Editorial April 8, 1911 Issue

THE PROSPERITY OF ZION

Annie M. Knott

Long ago the psalmist wrote: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." All students of the Bible recognize the deep spiritual significance which attaches to the mention of Jerusalem, whose history is of such mighty import of Jew and Christian alike; the more so, that St. John, in telling us of the spiritual and permanent home of all God's children, calls it "new Jerusalem," and again, "the holy Jerusalem," that home of Soul in which is neither sickness, sin, nor death,—in other words, the ideal city, governed by God, divine Principle, and lighted by the glory of divine Truth and Love. It is said that when Jerusalem was taken from the Jebusites, in the reign of David, the twenty-fourth psalm was written to celebrate his triumphal entry to the stronghold on Mount Zion. Be this as it may, we cannot too often remind ourselves that he alone shall ascend into God's holy place and dwell there who has "clean hands, and a pure heart," and who has made God his refuge and his fortress for all time.

In the psalm first quoted the peace and prosperity of Zion are linked close to that of the citizens. At this point it is well to consider the definition of Zion as given in Science and Health (p. 599): "Spiritual foundation and superstructure; inspiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithfulness; desolation." This may remind us of Paul's words: "To the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life." This aptly typifies the different mental conditions of those who approach the subject of Christian Science, and we can only rejoice that so many are finding it to be indeed "the savor of life unto life." It is clearly a matter of choice, on the part of each of us, which it shall be.

In the Manual of The Mother Church great emphasis is laid upon the study of the Lesson-Sermon, "a lesson on which," our Leader says, "the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends" (Art. III., Sect. I); and this is followed by a demand for consecrated living on the part of the Readers, so that "the mental atmosphere they exhale shall promote health and holiness." While this applies specifically to the Readers in our churches it certainly may be said to extend as a gracious invitation to all the members; indeed, to "whosoever will" that elect to worship God "in spirit and in truth."

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