Article May 6, 1916 Issue

Working for the Church

ANNA W. HOLLEBAUGH

Not long ago a member of a branch church was reproaching himself for not working more for the church, and on being asked how he worked for the church he replied, "Oh, I work for the readers and the board, and the ushers, to know they cannot make mistakes." While the motive was a kindly one, the work in itself was as grave a mistake as one could make, first in its interference with God's government, and next in the presumption involved in working for another unasked, thus taking from the individual the privilege of a choice of helpers.

To work for the church is not to work for persons, but to know that the evil influences which would overthrow the various institutions or fortresses represented by the church have no power whereby to accomplish evil purposes. In the second book of Chronicles we read, "Now, my God, ... let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place," the house of God; while in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 5), we find a rule for prayer in church as follows: "The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively."

What better example of such prayer could be found than that in Mrs. Eddy's dedicatory sermon for The Mother Church as found in "Pulpit and Press" (p. 10): "Divine presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every heart in this house. Speak out, O soul! This is the new-born of Spirit, this is His redeemed; this, His beloved." A clear realization of that divine presence and of a consequent spiritual manifestation as expressed in the assembled congregation as newborn of Spirit and redeemed, and not an assemblage of material personalities, would surely open "the windows of heaven, and pour ... out a blessing," that there would not "be room enough to receive it," overflowing the whole community and blessing them, even though they might not know from whence it came. Thus it would be exemplified that the daily bread for which we pray blesses all, while our own sense of creation as God knows it would become more spiritualized, until at last we would lose sight altogether of the church militant and become conscious only of the church triumphant.

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Having Other Gods
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