Article February 6, 1943 Issue

The Privilege of Ushering

LESLIE C. BELL

Christian Science teaches the allness of Mind, God. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy thus expresses the fundamental fact of being (p. 468): "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." Life, then, must be divinely mental, and all real experience purely spiritual. Material, so-called experience, with its unceasing limitations and complexities, is a false mental state, and is the apparent result of a series of misconceptions based on the erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence exist in matter. Our human sense of salvation is gained as a result of the dispelling of these misconceptions through the acceptance and practice of the truth in individual consciousness. In other words, as we spiritualize and purify our thinking, we let that Mind be in us "which was also in Christ Jesus;" we replace every false belief with divine ideas, identifying ourselves with the spiritual idea, until belief in matter and its falsities disappears from our thinking and proportionately from our experience.

The fundamental fact of the mental nature of all experience shows the mental nature of our church experience. On page 583 of Science and Health our Leader defines "Church" in part as, "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." This "structure of Truth and Love" is the only real Church, entirely spiritual, eternally active. Church can never be static or stagnant, for "whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle" must be everlastingly active. The definition of Church continues: "The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick." This definition surely indicates the appearing of the real Church to human consciousness. It is our privilege, as students of Christian Science, so to know and practice this truth that we may gain a higher and higher concept of Church, manifested in healing the sick and sinning and in expressing more of the Christ-activity to all who come seeking the teachings of Christian Science.

Starting from our premise that all is Mind and its manifestation, we are led to see that all church work, including ushering, is primarily a mental experience. The work of the usher, then, is accepting divine ideas in his own individual consciousness, and expressing them. Some useful qualities to be cultivated are alertness, promptness, joy, quietness, consideration, orderliness; and in consistently expressing these qualities we are working out true church activity in our human experience. Though the usher may seem to be largely occupied in outward duties, he finds opportunity to express in increasing measure the divine qualities. If one were to perform the physical acts of ushering in a grudging, careless, or indifferent manner, he would not really be ushering at all in the true sense, and would be having but little part in the radiant activity that expresses the real Church, even though he were called an usher.

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