized thinking to stay in the same place, to be satisfied with present standards and achievements. If we let our thought become materialized, we may think it is easier to drift along than to row, easier not to build than to build, easier not to think than to think, easier to speculate than to pray, easier to hope than to know the truth.
Each member needs to ask himself if his church may not be sliding down an in-turning spiral, more and more centering its activities on the needs of its members only, thereby becoming more and more narrow in its appeal. Or is it climbing, as it should, an out-turning spiral, sensitively gearing its activities to the pressing needs of humanity, embracing the community in the widening circle of its understanding love, and broadening its attraction? The climb may seem harder than the slide. But which is more needed?
To continue in love is to continue in unity. What is it that induces our love to lapse and so disunifies us? It is animal magnetism, the belief that the cohering pull of Spirit can have an opposite. Its influence is always separative. If mortal mind can persuade us that we can be separated from God, we can easily be separated from one another and from the church. Spiritually, unity is not like merely human togetherness. Every Christian Scientist does well to ponder the significance of the possibility that Mrs. Eddy put before a group of her pupils: “We, to-day, in this class-room, are enough to convert the world if we are of one Mind; for then the whole world will feel the influence of this Mind; as when the earth was without form, and Mind spake and form appeared” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 279–280).
Healing is a necessary evidence of love and an inevitable consequence of it.
To be of one Mind (with a capital M!) is enough to convert the world. Unity in Christian Science does not simply mean many minds tuned in to the one divine Mind, since this suggests a paradox. Scientific unity involves our wide acceptance of the one Mind as our Mind and as All.
To continue in love implies continuing in and extending the healing work of Christian Science. Healing is a necessary evidence of love and an inevitable consequence of it. And, in fact, impressive healings are taking place each day. Daily, Christian Science is enabling individuals to break out of limitations of all kinds; daily, it is renewing the body by spiritual means alone. But we need to watch that mortal mind does not distract us—and the world—from this spiritual achievement. In healing and in the working of wonders, material methods claim primacy or monopoly. To materialized thought mortal events and accomplishments seem profoundly exciting, while spiritual victories seem dull or incredible.
To quicken the world’s interest in spiritual healing, we might examine our own recognition of it. One might ask, for example, “Am I maintaining my inspiration in the fact of Christian Science healing and recognizing its hitherto untapped potential? While I may be firm in the conviction that Christian Science heals all manner of bodily ailments and relationship problems, am I widening my vision still further? Am I actively recognizing that this Science can help heal wars and such discords as the problems accompanying the massive growth of cities?” To continue in love is to expand one’s capacity to love and to help broaden the application of scientific loving for the world.
Sending the message of Christ Jesus to the church at Ephesus, John, after enumerating the achievements of this church, adds the qualification, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). Our first love must be love for Church as the spiritual idea of God rather than for the many organizational tasks we must carry out. This first love is then manifested as useful, progressive, relevant dedication to the church in its healing mission.
A prime achievement of Mrs. Eddy’s was her founding of the Church of Christ, Scientist. She was a modern disciple of Christ Jesus. She continued in the love of Christ, and the love of Christ was continued in her work. The movement she founded is a proof of the persistence of Love, and its purpose is to demonstrate Love’s loving. Only the continuing love of this church for humanity will prosper it, assure its firm attachment to the vine, and prove the divine authority of its titles, The Mother Church and the Church of Christ, Scientist.
