Article April 18, 1914 Issue

Jesus once said, "By their fruits ye shall know them."...

John H. Wheeler

The Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat

Jesus once said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The author of Christianity referred to the fruit of the Spirit as being expressed by an exemplary Christian life. This must explicitly include a full obedience to the ten commandments, literally, morally, and spiritually, together with a spiritual sympathy for our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount. These qualifications are necessary in order to appreciate and obey Jesus' command that every man love his neighbor as himself, which is the "fulfilling of the law."

Our critic claims that Mrs. Eddy taught there is no hell, which hardly accords with her teaching as she understood the subject. True, she did not picture a black, literal hell, an abode of terror, where the eternally damned shall never find relief. The Christian world has long since refused to accept these teachings without reserving the right to form its own conclusions, especially when the Bible declares that God is Love, and Jesus preached and practised what he taught, that we must forgive our enemies. Christian Science teaches that the word of God and His whole law must be obeyed literally and spiritually; that the word of God is absolutely sufficient for man's guidance and full redemption from the flesh and all kindred evil,—these being but a sinful sense peculiar to the carnal mind. Jesus came to show mortals how to lay off, or overcome, the human will and all the desires of mortality through the spiritual understanding of man's true relationship with God, the Father of all.

Once when the Jews demanded of Jesus "when the kingdom of God should come," he replied: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." That is, it is within the mental realm of each individual who obeys or lives the law of God, and who sincerely loves his neighbor, which includes the act of regarding his fellow man as the child of God, and doing this compassionately and spiritually, even to the degree that he considers necessary for his own good. He must steadfastly refuse to let evil defile either himself or his spiritual vision of his neighbors. This act is genuine only as he patiently forgives and forgets the seeming carnal nature of his fellow man, and as he prays and spiritually strives to overcome the errors of human kind. He must continue to hope for all mankind's redemption and the overcoming of sin, which he knows to be the opposite of God's nature, as well as powerless to influence goodness in mortal existence.

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