Article October 2, 1915 ISSUE

Church

ROBERT L. SAWYER

All who anticipate joining a Christian Science church will find rich profit in a careful study of the definition of church as given on page 583 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," for it is fitting that we should have a clear conception of what this step means in order that the line of separation from whatever is foreign to the nature of our new alliance may be sharply drawn. Humanly speaking, there is a vast difference between knowing and doing; yet according to the Bible one without the other is incomplete. Jesus told his students that only as they continued in his teaching were they truly his disciples, and that if they fulfilled this condition, they would be able to do the same works which he did. At another time he said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." This is the true motive for joining a Christian Science church, that we may be "doers of the word, and not hearers only."

In this instance church is defined by our Leader as "the structure of Truth and Love," and only that which is constructively true and loving can be a part of this church. We may rest assured that our concept of this structure can never be too high or too pure, nor shall we ever be in danger of guarding its portals too persistently. We read in the first chapter of Job that "when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, ... Satan came also among them." While it goes without saying that no student of Christian Science has yet attained anything approximating perfection, still each should watch that sympathetic mesmerism does not induce him to allow error entrance to that which symbolizes our highest concept of church.

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