Article August 16, 1941 Issue

True Church Building

GENEVA MARY CLIPPINGER

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." Because of this largeness of heart, and because of wisdom and understanding, Solomon was able to build the temple. In his wisdom he recognized that his blessedness came from God, and his grateful recognition of God as the source of peace and harmony impelled his ability to build. In his prayer at the dedication of the temple, Solomon said, "Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart."

The inspired perception of the oneness and allness of God which comes to us as the result of humble prayer, is greatly needed in our work of true church building. For, indeed, we are building Church no less today than was Solomon in his day. It is the spiritual consciousness of the real Church which sustains the outward expression of church building. But inimical material theories, obstructive materialistic beliefs, are opposed to this building of Truth and Love in our consciousness today. And there is need for inspired perception of the real Church.

In his prayer, Solomon further said, "The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers." A foundation stone in building the real Church in our hearts is the living awareness that God is with us; that we are at one with the Father, divine Mind, who is never absent, who never forsakes us. But false belief tempts us to forsake Him by allowing our thinking to be filled with so much of the material sense of things that we do not discern the living presence of divine Love. It would have us accept the aggressive argument of mortal mind that our work is finished when our church edifice is built and dedicated. But the real Church, the spiritual idea, must ever continue in the consciousness of the church members.

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