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Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter 2
— Atonement and
Eucharist
And they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts.
— PAUL.
For Christ sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the
gospel.
— PAUL.
For I say unto you, I will
not drink of the fruit of the
vine, until the kingdom of God
shall come.
— JESUS.
Atonement is the
exemplification of man's unity
with God, whereby man reflects
divine Truth, Life, and Love.
Jesus of Nazareth taught and
demonstrated man's oneness with
the Father, and for this we owe
him endless homage. His mission
was both individual and
collective. He did life's work
aright not only in justice to
himself, but in mercy to mortals,
— to show them how to do
theirs, but not to do it for them
nor to relieve them of a single
responsibility. Jesus acted
boldly, against the accredited
evidence of the senses, against
Pharisaical creeds and practices,
and he refuted all opponents with
his healing power.
The atonement of Christ
reconciles man to God, not God to
man; for the divine Principle of
Christ is God, and how can God
propitiate Himself? Christ is
Truth, which reaches no higher
than itself. The fountain can
rise no higher than its source.
Christ, Truth, could conciliate
no nature above his own, derived
from the eternal Love. It was
therefore Christ's purpose to
reconcile man to God, not God to
man. Love and Truth are not at
war with God's image and
likeness. Man cannot exceed
divine Love, and so atone for
himself. Even Christ cannot
reconcile Truth to error, for
Truth and error are
irreconcilable. Jesus aided in
reconciling man to God by giving
man a truer sense of Love, the
divine Principle of Jesus'
teachings, and this truer sense
of Love redeems man from the law
of matter, sin, and death by the
law of Spirit, — the law of
divine Love.
The Master forbore not to
speak the whole truth, declaring
precisely what would destroy
sickness, sin, and death,
although his teaching set
households at variance, and
brought to material beliefs not
peace, but a sword.
Every pang of repentance and
suffering, every effort for
reform, every good thought and
deed, will help us to understand
Jesus' atonement for sin and aid
its efficacy; but if the sinner
continues to pray and repent, sin
and be sorry, he has little part
in the atonement, — in the
at-one-ment with God,
— for he lacks the practical
repentance, which reforms the
heart and enables man to do the
will of wisdom. Those who cannot
demonstrate, at least in part,
the divine Principle of the
teachings and practice of our
Master have no part in God. If
living in disobedience to Him, we
ought to feel no security,
although God is good.
Jesus urged the commandment,
"Thou shalt have no other gods
before me," which may be
rendered: Thou shalt have no
belief of Life as mortal; thou
shalt not know evil, for there is
one Life, — even God, good.
He rendered "unto Caesar the
things which are Caesar's; and
unto God the things that are
God's." He at last paid no homage
to forms of doctrine or to
theories of man, but acted and
spake as he was moved, not by
spirits but by Spirit.
To the ritualistic priest and
hypocritical Pharisee Jesus said,
"The publicans and the harlots go
into the kingdom of God before
you." Jesus' history made a new
calendar, which we call the
Christian era; but he established
no ritualistic worship. He knew
that men can be baptized, partake
of the Eucharist, support the
clergy, observe the Sabbath, make
long prayers, and yet be sensual
and sinful.
Jesus bore our infirmities; he
knew the error of mortal belief,
and "with his stripes [the
rejection of error] we are
healed." "Despised and rejected
of men," returning blessing for
cursing, he taught mortals the
opposite of themselves, even the
nature of God; and when error
felt the power of Truth, the
scourge and the cross awaited the
great Teacher. Yet he swerved
not, well knowing that to obey
the divine order and trust God,
saves retracing and traversing
anew the path from sin to
holiness.
Material belief is slow to
acknowledge what the spiritual
fact implies. The truth is the
centre of all religion. It
commands sure entrance into the
realm of Love. St. Paul wrote,
"Let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set
before us;" that is, let us put
aside material self and sense,
and seek the divine Principle and
Science of all healing.
If Truth is overcoming error
in your daily walk and
conversation, you can finally
say, "I have fought a good fight
. . . I have kept the faith,"
because you are a better man.
This is having our part in the
at-one-ment with Truth and Love.
Christians do not continue to
labor and pray, expecting because
of another's goodness, suffering,
and triumph, that they shall
reach his harmony and reward.
If the disciple is advancing
spiritually, he is striving to
enter in. He constantly turns
away from material sense, and
looks towards the imperishable
things of Spirit. If honest, he
will be in earnest from the
start, and gain a little each day
in the right direction, till at
last he finishes his course with
joy.
If my friends are going to
Europe, while I am en
route for California, we
are not journeying together. We
have separate time-tables to
consult, different routes to
pursue. Our paths have diverged
at the very outset, and we have
little opportunity to help each
other. On the contrary, if my
friends pursue my course, we have
the same railroad guides, and our
mutual interests are identical;
or, if I take up their line of
travel, they help me on, and our
companionship may continue.
Being in sympathy with matter,
the worldly man is at the beck
and call of error, and will be
attracted thitherward. He is like
a traveller going westward for a
pleasure-trip. The company is
alluring and the pleasures
exciting. After following the sun
for six days, he turns east on
the seventh, satisfied if he can
only imagine himself drifting in
the right direction. Byand-by,
ashamed of his zigzag course, he
would borrow the passport of some
wiser pilgrim, thinking with the
aid of this to find and follow
the right road.
Vibrating like a pendulum
between sin and the hope of
forgiveness, — selfishness
and sensuality causing constant
retrogression, — our moral
progress will be slow. Waking to
Christ's demand, mortals
experience suffering. This causes
them, even as drowning men, to
make vigorous efforts to save
themselves; and through Christ's
precious love these efforts are
crowned with success.
"Work out your own salvation,"
is the demand of Life and Love,
for to this end God worketh with
you. "Occupy till I come!" Wait
for your reward, and "be not
weary in well doing." If your
endeavors are beset by fearful
odds, and you receive no present
reward, go not back to error, nor
become a sluggard in the
race.
When the smoke of battle
clears away, you will discern the
good you have done, and receive
according to your deserving. Love
is not hasty to deliver us from
temptation, for Love means that
we shall be tried and
purified.
Final deliverance from error,
whereby we rejoice in
immortality, boundless freedom,
and sinless sense, is not reached
through paths of flowers nor by
pinning one's faith without works
to another's vicarious effort.
Whosoever believeth that wrath is
righteous or that divinity is
appeased by human suffering, does
not understand God.
