WHEN the children of Israel were plagued with the poisonous serpents in the wilderness, wisdom bade Moses make a serpent of brass and lift it up. Those who looked upon the serpent were healed of the sting. But the Israelites did not understand the significance of the brass serpent; they simply benefited from Moses' spiritual understanding. For that reason they were unable as a people to practice spiritual healing. Not understanding the spirit behind the symbols, they became enamored of the symbols themselves and developed an empty ritualism. The Bible tells us that later the brazen serpent had to be destroyed, because the children of Israel burned incense to it.
Down through the centuries until Christ Jesus' time, the prophets did glimpse the truth of perfect God and perfect man, and they vigorously urged the people to return to the worship of the one God. Through the demonstration of their highest understanding of God as Spirit, the prophets continued to lift the thought of the people.
Jesus demonstrated in his activities the fact that spiritual regeneration of human selfhood results in the healing of human ills. He brought that tender affection which fulfills moral law through love. His own sinless human self symbolized pure, spiritual man and proved the real man to be the indestructible image of God, Mind. Through parable and practice Jesus proved spiritual love to be the substance of worship and overruled the burdensome rituals of the Pharisees. In the proportion that we let our human lives express the purity of Spirit, Truth, Life, and Love, we too shall demonstrate the health and immortality of our true selves.
Two of the outstanding symbols connected with Jesus' life are the cup and the cross. The immaculate Way-shower endured the shame and sorrow of crucifixion in order to exemplify divine Love as the only true way to overcome evil and mankind's superstitious belief in the inevitability and finality of death. Mary Baker Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 50), "The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love."
At the last supper, the night before the crucifixion, Jesus gave the cup to his followers. His action implied that each individual Christian must take up his cross. Each one must face and overcome "the world's hatred of Truth and Love" through spiritual inspiration and the demonstration of a pure love for God and man. Jesus said (Luke 9:23), "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." And he also said (Matt. 10:38), "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."
Eventually, Christianity too fell into the way of ritualism. Material rituals with cup and cross replaced spiritual healing and regeneration, and again reformation of matter-worship has had to pave the way for the restoration of spiritual healing in Christian worship.
Mrs. Eddy was willing truly to take up the cross and stand unflinchingly for Truth. She discovered the Principle which inspired the great works of Moses and the Master and proved the authenticity of her discovery through her demonstration of the truth which she presented to mankind. Mrs. Eddy gave this Science of the Christ through the symbol of words. In Science and Health she has given the complete statement of Truth and Love in beautiful, rich, and exact language. These words, and those in her other published writings, symbolize the purely spiritual thoughts of God, or divine Mind, in such a way that humanity can understand and demonstrate them through healing. John writes (1:14), "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
In her definition of man on page 591 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy acknowledges the truth that the real man is the representation of Spirit. She defines this man as, "The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."
As Christian Scientists let us beware of the danger of ritualism. Intellectualism may become the ritualism of words, which, like the brazen serpent, the material cup, and the wooden cross, in themselves, are void of the power to heal, comfort, and resurrect the individual. Paul said (II Cor. 3:6), "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." A merely intellectual grasp of the letter is not sufficient to accomplish spiritual healing.
The letter of Christian Science is our modern symbol in spiritual teaching. Let us cherish the words of Truth, but hold fast to their meaning and demonstrate it. Let us have the courage to lift up our concept of man from sense to Soul, from grave to glory, in our individual lives. Let us dare to be modern prophets and stand for Spirit by demonstrating the mighty power of God, divine Love, in human experience, overcoming evil and healing the sick.
