The Christian Science Home

I have in mind the picture of a Christian Science home where I love to go when I feel the need of being renewed in spirit, as did the Master when he went up into the mountain to pray. The woman who has made this home what it is has been a student of Christian Science for many years. After a long period of sickness and suffering, she has come into a large degree of freedom, and like the spring which is filled from unseen reservoirs until it must overflow, making all vegetation around it green and luxuriant, this life is so filled with the consciousness of Spirit that its overflow is a blessing to many lives, and especially to those who come into the home.

In no other place can we realize so much of the presence of God as in the true Christian Science home, which is being made an ideal home. To me, there is no more congenial place on earth, no place where it is so easy to know God aright. Here we find the Bible and the Christian Science publications, and such other clean literature as is in accord with them. In all human thought, there is much to unlearn, and the sincere Christian Scientist does not wish to add any more materiality to what he already carries, and from which he must unburden himself. High-class magazines and the works of the of the best writers and poets may worthily claim our attention, but we will not be tempted to read that which we are compelled to unlearn in after years. In homes where there is no understanding or practice of Christian Science, the subjects of food, clothing, the house and its furnishings, the struggle for worldly gain, and the pleasures that perish in the using are often all that is talked about. All these, when regarded as the end of life, bring constant worry, vexation, and disappointment; the ideals given us by Christ Jesus—”Take no thought for your life;” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness”—are not heeded.

The inmates of the ideal home are content with the simple life, and with only the few material things needful, although they may want these to be of good quality. In these respects, Christian Scientists should be exemplars and teach the lessons of which so many are in need. The wife may need to simplify her housekeeping and give less time to the preparation of material food, so that she may have more time to feed those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. She should be ready to carry to the weary and heavily laden the message of rest and peace, and to minister to the stranger within the gates who is in need of the healing truth. In such a home, the family learn to love God by loving their fellow men and by keeping His commandments. They realize the promise of Christ Jesus, who said, “I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

It may be that there are those in the Christian Science home who have become weary of pursuing the fleeting mirage of material pleasures, and are finding rest not in inaction, but in learning what is the Father’s business, and so find rest in spiritual employments. If there are children in this home, the parents are thankful for the understanding of Christian Science which will fit them for the great work they have to do; they are grateful for the understanding which will help them to direct wisely the unfolding or bringing out of the perfect ideal, knowing they are fitting those who will be channels through which the truth shall flow to the sin-sick and suffering, unchecked by sin and materiality.

It will interest us in this connection to read of the homes where Christ Jesus loved to go when on earth,—the homes of John, of Peter, of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. It was the presence of Christ that transformed these homes and brought into them the atmosphere of health, holiness, peace, and rest. To these homes the sick came and were healed. Like these should be the Christian Science homes of today, so that there may go out from them influences for good whose full fruition we cannot yet measure.