To build our own personal church experience on the Rock, Christ, demands that we understand the role of Christ Jesus as our Way-shower in this work. Consider, for example, his healing in the synagogue of the man with the withered hand. Here was Jesus' understanding of the true substance of Church, the power of Truth and Love, made visible for all to see. He proved what he had said, "That in this place is one greater than the temple,' the God-power, or Christ, the Saviour of the world from sin. Right there in the synagogue the Way-shower proved the understanding of spiritual law in healing, and this was the foundation upon which the Christian Church was built.

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We could look at Paul's ministry and see how well he served the developing idea of Church-and Peter, too, among many others. Paul saw the need to keep spirituality alive in the church. It took tenacity and courage to withstand the temptation to bog down in human organization at the expense of forward movement in healing and regeneration. He knew the path was a rough one, that it might be simpler to stand still than to serve the demands of the developing idea of Church at a cost to oneself. He wrote: "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.. Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort

it is.... Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"?

The call to serve the church of Christ Jesus has been answered over the centuries. Today it is our duty as members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, and it becomes our privilege as we understand what it is we are serving, to demand of ourselves a more vigorous and devoted allegiance to God, our Principle, that our visible lives and church may witness to our maturing concept of Church.

We know that Christian Science in the world is fulfilling prophecy. We know, too, that the work is in God's hands, though it appears to be in ours. That is why we can go to our Father, Principle, with confi dence, because the scientific unity of God and man has been revealed through the teachings of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. This Pastor of our church is at the helm of thought, ministering to the spiritual need of the individual church member, thus steadying, healing, blessing, and unifying the church body as it moves ahead to fill the role of the Church Univer sal and Triumphant.

We have Isaiah's words expressing God's care for those who labor to bring out on earth the divine idea of Church: "I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them."

me to

And this is the Founder's timely and comforting message: "It rejoices know that you know that healing the sick, soothing sorrow, brightening this lower sphere with the ways and means of the higher and everlasting harmony, bring to light the perfect original man and universe. What nobler achievement, what greater glory can nerve your endeavor? Press on! My heart and hope are with

you."9

DONALD HALE WALLINGFORD

I There are two simple and obvious ways you can contribute to the success of the : Wednesday testimony meetings in a Church of Christ, Scientist. One is to atS tend regularly; the other is to testify. If you are not faithful in the performance of both of these duties, it might be helpful to ask yourself why.

I remember a time during World War II when I was ill almost to the point of incapacity and about to go to sea on a warship. I had been suffering for some time and was making no apparent progress in overcoming the difficulty, when one Wednesday evening I found my way to a small Christian Science church. I was so strengthened by the love expressed by everyone and the readings from the Bible and the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, that I stood up in the midst of all my misery and expressed gratitude for the power of God, which I knew was available and could heal me. That night proved to be the turning point. From then on I progressed to a complete healing.

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Many, like me, have been blessed by attending these meetings regularly and expressing gratitude for the healing Christ. When Christ Jesus told the ten lepers "Go shew yourselves unto the priests," they were all healed on the way, but the one that returned to give thanks received the further blessing of the Master's own assurance that he was whole. And so it is today. The giving of thanks at a testimony meeting, one of the methods provided by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, is the grateful acknowledgment of the healing, and one is strengthened by it.

What are some of the reasons we give for attending Wednesday meetings irregu larly or not at all? There are many, and at the time they all seem pretty conclusive. One cannot go out at night. Another has

other things to do or places he would rather be or activities he feels are more important. Perhaps some have physical problems and are embarrassed. And there are undoubtedly those who think that going to church once a week on Sunday is all they can manage.

Those instructed in Christian Science soon learn the necessity of watching their thinking to protect themselves from the influence of aggressive mental suggestion, the supposedly magnetic thought of the material world that would keep them from growing closer to God through spiritualization of thought. It does not take much of a metaphysician to see the influence of limited mortal thinking behind the reasons given for not attending and supporting the Wednesday meetings.

The aggressive thought of the world is always telling us that we are, or should be, afraid of something, or we are limited by our bodies, or something other than a spiritual pursuit is more practical or more important or more enjoyable. When we yield to this type of thinking, we deprive ourselves of a great blessing. If we resist the temptation and at least pray for the courage and strength to overcome the limitation, the way will open for a healing and a strengthening of purpose that will lead on to blessings never thought possible.

The danger lies in accepting the erroneous thought as fact and the erroneous condition as something impossible to be overcome. When we get to the point of accepting error as true, we are asleep with our eyes open. We are turning our backs on the healing truth. We no longer even pray to overcome the limitation. Indeed, we more or less tacitly agree with ourselves to "live with it."

The religious thought of the world generally accepts the idea of going to church

on Sunday or a Sabbath day, and so even Christian Science churches are likely to be better attended on that day. But for church people to get together in the middle of the week and give evidence of the practicality of their religion is contrary to mortal mind's accepted way, and so attendance may be less on Wednesday evening.

What can we do about it? First, we can decide that we really want to be there and then devote our thoughts and prayers to getting there. Half the battle is won if we examine our thought and are sure that our honest desire is to be there. If it is, then God will nerve endeavor and lead the way. In all honesty, we should remember that one of the promises most of us made when joining a branch church was to support all of the services physically by as regular attendance as possible.

