Article February 26, 1910 Issue

THE ELIMINATION OF PERSONALITY

FRANK H. SPRAGUE.

It is sometimes assumed by persons who observe the workings of the Christian Science organization from a standpoint outside the ranks, that the form of government provided in the church Manual tends to hamper individual growth; that any system of external regulation interferes with spiritual progress; and that dependence on organization is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. As with every great institution, the Church of Christ, Scientist, must be viewed in its proper perspective and historical setting before the meaning and utility of the relative measures employed for its furtherance can be rightly estimated. It is essential, in this connection, to consider not alone the absolute end contemplated in the movement, but the exigencies to be met in attaining that end as well.

The avowed standard of Christian Science practice is the ideal of God and man presented by Christ Jesus. The Mosaic law, was the dominant influence in shaping the character and destiny of the Jewish people, was designed to confirm and conserve the sense of divine presence and power gradually unfolded to the awakening consciousness of the "peculiar people." Without the aid of this code, crude and materialistic as were many ceremonial features, the Messianic ideal would have been lost to the world, swallowed up amid the superstitions and abominations of the age. Paul declares: "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." In other words, the exactions of the Judaic code were necessary, at that period, to awaken and perpetuate a moral and religious sense which should lead the way to the later manifestation of the spiritual idea or Christ. The coming of Christ Jesus was in itself, however, but a preliminary step in the redemption of humanity.

So little prepared was the world, even then. for the Galilean prophet's absolute teaching and demonstration, that the understanding and realization of the truth he proclaimed disappeared from the lives of his professed followers after a comparatively brief period. Yet once implanted in human consciousness, the leaven of truth continued to work, enlarging and purifying experience until centuries later, as promised by Jesus, the Christ, or spiritual idea, was again revealed. What, then, was the essential truth brought to light in the career of Christ Jesus, and elucidated in the works of the Discoverer of Christian Science? Nothing less than this, that man is the reflection of divine Mind—is spiritual idea governed by divine Principle.

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