Perhaps no word more fully convoys the animus of the Christ in its practical application and living than "service." Defined, it is expressed as labor for others, as that which promotes interest and happiness, as unselfish devotion, and, especially in the light of Christian Science, as spiritual obedience and love. Fulfilling his mission as the divine Way-shower, as Love's highest representative in human experience, Christ Jesus presented the supreme example of spiritual obedience or service.

Speaking to his disciples at a moment when there was contention among them as to who should be greatest, the Master reminded them (Luke 22:27), "I am among you as he that serveth." He demonstrated that obedience to the divine will is the essence of man as the manifestation of God because, as Christian Science teaches, the true function of man as Mind's idea is to serve, to show forth, and to fulfill Mind's purpose. Spiritual service is the actual exemplification and manifestation of our true selfhood as the sons or ideas of God.

Mind's infinite revelation and expression is evidenced in immeasurable spiritual ideas, each one obediently serving the creative cause in which it has its being. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy in poetic prose indicates how God's ideas, evidenced even in human experience, reveal their divine, origin and joyously serve Love's purpose. On page 516 she writes: "God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our foot silently exclaims, 'The meek shall inherit the earth.' The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the churchdome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth."

How important, then, it becomes for each one of us as he discerns man's true identity as idea to obediently express and fulfill by reflection the high purpose that God has for every one of His ideas. Even a slight approximation of this spiritual fact prophesies what its demonstration can mean for the human race today. With the discernment of one's true being and purpose as Love's idea there comes the desire which in Christian Science finds expression in loving service. Obedience to the will of God spontaneously opens up countless opportunities to bring Christ to the receptive thought everywhere.

The activity of spiritual service is always the healer of selfishness. The world today presents too many challenges for constant devotion to great ideals to stop and think of self. This is a time for selfless living. The degree of one's spiritual devotion will also be the degree of one's individual growth.

Under the marginal caption "Service and worship" our Leader makes this comment in Science and Health (p. 40): "Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all men should follow the example of our Master and his apostles and not merely worship his personality. It is sad that the phrase divine service has come so generally to mean public worship instead of daily deeds." As understood in Christian Science, service today is therefore witnessed in man's expression of Love as his very being. As Love's idea, man is the revelation and evidence of Love's presence and action, and it is our privilege to see, know, and demonstrate this.

It is in our church organization that Christian Scientists find abundant opportunities for fulfilling the highest expression of service today. Referring to this, Mrs. Eddy writes in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 15), "God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members."

The collective progress and prosperity of a church is evidenced in the harmoniously united activity of its members. It is natural, then, that the individual member who gains the greatest blessing and contributes most is one who has discerned the spiritual meaning of service and is demonstrating it. One naturally gains from his devotion to and love of Christian Science just as much as he puts in.

A strong and active church is one in which the members are eager to serve and in so doing have embraced the opportunity to live their understanding of Christian Science. A right sense of enthusiasm will characterize the activity of a church where the spiritual meaning of service is understood and stressed. The words of one of our hymns (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 398) give us this emphatic call to spiritual activity:

The earnest student of Christian Science joyously welcomes the privilege of participation in the important and essential activities of his church organization, but he also learns that his real value as a member is commensurate with his individual spiritual growth and that his expression of service appears as he reflects and shows forth the true Church, the structure of Truth and Love, in his individual thinking. The realization of Love's infinitude, in which all of its ideas are forever harmoniously co-ordinated, is the highest example of holy service. Those who attain this point of demonstration are, as the Revelator declares, continually "before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them" (Rev. 7:15).

Richard J. Davis