THE cross has been regarded as a symbol of suffering, as an emblem of submission to persecution and death, supposedly in accord with the will of God. An entirely different point of view has been presented by Christian Science, which reveals the cross as the way of spiritual dominion and victory. In crucial human experiences the Christian Scientist learns to yield, not to evil and suffering, but to the law of divine Love, which triumphs over error and enables thought to ascend victoriously above the false sense of material selfhood into the supremacy of spiritual consciousness.
These two concepts of the cross are beautifully portrayed in "Christ and Christmas," an illustrated poem by Mary Baker Eddy, wherein appears a picture of two crosses and a crown in an ascending pathway of light. The dark cross stands in the foreground, plain and severe, the light barely touching its base. High above it is the second cross, upon which shines the full light; it is garlanded with flowers, and birds are perched on its crossbar, while others are soaring upwards toward the crown. The dark cross may well symbolize the failure of human nature, with its self-will, pride, and ambition, to attain dominion and harmony. Assuredly, without God's help humanity is burdened by its own inability to conquer sin, disease, and death. How different appears the cross viewed as willing and glad surrender of the human to the divine! Thus regarded, the cross is garlanded with grace and selfless love; holy purposes winged with prayer soar upward toward the crown of spiritual dominion.
In triumphing over every phase of the crucifixion, Christ Jesus glorified the cross with spiritual victory. Not because of inability to cope with the situation confronting him did the Master submit to the cross, but because it was the way whereby he was to prove the power of the divine nature to overcome the world. Meeting with disloyalty, betrayal, and persecution, Jesus did not endeavor to avoid these experiences. Amid the mockery and agony of the cross, he forgave his enemies and "gave up the ghost," surrendered the human sense of himself, which was all that could be attacked, crying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Not through retaliation, but through self-renunciation, did he find safety and success.
