In God man lives, moves, and has his being. This is the Truth of Being; and to gain the realization of spiritual Life, there must be a daily growth Heavenward, a forsaking of the things of earth, — its joys, pleasures, sorrows, and sufferings, — through the influx of the Spirit, bringing joy unspeakable, and a peace which passeth all understanding, a sense of harmony which must come from "Life hid with Christ in God."
"Let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ; that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one Spirit, with one Mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries; which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, — and that of God."
Lift the standard of Truth high above all that is earthly or material, above mortal beliefs, which would personify and limit, according to human finite conception, an infinite Deity. When your thought has risen above the fetters of sense, when the glory of the Infinite bursts upon your consciousness, then is the Spirit revealed in demonstration and power, then is the Christ seen apart from all of earth, of the things of the world. Through its demonstration over all evil, will all men be drawn unto it, and be seen as the children of one Father, governed in perfect harmony and Love; for "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
Do not make the Truth of God a lie, by holding the thought, for a moment, that any material aid is needed to help God do His work, or that any knowledge of Materia Medica is a benefit in any way; for in this does God, Spirit, have no part, because it has to do with the knowledge of this world, human knowledge, — which, being the wisdom of man, "is foolishness with God." It is divine Wisdom, Life, and Love which heal every woe. Jesus said: "The words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life."
Do we need anything more than the Truth, which shall set us free, and give us the liberty of the Sons of God? Did our Master teach us ever to look beyond this for help, or that we could do so, in overcoming sin, sickness, and death? Is there any greater power than God, or anything apart from Himself, that can aid Him? We understand, in Divine Science, there is not, but that He is the All-in-all, and there is nothing beside Him. Then will you not weaken your power for the demonstration of Truth, the works of the Spirit, just so far as you lean in the direction of matter? Most decidedly, Yes. This would be a house divided against itself, which could not stand. It would surely fall,— thus causing a final departure from Truth, as declared in Christian Science, — if not forsaken and that speedily.
Can one cling to or go back to the limits of his former religious beliefs, and yet remain a Christian Scientist in demonstration? He can not, any more than the adult can go back to the garments and sustenance of his infancy. He has grown out of and beyond them. They would neither protect nor sustain him in his larger growth, which demands more. It is not that he would be unclothed by taking away the limitations of his childhood, and supplying those suited to his growth, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of Life.
As the petals of the rose burst forth from their narrow cell, and unfold, one by one, in the bright sunlight, so do the buds of promise — seen in the upward tendency of thought in former beliefs — unfold and burst forth from their narrow limits, and come into the sunlight of Truth understood, revealing the beauty and harmony of Spirit in its demonstration over the errors and discords of sense, which would hold one in bondage all his life. When we have gained the freedom of the Sons of God, then are we free indeed.
God's blessings are for all; but have we, with all our strivings for higher light, been able of ourselves to reach the understanding of Truth in its demonstration? Have we lived so near God as to have sufficient spiritual perception of the teachings of our Master — to be so clearly revealed — as to make them practical, so that we have seen the signs following them that believe? Have we been spiritually where there came to us directly such an illumination of thought, that the Truth, as declared in the Scriptures, was seen in its demonstration of control over all error, until we could obey the injunction, "Go ye into all the world; preach the Gospel and heal the sick"? Can one student of Christian Science say he has had this revelation from God directly to himself? No, not one!
There must be an interpreter of Truth to the age, because of its materiality, — an interpreter near enough to God to be His mouthpiece, through which He can reveal Himself, and man thus be brought into an understanding of himself and of God.
The Children of Israel must have a Leader. First came Moses, through whom the Jews received their highest conceptions of Deity. He went up into the Mount, — he rose spiritually above the consciousness of the people, to a point where he was in communion with God, — and through him God spoke to the people. We read: "And Moses alone shall come near the Lord . . . And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do." Although they promised to obey, yet when temptations came they yielded, and instead of following their leader by adhering so closely to his spiritual teachings that they could not lose sight of him, they went back to their old idol-worship, having other gods before the one true God; and so departed from the high, pure motives and thoughts, to which they had attained through Moses, to go back to their former material and sensuous beliefs. As these thoughts grew upon them, they began to complain of their leader, asking for other gods to go before them, and saying, "As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt [darkness], we wot not what has become of him." They lost their true sense of God. While Moses rose spiritually, until he was on the Mount, in the very presence of God, they, instead of following him in thought, were retrograding, taking steps backward. Hence the separation from their leader, which was seen in the expression of their own material, sensuous thoughts. Seeing this, Moses was filled with indignation, and called for all on the Lord's side to come unto him. "And the Lord said unto Moses: Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, Mine angel shall go before thee; nevertheless, . . . I will visit their sin upon them."
Moses was the leader of the Children of Israel, because in advance of them spiritually, and therefore the highest expression of God to that age. God made himself manifest through Moses. What came to the Israelites through him was their highest conception of God; but it was belief without understanding.
This "veil is done away in Christ," Truth, which afterward came through Jesus, the Son of God, as the leader and teacher of the people. He said: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil;" and Paul added, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." By Jesus came grace and Truth, which cast out devils, healed the sick, raised the dead, — raised man up from dead beliefs, into living Truth, for he said: "I am the Truth and the Life." "And of his fulness have all we received." He was ever in the bosom of the Father, and it was he who declared the Father.
How little the Truth which Jesus taught was understood by a material age, is shown by the short continuance of that faith after his day. The people went back to their false gods, to their belief in matter as a power to heal, which was wholly contrary to the teachings of the Master, who said, "It is the Father [Spirit] who doeth the works," thus utterly ignoring every claim of matter. Gradually did they go back to their dead rites and ceremonies, thus losing the Spirit, and bringing the result of error in sin, sickness, and death. Faith was no longer seen by the works which follow them that believe; but it became a dead faith, for "Faith without works is dead."
Therefore there came again the necessity of a leader of this people Israel, to bring them up again out of Egypt, or darkness, and back to their Father's house, — the Truth as taught by the Master, and understood and demonstrated in Divine Science, by its power over sin, sickness, and death. This want was supplied by a loving and tender Father, when His children were ready to receive it; and it is through one of His own choosing, whom He has himself prepared for this mission, that it has come to us, — not through any plan or preparation by man, but through her understanding of the things of God which came through Him alone, this new leader being taught of God.
The one who is nearer God than all others, is the one through whom He is speaking and manifesting Himself. God can only manifest Himself through good, and not through evil. From this, therefore, comes her power for good beyond others, which is reaching over the whole world, uplifting man from sin and suffering, bringing him into the understanding of his relation to his Maker, and his God-given dominion, — the Truth which shall make him free.
Loyalty to Truth is also loyalty to its representative; without one, we gain no understanding of the other. God, and the means through which He has revealed Himself, can never be separated. Therefore, guard well this point, and the avenues of Truth will be ever open to your thought, which will continually unfold and reach Heavenward in the sunlight of Truth understood, until all error is overcome, and man is seen in the image and likeness of his Maker.
In the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews, let us say: "Seeing then that we have a great Highpriest who is passed into the Heavens, — Jesus, the Son of God, — let us hold fast our profession."
