CHAPTER II — ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST

 

 

PAGE 18

 

 

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. — PAUL.

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. — PAUL.

For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the
kingdom of God shall come. — JESUS.

 

 


          Divine oneness
18-1 1        ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man's unity
18-2          with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life,
18-3 3        and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated
18-4          man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him
18-5          endless homage.  His mission was both in-
18-6 6        dividual and collective.  He did life's work
18-7          aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to
18-8          mortals,— to show them how to do theirs, but not to do
18-9 9        it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.
18-10          Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the
18-11          senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he
18-12 12      refuted all opponents with his healing power.

 

 


          Human reconciliation
18-13          The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not
18-14          God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God,
18-15 15      and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ
18-16          is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself.
18-17          The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
18-18 18      Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 19

 

 


19-1 1        from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose
19-2          to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
19-3 3        Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness.
19-4          Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him-
19-5          self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
19-6 6        Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
19-7          ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
19-8          the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
19-9 9        sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter,
19-10          sin, and death by the law of Spirit,— the law of divine
19-11          Love.

 

 


19-12 12      The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de-
19-13          claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and
19-14          death, although his teaching set households at variance,
19-15 15      and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a
19-16          sword.

 

 


          Efficacious repentence
19-17          Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort
19-18 18      for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to
19-19          understand Jesus' atonement for sin and aid
19-20          its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray
19-21 21      and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone-
19-22          ment,— in the at-one-ment with God,— for he lacks the
19-23          practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables
19-24 24      man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem-
19-25          onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach-
19-26          ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If
19-27 27      living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur-
19-28          ity, although God is good.

 

 


          Jesus' sinless career
19-29          Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no
19-30 30      other gods before me," which may be ren-
19-31          dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as
19-32          mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,—

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 20

 

 


20-1 1        even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things
20-2          which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
20-3 3        God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine
20-4          or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved,
20-5          not by spirits but by Spirit.

 

 


20-6 6        To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee
20-7          Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
20-8          kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a
20-9 9        new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he
20-10          established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men
20-11          can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the
20-12 12      clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet
20-13          be sensual and sinful.

 

 


          Perfect example
20-14          Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal
20-15 15      belief, and "with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are
20-16          healed." "Despised and rejected of men,"
20-17          returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor-
20-18 18      tals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God;
20-19          and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and
20-20          the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not,
20-21 21      well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God,
20-22          saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to
20-23          holiness.

 

 


          Behest of the cross
20-24 24      Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the
20-25          spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all
20-26          religion. It commands sure entrance into
20-27 27      the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us
20-28          lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
20-29          easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
20-30 30      is set before us;" that is, let us put aside material self
20-31          and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of
20-32          all healing.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 21

 

 


          Moral victory
21-1 1        If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and
21-2          conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a
21-3 3        good fight . . . I have kept the faith," be-
21-4          cause you are a better man. This is having
21-5          our part in the at-one-ment with Truth  and Love.
21-6 6        Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting
21-7          because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph,
21-8          that they shall reach his harmony and reward.

 

 


21-9 9        If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv-
21-10          ing to enter in.  He constantly turns away from ma-
21-11          terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things
21-12 12      of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the
21-13          start, and gain a little each day in the right direction,
21-14          till at last he finishes his course with joy.

 

 


          Inharmonious travellers
21-15 15      If my friends are going to Europe, while I am en
21-16          route for California, we are not journeying together.
21-17          We have separate time-tables to consult,
21-18 18      different routes to pursue.  Our paths have
21-19          diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor-
21-20          tunity to help each other.  On the contrary, if my
21-21 21      friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad
21-22          guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I
21-23          take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our
21-24      companionship may continue. 

 

 


          Zigzag course
21-25          Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at
21-26          the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither-
21-27 27      ward. He is like a traveller going westward  
21-28          for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring21-29      

 

 

          and the pleasures   exciting. After following the sun for
21-30 30      six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can
21-31          only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By-
21-32          and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 22

 

 


22-1 1        the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid
22-2          of this to find and follow the right road.

 

 


          Moral retrogression
22-3 3        Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope
22-4          of forgiveness,— selfishness and sensuality causing con-
22-5          stant retrogression,— our moral progress will
22-6 6        be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals
22-7          experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown-
22-8          ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and
22-9 9        through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned
22-10          with success.

 

 


          Wait for reward
22-11          "Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
22-12 12      Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.
22-13          "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re-
22-14          ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If
22-15 15      your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive
22-16          no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a
22-17          sluggard in the race.

 

 


22-18 18      When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-
22-19          cern the good you have done, and receive according to
22-20          your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from
22-21 21      temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and
22-22          purified.

 

 


          Deliverance not vicarious
22-23          Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in
22-24 24      immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not
22-25          reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning
22-26          one's faith without works to another's vicarious
22-27 27      effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or
22-28          that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not
22-29          understand God.

