Constructive Thoughts on Church Membership

Violet Ker Seymer

Nowhere is the spirit of truth and love more indispensable than in our branch churches, for as true brotherhood is demonstrated in the Christian Science organization the spirit of unity, the unity of Spirit, will awaken and unify the nations of the world.

In his first epistle Peter wrote, "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." In their eagerness to see their church progress, church members sometimes feel regretful when prosperity and unity are not apparent in their midst. Casting around for the reason, they may be tempted to believe that the trouble comes mostly through certain members. Should they entertain this view, they would be forgetting their own obligation as witnesses to God and man. Primarily, the deceiving, disrupting error is mortal mind and not persons. Evil is no part of church, nor yet of church member—taking member in the high and holy sense in which membership is to be regarded. Church and church member are to be seen as one, entirely apart from discord, whatever form it may assume, and always under the government of divine Principle. From this standpoint, members can expose and frustrate the attempt of error to veil from them the fact of the everlasting oneness of Mind and its ideas.

In his letter to the members of the church at Ephesus Paul wrote, "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." In the unity of good, which is everlastingly established and maintained by divine Principle and the operation of spiritual law, there is no element of division or disintegration. Staunchly holding to this stabilizing fact, members will resist the tendency to become either fearful or resentful when what are called church problems arise and it seems necessary on occasions to take sides. On page 10 of "Christian Healing" we find eloquent statements by our Leader on the subject of siding with good, since in reality there is no other side.

To side with God, omnipotent good, entails response to her loving admonition in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 355): "Hold thy gaze to the light, and the iris of faith, more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my window at the close of a balmy autumnal day, will span thy heavens of thought." Each one of us must perseveringly hold his consciousness wide open to Truth's healing light in order that we may behold all creation bathed in its pure effulgence. We are reassured as we remember that only that which reflects God, good, in anyone's consciousness is actual, active, and authoritative. Divine Love imparts only perfection, and that which Love imparts we must reflect with full confidence. The perfect blessings emanating from Love we can make our own through spiritual understanding, humility, and alert receptivity to good at all times.

In "No and Yes" (p. 8) it is written: "We should endeavor to be long-suffering, faithful, and charitable with all. To this small effort let us add one more privilege—namely, silence whenever it can substitute censure." In making this appeal our Leader advocated seeing through and beyond the errors of mortal mind, denying personal sense, and happily bearing with one another throughout the cleansing, regenerating process to be brought to fruition by Love.

To the members of the Corinthian church Paul wrote, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." The government of Christ is supreme. On this unshaken and unshakable foundation we, as Christian Scientists, rear our hope, establish our faith, and vitalize our expectancy of Truth's triumph in every situation. Through our divinely sustained faith we are destined to bring out in our midst ever higher proof of the oneness of Mind and its ideas. And each one of us is equipped to play his part in this collective demonstration of the unity of good. It is noticeable in the latter part of the seventeenth chapter of John that Christ Jesus emphasized the oneness of being, and that he yearned to see it made manifest among his followers.

The Christian Science church as an organization has not yet passed the century mark, and the vision and fidelity of its members today are of great moment to the future of our Cause and the salvation of the world. When we discern and respect the grand scope of our work as church members and its immeasurable promise, we rise above pettiness. We rejoice in our individual responsibility and rise to meet it with love, wisdom, and perseverance. In our movement we are called to maintain such a high standard of absolutely true witnessing that we shall bring into evidence as individuals, and hand in hand with one another, the everlasting unity of good.'

In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes to a branch church (p. 195), "God grant that this unity remain, and that you continue to build, rebuild, adorn, and fill these spiritual temples with grace, Truth, Life, and Love."

Violet Ker Seymer

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