Editorial August 5, 1911 Issue

THE SAND AND THE ROCK

ANNIE M. KNOTT

THE sermon on the mount is rightly regarded as the basis of all of Jesus' teachings, and its relation to his marvelous healing work is of great interest to the student of Christian Science. In Science and Health (p. 271) we read: "When the Science of Christianity appears, it will lead you into all truth. The sermon on the mount is the essence of this Science." Through the entire discourse we find an inflexible demand for obedience to the moral law, in spite of the opinion held by so many that Christ Jesus had a more elastic standard than did Moses, that he was more willing to make concessions to human weakness than were the upholders of the Mosaic teaching. Nothing could be farther from the fact than such an unwarranted assumption. The spiritual standard is always above the mortal sense,—"as the heavens are higher than the earth,"—and it was to this the great Teacher directed all thought.

At the very outset Jesus told his hearers that he had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and Christian Science stands ever by this demand for their fulfilment in the most comprehensive sense. Christ Jesus said it was not enough that a man refrain from evil deeds, he must also abstain from evil thoughts, he must not hate any one, and he must not entertain any impure desire. The Master was not content to demand a mere negative virtue, he asked for positive obedience to God's law in thought, word, and deed, and in making this demand he lifted thought away from the material up to spiritual reality,—the "treasures in heaven" which are within our reach here and now if we are willing to let go of the illusions of sense.

Here it is well to note that Jesus' teaching differed from that of Moses in respect to the infliction of penalties. He did not favor the proposition to put a sinful woman to death, but required of her that she "sin no more," and he knew that obedience to this requirement is possible to all who gain the true concept, viz., "perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration" (Ibid., p. 259). This agrees with St. John's statement, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." Until the spiritual concept is gained, one is building upon the shifting sand of human opinion and the belief in mortal will-power, and when the testing time comes, as come it must, the entire structure will fall; so said the Master.

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