 

 


          Justice and substitution
22-30 30      Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
22-31          cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
22-32          is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 23

 

 


23-1 1        destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love
23-2          may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
23-3 3        One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to 
23-4          pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires
23-5          constant self-immolation on the sinner's part.   That
23-6 6        God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is
23-7          divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The
23-8          atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-
23-9 9        tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
23-10          which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf-
23-11          fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.

 

 


          Doctrines and faith
23-12 12      Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine,
23-13          firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him."
23-14          This preaching receives a strong rebuke in  
23-15 15      the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead." 
23-16          Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be-
23-17          tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith,
23-18 18      advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained
23-19          from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab-
23-20          lishes the claims of God.

 

 


          Self-reliance and confidence
23-21 21      In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the
23-22          words corresponding thereto have these two defini-
23-23          tions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One
23-24 24      kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.
23-25          Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how
23-26          to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem-
23-27 27      bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
23-28          expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the
23-29          injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!"
23-30 30      demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir-
23-31          itual understanding and confides all to God.

 

 


23-32          The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 24

 

 


24-1 1        to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love
24-2          understood and practised. Firmness in error will never
24-3 3        save from sin, disease, and death.

 

 


          Life's healing currents
24-4          Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
24-5          to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
24-6 6        instigated sometimes by the worst passions of
24-7          men), open the way for Christian Science to be
24-8          understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
24-9 9        the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed
24-10          out.

 

 


          Radical changes
24-11          He to whom "the arm of the Lord" is revealed will
24-12 12      believe our report, and rise into newness of life with re-
24-13          generation. This is having part in the atone-
24-14          ment; this is the understanding, in which
24-15 15      Jesus suffered and triumphed. The time is not distant
24-16          when the ordinary theological views of atonement will
24-17          undergo a great change, — a change as radical as that
24-18 18      which has come over popular opinions in regard to pre-
24-19          destination and future punishment.

 

 


          Purpose of crucifixion
24-20          Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus
24-21 21      chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who
24-22          ask for it and are willing to be forgiven?
24-23          Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary
24-24 24      only for the presentation, after death, of the material
24-25          Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then
24-26          we must differ from them both.

 

 


24-27 27      The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af-
24-28          fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The
24-29          truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that
24-30 30      it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own
24-31          disciples could not admit such an event to be possible.
24-32          After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 25

 

 


25-1 1        forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of
25-2          Truth and Love.

 

 


          True flesh and blood
25-3 3        The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi-
25-4          cacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than
25-5          can be expressed by our sense of human
25-6 6        blood. The material blood of Jesus was no
25-7          more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed
25-8          upon "the accursed tree," than when it was flowing in
25-9 9        his veins as he went daily about his Father's business.
25-10          His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat
25-11          his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine
25-12 12      Life.

 

 


          Effective triumph          
25-13          Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that
25-14          we may understand how this divine Principle heals
25-15 15      the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over
25-16          death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better
25-17          than could any man whose origin was less spiritual.  By
25-18 18      his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu-
25-19          ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the
25-20          force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my com-
25-21 21      mandments."        
  
25-22          Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease,
25-23          the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving
25-24 24      the requisite proofs of their own piety. He worked for
25-25          their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as
25-26          he did and understand its divine Principle. Implicit faith
25-27 27      in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow
25-28          on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We
25-29          must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the
25-30 30      great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to
25-31          bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made
25-32          manifest in the humanity of Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 26

 

 


          Individual experience
26-1 1        While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
26-2          gratitude for what he did for mortals, — treading alone
26-3 3        his loving pathway up to the throne of
26-4          glory, in speechless agony exploring the way
26-5          for us, — yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-
26-6 6        rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all
26-7          have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion
26-8          to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed
26-9 9        through divine Love.

 

 


          Christ's demonstration
26-10          The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his
26-11          own statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;"
26-12 12      "I and my Father are one." This Christ,
26-13          or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine
26-14          nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth,
26-15 15      Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,
26-16          and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of
26-17          celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does
26-18 18      for man.

 

 


          Proof in practice
26-19          A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he
26-20          teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-
26-21 21      tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and
26-22          practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice
26-23          as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was
26-24 24      the precious import of our Master's sinless career and
26-25          of his demonstration of power over death. He proved
26-26          by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,
26-27 27      and death.

 

 


26-28          Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.
26-29          It was the divine Principle of all real being which he
26-30 30      taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no
26-31          form or system of religion and worship, but Christian
26-32          Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 27

 

 


27-1 1        Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-
27-2          tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had
27-3 3        come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have
27-4          seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,
27-5          the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
27-6 6        to the poor the gospel is preached." In other words:
27-7          Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is,
27-8          and he will at once perceive that God is the power in
27-9 9        the Messianic work. 

 

 


          Living temple      
27-10          That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance
27-11          after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-
27-12 12      tific statement: "Destroy this temple [body],
27-13          and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up."
27-14          It is as if he had said: The I — the Life, substance,
27-15 15      and intelligence of the universe — is not in matter to
27-16          be destroyed.

 

 


27-17          Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
27-18 18      sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root
27-19          of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut
27-20          down the false doctrine of pantheism, — that God, or
27-21 21      Life, is in or of matter. 

