Editorial March 26, 1910 Issue

THE HIDDEN LIFE

John B. Willis

Professed Christians cannot read too frequently St. Paul's picture of life as portrayed in the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians. The severity of the reproof which may be conveyed to them by his words is more than balanced by the inspiration awakened by his assurance of what they may become, and his appeal that they fail not to enter into the fulness of their inheritance.

The exaltation of the life he outlines, its gentleness and humility, its unselfishness and patience, its superiority to temptation, its authority over evil, and above all, its unfailing love,—all this might be reckoned but a flight of the apostle's imagination, were it not manifest that he thinks of such a life as altogether attainable for every true disciple, and this for the sufficient reason that he is putting off "the old man,"—is being freed from the limitations of mortal sense,—and is therefore able to demonstrate the life that is "hid with Christ in God;" and it is the revelation or expression of this hidden life, in all Christlike deeds, which he so splendidly champions.

In all this St. Paul anticipates the theme and contention of Christian Science, which persistently pleads for the recognition of life as the immediate manifestation of the divine activity, and which insists that it is to be thought of not in connection with material conditions, but in terms of Spirit and spiritual thought. He who responds to this appeal speedily begins to acquire a new and redemptive sense of man's inseparability from God, a consciousness of having already entered upon the "eternal life," which gives great poise and peace. This new point of view modifies all his thought, his habits, and his plans, and it renders his separation from the world a mere matter of course.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Letters

LETTERS TO OUR LEADER