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CSEC ON-LINE REFERENCE LIBRARY |
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EVELYN SYLVESTER
Why, indeed? Why have innocent children been allowed to die or to suffer for the sins of their parents by worse than death? Why have consecrated saints been tortured physically and mentally by the relentless hands of disease and despair? Why has a loving and a just God permitted it all, standing helpless "at our right hand" or "covering us with his feathers" in vain? Let us consider these things: clearly there is fault. The question is, does it lie with God or with the world? Nearly two thousand years ago in a lowly town of Judaea, a babe of humble parentage was born. Three men, wise in their generation, came from the East to worship him. Stopping not to question the manner of his coming, they knelt in reverence before the young child. To what was their homage given? Surely to nothing that the human senses could discern! By spiritual intuition or miraculous vision they saw and knelt — not to a human infant, but to a divine idea manifested in the flesh. Then they went away satisfied, never doubting the divine proof within their inmost consciousness that he was to be "The Way, the Truth, and the Life" for all mankind. Those not gifted with this spiritual insight scorned the "Idea," and although afterwards by repeated signs and wonders, some were brought to acknowledge the Messiah, by far the greater portion of mankind rejected him. Why was this? The Jews professed to be devout believers in the Prophets who had foretold this very coming of Emmanuel or God with us. His name was to be called "Wonderful," "Counsellor," "The Prince of Peace," and he should "save the people from their sins." Yet those pretending to follow most closely the teachings of the Old Testament were his bitterest opponents. The difficulty seems to have lain in the fact that these prophecies should have been interpreted spiritually as well as materially. By no stretch of their slender imagination could they conceive of the humble Nazarene as a mighty Prince having power with God and with men. But does any Christian today doubt that the Christ was really manifested to mortals nearly two thousand years ago? Yet what proof of his coming have we save this: He fulfilled every Scriptural prophecy concerning the Messiah, and revealed God as God never had been known before; this, too, not only by preaching about God, but by a living demonstration of what he taught. The Ten Commandments, not destroyed but fulfilled, were enhanced and enriched by the Sermon on the Mount. So-called miracles, possible in the days of Moses and Elijah, but which for centuries before Christ had become recognized impossibilities, were again performed, not only by the divinely-inspired Teacher, but by all who followed his teachings. In short, old things had passed away, and all things had become new. Suppose the question we are considering, i.e., If Christian Science be true why did God wait so long before revealing it, had been asked in Jesus' time. It was surely as justifiable then as now; the need of salvation from sin, sickness, and death was as great in that day as in this; yet for hundreds of years they had been without and had been waiting for a visible Saviour. What, may we presume, would Jesus have replied? Might he not first have said, “Before Abraham was, I am," showing that the Christ Principle, or Truth, was without "beginning of years or end of days." And again, "I and my Father are one," further elucidating the fact that while unperceived by their material senses, he had been ever with them. Jesus, the Virgin's son, had not been with them always; but Christ, the eternal Truth and Life of man, never had been absent. This same Christ Jesus, knowing that Truth and Life were always with them, yet declared "I will come again." And while the disciples stood gazing in awe as he was caught up from their sight, the angel (a pure thought which their clarified understanding could perceive) announced that in like manner should he come again. ... Should we not look in this Second Coming for a higher revelation of the Christ; ... “even the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance" (John, 14: 26). Not a new truth, not a different truth, but the same truth which “brings all things ("Whatsoever I have said unto you") to our remembrance." And if it is the same truth, must it not follow absolutely the letter and spirit of Jesus' teaching? And if it depart not from his teaching is it not equally certain that the promised "signs" must "follow them that believe"? Truth has been with us during the past nineteen hundred years just as surely as it was with the Father of Hebrew history. But as ages of disobedience, of suffering, of repentance and prophecy prepared the way for the Messiah, so in this day the liberation of thought resulting from modern invention, study, and research has made possible this final revelation of Truth to the human understanding. Today the spirit of inquiry is abroad, — the insatiable desire "to know," — and tolerance has so far supplanted bigotry as to make men — some men — willing to investigate the wonders of this nineteenth century. As soon as it was possible for it to come, Christian Science came. Even now, were we to judge by the testimony of the senses, we should be tempted to think that it came too soon, for the carnal mind, always at enmity with