Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

your reward, and “be not weary in well doing.” If 22:15 your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive

no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a

sluggard in the race.

22:18 When the smoke of battle clears away, you will discern the good you have done, and receive according to

your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from 22:21 temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and

purified.

 

Deliverance not vicarious

 

Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in 22:24 immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not

reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning

one’s faith without works to another’s vicarious 22:27 effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or

that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not

understand God.

 

Justice and substitution

22:30 Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy

cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge

is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not 23:1 destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love

may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin. 23:3 One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to

pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires

constant self-immolation on the sinner’s part. That 23:6 God’s wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is

divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The

atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-23:9 tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense

which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.

 

Doctrines and faith

23:12 Rabbinical lore said: “He that taketh one doctrine,

firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him.”

This preaching receives a strong rebuke in 23:15 the Scripture, “Faith without works is dead.”

Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging between nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, 23:18 advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained

from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and establishes the claims of God.

 

Self-reliance and confidence

23:21 In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the

words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One 23:24 kind of faith trusts one’s welfare to others.

Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how

to work out one’s “own salvation, with fear and trem-23:27 bling.” “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!”

expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the

injunction, “Believe … and thou shalt be saved!” 23:30 demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.

 

The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or 24:1 to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love

understood and practised. Firmness in error will never 24:3 save from sin, disease, and death.

 

Life’s healing currents

 

Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness

to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and 24:6 instigated sometimes by the worst passions of

men), open the way for Christian Science to be

understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where 24:9 the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed

out.

 

Radical changes

 

He to whom “the arm of the Lord” is revealed will 24:12 believe our report, and rise into newness of life with regeneration. This is having part in the atonement; this is the understanding, in which 24:15 Jesus suffered and triumphed. The time is not distant

when the ordinary theological views of atonement will

undergo a great change, - a change as radical as that 24:18 which has come over popular opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment.

 

Purpose of crucifixion

 

Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus 24:21 chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who

ask for it and are willing to be forgiven?

Does spiritualism find Jesus’ death necessary 24:24 only for the presentation, after death, of the material

Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then

we must differ from them both.

24:27 The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical affection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The

truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that 24:30 it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own

disciples could not admit such an event to be possible.

After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was 25:1 forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of

Truth and Love.

 

True flesh and blood

25:3 The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The efficacy of Jesus’ spiritual offering is infinitely greater than

can be expressed by our sense of human 25:6 blood. The material blood of Jesus was no

more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed

upon “the accursed tree,” than when it was flowing in 25:9 his veins as he went daily about his Father’s business.

His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat

his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine 25:12 Life.

 

Effective triumph

 

Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that

we may understand how this divine Principle heals 25:15 the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over

death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better

than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By 25:18 his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being. Hence the

force of his admonition, “If ye love me, keep my com-25:21 mandments.”

 

Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease,

the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving 25:24 the requisite proofs of their own piety. He worked for

their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as

he did and understand its divine Principle. Implicit faith 25:27 in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow

on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We

must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the 25:30 great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to

bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made

manifest in the humanity of Jesus.

 

Individual experience

26:1 While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with

gratitude for what he did for mortals, - treading alone 26:3 his loving pathway up to the throne of

glory, in speechless agony exploring the way

for us, - yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-26:6 rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all

have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion

to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed 26:9 through divine Love.

 

Christ’s demonstration

 

The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his

own statements: “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” 26:12 “I and my Father are one.” This Christ,

or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine

nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth, 26:15 Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,

and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of

celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does 26:18 for man.

 

Proof in practice

 

A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he

teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-26:21 tice as well as precept. Jesus’ teaching and

practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice

as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was 26:24 the precious import of our Master’s sinless career and

of his demonstration of power over death. He proved

by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin, 26:27 and death.

 

Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.

It was the divine Principle of all real being which he 26:30 taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no

form or system of religion and worship, but Christian

Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love. 27:1 Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was intended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had 27:3 come: “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have

seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,

the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, 27:6 to the poor the gospel is preached.” In other words:

Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is,

and he will at once perceive that God is the power in 27:9 the Messianic work.

 

Living temple

 

That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance

after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-27:12 tific statement: “Destroy this temple [body],

and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up.”

It is as if he had said: The I - the Life, substance, 27:15 and intelligence of the universe - is not in matter to

be destroyed.

 

Jesus’ parables explain Life as never mingling with 27:18 sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root

of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut

down the false doctrine of pantheism, - that God, or 27:21 Life, is in or of matter.

 

Recreant disciples

 

Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only

eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits 27:24 him with two or three hundred other disciples

who have left no name. “Many are called,

but few are chosen.” They fell away from grace because 27:27 they never truly understood their Master’s instruction.

 

Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the

essential religion he came to establish? Jesus’ persecu-27:30 tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.

They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and

to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.

 

Help and hindrance

28:1 The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the divine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus’ 28:3 mission. Even many of his students stood

in his way. If the Master had not taken a

student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would 28:6 not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit

in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and

Love.

28:9 While respecting all that is good in the Church or out

of it, one’s consecration to Christ is more on the ground

of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we 28:12 cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding

more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we

are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.

 

Misleading conceptions

28:15 Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of

Jesus was generally understood. Not a single component part of his nature did the material 28:18 world measure aright. Even his righteous—

less and purity did not hinder men from saying: He

is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is 28:21 his patron.

 

Persecution prolonged

 

Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if

thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy 28:24 Master’s feet! To suppose that persecution

for righteousness’ sake belongs to the past,

and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world 28:27 because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mistake the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself.

The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle, 28:30 “of whom the world was not worthy,” await, in some

form, every pioneer of truth.

 

Christian warfare

 

There is too much animal courage in society and not 29:1 sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms

against error at home and abroad. They must grapple 29:3 with sin in themselves and in others, and

continue this warfare until they have finished

their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the 29:6 crown of rejoicing.