ALTHOUGH the earthly life of Jesus was brief, it is rightly regarded as the most complete life known or conceivable, as the one pure ideal of the human race. Jesus overcame sin, disease, and death while in the world, and departed from it fully assured that he had done all things well, and left undone nothing that concerned his mission. Yet with all this perfection and completeness the one great demonstration to which he had committed himself was, as far as the onlookers could judge, still incomplete. Not only was it incomplete, but to all appearances it was hopelessly overthrown.
On page 51 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says respecting Christ Jesus: "His consummate example was for the salvation of us all, but only through doing the works which he did and taught others to do. His purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but to demonstrate his divine Principle." The purpose of Jesus' work and teaching was the salvation of the whole world from the error of mortal belief through the establishment in universal human consciousness of the reign of righteousness, of spiritual-mindedness, of the kingdom of heaven. This was the one great end toward which our Master wrought. His healing of the sick, his teaching, his miracles, his sacrifice, and his ascension, were all subsidiary to this greater demonstration, and would be of little meaning or consequence if they could be separated from it, but this demonstration was apparently incomplete ; indeed, the hour of his departure seemed the blackest of the world's benightedness. Yet he himself, praying to the Father, had declared, "I have glorified thee on the earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." It mattered not how the world judged him or his mission. He had come that men might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly, and the way to that life was now open.
Students of the gospel record, however, sometimes lose sight of the Master's humanity. They forget that his wisdom was not abstract and wholly apart from mortal conditions, but concrete, born of the repeated application of spiritual faculties to profound and often disappointing human experiences. No doubt he hoped for much from his followers that reached no evident accomplishment. He undertook to bring all the world to a perfect understanding of God, yet he left the world without having seen this hope realized in the case of a single individual except himself. He had ardent partizan followers, it is true ; but it is evident that during his earthly career not one of them had an adequate concept of the purport of his teachings.
Jesus' healing work stood unchallenged, but his great purpose was seemingly so far from realization that one must wonder that he did not agree with his contemporaries and consider his mission a failure. Had he done so, had he not been able to look beyond the present seeming to the ultimate consummation of his life-purpose, he could not and would not have given his followers the assurance of the coining of the Comforter; and without such assurance it is doubtful if they could have received this heavenly revelation. It is doubtful, too, if Jesus, with all his mighty works, would have been remembered beyond the span of their lives. The confidence that his work was not lost, that the demonstration would continue through the channels which he had prepared, is indeed one of the great vouchers of Jesus' at-one-ness with the Father, of his sonship. This Mind reflected in him we may regard as the spiritual fact which found its immediate manifestation in the resurrection and the ascension, events which were the inevitable outcome of his unswerving devotion to his divine Principle.
Christian Scientists have reason for constant rejoicing in their victories over untoward conditions to which they formerly yielded; but somewhere in the course of their progress they too meet the cross, the unyielding obstacle which seems to belittle all previous successes and cast the shade of doubt and distrust upon the future, so that they sometimes feel no advance in Science to be possible, or even worth while, until this one demonstration is completed or some particular physical change is brought about. The temptation to accept this view of the situation may become one of the most subtle attacks of the adversary. So long as one yields to it, the road to further progress is effectually barred, for in itself this attitude constitutes a turning away from God and a worshiping of mammon. It is in effect making material appearances the measure of spiritual achievement.
Christian Science does bring great changes into the life and experience of the student, else he has not followed its teachings aright. Within certain limits, his judgment may select what these changes shall be by the application of Principle to the problem at hand ; but at all times the order of the changes is subject to a wisdom higher than his own. This wisdom does not bar him from any achievement in the line of right, but it does insist that before the achievement can be fully realized, all the required precedent conditions must be fulfilled. Essentially, these changes are steps in the spiritualization of thought. Their manifestation in effect includes health to the body; but to undertake to measure the spiritualization of thought by the apparent health of the body is to mistake the real import of Christian Science.
The notion that the hall-mark of mortal mind expressed in ease of body is essential to the demonstration of Christian Science, is a wrong concept which leads far astray from the injunction that we seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." To those who obey this demand, all things of which they have need will surely be added ; but divine wisdom rather than human desire must determine the order of their coming. Certainly, one has little reason to expect them while making self-gratification the primary object of the seeking and the measure of the winning of the kingdom. There are many demonstrations which give occasion for rejoicing over the physical evidence of their completeness. There are others which must first be accepted without this evidence ; but they are none the less genuine, none the less worthy of rejoicing, and none the less marks of progress. In fact, this very element may be the factor which makes them most conducive to progress.
Had Jesus looked to appearances for the evidences of his success in the Christianization of the world, he must have despaired, since he was leaving behind no work which gave any apparent promise of enduring beyond his own generation ; he was leaving no record of his career except in the hearts of his followers, and this record was already rendered more or less illegible by their blindness to the vital issues of his mission. Jesus was sustained in his faith by his knowledge of the eternality of the Christ-idea, to which ultimately every knee should bow and every tongue and thought should ascribe mastery.
The great Teacher knew that whether his earthly career was marked by what the world classifies as success or failure, truth would finally prevail through all the earth and all the universe ; but his wisdom went one step farther than this. He knew that his earthly career had exemplified the Christ-idea and had therefore received the seal of its permanence and power : not only that the truth would ultimately prevail, but that its growth in human consciousness would be continuous from the seed he had planted. This was his demonstration ; and in its light he not only could say, "I have overcome the world," but he could look upon his bewildered followers and say, "The Comforter, . . . whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Thus the word which was apparently lost and void became efficient in the work whereunto it was sent.
Subjectively, Jesus' demonstration was complete when he left the world, else he could not have left it as he did. Considered objectively, however, it was, and is still, incomplete ; for the Christianization of the world seems, even now, hardly more than begun. Shall Christian Scientists, then, murmur or doubt if the full fruition of their labor seems sometimes to be delayed? Shall they not rather remember that the word of Truth established in consciousness is dynamic, and will work out its proper course without mortal guidance? It is well to give our best efforts to prepare the way for the fuller assimilation of the truth, rather than anxiously try to direct its course to our own ends. This does not mean that the specific application of our understanding of divine Principle to our particular problem is to be abandoned or relaxed ; our Master's example is quite to the contrary.
Although Jesus knew that the accomplishment of the ends he sought was ultimately certain but could not be immediate, he did not make that condition an excuse for the cessation or diversion of his efforts, but continued to use every energy to hasten the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Christian Scientists likewise should consider the uncompleted demonstration not as the badge of defeat, but as a prompter to vigilance. Jesus' example in this matter is one that can be disregarded only at the cost of distress. We should know neither apathy nor anxiety, but rather the calm assurance that our task is to hold fast the true knowledge of the Principle of our being, and in its light to keep the right mental attitude toward the circumstances of our immediate environment,-to love God and our neighbour. Then, as our Father in heaven clothes the lilies and orders their growth, so will He establish our growth and bring our experience in the fulness of time, into ways that reflect the peace and harmony of His kingdom.
In the progress of today we must meet some obstacles that are slow to yield. We know, however, that ultimately they shall be done away. It is our privilege to know also that the work of their overcoming is not halted; that from the seed of truth already planted and nourished in the individual human consciousness the growth toward perfection goes on continuously, without interruption, no matter how serious apparent interruptions may seem. We know that — whatever the seeming — "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God," which is already so abundantly manifested in our lives.
