0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 5 – Unity of Good – Chpt 14 – The Saviours Mission

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                THE SAVIOUR'S MISSION 

 1	    If there is no reality in evil, why did the Messiah come
  	to the world, and from what evils was it his purpose
 3	to save humankind? How, indeed, is he a Saviour, if
  	the evils from which he saves are nonentities? 
  	    Jesus came to earth; but the Christ (that is, the divine
 6	idea of the divine Principle which made heaven and  earth)
  	was never absent from the earth and heaven; hence the
  	phraseology of Jesus, who spoke of the Christ as one who
 9	came down from heaven, yet as "the Son of man which
  	is in heaven."  (John iii. 13.) By this we understand
  	Christ to be the divine idea brought to the flesh in the son
12	of Mary. 
  	    Salvation is as eternal as God. To mortal thought
  	Jesus appeared as a child, and grew to manhood, to suffer
15	before Pilate and on Calvary, because he could reach and
  	teach mankind only through this conformity to mortal
  	conditions; but Soul never saw the Saviour come and go,
18	because the divine idea is always present. 
  	    Jesus came to rescue men from these very illusions to
  	which he seemed to conform:  from the illusion which
21	calls sin real, and man a sinner, needing a Saviour; the
  	illusion which calls sickness real, and man an invalid,
  	needing a physician; the illusion that death is as real as
 
   
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 1	Life. From such thoughts — mortal inventions, one and
  	all — Christ Jesus came to save men, through ever-present
 3	and eternal good. 
  	    Mortal man is a kingdom divided against itself. With
  	the same breath he articulates truth and error. We say
 6	that God is All, and there is none beside Him, and then
  	talk of sin and sinners as real. We call God omnipotent
  	and omnipresent, and then conjure up, from the dark
 9	abyss of nothingness, a powerful presence named evil. We
  	say that harmony is real, and inharmony is its opposite,
  	and therefore unreal; yet we descant upon sickness, sin,
12	and death as realities. 
  	    With the tongue "bless we God, even the Father; and
  	therewith curse we men, who are made after the simili-
15	tude [human concept] of God.  Out of the same mouth
  	proceedeth blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these
  	things ought not so to be."  (James iii. 9, 10.) Mortals
18	are free moral agents, to choose whom they would serve. 
  	If God, then let them serve Him, and He will be unto them
  	All-in-all. 
21	    If God is ever present, He is neither absent from Him-
  	self nor from the universe. Without Him, the universe
  	would disappear, and space, substance, and immortality
24	be lost. St. Paul says, "And if Christ be not raised, your
  	faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."  (1 Corinthians xv.
  	17.) Christ cannot come to mortal and material sense,
27	which sees not God. This false sense of substance must
  	yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve. Rising
 
   
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 1	above the false, to the true evidence of Life, is the resur-
  	rection that takes hold of eternal Truth. Coming and
 3	going belong to mortal consciousness. God is "the same
  	yesterday, and to-day, and forever." 
  	    To material sense, Jesus first appeared as a helpless
 6	human babe; but to immortal and spiritual vision he was
  	one with the Father, even the eternal idea of God, that
  	was — and is — neither young nor old, neither dead nor
 9	risen. The mutations of mortal sense are the evening and
  	the morning of human thought, — the twilight and dawn
  	of earthly vision, which precedeth the nightless radiance
12	of divine Life. Human perception, advancing toward
  	the apprehension of its nothingness, halts, retreats, and
  	again goes forward; but the divine Principle and Spirit
15	and spiritual man are unchangeable, — neither advancing,
  	retreating, nor halting. 
  	    Our highest sense of infinite good in this mortal sphere
18	is but the sign and symbol, not the substance of good. 
  	Only faith and a feeble understanding make the earthly
  	acme of human sense. "The life which I now live in the
21	flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God."  (Galatians
  	ii. 20.) 
  	    Christian Science is both demonstration and fruition,
24	but how attenuated are our demonstration and realization
  	of this Science! Truth, in divine Science, is the stepping-
  	stone to the understanding of God; but the broken and
27	contrite heart soonest discerns this truth, even as the help-
  	less sick are soonest healed by it. Invalids say, "I have
 
   
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 1	recovered from sickness;" when the fact really remains,
  	in divine Science, that they never were sick. 
 3	    The Christian saith, "Christ (God) died for me, and
  	came to save me;" yet God dies not, and is the ever-
  	presence that neither comes nor goes, and man is forever
 6	His image and likeness. "The things which are seen are
  	temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
  	  (2 Corinthians iv. 18.) This is the mystery of godliness
 9	 — that God, good, is never absent, and there is none be-
  	side good. Mortals can understand this only as they reach
  	the Life of good, and learn that there is no Life in evil. 
12	Then shall it appear that the true ideal of omnipotent and
  	ever-present good is an ideal wherein and wherefor there
  	is no evil. Sin exists only as a sense, and not as Soul. 
15	Destroy this sense of sin, and sin disappears. Sickness,
  	sin, or death is a false sense of Life and good. Destroy
  	this trinity of error, and you find Truth. 
18	    In Science, Christ never died. In material sense Jesus
  	died, and lived. The fleshly Jesus seemed to die, though
  	he did not. The Truth or Life in divine Science — un-
21	disturbed by human error, sin, and death — saith forever,
  	"I am the living God, and man is My idea, never in matter,
  	nor resurrected from it." "Why seek ye the living among
24	the dead?  He is not here, but is risen."  (Luke xxiv. 5, 6.) 
  	Mortal sense, confining itself to matter, is all that can be
  	buried or resurrected. 
27	    Mary had risen to discern faintly God's ever-presence,
  	and that of His idea, man; but her mortal sense, revers-
 
   
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 1	ing Science and spiritual understanding, interpreted this
  	appearing as a risen Christ. The I AM was neither buried
 3	nor resurrected. The Way, the Truth, and the Life were
  	never absent for a moment. This trinity of Love lives
  	and reigns forever. Its kingdom, not apparent to material
 6	sense, never disappeared to spiritual sense, but remained
  	forever in the Science of being. The so-called appearing,
  	disappearing, and reappearing of ever-presence, in whom
 9	is no variableness or shadow of turning, is the false human
  	sense of that light which shineth in darkness, and the
  	darkness comprehendeth it not.SHOW ALL