Article March 2, 1912 Issue

JESUS THE CHRIST

DAVID FRANCIS THOMPSON

Novices in Christian Science need to be on their guard against the notion that their new-found freedom of thought gives them license to discuss grave theological problems in a flippant manner, and in no other matter is greater care needed, on the part of beginners, than in speaking of Christ Jesus.

Mrs. Eddy in the chapter on Atonement and Eucharist has clearly indicated how Christian Scientists should regard Jesus. She speaks for every true Christian Scientist in the sentence, "We adore Jesus" (Science and Health, p. 26); and surely if ever there was an occasion when speech would be silvern and silence golden, when "mere smatterers in Science" should put off their sandals of "superficial and cold assertion" (Science and Health, p. 460), it is when we whose demonstration lags a long way behind intellectual assent and words, find ourselves tempted to speak of the beliefs of others in terms which are likely not only to awaken surprise, but to bring offense to those who do not understand Christian Science teaching.

The Pharisees would no doubt have commended the man born blind had he listened to their admonition to "give God the praise." They said, "We know that this man [Jesus] is a sinner;" but healed man saw through this perhaps the subtlest of all the temptations from his former friends which needs to be met promptly and effectually by the neophyte in truth. What the Pharisees had to learn was that in this material world devotion to Principle involves reverence toward its highest idea and persecution as penalty for this discipleship; for the highest idea and its followers are always the "despised and rejected" of those who seek the "upper seats." Christian Science never countenances any thoughts which fail to recognize the sacredness of Christ Jesus' character, even in its human manifestation. While many professed Christians hold a narrow and material concept of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy speaks of him as "the highest human concept of the perfect man;" and again as "the highest earthly representative of God" (Science and Health, pp. 482, 52). Seen from the chaos of mortality, he may appear only as a human being, though indeed the most exalted, but to the Christian Scientist he can never seem less than the Wayshower, the uplifter.

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