Justice requires reformation
of the sinner. Mercy cancels the
debt only when justice approves.
Revenge is inadmissible. Wrath
which is only appeased is not
destroyed, but partially
indulged. Wisdom and Love may
require many sacrifices of self
to save us from sin. One
sacrifice, however great, is
insufficient to pay the debt of
sin. The atonement requires
constant self-immolation on the
sinner's part. That God's wrath
should be vented upon His beloved
Son, is divinely unnatural. Such
a theory is man-made. The
atonement is a hard problem in
theology, but its scientific
explanation is, that suffering is
an error of sinful sense which
Truth destroys, and that
eventually both sin and suffering
will fall at the feet of
everlasting Love.
Rabbinical lore said: "He that
taketh one doctrine, firm in
faith, has the Holy Ghost
dwelling in him." This preaching
receives a strong rebuke in the
Scripture, "Faith without works
is dead." Faith, if it be mere
belief, is as a pendulum swinging
between nothing and something,
having no fixity. Faith, advanced
to spiritual understanding, is
the evidence gained from Spirit,
which rebukes sin of every kind
and establishes the claims of
God.
In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and
English, faith and the
words corresponding thereto have
these two definitions,
trustfulness and
trustworthiness. One kind
of faith trusts one's welfare to
others. Another kind of faith
understands divine Love and how
to work out one's "own salvation,
with fear and trembling." "Lord,
I believe; help thou mine
unbelief!" expresses the
helplessness of a blind faith;
whereas the injunction, "Believe
. . . and thou shalt be saved!"
demands self-reliant
trustworthiness, which includes
spiritual understanding and
confides all to God.
The Hebrew verb to
believe means also to be
firm or to be
constant. This certainly
applies to Truth and Love
understood and practised.
Firmness in error will never save
from sin, disease, and death.
Acquaintance with the original
texts, and willingness to give up
human beliefs (established by
hierarchies, and instigated
sometimes by the worst passions
of men), open the way for
Christian Science to be
understood, and make the Bible
the chart of life, where the
buoys and healing currents of
Truth are pointed out.
He to whom "the arm of the
Lord" is revealed will believe
our report, and rise into newness
of life with regeneration. This
is having part in the atonement;
this is the understanding, in
which Jesus suffered and
triumphed. The time is not
distant when the ordinary
theological views of atonement
will undergo a great change,
— a change as radical as
that which has come over popular
opinions in regard to
predestination and future
punishment.
Does erudite theology regard
the crucifixion of Jesus chiefly
as providing a ready pardon for
all sinners who ask for it and
are willing to be forgiven? Does
spiritualism find Jesus' death
necessary only for the
presentation, after death, of the
material Jesus, as a proof that
spirits can return to earth? Then
we must differ from them
both.
The efficacy of the
crucifixion lay in the practical
affection and goodness it
demonstrated for mankind. The
truth had been lived among men;
but until they saw that it
enabled their Master to triumph
over the grave, his own disciples
could not admit such an event to
be possible. After the
resurrection, even the
unbelieving Thomas was forced to
acknowledge how complete was the
great proof of Truth and
Love.
The spiritual essence of blood
is sacrifice. The efficacy of
Jesus' spiritual offering is
infinitely greater than can be
expressed by our sense of human
blood. The material blood of
Jesus was no more efficacious to
cleanse from sin when it was shed
upon "the accursed tree," than
when it was flowing in his veins
as he went daily about his
Father's business. His true flesh
and blood were his Life; and they
truly eat his flesh and drink his
blood, who partake of that divine
Life.
Jesus taught the way of Life
by demonstration, that we may
understand how this divine
Principle heals the sick, casts
out error, and triumphs over
death. Jesus presented the ideal
of God better than could any man
whose origin was less spiritual.
By his obedience to God, he
demonstrated more spiritually
than all others the Principle of
being. Hence the force of his
admonition, "If ye love me, keep
my commandments."
Though demonstrating his
control over sin and disease, the
great Teacher by no means
relieved others from giving the
requisite proofs of their own
piety. He worked for their
guidance, that they might
demonstrate this power as he did
and understand its divine
Principle. Implicit faith in the
Teacher and all the emotional
love we can bestow on him, will
never alone make us imitators of
him. We must go and do likewise,
else we are not improving the
great blessings which our Master
worked and suffered to bestow
upon us. The divinity of the
Christ was made manifest in the
humanity of Jesus.
While we adore Jesus, and the
heart overflows with gratitude
for what he did for mortals,
— treading alone his loving
pathway up to the throne of
glory, in speechless agony
exploring the way for us, —
yet Jesus spares us not one
individual experience, if we
follow his commands faithfully;
and all have the cup of sorrowful
effort to drink in proportion to
their demonstration of his love,
till all are redeemed through
divine Love.
The Christ was the Spirit
which Jesus implied in his own
statements: "I am the way, the
truth, and the life;" "I and my
Father are one." This Christ, or
divinity of the man Jesus, was
his divine nature, the godliness
which animated him. Divine Truth,
Life, and Love gave Jesus
authority over sin, sickness, and
death. His mission was to reveal
the Science of celestial being,
to prove what God is and what He
does for man.
A musician demonstrates the
beauty of the music he teaches in
order to show the learner the way
by practice as well as precept.
Jesus' teaching and practice of
Truth involved such a sacrifice
as makes us admit its Principle
to be Love. This was the precious
import of our Master's sinless
career and of his demonstration
of power over death. He proved by
his deeds that Christian Science
destroys sickness, sin, and
death.
Our Master taught no mere
theory, doctrine, or belief. It
was the divine Principle of all
real being which he taught and
practised. His proof of
Christianity was no form or
system of religion and worship,
but Christian Science, working
out the harmony of Life and Love.
Jesus sent a message to John the
Baptist, which was intended to
prove beyond a question that the
Christ had come: "Go your way,
and tell John what things ye have
seen and heard; how that the
blind see, the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, to the
poor the gospel is preached." In
other words: Tell John what the
demonstration of divine power is,
and he will at once perceive that
God is the power in the Messianic
work.
That Life is God, Jesus proved
by his reappearance after the
crucifixion in strict accordance
with his scientific statement:
"Destroy this temple
[body], and in three days
I [Spirit] will raise it
up." It is as if he had said: The
I — the Life, substance, and
intelligence of the universe
— is not in matter to be
destroyed.
