Individual experience
26:1 While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows withgratitude for what he did for mortals, - treading alone26:3 his loving pathway up to the throne ofglory, in speechless agony exploring the wayfor us, - yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-26:6 rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and allhave the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportionto their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed26:9 through divine Love.
Christ's demonstration
The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in hisown statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;"26:12 "I and my Father are one." This Christ,or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divinenature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth,26:15 Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,and death. His mission was to reveal the Science ofcelestial being, to prove what God is and what He does26:18 for man.
Proof in practice
A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music heteaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-26:21 tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching andpractice of Truth involved such a sacrificeas makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was26:24 the precious import of our Master's sinless career andof his demonstration of power over death. He provedby his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,26:27 and death.
Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.It was the divine Principle of all real being which he26:30 taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was noform or system of religion and worship, but ChristianScience, working out the harmony of Life and Love.27:1 Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had27:3 come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye haveseen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,27:6 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 in27:9 the Messianic work.
Living temple
That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearanceafter the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-27:12 tific 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,27:15 and intelligence of the universe - is not in matter tobe destroyed.
Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with27:18 sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the rootof material knowledge, that it might be ready to cutdown the false doctrine of pantheism, - that God, or27:21 Life, is in or of matter.
Recreant disciples
Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but onlyeleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits27:24 him with two or three hundred other discipleswho have left no name. "Many are called,but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because27:27 they never truly understood their Master's instruction.
Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject theessential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-27:30 tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter andto kill him according to certain assumed material laws.
Help and hindrance
28:1 The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di-vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'28:3 mission. Even many of his students stoodin his way. If the Master had not taken astudent and taught the unseen verities of God, he would28:6 not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spiritin the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth andLove.
28:9 While respecting all that is good in the Church or outof it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the groundof demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we28:12 cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understandingmore of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, weare enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.
Misleading conceptions
28:15 Neither the origin, the character, nor the work ofJesus was generally understood. Not a single compo-nent part of his nature did the material28:18 world measure aright. Even his righteous-less and purity did not hinder men from saying: Heis a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is28:21 his patron.
Persecution prolonged
Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough ifthou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy28:24 Master's feet! To suppose that persecutionfor righteousness' sake belongs to the past,and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world28:27 because 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,28:30 "of whom the world was not worthy," await, in someform, every pioneer of truth.
Christian warfare
There is too much animal courage in society and not29:1 sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up armsagainst error at home and abroad. They must grapple29:3 with sin in themselves and in others, andcontinue this warfare until they have finishedtheir course. If they keep the faith, they will have the29:6 crown of rejoicing.
Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis-belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly29:9 in times of persecution, because then our labor is moreneeded. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though wemay never receive it in this world.
The Fatherhood of God
29:12 There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote tothe authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be-lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed29:15 in Christian Science have reached the glori-ous perception that God is the only author of man.The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and29:18 gave to her ideal the name of Jesus - that is, Joshua,or Saviour.
Spiritual conception
The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to29:21 silence material law and its order of generation, andbrought forth her child by the revelation ofTruth, demonstrating God as the Father of29:24 men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowedthe pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog-nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever29:27 an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of theman Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea,though at first faintly developed.
29:30 Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit,is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious andman eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-30:1 conscious communion with God. Hence he could givea more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could30:3 demonstrate the Science of Love - his Father or divinePrinciple.
Jesus the way-shower
Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook30:6 partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en-dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-out measure. This accounts for his struggles30:9 in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him tobe the mediator, or /way-shower/, between God and men.Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal30:12 usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortalmind as "the way."
Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said:30:15 "An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood,by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, thenew executor for God, present the divine law of Love,30:18 which blesses even those that curse it.
Rebukes helpful
As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came torebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death,-30:21 to point out the way of Truth and Life. Thisideal was demonstrated throughout the wholeearthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between30:24 the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth andof error.
If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of30:27 material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, weshall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Onlyin this way can we bless our enemies, though they30:30 may not so construe our words. We cannot choose forourselves, but must work out our salvation in the wayJesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found31:1 preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfitto bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place31:3 it in such hands.
