Editorial September 27, 1958 Issue

THE POWER OF CHURCH

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus declared of the church he established (Matt. 16:18), "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The power of Christ, Truth, which the true idea of Church expresses, is supreme; it can never be overthrown or diminished by the violence of opposing evil. Church is spiritual reality, which stands serene and inviolable amidst the unreal restlessness of evil, mortal mentality.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy defines the real Church in these words (p. 583): "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." Loyalty to God's law, which emanates from Principle; obedience to the character of Christ, which manifests Truth and Love; faithfulness to the ideal of harmony among God's children—these proofs of one's real manhood, which images forth God, merit for one and cause him to receive immunity from the would-be foe of Christliness, the suppositional carnal mind. Why? Because these spiritual qualities abide in Church, and one's expression of them shows that one is finding his real, God-protected selfhood as it exists in Church forever.

One should feel assured that he will always be able to demonstrate man's immunity from attacks of evil when his individual life is proof that he is included in that which "rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." For such a life cannot be harmed by the unreal aggressions of envy and hate; and the flesh can offer no response to evil when thought is consistently spiritualized.

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