ON one of the most memorable occasions, from a spiritual viewpoint, because there had just dawned upon human consciousness the great fact that disease could be healed through Truth by all who were ready to receive the proper spiritual instructions, Christ Jesus said to his exultant students, "Rejoice not. that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." These words might have been considered strange indeed, had they been spoken by anyone other than the Master; for should not the ability to heal disease by spiritual means be considered as the greatest blessing God could bestow? Christ Jesus, however, was alert against any wrong impression being received by his disciples; so he quickly corrected that which might easily have led to an erroneous conclusion.
His students had just returned from their great missionary venture, during which they had preached the gospel and healed the sick; and they were highly elated with their success in healing. Nothing, therefore, could have been more natural than to assume that they had suddenly been exalted from poor fishermen and the like to persons of superlative qualities. But Christ Jesus checked this tendency of mortal belief at once, and pointed out to them that there is in reality but one thing that is worthy to cause rejoicing, and it is the fact of man's eternal unity with God. To Christ Jesus heaven meant divine harmony. To have one's name ''written in heaven," therefore, could mean but one thing, namely, to be in perfect harmony, or at-one-ment, with God. The healings which had just been wrought by the disciples were but the sign that man's at-one-ment with God had again been demonstrated, thus becoming a clearer fact to human consciousness. This perception of spiritual unity was therefore to bring a joy far greater than mere relief from physical ills could bring, or even the realization that one was master of those ills and could cast them out.
Can anyone who earnestly studies the life of Christ Jesus doubt that it was the expression of man's at-one-ment with God? To demonstrate this spiritual and scientific unity and to make its demonstration so clear that all could understand and follow his example was the Master's supreme desire, a desire so great with love that he even endured the cross in order that his proof might be complete and his mission upon earth fulfilled. This brings us face to face with the divine demand that the atonement be understood through the words and the works of Christ Jesus made clear to us by the Comforter, the Holy Ghost or divine Science, which is the spirit of Truth that teaches us all things, even as the Master said it would.