Fleshly ties temporal
Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Callno man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,31:6 which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Whois my mother, and who are my brethren," im-plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We31:9 have no record of his calling any man by the name of/father/. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, andtherefore as the Father of all.
Healing primary
31:12 First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol-lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attachedno importance to dead ceremonies. It is the31:15 living Christ, the practical Truth, which makesJesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow himin deed. Obeying his precious precepts, - following his31:18 demonstration so far as we apprehend it, - we drink ofhis cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu-rity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full31:21 understanding of the divine Principle which triumphsover death. For what says Paul? "As often as ye eatthis bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's31:24 death till he come."
Painful prospect
Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said:"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor-31:27 shippers shall worship the Father in spiritand in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse-cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus31:30 said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea,the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will thinkthat he doeth God service; and these things will they32:1 do unto you, because they have not known the Fathernor me."
Sacred sacrament
32:3 In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swearallegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oathwas /sacramentum/, and our English word32:6 /sacrament/ is derived from it. Among theJews it was an ancient custom for the master of afeast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the32:9 Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier'soath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions andin Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows32:12 forth his bitter experience, - the cup which he prayedmight pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis-sion to the divine decree.
32:15 "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessedit and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and32:18 gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye allof it."
Spiritual refreshment
The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is32:21 confined to the use of bread and wine. The discipleshad eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave thembread. This would have been foolish in a32:24 literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat-ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from thematerial senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with32:27 spiritual views.
Jesus' sad repast
The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples inthe month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion,32:30 was a mournful occasion, a sad supper takenat the close of day, in the twilight of aglorious career with shadows fast falling around; and33:1 this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessionsto matter.
Heavenly supplies
33:3 His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hourof their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna,which of old had fed in the wilderness the33:6 persecuted followers of Truth. Their breadindeed came down from heaven. It was the great truthof spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error.33:9 Their Master had explained it all before, and now thisbread was feeding and sustaining them. They had bornethis bread from house to house, /breaking/ (explaining) it to33:12 others, and now it comforted themselves.
For this truth of spiritual being, their Master was aboutto suffer violence and drain to the dregs his cup of sorrow.33:15 He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast-ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said,"Drink ye all of it."
The holy struggle
33:18 When the human element in him struggled with thedivine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, butThine, be done!"- that is, Let not the flesh,33:21 but the Spirit, be represented in me. Thisis the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives allfor Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the33:24 sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespassesand sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meekin heart.
Incisive questions
33:27 Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have youshared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutionswhich attend a new and higher understand-33:30 ing of God? If not, can you then say thatyou have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are allwho eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing34:1 truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all forthe Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira-34:3 tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting outerror and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God,"that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ,34:6 Truth, 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 we34:9 memorials of that friend?
Millennial glory
If all who ever partook of the sacrament had reallycommemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of34:12 his cup, they would have revolutionized theworld. If all who seek his commemorationthrough material symbols will take up the cross, heal34:15 the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth,to the poor, - the receptive thought, - they will bringin the millennium.
Fellowship with Christ
34:18 Through all the disciples experienced, they became morespiritual and understood better what the Master hadtaught. His resurrection was also their resur-34:21 rection. It helped them to raise themselves andothers from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God intothe perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this34:24 quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise againin the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far abovetheir apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness,34:27 he would disappear to material sense in that change whichhas since been called the ascension.
The last breakfast
What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and34:30 his last spiritual breakfast with his disciplesin the bright morning hours at the joyfulmeeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom35:1 had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repent-ance, - hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced35:3 of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakenedby their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turnedaway from material things, and cast their net on the right35:6 side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore oftime, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortalsensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-35:9 ness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of anew light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists35:12 commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re-ceive more of his reappearing and silently to communewith the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their35:15 Lord's victory over death, his probation in the fleshafter death, its exemplification of human probation, andhis spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh,35:18 when he rose out of material sight.