Jesus' parables explain Life
as never mingling with sin and
death. He laid the axe of Science
at the root of material
knowledge, that it might be ready
to cut down the false doctrine of
pantheism, — that God, or
Life, is in or of matter.
Jesus sent forth seventy
students at one time, but only
eleven left a desirable historic
record. Tradition credits him
with two or three hundred other
disciples who have left no name.
"Many are called, but few are
chosen." They fell away from
grace because they never truly
understood their Master's
instruction.
Why do those who profess to
follow Christ reject the
essential religion he came to
establish? Jesus' persecutors
made their strongest attack upon
this very point. They endeavored
to hold him at the mercy of
matter and to kill him according
to certain assumed material
laws.
The Pharisees claimed to know
and to teach the divine will, but
they only hindered the success of
Jesus' mission. Even many of his
students stood in his way. If the
Master had not taken a student
and taught the unseen verities of
God, he would not have been
crucified. The determination to
hold Spirit in the grasp of
matter is the persecutor of Truth
and Love.
While respecting all that is
good in the Church or out of it,
one's consecration to Christ is
more on the ground of
demonstration than of profession.
In conscience, we cannot hold to
beliefs outgrown; and by
understanding more of the divine
Principle of the deathless
Christ, we are enabled to heal
the sick and to triumph over
sin.
Neither the origin, the
character, nor the work of Jesus
was generally understood. Not a
single component part of his
nature did the material world
measure aright. Even his
righteousness and purity did not
hinder men from saying: He is a
glutton and a friend of the
impure, and Beelzebub is his
patron.
Remember, thou Christian
martyr, it is enough if thou art
found worthy to unloose the
sandals of thy Master's feet! To
suppose that persecution for
righteousness' sake belongs to
the past, and that Christianity
to-day is at peace with the world
because it is honored by sects
and societies, is to mistake the
very nature of religion. Error
repeats itself. The trials
encountered by prophet, disciple,
and apostle, "of whom the world
was not worthy," await, in some
form, every pioneer of truth.
There is too much animal
courage in society and not
sufficient moral courage.
Christians must take up arms
against error at home and abroad.
They must grapple with sin in
themselves and in others, and
continue this warfare until they
have finished their course. If
they keep the faith, they will
have the crown of rejoicing.
Christian experience teaches
faith in the right and disbelief
in the wrong. It bids us work the
more earnestly in times of
persecution, because then our
labor is more needed. Great is
the reward of self-sacrifice,
though we may never receive it in
this world.
There is a tradition that
Publius Lentulus wrote to the
authorities at Rome: "The
disciples of Jesus believe him
the Son of God." Those instructed
in Christian Science have reached
the glorious perception that God
is the only author of man. The
Virgin-mother conceived this idea
of God, and gave to her ideal the
name of Jesus — that is,
Joshua, or Saviour.
The illumination of Mary's
spiritual sense put to silence
material law and its order of
generation, and brought forth her
child by the revelation of Truth,
demonstrating God as the Father
of men. The Holy Ghost, or divine
Spirit, overshadowed the pure
sense of the Virgin-mother with
the full recognition that being
is Spirit. The Christ dwelt
forever an idea in the bosom of
God, the divine Principle of the
man Jesus, and woman perceived
this spiritual idea, though at
first faintly developed.
Man as the offspring of God,
as the idea of Spirit, is the
immortal evidence that Spirit is
harmonious and man eternal. Jesus
was the offspring of Mary's
self-conscious communion with
God. Hence he could give a more
spiritual idea of life than other
men, and could demonstrate the
Science of Love — his Father
or divine Principle.
Born of a woman, Jesus' advent
in the flesh partook partly of
Mary's earthly condition,
although he was endowed with the
Christ, the divine Spirit,
without measure. This accounts
for his struggles in Gethsemane
and on Calvary, and this enabled
him to be the mediator, or
way-shower, between God
and men. Had his origin and birth
been wholly apart from mortal
usage, Jesus would not have been
appreciable to mortal mind as
"the way."
Rabbi and priest taught the
Mosaic law, which said: "An eye
for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed." Not so did Jesus,
the new executor for God, present
the divine law of Love, which
blesses even those that curse
it.
As the individual ideal of
Truth, Christ Jesus came to
rebuke rabbinical error and all
sin, sickness, and death, —
to point out the way of Truth and
Life. This ideal was demonstrated
throughout the whole earthly
career of Jesus, showing the
difference between the offspring
of Soul and of material sense, of
Truth and of error.
If we have triumphed
sufficiently over the errors of
material sense to allow Soul to
hold the control, we shall loathe
sin and rebuke it under every
mask. Only in this way can we
bless our enemies, though they
may not so construe our words. We
cannot choose for ourselves, but
must work out our salvation in
the way Jesus taught. In meekness
and might, he was found preaching
the gospel to the poor. Pride and
fear are unfit to bear the
standard of Truth, and God will
never place it in such hands.
Jesus acknowledged no ties of
the flesh. He said: "Call no man
your father upon the earth: for
one is your Father, which is in
heaven." Again he asked: "Who is
my mother, and who are my
brethren," implying that it is
they who do the will of his
Father. We have no record of his
calling any man by the name of
father. He recognized
Spirit, God, as the only creator,
and therefore as the Father of
all.
First in the list of Christian
duties, he taught his followers
the healing power of Truth and
Love. He attached no importance
to dead ceremonies. It is the
living Christ, the practical
Truth, which makes Jesus "the
resurrection and the life" to all
who follow him in deed. Obeying
his precious precepts, —
following his demonstration so
far as we apprehend it, — we
drink of his cup, partake of his
bread, are baptized with his
purity; and at last we shall
rest, sit down with him, in a
full understanding of the divine
Principle which triumphs over
death. For what says Paul? "As
often as ye eat this bread, and
drink this cup, ye do show the
Lord's death till he come."
Referring to the materiality
of the age, Jesus said: "The hour
cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth."
Again, foreseeing the persecution
which would attend the Science of
Spirit, Jesus said: "They shall
put you out of the synagogues;
yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think
that he doeth God service; and
these things will they do unto
you, because they have not known
the Father nor me."
In ancient Rome a soldier was
required to swear allegiance to
his general. The Latin word for
this oath was sacramentum,
and our English word
sacrament is derived from
it. Among the Jews it was an
ancient custom for the master of
a feast to pass each guest a cup
of wine. But the Eucharist does
not commemorate a Roman soldier's
oath, nor was the wine, used on
convivial occasions and in Jewish
rites, the cup of our Lord. The
cup shows forth his bitter
experience, — the cup which
he prayed might pass from him,
though he bowed in holy
submission to the divine
decree.
