Article December 28, 1912 Issue

"WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?"

ALICE SANBORN BROWN.

A common misunderstanding in regard to the teachings of Christian Science, and one which its students are often called upon to correct, is with regard to Christ Jesus as a Saviour. That Christian Scientists believe in him is attested by their works, but they are willing to admit that they do not worship the flesh, not even that of the man Jesus. According to his own word, "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."

We read in Numbers, that when the children of Israel suffered by the bites of serpents in the wilderness, Moses made a serpent of brass and placed it upon a standard, and it came to pass that when a serpent had bitten any man, if he looked upon the serpent of brass he lived. But we are told that when Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah he "brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan [a piece of brass]." Christ Jesus referred to this brazen serpent as a type of human selfhood, saying, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The time has come when belief in the flesh must give place to the divine idea, even as when Hezekiah broke the brazen serpent. Jesus' body on the cross was simply flesh and blood, yet it typified "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

When Jesus was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, disclosing the "holy of holies" (where the high priest alone was allowed to enter), revealing to the world the very presence of God, as it were. The writer to the Hebrews makes it plain that the veil typified Jesus' flesh; "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; ... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." The rending of the veil of the flesh, i. e., the destroying of the belief that flesh contains life in and of itself, by Jesus' overcoming of death and resurrection from the grave, therefore opened up the way of salvation or entrance into the "holy of holies." In other words, humanity was by that act brought face to face with Spirit as the only Life and power, and there, at that most hallowed hour in all history, "the light of the world" was revealed, "the way" appeared, "the truth" that makes free was demonstrated; and there, best of all, divine Love stood forth unveiled.

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