Men have always believed in a God. Most men have believed, and Christendom declares, that the supreme power is good. At the same time the majority of Christians believe that evil is a real power whose present force is often superior to good, so that man must wait for some future act of God to free him from its power. The optimist hopes for the best, but has no stronger weapon against the worst than the expectation of finding a silver lining to the clouds which encircle him. The fatalist believes in a good God, but folds his hands resigned to evil as God's will, accepting as forms of good all the evils to which the material senses testify. Christian Science has been incorrectly classed with both these beliefs, and there are some sayings of Jesus which, being misunderstood, are quoted in support of each; as, for instance, Jesus' answer to the question of his disciples as to why the man was born blind,—"That the works of God should be made manifest in him,"—and again his declaration when told of the sickness of Lazarus,—that it was "for the glory of God."
Of all men Jesus was the least resigned or indifferent to evil, and this wonderful story of the raising of Lazarus does not teach careless or wilful neglect of human needs because of any necessity put upon a mighty, but not almighty, God, nor even any yielding to a demand that miraculous signs be given. When Jesus was told of the sickness of Lazarus, he was as ever about his Father's business. The account which we have does not indicate that he was doing anything unusual on those days before he came to the grave of Lazarus. By word and by healing he was holding up to the people an understanding of life as spiritual, and a few of them were tasting crumbs of the precious bread he was breaking, while most were going on their ways unfed and unenlightened. He was not deceived as to the immediately apparent results of his teaching, but it was his work for that day.
When from the household of Jesus' frightened friends came the word that Lazarus was sick, in the light of Christian Science teaching we know that Jesus saw the truth of the situation; knew that his Father was the only power in that household as elsewhere; knew that Lazarus was not out from under the care of ever present Love; knew that because God is Life, man is immortal. He therefore went on with the work in hand, speaking to those near him, imparting to them the rudiments of the truth which he had often expounded to Lazarus and his sisters, and of which a fuller comprehension on their part would have saved them the sickness, the terror, the frightened demand upon the friendship of Jesus, their summons from his work, and their experience of death and loss. Knowing more than the messenger knew as to the real conditions, he quietly, serenely, lovingly, scientifically went on with his day's work, neither delaying nor hastening, neither alarmed nor tempted into the giving of a spectacular sign, but simply attending to his own, his Father's business.
