0.0 – Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 2 – Atonement and Eucharist – 1910 Edition

The word atonement as used in theology means unity, reconciliation, and its derivation is literally at one. At-one-ment therefore is not just a play on words. Some dictionaries even include Mrs Eddy's words, "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love" (S&H 18:1). But the chapter is called Atonement and Eucharist, and in this context eucharist focuses on the price we are required to pay to experience at-one-ment. This price is  that we have to give up all personal sense of a separate self. Jesus' sinless life depicts the surrender of the mortal sense of a life of one's own; he had no sense of himself as a separate person called Jesus. His divine identity as the Christ was his whole being; it demonstrated man reunited with, or reconciled to, God.
~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL

     Chapter 2                                                                        18

  	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. 

 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-	Divine
 6	dividual and collective. He  did life's work	oneness 
  	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. 
  	    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	Human
  	is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself. 	reconciliation 
  	The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
18	Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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 him-
  	self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
 6	Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
  	ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
  	the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
 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, de-
  	claring 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. 
  	    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	Efficacious
  	its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray	repentance 
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 secur-
  	ity, although God is good. 
  	    Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no
30	other gods before me," which may be ren-	Jesus'
  	dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as	sinless career 
  	mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life, — 
 
     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
  	    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,"	Perfect
  	returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor-	example 
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. 
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	Behest of
27	the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us	the cross 
  	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. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                          21 


 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," be-	Moral
  	cause you are a better man. This is having	victory 
  	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 striv-
  	ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma-
  	terial 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. 
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,	Inharmonious
18	different routes to pursue. Our paths have	travellers 
  	diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor-
  	tunity 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. 
  	    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	Zigzag
  	for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring	course 
  	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
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           22 


 1	the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid
  	of this to find and follow the right road. 
 3	    Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope
  	of forgiveness, — selfishness and sensuality causing con-
  	stant retrogression, — our moral progress will	Moral
 6	be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals	retrogression 
  	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. 
  	    "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-	Wait for
  	ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If	reward 
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 dis-
  	cern 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. 
  	    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	Deliverance
  	one's faith without works to another's vicarious	not vicarious 
27	effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or
  	that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not
  	understand God. 
30	    Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
  	cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
  	is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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	Justice and
  	pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires	substitution 
  	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. 
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	Doctrines
15	the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead." 	and faith 
  	Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be-
  	tween 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 estab-
  	lishes the claims of God. 
21	    In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the
  	words corresponding thereto have these two defini-
  	tions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One	Self-reliance
24	kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others. 	and confidence 
  	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
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
  	    Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
  	to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
 6	instigated sometimes by the worst passions of	Life's healing
  	men), open the way for Christian Science to be	currents 
  	understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
 9	the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed
  	out. 
  	    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-	Radical
  	ment; this is the understanding, in which	changes 
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. 
  	    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? 	Purpose of
  	Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary	crucifixion 
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
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           25 


 1	forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of
  	Truth and Love. 
 3	    The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi-
  	cacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than
  	can be expressed by our sense of human	True flesh
 6	blood. The material blood of Jesus was no	and blood 
  	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. 
  	    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	Effective
  	death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better	triumph 
  	than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By
18	his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu-
  	ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the
  	force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my com-
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. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           26 


 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	Individual
  	glory, in speechless agony exploring the way	experience 
  	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. 
  	    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,	Christ's
  	or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine	demonstration 
  	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. 
  	    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	Proof in
  	practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice	practice 
  	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. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
  	    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],	Living
  	and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up." 	temple 
  	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. 
  	    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	Recreant
  	who have left no name. "Many are called,	disciples 
  	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. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           28


 1	    The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di-
  	vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'
 3	mission. Even many of his students stood	Help and
  	in his way. If the Master had not taken a	hindrance 
  	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. 
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	Misleading
18	world measure aright. Even his righteous-	conceptions 
  	ness and purity did not hinder men from saying: He
  	is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is
21	his patron. 
  	    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	Persecution
  	for righteousness' sake belongs to the past,	prolonged 
  	and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world
27	because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis-
  	take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself. 
  	The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle,
30	"of whom the world was not worthy," await, in some
  	form, every pioneer of truth. 
  	    There is too much animal courage in society and not
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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	Christian
  	continue this warfare until they have finished	warfare 
  	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. 
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	The Fatherhood
15	in Christian Science have reached the glori-	of God 
  	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. 
  	    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	Spiritual
  	Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of	conception 
24	men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed
  	the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog-
  	nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
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-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
  	    Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook
 6	partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en-
  	dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-	Jesus the
  	out measure. This accounts for his struggles	way-shower 
 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. 
  	    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	Rebukes
  	ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole	helpful 
  	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
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
  	    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	Fleshly ties
  	is my mother, and who are my brethren," im-	temporal 
  	plying 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. 
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	Healing
15	living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes	primary 
  	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 pu-
  	rity; 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." 
  	    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	Painful
  	and in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse-	prospect 
  	cution 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
 