Spiritual Eucharist
Our baptism is a purification from all error. Ourchurch is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can35:21 unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life whichis Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth35:24 the fruits of Love, - casting out error and healing thesick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the oneGod. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven,"35:27 is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira-tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-mended to his followers.
Final purpose
35:30 The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If thesinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re-form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to36:1 the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection byexperience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of36:3 Truth and Love simply through translationinto another sphere. Divine Science revealsthe necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after36:6 death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penaltydue for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escapefrom punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-36:9 ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.
Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour hisdear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his36:12 earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John,the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed insilent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly36:15 price of spirituality in a material age and the great moraldistance between Christianity and sensualism precludeChristian Science from finding favor with the worldly-36:18 minded.
Righteous retribution
A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as36:21 well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible forsinners to receive their full punishment thisside of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-36:24 eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that thewicked can gloat over their offences to the last momentand then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven,36:27 or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us onlytoil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.
Vicarious suffering
36:30 Religious history repeats itself in the suf-fering of the just for the unjust. Can Godtherefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-37:1 stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show thatsin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They37:3 who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, itshall be measured to you again."
Martyrs inevitable
History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of37:6 the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Mortals try invain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake,but error falls only before the sword of Spirit.37:9 Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage withanother in the history of religion. They are earth's lumi-naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of37:12 material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals.Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; butnot amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated37:15 by lookers-on.
Complete emulation
When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulatehim in /all/ his ways and to imitate his mighty works?37:18 Those who procured the martyrdom of thatrighteous man would gladly have turned hissacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May37:21 the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im-port of that career! It is possible, - yea, it is the dutyand privilege of every child, man, and woman, - to follow37:24 in 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 in37:27 the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com-mands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Fatherwhich is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,37:30 and preach the gospel to every creature!" "/Heal thesick/!"
Jesus' teaching belittled
Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration38:1 to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men areassured that this command was intended only for a par-38:3 ticular period and for a select number of fol-lowers. This teaching is even more perniciousthan the old doctrine of foreordination, - the election of a38:6 few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it willbe considered, when the lethargy of mortals, producedby man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of38:9 divine Science.
Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be-lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they38:12 shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressinghis disciples, yet he did not say, " These signs shall follow/you/," but /them/- "them that believe" in all time to come.38:15 Here the word /hands/ is used metaphorically, as in the text,"The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expressesspiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have38:18 been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, notfor the twelve only, but for as many as should believe"through their word."
Material pleasures
38:21 Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physicalsenses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,38:24 his spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesusmapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ,the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the38:27 belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati-fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyesye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un-38:30 derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. Hetaught that the material senses shut out Truth and itshealing power.
Mockery of truth
39:1 Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-39:3 lowers will endure until Christianity's lasttriumph. He won eternal honors. He over-came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving39:6 their 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 as39:9 joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.
A belief suicidal
The educated belief that Soul is in the body causesmortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone39:12 out of mortality into immortality and bliss.The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesusovercame death and the grave instead of yielding to them.39:15 He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was notthe threshold over which he must pass into livingglory.
Present salvation
39:18 "/Now/," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-hold, /now/ is the day of salvation," - meaning, not thatnow men must prepare for a future-world salva-39:21 tion, or safety, but that now is the time in whichto experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now isthe time for so-called material pains and material pleas-39:24 ures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossiblein Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must getthe true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists39:27 and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought isapprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain-ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as39:30 triumphs.
Sin and penalty
Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believesin the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that40:1 evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove errorfrom thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-40:3 vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv-ing the scope and tendency of Christian healingand its Science, will support them. Another will say:40:6 "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenientseason I will call for thee."
Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted40:9 it. Science removes the penalty only by first removingthe sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense ofdivine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method40:12 of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there'slife there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there'ssin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our40:15 own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola makethe crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?
Suffering inevitable
Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was40:18 inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the wayand the power of Truth. If a career so greatand good as that of Jesus could not avert a40:21 felon's fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure humanbrutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter intofellowship with him through the triumphal arch of40:24 Truth and Love.
