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ELIZABETH EARL JONES, CSB "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus The question that confronts the world today is much the same as that which confronted it in Jesus' time, and in fact since the first page of human history was indited. It is simply a question of whom we will serve as God, and what we will acknowledge and obey as law. Moreover, the conditions before us today, in making our choice, are very much the same as those uncovered by the Master in his answer to the question of the rich young man as to how he might find the life that is eternal: "Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, . . . and come and follow me." We cannot surrender fully to the harmonious government of divine law so long as we cling to the material hypotheses and human reasonings which mortals name law. The first command of God to man and the universe is revealed in the spiritual genesis of creation, and all later revelations of truth have but elaborated upon this great basis of divine law governing the universe and holding man forever perfect in the image of God. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: . . . And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion." The law of God gives to man, as God's reflection, dominion over the entire universe. The universe does not have dominion over man to subdue him, since this would involve a reversal of the divine order. No accidents could occur to men, if they were willing to acknowledge but one law, and that the divine. Molecular changes in the atmosphere could not produce an inflammation of the mucous membrane if we realized that the asserted law of disease was false and powerless, and that man has dominion and divine authority to subdue the earth. Fevers could not ravish, nor chills deplete if men knew and obeyed the law of Spirit, the law of Life and Love. Electricity, gravitation, physics, chemistry, anatomy, astrology, hypnotism, time, space, and all other imaginary links and limits in the varied beliefs of human sense which claim to be laws and conditions governing man and the universe, are annulled and annihilated by the fulness of the ever-present, ever-operative law of Truth and Love. Human reasoning is as material as the atomic theory upon which it builds its Babel, in vain endeavor to reach harmony and dominion by some other way than through the narrow gate of humility and spiritual apprehension. Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets, reasoned and worked upon a diametrically different basis from the physicist and the hypnotist; namely, upon the supremacy of Spirit. The Scriptures, taken as a whole, might well be denominated the history of the triumph of Spirit over matter, of good over evil. Jesus' advent in the flesh was in direct contradiction to all human laws of life and generation. With the word of Truth he annihilated the supposed action of materiality, — the blind saw, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead were raised. Jesus fed the multitude with five loaves and a few small fishes, and yet it is recorded that twelve baskets full were taken up of the fragments that remained after all had eaten and were filled. If Jesus had employed hypnotism, there would have been nothing left over to prove that the food had been multiplied. If chemical reaction were a divine law, then, even though Jesus had raised Lazarus from, the dead after he had been in the tomb four days, Lazarus would have straightway died again from the effects of the so-called deadly poisons of a decaying material body. Above all the many proofs of spiritiual dominion which Jesus gave, there stands out boldly this one complete refutation of the false belief that matter is real or substantial. When Jesus ascended into heaven his body was completely dematerialized by spiritualization of thought; it vanished forever to human sight and sense, and not one atom was left to disintegrate. We are therefore compelled to accept either the Gospels and our own spiritual experiences, and to give up entirely all belief in material laws and forces, — sell all we have and follow Christ, — or else we must deny all these spiritual forces in order to cling a little longer to helpless vessels of clay. In proportion as we deny the so-called laws of matter and come more unreservedly under the law of God, — of harmony, health, holiness, — in that degree do we begin to feel and exercise man's God-given dominion over earthly claims; a spiritual dominion that in blessing one, blesses all; that ever multiplies our sense of good. and renders it fruitful, replenishing wasted energies and resources, and subduing all sin, disease, and death. Christian Science gives its students a very comprehensive, logical, and satisfying view of the universe and its divine law, and enables them to prove the truth by practical demonstration. Perhaps this appeals to us as its most Christlike aspect, — that it really meets our human needs. