Article August 5, 1911 Issue

OUR SURE HERITAGE

M. E. PRUTZMAN.

GATHERED about the table, at the close of that memorable supper in the upper chamber, Christ Jesus said to his disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. . . . Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." Later, after the resurrection and after the disciples had witnessed the ascension, the record states that they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God."

How could they, at that time, have "great joy"? Only those can know who through faithful, patient striving to put off the mental apparel of mortal concepts and beliefs have glimpsed the primal, spiritual, eternal verities which Christ Jesus brought, as it were, within the vision of the disciples, and which our beloved Leader has again disclosed to the present age. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The sweetness and satisfaction of these glimpses of spiritual reality are beyond utterance; and to know that such consciousness alone is the native status of man created in God's likeness, is the only condition that can lead to real joy. To know that the divine purpose is moving irresistibly in the blotting out of all human sense of evil and in the quickening and the awakening of the whole human race to recognize man as "in Christ," in the spiritual order; to drop the concept of mortality, letting the divine energy of infinite Spirit sweep away all falsity and disclose the eternal verities which have been "from everlasting to everlasting,"—to be able to contemplate these things, and erect and joyful to bear the cross of our own overcoming, which wins the crown of spiritual realization, is rare privilege, and cause for deepest thanksgiving and praise. And these glimpses of the divine Science of being bring with them a spontaneous joy, crystal clear and beyond human utterance.

It is to be remembered that the outpouring of the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, upon one assemblage, was after the Master had finished his earthly course and was no longer with his followers in the flesh; and also that Peter called to the remembrance of the multitude, gathered in "one accord" and marveling at this wondrous enduing, the familiar promise of the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass afterward," saith God, "I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh." The record further shows that in the days following, through the spiritual enduing received, the apostles were enabled to effect a transformation of material conditions in what to the general thought were "many signs and wonders," and also that there ensued the first general movement outward, from Jerusalem, of the Christian religion.

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