Jesus' insistence upon the responsibility of the individual for the working out of his own salvation was very emphatically stated in his memorable words uttered in the upper chamber at the close of his last supper with his disciples. He had taught them for three years, proving and illustrating the truth he revealed by miracle and parable, and he had often emphasized the necessity for individual effort by saying, in effect: Go and do thou likewise. So, as if to bring this vital point home to those who were to continue to preach the Christ, Truth, he invited them all to drink of his cup, saying, "Drink ye all of it." It was a simple action, prompted by the kindly knowledge that his followers were most easily taught by symbol and simile, but the cup he commended to them was that of his own experience. As Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 121), "Undoubtedly our Master partook of the Jews' feast of the Passover, and drank from their festal wine-cup. This, however, is not the cup to which I call your attention,— even the cup of martyrdom: wherein Spirit and matter, good and evil, seem to grapple, and the human struggles against the divine, up to a point of discovery: namely, the impotence of evil, and the omnipotence of good, as divinely attested."
No one so well as Jesus knew what a bitter cup is the fight with the mortal sense of life, nor have any faced the fury of hatred such as his teaching aroused toward him. He had learned exactly what must happen whenever a man stands for Principle, and how, through each triumph, he may discover for himself more of Truth and prove it on the touchstone of scientific demonstration so that he sees it to be "divinely attested." All this he had shown to his friends many times before and they had seen him rise higher by each progressive demonstration of the might of Truth, for, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.18): "His mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,— to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility." Therefore he said. "Drink ye all of it."
Why this individual effort and activity is essential is admirably illustrated by the work of the child at school. If progress is to be made, each fact must be learned and each rule practiced and demonstrated by the student. The attempt on the part of another to work out the child's problems, except by way of proper illustration, would benefit the child in no way, whereas the encouragement of the pupil to grapple with each problem by applying the knowledge already gained is true wisdom and love. Teaching by explanation and demonstration is essential, but the world would rightly criticize the person who, in a mistaken sense of kindness, worked out the student's problems and so robbed him of the golden opportunity of testing, proving, and gaining confidence in that which he is being taught. Such folly, if persisted in would only sow the seeds of the belief that it is better to defer individual effort and initiative, and would be something worse than unkindness. It is exactly so with the problem of salvation from this false, material sense of life, for when once the fact is grasped that a man can work out his salvation only through a scientific knowledge of Truth as taught by Jesus and revealed again by Mary Baker Eddy, it will be seen that the conclusions inferred by this illustration are just as applicable and quite as essential to the progress and salvation of each one of us as they are to the child at school. We should, do well to ask ourselves frequently whether we are following the example of Christ Jesus in doing "life's work aright not only in justice to himself but in mercy to mortals." or whether we desire to be relieved of the responsibility of daily and hourly demonstration in Christian Science, which is the cup Jesus commended to us. At such times of self-examination the incidents of Gethsemane and the Master's words, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," will inspire, encourage, and guide, for they show so plainly the spirit in which Jesus drank his own cup.