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says, "A wrong motive involves defeat" (p. 446); therefore true Christian Scientists constantly examine their motives in connection with their desire for health and harmony. They desire health, not that they may be at ease in matter or sin, but that they may be utterly rid of the idolatrous belief of any life or power apart from God. They strive to understand and reflect the one Divine cause, and to allow this one cause to form and produce its own effect as naturally, sweetly, and harmoniously as the flower unfolds to shed abroad its perfume under the rays of the summer sun. To resort to matter for healing is to develop faith in the cause of all discord, and it renders us more sensitive to false claims and beliefs. To look ever to God, Spirit, for help and support, lessens our faith in the unreal and material, and thereby lessens also our liability to suffering from that source; hence the right thinker and doer is constantly becoming immune to discord. The question as to which we love more, matter or Spirit, answers itself in our daily lives. If we love matter more we will seek to preserve our sense of pleasure or comfort in it, at the expense of spiritual growth; while if we love Spirit more we will strive to hold to it, and gain a truer understanding of it, at any cost. This point is wonderfully illumined in two pictures from the New Testament, Paul in his extremity, and Jesus on Calvary. Pressed on every side by foes thirsting for his very blood, Paul made one desperate effort to save his sense of life in the body, and cried, "I appeal unto Caesar." Later, when he was examined before King Agrippa, and his case was fully and fairly stated, King Agrippa said, significantly, "This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar." This seemed to be the only vulnerable point in that grand apostle's armor. We are all familiar with the sad history of his bonds and imprisonment and execution, but we are also familiar with his glorious achievements in the meantime, showing that he returned to the right trust and "fought the good fight," finished the course, and won his "crown of rejoicing," although Caesar claimed his dues. When Jesus stood before Pilate, accused by the angry mob without, he was reminded that the servant of Caesar could set him free. Jesus calmly made answer to the lordly Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." On the cross, when malicious evil was doing its worst, and the claims of death and utter darkness were pressing sore upon him, Jesus abandoned forever any attempt to save his human body, and launched splendidly out into the infinite deeps of divine Life and Love, crying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Saying this, he "yielded up the ghost," gave up forever any sense of life in or of matter, — that he might retain his faith in his spiritual origin and come fully and finally under the dominion of the spiritual law of Life, and thus "he proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate" (Science and Health, p. 44). In coming entirely under the law of God, all the laws of mortal mind which his enemies employed against him to destroy him, were rendered null and void. The fabric of the old theology was rent in twain from top to bottom, and could no longer separate man from God, who is his Life. The foundations of the earth were shaken; the sun was darkened, and men's hearts failed them for fear. But above the din and destruction of evil's strongholds, the law of divine Love, the law that sustained Jesus, was dispersing the mists of error, — blessing, healing, purifying, and uplifting, even as it always had done and always will do. In demonstrating the power of divine Love over malice, sensuality, death, and all evil, Jesus ministered to and broke the bonds of false belief that had held human sense captive since the flood, — the belief that life is in matter and that sin can kill man. It was the supremacy of divine law, annulling the laws of the material realm, that caused the great stone, sealed by the Sanhedrin, guarded by Roman soldiers, and, supposedly held fixed in its place by the same law that governs sun and planets, to roll away. How simple and natural is the supremacy of good! The supposed laws of matter, operating to prevent the resurrection, were also wiped out, and Jesus arose, refreshed, strengthened, and renewed in the might of omnipotence. He had lost nothing by his unreserved surrender to Spirit, but had gained all; even his sense of the body was restored, — purified, lifted up, and then transfigured. Jesus thus interpreted for us the resurrection. He triumphed in the warfare between flesh and Spirit, because he overcame the flesh instead of trying to keep it and save it and spiritualize it. His spiritual victory extended its saving energy to his whole problem, even to the body, and he left his example as a chart for us, to guide our feet into the "way of peace." The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy, has rendered the world the greatest service that it is possible for any one to render, in that she has explained to us the mission of Jesus, and the supreme, unvarying, and ever-operative spiritual law under which he wrought his misnamed "miracles." It only remains for us to ponder these things in the light of spiritual understanding, and to let his teachings take root in our hearts and bear in our lives the rich "fruit of the Spirit," which Paul tells us, in his letter to the Galatians, is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
The Christian Science Journal, September, 1907 |
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