Chapter II
18:1Atonement is the exemplification of man’s unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, 3and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him Divine onenessendless homage. His mission was both in‐6dividual 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 9it 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 12refuted 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, 15Human reconciliationand how can God propitiate Himself? Christ is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself. The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ, 18Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived 19 19:1from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ’s purpose to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and 3Truth are not at war with God’s image and likeness. Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him‐self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for 6Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon‐ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer 9sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit, — the law of divine Love.
12 The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de‐claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and death, although his teaching set households at variance, 15and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a sword.
Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort 18for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to Efficacious repentanceunderstand Jesus’ atonement for sin and aid its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray 21and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone‐ment, — in the at-one-ment with God, — for he lacks the practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables 24man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem‐onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach‐ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If 27living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur‐ity, although God is good.
Jesus urged the commandment, “Thou shalt have no 30Jesus’ sinless careerother gods before me,” which may be ren‐dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life, — 20 20:1even God, good. He rendered “unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are 3God’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.
6 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 9new 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 12clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet be sensual and sinful.
Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal 15belief, and “with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are Perfect examplehealed.” “Despised and rejected of men,” returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor‐18tals 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, 21well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God, saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to holiness.
24 Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all Behest of the crossreligion. It commands sure entrance into 27the 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 30is set before us;” that is, let us put aside material self and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of all healing.
2121:1 If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, “I have fought a 3Moral victorygood fight . . . I have kept the faith,” be‐cause you are a better man. This is having our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love. 6Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting because of another’s goodness, suffering, and triumph, that they shall reach his harmony and reward.
9 If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv‐ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma‐terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things 12of 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.
15 If my friends are going to Europe, while I am en route for California, we are not journeying together. Inharmonious travellersWe have separate time-tables to consult, 18different routes to pursue. Our paths have diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor‐tunity to help each other. On the contrary, if my 21friends 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 24companionship may continue.
Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither‐27Zigzag courseward. He is like a traveller going westward for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for 30six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By-and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow 22 22:1the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid of this to find and follow the right road.
3 Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope of forgiveness, — selfishness and sensuality causing con‐Moral retrogressionstant retrogression, — our moral progress will 6be slow. Waking to Christ’s demand, mortals experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown‐ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and 9through Christ’s precious love these efforts are crowned with success.
“Work out your own salvation,” is the demand of 12Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. Wait for reward“Occupy till I come!” Wait for your re‐ward, and “be not weary in well doing.” If 15your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a sluggard in the race.
18 When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis‐cern the good you have done, and receive according to your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from 21temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.
Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in 24immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not Deliverance not vicariousreached through paths of flowers nor by pinning one’s faith without works to another’s vicarious 27effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not understand God.
30 Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not 23 23:1destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin. 3Justice and substitutionOne sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner’s part. That 6God’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 scien‐9tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf‐fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.
12 Rabbinical lore said: “He that taketh one doctrine, firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him.” Doctrines and faithThis preaching receives a strong rebuke in 15the Scripture, “Faith without works is dead.” Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be‐tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, 18advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab‐lishes the claims of God.
21 In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two defini‐Self-reliance and confidencetions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One 24kind 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 trem‐27bling.” “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!” expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, “Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!” 30demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir‐itual understanding and confides all to God.
The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or 24 24:1to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love understood and practised. Firmness in error will never 3save from sin, disease, and death.
Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and 6Life’s healing currentsinstigated 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 9the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed out.
He to whom “the arm of the Lord” is revealed will 12believe our report, and rise into newness of life with re‐Radical changesgeneration. This is having part in the atone‐ment; this is the understanding, in which 15Jesus 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 18which has come over popular opinions in regard to pre‐destination and future punishment.
Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus 21chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who Purpose of crucifixionask for it and are willing to be forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus’ death necessary 24only 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.
27 The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af‐fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that 30it 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 25 25:1forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of Truth and Love.
3 The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi‐cacy of Jesus’ spiritual offering is infinitely greater than True flesh and bloodcan be expressed by our sense of human 6blood. 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 9his 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 12Life.
Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that we may understand how this divine Principle heals 15Effective triumphthe 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 18his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu‐ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the force of his admonition, “If ye love me, keep my com‐21mandments.”
Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease, the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving 24the 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 27in 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 30great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus.
2626:1 While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with gratitude for what he did for mortals, — treading alone 3Individual experiencehis loving pathway up to the throne of glory, in speechless agony exploring the way for us, — yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe‐6rience, 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 9through divine Love.
The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his own statements: “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” 12Christ’s demonstration“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, 15Life, 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 18for man.
A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac‐21Proof in practicetice 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 24the 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, 27and death.
Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. It was the divine Principle of all real being which he 30taught 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. 27 27:1Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in‐tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had 3come: “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, 6to 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 9the Messianic work.
That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien‐12Living templetific 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, 15and intelligence of the universe — is not in matter to be destroyed.
Jesus’ parables explain Life as never mingling with 18sin 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 21Life, is in or of matter.
Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits 24Recreant discipleshim 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 27they never truly understood their Master’s instruction.
Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the essential religion he came to establish? Jesus’ persecu‐30tors 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.
2828:1 The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di‐vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus’ 3Help and hindrancemission. 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 6not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and Love.
9 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 12cannot 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.
15 Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of Jesus was generally understood. Not a single compo‐Misleading conceptionsnent part of his nature did the material 18world measure aright. Even his righteous‐ness and purity did not hinder men from saying: He is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is 21his patron.
Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy 24Persecution prolongedMaster’s feet! To suppose that persecution for righteousness’ sake belongs to the past, and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world 27because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis‐take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself. The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle, 30“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 29 29:1sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple 3Christian warfarewith 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 6crown of rejoicing.
Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis‐belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly 9in 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.
12 There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to the authorities at Rome: “The disciples of Jesus be‐The Fatherhood of Godlieve him the Son of God.” Those instructed 15in Christian Science have reached the glori‐ous perception that God is the only author of man. The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and 18gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is, Joshua, or Saviour.
The illumination of Mary’s spiritual sense put to 21silence material law and its order of generation, and Spiritual conceptionbrought forth her child by the revelation of Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of 24men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog‐nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever 27an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea, though at first faintly developed.
30 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-3030:1conscious communion with God. Hence he could give a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could 3demonstrate the Science of Love — his Father or divine Principle.
Born of a woman, Jesus’ advent in the flesh partook 6partly of Mary’s earthly condition, although he was en‐Jesus the way-showerdowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with‐out measure. This accounts for his struggles 9in 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 12usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal mind as “the way.”
Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said: 15“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, 18which 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, — 21Rebukes helpfulto point out the way of Truth and Life. This ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between 24the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and of error.
If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of 27material 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 30may 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 31 31:1preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place 3it 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, 6Fleshly ties temporalwhich is in heaven.” Again he asked: “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren,” im‐plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We 9have 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.
12 First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol‐lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached Healing primaryno importance to dead ceremonies. It is the 15living 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 18demonstration so far as we apprehend it, — we drink of his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu‐rity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full 21understanding 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 24death till he come.”
Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said: “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor‐27Painful prospectshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” Again, foreseeing the perse‐cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus 30said: “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 32 32:1do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me.”
3 In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath Sacred sacramentwas sacramentum, and our English word 6sacrament 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 9Eucharist 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 12forth his bitter experience, — the cup which he prayed might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis‐sion to the divine decree.
15 “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 18gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it.”
The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is 21confined to the use of bread and wine. The disciples Spiritual refreshmenthad eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them bread. This would have been foolish in a 24literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat‐ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with 27spiritual views.
The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples in the month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion, 30Jesus’ sad repastwas 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 33 33:1this supper closed forever Jesus’ ritualism or concessions to matter.
3 His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour of their Master’s betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna, Heavenly supplieswhich of old had fed in the wilderness the 6persecuted 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. 9Their 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 12others, 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. 15He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast‐ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said, “Drink ye all of it.”
18 When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: “Not my will, but The holy struggleThine, be done!” — that is, Let not the flesh, 21but 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 24sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart.
