It makes a great difference what we conceive to be important. It makes a greater difference what we conceive to be of primary importance. Dedicating a church edifice is an important activity, and no one can deny that it should be accomplished. But the dedication of an edifice can be only of secondary importance. In fact it can be said to be only an important incident.

The larger and primary activity is the dedication of our lives to the true Church and to the purposes to which it is itself dedicated. This word "dedicate" means devotion or consecration to a serious and, in the case of our church, a holy Cause. A portion of the members cannot commit the entire church membership; they cannot dedicate the church body en masse. The dedication of our church to the work committed to it by our Master, Christ Jesus, and by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, is the responsibility of every individual member, for only in the heart of each of us can dedication really occur.

The church body is not a mass consciousness. Consciousness is individual. God is the infinite Person, and that means the one Ego or self-conscious Being. Mrs. Eddy in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," explains that man is an individual spiritual consciousness. This individual consciousness is individual man. She also uses the word "man" as a generic term and says (p. 475), "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness."

The real Church body is comprised of all the individualized manifestations of God in their infinite variety. Individual man is wholly dedicated to representing the infinite God, and to fulfilling the divine purpose. Individual man is therefore forever dedicated to the perfect representation of God, His being and His purpose. This devotion or dedication best describes the real Church, or "the structure of Truth and Love" (ibid., p. 583).

Now the Church of Christ, Scientist, is founded upon the great metaphysical fact that the Christ is the spiritual idea of God, which destroys incarnate error. Therefore our church is dedicated to the destruction of error incarnate, that is, to the destruction of all abnormalities, including sin, disease, and death.

This truly evangelistic dedication of our church means that it is a missionary body, devoted to the salvation of the world from all evil and to the establishment in each individual human consciousness of heaven upon earth, as well as to the recognition of the real man's eternal salvation. Indeed our church is dedicated to the evangelization of the human race, which includes the individual both within and without the church body.

We have said that only in the heart of each of us can real dedication take place. Let us consider briefly the Glossary definition of "heart" (Science and Health, p. 587): "Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows." Each one of us probably recognizes all these qualities of thought in his heart, qualities which under divine influence are ever reaching higher states, pointing Truthward and leading towards evangelization or spiritualization of thought and life. Thus in the dedication of our hearts to the Church, our feelings will become less mortal and more spiritual, our motives will be more Christlike, our affections more pure, our joys more celestial, and we shall experience the healing of our sorrows. The church so dedicated can accomplish the full purpose for which it was established by Jesus, and reestablished by our Leader, and in this way represent the larger purpose of God in the real "structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle."

It is therefore in order to organize the church; to locate the building so that it may best serve the community; to keep the church activities abreast of the times; to locate its Reading Rooms, whenever practical, in ground-floor quarters where the public can easily find them; to advertise widely to the public the services, including the Wednesday meetings, which are not merely prayer meetings, but give proof of the teachings they set forth; to give lectures, and to advertise them adequately to the public. All these and other legitimate activities are in order.

It is furthermore in order to build church edifices, large and fine enough for their localities, and to furnish them with beauty and comfort. And it is in order to pay for them as quickly as possible. Paul said (I Cor. 14:40), "Let all things be done decently and in order." Apart from the ethics of prompt payment it is more profitable to pay for an edifice than to pay interest on its indebtedness. Surely in all these ways is the divine order in church dedication manifested.

It is beyond challenge that a heart dedicated to the true concept of God, man, Church, and Christ will find the idea of substance expanding his concept of supply to meet his human needs. He will find that the demand is primary and the supply follows. Jesus stated it thus (John 16:24): "Ask, and ye shall receive;" and again (Mark 11:24), "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." He will find that what is in his thought determines what he will have in his life, and that it behooves him therefore understandingly to desire what he should have. With the right idea of substance he will not lack, nor will he have a superfluity; for he will have an abundance of spiritual good, the only substance there really is.

One perceives what one first believes. In the midst of surrounding poverty one may have wealth, for the same reason that in the midst of surrounding wealth one may have poverty. Humanly speaking, wealth, health, social welfare are all individual conditions. One need not mentally go along with the generally accepted viewpoint in regard to health, wealth, or social position. Whosoever will may drink of the water of Life. The keynote of universal freedom is the inherent right and necessity of every individual to work out his own salvation. Thus only can he secure the health, status, and wealth which belong to man as God's image. And thus only can he dedicate himself to Church, and thus only can our churches be truly dedicated.