Editorial July 28, 1928 Issue

On Working Together

Duncan Sinclair

The Christian Science movement affords great scope for cooperation. This movement, which has for its aim the making known of the healing Christ, Truth, to mankind, is organized on lines which necessitate cooperation, its activities being carried on by The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and by its branch churches and societies throughout the world. These branch churches, like The Mother Church itself, carry on their work under the direction of the Church Manual, and on their membership falls the responsibility, among other things, of the upkeep of church buildings and Reading Rooms, the conducting of church services and Sunday school work, and the distribution of authorized Christian Science literature. One has to reflect but for a moment to see the labor which all this entails.

When a branch church is organized under the Church Manual, its members equip themselves with a set of rules and by-laws, and bind themselves to work harmoniously with each other in obedience to these and the Church Manual in the carrying on of all the activities of their church. Everyone joining a branch church pledges himself to be faithful to its by-laws and to the Church Manual, and no one should make application for church membership unless he is prepared to be loyal in this way.

Under their own by-laws and the Church Manual, then, all the members of branch churches have to work cooperatively. And this is no small affair, as all know who, through membership, have been connected with a branch church; for numerous questions arise to be decided by the boards of trustees or directors, and the various committees appointed under the by-laws. One sometimes marvels at the success which attends the efforts of these elected bodies: the reason of the success is, of course, due to the large measure of obedience which the great majority of church members give to divine Principle, obedience which results in loyalty to their by-laws. How important is loyalty to Principle in our church work! And to be loyal to Principle means that we are endeavoring to have God always first in our thoughts, that we are endeavoring never to lose sight of the allness of good, never to forget that evil is unreal, never to judge "according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment," and always to remember that man, the image and likeness of God, reflects perfect Love.

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