Article January 25, 1941 Issue

Qualifying for Membership

EZRA W. PALMER

An individual who has studies Christian Science for a time learns that he must choose whom he would serve—whether Truth or error, Spirit or matter. He finds that if he would advance spiritually he must renounce reliance upon prestige, money, friends, drugs, and rely radically upon God; he finds himself at the parting of the ways; he finds that he cannot serve both matter and Spirit. At this point the student may falter, and delay his decision, and make little or no progress in spiritual understanding. What is the right course to pursue? Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 14), "We cannot 'serve two masters,'" She continues, "To be 'with the Lord' is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love,—by Spirit, not by matter."

Experience has made clear that those students of Christian Science who fully accept Mrs. Eddy's teachings together with the Bible, who rely upon them and prove them daily by self-abnegation and prayer, make progress, gain spiritual discernment.

Experience also has made abundantly clear that those Christian Scientists who fully accept our Leader's demonstration of Church and become members of the church she founded find themselves stronger and more capable workers than they would have been had they remained aloof from church membership. The progress and prosperity of the Cause of Christian Science are for the most part due to the unselfish labors of members of The Mother Church and branch churches. No man liveth to himself alone. Each has an inescapable responsibility to serve his fellow man. This can be accomplished by working in unity and fellowship with other Christian Scientists. This service is both individual and collective. We have our individual activities in living Christian Science in our daily experiences. We also have the duty and privilege of collective co-operation with our fellow workers as members of The Mother Church and branch churches. To neglect church membership deprives one of many glorious and satisfying opportunities to have part in advancing the kingdom of God among men. Paul undoubtedly had in mind the spiritual Church when he wrote (Ephesians 2:19, 21): "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." Church is a divine idea, "the structure of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 583), and every Christian Scientist needs to be consciously aware of this fact.

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