The world's greatest healing institution is the highest manifestation of the true, spiritual Church. The influence of this church-institution is felt in the three important aspects of mankind's affairs—the moral, mental, and physical.
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy gives the definition of "Church" as follows: "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
"The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick."Science and Health, p. 583;
Anyone who steadfastly maintains in consciousness the spiritual understanding underlying the human institution of church —that God, divine Principle, is the only creator, and that all that truly exists is the outcome of divine Truth and Love— will find that it destroys all the errors of mortal belief. Step by step the true idea of Church dissolves the illusions of the physical senses that seem to support the claim that matter exists and is essential to man's existence, satisfaction, and perpetuation. It has a strong uplifting effect on mankind's morals. It magnifies the value of spirituality, demonstrating that the ideas of Soul are adequate to satisfy humanity's mental needs and desires. And, by releasing men from the mesmerism of personal sense, which testifies to matter as self-constituting, self-governing, and capable of discord, it wipes out the evidences of disease.
This threefold reforming influence of Church is the only real hope of the race. The understanding of this divine idea is the only power that can break the mesmeric hold of false mortal belief in human consciousness and free men from the fear that matter and evil exist and have the ability to deprive and harm us. It is the only power that can establish the divine fact that, as Christ Jesus affirmed, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."Matt. 4:17.
In order for humanity to progress in proving that heaven, the harmony of divine Truth and Love, is present, there must be equal evidence of progress in each of the three aspects of human experience, moral, mental, and physical. There can be little relief from physical suffering unless the moral sense of the individual is lifted, and there is also some degree of mental progress in seeing that Soul, not matter and physicality is the source of satisfaction. Conversely, it is inevitable that one whose consciousness is elevated and purified by a developing understanding of divine Principle will find himself healthier in body as well as mentally freer and happier.
Christian Science explains that human experience, including an individual's physical body, actions, and disposition, is the objectification of mortal thought. Consequently, the effect of attaining and maintaining a higher understanding of life and substance as proceeding from divine Principle, Love, rather than from atomic energy must inevitably be reflected in improved behavior and a better body.
Moral progress, then, is an integral part of church activity. If a church is proving its fidelity to the understanding of real being as the emanation of divine Principle, its members and adherents will continually be able to testify to an elevation of their thinking and character. They will have a stronger desire and tendency to obey the commandments in their spirit as well as in their letter, and will feel increasing joy in loving God, good, and expressing true, spiritual affection toward their neighbors.
The touch of the Christ can be expected to melt the hardness as well as the hopelessness of mortal thought, and to awaken not only the callous but the ignorant sinner and the morally unstable to realize their errors and forsake them.
The understanding of God, divine Love, as the one creative governing power destroys the fear and false sense of inadequacy that leads to criminal thinking. It lifts mankind to a higher consciousness of being than life in and dependent on matter. It restores the reliance on divine Spirit that is native to the man God made in His likeness. It leads humanity to seek safety in Mind rather than in material devices, and to find satisfaction in the ideas of Soul rather than in physical indulgence.
Divine Science declares the allness of God, divine Spirit, and the consequent insubstantiality of material atoms. And it demonstrates the changeless, immortal nature of man in the total structure of God's universe of Truth and Love, which "rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle," by destroying the belief in any other than this perfect selfhood so that the real, Godlike image may appear.
For nearly a century, in all these ways, The Church of Christ, Scientist, has been proving its usefulness to God and humanity. It has helped to raise the world's standard of morals, to restore mankind's mental condition by increasing their appreciation of spiritual values, and to heal the sick. Its threefold influence has reached out to the far corners of the earth to bless receptive hearts on five continents.
It is inevitable that now in Boston this growth in usefulness should be visible in the development of striking new church administration buildings adjacent to the Original Mother Church. In the years to come, these will form a practical and appropriate Center from which to extend with increasing effect the worldwide healing thrust of the Christly idea of Truth and Love it represents. Its purpose will continue to be to establish in human thought the understanding that the universe is the outcome of divine Principle, thereby to raise the moral status of the race in increasing measure, to spiritualize human thought, and to heal the sick.