Church members must be careful that they do not take their church for granted. It takes a lot of time and consecrated effort to establish a branch church as a thriving institution, and if all current members would continue to contribute anywhere near the devotion that went into the formation of the local church, the church would grow and bless the entire community. One has only to give a few moments of honest thought to considering all the work that must be done to enable a church to fulfill its mission to see that his best efforts are sorely needed. A church without active church members is really no longer a church. No one, appreciating the need, can be content to let others do the work or feel that he has ever done enough or the time has come to retire from active support of all the church activities.

Now, how about giving a testimony? Here, again, a few moments of honest, prayerful thought will uncover the many reasons we use for not doing so. These so-called reasons are also merely suggestions of mortal mind. One should not accept them as true about himself any more than he would accept the suggestion that he is sick. The message of the Christ to you is that in your true selfhood you are the ex

pression of God and as such must and do express His qualities and abilities. God gives you the fearlessness, confidence, and wisdom to express yourself clearly and say the right thing; and spirituality will protect you against the attacks of error.

Perhaps it would also help if you would only realize that everyone who is listening is waiting and wanting to hear what you have to say and has the intelligence to appreciate it. No one can come to a Wednesday evening meeting with a critical or unloving thought and expect to be healed. Know that those who are there and listening have come with love.

If we are truly grateful, the words will come. But we must try. We must not be satisfied with apathy or even with good intentions. It is not enough to say that you will testify someday. If this is as far as you go, you are merely hiding apathy and caus ing yourself to neglect the necessity of pray ing to overcome the limitation. Apathy is more than it seems. After speaking of the active achievement Jesus required of his followers, our Leader tells us, "In this struggle remember that sensitiveness is sometimes selfishness, and that mental idleness or apathy is always egotism and animality."2 More need not be said.

A favorite hymn contains the promise of reward for our efforts:

A grateful heart a garden is, Where there is always room For every lovely, Godlike grace To come to perfect bloom.3 Be of good courage. The Godlike graces of poise, confidence, courage, and convic tion are yours now, and gratitude and prayer will uncover them, enable them to burst through the soil of material hopes and bring them to perfect bloom. But you must try, and in trying you have this prom ise from the textbook to support and strengthen your efforts: "Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action."4

1 Luke 17:14; 2 Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 8; 3 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 3; 4 Science and Health, p. 454.

in which alone he finds the comfort of knowing God's love and approval. The material senses would delude him into believing he has a material selfhood whose material affections must be satisfied. The belief of material affections eventuates in the emotional grotesqueries of lust, greed, gluttony, clinging dependency on others, and so on. Many of us have found this out when we bought a child some intensely wanted toy only to see his inordinate wanting transformed into selfish protectiveness or ingratitude.

The truth is that man has only a spiritual selfhood and spiritual affections. He has the spiritual characteristics of righteousness, goodness, purity. And as we silence matter's insatiable demand for appeasement, we will hear God's voice outlining the spiritual ideas and thus the human footsteps we may follow to restore a healthy emotional state in ourselves and others.

Secondly, one can realize it is only in the integrity or Christly quality of thought, not in human will or authority, that one has any power to enrich the affectionsor indeed to heal or change anything. No willfulness or cleverness on anyone's part can soften another's hardened heart or quicken a deadened spiritual sense.

Sometimes an entire organization may need the spiritual support of the Christian Scientist to heal dissension, rivalry, bitterness, or cynicism. The temptation usually is to blame those in authority for faulty leadership. But true healing authority resides in God, the one Mind. And the Scientist, through reflecting the nature of God, can bring healing force to whatever organization he may be a member of. His position in the human chain of command has no bearing on his access to these spiritual concepts. In an office, for example, it is the one with the clearest awareness of Principle that sets the group's ethical standard. So it is with the spirit of goodwill or lack of it. Whoever holds mentally to the omnipotence of Love is helping powerfully to vanquish hostility, envy, or dispiritedness. A third thing the Scientist can do in sys

tematically working to enrich the affections is to know that they can be educated. It's a wrong general belief that an affectionate nature, like aesthetic taste, is a matter of heredity—either you have it or you don't. But this isn't true. A narrow or gross sense of taste reflects ignorance, a nature uneducated to the beauty and intelligence that are the real substance of an artistic work. A boorish person is one whose aggravated personal sense of himself acts as a barrier to the finer qualities around him. So it is with the affections; personal sense must give way to spiritual sense, to the warm and endearing qualities of lovingkindness, grace, generosity, forbearance, gentleness.

The truth is that we are obligated to educate the affections, especially in youngsters. The Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings are filled with admonitions on the importance of inclining children's natures Spiritward. And this is the And this is the young folks' natural inclination.

The experience of a young man illustrates the above three points. He was just starting out teaching and was amazed at the hos tility his students directed at him in the classroom. At day's end he was exhausted.

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The young man was at the same time taking singing lessons. He loved those hours. His teacher seemed to rely on a power right activity to govern her studio. She was a Christian Scientist. He began to look into her religion and apply its precepts to his own classwork.

His first move was to stop trying to run the class with the force of his own personality. He turned his classroom over to God's governance, silently affirming that each identity finds its true, complete selfhood in Love's presence. It wasn't always easy, but he progressed. He began to feel the Principle of all good as the controlling force in his classroom. It acted as a moral law that instilled affection in the youngsters and the teacher too. The students began to run many of the class activities themselves, pulling ahead of other classes in the work covered. They responded with re