27 Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions Incisive questionswhich attend a new and higher understand‐30ing 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 34 34:1truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira‐3tion 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, 6Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other com‐memoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we 9memorials of that friend?
If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of 12Millennial gloryhis cup, they would have revolutionized the world. If all who seek his commemoration through material symbols will take up the cross, heal 15the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth, to the poor, — the receptive thought, — they will bring in the millennium.
18 Through all the disciples experienced, they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master had Fellowship with Christtaught. His resurrection was also their resur‐21rection. 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 24quickening, 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, 27he 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 30The last breakfasthis last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom 35 35:1had passed into glory, and his disciples’ grief into repent‐ance, — hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced 3of 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 6side. 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 new‐9ness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists 12commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re‐ceive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their 15Lord’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, 18when 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 21Spiritual Eucharistunite 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 24the 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,” 27is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira‐tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com‐mended to his followers.
30 The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the sinner’s punishment here has been insufficient to re‐form him, the good man’s heaven would be a hell to 36 36:1the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of 3Final purposeTruth and Love simply through translation into another sphere. Divine Science reveals the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after 6death, 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 govern‐9ment, 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 12earthly 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 15price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-18minded.
A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un‐limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as 21Righteous retributionwell 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 right‐24eous 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, 27or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock‐ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.
30Vicarious suffering Religious history repeats itself in the suf‐fering of the just for the unjust. Can God therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de‐3737:1stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They 3who 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 6the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Mortals try in Martyrs inevitablevain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake, but error falls only before the sword of Spirit. 9Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with another in the history of religion. They are earth’s lumi‐naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of 12material 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 15by lookers-on.
When will Jesus’ professed followers learn to emulate him in all his ways and to imitate his mighty works? 18Complete emulationThose who procured the martyrdom of that righteous man would gladly have turned his sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May 21the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im‐port of that career! It is possible, — yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman, — to follow 24in some degree the example of the Master by the demon‐stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness. Chris‐tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in 27the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com‐mands : “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!” “Go ye into all the world, 30and preach the gospel to every creature!” “Heal the sick!”
Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration 38 38:1to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are assured that this command was intended only for a par‐3Jesus’ teaching belittledticular period and for a select number of fol‐lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a 6few 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 9divine Science.
Jesus said: “These signs shall follow them that be‐lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they 12shall 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. 15Here 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 18been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe “through their word.”
21 Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo‐Material pleasuresple’s sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ, 24his 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 27belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati‐fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un‐30derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. He taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its healing power.
3939:1 Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog‐nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol‐3Mockery of truthlowers will endure until Christianity’s last triumph. He won eternal honors. He over‐came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving 6their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. We need “Christ, and him cruci‐fied.” We must have trials and self-denials, as well as 9joys 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 12A belief suicidalout of mortality into immortality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. 15He was “the way.” To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory.
18 “Now,” cried the apostle, “is the accepted time; be‐hold, now is the day of salvation,” — meaning, not that Present salvationnow men must prepare for a future-world salva‐21tion, 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 pleas‐24ures 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 27and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain‐ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as 30triumphs.
Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that 40 40:1evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad‐3Sin and penaltyvanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv‐ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing and its Science, will support them. Another will say: 6“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 9it. 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 12of 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 15own 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 18inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way Suffering inevitableand the power of Truth. If a career so great and good as that of Jesus could not avert a 21felon’s fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure human brutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter into fellowship with him through the triumphal arch of 24Truth and Love.
Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all men should follow the example of our Master and his 27Service and worshipapostles and not merely worship his personal‐ity. It is sad that the phrase divine service has come so generally to mean public worship instead of 30daily deeds.
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of 41 41:1hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and 3Within the veilthis advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the right‐eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. 6Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.
The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with 9bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap The thorns and flowerswhat they now sow. The pampered hypo‐crite may have a flowery pathway here, but 12he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the penalty due.
The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave 15by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his Healing early lostearthly mission; but in the Christian Church this demonstration of healing was early lost, 18about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theol‐ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of 21absolute Science.
Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered 24Immortal achievalhim 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 27doing 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 30to 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.
4242:1 Jesus’ life proved, divinely and scientifically, that God is Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a 3mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the‐ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.
The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It 6A belief in deathcannot 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.
9 The “man of sorrows” was in no peril from salary or popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world Cruel desertionand endorsed pre-eminently by the approval 12of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa‐lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends, who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.
15 The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God’s power was the proof of his final triumph over body Death outdoneand matter, and gave full evidence of divine 18Science, — 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 21Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won‐drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp‐tation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus. 24Let 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 27God — 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 30test his still uncomprehended saying, “He that believ‐eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” They must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting 43 43:1out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as they did understand it after his bodily departure.
3 The magnitude of Jesus’ work, his material disappear‐ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled Pentecost repeatedthe disciples to understand what Jesus had 6said. 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 9influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos‐tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.
Jesus’ last proof was the highest, the most convincing, 12the most profitable to his students. The malignity of Convincing evidencebrutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to 15the 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, 18and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu‐ated and extended it.
21 Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned Divine victoryhim, but he was demonstrating divine Science. 24Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies, he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat‐ter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him. 27The divine must overcome the human at every point. The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli‐30gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs.
Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must 44 44:1seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow, 3“Well done, good and faithful servant,” and the suprem‐acy of Spirit be demonstrated.
The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge 6from his foes, a place in which to solve the great Jesus in the tombproblem of being. His three days’ work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. 9He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas‐ter of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Chris‐tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims 12of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.
He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted 15energies. 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 18the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ his feet as before.
Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature 21to sustain Jesus in his proof of man’s truly derived power? The deific naturalismIt was a method of surgery beyond material art, but it was not a supernatural act. On 24the 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 27human invention.
His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon‐30Obstacles overcomestrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense. There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great 45 45:1stone must be rolled from the cave’s mouth; but Jesus vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law 3of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place, crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting victory.
6 Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci‐ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus’ Victory over the gravedeed was for the enlightenment of men and 9for 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 12of 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 im‐15mortal 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 hu‐18The stone rolled awayman hope and faith, and through the reve‐lation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual 21idea 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, 24After the resurrectionmisconstrued 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: 27“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 cru‐30cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over matter.
Jesus’ students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un‐4646:1derstand their Master’s triumph, did not perform many wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion 3and 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 6by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, Spiritual interpretationand by the breaking of bread. The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries 9ago, 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 12healing the sick.
The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit, and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses 15Corporeality and Spiritthat his body was not changed until he himself ascended, — or, in other words, rose even higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince 18Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail‐prints and the spear-wound.
Jesus’ unchanged physical condition after what seemed 21to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma‐Spiritual ascensionterial conditions; and this exaltation explained his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a 24probationary 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 ascen‐27sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the material senses saw him no more.
30 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 Sci‐4747:1ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations, which gave them 3Pentecostal powera 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, 6they 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 9power as on the Day of Pentecost.
Judas conspired against Jesus. The world’s ingratitude and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal. 12The traitor’s conspiracyThe 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’ 15teachings.
A period was approaching which would reveal the in‐finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas 18Iscariot 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 21greed 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 be‐24trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti‐mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the traitor fell with it.
27 The disciples’ desertion of their Master in his last earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio‐lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no 30record.
During his night of gloom and glory in the garden, Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi‐4848:1ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu‐3Gethsemane glorifieddents slept. He said unto them: “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” Could they not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice‐6less 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 9sense to Soul.
Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum‐12blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt‐ing ordeal of sin’s revenge on its destroyer? Truth and 15Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a life-work.
Judas had the world’s weapons. Jesus had not one 18of them, and chose not the world’s means of defence. Defensive weapons“He opened not his mouth.” The great dem‐onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before 21envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re‐sentment or animal courage. He said: “Put up thy 24sword.”
Pale in the presence of his own momentous question, “What is Truth,” Pilate was drawn into acquiescence 27Pilate’s questionwith the demands of Jesus’ enemies. Pilate was ignorant of the consequences of his awful decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing 30not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for man.