"As they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and blessed it and
brake it, and gave it to the
disciples, and said, Take, eat;
this is my body. And he took the
cup, and gave thanks, and gave it
to them saying, Drink ye all of
it."
The true sense is spiritually
lost, if the sacrament is
confined to the use of bread and
wine. The disciples had eaten,
yet Jesus prayed and gave them
bread. This would have been
foolish in a literal sense; but
in its spiritual signification,
it was natural and beautiful.
Jesus prayed; he withdrew from
the material senses to refresh
his heart with brighter, with
spiritual views.
The Passover, which Jesus ate
with his disciples in the month
Nisan on the night before his
crucifixion, was a mournful
occasion, a sad supper taken at
the close of day, in the twilight
of a glorious career with shadows
fast falling around; and this
supper closed forever Jesus'
ritualism or concessions to
matter.
His followers, sorrowful and
silent, anticipating the hour of
their Master's betrayal, partook
of the heavenly manna, which of
old had fed in the wilderness the
persecuted followers of Truth.
Their bread indeed came down from
heaven. It was the great truth of
spiritual being, healing the sick
and casting out error. Their
Master had explained it all
before, and now this bread was
feeding and sustaining them. They
had borne this bread from house
to house, breaking
(explaining) it to others, and
now it comforted themselves.
For this truth of spiritual
being, their Master was about to
suffer violence and drain to the
dregs his cup of sorrow. He must
leave them. With the great glory
of an everlasting victory
overshadowing him, he gave thanks
and said, "Drink ye all of
it."
When the human element in him
struggled with the divine, our
great Teacher said: "Not my will,
but Thine, be done!" — that
is, Let not the flesh, but the
Spirit, be represented in me.
This is the new understanding of
spiritual Love. It gives all for
Christ, or Truth. It blesses its
enemies, heals the sick, casts
out error, raises the dead from
trespasses and sins, and preaches
the gospel to the poor, the meek
in heart.
Christians, are you drinking
his cup? Have you shared the
blood of the New Covenant, the
persecutions which attend a new
and higher understanding of God?
If not, can you then say that you
have commemorated Jesus in his
cup? Are all who eat bread and
drink wine in memory of Jesus
willing truly to drink his cup,
take his cross, and leave all for
the Christ-principle? Then why
ascribe this inspiration to a
dead rite, instead of showing, by
casting out error and making the
body "holy, acceptable unto God,"
that Truth has come to the
understanding? If Christ, Truth,
has come to us in demonstration,
no other commemoration is
requisite, for demonstration is
Immanuel, or God with us;
and if a friend be with us, why
need we memorials of that
friend?
If all who ever partook of the
sacrament had really commemorated
the sufferings of Jesus and drunk
of his cup, they would have
revolutionized the world. If all
who seek his commemoration
through material symbols will
take up the cross, heal the sick,
cast out evils, and preach
Christ, or Truth, to the poor,
— the receptive thought,
— they will bring in the
millennium.
Through all the disciples
experienced, they became more
spiritual and understood better
what the Master had taught. His
resurrection was also their
resurrection. It helped them to
raise themselves and others from
spiritual dulness and blind
belief in God into the perception
of infinite possibilities. They
needed this quickening, for soon
their dear Master would rise
again in the spiritual realm of
reality, and ascend far above
their apprehension. As the reward
for his faithfulness, he would
disappear to material sense in
that change which has since been
called the ascension.
What a contrast between our
Lord's last supper and his last
spiritual breakfast with his
disciples in the bright morning
hours at the joyful meeting on
the shore of the Galilean Sea!
His gloom had passed into glory,
and his disciples' grief into
repentance, — hearts
chastened and pride rebuked.
Convinced of the fruitlessness of
their toil in the dark and
wakened by their Master's voice,
they changed their methods,
turned away from material things,
and cast their net on the right
side. Discerning Christ, Truth,
anew on the shore of time, they
were enabled to rise somewhat
from mortal sensuousness, or the
burial of mind in matter, into
newness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with
our Lord in the dawn of a new
light is the morning meal which
Christian Scientists commemorate.
They bow before Christ, Truth, to
receive more of his reappearing
and silently to commune with the
divine Principle, Love. They
celebrate their Lord's victory
over death, his probation in the
flesh after death, its
exemplification of human
probation, and his spiritual and
final ascension above matter, or
the flesh, when he rose out of
material sight.
Our baptism is a purification
from all error. Our church is
built on the divine Principle,
Love. We can unite with this
church only as we are new-born of
Spirit, as we reach the Life
which is Truth and the Truth
which is Life by bringing forth
the fruits of Love, —
casting out error and healing the
sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual
communion with the one God. Our
bread, "which cometh down from
heaven," is Truth. Our cup is the
cross. Our wine the inspiration
of Love, the draught our Master
drank and commended to his
followers.
The design of Love is to
reform the sinner. If the
sinner's punishment here has been
insufficient to reform him, the
good man's heaven would be a hell
to the sinner. They, who know not
purity and affection by
experience, can never find bliss
in the blessed company of Truth
and Love simply through
translation into another sphere.
Divine Science reveals the
necessity of sufficient
suffering, either before or after
death, to quench the love of sin.
To remit the penalty due for sin,
would be for Truth to pardon
error. Escape from punishment is
not in accordance with God's
government, since justice is the
handmaid of mercy.
Jesus endured the shame, that
he might pour his dear-bought
bounty into barren lives. What
was his earthly reward? He was
forsaken by all save John, the
beloved disciple, and a few women
who bowed in silent woe beneath
the shadow of his cross. The
earthly price of spirituality in
a material age and the great
moral distance between
Christianity and sensualism
preclude Christian Science from
finding favor with the
worldly-minded.
A selfish and limited mind may
be unjust, but the unlimited and
divine Mind is the immortal law
of justice as well as of mercy.
It is quite as impossible for
sinners to receive their full
punishment this side of the grave
as for this world to bestow on
the righteous their full reward.
It is useless to suppose that the
wicked can gloat over their
offences to the last moment and
then be suddenly pardoned and
pushed into heaven, or that the
hand of Love is satisfied with
giving us only toil, sacrifice,
cross-bearing, multiplied trials,
and mockery of our motives in
return for our efforts at well
doing.
