Editorial April 15, 1916 Issue

Rebuilding the Temple

John B. Willis

Standing in the presence of the pathetic ruins of the Parthenon, one is impressed with the splendor of its ideal, with the greatness of the people who conceived it and gave it such superb expression, and with the loss to all the world which was inflicted by a grossly stupid vandalism. Here an incomparably glorious concept bloomed into concrete form, and as one thinks of the decades, yes centuries, of studious development which must have preceded the attainment of such a masterful technique, and of the vast expenditure of patient labor which without any modern facilities reproduced the artist's vision in this pure stone, he is likely to feel a sense of protesting grief that these peerless columns should ever have fallen and this exquisite entablature lie crumbling upon the ground. From the human point of view it is all very saddening, and one finds relief only as he turns away from distressing thoughts of decay and gains the realization that the ideal, the ultimate and abiding fact, has not been and can not be mutilated or even marred, but remains the eternal possession of all those who love its appearing.

With kindred sorrow and solicitude unnumbered people are looking today upon what they speak of as "all that is left" of another wondrous temple, the Christian church, conceived and projected by a yet greater than Phidias, and to the erection and adornment of which the apostles, saints, and Christian heroes of the past freely gave their all. One can hardly take up a current religious periodical which does not comment grievingly upon "the decay of the church," "the passing of vital religion," or "the failure of Christianity." In so far as we fail to discriminate between "the structure of Truth and Love, whatever proceeds from divine Principle" (Science and Health, p. 583), and the church of creedal beliefs, we are likely to accept the status of the Christian church thus publicly enlarged upon by its best friends, and therefore concede the fitness of the symbol of its departed glories which is found upon the summit of the Acropolis.

Two points of contrast are immediately presented between the spiritual ideal and the pitifully imperfect embodiment of human endeavor, namely, those of unity and efficiency. As planned and provided for by Christ Jesus, the church is the expression of the natural, inherent unity of a demonstrable apprehension of the realities of being. It expresses that unity of thought which alone supplies a basis for unity of heart, for Christian brotherhood. Jesus' legitimate expectation of his followers was impassionably voiced in those wondrous words, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may'be one in us." How astounding, therefore, that our Leader's insistence respecting the practical possibility and imperative need of a faith that has been scientifically raised to the level of spiritual understanding, at-one-ment with Truth, and thus made efficient in the healing of sickness, even as it was in the first century, should have served to uncover the unblushing incredulity of so many professed believers!

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