Article June 13, 1953 Issue

THE GREAT SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY NAMED CHURCH

SUSAN F. CAMPBELL

We read in the Bible that when Jesus inquired of his disciples (Matt. 16:15), "Whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter immediately replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then Jesus said to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

This discourse between Jesus and one of his disciples who was very near to him has been misunderstood because of a sense of personality which, having crept in, has made it seem as though Jesus were building his great Church on a single person, who has long since vanished from the earth. The rock on which Jesus founded his Church was not a human personality, and we know that while the Master was still on earth there was no organized, visible Christian church. According to the teachings of Christian Science, the true Church is founded on Christ-healing, and Christ-healing is the proof that must be given to show that the Word is understood.

Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, gives us the highest spiritual interpretation of Church that the world has ever known. This basic statement is presented in two parts and is found in the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The first part reads (p. 583), "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." This is an entirely spiritual concept of Church; and as it is accepted, held to, and allowed to develop in individual consciousness it will find outward expression.

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