In the long ago, according to the Scriptures, there was a blind man who, when he came in touch with the great Master, was wondrously healed. The astonished neighbors were unable to grasp the fact that he who had never before seen the light of day was now with open eyes. Bitterly rejecting the Christ-idea which had healed the man, the Pharisees also questioned him; and with simple but emphatic directness he answered, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." Then, after further dispute, the enraged Jews condemned him and cast him out. Alas, through ignorance and prejudice the blessed healing which had occurred was immediately attacked and denied! What a strange perversity, that this grateful, loyal witness to the healing truth should suddenly be excluded from the love and consideration of those who should have rejoiced with him! Such is the unreasonable intolerance of error toward Truth.
Nevertheless, a rich spiritual recompense awaited the steadfast stand of him whose eyes had been opened; for, later, when Jesus heard what had taken place, he sought him out and, opening his spiritual vision, unveiled to him the divine idea, the Son of God, which had healed him. Thrown out by those whom he must formerly have reverenced, what a solace to behold a great, living truth; to find, as did this man, that, even if one is rejected for Truth's sake, the receptive heart is never cast out from the consciousness of Love, but instead is ushered into a new world of illuminated understanding, where all good awaits one with welcome and joy! Excluded by antagonistic thoughts, the healed man had received angelic ideas; cut off from the approbation of ritualistic religionists, he had awakened to behold and claim what was rightfully his spiritually. In perceiving this new-found truth, he experienced a sense of spiritual peace, in the joy of which there could have been no room for wounded feelings, self-pity, or resentment over the treatment of those who had rejected him. Verily, no touch is more divine than when a loyal witness to Truth, deserted by all, feels the angelic impartation of a spiritual recompense. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy has written (p. 249), "My heavenly Father will never leave me comfortless, in the amplitude of His love; coming nearer in my need, more tenderly to save and bless."
Whenever the spiritual idea has appeared or functioned in human mentality, the idea and its exponents have been persecuted through rejection of the truth. Because of his prayers Daniel was cast into a den of animality; and because of their fearless stand for Truth the Hebrew men were cast into a fiery furnace. Yet, as these brave worshipers prayerfully and patiently clung to the true idea of God, behold how they were eventually ushered into spiritual freedom and achievement, as well as into positions of honor and responsibility. Perhaps there are those of us who, in reading of such persecutions, think how different would have been our attitude toward those majestic characters of Biblical days who proved the power of the spiritual idea. Yet, if we are permitting pride and self-righteousness to shut out humility from our thought, personal dislikes and judgments to debar universal love; or if we are excluding the true idea of democracy because of factions, class distinctions, or race prejudices, are not we of to-day, in a measure, casting out again the spiritual idea with its healing power? We need not turn to ancient history to see how social ostracism closes the door on the sweet spirit of universal fellowship and primitive Christianity. Through petty personal prejudices or stubborn resistance to anything new, great issues of universal welfare have been lost to the world, and thereby has been excluded from human experience that which otherwise might have greatly advanced humanity. The locked doors of conservative beliefs must open, if we are not to reject in our day the spiritual idea and its unfoldments in human affairs.
