Article July 4, 1914 Issue

Working Together

WILLIAM W. PORTER

On page 583 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy has given the definition of church, in part, as "whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." It must be conceded that anything thus grounded must abide, remain fixed in unity and harmony. Today a marvelous truth is being demonstrated in The Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world. Thousands and tens of thousands of men and women are gathered in branch church organizations to prove, in the experience of each individual, unity of thought and action ungoverned by the personal domination of any person or persons. Of this remarkable circumstance human history contains no parallel throughout the past, and this marvel has been wrought by the individual acquisition of the true spiritual meaning of church. In proportion as this spiritual view has been attained, there has been dispelled the sense of the church as a material phenomenon or organization.

It is not always a pleasant task, and it may require some courage, to inaugurate a system of mental self-analysis, but the results fully warrant the conscientious effort required for each Christian Scientist to ask himself, "Does the concept of church and church-membership which I am holding, measure up to the inspired standard established by Mrs. Eddy in the passage referred to, and in The Mother Church Manual?" The determining factor in concluding this mental self-analysis is our ability to work together in one consciousness, not for the gratification of personal desire, but "to the glory of God."

Jesus emphasized the two great commandments of love: the first, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;" the second, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The latter essentially demonstrates the former, and thus they are inseparably combined. The command to love through spiritualized thought is always this: "Go, and do thou likewise." Go thou and demonstrate the ability to work together for good in the Master's vineyard. If for any reason one seems to see in practical activities a sense of association from which he must separate or exclude himself, may not such a one have missed the true interpretation of church? May it not be true, so long as something presents itself as a sense of church from which separation or exclusion seems necessary, that the true understanding or view thereof has not been gained?

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