4949:1 The women at the cross could have answered Pilate’s question. They knew what had inspired their devotion, 3winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand‐ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples to say to their Master: “Even the devils are subject 6unto us through thy name.”
Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the 9Students’ ingratitudegreat exponent of God? Had they so soon lost sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations, sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre‐12quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last human yearning with one sign of fidelity?
The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc‐15tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with Heaven’s sentinelGod. No human eye was there to pity, no arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had 18blessed, 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 21of 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, 24Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and the grave.
The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly 27walked, and those to whom he had given the highest Cruel contumelyproofs of divine power, mocked him on the cross, saying derisively, “He saved others; 30himself 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.” 50 50:1“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” 3“Who shall declare his generation?” Who shall decide what truth and love are?
The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor‐6ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude A cry of despairof his work, wrung from Jesus’ lips the awful cry, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” 9This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would impugn the justice and love of a father who could with‐hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so 12faithful 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 15him 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 18human race.
If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo‐ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses, 21Divine Science misunderstoodwhat would his accusers have said? Even what they did say, — that Jesus’ teachings were false, and that all evidence of their cor‐24rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying could not make it so.
The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human 27conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving The real pillorythe purpose of his mission, was a million times sharper than the thorns which pierced 30his 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 51 51:1lips the plaintive cry, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” It was the possible loss of something more important than 3human life which moved him, — the possible misappre‐hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This dread added the drop of gall to his cup.
6 Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies. He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his Life-power indestructiblespiritual identity in the likeness of the divine; 9but he allowed men to attempt the destruc‐tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life 12 of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his enemies’ hands; but when his earth-mission was accom‐plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal, 15was 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 18be extinguished.
His consummate example was for the salvation of us all, but only through doing the works which he did and 21Example for our salvationtaught others to do. His purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but to demon‐strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by 24Truth 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 Prin‐27ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.
Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist 30to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the dead.
5252:1 From early boyhood he was about his “Father’s busi‐ness.” His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas‐3Master’s businesster was Spirit; their master was matter. He served God; they served mammon. His affec‐tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in 6the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi‐dence of sin, sickness, and death.
9 Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world’s Purity’s rebukehatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the 12prophet’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. 15Herod 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 18make common cause against the exponents of truth.
The “man of sorrows” best understood the nothing‐ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac‐21Saviour’s predictiontuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high‐24est 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: 27“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-contra‐30Defamatory accusationsdictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb‐auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton and a wine-bibber. They said: “He casteth out devils 53 53:1through Beelzebub,” and is the “friend of publicans and sinners.” The latter accusation was true, but not in their 3meaning. 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. 6He 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 9character. Why? Because the divine Principle and Reputation and characterpractice of Jesus were misunderstood. He was at work in divine Science. His words 12and works were unknown to the world because above and contrary to the world’s religious sense. Mortals be‐lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine, 15infinite Love.
The world could not interpret aright the discomfort which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which 18Inspiring discontentmight flow from such discomfort. Science shows the cause of the shock so often pro‐duced by the truth, — namely, that this shock arises from 21the 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 24goodness makes for the destruction of evil.
Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the mortal errors which constitute the material body, and 27Bearing our sinscould 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 ma‐30terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of spiritual power.
Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would 54 54:1have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine 3Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de‐fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness, 6seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified example introduced.
Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All 9must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true Inspiration of sacrificeidea of God. That he might liberally pour his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-12filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus’ intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com‐mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and 15Love 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 18understood neither his words nor his works. They would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor follow his example.
21 His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious Spiritual friendshipfriends, whose religion was something more 24than a name. It was so vital, that it en‐abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol‐27lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con‐firmed the prediction.
If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on 30Injustice to the Saviourearth to-day, would not some, who now pro‐fess to love him, reject him? Would they not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter‐5555:1tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs? The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the 3invisible 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.
6 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 9that 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 12clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of the synagogue.
15 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 18recognize 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 21and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful‐filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly 24all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ’s cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing.
27 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.