Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - Mary Baker Eddy (golden son ebook txt) 📗
- Author: Mary Baker Eddy
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Students’ ingratitude
Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the 49:9 great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost
sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-49:12 quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
human yearning with one sign of fidelity?
Heaven’s sentinel
The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-49:15 tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
God. No human eye was there to pity, no
arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had 49:18 blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing 49:21 of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth, 49:24 Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
the grave.
Cruel contumely
The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly 49:27 walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
proofs of divine power, mocked him on the
cross, saying derisively, “He saved others; 49:30 himself he cannot save.” These scoffers, who turned
“aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
High,” esteemed Jesus as “stricken, smitten of God.” 50:1 “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” 50:3 “Who shall declare his generation?” Who shall decide
what truth and love are?
A cry of despair
The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-50:6 ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
of his work, wrung from Jesus’ lips the awful
cry, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” 50:9 This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
impugn the justice and love of a father who could withhold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so 50:12 faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
Love’s pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken 50:15 him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the 50:18 human race.
Divine Science misunderstood
If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a moment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses, 50:21 what would his accusers have said? Even
what they did say, - that Jesus’ teachings
were false, and that all evidence of their cor-50:24 rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
could not make it so.
The real pillory
The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human 50:27 conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
the purpose of his mission, was a million
times sharper than the thorns which pierced 50:30 his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
of grief, was the world’s hatred of Truth and Love. Not
the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful 51:1 lips the plaintive cry, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” It
was the possible loss of something more important than 51:3 human life which moved him, - the possible misapprehension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
dread added the drop of gall to his cup.
Life-power indestructible
51:6 Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.
He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine; 51:9 but he allowed men to attempt the destruction of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life 51:12 of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
enemies’ hands; but when his earth-mission was accomplished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal, 51:15 was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could 51:18 be extinguished.
Example for our salvation
His consummate example was for the salvation of us
all, but only through doing the works which he did and 51:21 taught others to do. His purpose in healing
was not alone to restore health, but to demonstrate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by 51:24 Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-51:27 ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.
Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist 51:30 to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
dead.
Master’s business
52:1 From early boyhood he was about his “Father’s business.” His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-52:3 ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He
served God; they served mammon. His affections were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in 52:6 the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evidence of sin, sickness, and death.
Purity’s rebuke
52:9 Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world’s
hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the 52:12 prophet’s foresight of the reception error would
give him. “Despised and rejected of men,” was Isaiah’s
graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace. 52:15 Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again 52:18 make common cause against the exponents of truth.
Saviour’s prediction
The “man of sorrows” best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-52:21 tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were
the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-52:24 est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time: 52:27 “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also;” and “These signs shall follow them that believe.”
Defamatory accusations
The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra- 52:30 dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb—
auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton
and a wine-bibber. They said: “He casteth out devils 53:1 through Beelzebub,” and is the “friend of publicans and
sinners.” The latter accusation was true, but not in their 53:3 meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did
the Baptist’s disciples; yet there never lived a man so far
removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene. 53:6 He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because
he was their friend; hence the cup he drank.
Reputation and character
The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his 53:9 character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He
was at work in divine Science. His words 53:12 and works were unknown to the world because above
and contrary to the world’s religious sense. Mortals believed in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine, 53:15 infinite Love.
Inspiring discontent
The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which 53:18 might flow from such discomfort. Science
shows the cause of the shock so often produced by the truth, - namely, that this shock arises from 53:21 the great distance between the individual and Truth.
Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of
denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which 53:24 goodness makes for the destruction of evil.
Bearing our sins
Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the
mortal errors which constitute the material body, and 53:27 could destroy those errors; but at the time
when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not
conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-53:30 terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of
spiritual power.
Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would 54:1 have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the
magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine 54:3 Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness, 54:6 seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified
example introduced.
Inspiration of sacrifice
Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All 54:9 must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true
idea of God. That he might liberally pour
his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-54:12 filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus’
intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine commission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and 54:15 Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over
death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest
proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers 54:18 understood neither his words nor his works. They
would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor
follow his example.
Spiritual friendship
54:21 His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the
dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious
friends, whose religion was something more 54:24 than a name. It was so vital, that it enabled them to understand the Nazarene and to share
the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-54:27 lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has confirmed the prediction.
Injustice to the Saviour
If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on 54:30 earth to-day, would not some, who now profess to love him, reject him? Would they
not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-55:1 tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?
The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the 55:3 invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and
usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but
this does not affect the invincible facts. 55:6 Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more
injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon
the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now 55:9 that the gospel of healing is again preached by the
wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But
that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a 55:12 clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be
left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of
the synagogue.
55:15 Truth’s immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,
gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My
weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall 55:18 recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
himself, - when he shall realize God’s omnipotence and
the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done 55:21 and is doing for mankind. The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing
is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly 55:24 all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ’s
cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of
Christian healing. 55:27 In the words of St. John: “He shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you
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