 
     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           32 


1	do unto you, because they have not known the Father
  	nor me." 
 3	    In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear
  	allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath
  	was sacramentum, and our English word	Sacred
 6	sacrament is derived from it. Among the	sacrament 
  	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 submis-
  	sion to the divine decree. 
15	    "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed
  	it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
  	Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and
18	gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all
  	of it." 
  	    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	Spiritual
  	bread. This would have been foolish in a	refreshment 
24	literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat-
  	ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the
  	material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with
27	spiritual views. 
  	    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	Jesus' sad
  	at the close of day, in the twilight of a	repast 
  	glorious career with shadows fast falling around; and
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           33


 1	this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessions
  	to matter. 
 3	    His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour
  	of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna,
  	which of old had fed in the wilderness the	Heavenly
 6	persecuted followers of Truth. Their bread	supplies 
  	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 everlast-
  	ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said,
  	"Drink ye all of it." 
18	    When the human element in him struggled with the
  	divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but
  	Thine, be done!" — that is, Let not the flesh,	The holy
21	but the Spirit, be represented in me. This	struggle 
  	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. 
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-	Incisive
30	ing of God? If not, can you then say that	questions 
  	you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all
  	who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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? 
  	    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	Millennial
  	world. If all who seek his commemoration	glory 
  	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. 
18	    Through all the disciples experienced, they became more
  	spiritual and understood better what the Master had
  	taught. His resurrection was also their resur-	Fellowship
21	rection. It helped them to raise themselves and	with Christ 
  	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. 
  	    What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and
30	his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples	The last
  	in the bright morning hours at the joyful	breakfast 
  	meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           35 


 1	had passed into glory, and his disciples' grief into repent-
  	ance, — 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 re-
  	ceive 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. 
  	    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 new-	Spiritual
  	born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which	Eucharist 
  	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 inspira-
  	tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-
  	mended to his followers. 
30	    The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the
  	sinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re-
  	form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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	Final
  	into another sphere. Divine Science reveals	purpose 
  	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. 
  	    A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-
  	limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as
21	well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for	Righteous
  	sinners to receive their full punishment this	retribution 
  	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 mock-
  	ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing. 
30	    Religious history repeats itself in the suf-	Vicarious
  	fering of the just for the unjust. Can God	suffering 
  	therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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." 
  	    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,	Martyrs
  	but error falls only before the sword of Spirit. 	inevitable 
 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. 
  	    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	Complete
  	righteous man would gladly have turned his	emulation 
  	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 com-
  	mands: "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!" 
  	    Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration
 
     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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-	Jesus' teaching
  	lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious	belittled 
  	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 be-
  	lieve; . . . 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." 
21	    Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical
  	senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-
  	ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,	Material
24	his spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesus	pleasures 
  	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 grati-
  	fication 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. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           39 


 1	    Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-
  	nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-
 3	lowers will endure until Christianity's last	Mockery
  	triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-	of truth 
  	came 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 cruci-
  	fied." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as
 9	joys and victories, until all error is destroyed. 
  	    The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes
  	mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone
12	out of mortality into immortality and bliss. 	A belief
  	The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus	suicidal 
  	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. 
18	    "Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
  	hold, now is the day of salvation," — meaning, not that
  	now men must prepare for a future-world salva-	Present
21	tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which	salvation 
  	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 attain-
  	ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as
30	triumphs. 
  	    Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes
  	in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that
 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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, perceiv-	Sin and
  	ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing	penalty 
  	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? 
  	    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	Suffering
  	and good as that of Jesus could not avert a	inevitable 
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. 
  	    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 personal-	Service and
  	ity. It is sad that the phrase divine service	worship 
  	has come so generally to mean public worship instead of
30	daily deeds. 
  	    The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,
  	but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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	Within
  	through the joys and triumphs of the right-	the veil 
  	eous 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 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 hypo-	The thorns
  	crite may have a flowery pathway here, but	and flowers 
12	he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the
  	penalty due. 
  	    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	Healing
  	this demonstration of healing was early lost,	early lost 
18	about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient
  	school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theol-
  	ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of
21	absolute Science. 
  	    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	Immortal
  	then sat down at the right hand of the Father. 	achieval 
  	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. 
 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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 the-
  	ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God. 
  	    The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It
 6	cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Death	A belief
  	will be found at length to be a mortal dream,	in death 
  	which comes in darkness and disappears with the light. 
 9	    The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary or
  	popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world
  	and endorsed pre-eminently by the approval	Cruel
12	of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa-	desertion 
  	lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
  	who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross. 
15	    The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God's
  	power was the proof of his final triumph over body
  	and matter, and gave full evidence of divine	Death
18	Science, — evidence so important to mortals. 	outdone 
  	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 won-
  	drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp-
  	tation, 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 believ-
  	eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." They
  	must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting
 
