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The Office of Church Member
When one is elected to membership in a Church of Christ, Scientist, or in a Christian Science Society, he occupies an important office—the office of member. This office involves priceless privileges, opportunities, benefits; it also imposes duties, obligations, responsibilities. For example, it is a privilege to participate in the healing and redeeming activities of a church or society. But this privilege carries with it certain duties which, as they are fulfilled, make one's membership a spiritually enriching experience.
One of the duties of a church member, and a very important one, is to maintain a spiritual sense of his identity as a child of God, completely at one with the divine source of his being, and in this way to recognize his inseparability from Truth and Love. A corresponding duty is to gain and maintain a spiritual sense of Church: what its purpose is, how this purpose is fulfilled in human experience, and what part an individual member plays in its fulfillment.
The true sense of Church can be only partially discerned intellectually. Really to understand what Church is and what it does, one has to identify himself with it. This means that one must seek to identify himself with such realities of being as spiritual understanding, spiritual sufficiency, and so forth, even though this means withdrawing from such preoccupation with the world as tends to interfere with spiritual growth and development.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
January 6, 1962 issue
View Issue-
Man's Sinless Perfection
MARY WELLINGTON GALE
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Appealing to One's Spiritual Sense
FRANK A. SALISBURY
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The Value of "the next lessons"
LILLIAN M. GREENE
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FIDELITY
Winifred Fields Walters
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"I never knew you"
MARY SHAW BROCK
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Wings of Joy
EVANGELINE PAXTON
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SURE DEFENSE
Rosemary Cobham
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The Christian Science Standard of Healing
The Christian Science Board of Directors
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"A definite rule discovered"
Helen Wood Bauman
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The Office of Church Member
Ralph E. Wagers
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RADIO PROGRAM No. 433 - Questions and Answers on Christian Science
Harvey Wood with contributions from Enid Bennett Niblo, William Bardwell, David Sleeper
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Over thirty years ago when my...
Lilian Garrett with contributions from Douglas Richard Garrett
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I have had many proofs of God's...
Carol Heckel
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I wish to express my sincere...
David Chase Land
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The spiritual understanding of...
Margaret E. Meier
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In the Bible we read, "Bring ye...
LeOla Dotts Stone
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Their understanding of God,...
Helen Tucker Parnell
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In writing this testimony, I sincerely...
Frances Ruth Steele
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from Chih Meng, Harold Blake Walker