 

 


          Recreant disciples   
27-22          Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only
27-23          eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits
27-24 24      him with two or three hundred other disciples
27-25          who have left no name. "Many are called,
27-26          but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because
27-27 27      they never truly understood their Master's instruction.

 

 


27-28          Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the
27-29          essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-
27-30 30      tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.
27-31          They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and
27-32          to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 28 

 

 


          Help and hindrance
28-1 1        The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di-
28-2          vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'
28-3 3        mission. Even many of his students stood
28-4          in his way. If the Master had not taken a
28-5          student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would
28-6 6        not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit
28-7          in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and
28-8          Love.

 

 


28-9 9        While respecting all that is good in the Church or out
28-10          of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground
28-11          of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we
28-12 12      cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding
28-13          more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we
28-14          are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.

 

 


          Misleading conceptions
28-15 15      Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of
28-16          Jesus was generally understood. Not a single compo-
28-17          nent part of his nature did the material
28-18 18      world measure aright. Even his righteous-
28-19          less and purity did not hinder men from saying: He
28-20          is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is
28-21 21      his patron.

 

 


          Persecution prolonged
28-22          Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if
28-23          thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy
28-24 24      Master's feet! To suppose that persecution
28-25          for righteousness' sake belongs to the past,
28-26          and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world
28-27 27      because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis-
28-28          take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself.
28-29          The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle,
28-30 30      "of whom the world was not worthy," await, in some
28-31          form, every pioneer of truth.

 

 


          Christian warfare
28-32          There is too much animal courage in society and not

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 29

 

 


29-1 1        sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms
29-2          against error at home and abroad. They must grapple
29-3 3        with sin in themselves and in others, and 
29-4          continue this warfare until they have finished
29-5          their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the
29-6 6        crown of rejoicing.     

29-7          Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis-
29-8          belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly
29-9 9        in times of persecution, because then our labor is more
29-10          needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we
29-11          may never receive it in this world.

 

 


          The Fatherhood of God
29-12 12      There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to
29-13          the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be-
29-14          lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed
29-15 15      in Christian Science have reached the glori-
29-16          ous perception that God is the only author of man.
29-17          The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and
29-18 18      gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is, Joshua,
29-19          or Saviour.

 

 


          Spiritual conception
29-20          The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to
29-21 21      silence material law and its order of generation, and
29-22          brought forth her child by the revelation of
29-23          Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of
29-24 24      men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed
29-25          the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog-
29-26          nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
29-27 27      an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the
29-28          man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea,
29-29          though at first faintly developed.

 

 


29-30 30      Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit,
29-31          is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and
29-32          man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 30

 

 


30-1 1        conscious communion with God. Hence he could give
30-2          a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could
30-3 3        demonstrate the Science of Love — his Father or divine
30-4          Principle.

 

 


          Jesus the way-shower
30-5          Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook
30-6 6        partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en-
30-7          dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-
30-8          out measure. This accounts for his struggles
30-9 9        in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him to
30-10          be the mediator, or way-shower, between God and men.
30-11          Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal
30-12 12      usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal
30-13          mind as "the way."

 

 


30-14          Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said:
30-15 15      "An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
30-16          by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, the
30-17          new executor for God, present the divine law of Love,
30-18 18      which blesses even those that curse it.

 

 


          Rebukes helpful
30-19          As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to
30-20          rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death,—
30-21 21      to point out the way of Truth and Life. This
30-22          ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole
30-23          earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between
30-24 24      the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and
30-25          of error.

 

 


30-26          If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of
30-27 27      material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we
30-28          shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Only
30-29          in this way can we bless our enemies, though they
30-30 30      may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for
30-31          ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way
30-32          Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 31

 

 


31-1 1        preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit
31-2          to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place
31-3 3        it in such hands.         
         
          Fleshly ties temporal
31-4          Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call
31-5          no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,
31-6 6        which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who
31-7          is my mother, and who are my brethren," im-
31-8          plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We
31-9 9        have no record of his calling any man by the name of
31-10          father. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and
31-11          therefore as the Father of all.

 

 


          Healing primary
31-12 12      First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol-
31-13          lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached
31-14          no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the
31-15 15      living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes
31-16          Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him
31-17          in deed. Obeying his precious precepts, — following his
31-18 18      demonstration so far as we apprehend it, — we drink of
31-19          his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu-
31-20          rity ; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full
31-21 21      understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs
31-22          over death. For what says Paul?  "As often as ye eat
31-23          this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
31-24 24      death till he come."  

 

 


          Painful prospect
31-25          Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said:
31-26          "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor-
31-27 27      shippers shall worship the Father in spirit 
31-28          and in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse- 
31-29          cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus
31-30 30      said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea,
31-31          the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think
31-32          that he doeth God service; and these things will they

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 32

 

 


32-1 1        do unto you, because they have not known the Father
32-2          nor me."

