Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures

CHAPTER II — ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST

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

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

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

PAGE 18

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

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

PAGE 19

1	from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
3	Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness. Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for himself. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
6	Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
9	sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,— the law of divine Love.
12	The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, declaring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and death, although his teaching set households at variance,
15	and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a sword.

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

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

PAGE 20

1	even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
3	God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved, not by spirits but by Spirit.
6	To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a
9	new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the
12	clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet be sensual and sinful.

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

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

PAGE 21

	Moral victory
1	If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a
3	good fight . . . I have kept the faith," because you are a better man. This is having our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love.
6	Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph, that they shall reach his harmony and reward.
9	If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things
12	of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy.

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

	Zigzag course
	Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither-
27	ward. He is like a traveller going westward for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for
30	six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By-and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow

PAGE 22

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

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

	Wait for reward
	"Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
12	Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re- ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If
15	your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a sluggard in the race.
18	When the smoke of battle clears away, you will discern the good you have done, and receive according to your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from
21	temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.

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

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

PAGE 23

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

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

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

PAGE 24

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

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

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

	Purpose of crucifixion
	Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus
21	chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to be forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary
24	only for the presentation, after death, of the material Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then we must differ from them both.
27	The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af- fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that
30	it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own disciples could not admit such an event to be possible. After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was

PAGE 25

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

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

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

PAGE 26

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

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

	Proof in practice
	A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-
21	tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was
24	the precious import of our Master's sinless career and of his demonstration of power over death. He proved by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,
27	and death.
	Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. It was the divine Principle of all real being which he
30	taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no form or system of religion and worship, but Christian Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.

PAGE 27

1	Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in- tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had
3	come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
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 in
9	the Messianic work.

	Living temple
	That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-
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,
15	and intelligence of the universe — is not in matter to be destroyed.
	Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
18	sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut down the false doctrine of pantheism, — that God, or
21	Life, is in or of matter.

	Recreant disciples
	Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits
24	him with two or three hundred other disciples who have left no name. "Many are called, but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because
27	they never truly understood their Master's instruction.
	Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-
30	tors made their strongest attack upon this very point. They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.

PAGE 28

	Help and hindrance
1	The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the divine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'
3	mission. Even many of his students stood in his way. If the Master had not taken a student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would
6	not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and Love.
9	While respecting all that is good in the Church or out of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we
12	cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.

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

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

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

PAGE 29

1	sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple
3	with sin in themselves and in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the
6	crown of rejoicing. Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis- belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly
9	in times of persecution, because then our labor is more needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we may never receive it in this world.

	The Fatherhood of God
12	There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be- lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed
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, and
18	gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is, Joshua, or Saviour.

	Spiritual conception
	The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to
21	silence material law and its order of generation, and brought forth her child by the revelation of Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of
24	men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recognition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
27	an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea, though at first faintly developed.
30	Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit, is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-

PAGE 30

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

	Jesus the way-shower
	Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook
6	partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was endowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, without measure. This accounts for his struggles
9	in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him to be the mediator, or way-shower, between God and men. Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal
12	usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal mind as "the way."
	Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said:
15	"An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, the new executor for God, present the divine law of Love,
18	which blesses even those that curse it.

	Rebukes helpful
	As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death,—
21	to point out the way of Truth and Life. This ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between
24	the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and of error.
	If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of
27	material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Only in this way can we bless our enemies, though they
30	may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found

PAGE 31

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

	Healing primary
12	First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol- lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the
15	living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him in deed. Obeying his precious precepts, — following his
18	demonstration so far as we apprehend it, — we drink of his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his purity ; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full
21	understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs over death. For what says Paul? "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
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-
27	shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Again, foreseeing the persecution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus
30	said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service; and these things will they

PAGE 32

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

	Sacred sacrament
3	In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath was sacramentum, and our English word
6	sacrament is derived from it. Among the Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a feast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the
9	Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier's oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows
12	forth his bitter experience, — the cup which he prayed might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submission to the divine decree.
15	"As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and
18	gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it."

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

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

PAGE 33

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

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

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

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

PAGE 34

1	truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira-
3	tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God," that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ,
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 we
9	memorials of that friend?

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

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

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

PAGE 35

1	had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repentance, — hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced
3	of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right
6	side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-
9	ness of life as Spirit.
	This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
12	commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to receive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their
15	Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh,
18	when he rose out of material sight.

	Spiritual Eucharist
	Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can
21	unite with this church only as we are newborn of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth
24	the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one God. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven,"
27	is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspiration of Love, the draught our Master drank and commended to his followers.

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

PAGE 36

1	the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of
3	Truth and Love simply through translation into another sphere. Divine Science reveals the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after
6	death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penalty due for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escape from punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-
9	ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.
	Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his
12	earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John, the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed in silent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly
15	price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-
18	minded.

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

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

PAGE 37

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

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

	Complete emulation
	When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate him in all his ways and to imitate his mighty works?
18	Those who procured the martyrdom of that righteous man would gladly have turned his sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May
21	the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im- port of that career! It is possible, — yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman, — to follow
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 in
27	the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative commands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,
30	and preach the gospel to every creature!" "Heal the sick!"

	Jesus' teaching belittled
	Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration

PAGE 38

1	to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are assured that this command was intended only for a par-
3	ticular period and for a select number of fol- lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a
6	few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of
9	divine Science.
	Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
12	shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressing his disciples, yet he did not say, " These signs shall follow you," but them — "them that believe" in all time to come.
15	Here the word hands is used metaphorically, as in the text, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expresses spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have
18	been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe "through their word."

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

PAGE 39

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

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

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

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

PAGE 40

1	evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-
3	vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiving the scope and tendency of Christian healing and its Science, will support them. Another will say:
6	"Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee."
	Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted
9	it. Science removes the penalty only by first removing the sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense of divine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method
12	of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there's life there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there's sin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our
15	own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?

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

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

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

PAGE 41

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

The thorns and flowers

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

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

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

PAGE 42

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

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

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

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

PAGE 43

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

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

	Convincing evidence
	Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,
12	the most profitable to his students. The malignity of brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to
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,
18	and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetuated and extended it.

Divine victory

21	Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned him, but he was demonstrating divine Science.
24	Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies, he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of matter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him.
27	The divine must overcome the human at every point. The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-
30	gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs. Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must

PAGE 44

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

	Jesus in the tomb
	The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
6	from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being. His three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.
9	He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Christian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims
12	of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.
	He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted
15	energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove
18	the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ his feet as before.

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

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

PAGE 45

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

	Victory over the grave
6	Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Science in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus' deed was for the enlightenment of men and
9	for the salvation of the whole world from sin, sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death
12	of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talked with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-
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-
18	man hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
21	idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

	After the resurrection
	They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
24	misconstrued that event. Even his disciples at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre, for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:
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-
30	cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over matter. Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-

« Previous  |  Table of Contents  |  Next »