"Builded together"

Christian Science is the Science of Life. It is therefore of first importance that the nature of this Science become better understood. The contemplative study of the writings of its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, is a necessary step toward this objective. On page 264 of "Miscellaneous Writings" she says: "Unity is the essential nature of Christian Science. Its Principle is One, and to demonstrate the divine One, demands oneness of thought and action." The word "essential" is defined as meaning "indispensable."

"Unity," or "oneness of thought and action," is then the not-to-be-dispensed-with nature of Christian Science. Every thought, point of view, attitude of mind entertained by us which lacks a sense of the unity or oneness of God, His universe, and man, is outside Christian Science. To tolerate or condone it is to surrender our hope of Truth's heaven for the belief in error's hell.

Yet how woefully lacking is the idea of unity and oneness in human thinking! In homes, churches, business, society, and between nations, thoughts of friction, division, separateness of interests argue to, and would fill, the consciousness of men. Praise be to God, not one such thought is actual or real!

God is One, the infinite and only Mind, undivided and indivisible in His eternal oneness. This essential oneness, or unity, must be expressed by His entire creation. There is no other place for God's indivisible oneness to be expressed. No idea, or individuality, can withdraw or exclude itself from this oneness of Life and Love and all that it implies. Each manifestation of Mind is given of God to know the Father's oneness, evidenced by and in the oneness of creation and the resulting unitedness, or oneness, of all that is therein. Indeed, to God and His children no suggestion of or belief in contention, division, separation is ever known. God's uninvadable oneness eternally pervades all individual consciousness. In His unity is man's harmony.

Our daily human experience points to the close co-ordination of the interests of all. It has been said that when one sits down for a meal, half the world, figuratively, stands up to serve him. One need only take careful note of the things about him to be reminded of his fellow beings in many lands who are contributing to the needs of his everyday life. Books, works of music and art, food, furniture, clothing come from near and far, expressions of the thought and labor of men in many climes.

Paul was joyously mindful of the unity of all men. He wrote to the Ephesians that God "hath quickened us together with Christ, ... hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places." He was mindful of the collective unity of man when he wrote, "Ye also are builded together for an habitation of God." This comforting "togetherness" of all, he clearly recognized. So must we, not spasmodically, but constantly, as befits the Mind of Christ. Whatever the material scene may be—in the home, the church, in society, business, or even among millions of warring mortals—the spiritual unitedness of all remains to be lovingly realized.

The Scriptures also inform us in the words of Paul, "We are members one of another." What a vital idea to ponder! All are indispensable to all. No one is complete without all the others. There is just one embodiment of Life and Love, and therein we are all members and belong to one another. Here is the living rock of unity which must base our understanding and demonstration of God and His indivisible man.

If one were to try to become conscious of his own individuality as in God and His kingdom, but were halfway believing his neighbor to be an imperfect mortal outside the kingdom, he would thereby unwittingly debar himself. His divided sense of creation would anchor him in error's turbulent sea, until, correcting his thought with the true idea of the oneness of all that is, he would find safe harbor in Love's all-inclusive heaven. Evil argues "twoness." God stands for "oneness," and from this standpoint neither He nor His can be moved.

When Jesus commanded that we love God with all our heart, and our brother as ourself, he was demanding that we recognize and love the oneness of God and the unity, or brotherhood, of all men, resulting from the Father's oneness. If we permit ourselves to believe that there exists something else, which is not His, and which it is permissible to quarrel with, hold resentment toward, or regard as a rival or an enemy, we are turning mentally aside from the highway of the Lord, upon a detour fraught with pitfalls and barriers to our progress Godward.

Personal controversies, always lacking the essential quality of unity, are like worthless, diverting side shows. We have no right to waste time on them, either as actors or as audience. If our advancement in growth and understanding has seemed slow, if demonstrations have seemed protracted, it may be definitely helpful to take a mental inventory to determine if perhaps there is a need to cling more steadfastly at home and abroad to the oneness and unity of all that really is, even though material sense may persistently argue contentious persons, many wills, divided interests. The universality and intactness of God's kingdom, including all individuality, are here. Our work is, through spiritual sense, to become increasingly and gratefully aware of this kingdom each succeeding hour.

The Prince of Peace uttered a mighty prayer when he prayed for his followers, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one." He gave the weight of his God-empowered thinking to help establish the realization of the unitedness of creation, the brotherhood of man. Each day we look out on humanity. Shall we look out through mental windows darkened with division, separation, personal sense, or shall we look out through windows washed clean with self-immolation and spiritual sense, which know nought but what God knows—His fatherhood, constituting man's brotherhood? We can indeed look out on all humanity through the window of brotherhood and effectively know that, in the words of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy (Poems, p. 4), "His arm encircles me, and mine, and all."