Service and worship
Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that allmen should follow the example of our Master and his40:27 apostles and not merely worship his personal-ity. It is sad that the phrase /divine service/has come so generally to mean public worship instead of40:30 daily deeds.
Within the veil
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of41:1 hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into theShekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and41:3 this advance beyond matter must comethrough the joys and triumphs of the right-eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.41:6 Like our Master, we must depart from material senseinto the spiritual sense of being.
The thorns and flowers
The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with41:9 bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reapwhat they now sow. The pampered hypo-crite may have a flowery pathway here, but41:12 he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape thepenalty due.
Healing early lost
The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave41:15 by casting out error and healing the sick, completed hisearthly mission; but in the Christian Churchthis demonstration of healing was early lost,41:18 about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancientschool of philosophy, /materia medica/, or scholastic theol-ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of41:21 absolute Science.
Immortal achieval
Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would havebefore it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered41:24 him not. He fulfilled his God-mission, andthen sat down at the right hand of the Father.Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about41:27 doing good deeds, for which they were maligned andstoned. The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at.Why? Because it demanded more than they were willing41:30 to practise. It was enough for them to believe in a nationalDeity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has nevermade a disciple who could cast out evils and heal the sick.42:1 Jesus' life proved, divinely and scientifically, that Godis Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a42:3 mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the-ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.
A belief in death
The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It42:6 cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Deathwill be found at length to be a mortal dream,which comes in darkness and disappears with the light.
Cruel desertion
42:9 The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary orpopularity. Though entitled to the homage of the worldand endorsed pre-eminently by the approval42:12 of 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.
Death outdone
42:15 The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God'spower was the proof of his final triumph over bodyand matter, and gave full evidence of divine42:18 Science, - evidence so important to mortals.The belief that man has existence or mind separate fromGod is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine42:21 Science 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.42:24 Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards hewould show it to them unchanged. This demonstratesthat in Christian Science the true man is governed by42:27 God - by good, not evil - and is therefore not a mortalbut an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples theScience of this proof. He was here to enable them to42:30 test his still uncomprehended saying, "He that believ-eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Theymust understand more fully his Life-principle by casting43:1 out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even asthey did understand it after his bodily departure.
Pentecost repeated
43:3 The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabledthe disciples to understand what Jesus had43:6 said. Heretofore they had only believed;now they understood. The advent of this understandingis what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, - that43:9 influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos-tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.
Convincing evidence
Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,43:12 the most profitable to his students. The malignity ofbrutal persecutors, the treason and suicide ofhis betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to43:15 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,43:18 and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for theworld. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu-ated and extended it.
Divine victory
43:21 Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cupof bitterness he drank. Human law had condemnedhim, but he was demonstrating divine Science.43:24 Out 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.43:27 The divine must overcome the human at every point.The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph overall material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-43:30 gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from suchbeliefs.
Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must44:1 seal the victory over error and death, before the thornscan be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow,44:3 "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem-acy of Spirit be demonstrated.
Jesus in the tomb
The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge44:6 from his foes, a place in which to solve the greatproblem of being. His three days' work inthe sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.44:9 He 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 claims44:12 of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.
He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did notdepend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted44:15 energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon toheal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side andlacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove44:18 the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employhis feet as before.
The deific naturalism
Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature44:21 to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power?It was a method of surgery beyond materialart, but it was not a supernatural act. On44:24 the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinitybrought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of44:27 human invention.
Obstacles overcome
His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he washidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-44:30 strating within the narrow tomb the powerof Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great45:1 stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesusvanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law45:3 of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlastingvictory.
Victory over the grave
45:6 Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'deed was for the enlightenment of men and45:9 for the salvation of the whole world from sin,sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we wereenemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death45:12 of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be savedby his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talkedwith his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-45:15 mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.
The stone rolled away
Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-45:18 man hope and faith, and through the reve-lation and demonstration of life in God, hathelevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual45:21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.
