Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 32

Clad with divine might, he was ready to stem the tide of Judaism, and prove his power, derived from Spirit, to [15]

be supreme; lay himself as a lamb upon the altar of materialism, and therefrom rise to his nativity in Spirit.

The corporeal Jesus bore our infirmities, and through his stripes we are healed. He was the Way-shower, and suffered in the flesh, showing mortals how to escape from [20]

the sins of the flesh.

There was no incorporeal Jesus of Nazareth. The spiritual man, or Christ, was after the similitude of the Father, without corporeality or finite mind.

Materiality, worldliness, human pride, or self-will, by [25]

demoralizing his motives and Christlikeness, would have dethroned his power as the Christ.

To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of human self.

Of the lineage of David, like him he went forth, simple [30]

as the shepherd boy, to disarm the Goliath. Panoplied in the strength of an exalted hope, faith, and understand-

[Page 163.]

ing, he sought to conquer the three-in-one of error: the [1]

world, the flesh, and the devil.

Three years he went about doing good. He had for thirty years been preparing to heal and teach divinely; but his three-years mission was a marvel of glory: its [5]

chaplet, a grave to mortal sense dishonored-from which sprang a sublime and everlasting victory!

He who dated time, the Christian era, and spanned eternity, was the meekest man on earth. He healed and taught by the wayside, in humble homes: to arrant [10]

hypocrite and to dull disciples he explained the Word of G.o.d, which has since ripened into interpretation through Science.

His words were articulated in the language of a de- clining race, and committed to the providence of G.o.d. [15]

In no one thing seemed he less human and more divine than in his unfaltering faith in the immortality of Truth.

Referring to this, he said, "Heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away, but my words shall not pa.s.s away!" and they have not: they still live; and are the basis of divine [20]

liberty, the medium of Mind, the hope of the race.

Only three years a personal Saviour! yet the founda- tions he laid are as eternal as Truth, the chief corner-stone.

After his brief brave struggle, and the crucifixion of [25]

the corporeal man, the incorporeal Saviour-the Christ or spiritual idea which leadeth into all Truth-must needs come in Christian Science, demonstrating the spir- itual healing of body and mind.

This idea or divine essence was, and is, forever about [30]

the Father's business; heralding the Principle of health, holiness, and immortality.

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Its divine Principle interprets the incorporeal idea, or [1]

Son of G.o.d; hence the incorporeal and corporeal are distinguished thus: the former is the spiritual idea that represents divine good, and the latter is the human presentation of goodness in man. The Science of Chris- [5]

tianity, that has appeared in the ripeness of time, re- veals the incorporeal Christ; and this will continue to be seen more clearly until it be acknowledged, under- stood,-and the Saviour, which is Truth, be compre- hended. [10]

To the vision of the Wis.e.m.e.n, this spiritual idea of the Principle of man or the universe, appeared as a star. At first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonder- [15]

ful manifestation of Truth and Love.

In our text Isaiah foretold, "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

As the Wis.e.m.e.n grew in the understanding of Christ, [20]

the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it will continue, as it shall become understood, until man be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed him as the only Son of G.o.d, the only begotten of the [25]

Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as to reveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of G.o.d.

The limited view of G.o.d's ideas arose from the testimony [30]

of the senses. Science affords the evidence that G.o.d is the Father of man, of all that is real and eternal. This spir-

[Page 165.]

itual idea that the personal Jesus demonstrated, casting [1]

out evils and healing, more than eighteen centuries ago, disappeared by degrees; both because of the ascension of Jesus, in which it was seen that he had grown beyond the human sense of him, and because of the corruption of [5]

the Church.

The last appearing of Truth will be a wholly spiritual idea of G.o.d and of man, without the fetters of the flesh, or corporeality. This infinite idea of infinity will be, is, as eternal as its divine Principle. The daystar of this appear- [10]

ing is the light of Christian Science-the Science which rends the veil of the flesh from top to bottom. The light of this revelation leaves nothing that is material; neither darkness, doubt, disease, nor death. The material cor- poreality disappears; and individual spirituality, perfect [15]

and eternal, appears-never to disappear.

The truth uttered and lived by Jesus, who pa.s.sed on and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures [20]

of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own growth and experiences. His goodness and grace pur- chased the means of mortals' redemption from sin; but, they never paid the price of sin. This cost, none but the sinner can pay; and accordingly as this account is settled [25]

with divine Love, is the sinner ready to avail himself of the rich blessings flowing from the teaching, example, and suffering of our Master.

The secret stores of wisdom must be discovered, their treasures reproduced and given to the world, before man [30]

can truthfully conclude that he has been found in the order, mode, and virgin origin of man according to divine

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Science, which alone demonstrates the divine Principle [1]

and spiritual idea of being.

The monument whose finger points upward, commemorates the earthly life of a martyr; but this is not all of the philanthropist, hero, and Christian. The Truth he [5]

has taught and spoken lives, and moves in our midst a divine afflatus. Thus it is that the ideal Christ-or impersonal infancy, manhood, and womanhood of Truth and Love-is still with us.

And what of _this_ child?-"For unto us a child _is_ [10]

born, unto us a son _is_ given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder."

This child, or spiritual idea, has evolved a more ready ear for the overture of angels and the scientific under- standing of Truth and Love. When Christ, the incor- [15]

poreal idea of G.o.d, was nameless, and a Mary knew not how to declare its spiritual origin, the idea of man was not understood. The Judaean religion even required the Virgin-mother to go to the temple and be purified, for having given birth to the corporeal child Jesus, whose [20]

origin was more spiritual than the senses could inter- pret. Like the leaven that a certain woman hid in three measures of meal, the Science of G.o.d and the spiritual idea, named in this century Christian Science, is leaven- ing the lump of human thought, until the whole shall [25]

be leavened and all materialism disappear. This action of the divine energy, even if not acknowledged, has come to be seen as diffusing richest blessings. This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiae of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, [30]

a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified.

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The material questions at this age on the reappearing [1]

of the infantile thought of G.o.d's man, are after the man- ner of a mother in the flesh, though their answers per- tain to the spiritual idea, as in Christian Science:-

Is he deformed? [5]

He is wholly symmetrical; the one altogether lovely.