 

 


          Sacred sacrament
32-3 3        In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear
32-4          allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath
32-5          was sacramentum, and our English word
32-6 6        sacrament is derived from it. Among the
32-7          Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a
32-8          feast to pass each guest a cup of wine.  But the
32-9 9        Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier's
32-10          oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and
32-11          in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows
32-12 12      forth his bitter experience, — the cup which he prayed
32-13          might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis-
32-14          sion to the divine decree.

 

 


32-15 15      "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed
32-16          it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
32-17          Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and
32-18 18      gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all
32-19          of it."

 

 


          Spiritual refreshment
32-20          The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is
32-21 21      confined to the use of bread and wine. The disciples
32-22          had eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them
32-23          bread. This would have been foolish in a
32-24 24      literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat-
32-25          ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the
32-26          material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with
32-27 27      spiritual views.

 

 


          Jesus' sad repast
32-28          The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples in
32-29          the month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion,
32-30 30      was a mournful occasion, a sad supper taken
32-31          at the close of day, in the twilight of a
32-32          glorious career with shadows fast falling around; and

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 33

 

 


33-1 1        this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessions
33-2          to matter.

 

 


          Heavenly supplies
33-3 3        His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour
33-4          of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna,
33-5          which of old had fed in the wilderness the
33-6 6        persecuted followers of Truth. Their bread
33-7          indeed came down from heaven. It was the great truth
33-8          of spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error.
33-9 9        Their Master had explained it all before, and now this
33-10          bread was feeding and sustaining them. They had borne
33-11          this bread from house to house, breaking (explaining) it to
33-12 12      others, and now it comforted themselves.
 
33-13          For this truth of spiritual being, their Master was about
33-14          to suffer violence and drain to the dregs his cup of sorrow.
33-15 15      He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast-
33-16          ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said,
33-17          "Drink ye all of it."

 

 


          The holy struggle
33-18 18      When the human element in him struggled with the
33-19          divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but
33-20          Thine, be done!"— that is, Let not the flesh,
33-21 21      but the Spirit, be represented in me. This
33-22          is the new understanding of spiritual Love.  It gives all
33-23          for Christ, or Truth.  It blesses its enemies, heals the
33-24 24      sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses
33-25          and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek
33-26          in heart.

 

 


          Incisive questions
33-27 27      Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you
33-28          shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions
33-29          which attend a new and higher understand-
33-30 30      ing of God? If not, can you then say that
33-31          you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all
33-32          who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 34

 

 


34-1 1        truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for
34-2          the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira-
34-3 3        tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out
34-4          error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God,"
34-5          that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ,
34-6 6        Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other com-
34-7          memoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel,
34-8          or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we
34-9 9        memorials of that friend?

 

 


          Millennial glory
34-10          If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really
34-11          commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of
34-12 12      his cup, they would have revolutionized the
34-13          world. If all who seek his commemoration
34-14          through material symbols will take up the cross, heal
34-15 15      the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth,
34-16          to the poor, — the receptive thought, — they will bring
34-17          in the millennium.

 

 


          Fellowship with Christ
34-18 18      Through all the disciples experienced, they became more
34-19          spiritual and understood better what the Master had
34-20          taught. His resurrection was also their resur-
34-21 21      rection. It helped them to raise themselves and
34-22          others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into
34-23          the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this
34-24 24      quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again
34-25          in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above
34-26          their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness,
34-27 27      he would disappear to material sense in that change which
34-28          has since been called the ascension.

 

 


          The last breakfast
34-29          What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and
34-30 30      his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples
34-31          in the bright morning hours at the joyful
34-32          meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 35

 

 


35-1 1        had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repent-
35-2          ance, — hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced
35-3 3        of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened
35-4          by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned
35-5          away from material things, and cast their net on the right
35-6 6        side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of
35-7          time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal
35-8          sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-
35-9 9        ness of life as Spirit. 

 

 


35-10          This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a
35-11          new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
35-12 12      commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re-
35-13          ceive more of his reappearing and silently to commune
35-14          with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their
35-15 15      Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh
35-16          after death, its exemplification of human probation, and
35-17          his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh,
35-18 18      when he rose out of material sight.

 

 


          Spiritual Eucharist
35-19          Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our
35-20          church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can
35-21 21      unite with this church only as we are new-
35-22          born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which
35-23          is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth
35-24 24      the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the
35-25          sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one
35-26          God. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven,"
35-27 27      is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira-
35-28          tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-
35-29          mended to his followers.

 

 


          Final purpose
35-30 30      The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the
35-31          sinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re-
35-32          form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 36

 

 


36-1 1        the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by
36-2          experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of
36-3 3        Truth and Love simply through translation
36-4          into another sphere. Divine Science reveals
36-5          the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after
36-6 6        death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penalty
36-7          due for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escape
36-8          from punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-
36-9 9        ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.

 

 


36-10          Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his
36-11          dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his
36-12 12      earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John,
36-13          the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed in
36-14          silent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly
36-15 15      price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral
36-16          distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude
36-17          Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-
36-18 18      minded.

