Articles

Earnest students of the Bible often notice the emphasis Christ Jesus put on healing sin. For example, when he healed a man of palsy, he said, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.

Mrs. Eddy founded and designed the Church of Christ, Scientist, "to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.

The words used in Christian Science to describe man as the idea of God— expression, emanation, manifestation, image, likeness —all indicate an outgoing activity, the reflection of the divine nature and character. This teaching is premised on the fact that the kingdom of heaven is within man and that it is man's nature to reflect this true being.

Membership in The Mother Church and one of its branches is a fundamental protecting bond in human experience. Disruption of membership is the devilish work of the carnal mind, which Paul declares "is enmity against God.

What a privilege and obligation—to belong to The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and to one of its branches! What does it mean to be a Christian Scientist? Is an individual ready for church membership when he studies the Bible Lesson In the Christian Science Quarterly . every day, attends church services regularly, and refrains from drinking, smoking, and relying on drugs? Does membership in a Church of Christ, Scientist, provide more than a handy place in which to attend services of the religion of our choice and a job on a committee? Is it, in fact, a call to discipleship? We might ask ourselves what Jesus required of his disciples, and what made them effective church workers after Jesus had ascended, leaving them on their own to preach the gospel.

A young husband came to a Christian Science practitioner asking for prayerful help with his marriage. Several months earlier, he and his wife had had a big blowup.

Why is it that individuals attending services in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, studying in Christian Science Reading Rooms, reading Christian Science literature, and attending Christian Science lectures find healing? Because the Church of Christ, Scientist, as established by Mrs. Eddy, is a healing Church.

Surely not as a fragile, temporary vessel in which we seem briefly imprisoned. The nobility and freedom of true being are seen in Paul's words to the Corinthians: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

The ministry in prisons is not an independent activity but is under the aegis of branch churches. When kept in perspective so as not to detract from any other church activities, this work uplifts both institutional workers and those being ministered to; and it extends the healing power of churches.

The following account is from a worker in Massachusetts. Recently I laughed at a mistake I had made in a letter.