After the resurrection
They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrectionand beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,45:24 misconstrued that event. Even his disciplesat first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:45:27 "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-45:30 cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind overmatter.
Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-46:1 derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform manywonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion46:3 and learned that he had not died. This convinced themof the truthfulness of all that he had taught.
Spiritual interpretation
In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends46:6 by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,and by the breaking of bread. The divineSpirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries46:9 ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speakthrough it in every age and clime. It is revealed to thereceptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and46:12 healing the sick.
Corporeality and Spirit
The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses46:15 that his body was not changed until he himselfascended, - or, in other words, rose evenhigher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince46:18 Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-prints and the spear-wound.
Spiritual ascension
Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed46:21 to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-terial conditions; and this exaltation explainedhis ascension, and revealed unmistakably a46:24 probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way forall men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-46:27 sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he roseabove the physical knowledge of his disciples, and thematerial senses saw him no more.
Pentecostal power
46:30 His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this ismeant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, theywere roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-47:1 ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernmentof Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them47:3 a faint conception of the Life which is God.They no longer measured man by materialsense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,47:6 they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx oflight was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming47:9 power as on the Day of Pentecost.
The traitor's conspiracy
Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitudeand hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal.47:12 The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silverand the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose histime, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'47:15 teachings.
A period was approaching which would reveal the in-finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas47:18 Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness ofthat Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The47:21 greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a timequieted his remorse. He knew that the world generallyloves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-47:24 trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and thetraitor fell with it.47:27 The disciples' desertion of their Master in his lastearthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no47:30 record.
Gethsemane glorified
During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-48:1 ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and thestaves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-48:3 dents slept. He said unto them: "Could Yenot watch with me one hour?" Could theynot watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-48:6 less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?There was no response to that human yearning, and soJesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from48:9 sense to Soul.
Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holybenediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-48:12 blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from thesame cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and48:15 Love bestow few palms until the consummation of alife-work.
Defensive weapons
Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one48:18 of them, and chose not the world's means of defence."He opened not his mouth." The great dem-onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before48:21 envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies ofhis Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy48:24 sword."
Pilate's question
Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,"What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence48:27 with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilatewas ignorant of the consequences of his awfuldecision against human rights and divine Love, knowing48:30 not that he was hastening the final demonstration of whatlife is and of what the true knowledge of God can do forman.
49:1 The women at the cross could have answered Pilate'squestion. They knew what had inspired their devotion,49:3 winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciplesto say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject49:6 unto us through thy name."
Students' ingratitude
Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Wereall conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the49:9 great exponent of God? Had they so soon lostsight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-49:12 quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his lasthuman yearning with one sign of fidelity?
Heaven's sentinel
The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-49:15 tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone withGod. No human eye was there to pity, noarm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had49:18 blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highestpost of power, charged with the grandest trust ofheaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing49:21 of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christis not subject to material conditions, but is above thereach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,49:24 Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, andthe grave.
Cruel contumely
The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly49:27 walked, and those to whom he had given the highestproofs of divine power, mocked him on thecross, saying derisively, "He saved others;49:30 himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned"aside the right of a man before the face of the MostHigh," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God."50:1 "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheepbefore her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."50:3 "Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decidewhat truth and love are?
A cry of despair
The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-50:6 ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitudeof his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awfulcry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"50:9 This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, wouldimpugn the justice and love of a father who could with-hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so50:12 faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both tohis divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken50:15 him in his highest demonstration? This was a startlingquestion. No! They must abide in him and he in them,or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the50:18 human race.
Divine Science misunderstood
If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,50:21 what would his accusers have said? Evenwhat they did say, - that Jesus' teachingswere false, and that all evidence of their cor-50:24 rectness was destroyed by his death. But this sayingcould not make it so.
The real pillory
The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human50:27 conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelievingthe purpose of his mission, was a milliontimes sharper than the thorns which pierced50:30 his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hillof grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Notthe spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful51:1 lips the plaintive cry, "/Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?/" Itwas the possible loss of something more important than51:3 human life which moved him, - the possible misappre-hension of the sublimest influence of his career. Thisdread added the drop of gall to his cup.
