Article June 18, 1910 Issue

THE CHURCH OR CHRIST?

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

Worthy members of all Christian churches will applaud the ring of loyalty recently expressed by a conscientious church-member in the following words: "Personally, I love my church and her sacraments too much ever to give her up, but I welcome gladly anything within her province that can be of use to any living soul in any way-spiritually, mentally, or physically." In spite, however, of the writer's evident sincerity, the thoughts expressed reveal an attitude that prompts the question: Which comes first, a church or Christ?

Analysis of the above statement would lead to the conclusion that so far as this individual is concerned the church seems to come first, else he would not feel the necessity of casting about to bring new departures "within her province." We are thus led to inquire, Is church-membership prompted by a wish to get as much as possible out of the church sacraments and other ordinances, or is it impelled by the desire to surrender self and through spiritual regeneration to attain to Truth and broaden one's influence for good in the service of mankind? Again, which is the more important, to accept the doctrines of the church of our affiliation, and never to question its teaching, or to think, to seek ever for Truth, to decide for oneself; to walk, however falteringly, in the Master's footsteps, by overcoming one's own sins and aiding others to conquer theirs, and through this spiritual growth to attain that understanding of God which alone enables us to heal the sick?

In the ultimate the question is strictly between man and his Maker, without any taint of mundane affiliation. Those who by healing the sick and reforming the sinner establish the fact that their efforts to live the Christ-life are not without at least some "signs following," who are able thus to give a reason for the faith that is in them, to demonstrate that the Christ is not merely a human being who lived and was said to have died in Judea nineteen hundred years ago, but that the Christ, who was without beginning of years or end of days, is, as Mrs. Eddy says, "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583)—it is these individuals, and these only, who are entitled to be called true followers of the Master, to be members of Christ's church. It therefore follows that loyalty, first of all, to institutions is futile, if these do not present proof of their value by "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" (Ibid.).

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