Article May 18, 1935 Issue

The Branches and the Vine

LEONARD T. CARNEY

The practice of systematic giving through the channels of The Mother Church for the support of the Cause of Christian Science is to be commended. Members of branch churches throughout the world have had an unusual opportunity in this direction during the building of the new Publishing House. This task was performed with a zeal and dispatch which astonished observers, and was a source of gratification to Christian Scientists because it displayed united action with the purpose of blessing all mankind. It demonstrated the resourcefulness and capacity of divine Mind and illustrated the words of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, when she said, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 445), "Teach the great possibilities of man endued with divine Science."

The habit thus formed of giving through such a channel should not fall into disuse now that the above-mentioned task has been completed. Christian Science is fundamentally world-wide in its ministry. It cannot be localized any more than can light. It operates through every right activity; its purpose is to bless all races and people. Every healing, every effort for reformation, every conquest of fear, every unselfed thought is felt in the farthest corner of the mental realm. Because God is not local, neither are our loving efforts, which reflect Him, for they gain an impulse from on high.

The organization of The Mother Church exemplifies this. Beginning with only a few members, the organization extended with rapidity under the enlightened guidance of our Leader to its present state. Its membership throughout the world shows its all-embracing character, the inseparability of its parts, and typifies the oneness and unity of God and man. The branches of The Mother Church are an indivisible part of the whole. If a branch should say to the tree, "I have no need of thee or thou of me," where, then, would be the tree? The leaves have their part to do in the nourishment of the tree and its branches, and the roots also feed the trunk. As the tree needs its branches and leaves, so the branches are sustained by the trunk. The Mother Church is the vine, the local churches are the branches. They coexist. As the tree through its leaves utilizes the light of day, so the Church seeks and receives the light of Spirit.

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