Article March 15, 1930 Issue

The Blessing of Repentance

HELEN WOOD BAUMAN

Christ Jesus placed the seal of his approval upon the mission of John the Baptist when he said, "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." This statement is so unqualified that it rouses the Christian student to careful inquiry into the message of John to mankind.

Fortunate is he who has some knowledge of Christian Science and has thereby increased his ability to interpret the Scriptures spiritually. To him the Bible has become an indispensable daily guide. No longer do the experiences of individuals and nations referred to in the Bible seem merely isolated historical facts; instead, they represent states of consciousness common to all mankind, depicting the tests and triumphs which inevitably accompany the unfoldment of God's word in human consciousness.

John the Baptist typifies a stage of development in the process of spiritual unfoldment. Christ Jesus knew this; hence his statement following the passage in Matthew just quoted, "And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come." Plainly the personal Elijah was not reincarnated in John, as some of the Jews questioned. Elijah had long before risen, through translation, to a higher spiritual state which mortal sense was unable to perceive. But the pure thinking which rebukes the human mind with its superficial interests, its sinful attractions and limitations, had again appeared in John the Baptist. In the line of divine progress, each individual must attain to this purified level of thought; and as it is reached, the so-called pleasures of materialism lose their appeal.

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