 
     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           43 


1	out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as
  	they did understand it after his bodily departure. 
 3	    The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-
  	ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled
  	the disciples to understand what Jesus had	Pentecost
 6	said. Heretofore they had only believed;	repeated 
  	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 Pentecos-
  	tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history. 
  	    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	Convincing
  	his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to	evidence 
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 perpetu-
  	ated and extended it. 
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. 	Divine
24	Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,	victory 
  	he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat-
  	ter 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
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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 suprem-
  	acy of Spirit be demonstrated. 
  	    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	Jesus in
  	the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. 	the tomb 
 9	He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas-
  	ter of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
  	tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the 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. 
  	    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	The deific
  	art, but it was not a supernatural act. On	naturalism 
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. 
  	    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	Obstacles
  	of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense. 	overcome 
  	There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great
 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           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. 
 6	    Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-
  	ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'
  	deed was for the enlightenment of men and	Victory over
 9	for the salvation of the whole world from sin,	the grave 
  	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. 
  	    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 reve-	The stone
  	lation and demonstration of life in God, hath	rolled away 
  	elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
21	idea of man and his divine Principle, Love. 
  	    They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection
  	and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
24	misconstrued that event. Even his disciples	After the
  	at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,	resurrection 
  	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-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           46


 1	derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform many
  	wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion
 3	and learned that he had not died. This convinced them
  	of the truthfulness of all that he had taught. 
  	    In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends
 6	by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,
  	and by the breaking of bread. The divine	Spiritual
  	Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries	interpretation 
 9	ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak
  	through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the
  	receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and
12	healing the sick. 
  	    The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
  	and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
15	that his body was not changed until he himself	Corporeality
  	ascended, — or, in other words, rose even	and Spirit 
  	higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince
18	Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-
  	prints and the spear-wound. 
  	    Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed
21	to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-
  	terial conditions; and this exaltation explained	Spiritual
  	his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a	ascension 
24	probationary and progressive state beyond the grave. 
  	Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way for
  	all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-
27	sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose
  	above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the
  	material senses saw him no more. 
30	    His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is
  	meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they
  	were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           47 


 1	ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment
  	of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them
 3	a faint conception of the Life which is God. 	Pentecostal
  	They no longer measured man by material	power 
  	sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,
 6	they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,
  	but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of
  	light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming
 9	power as on the Day of Pentecost. 
  	    Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude
  	and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal. 
12	The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silver	The traitor's
  	and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his	conspiracy 
  	time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'
15	teachings. 
  	    A period was approaching which would reveal the in-
  	finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas
18	Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of
  	that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,
  	and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The
21	greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time
  	quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally
  	loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-
24	trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-
  	mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the
  	traitor fell with it. 
27	    The disciples' desertion of their Master in his last
  	earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-
  	lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no
30	record. 
  	    During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,
  	Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           48 


 1	ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the
  	staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-
 3	dents slept. He said unto them: "Could ye	Gethsemane
  	not watch with me one hour?" Could they	glorified 
  	not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-
 6	less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world? 
  	There was no response to that human yearning, and so
  	Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from
 9	sense to Soul. 
  	    Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy
  	benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-
12	blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the
  	same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-
  	ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and
15	Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a
  	life-work. 
  	    Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one
18	of them, and chose not the world's means of defence. 
  	"He opened not his mouth." The great dem-	Defensive
  	onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before	weapons 
21	envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of
  	his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-
  	sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy
24	sword." 
  	    Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,
  	"What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence
27	with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate	Pilate's
  	was ignorant of the consequences of his awful	question 
  	decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing
30	not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what
  	life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for
  	man. 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           49 


 1	    The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's
  	question. They knew what had inspired their devotion,
 3	winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-
  	ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples
  	to say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject
 6	unto us through thy name." 
  	    Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
  	all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the
 9	great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost	Students'
  	sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,	ingratitude 
  	sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-
12	quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
  	human yearning with one sign of fidelity? 
  	    The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-
15	tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
  	God. No human eye was there to pity, no	Heaven's
  	arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had	sentinel 
18	blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
  	post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
  	heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing
21	of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
  	is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
  	reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,
24	Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
  	the grave. 
  	    The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly
27	walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
  	proofs of divine power, mocked him on the	Cruel
  	cross, saying derisively, "He saved others;	contumely 
30	himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned
  	"aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
  	High," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God." 
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           50 


