ALL Christian Scientists find unfailing interest in searching for the metaphysical meanings of Bible records and sayings, especially the sayings of Jesus; meanings which not only amplify but often change the merely literal interpretations. Because truth is infinite in its applications, it is probable that every phase or statement might be variously paraphrased; but students often find that the thoughts which come to one are a help to another in discovering yet deeper meanings.
In the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel there is a passage which is apt to puzzle many beginners in Christian Science. It reads, "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!" Side by side with this we may place a quotation from page 302 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy: "The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter." Perhaps we first ask ourselves with surprise whether Jesus, who best of all knew and witnessed to this scientific perfect selfhood, meant to assert that for a time circumstances would be so strong against a man that inevitably he must sometimes stumble and fall, thereby causing his brother to fall also, and committing a crime which in due course must be punished.
Such a literal warning as this passage gives might serve as a trumpet-call to those not awakened from a sinful life to the need for moral purification; but for those already struggling to escape from the belief of life in matter it surely means a great deal more. Does not the text tell us of woe unto the consciousness wherein evil seems to be a reality, a necessity, and to have power; for Truth must bring this error, in all the forms it may assume, to the surface and cause it to be self-destroyed.
