AS we read in the Bible and in secular history of the struggles of mankind to reach the light, we can but be impressed by the fact that their failure to go steadily forward has ever been due to the tendency to cling to materiality, to regard it as essential to their happiness if not to their very existence. Freedom, seen from any view-point, is a mental or spiritual idea, and is only attained as material fetters are thrown off one after another,—the pride, the luxury, the indolence, the greed; all the lusts which spring from the false belief that man is material as well as spiritual, if not wholly material. It would therefore seem as if no real and lasting progress had been made because the false foundation of human consciousness, viz., the belief in materiality, had not been clearly seen as such, and the eternal foundation— the allness of Spirit and spiritual things— tenaciously held to as the only means whereby we can be saved from sin, disease, and death.
Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science may be said to be twofold. It reveals the allness of God,—Spirit, Mind,—and it at the same time uncovers the false belief that existence is material, and that God is the author of all which this sense of existence includes. In the presence of this great discovery and its repeated declaration and demonstration, the errors of material belief are being shaken to their depths, and one by one these errors are disappearing as their unreal nature is discerned. The present hour witnesses a giving up of old beliefs in certain directions, but an unwillingness to recognize the infinite demands of Divine Science; yet this unwillingness is only another phase of error, and it will vanish before the light of Truth.
The student of spiritual Science will find a wonderful lesson in the story of Samson. Here was one who was far in advance of many of his coreligionists,—those who claimed to worship the one God,—for his response to his spiritual intuitions not only gave him superhuman strength, but enabled him "at times" to commune with the Mind that was guiding the destinies of his nation towards the divine ideal. It is, however, evident that Samson believed the sensuous and material attractions to be real and a part of the divine plan, hence his downfall in the prime of his manhood with the wreck of the heathen temple which symbolized "the belief and dream of material living" (Science and Health, p. 14). The child of high spiritual aspiration and faith, and the hope of his nation, he accomplished little or nothing for his people because he divided his allegiance between the material and the spiritual. He proved the power of faith up to a certain point, but because he did not understand the supremacy of Spirit the task of bringing freedom to his people was left undone.
Far different from the story of Samson is that of Christ Jesus, although the birth of each was announced by an angel. Jesus' demonstrations rose far above the plane of physical force. He understood the basis of true freedom and the only way by which it can be attained. From his early boyhood he showed his undivided allegiance to Spirit and spiritual law, and although he was made to suffer the extreme penalty of human law, he triumphed over death and the grave and left an impress upon the world's thought so great that mankind could never again wholly lose sight of the truth of being. The freedom which he possessed, and which he offered to all who would accept the spiritual, was real freedom and extended to every faculty of mind and body; and that aught less than this should be offered to mankind in his name seems inconceivable.
Tennyson says of a great English statesman, that he
never sold the truth to serve the hour.
Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power.
This very fittingly describes the position taken by the revered Leader of Christian Science since the inauguration of the movement up to the present time. The inevitable separation between Spirit and the flesh, between Truth and the belief in matter, between divine Mind and the carnal mind, has been insisted upon in all her writings, and her faith that this truth would prevail over all human error has simply been sublime. Her teaching and example have helped to inspire her followers with this same faith, the faith which knows that though the mortal concept of heaven and earth pass away,—as pass it must if Scripture be true,—the spiritual reality declared on every page of Science and Health will be better and better understood, and loved because it is understood. If faithful, we learn to drop each day the burden of some material belief, and thus we find the way of sure progress and gain a stronger sense of the absolute certainty of Truth apart from all materiality.
