Chapter 2 — Atonement and Eucharist

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

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

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

Divine oneness

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

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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.

Efficacious repentance

 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 secur-
 ity, 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, —

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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.

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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,” be-
 cause 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 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.

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 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.

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

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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 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.

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

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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 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.

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

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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

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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 effi-
 cacy 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 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.

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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.

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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.

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Help and hindrance

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
 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-
 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.

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 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.

Christian warfare

 There is too much animal courage in society and not

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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 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-

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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 en-
 dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-
 out 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

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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,” im-
 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.

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 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.”

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 perse-
 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

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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 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.”

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 nat-
 ural 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

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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 everlast-
 ing 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

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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 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.

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 new-
 born 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 inspira-
 tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-
 mended 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 re-
 form him, the good man’s heaven would be a hell to

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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 un-
 limited 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 mock-
 ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.

Vicarious suffering

30 Religious history repeats itself in the suf-
 fering 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 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!”

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 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.”

Material pleasures

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,
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 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.

Page 39

Mockery of truth

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
 triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-
 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.

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; be-
 hold, 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 attain-
 ment 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, perceiv-
 ing 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 personal-
 ity. 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 right-
 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 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 hypo-
 crite 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 theol-
 ogy 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 the-
 ology 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 Jerusa-
 lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
 who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.

Death outdone

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 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

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 disappear-
 ance 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 Pentecos-
 tal 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 perpetu-
 ated 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 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

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 suprem-
 acy 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 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.

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 Sci-
 ence 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 reve-
 lation 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-

Page 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.

Spiritual interpretation

 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
 Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries
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.

Corporeality and Spirit

 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
 ascended, — or, in other words, rose even
 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.

Spiritual ascension

 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
 his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a
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.

Pentecostal power

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-

Page 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.
 They no longer measured man by material
 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.

The traitor’s conspiracy

 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
 and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his
 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.

Gethsemane glorified

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

Page 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
 not watch with me one hour?” Could they
 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.

Defensive weapons

 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-
 onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before
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.”

Pilate’s question

 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
 was ignorant of the consequences of his awful
 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.

Page 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.”

Students’ ingratitude

 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
 sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
 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?

Heaven’s sentinel

 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
 arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had
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.

Cruel contumely

 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
 cross, saying derisively, “He saved others;
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.”

Page 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?

A cry of despair

 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
 cry, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
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.

Divine Science misunderstood

 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
 what they did say, — that Jesus’ teachings
 were false, and that all evidence of their cor-
24 rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
 could not make it so.

The real pillory

 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
 times sharper than the thorns which pierced
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

Page 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.

Life-power indestructible

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;
9 but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-
 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.

Example for our salvation

 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
 was not alone to restore health, but to demon-
 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.

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Master’s business

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
 served God; they served mammon. His affec-
 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.

Purity’s rebuke

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
12 prophet’s foresight of the reception error would
 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.

Saviour’s prediction

 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
 the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
 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.”

Defamatory accusations

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

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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.

Reputation and character

 The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his
9 character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
 practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He
 was at work in divine Science. His words
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.

Inspiring discontent

 The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
 which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which
18 might flow from such discomfort. Science
 shows the cause of the shock so often pro-
 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.

Bearing our sins

 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
 when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not
 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

Page 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.

Inspiration of sacrifice

 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
 his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-
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.

Spiritual friendship

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
24 than a name. It was so vital, that it en-
 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.

Injustice to the Saviour

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

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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.