Editorial January 10, 1931 Issue

Organization

Clifford P. Smith

A movement , as defined in the Winston Simplified Dictionary, is "an agitation or joint effort to bring about some result." A cause, as defined in this lexicon, is "a militant movement." An organization, as also defined therein, is "a body of persons united for a special purpose." Christian Science, therefore, has a movement, a Cause, and an organization. The Christian Science movement, the Cause of Christian Science, is an active effort by all Christian Scientists to communicate, demonstrate, and propagate the Science of being, the Science of Christianity, the Science of Mind-healing. It is our joint effort to bring about human betterment, progress, and salvation. The Christian Science organization is the church formed by Mary Baker Eddy and her followers for this purpose. It is the Church of Christ, Scientist, including all the many agencies thereof.

A carefully designed organization is essential to the success of any important movement. It is essential to the achievement of any large result in human conditions or public thought. An appropriate organization is indispensable until the desired result is obtained. Many persons acting together can accomplish a purpose for which individual efforts would be futile. Joint action, arranged and orderly, becomes an organization. Essentially, then, an organization is a means by which many persons can act together for a particular purpose, and thus can exert a greater power than they could individually, even more than the sum of their individual efforts. Speaking of the Christian Science movement, Mrs. Eddy once said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 235), "This movement of thought must push on the ages: it must start the wheels of reason aright, educate the affections to higher resources, and leave Christianity unbiased by the superstitions of a senior period." Such a movement in particular must be organized.

Incident to organization, however, there are dangers. In the case of Christian Science, the dangers are chiefly these: (1) discord connected with democratic government or the lack thereof; (2) failure to estimate different activities according to their spiritual values. The first of these dangers is easily to be seen, and Christian Scientists as a whole have avoided it with a creditable degree of success. It ought to be avoided completely, because it is an evident phase of material and personal sense.

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