CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS love The Mother Church, and they never tire of expressing their deep gratitude for its beneficent activities which are bringing to the nations of the earth the true knowledge of God. They joyfully recognize that The Mother Church with its branches is founded on a spiritual basis. It is well, therefore, to consider what our Leader accomplished when she founded it.

When we study the deeds and utterances of the great spiritual seers of the Bible we find that they glimpsed somewhat of the eternal verities of being and strove to conform their lives and their deeds to this sublime ideal. Samuel, for example, from childhood grew in spiritual power and confidence in God. As the great facts of being began to dawn on patriarch and prophet they naturally and normally instructed their people, and struggled to express in their human relationships the spiritual vision which was ever their guiding light. Moses, under divine guidance, led the children of Israel out of bondage into freedom; his vision of the everpresence of God was typified by the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.

Of Jesus the boy it is said that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." In his later ministry, through parable and precept, Jesus taught men to rely not upon matter but upon Spirit. He healed their diseases and did all things according as he was taught by the Father. His every thought and word was governed by this vision of God and His Christ. That vision illumined his path and guided his action. In the present age the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, through gaining the spiritual import of the Scriptures, saw the ever-presence and all-inclusiveness of divine Spirit and the unreality of evil and matter. She had the vision of God and His perfect creation, even the same light which had illumined Moses and the prophets, and which Christ Jesus had perfectly revealed. After this spiritual revelation came to her, Mrs. Eddy diligently prayed and labored to reduce it to human language so that men could grasp and understand the truth and prove it practical in meeting all human needs.

Since these great spiritual revelators all visioned the truth, they likewise beheld Church as essentially spiritual; and they labored so to express this idea that it could be apprehended and applied to bless and exalt men. Moses' concept of the spiritual Church was symbolized to men by the tabernacle in the wilderness, God having commanded him to build this tabernacle after the pattern which was showed to him in the mount. Solomon, following in his footsteps, built the temple at Jerusalem. At the dedication of this temple he prayed to God in part as follows: "That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place."

When his disciples were sufficiently advanced to grasp more clearly his spiritual teachings, Christ Jesus told them that his Church was built upon the Rock, Christ—against which the gates of hell should not prevail. Later, when the disciples went forth to preach the gospel and to heal the sick, hand in hand with preaching and healing, they established churches. The day of Pentecost may be taken to be the beginning of the Christian church as an organization, for we read in Acts that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." The early Christian churches were based on an understanding of the presence and power of God. In the fellowship of the early church all men were one in Christ, and no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the household of God, as the Scriptures tell us. Because the early Christian church had a spiritual basis, healing the sick was a natural and normal function, demonstrating man's oneness with God.

The Apostle Paul had a clear realization of the spiritual reality of the Church universal, and he declared that Christ is "the head of the body, the church." Paul loved this spiritual idea, Church; and because he loved it, he loved also its manifestations among men in the Christian churches which were being established. How inspiring are his great epistles to these early churches! And because he loved them he made those long, arduous journeys to strengthen and encourage them. How loving his messages to them; how tender his solicitude for their oneness in Christ; how stern at times his rebuke of errors that had crept into them! He wrote to the church at Ephesus that "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." He wrote to Timothy of "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." So, likewise, James taught that the elders of the church were to heal the sick by prayer. The book of Revelation by St. John was a message to the seven churches in Asia. How uplifting his greeting to them: "Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come"!

The epistles written by Paul were for the guidance, protection, and comfort of those early valiant Christians who were striving to separate themselves from materiality and had committed themselves unreservedly to the church founded to express the teachings of the master Christian; and they remain for the Christian churches of today for the same holy purpose.

The vision of the pattern in the mount became dim during the centuries which followed, and the Christian church finally lost its healing power. But the healing power of the Christ, Truth, could not be suppressed. The Master had foretold that the Comforter should come, leading into all truth. This resurgence of Christianity came through the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy, for to her was revealed, in 1866, the true spiritual knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which heals mentally. It then became her great life-work to bring again to men this open vision, and to organize a church, built on a spiritual basis, which should reinstate primitive Christian healing. She organized the "Church of Christ, Scientist," in 1879, and she spoke of "The Mother Church—the chief corner-stone whereof is, that Christian Science, as taught and demonstrated by our Master, casts out error, heals the sick, and restores the lost Israel" (Church Manual, p. 17).

But this first organization was not fully protected against the assaults of evil, and so our Leader was led, step by step, to reorganize it. After the reorganization all the activities of Christian Science were conducted under the ægis of The Mother Church. This reorganization she accomplished in 1892 and of it she said, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., is designed to be built on the Rock, Christ; even the understanding and demonstration of divine Truth, Life, and Love, healing and saving the world from sin and death; thus to reflect in some degree the Church Universal and Triumphant" (ibid., p. 19). She gave the Rules and By-Laws of the Manual, every one of which was written under divine guidance, to protect The Mother Church, to hedge it about with defenses impregnable. It is interesting to note that the four Articles of the Manual of The Mother Church devoted to membership set forth the qualifications for membership and the manner in which it may be obtained, and give rules for the guidance of members.

The ideal of The Mother Church and its many branches is the Church eternal, the Church triumphant. Mrs. Eddy defines this absolute idea, Church, as follows (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583): "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." Her human labor was to establish the church organization so that individuals, by joining this church and supporting it, could utilize the spiritual idea it represents in the redemption of the whole world from sin and death. The establishing of The Mother Church on a spiritual basis in a world sunk in materialism is striking evidence of our Leader's vision and spiritual understanding. Through toil and struggle she blazed the way for the organization of her church. She knew that it must be built according to the divine plan. It must rest upon Principle; it must repudiate sin and materiality; it must stand serene against the assaults of evil; it must be a militant church conquering the forces of evil; it must be a militant church conquering the forces of evil; in all its activities it must express to mortals the healing power of Christ, by arousing their thought to the understanding of spiritual ideas.

Is The Mother Church accomplishing these glorious results? It is. It is acquainting mortals with God and leading them out of the wilderness of mortal beliefs into the sunlight of the kingdom of heaven. The Sunday services and midweek meetings of The Mother Church and its branches bring to sincere seekers for Truth peace, harmony, and a deep-toned love for God and man. Holy calm pervades these services. How often when we come to them burdened and bereft, our burdens roll away as we hear as of old the invitation of the Christ, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"! There comes to weary hearts the assurance that as the angels watched over the seven churches in Asia, so today are Love's angels brooding o'er the Christian Science churches with healing in their wings. So do all the activities of the Christian Science church bring forth the "signs following." The Reading Rooms are havens of refuge; the lectures feed the famished thought; the periodicals carry to the far places of the earth and to many peoples messages showing the practical application of the spiritual teaching of Christian Science, which unlocks the immortal truths of the Holy Scriptures.

This was the church our Leader founded. Its glorious and lofty purpose awakens the gratitude and love of all Christian Scientists. As members of The Mother Church and its branches, we know that we ourselves must become newborn of Spirit; that we, too, must gain the vision of the pattern which Moses saw with the eyes of spiritual discernment on Sinai's heights. We know that we must believe in the teachings of Christian Science, rely upon the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings for guidance and instruction in all our endeavors, as the Manual provides. The members of The Mother Church and its branches are the witnesses to this age that the Christ, Truth, is present among men. They are the faithful witnesses to God's healing power, and true are their testimonies; and because they are faithful and their testimonies true, The Mother Church will go forward and never waver in accomplishing its redemptive mission, until, in the words of Isaiah, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

Copyright, 1933, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as secondclass matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.