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.

To support regularly and consistently, in accordance with their several abilities, the financial purposes of The Mother Church is the privilege and duty of all its members and of each of its branches. There is a variety of opportunity to satisfy every willing giver, whether it be an individual or a branch organization. The Furnishing and Reconstruction Fund established by The Christian Science Board of Directors, now of important interest; the permanent support of the Benevolent Associations; the expenses of our home at Pleasant View for elderly Christian Scientists; the extending of the usefulness of the periodicals, including The Christian Science Monitor; the General Fund of The Mother Church, are open to receive the joyous support of all. Some churches have a habit of contributing a fixed sum monthly to such funds. Some give one collection a month, others one each quarter. Some members in their homes provide a purse into which are placed extra coins and paper currency. Any method that is regular is good. When wisdom is used to determine what course to pursue, and due regard is given to the needs of the local organization, so that local obligations shall be promptly and satisfactorily met, thrift, so necessary in our movement, is being exercised.

Organizations and individuals that contributed wisely towards the building of the new Publishing House, as their vision and abilities allowed, have not suffered from such giving. During that period problems of limitation were worked out, thus proving that "giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us" (Science and Health, p. 79). If, among some churches, there is a sense of limitation since the Publishing House building was completed, the ceasing to give may have something to do with it. Two lines in one of our much-loved hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal read,

During the building of the temple at Jerusalem, when King Solomon reigned, all forces of the tiny kingdom, mental and physical, were focused in one direction. The building was not undertaken because there was an excess of money in the treasury, but because there was an abundance of gratitude and love. Their individual interests, local problems, and family requirements became secondary, and they were supplied.

When we drop our merely local point of view and get the larger vision of universal good, we shall hear less of lack, and experience more of God's sure abundance and everlasting good. To gain a proper sense of Church, emphasis should be placed upon the fact that the real Church is "the structure of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 583). It is a concept in divine Mind, a possession of God, and therefore it belongs to individual man through reflection. What God knows about it is what is true about it, and nothing else can be. For this reason the Christian Science church should, and in fact the real Church does, possess and manifest intelligence, activity, progress, abundance—a perfect sense of income and outgo. Being the offspring of Mind, it should know no lack; nor has it ever experienced lack.

As we understand Church as the expression of God, we see that the institution, church, is not merely a material organization subject to human control, nor is it in the possession of any person or set of persons. It embodies the true and right ideas of membership, service, brotherly love, unity, and democracy. Stability, firmness, consistency, characterize it.

To become conscious of these facts regarding Church, as opposed to the mortal sense of things, enforces the law of right action in what we call our local church or branch organization. What a mistake it is to think of persons and local conditions as the basis of our concept of Church! For even one member to know the universal truth about Church is to invoke the divine law of government for his church. He will give loving and joyous service to his brethren.

It is a well-known law of physics that less effort is required to maintain a solid body in a state of motion than to start it in motion. Physics is concerned with matter and motion, and mechanics is ever seeking means to minimize inertia and resistance. The momentum resulting from contributing to the purposes and extension of Christian Science through The Mother Church during the building of the Publishing House should not be allowed to subside. A body in motion will naturally maintain its motion except for foreign interference. If we are daily handling aggressive mental suggestion for ourselves, our homes, and our churches, we shall meet and master claims of inertia, apathy, self-interest, indifference, and find that our churches "shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."

Copyright, 1935, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.