 1	"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
  	before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." 
 3	"Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide
  	what truth and love are? 
  	    The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-
 6	ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
  	of his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awful	A cry of
  	cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" 	despair 
 9	This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
  	impugn the justice and love of a father who could with-
  	hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so
12	faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
  	his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
  	Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken
15	him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
  	question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
  	or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the
18	human race. 
  	    If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-
  	ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,
21	what would his accusers have said? Even	Divine
  	what they did say, — that Jesus' teachings	Science 
  	were false, and that all evidence of their cor-	misunderstood 
24	rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
  	could not make it so. 
  	    The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human
27	conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
  	the purpose of his mission, was a million	The real
  	times sharper than the thorns which pierced	pillory 
30	his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
  	of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Not
  	the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           51 


 1	lips the plaintive cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" It
  	was the possible loss of something more important than
 3	human life which moved him, — the possible misappre-
  	hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
  	dread added the drop of gall to his cup. 
 6	    Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies. 
  	He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
  	spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;	Life-power
 9	but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-	indestructible 
  	tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
  	the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life
12	of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
  	enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-
  	plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,
15	was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
  	no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
  	more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could
18	be extinguished. 
  	    His consummate example was for the salvation of us
  	all, but only through doing the works which he did and
21	taught others to do. His purpose in healing	Example for
  	was not alone to restore health, but to demon-	our salvation 
  	strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by
24	Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
  	of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
  	inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-
27	ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality. 
  	    Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
  	from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist
30	to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
  	Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
  	dead. 
 
 
     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           52 


1	    From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-
  	ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-
 3	ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He	Master's
  	served God; they served mammon. His affec-	business 
  	tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in
 6	the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
  	senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-
  	dence of sin, sickness, and death. 
 9	    Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
  	rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world's
  	hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the	Purity's
12	prophet's foresight of the reception error would	rebuke 
  	give him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah's
  	graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace. 
15	Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
  	in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
  	trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again
18	make common cause against the exponents of truth. 
  	    The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-
  	ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-
21	tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were	Saviour's
  	the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or	prediction 
  	Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-
24	est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
  	ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
  	disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:
27	"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
  	also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe." 
  	    The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-
30	dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-	Defamatory
  	auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton	accusations 
  	and a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           53 


 1	through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans and
  	sinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their
 3	meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did
  	the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far
  	removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene. 
 6	He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because
  	he was their friend; hence the cup he drank. 
  	    The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his
 9	character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
  	practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He	Reputation
  	was at work in divine Science. His words	and character 
12	and works were unknown to the world because above
  	and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be-
  	lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine,
15	infinite Love. 
  	    The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
  	which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which
18	might flow from such discomfort. Science	Inspiring
  	shows the cause of the shock so often pro-	discontent 
  	duced by the truth, — namely, that this shock arises from
21	the great distance between the individual and Truth. 
  	Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of
  	denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which
24	goodness makes for the destruction of evil. 
  	    Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the
  	mortal errors which constitute the material body, and
27	could destroy those errors; but at the time	Bearing
  	when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not	our sins 
  	conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-
30	terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of
  	spiritual power. 
  	    Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would                                        
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           54 


 1	have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the
  	magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine
 3	Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-
  	fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
  	error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness,
 6	seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified
  	example introduced. 
  	    Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All
 9	must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true
  	idea of God. That he might liberally pour	Inspiration
  	his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-	of sacrifice 
12	filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus'
  	intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com-
  	mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and
15	Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over
  	death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest
  	proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers
18	understood neither his words nor his works. They
  	would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor
  	follow his example. 
21	    His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the
  	dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious
  	friends, whose religion was something more	Spiritual
24	than a name. It was so vital, that it en-	friendship 
  	abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share
  	the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-
27	lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con-
  	firmed the prediction. 
  	    If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on
30	earth to-day, would not some, who now pro-	Injustice to
  	fess to love him, reject him? Would they	the Saviour 
  	not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-
 

     Science and Health – Atonement and Eucharist                           55 


 1	tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs? 
  	The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the
 3	invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and
  	usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but
  	this does not affect the invincible facts. 
 6	    Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more
  	injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon
  	the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now
 9	that the gospel of healing is again preached by the
  	wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But
  	that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a
12	clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be
  	left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of
  	the synagogue. 
15	    Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,
  	gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My
  	weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall
18	recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
  	himself, — when he shall realize God's omnipotence and
  	the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done
21	and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful-
  	filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing
  	is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly
24	all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's
  	cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of
  	Christian healing. 
27	    In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another
  	Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." This
         Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.SHOW ALL