Religious history repeats
itself in the suffering of the
just for the unjust. Can God
therefore overlook the law of
righteousness which destroys the
belief called sin? Does not
Science show that sin brings
suffering as much to-day as
yesterday? They who sin must
suffer. "With what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured to you
again."
History is full of records of
suffering. "The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the
Church." Mortals try in vain to
slay Truth with the steel or the
stake, but error falls only
before the sword of Spirit.
Martyrs are the human links which
connect one stage with another in
the history of religion. They are
earth's luminaries, which serve
to cleanse and rarefy the
atmosphere of material sense and
to permeate humanity with purer
ideals. Consciousness of
right-doing brings its own
reward; but not amid the smoke of
battle is merit seen and
appreciated by lookers-on.
When will Jesus' professed
followers learn to emulate him in
all his ways and to
imitate his mighty works? Those
who procured the martyrdom of
that righteous man would gladly
have turned his sacred career
into a mutilated doctrinal
platform. May the Christians of
to-day take up the more practical
import of that career! It is
possible, — yea, it is the
duty and privilege of every
child, man, and woman, — to
follow in some degree the example
of the Master by the
demonstration of Truth and Life,
of health and holiness.
Christians claim to be his
followers, but do they follow him
in the way that he commanded?
Hear these imperative commands:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is
perfect!" "Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to
every creature!" "Heal the
sick!"
Why has this Christian demand
so little inspiration to stir
mankind to Christian effort?
Because men are assured that this
command was intended only for a
particular period and for a
select number of followers. This
teaching is even more pernicious
than the old doctrine of
foreordination, — the
election of a few to be saved,
while the rest are damned; and so
it will be considered, when the
lethargy of mortals, produced by
man-made doctrines, is broken by
the demands of divine
Science.
Jesus said: "These signs shall
follow them that believe; . . .
they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover." Who
believes him? He was addressing
his disciples, yet he did not
say, "These signs shall follow
you," but them
— "them that believe" in all
time to come. Here the word
hands is used
metaphorically, as in the text,
"The right hand of the Lord is
exalted." It expresses spiritual
power; otherwise the healing
could not have been done
spiritually. At another time
Jesus prayed, not for the twelve
only, but for as many as should
believe "through their word."
Jesus experienced few of the
pleasures of the physical senses,
but his sufferings were the
fruits of other people's sins,
not of his own. The eternal
Christ, his spiritual selfhood,
never suffered. Jesus mapped out
the path for others. He unveiled
the Christ, the spiritual idea of
divine Love. To those buried in
the belief of sin and self,
living only for pleasure or the
gratification of the senses, he
said in substance: Having eyes ye
see not, and having ears ye hear
not; lest ye should understand
and be converted, and I might
heal you. He taught that the
material senses shut out Truth
and its healing power.
Meekly our Master met the
mockery of his unrecognized
grandeur. Such indignities as he
received, his followers will
endure until Christianity's last
triumph. He won eternal honors.
He overcame the world, the flesh,
and all error, thus proving their
nothingness. He wrought a full
salvation from sin, sickness, and
death. We need "Christ, and him
crucified." We must have trials
and self-denials, as well as joys
and victories, until all error is
destroyed.
The educated belief that Soul
is in the body causes mortals to
regard death as a friend, as a
stepping-stone out of mortality
into immortality and bliss. The
Bible calls death an enemy, and
Jesus overcame death and the
grave instead of yielding to
them. He was "the way." To him,
therefore, death was not the
threshold over which he must pass
into living glory.
"Now," cried the
apostle, "is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of
salvation," — meaning, not
that now men must prepare for a
future-world salvation, or
safety, but that now is the time
in which to experience that
salvation in spirit and in life.
Now is the time for so-called
material pains and material
pleasures to pass away, for both
are unreal, because impossible in
Science. To break this earthly
spell, mortals must get the true
idea and divine Principle of all
that really exists and governs
the universe harmoniously. This
thought is apprehended slowly,
and the interval before its
attainment is attended with
doubts and defeats as well as
triumphs.
Who will stop the practice of
sin so long as he believes in the
pleasures of sin? When mortals
once admit that evil confers no
pleasure, they turn from it.
Remove error from thought, and it
will not appear in effect. The
advanced thinker and devout
Christian, perceiving the scope
and tendency of Christian healing
and its Science, will support
them. Another will say: "Go thy
way for this time; when I have a
convenient season I will call for
thee."
Divine Science adjusts the
balance as Jesus adjusted it.
Science removes the penalty only
by first removing the sin which
incurs the penalty. This is my
sense of divine pardon, which I
understand to mean God's method
of destroying sin. If the saying
is true, "While there's life
there's hope," its opposite is
also true, While there's sin
there's doom. Another's suffering
cannot lessen our own liability.
Did the martyrdom of Savonarola
make the crimes of his implacable
enemies less criminal?
Was it just for Jesus to
suffer? No; but it was
inevitable, for not otherwise
could he show us the way and the
power of Truth. If a career so
great and good as that of Jesus
could not avert a felon's fate,
lesser apostles of Truth may
endure human brutality without
murmuring, rejoicing to enter
into fellowship with him through
the triumphal arch of Truth and
Love.
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.
The nature of Christianity is
peaceful and blessed, but in
order to enter into the kingdom,
the anchor of hope must be cast
beyond the veil of matter into
the Shekinah into which Jesus has
passed before us; and this
advance beyond matter must come
through the joys and triumphs of
the righteous as well as through
their sorrows and afflictions.
Like our Master, we must depart
from material sense into the
spiritual sense of being.
The God-inspired walk calmly
on though it be with bleeding
footprints, and in the hereafter
they will reap what they now sow.
The pampered hypocrite may have a
flowery pathway here, but he
cannot forever break the Golden
Rule and escape the penalty
due.
The proofs of Truth, Life, and
Love, which Jesus gave by casting
out error and healing the sick,
completed his earthly mission;
but in the Christian Church this
demonstration of healing was
early lost, about three centuries
after the crucifixion. No ancient
school of philosophy, materia
medica, or scholastic
theology ever taught or
demonstrated the divine healing
of absolute Science.
Jesus foresaw the reception
Christian Science would have
before it was understood, but
this foreknowledge hindered him
not. He fulfilled his
God-mission, and then sat down at
the right hand of the Father.
Persecuted from city to city, his
apostles still went about doing
good deeds, for which they were
maligned and stoned. The truth
taught by Jesus, the elders
scoffed at. Why? Because it
demanded more than they were
willing to practise. It was
enough for them to believe in a
national Deity; but that belief,
from their time to ours, has
never made a disciple who could
cast out evils and heal the
sick.
