IN the eyes of the world Jesus' lifework terminated in a cross of dishonor and defeat. Little did his enemies realize that the name, the teaching, and the influence they expected to obliterate were perpetuated through the crucifixion. By his victory over condemnation and the grave, he proved that the life he derived from God could not be extinguished; that purity is not at the mercy of malice; and that man, reflecting Spirit, is not conditioned by matter. He established the Christianly scientific fact that by taking up the cross, one wins a crown.
Taking up one's cross signifies to the student of Christian Science a facing up to something the human mind deems hard to bear or impossible to overcome and then a surmounting of it. Mortals dramatize the gloom of cross-bearing, but what of the glory? What of the spiritual dominion that annuls temptation? What of the exhilarating exercise of God-given power to maintain the truth of being up to the point of demonstration, even though the world and the flesh argue contrariwise?
Christian Science urges mankind to participate in the grand spiritual adventure of the Master's invitation (Luke 9:23), "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." And Mrs. Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 57): "The cross is the central emblem of human history. Without it there is neither temptation nor glory."
