Editorial November 5, 1910 Issue

HE THAT ABIDETH

John B. Willis

From the point of view of present religious consciousness, some of the statements of our Lord as to what his disciples might be and accomplish seem far removed if not extravagant. For instance, the promise, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you," denies any limitations whatever to the practical power of the Christian believer, provided he meets the single condition named, a condition which, as it would seem, Christian thought should long since have mastered. And yet, for the great body of believers it is certainly true that this promise, together with many others which are kindred to it, awakens no thought even of the possibility of the fulfilment in the present life; much less do they stimulate serious effort to attain to that spiritual power which the early disciples so continually exhibited.

The acceptance by Christian believers today of the fact that the early disciples did work the works of the Master, has a very important bearing upon their responsibility, since otherwise they might reasonably claim that in defining the practical efficiency of his followers' faith, Christ Jesus was speaking in terms of his apprehension of the universality and availability of the law of God which he utilized, and had no expectation that they would be able to understand and apply it for an indefinite time. The moment, however, it is granted that representative men like Peter and Paul, who had so abundantly evidenced their kinship to the average mortal, were able to understand his teaching so as to be able to heal the sick and raise the dead, that moment professed Christians are estopped from offering this explanation of their failure to "do his commandments," and the inquiry, "Why, then, are ye not doing these things?" can neither be suppressed nor ignored.

While Christian Scientists have abundant reason to be humble, they certainly can and do rejoice that they have acquired a clearer understanding of the conditions upon which the promise of spiritual dominion was made, and they have thus taken the first step, at least, toward the realization of its fulfilment. Christ Jesus' command of life, and his assurance of our possible freedom to do and possess, is no longer inexplicable when we come to apprehend in Science the relation of his words, his demonstrable understanding of the truth of being to the falsities of human sense which bring about sin and sickness. The pupil truly abides in the teacher when he has received and assimilated his teaching and is governed by it, the effective common factor being their common knowledge. The law of Truth, an understanding of which made it possible for Christ Jesus to solve his every problem, to do as he would, became "mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds," in the disciples; and in the nature of the case it can be no less mighty in every other consciousness in which it is received and utilized.

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