Jesus' life proved, divinely
and scientifically, that God is
Love, whereas priest and rabbi
affirmed God to be a mighty
potentate, who loves and hates.
The Jewish theology gave no hint
of the unchanging love of
God.
The universal belief in death
is of no advantage. It cannot
make Life or Truth apparent.
Death will be found at length to
be a mortal dream, which comes in
darkness and disappears with the
light.
The "man of sorrows" was in no
peril from salary or popularity.
Though entitled to the homage of
the world and endorsed
pre-eminently by the approval of
God, his brief triumphal entry
into Jerusalem was followed by
the desertion of all save a few
friends, who sadly followed him
to the foot of the cross.
The resurrection of the great
demonstrator of God's power was
the proof of his final triumph
over body and matter, and gave
full evidence of divine Science,
— evidence so important to
mortals. The belief that man has
existence or mind separate from
God is a dying error. This error
Jesus met with divine Science and
proved its nothingness. Because
of the wondrous glory which God
bestowed on His anointed,
temptation, sin, sickness, and
death had no terror for Jesus.
Let men think they had killed the
body! Afterwards he would show it
to them unchanged. This
demonstrates that in Christian
Science the true man is governed
by God — by good, not evil
— and is therefore not a
mortal but an immortal. Jesus had
taught his disciples the Science
of this proof. He was here to
enable them to test his still
uncomprehended saying, "He that
believeth on me, the works that I
do shall he do also." They must
understand more fully his
Life-principle by casting out
error, healing the sick, and
raising the dead, even as they
did understand it after his
bodily departure.
The magnitude of Jesus' work,
his material disappearance before
their eyes and his reappearance,
all enabled the disciples to
understand what Jesus had said.
Heretofore they had only
believed; now they understood.
The advent of this understanding
is what is meant by the descent
of the Holy Ghost, — that
influx of divine Science which so
illuminated the Pentecostal Day
and is now repeating its ancient
history.
Jesus' last proof was the
highest, the most convincing, the
most profitable to his students.
The malignity of brutal
persecutors, the treason and
suicide of his betrayer, were
overruled by divine Love to the
glorification of the man and of
the true idea of God, which
Jesus' persecutors had mocked and
tried to slay. The final
demonstration of the truth which
Jesus taught, and for which he
was crucified, opened a new era
for the world. Those who slew him
to stay his influence perpetuated
and extended it.
Jesus rose higher in
demonstration because of the cup
of bitterness he drank. Human law
had condemned him, but he was
demonstrating divine Science. Out
of reach of the barbarity of his
enemies, he was acting under
spiritual law in defiance of
matter and mortality, and that
spiritual law sustained him. The
divine must overcome the human at
every point. The Science Jesus
taught and lived must triumph
over all material beliefs about
life, substance, and
intelligence, and the
multitudinous errors growing from
such beliefs.
Love must triumph over hate.
Truth and Life must seal the
victory over error and death,
before the thorns can be laid
aside for a crown, the
benediction follow, "Well done,
good and faithful servant," and
the supremacy of Spirit be
demonstrated.
The lonely precincts of the
tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his
foes, a place in which to solve
the great problem of being. His
three days' work in the sepulchre
set the seal of eternity on time.
He proved Life to be deathless
and Love to be the master of
hate. He met and mastered on the
basis of Christian Science, the
power of Mind over matter, all
the claims of medicine, surgery,
and hygiene.
He took no drugs to allay
inflammation. He did not depend
upon food or pure air to
resuscitate wasted energies. He
did not require the skill of a
surgeon to heal the torn palms
and bind up the wounded side and
lacerated feet, that he might use
those hands to remove the napkin
and winding-sheet, and that he
might employ his feet as
before.
Could it be called
supernatural for the God of
nature to sustain Jesus in his
proof of man's truly derived
power? It was a method of surgery
beyond material art, but it was
not a supernatural act. On the
contrary, it was a divinely
natural act, whereby divinity
brought to humanity the
understanding of the
Christ-healing and revealed a
method infinitely above that of
human invention.
His disciples believed Jesus
to be dead while he was hidden in
the sepulchre, whereas he was
alive, demonstrating within the
narrow tomb the power of Spirit
to overrule mortal, material
sense. There were rock-ribbed
walls in the way, and a great
stone must be rolled from the
cave's mouth; but Jesus
vanquished every material
obstacle, overcame every law of
matter, and stepped forth from
his gloomy resting-place, crowned
with the glory of a sublime
success, an everlasting
victory.
Our Master fully and finally
demonstrated divine Science in
his victory over death and the
grave. Jesus' deed was for the
enlightenment of men and for the
salvation of the whole world from
sin, sickness, and death. Paul
writes: "For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to
God by the [seeming]
death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life." Three days
after his bodily burial he talked
with his disciples. The
persecutors had failed to hide
immortal Truth and Love in a
sepulchre.
Glory be to God, and peace to
the struggling hearts! Christ
hath rolled away the stone from
the door of human hope and faith,
and through the revelation and
demonstration of life in God,
hath elevated them to possible
at-one-ment with the spiritual
idea of man and his divine
Principle, Love.
They who earliest saw Jesus
after the resurrection and beheld
the final proof of all that he
had taught, misconstrued that
event. Even his disciples at
first called him a spirit, ghost,
or spectre, for they believed his
body to be dead. His reply was:
"Spirit hath not flesh and bones,
as ye see me have." The
reappearing of Jesus was not the
return of a spirit. He presented
the same body that he had before
his crucifixion, and so glorified
the supremacy of Mind over
matter.
Jesus' students, not
sufficiently advanced fully to
understand their Master's
triumph, did not perform many
wonderful works, until they saw
him after his crucifixion and
learned that he had not died.
This convinced them of the
truthfulness of all that he had
taught.
In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus
was known to his friends by the
words, which made their hearts
burn within them, and by the
breaking of bread. The divine
Spirit, which identified Jesus
thus centuries ago, has spoken
through the inspired Word and
will speak through it in every
age and clime. It is revealed to
the receptive heart, and is again
seen casting out evil and healing
the sick.
The Master said plainly that
physique was not Spirit, and
after his resurrection he proved
to the physical senses that his
body was not changed until he
himself ascended, — or, in
other words, rose even higher in
the understanding of Spirit, God.
To convince Thomas of this, Jesus
caused him to examine the
nailprints and the
spear-wound.
