Article August 6, 1910 Issue

INTELLIGENT CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP

ANNE LE BARON DRUMM.

On page 583 of our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our Leader gives us a definition of church which it were well for every member of The Mother Church and each branch church to study thoroughly, both with respect to its letter and its spirit. As the body of the church is composed of the individuals who are its members, it is self-evident that the more or less perfect demonstration of that definition by each Christian Science church depends upon the intelligent, faithful work and spiritual understanding of its members.

The difference between the members of a church and those who are merely attendants is that the members have openly subscribed to and are therefore pledged to support the Christian Science tenets, as given in Science and Health (p. 497). and also the by-laws of the church with which they unite. It may be taken for granted that all who unite with a Christian Science church are familiar with these tenets, and with the Manual of The Mother Church, to some extent at least, but are we all as careful to acquaint ourselves with the by-laws of the branch church which we join? Yet this is of great importance, so far as joining a branch church is concerned.

The Manual provides that each branch church shall be self-governed, and it is thoroughly in accord with the spirit of Christian Science that "governments shall derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Does it not, then, devolve on each one of the "governed," as an important duty, to have an intelligent understanding of the government in which each one has a voice? As this understanding can only be gained from a thorough acquaintance with the by-laws, these should be studied carefully, and every effort made to carry them out in consonance with the requirements of the Manual of The Mother Church. The study of the one will inevitably lead to the study of the other.

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