 

 


          Righteous retribution
36-19          A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-
36-20          limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as
36-21 21      well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for
36-22          sinners to receive their full punishment this
36-23          side of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-
36-24 24      eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that the
36-25          wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment
36-26          and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven,
36-27 27      or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only
36-28          toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-
36-29          ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.

 

 


          Vicarious suffering
36-30 30      Religious history repeats itself in the suf-
36-31          fering of the just for the unjust. Can God
36-32          therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 37

 

 


37-1 1        stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that
37-2          sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They
37-3 3        who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it
37-4          shall be measured to you again."

 

 


          Martyrs inevitable
37-5          History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of
37-6 6        the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Mortals try in
37-7          vain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake,
37-8          but error falls only before the sword of Spirit.
37-9 9        Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with
37-10          another in the history of religion. They are earth's lumi-
37-11          naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of
37-12 12      material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals.
37-13          Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but
37-14          not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated
37-15 15      by lookers-on. 

 

 


          Complete emulation        
37-16          When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate
37-17          him in all his ways and to imitate his mighty works?
37-18 18      Those who procured the martyrdom of that
37-19          righteous man would gladly have turned his 
37-20          sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May
37-21 21      the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im-
37-22          port of that career! It is possible, — yea, it is the duty
37-23          and privilege of every child, man, and woman,  — to follow
37-24 24      in some degree the example of the Master by the demon-
37-25          stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness. Chris-
37-26          tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in
37-27 27      the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com-
37-28          mands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
37-29          which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,
37-30 30      and preach the gospel to every creature!" "Heal the
37-31          sick!"
         
          Jesus' teaching belittled
37-32          Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 38

 

 


38-1 1        to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are
38-2          assured that this command was intended only for a par-
38-3 3        ticular period and for a select number of fol-
38-4          lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious
38-5          than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a
38-6 6        few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will
38-7          be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced
38-8          by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of
38-9 9        divine Science.

 

 


38-10          Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be-
38-11          lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
38-12 12      shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressing
38-13          his disciples, yet he did not say, " These signs shall follow
38-14          you," but them — "them that believe" in all time to come.
38-15 15      Here the word hands is used metaphorically, as in the text,
38-16          "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expresses
38-17          spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have
38-18 18      been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not
38-19          for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe
38-20          "through their word."

 

 


          Material pleasures
38-21 21      Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical
38-22          senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-
38-23          ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,
38-24 24      his spiritual selfhood, never suffered.  Jesus
38-25          mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ,
38-26          the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the
38-27 27      belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati-
38-28          fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes
38-29          ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un-
38-30 30      derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. He
38-31          taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its
38-32          healing power.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 39

 

 


          Mockery of truth
39-1 1        Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-
39-2          nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-
39-3 3        lowers will endure until Christianity's last
39-4          triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-
39-5          came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving
39-6 6        their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin,
39-7          sickness, and death. We need "Christ, and him cruci-
39-8          fied." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as
39-9 9        joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.

 

 


          A belief suicidal
39-10          The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes
39-11          mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone
39-12 12      out of mortality into immortality and bliss.
39-13          The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus
39-14          overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them.
39-15 15      He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not
39-16          the threshold over which he must pass into living
39-17          glory.

 

 


          Present salvation
39-18 18      "Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
39-19          hold, now is the day of salvation," — meaning, not that
39-20          now men must prepare for a future-world salva-
39-21 21      tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which
39-22          to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is
39-23          the time for so-called material pains and material pleas-
39-24 24      ures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible
39-25          in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get
39-26          the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists
39-27 27      and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is
39-28          apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain-
39-29          ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as
39-30 30      triumphs. 

 

 


          Sin and penalty       
39-31          Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes
39-32          in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 40

 

 


40-1 1        evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error
40-2          from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-
40-3  3        vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv-
40-4          ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing
40-5          and its Science, will support them. Another will say:
40-6 6        "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
40-7          season I will call for thee."

 

 


 40-8         Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted
40-9 9        it. Science removes the penalty only by first removing
40-10          the sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense of
40-11          divine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method
40-12 12      of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there's
40-13          life there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there's
40-14          sin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our
40-15 15      own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make
40-16          the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?

 

 


          Suffering inevitable
40-17          Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was
40-18 18      inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way
40-19          and the power of Truth. If a career so great
40-20          and good as that of Jesus could not avert a
40-21 21      felon's fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure human
40-22          brutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter into
40-23          fellowship with him through the triumphal arch of
40-24 24      Truth and Love.

 

 


          Service and worship
40-25          Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all
40-26          men should follow the example of our Master and his
40-27 27      apostles and not merely worship his personal-
40-28          ity. It is sad that the phrase divine service
40-29          has come so generally to mean public worship instead of
40-30 30      daily deeds.

 

 


          Within the veil
40-31          The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,
40-32          but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 41

 

 


41-1 1        hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the
41-2          Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
41-3 3        this advance beyond matter must come 
41-4          through the joys and triumphs of the right-
41-5          eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.
41-6 6        Like our Master, we must depart from material sense
41-7          into the spiritual sense of being.

