Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" writes (p. 262): "Consecration to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but heightens it. Neither does consecration diminish man's obligations to God, but shows the paramount necessity of meeting them." Here it is seen that consecration has a twofold meaning: first, it means an absolute dependence on God, and secondly, a necessary fulfillment of the demands which God makes upon us.

As Christian Scientists we dedicate, or consecrate, our lives to the Cause of Christian Science in a twofold way. First, we learn to understand God and rely upon divine Principle to solve our problems through the Christ; secondly, we realize that consecration to God makes demands upon us to maintain the spiritual standard of perfect God and perfect man, as set up by Christ Jesus, and to live according to the moral law by the evangelization of the human character.

The opposite of dedication or consecration is an indifference to the divine demands and a gradual falling away from moral standards. Anything that materializes thought acts in this reverse direction.

As Christian Scientists we are taught to let God use us in His service and not merely to use God to serve our own ends. Our dedication means that we shall love God supremely and not divide allegiance between Spirit and matter. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 326), "All nature teaches God's love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual."

Our acceptance of the spiritual fact that there is one infinite God, good, expressed in the brotherhood of man, demands spiritual consecration. It demands that we reject prejudice against anyone or any class of people and adopt the divine way, which Mrs. Eddy refers to when she writes (ibid., p. 266), "Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science."

When we dedicate a branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, we have in mind not only that the building may be used for the purpose of divine service, free of debt, but that every member of the church should dedicate himself anew to the Cause of Christian Science and more nearly approximate the ideal set forth by Christ Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

This dedication is not a ritual; it means our demonstration of Truth by healing works. Dedication, therefore, is a demand that every church member can fulfill in his own way in order to further his individual spiritual progress and the spiritual welfare of his branch church. Dedication is not merely a ceremony or temporal resolve; it unfolds the eternal law of spiritual progress in the individual, and therefore in the community.

Mind is expressed in movement, and all true movement is in Mind, not in matter. Through Christian Science we demonstrate that life is progressive. There is no retrograde movement in Mind, and wherever we find a manifestation of Mind, even though it appear to us as a least spiritual idea, there we find evidence of activity and progress. Every individual Christian Scientist who has recognized the meaning of dedication is inevitably moving forward in his spiritual experience and thus becoming more aware of the spiritual perfection which is man's natural state. This perfection is not found in an abstract heaven, but in the perpetual spiritual activity of individual man, endowed with the understanding of a complete control over all phases of evil, including sin, sickness, and death.

When King Solomon came to the throne of Israel, his first act was to bring the ark of the covenant out of the city of David; and having done so, he prayed that great prayer of dedication, or consecration, given in the eighth chapter of I Kings. This is a prayer we may study with profit when considering the subject of dedication. In it Solomon includes both the prayer of petition and the prayer of affirmation. Throughout this prayer we notice his constant reference to the promises given by God to Moses and his right to divine blessings.

In his prayer Solomon includes both the law and the gospel. For instance, his prayer is, "That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else," words which are reminiscent of the First Commandment; and, "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day," an admonition which accords with the Master's saying concerning the perfection of God and man.

Can we do better, as we turn our thought towards our beloved Mother Church, than to resolve to dedicate, or consecrate, our lives anew to the Cause of Christian Science, as our Leader did, and demand the results to which we are entitled through the spiritualization of thought and our active practice of it? This is no time for apathy or self-satisfaction. Looking out upon the world, we recognize that the only way of salvation from the grip of animal magnetism in its many forms is through the Christ as demonstrated by those who have dedicated themselves to the worship of the one God, good, and who are scientifically proving step by step that healing and regeneration go hand in hand and that a life dedicated to God, Spirit, is crowned with success.

Robert Ellis Key