Article August 13, 1927 Issue

Building

HERBERT H. NORSWORTHY

After giving Christian Science to the world through its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and proving the truth of its teaching by healing the sick and reforming the sinner, Mrs. Eddy saw that the next step to be taken in the line of progress was the establishing of a church in a form which would be helpful to mankind. And so the edifice of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, was built, "a material type of Truth's permanence," as we read in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 45). The history of the building of this edifice is given in a book entitled "The Mother Church," by Joseph Armstrong, and is a record of the overcoming of many difficulties and seeming impossibilities. This building was made possible through Mrs. Eddy's nearness to God, which enabled her to reflect the one omnipotent Mind in giving counsel and encouragement to those responsible for the work.

There must come a time in the experience of every branch of The Mother Church when the demonstration of providing its permanent church edifice must be made; and since "the serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony," as Mrs. Eddy has pointed out on page 564 of Science and Health, it is not improbable that some difficulties may appear. The temptation may come to ask: Can this work be accomplished? Can the necessary funds be raised? Are we not a mere handful of people? Will the building not take years? Like the Israelites of old we may ask, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"

In the record of the building of the walls of Jerusalem, in the book of Nehemiah, we learn how the prophet through faith in the omnipotence of God, and through persistent prayer, diligence, and practical wisdom, was able to overcome all the assaults of evil, which continually assumed new forms. Nehemiah was, it appears, a great favorite at the court of the Persian king, but when he heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates thereof burned, he conceived the desire to obtain leave to go to rebuild them. He did not rely, as another might have done, upon his personal influence with the king, but "prayed before the God of heaven." And thus was the way opened up for him.

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