Extracts from Life EMMA A. ESTES          What is Life?          Emerson says "Life is a series of surprises."          Shakespeare speaks of it as "a fitful fever."          Whittier, in his "Questions of Life" calls it "A cry between the silences."          Longfellow, in his "Psalm of Life," coming nearer to the true sense says, "Life is real; life is earnest."          Jesus Christ, our precious Saviour, recognizing the falsity of the mortal existence and knowing the true said, "I am the way, the Truth and the Life."          Mortal existence was not Life to Jesus' understanding. In his great love for humanity and his earnest desire to teach the real Life we hear him saying yearningly, "And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life."          No wonder humanity wearies of what it calls life in all its various phases. It seeks for pleasure in what it calls social life and finds it hollow to the core, made up of fashion, frivolities, passions, appetites, pride, envy, jealousy, gossip, and a host of other mortal errors.          Is there anything satisfying, ennobling, and helpful to humanity in these? Does "social life "tend to bring out the higher, nobler qualities of true manhood or womanhood? Every sincere man and woman can answer this question in the negative.          "Business life" engrosses the attention of a large majority of the inhabitants of earth. What is it but a series of fears, problems, doubts, perplexities, losses, gains, frauds, successes, and failures?          Still another phase called "political life" is entered by some, and what do they find therein but a combination of the mortal traits of ambition, deceit, avarice, self-aggrandizement and selfishness. Still another phase is "religious life." In this we find hundreds of varied doctrines denominated religious, all of them — with one illustrious exception — teaching the reality of both good and evil, life and death, matter and mind, truth and error. All these religions are believed, by their earnest devotees, to be the true ones.          Some of the religious life of today consists in attending church regularly, believing in the doctrines preached from the pulpits, and through their religious literature, paying church dues promptly, and donating liberally to the different missions, fairs and theatricals for the benefit of the church, and one day in the week, at least, living up to their highest religious convictions.          Many I believe are daily living true to their highest sense of Christianity. Yet out of all these phases of religious life can we find one that teaches the possibility of overcoming sickness, sin, and death?          Weary of striving to reach the goal of their highest earthly desires men exclaim, "My life has been a failure," and many seek to end their existence, not realizing that the failure was due, not to Life, but to their false sense of it.          "I am come that ye might have Life and have it more abundantly" said our blessed Way-shower out of this tangled web of inconsistencies denominated mortal life. Jesus came to teach and prove to mortals the real Life, and as humanity seeks the true understanding of the words and works of Jesus the Christ, will they find what Life really means. Jesus knew that Life was not dependent upon materiality and not confined within the body, hence he said, "Take no thought for your body" and even permitted men to attempt to destroy what they believed to be his mortal life, knowing that he could prove to them that Life was indestructible and never in or of corporeality. He did prove this beyond all cavil, yet how few, comparatively, of earth's weary mortals understand his grand demonstration of Life. ...          Viewed from a material standpoint life is not worth living, and the poor mortals who are weary of it all and yet ignorant that the real, true Life can be discerned, understood and lived right here and now, should not receive condemnation but compassion. They truly are like "sheep without a shepherd," and to all such, in loving tones our precious Saviour is still calling — "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The practicality of Jesus Christ's teachings is brought to the comprehension of humanity today clearly as never before through the God-inspired teachings of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and proven daily with "signs following" by hundreds of earnest, noble men and women in healing the sick, reforming the sinner, and overcoming discords of every name and nature.          Not long ago a saloonist, the proprietor of three of the most elegantly gilded haunts of error in one of our large cities, hearing of the efficacy of Christian Science through a friend who had been healed, begged that he too might come under its beneficent influence, having exhausted the highest skill of the medical fraternity not only in this country but also in Europe. The Scientist consented to take his case and the results of Truth were manifested at once physically and spiritually. The expiration of a week found the man free from physical errors and deeply interested in the teachings, earnestly studying Science and Health and imbibing its spiritual significance with a readiness that seemed wonderful. ... "This is true Christianity," said he, "and a religion that I desire to follow the remainder of my life."          ... Christian Science awakens man to a consciousness of his true Being, and to a recognition of life as spiritual now. The usual measurement of life by solar years is an imposition on man's freedom and usefulness. Life is eternal and we have the divine right to annul the unjust mortal decrees that would limit man's existence to threescore and ten years. "We live in deeds, not years — In thoughts, not breaths — He most lives who thinks most, Feels the noblest, acts the best."          Is it not best to learn the fact that Life is — not will be — spiritual, real and eternal instead of continuing to believe in the existence that is unreal, material, and temporal? Is it not best to learn now that Life eternal is not gained through death and the grave, but by understanding God as our Life and approaching that Life daily? Is it not wise to learn the Principle of Life and then live it? Through the understanding of Life man proves immortality to be a fact not a fable. "He that hath the son hath life." He who has gained the scientific thought of Life has the true idea, and is coming into that consciousness of health, peace, joy, and harmony which is eternal, thus manifesting the "glorious liberty of the sons of God."   Extracts from "Life" by Emma A. Estes The Christian Science Journal, February, 1896

 

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