|
CSEC ON-LINE REFERENCE LIBRARY |
|
JOHN ELLIS SEDMAN Jesus had taught many students, and had illustrated his teaching by his practice. The time had come to test how far the average student had grasped that teaching. Accordingly he selected, not the twelve who had enjoyed unusual opportunities to learn, but seventy average men, whom he instructed and sent into certain cities and villages with instructions to "heal the sick" and to say to the inhabitants, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." The record states, "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Thereupon Jesus rejoiced. The success of the seventy proved that he had presented the truth so clearly and accurately that the average man, if childlike enough to be teachable, could grasp it and thereby learn how to handle the evil suggestions which originate in the human mind. The establishment of that fact assured the ultimate destruction of all evil. Hence the Master's remarkable declaration: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." While the seventy did their healing work in the cities and villages, the Master was active in a way which they did not then understand, but which later became plain to those who continued to follow in his footsteps. Jesus knew how to annul the false arguments of necromancy or hypnotism without interfering with any man's God-given right of self-government, without violating his precious precept which we now call the Golden Rule; and through his clear realization of the allness and oneness of God, good, and the powerlessness, the nothingness of its suppositional opposite, he taught his students how to protect themselves and their work from the aggressive attacks of evil. That Jesus revealed to those who understood his teaching the method whereby occult evil can be overcome, is clearly indicated by the words and deeds of his true followers as recorded in the New Testament. John declared that the very purpose for which the Son of God appeared was "that he might destroy the works of the devil." Paul knew that the weapons of spiritual warfare "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;" and he likewise recognized that spiritual warfare is waged "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Phillip "preached Christ" and healed the sick in Samaria; and his work there caused the bottom to fall out of the petty little kingdom presided over by the mental manipulator, Simon, who had "used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one." When false doctrines, however, had so obscured the true teaching of Christ Jesus that Christian healing, as he and his true followers had practiced it, ceased, then for a season this world was left without any adequate means of defense against the aggressive onslaught of witchcraft, sorcery, or hypnotism. Only those who understand God well enough to heal sickness and sin, can know how to render null and void hypnotic suggestions deliberately employed for an evil purpose. Consequently, in the thirteen centuries that Christian healing lay dormant, hypnotism ran riot in the world, and in the hands of elaborately developed human organizations interfered, to a degree not generally recognized, in the affairs of men and nations. When, however, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Mary Baker Eddy rediscovered the Science which Jesus taught and practiced, demonstrated the healing power of the ever present Christ, and explained her discovery with clarity and adequacy of statement, she placed within the grasp of this age the divine method which Jesus and his disciples had used in liberating the victims of evil suggestions and in overcoming occult evil. The tremendous importance of this fact is beginning to dawn upon the race, and will become steadily clearer as spiritual enlightenment increases. Christian Science makes plain the fact that in order to gain all blessedness humanity needs only to stop trusting in human dreaming, devising, and scheming, and to concede all intelligence, all volition, all power to divine Principle, Love. "Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned," writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 266), "is heaven. The evil beliefs which originate in mortals are hell." But the unenlightened human mind, proudly claiming an intelligence, an initiative, a will of its own, thinks it must and can successfully defend its false modes of thought and action against the transforming leaven of Truth. When divine wisdom impelled Moses to lead the children of Israel away from Egyptian darkness, Balak saw in that activity, not the dawning of a better day for a world, but only something which he believed threatened his welfare, — something which he sought by the aid of divination to overthrow. And a similar thing occurred in the year A. D. 1914. Those responsible for the war which began in that year thought they could check the spread of freedom and righteousness, and place the world squarely under the domination of carnal-mindedness. They failed, and human pride and arrogance went down to defeat, not because they had defied great nations which possessed a preponderance of material strength, but because they fought against the irresistible power of Truth. "The 'still small voice' of scientific thought," as Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 559), "reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, 'as when a lion roareth.' It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It arouses the 'seven thunders' of evil, and stirs their latent forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is the power of Truth demonstrated, — made manifest in the destruction of error." But although in the recent conflict the great red dragon was severely wounded and is growing weaker every hour, yet let us not forget that he has not abandoned the fight, and the suppositional combat between good and evil, truth and error, goes steadily on. Mortal mind still struggles to prove itself something and to control the destinies of men. Many more mental battles must be fought, many more spiritual victories won, before that day arrives when Christendom may lay aside the sword because He "whose right it is" to reign holds undisputed sway. Unquestionably the present hour is one in which Christendom should be especially active and alert, with armor on and sword in hand, facing the foe with calm and united front. In Revelation John speaks of the "prayers of saints" in a way which emphasizes the great importance he ascribes to these prayers, and the glorious results he considers they have accomplished and will accomplish. What are these "prayers of saints," but all the holy aspirations and endeavors of the race? And above all in importance must stand the prayers of those who, through the study and practice of Christian Science, are learning to pray aright. The prayer of spiritual understanding is effective. It heals the sick, comforts the sorrowing, and uplifts the sinning. This prayer delivers the intended victim from the mental assassins; and it will bring to naught every effort of error to prevent the welding together of the entire race into one harmonious whole. On page 189 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes: "You worship no distant deity, nor talk of unknown love. The silent prayers of our churches, resounding through the dim corridors of time, go forth in waves of sound, a diapason of heartbeats, vibrating from one pulpit to another, till truth and love, commingling in one righteous prayer, shall encircle and cement the human race."
The Christian Science Journal, January, 1920 |
Copyright
© 1996-2008 CSEC