In his talk with his disciples in the quiet of the "upper chamber," in the hour preceding his victory in Gethsemane, Jesus told them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." The spiritual interpretation of this reason for the greater works is given by Mrs. Eddy on page 14 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in these words: "Because the Ego is absent from the body, and present with Truth and Love." This word of Jesus gives one definition of that law of development and support which alone will adequately and unfailingly uphold any work and any worker in any part of the Christian Science movement, and which alone will increase the fruits of that work. The well meaning and sincere desire to help, so often expressed by us for each other in such words as these: "We must support our lecturers," "We must support our readers," and so on, will only achieve the end so dear to us if we really understand and carry out the great things required of us by this law of increase and support as laid down by Jesus, the first condition of which is found in the words, "He that believeth on me," the Christ, Truth.
The promise of the manifestation of the power of the Christ is given, then, to him who understands, relies radically on, and unswervingly adheres to Truth,—in every detail of the question of power, in every aspect of the question of here and now; in fact, to him who knows and trusts the allness, the omnipotent capacity, capability, and adequacy of Mind, which never shares the here and now with anything but its own truthfulness. Whoever is striving to understand this "me," whose manifestation is in the divine qualities of the Christ-mind will go to a lecture or to a service, having done his work of preparation on the lines followed by Jesus, "whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, —of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 12). He will go with his own point of view thoroughly purified and measured up as far as possible to the standard required, ready to watch for and with Christ, and armored against the subtle suggestive expectation of finding aught but Christ. He will not then go to sleep through the fixing of his gaze on a human personality; rather will he, with the loyalty and discernment of a John, recognize and look to the unfolding of some newly revealed spiritual idea, in the ever unfolding process of divine Mind. He will see the demonstration of the great fact that there is but one will,— "Not my will, but thine,"—the will of God, the will of Love, that frees the servant in bondage to the high priest, that wins recognition from the centurion and the certainty of sin overcome for the thief, and that rises above the death decreed by false theories.
The second part of this law of growth and support is given by Jesus in the words, "Because I go unto my Father." Here again the battle ground is in each one's own thought, and the battle consists in resisting the beliefs of materiality, in refusing to hold any point of view or opinion, or to pass any criticism on one's self or on any other that has its root in the belief that there is any causation, initiative, capacity, or any determining faculty at all in mortal man, the tool of the greater fallacy, namely, a belief in a mortal mind. The battle means, then, a refusal to admit that there is any working, moving, doing power but God; it necessitates firmly holding to the fact that all that is true, all that is working for the truth, and all that is expressing the truth, is now, ever has been, and always will be, in "the bosom of the Father," divine Principle, and is therefore forever enjoying the safety afforded by "the secret place of the most High."