 

 


          The thorns and flowers
41-8          The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with
41-9 9        bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap
41-10          what they now sow.  The pampered hypo-
41-11          crite may have a flowery pathway here, but
41-12 12      he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the
41-13          penalty due.

 

 


          Healing early lost
41-14          The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave
41-15 15      by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his
41-16          earthly mission; but in the Christian Church
41-17          this demonstration of healing was early  lost,
41-18 18      about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient
41-19          school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theol-
41-20          ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of
41-21 21      absolute Science.  

 

 


          Immortal achieval      
41-22          Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have
41-23          before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered
41-24 24      him not. He fulfilled his God-mission, and
41-25          then sat down at the right hand of the Father.
41-26          Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about
41-27 27      doing good deeds, for which they were maligned and
41-28          stoned. The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at.
41-29          Why? Because it demanded more than they were willing
41-30 30      to practise. It was enough for them to believe in a national
41-31          Deity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has never
41-32          made a disciple who could cast out evils and heal the sick.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 42

 

 


42-1 1        Jesus' life proved, divinely and scientifically, that God
42-2          is Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a
42-3 3        mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the-
42-4          ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.

 

 


          A belief in death
42-5          The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It
42-6 6        cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Death
42-7          will be found at length to be a mortal dream,
42-8          which comes in darkness and disappears with the light.

 

 


          Cruel desertion
42-9 9        The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary or
42-10          popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world
42-11          and endorsed pre-eminently by the approval
42-12 12      of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa-
42-13          lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
42-14          who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.

 

 


          Death outdone
42-15 15      The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God's
42-16          power was the proof of his final triumph over body
42-17          and matter, and gave full evidence of divine
42-18 18      Science, — evidence so important to mortals.
42-19          The belief that man has existence or mind separate from
42-20          God is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine
42-21 21      Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won-
42-22          drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp-
42-23          tation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus.
42-24 24      Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards he
42-25          would show it to them unchanged. This demonstrates
42-26          that in Christian Science the true man is governed by
42-27 27      God — by good, not evil — and is therefore not a mortal
42-28          but an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples the
42-29          Science of this proof. He was here to enable them to
42-30 30      test his still uncomprehended saying, "He that believ-
42-31          eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." They
42-32          must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 43

 

 


43-1 1        out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as
43-2          they did understand it after his bodily departure.

 

 


          Pentecost repeated
43-3 3        The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-
43-4          ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled
43-5          the disciples to understand what Jesus had
43-6 6        said. Heretofore they had only believed;
43-7          now they understood. The advent of this understanding
43-8          is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, — that
43-9 9        influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos-
43-10          tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.

 

 


          Convincing evidence
43-11          Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,
43-12 12      the most profitable to his students. The malignity of
43-13          brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of
43-14          his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to
43-15 15      the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God,
43-16          which Jesus' persecutors had mocked and tried to slay.
43-17          The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught,
43-18 18      and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the
43-19          world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu-
43-20          ated and extended it.

 

 


          Divine victory
43-21 21      Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup
43-22          of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned
43-23          him, but he was demonstrating divine Science.
43-24 24      Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,
43-25          he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat-
43-26          ter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him.
43-27 27      The divine must overcome the human at every point.
43-28           The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over
43-29          all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-
43-30 30      gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such
43-31          beliefs.

 

 


43-32          Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 44

 

 


44-1 1        seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns
44-2          can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow,
44-3 3        "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem-
44-4          acy of Spirit be demonstrated.

 

 


          Jesus in the tomb
44-5          The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
44-6 6        from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
44-7          problem of being. His three days' work in
44-8          the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.
44-9 9        He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas-
44-10          ter of hate.  He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
44-11          tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims
44-12 12      of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

 

 


44-13          He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not
44-14          depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted
44-15 15      energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to
44-16          heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and
44-17          lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove
44-18 18      the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ
44-19          his feet as before.

 

 


          The deific naturalism
44-20          Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature
44-21 21      to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power?
44-22          It was a method of surgery beyond material
44-23          art, but it was not a supernatural act. On
44-24 24      the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinity
44-25          brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-
44-26          healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of
44-27 27      human invention.

 

 


          Obstacles overcome
44-28          His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was
44-29          hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-
44-30 30      strating within the narrow tomb the power
44-31          of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.
44-32          There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 45

 

 


45-1 1        stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesus
45-2          vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law
45-3 3        of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,
45-4           crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting
45-5          victory.

 

 


          Victory over the grave
45-6 6        Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-
45-7          ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'
45-8          deed was for the enlightenment of men and
45-9 9        for the salvation of the whole world from sin,
45-10          sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we were
45-11          enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death
45-12 12      of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
45-13          by his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talked
45-14          with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-
45-15 15      mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre. 

 

 


          The stone rolled away
45-16          Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
45-17          Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
45-18 18      man hope and faith, and through the reve-
45-19          lation and demonstration of life in God, hath
45-20          elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
45-21 21      idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

 

 


          After the resurrection
45-22          They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection
45-23          and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
45-24 24      misconstrued that event. Even his disciples
45-25          at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,
45-26          for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:
45-27 27      "Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
45-28          The reappearing of Jesus was not the return of a spirit.
45-29          He presented the same body that he had before his cru-
45-30 30      cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over
45-31          matter.

