Article August 21, 1948 Issue

OUR LEADER PLANTED A VINEYARD

AVELYN M. KERR

Pondering the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs one day, the writer realized that its description of a virtuous woman was a peculiarly apt one of Mary Baker Eddy: "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard" (verse 16). On pages 128 through 135 of the Manual of The Mother Church is the Deed of Trust by which land for the original edifice of The Mother Church was conveyed by Mrs. Eddy to The Christian Science Board of Directors. On this land, which had been purchased by her with money earned from the sale of her writings, from healing the sick and teaching Christian Science, our Leader may be said to have planted her vineyard. Through "the fruit of her hands" Mrs. Eddy had risen from, poverty to considerable wealth, and this wealth she used to establish and propagate the Cause of Christian Science.

A study of this Deed of Trust reveals unmistakably that Mrs. Eddy meant The Mother Church and its Christian Science Board of Directors to function permanently. Studying the Manual with the provisions outlined in this Deed of Trust in mind. Christian Scientists rejoice in the wisdom of our Leader, who was so divinely guided that "the fruit of her hands" is protected forever. The Church Manual stands supreme, upheld by the highest court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as the law governing the Christian Science movement. According to Article XXXV, Section 3, no new tenet or By-Law can be adopted, nor any amended or annulled. By the terms of the Deed of Trust, The Mother Church edifice can be used only for Christian Science services and church activities, so that no strange doctrine can ever gain admission.

What comfort and assurance one finds in knowing that differing human opinions can never change, interfere with, or tear down the Church our Leader founded. While Jesus did not organize a church, he had the true spiritual concept of Church, for he said to Simon Peter when the latter acknowledged him as the Christ (Matt. 16:18), "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is on this same rock of Truth that the Christian Science church is built. It is built not on a person, but on the Christ, which Peter discerned through his association with Jesus, and which Mrs. Eddy taught mankind to know and demonstrate. Jesus never taught that he alone was the son of God. He proved by example that man is one with God, co-heir with Christ; that "now are we the sons of God" (I John 3: 2). Thanks to the God-inspired Church Manual given to us by our Leader and the provisions that are set forth in her Deed of Trust, the gates of hell cannot prevail against this Church, nor can man's nature again be hidden in the dust of dogma and ignorance.

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