Article October 26, 1912 Issue

OVERCOMING

SUE HARPER MIMS.

The basis of Christian Science being the infinitude of God, omnipotent Mind, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, together with man and the universe as the expression or manifestation of God, in His own likeness, spiritual, harmonious, and eternal, it must logically follow, in the thought of all those who accept these premises, that the contradiction or unlikeness of this Mind—all that is material, finite, and discordant—pertains to a false, unreal sense of being, which should be overcome, put aside. In our effort to realize the truth of being we have the teaching and example of Christ Jesus, made luminous by the great revelation of Truth known as Christian Science.

Christ, the true idea of God, was expressed through Jesus, who in his humanity cognized the unreal or illusory sense of existence and overcame it through his realization of the truth which makes free. Having the Christ-mind, Jesus was the first great overcomer, to whom is promised glory, blessing, and dominion; as we read in the Apocalypse: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." This conquest of false sense, or unreality, all that is opposed to the divine reality and perfection, alone enables us to attain that unity with God, eternal Life, for which Jesus prayed, saying, "that they may be one, as we are." This entering into the true, divine consciousness effects the annihilation of all error; it is, indeed, the heavenly Jerusalem or "tabernacle of God," that wondrous city, "coming down from God out of heaven," in which there shall no longer be a consciousness of death; where there shall be "neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain," for God Himself "shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

One reason for the human acceptance of sin, disease, and death, instead of its denial and overcoming, is this, that the human mind has been taught to be reconciled to them because sent from God; yet Jesus would surely not have healed the sick and raised the dead, if sin and death had been part of the Father's plan. He came doing and to do the will of the Father. In Hebrews we read: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." The author of this remarkable epistle to the Hebrews certainly did not consider death a part of the divine plan, for both he and St. John clearly taught that sin brings death. Paul says that "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;" and James tells us that "when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Again Paul declares that Jesus Christ "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." The teaching of all these passages is clear, and the last selection, Paul's statement to Timothy, is very scientific, implying as it does that life and immortality were and are the eternal realities of being, brought to our understanding through the gospel.

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