 

 


45-32          Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 46

 

 


46-1 1        derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform many
46-2          wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion
46-3 3        and learned that he had not died. This convinced them
46-4          of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.

 

 


          Spiritual interpretation
46-5          In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends
46-6 6        by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,
46-7          and by the breaking of bread. The divine
46-8          Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries
46-9 9        ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak
46-10          through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the
46-11          receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and
46-12 12      healing the sick.

 

 


          Corporeality and Spirit
46-13          The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
46-14          and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
46-15 15      that his body was not changed until he himself
46-16          ascended, — or, in other words, rose even
46-17          higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince
46-18 18      Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-
46-19          prints and the spear-wound.

 

 


          Spiritual ascension
46-20          Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed
46-21 21      to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-
46-22          terial conditions; and this exaltation explained
46-23          his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a
46-24 24      probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.
46-25          Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way for
46-26          all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-
46-27 27      sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose
46-28          above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the
46-29          material senses saw him no more.

 

 


          Pentecostal power
46-30 30      His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is
46-31          meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they
46-32          were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 47

 

 


47-1 1        ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment
47-2          of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them
47-3 3        a faint conception of the Life which is God.
47-4          They no longer measured man by material
47-5          sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,
47-6 6        they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,
47-7          but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of
47-8          light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming
47-9 9        power as on the Day of Pentecost.

 

 


          The traitor's conspiracy
47-10          Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude
47-11          and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal.
47-12 12      The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silver
47-13          and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his
47-14          time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'
47-15 15      teachings.

 

 


47-16          A period was approaching which would reveal the in-
47-17          finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas
47-18 18      Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of
47-19          that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,
47-20          and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The
47-21 21      greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time
47-22          quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally
47-23          loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-
47-24 24      trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-
47-25          mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the
47-26          traitor fell with it.

 

 


47-27 27      The disciples' desertion of their Master in his last
47-28          earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-
47-29          lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no
47-30 30      record.

 

 


          Gethsemane glorified
47-31          During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,
47-32          Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 48

 

 


48-1 1        ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the
48-2          staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-
48-3 3        dents slept. He said unto them: "Could Ye
48-4          not watch with me one hour?" Could they
48-5          not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-
48-6 6        less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?
48-7          There was no response to that human yearning, and so
48-8          Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from
48-9 9        sense to Soul.

 

 


48-10          Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy
48-11          benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-
48-12 12      blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the
48-13          same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-
48-14          ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and
48-15 15      Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a
48-16          life-work.

 

 


          Defensive weapons
48-17          Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one
48-18 18      of them, and chose not the world's means of defence.
48-19          "He opened not his mouth." The great dem-
48-20          onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before
48-21 21      envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of
48-22          his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-
48-23          sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy
48-24 24      sword."

 

 


          Pilate's question
48-25          Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,
48-26          "What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence
48-27 27      with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate
48-28          was ignorant of the consequences of his awful
48-29          decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing
48-30 30      not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what
48-31          life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for
48-32          man.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 49

 

 


49-1 1        The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's
49-2          question. They knew what had inspired their devotion,
49-3 3        winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-
49-4          ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples
49-5          to say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject
49-6 6        unto us through thy name."

 

 


          Students' ingratitude
49-7          Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
49-8          all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the
49-9 9        great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost
49-10          sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
49-11          sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-
49-12 12      quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
49-13          human yearning with one sign of fidelity?

 

 


          Heaven's sentinel
49-14          The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-
49-15 15      tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
49-16          God. No human eye was there to pity, no
49-17          arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had
49-18 18      blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
49-19          post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
49-20          heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing
49-21 21      of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
49-22          is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
49-23          reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,
49-24 24      Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
49-25          the grave.

 

 


          Cruel contumely
49-26          The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly
49-27 27      walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
49-28          proofs of divine power, mocked him on the
49-29          cross, saying derisively, "He saved others;
49-30 30      himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned
49-31          "aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
49-32          High," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God."

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 50

 

 


50-1 1        "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
50-2          before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
50-3 3        "Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide
50-4          what truth and love are?

 

 


          A cry of despair
50-5          The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-
50-6 6        ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
50-7          of his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awful
50-8          cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
50-9 9        This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
50-10          impugn the justice and love of a father who could with-
50-11          hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so
50-12 12      faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
50-13          his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
50-14          Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken
50-15 15      him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
50-16          question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
50-17          or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the
50-18 18      human race.

 

 


          Divine Science misunderstood
50-19          If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-
50-20          ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,
50-21 21      what would his accusers have said? Even
50-22          what they did say, — that Jesus' teachings
50-23          were false, and that all evidence of their cor-
50-24 24      rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
50-25          could not make it so.

