Article August 16, 1930 Issue

Church Building and Supply

DAISY MARY HAWTIN

THE building of a Christian Science church cannot fail to bring growth in the understanding of God to everyone involved in it. In commencing this work one naturally begins with the consideration of the definition of "Church" in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 583): "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." This part of the definition points out that the real Church is a state of spiritual thought.

In the next paragraph Mrs. Eddy writes, "The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick." The supply for this church is made manifest as each individual member understands and demonstrates divine Love. Often, when uncertain as to the right step to take and prayerfully seeking God's guidance, we find that divine Love first corrects the erroneous thoughts we may ignorantly have been holding in consciousness, and then leads us on to the next step in solving our problem.

Such was the experience of one student regarding the problem of supply for the building of a Christian Science church. When considering the large amount of money required for this purpose, the student's first impulse was to calculate the sum of money each member should give in order to enable the church to proceed in the building of the edifice. But, turning to God for guidance, she was led to study an extract from the Clerk's report at the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in June, 1905, in which occurred these words: "It is not necessary for us to delay our contributions in order to find out how much our neighbor has given, or to compute by the total membership of The Mother Church what amount each shall send the Treasurer. The divine Love that prompted the desire, and supplied the means to consummate the erection of the present edifice in 1894, is still with us, and will bless us so long as we follow his commands" (The First Church of Christ Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 23). These words corrected the temptation to consider what others should give, and made the student realize that the basis of church building must for her begin rightly in her own consciousness.

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