Jesus' unchanged physical
condition after what seemed to be
death was followed by his
exaltation above all material
conditions; and this exaltation
explained his ascension, and
revealed unmistakably a
probationary and progressive
state beyond the grave. Jesus was
"the way;" that is, he marked the
way for all men. In his final
demonstration, called the
ascension, which closed the
earthly record of Jesus, he rose
above the physical knowledge of
his disciples, and the material
senses saw him no more.
His students then received the
Holy Ghost. By this is meant,
that by all they had witnessed
and suffered, they were roused to
an enlarged understanding of
divine Science, even to the
spiritual interpretation and
discernment of Jesus' teachings
and demonstrations, which gave
them a faint conception of the
Life which is God. They no longer
measured man by material sense.
After gaining the true idea of
their glorified Master, they
became better healers, leaning no
longer on matter, but on the
divine Principle of their work.
The influx of light was sudden.
It was sometimes an overwhelming
power as on the Day of
Pentecost.
Judas conspired against Jesus.
The world's ingratitude and
hatred towards that just man
effected his betrayal. The
traitor's price was thirty pieces
of silver and the smiles of the
Pharisees. He chose his time,
when the people were in doubt
concerning Jesus' teachings.
A period was approaching which
would reveal the infinite
distance between Judas and his
Master. Judas Iscariot knew this.
He knew that the great goodness
of that Master placed a gulf
between Jesus and his betrayer,
and this spiritual distance
inflamed Judas' envy. The greed
for gold strengthened his
ingratitude, and for a time
quieted his remorse. He knew that
the world generally loves a lie
better than Truth; and so he
plotted the betrayal of Jesus in
order to raise himself in popular
estimation. His dark plot fell to
the ground, and the traitor fell
with it.
The disciples' desertion of
their Master in his last earthly
struggle was punished; each one
came to a violent death except
St. John, of whose death we have
no record.
During his night of gloom and
glory in the garden, Jesus
realized the utter error of a
belief in any possible material
intelligence. The pangs of
neglect and the staves of bigoted
ignorance smote him sorely. His
students slept. He said unto
them: "Could ye not watch with me
one hour?" Could they not watch
with him who, waiting and
struggling in voiceless agony,
held uncomplaining guard over a
world? There was no response to
that human yearning, and so Jesus
turned forever away from earth to
heaven, from sense to Soul.
Remembering the sweat of agony
which fell in holy benediction on
the grass of Gethsemane, shall
the humblest or mightiest
disciple murmur when he drinks
from the same cup, and think, or
even wish, to escape the exalting
ordeal of sin's revenge on its
destroyer? Truth and Love bestow
few palms until the consummation
of a life-work.
Judas had the world's weapons.
Jesus had not one of them, and
chose not the world's means of
defence. "He opened not his
mouth." The great demonstrator of
Truth and Love was silent before
envy and hate. Peter would have
smitten the enemies of his
Master, but Jesus forbade him,
thus rebuking resentment or
animal courage. He said: "Put up
thy sword."
Pale in the presence of his
own momentous question, "What is
Truth," Pilate was drawn into
acquiescence with the demands of
Jesus' enemies. Pilate was
ignorant of the consequences of
his awful decision against human
rights and divine Love, knowing
not that he was hastening the
final demonstration of what life
is and of what the true knowledge
of God can do for man.
The women at the cross could
have answered Pilate's question.
They knew what had inspired their
devotion, winged their faith,
opened the eyes of their
understanding, healed the sick,
cast out evil, and caused the
disciples to say to their Master:
"Even the devils are subject unto
us through thy name."
Where were the seventy whom
Jesus sent forth? Were all
conspirators save eleven? Had
they forgotten the great exponent
of God? Had they so soon lost
sight of his mighty works, his
toils, privations, sacrifices,
his divine patience, sublime
courage, and unrequited
affection? O, why did they not
gratify his last human yearning
with one sign of fidelity?
The meek demonstrator of good,
the highest instructor and friend
of man, met his earthly fate
alone with God. No human eye was
there to pity, no arm to save.
Forsaken by all whom he had
blessed, this faithful sentinel
of God at the highest post of
power, charged with the grandest
trust of heaven, was ready to be
transformed by the renewing of
the infinite Spirit. He was to
prove that the Christ is not
subject to material conditions,
but is above the reach of human
wrath, and is able, through
Truth, Life, and Love, to triumph
over sin, sickness, death, and
the grave.
The priests and rabbis, before
whom he had meekly walked, and
those to whom he had given the
highest proofs of divine power,
mocked him on the cross, saying
derisively, "He saved others;
himself he cannot save." These
scoffers, who turned "aside the
right of a man before the face of
the Most High," esteemed Jesus as
"stricken, smitten of God." "He
is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth." "Who
shall declare his generation?"
Who shall decide what truth and
love are?
The last supreme moment of
mockery, desertion, torture,
added to an overwhelming sense of
the magnitude of his work, wrung
from Jesus' lips the awful cry,
"My God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?" This despairing appeal, if
made to a human parent, would
impugn the justice and love of a
father who could withhold a clear
token of his presence to sustain
and bless so faithful a son. The
appeal of Jesus was made both to
his divine Principle, the God who
is Love, and to himself, Love's
pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and
Love forsaken him in his highest
demonstration? This was a
startling question. No! They must
abide in him and he in them, or
that hour would be shorn of its
mighty blessing for the human
race.
If his full recognition of
eternal Life had for a moment
given way before the evidence of
the bodily senses, what would his
accusers have said? Even what
they did say, — that Jesus'
teachings were false, and that
all evidence of their correctness
was destroyed by his death. But
this saying could not make it
so.
The burden of that hour was
terrible beyond human conception.
The distrust of mortal minds,
disbelieving the purpose of his
mission, was a million times
sharper than the thorns which
pierced his flesh. The real
cross, which Jesus bore up the
hill of grief, was the world's
hatred of Truth and Love. Not the
spear nor the material cross
wrung from his faithful lips the
plaintive cry, "Eloi, Eloi,
lama sabachthani?" It was the
possible loss of something more
important than human life which
moved him, — the possible
misapprehension of the sublimest
influence of his career. This
dread added the drop of gall to
his cup.
