Editorial June 1, 1974 Issue

Where Peace, Love, and Joy Are Essential

Naomi Price

A church whose membership and congregation express and radiate peace, love, and joy inevitably grows. These qualities are essential components of the spiritual Church, and as they are expressed by members of a human representation of Church, that institution will manifest something of the power, attraction, and affluence of the eternal, all-inclusive structure of Love and Truth.

People in trouble feel impelled to turn in at the door of such a church—not only because it looks inviting (which it certainly does with its welcoming openness, bright interior and well-cared-for appearance), but because there is a warm, deeply feelable, spiritual attraction in its atmosphere. Evidently the people to whom it belongs really love it. They delight in going into it, and are apparently quite reluctant to leave. All kinds of them—men and women, black and white, parents with infants, students, executives, shopkeepers, and factory workers. They not only attend the services with joy but love to take part in the church's upkeep and activities.

There are many branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, scattered throughout the world that give this impression of love—as, indeed, does The Mother Church itself. To a high degree the members express the spirituality attributed by Mary Baker Eddy to the Christian Scientists who were working in her home, of whom she wrote, "Their faces shine with the reflection of light and love; their footsteps are not weary; their thoughts are upward; their way is onward, and their light shines." Then she added, "The world is better for this happy group of Christian Scientists; Mrs. Eddy is happier because of them; God is glorified in His reflection of peace, love, joy."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 355;}