Extracts from Editor's Table JUDGE SEPTIMUS J. HANNA, CSD          Probation has of late years come to be one of the mooted theological questions. For many years after the Reformation, or the establishment of Protestantism, this doctrinal point, like all other doctrinal points, was supposed to have been finally settled, and all discussion of it foreclosed by ecclesiastical edict. To contend for the possibility of a probationary period after death was heretical . . .          In the light thrown upon the Scriptures by the teaching of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," there is not the slightest Biblical authority for the claim that the eternal status of the individual is limited to this mortal phase of existence, as that existence is commonly understood. The more one investigates the Scriptures in this light, the firmer becomes the conviction that the "probationary period" extends beyond this phase of life into the remotest future of sin's claims of power and dominion. As the infinity of divine Love becomes better understood, the possibility of continual progression toward man's true spiritual estate, in every phase of future existence, becomes more apparent.          Love's infinity has become the happy and central theme of those latter-day Christians bearing the name of Christian Scientists; and in the God ordained name of "Christian Science" they are engaged in the work of encircling the globe with the glad tidings of great joy, — that "God's mercy" is not limited to the mortal dream which takes place between "the cradle and the grave," but reaches out into infinity and "endureth forever."          Christian Scientists read in such comforting assurances as the following the authority for their claim of future probation: —          "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah, 54: 10).          Is it not a parody on this passage to maintain that this promise is valid only for five, ten, twenty, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years of mortal existence? What man-made creed shall prevail against this declaration of God?          Again, Christian Scientists read: —          "Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isaiah 49:13-15).          It may be well for us to stop for a moment and think of the meaning of the word Zion in connection with this Scripture. Zion is sometimes used interchangeably with Jerusalem, but it usually has a separate meaning. Geographically, it is a hill in the southwest part of Jerusalem, twenty five hundred feet above the sea level. In one of its symbolical meanings it stands for the highest understanding of spiritual things peculiar to each age; but even it fell, and, as we read in Lamentations, "All her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness" (1: 4). Mortals, in their outreachings after spiritual light, look to Mount Zion. Those who stand in the relation of spiritual guides or interpreters of Scripture in each age may, in some sense, be said to be the Zion of that age. The theologians of the past have occupied this position toward the people. We see that "Zion" said: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." May we not respectfully inquire whether the priests of this Zion are not speaking, when it is declared that God will forget his own children within a very limited period of time after their mortal birth, if perchance they die without having made a formal confession of religion? We can conceive of no more lamentable forgetting than this. But note the wondrous strength of our Scriptural simile. The human mother love may forget to nourish the sucking child; it may forget the son of its womb; it may refuse to follow its offspring into the depths of sin's delusion to bring it back therefrom; it may refuse to go to earth's remotest bounds to reclaim its erring child; but not so God. "Yet will I not forget thee." And what would be thought of the human mother that would so forget her child? What shall be said of that human logic, that human sense of mercy, which would make Infinite Love inferior to even the highest expression of finite love? ...          Again, we read: —          "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever . . . . For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him." The 118th Psalm resounds with: "his mercy endureth forever." "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever."*          That is a mistaken interpretation truly which would limit this "forever" to a few brief mortal years. This plainly is not God's "forever," however it may be with the theological Zion. Indeed, God's mercy is the central fact of the Bible, as these merely specimen texts clearly show. And when, in addition to these, we read the teaching of Jesus, especially as contained in the Beatitudes, and his touching illustration of the father love in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we feel abundantly sure that the teaching of our textbook upon the subject of Probation is founded absolutely upon Scripture. When we read also Jesus' assurances that he would not leave the world of humanity comfortless, but would send them another Comforter, we get still larger news of the richness and infiniteness of Divine Love. This Comforter is now with us. It has taught us that God is Infinite Love, and that man — His child — is his infinite manifestation — reflection. Thus we understand the meaning of Genesis, when it declares that God made man in his image and likeness. We see that there is established an infinite relationship between God and man that neither time nor eternity can sever. We are made aware that God is the Divine Principle of man forever, and that separation of Eternal Principle and His eternal idea, — man, — is an impossibility. Thus an intelligent perusal of this "Comforter" sent us of God, settles for us beyond cavil or doubt the difficult questions concerning Probation, Salvation, Election, Foreordination, and all other doctrinal points which theology has endeavored so earnestly to settle. . . . *Italics are Judge Hanna's.   Extracts from "Editor's Table" by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD The Christian Science Journal, October, 1897

 

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