Article April 29, 1922 ISSUE

"A time to break down"

CORNELIA MOORE

The attendance at the Church of Christ, Scientist, of which the writer was a member had almost outgrown the seating capacity of the building. A meeting was called to appoint a committee whose duty it would be to find a suitable site for a larger building. The writer had long felt it a privilege to do her part of the metaphysical work on every problem that arose; but on this occasion the tempter whispered: Inasmuch as you will be leaving the city soon, this work does not concern you. However, she soon saw the subtlety of the error that would have liked to cheat her out of the blessings to be derived from such work; and she realized that the Christian Scientist is in his place, and should be doing his work there every minute. To atone for her remissness in thus having listened, even for a moment, to the tempter, she went to work with unusual vigor on the subject of church building.

She took her Concordances and studied many passages in the Bible and in our Leader's writings on the subject. Among them was this from Ecclesiates: "A time to break down, and a time to build up." The "break down" part did not seem to be what she was after at all; so she passed it over. It refused, however, to be so summarily dismissed; and, long after she had gone about other duties, "a time to break down" kept saying itself over and over to her. For a time she paid little heed; but it contiued to clamor so loudly that, finally, she was forced to give it attention. Then she asked herself: Why has this little phrase of five short words come down to us intact, through all the many translations and vicissitudes of our English Bible? It could not have been just to fill up space, but must be for a good, wise purpose. Now she saw that, metaphysically, this breaking down could only mean the elimination of wrong thinking. The old building (wrong thinking) must be broken down, and the rubbish removed before a new one could be erected on the same spot.

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