Life-power indestructible
51:6 Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.He had power to lay down a human sense of life for hisspiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;51:9 but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnishthe proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life51:12 of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into hisenemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,51:15 was found forever the same. He knew that matter hadno life and that real Life is God; therefore he could nomore be separated from his spiritual Life than God could51:18 be extinguished.
Example for our salvation
His consummate example was for the salvation of usall, but only through doing the works which he did and51:21 taught others to do. His purpose in healingwas not alone to restore health, but to demon-strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by51:24 Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motivesof his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-51:27 ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.
Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated himfrom sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist51:30 to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabledJesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise thedead.
Master's business
52:1 From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-52:3 ter was Spirit; their master was matter. Heserved God; they served mammon. His affec-tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in52:6 the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; theirsenses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-dence of sin, sickness, and death.
Purity's rebuke
52:9 Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-presentrebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world'shatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the52:12 prophet's foresight of the reception error wouldgive him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah'sgraphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace.52:15 Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unitein putting to shame and death the best man that evertrod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again52:18 make common cause against the exponents of truth.
Saviour's prediction
The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-52:21 tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These werethe two cardinal points of Mind-healing, orChristian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-52:24 est earthly representative of God, speaking of humanability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to hisdisciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:52:27 "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he doalso;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe."
Defamatory accusations
The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-52:30 dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a gluttonand a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils53:1 through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans andsinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their53:3 meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as didthe Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so farremoved from appetites and passions as the Nazarene.53:6 He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, becausehe was their friend; hence the cup he drank.
Reputation and character
The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his53:9 character. Why? Because the divine Principle andpractice of Jesus were misunderstood. Hewas at work in divine Science. His words53:12 and works were unknown to the world because aboveand contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be-lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine,53:15 infinite Love.
Inspiring discontent
The world could not interpret aright the discomfortwhich Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which53:18 might flow from such discomfort. Scienceshows the cause of the shock so often pro-duced by the truth, - namely, that this shock arises from53:21 the great distance between the individual and Truth.Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead ofdenying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which53:24 goodness makes for the destruction of evil.
Bearing our sins
Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew themortal errors which constitute the material body, and53:27 could destroy those errors; but at the timewhen Jesus felt our infirmities, he had notconquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-53:30 terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration ofspiritual power.
Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would54:1 have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through themagnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine54:3 Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquishederror. The world acknowledged not his righteousness,54:6 seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorifiedexample introduced.
Inspiration of sacrifice
Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All54:9 must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the trueidea of God. That he might liberally pourhis dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-54:12 filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus'intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com-mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and54:15 Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph overdeath through Mind, not matter. This was the highestproof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers54:18 understood neither his words nor his works. Theywould not accept his meek interpretation of life norfollow his example.
Spiritual friendship
54:21 His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to thedregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentiousfriends, whose religion was something more54:24 than a name. It was so vital, that it en-abled them to understand the Nazarene and to sharethe glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-54:27 lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con-firmed the prediction.
Injustice to the Saviour
If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on54:30 earth to-day, would not some, who now pro-fess to love him, reject him? Would theynot deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-55:1 tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the55:3 invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment andusage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; butthis does not affect the invincible facts.55:6 Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no moreinjustice than the later centuries have bestowed uponthe healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now55:9 that the gospel of healing is again preached by thewayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? Butthat curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a55:12 clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot beleft out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out ofthe synagogue.
55:15 Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. Myweary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall55:18 recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor ashimself, - when he shall realize God's omnipotence andthe healing power of the divine Love in what it has done55:21 and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful-filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healingis throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly55:24 all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ'scup now, and is endued with the spirit and power ofChristian healing.
55:27 In the words of St. John: "He shall give you anotherComforter, that he may abide with you /forever/." ThisComforter I understand to be Divine Science.