 

 


          The real pillory
50-26          The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human
50-27 27      conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
50-28          the purpose of his mission, was a million
50-29          times sharper than the thorns which pierced
50-30 30      his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
50-31          of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Not
50-32          the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 51

 

 


51-1 1        lips the plaintive cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" It
51-2          was the possible loss of something more important than
51-3 3        human life which moved him, — the possible misappre-
51-4          hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
51-5          dread added the drop of gall to his cup.

 

 


          Life-power indestructible
51-6 6        Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.
51-7          He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
51-8          spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;
51-9 9        but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-
51-10          tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
51-11          the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life
51-12 12      of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
51-13          enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-
51-14          plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,
51-15 15      was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
51-16          no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
51-17          more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could
51-18 18      be extinguished.

 

 


          Example for our salvation
51-19          His consummate example was for the salvation of us
51-20          all, but only through doing the works which he did and
51-21 21      taught others to do. His purpose in healing
51-22          was not alone to restore health, but to demon-
51-23          strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by
51-24 24      Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
51-25          of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
51-26          inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-
51-27 27      ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.

 

 


51-28          Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
51-29          from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist
51-30 30      to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
51-31          Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
51-32          dead.

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 52

 

 


          Master's business
52-1 1        From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-
52-2          ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-
52-3 3        ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He
52-4          served God; they served mammon. His affec-
52-4          tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in
52-6 6        the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
52-7          senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-
52-8          dence of sin, sickness, and death.

 

 


          Purity's rebuke
52-9 9        Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
52-10          rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world's
52-11          hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the
52-12 12      prophet's foresight of the reception error would
52-13          give him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah's
52-14          graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace.
52-15 15      Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
52-16          in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
52-17          trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again
52-18 18      make common cause against the exponents of truth.

 

 


          Saviour's prediction
52-19          The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-
52-20          ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-
52-21 21      tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were
52-22          the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
52-23          Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-
52-24 24      est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
52-25          ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
52-26          disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:
52-27 27      "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
52-28          also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe."

 

 


          Defamitory accusations
52-29          The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-
52-30 30      dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-
52-31          auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton
52-32          and a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 53

 

 


53-1        through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans and
53-2          sinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their
53-3 3        meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did
53-4          the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far
53-5          removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene.
53-6 6        He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because
53-7          he was their friend; hence the cup he drank.

 

 


          Reputation and character
53-8          The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his
53-9 9        character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
53-10          practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He
53-11          was at work in divine Science. His words
53-12 12      and works were unknown to the world because above
53-13          and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be-
53-14          lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine,
53-15 15      infinite Love.

 

 


          Inspiring discontent
53-16          The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
53-17          which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which
53-18 18      might flow from such discomfort.  Science
53-19          shows the cause of the shock so often pro-
53-20          duced by the truth, — namely, that this shock arises from
53-21 21      the great distance between the individual and Truth.
53-22          Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of
53-23          denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which
53-24 24      goodness makes for the destruction of evil.

 

 


          Bearing our sins
53-25          Jesus bore our sins in his body.  He knew the
53-26          mortal errors which constitute the material body, and
53-27 27      could destroy those errors; but at the time
53-28          when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not
53-29          conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-
53-30 30      terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of
53-31          spiritual power.

 

 


53-32          Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 54

 

 


54-1 1        have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the
54-2          magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine
54-3 3        Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-
54-4          fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
54-5          error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness,
54-6 6        seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified
54-7          example introduced.

 

 


          Inspiration of sacrifice
54-8          Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All
54-9 9        must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true
54-10          idea of God. That he might liberally pour
54-11          his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-
54-12 12      filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus'
54-13          intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com-
54-14          mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and
54-15 15      Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over
54-16          death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest
54-17          proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers
54-18 18      understood neither his words nor his works. They
54-19          would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor
54-20          follow his example.

 

 


          Spiritual friendship
54-21 21      His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the
54-22          dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious
54-23          friends, whose religion was something more
54-24 24      than a name. It was so vital, that it en-
54-25          abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share
54-26          the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-
54-27 27      lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con-
54-28          firmed the prediction.

 

 


          Injustice to the Saviour
54-29          If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on
54-30 30      earth to-day, would not some, who now pro-
54-31          fess to love him, reject him? Would they
54-32          not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 55

 

 


55-1 1        tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?
55-2          The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the
55-3 3        invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and
55-4          usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but
55-5          this does not affect the invincible facts.

 

 


55-6 6        Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more
55-7          injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon
55-8          the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being.   Now
55-9 9        that the gospel of healing is again preached by the
55-10          wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But
55-11          that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a
55-12 12      clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be
55-13          left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of
55-14          the synagogue.

 

 


55-15 15      Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,
55-16          gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My
55-17          weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall
55-18 18      recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
55-19          himself, — when he shall realize God's omnipotence and
55-20          the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done
55-21 21      and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful-
55-22          filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing
55-23          is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly
55-24 24      all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's
55-25          cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of
55-26          Christian healing.

 

 


55-27 27      In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another
55-28          Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." This
55-29          Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.

 

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