Article May 4, 1907 Issue

THE DEAD PAST

J. S. BRAITHWAITE, M.A.

In the record of the conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria there is nothing to indicate that Jesus really told the woman all her past in detail. Two points stand out strongly, that she certainly believed her past life to be an open book to the man with whom she had been talking, and that in some way there had dawned upon her thought the possibility of the Divine reflected in man—a new idea of the Messiah or Christ.

The question, "Is not this the Christ?" arose from the sense of release—she was already experiencing. It may perhaps have been release from the strain of hiding from her neighbors a dishonest past and yet trying to live honestly in the present. Many to-day are staggering under the burden of this almost impossible task and sighing for release. All that had occurred in the present instance was that a stranger in conversation with the Samaritan woman had appeared to know all the secrets of her past life and yet to regard her without curiosity and without condemnation. Instead of reproach had come the quiet and gentle assurance that the time had now arrived when all alike should understand God in the light of a loving Father, whom His children were to worship "in spirit and in truth," since He is Spirit.

Material existence, with all its joys and sorrows, for the first time seemed to this woman shadowy, unsubstantial, and in its place was dawning a more real and far nobler concept of life, of man, and of God. "Is not this the Christ?" Forgetting the business she had in hand, the woman hurried away to call others to join her in this wonderful prospect. It is the same to-day, and Christian Science—the pure Christ-message—is reaching those that are willing to hear it, bringing that same release to mortals and proving that what we call our past is as dead as the fallen leaves in winter.

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