spirituality, has opposed it bitterly from the first. Jesus distinctly promised a final reappearing of Truth, proceeding from the Father and testifying of himself (John, 15: 26), and St. John, who possessed the refinement of spiritual vision, clearly foretold this event. We have waited nearly two thousand years for the fulfilment of this prophecy. Many false Christs have arisen to vanish in a day because their claim was not valid. Finally comes Christian Science, clothed in humility, bringing with it the proofs which must follow them that believe (Mark, 16: 17, 18); testifying (bearing witness) to the truth of every word uttered by our Master, including that uncompromising text in John, 14: 12, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;" in short, fulfilling every Scriptural prophecy concerning the Second Coming of Truth just as Jesus fulfilled those relating to the Messiah: thus proving not that truth as Jesus taught it has changed, but that mortals have fallen away from it, and consequently have been unable to obey literally the commands: — "Love one another, as I have loved you." "Bless them that curse you." "Preach the Gospel; heal the sick." "Freely ye have received, freely give." Much preparation was necessary before such high, uncompromising truth could be accepted and lived; the mental attitude of the present time — the inquiring mind permeated with tolerance — has made it possible to introduce Christian Science to the extent of our present meagre acquaintance therewith. As two people when introduced are attracted or repelled, so much seems to depend upon the first presentation of Christian Science to us; not because it is a vacillating truth, changing to fit the moods of inquirers, but because we, calling ourselves Christian Scientists, differing as widely as individuals may, reflect Truth in varying degrees. Truth and Love are ever the same, — broad and deep and rich enough to satisfy every craving known to humanity; we are in grave error if we look to Christian Scientists rather than to Christian Science, for an absolute knowledge of God. How grievously disappointed were we when, in the churches, we looked for an exemplification of Christian Life to Christians rather than to Christ! Notwithstanding our present limitations, however, there is a vital spark in this new-old religion that touches with a "consuming fire" all who yield thereto. What is this? What is it that calls the Roman Catholic from his time-honored belief? The Jew from centuries of unbelief? The Christian of every denomination, the Christian of no denomination; the moral infidel, the immoral hypocrite? What, we ask, is the vital spark that touches all these varying mortals and meets their widely differing needs? Turning to the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker G. Eddy, we shall find on page 7 these words: "The vital part, the heart and Soul of Christian Science, is Love." A Love that is lived as well as talked; a Love that guides and protects us seven days in the week, twenty-four hours in each day; a Love — but you turn away disappointed. "Nothing new after all," you say. No, nothing new. It is the same centuries-old Love "without beginning or years or end of days," the same Love that Jesus taught and that Christian Science "brings to our remembrance." Those coming to Christian Science in search of something novel and strange, those seeking a mysterious by-path, a short cut, as it were, into the Kingdom, will meet only disappointment, for Christ has shown us the only way to heaven, or inward, individual harmony. "He that overcometh [conquers his belief in a life or mind apart from God] shall inherit all things," i.e., all things spiritual. "For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Shall we cling, then, to old opinions declaring Christian Science is not Truth when it fulfils every demand made by the Master? Shall we continue to look for a "second coming," even as the Jews are still looking for a first? Shall we hesitate to accept Christian Science because it comes in an unlooked-for way through an undreamed-of channel? Why should not this revelation of Truth have come through a woman? Let us study the Revelation of St. John through the lens of the Christian Science textbook; we may thus gain new light on this profound subject. One thing is certain: when we express the deepest humility and conquer most of self; when we approximate the state wherein it is possible to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves — then are we able to catch the clearest glimpses of Truth. How logically follows the conclusion that she who has made it possible in this age to follow closest the footsteps of our blessed Master, must have expressed the deepest humility, must have conquered the most of self, and must have entered the very heart of an experience that made it possible to love her neighbor as herself. God bless our "Mother in Israel" who, like Moses of old, is leading us forth, out of the bondage of beliefs, fears, illusions, and a false sense of life, into a broader humanity, a higher faith, a nobler aspiration, and a profounder love. She has led us into the unbounded field of limitless Truth where all things beautiful and good exist. If we find here aught but health, holiness, and peace, it is not because she has failed in pointing out the way to God.
The Christian Science Journal, September, 1899 |
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