Jesus could have withdrawn
himself from his enemies. He had
power to lay down a human sense
of life for his spiritual
identity in the likeness of the
divine; but he allowed men to
attempt the destruction of the
mortal body in order that he
might furnish the proof of
immortal life. Nothing could kill
this Life of man. Jesus could
give his temporal life into his
enemies' hands; but when his
earth-mission was accomplished,
his spiritual life,
indestructible and eternal, was
found forever the same. He knew
that matter had no life and that
real Life is God; therefore he
could no more be separated from
his spiritual Life than God could
be extinguished.
His consummate example was for
the salvation of us all, but only
through doing the works which he
did and taught others to do. His
purpose in healing was not alone
to restore health, but to
demonstrate his divine Principle.
He was inspired by God, by Truth
and Love, in all that he said and
did. The motives of his
persecutors were pride, envy,
cruelty, and vengeance, inflicted
on the physical Jesus, but aimed
at the divine Principle, Love,
which rebuked their
sensuality.
Jesus was unselfish. His
spirituality separated him from
sensuousness, and caused the
selfish materialist to hate him;
but it was this spirituality
which enabled Jesus to heal the
sick, cast out evil, and raise
the dead.
From early boyhood he was
about his "Father's business."
His pursuits lay far apart from
theirs. His master was Spirit;
their master was matter. He
served God; they served mammon.
His affections were pure; theirs
were carnal. His senses drank in
the spiritual evidence of health,
holiness, and life; their senses
testified oppositely, and
absorbed the material evidence of
sin, sickness, and death.
Their imperfections and
impurity felt the ever-present
rebuke of his perfection and
purity. Hence the world's hatred
of the just and perfect Jesus,
and the prophet's foresight of
the reception error would give
him. "Despised and rejected of
men," was Isaiah's graphic word
concerning the coming Prince of
Peace. Herod and Pilate laid
aside old feuds in order to unite
in putting to shame and death the
best man that ever trod the
globe. To-day, as of old, error
and evil again make common cause
against the exponents of
truth.
The "man of sorrows" best
understood the nothingness of
material life and intelligence
and the mighty actuality of
all-inclusive God, good. These
were the two cardinal points of
Mind-healing, or Christian
Science, which armed him with
Love. The highest earthly
representative of God, speaking
of human ability to reflect
divine power, prophetically said
to his disciples, speaking not
for their day only but for all
time: "He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do
also;" and "These signs shall
follow them that believe."
The accusations of the
Pharisees were as
self-contradictory as their
religion. The bigot, the
debauchee, the hypocrite, called
Jesus a glutton and a
wine-bibber. They said: "He
casteth out devils through
Beelzebub," and is the "friend of
publicans and sinners." The
latter accusation was true, but
not in their meaning. Jesus was
no ascetic. He did not fast as
did the Baptist's disciples; yet
there never lived a man so far
removed from appetites and
passions as the Nazarene. He
rebuked sinners pointedly and
unflinchingly, because he was
their friend; hence the cup he
drank.
The reputation of Jesus was
the very opposite of his
character. Why? Because the
divine Principle and practice of
Jesus were misunderstood. He was
at work in divine Science. His
words and works were unknown to
the world because above and
contrary to the world's religious
sense. Mortals believed in God as
humanly mighty, rather than as
divine, infinite Love.
The world could not interpret
aright the discomfort which Jesus
inspired and the spiritual
blessings which might flow from
such discomfort. Science shows
the cause of the shock so often
produced by the truth, —
namely, that this shock arises
from the great distance between
the individual and Truth. Like
Peter, we should weep over the
warning, instead of denying the
truth or mocking the lifelong
sacrifice which goodness makes
for the destruction of evil.
Jesus bore our sins in his
body. He knew the mortal errors
which constitute the material
body, and could destroy those
errors; but at the time when
Jesus felt our infirmities, he
had not conquered all the beliefs
of the flesh or his sense of
material life, nor had he risen
to his final demonstration of
spiritual power.
Had he shared the sinful
beliefs of others, he would have
been less sensitive to those
beliefs. Through the magnitude of
his human life, he demonstrated
the divine Life. Out of the
amplitude of his pure affection,
he defined Love. With the
affluence of Truth, he vanquished
error. The world acknowledged not
his righteousness, seeing it not;
but earth received the harmony
his glorified example
introduced.
Who is ready to follow his
teaching and example? All must
sooner or later plant themselves
in Christ, the true idea of God.
That he might liberally pour his
dear-bought treasures into empty
or sin-filled human storehouses,
was the inspiration of Jesus'
intense human sacrifice. In
witness of his divine commission,
he presented the proof that Life,
Truth, and Love heal the sick and
the sinning, and triumph over
death through Mind, not matter.
This was the highest proof he
could have offered of divine
Love. His hearers understood
neither his words nor his works.
They would not accept his meek
interpretation of life nor follow
his example.
His earthly cup of bitterness
was drained to the dregs. There
adhered to him only a few
unpretentious friends, whose
religion was something more than
a name. It was so vital, that it
enabled them to understand the
Nazarene and to share the glory
of eternal life. He said that
those who followed him should
drink of his cup, and history has
confirmed the prediction.
If that Godlike and glorified
man were physically on earth
to-day, would not some, who now
profess to love him, reject him?
Would they not deny him even the
rights of humanity, if he
entertained any other sense of
being and religion than theirs?
The advancing century, from a
deadened sense of the invisible
God, to-day subjects to
unchristian comment and usage the
idea of Christian healing
enjoined by Jesus; but this does
not affect the invincible
facts.
Perhaps the early Christian
era did Jesus no more injustice
than the later centuries have
bestowed upon the healing Christ
and spiritual idea of being. Now
that the gospel of healing is
again preached by the wayside,
does not the pulpit sometimes
scorn it? But that curative
mission, which presents the
Saviour in a clearer light than
mere words can possibly do,
cannot be left out of
Christianity, although it is
again ruled out of the
synagogue.
Truth's immortal idea is
sweeping down the centuries,
gathering beneath its wings the
sick and sinning. My weary hope
tries to realize that happy day,
when man shall recognize the
Science of Christ and love his
neighbor as himself, — when
he shall realize God's
omnipotence and the healing power
of the divine Love in what it has
done and is doing for mankind.
The promises will be fulfilled.
The time for the reappearing of
the divine healing is throughout
all time; and whosoever layeth
his earthly all on the altar of
divine Science, drinketh of
Christ's cup now, and is endued
with the spirit and power of
Christian healing.
In the words of St. John: "He
shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you
forever." This Comforter I
understand to be Divine
Science.
Go
to Chapter 3:
Marriage
|
