Article November 10, 1923 Issue

Unity

SARAH M. DAVIS

When our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, founded the Christian Science church with its many activities which now extend throughout the world, she established the most efficient means for the demonstration of unity among men. In that organization, to use the language of its Leader in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 518), "the rich in spirit" are found helping "the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father." Believers in the teachings of Christ Jesus, organized for mutual helpfulness, constituted the Apostolic Church. One Bible commentary says, "The word Church is used here to express the idea of an organized body of believers, without regard to the form of institution under which they are associated, whether ancient or modern."

In the twelfth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, Paul shows how Christians are "one body in Christ," comparing men considered collectively—if we may thus refer to the church—to the human body with its many functions, all working together harmoniously, each having its own peculiar service to perform. Again, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says: "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ... But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." If, then, we are "one body in Christ," one member of this body cannot profit at the expense of another; the good of each is the good of all; and the good of the whole blesses each individual part. How, then, ought our interest in mankind to increase, knowing that another's good is our good as well! How grateful ought we to be for the church as we have it to-day, knowing its mission on earth, and that it is but a figure of Mind's infinite manifestation, enabling men to express in some degree the one God in His allness.

No Christian Scientist, having such a vision of Church, would allow himself to grow lukewarm regarding church activities. Perhaps his part in this organized work is a small one to-day, but it is none the less needed. Our Leader has said, "A grain of Christian Science does wonders formortals, so omnipotent is Truth" (Science and Health, p. 449). Shall we, then, withhold this grain, which we possess to glorify God and bless mankind? Every least detail of Christian service, if performed with consecration and love, blesses "him that gives and him that takes."

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