Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Transformation
That a great change is needed in human character, individual and collective, few would deny, even if the demand were pressed home in each case; but there would doubtless be great diversity of opinion as to how this needed improvement can be effected, and few would be willing to meet unshrinkingly the divine requirement, which never stops short of perfection. When a very learned and religious man came to Christ Jesus, seeking new light on the important questions of life, the great Teacher swept aside all trivialities with the demand, "Ye must be born again." According to this decision it is not enough to make certain changes here and there in character; the mortal concept must be given up, and life must begin anew with the divine idea as its foundation. There is almost contempt in these words of the Master: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," nothing more; it is that which sins, suffers, and dies; but thought is immediately lifted above it to "that which is born of the Spirit."
In direct line with this teaching of the Master we find St. Paul saying, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind," and in this statement we have a hint of both process and result. Transformation implies a complete change in nature and character, and in the process, as Mrs. Eddy explains, "belief melts into spiritual understanding, and sin, disease, and death disappear" (Science and Health, p. 442). She adds that then "the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears;" and it is toward this result that all true Christian Scientists are bending their energies. If we ever make the mistake of standing still, forgetful that we are yet largely controlled by material sense, we shall surely be roused from our lethargy by that unceasing demand of Truth, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
At every step of the way Christ Jesus, our great Exemplar, was teaching those who were willing to hear him, how they must put off mortal sense if they would gain spiritual freedom. On page 49 of Science and Health our revered Leader says that though he was "charged with the grandest trust of heaven," yet he was "ready to be transformed by the renewing of the infinite Spirit." Are we as ready to meet the problem of each hour, desiring only to throw off more and more the burden of mortal belief and to be changed into the perfect likeness of the perfect Father?
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
December 4, 1915 issue
View Issue-
Atonement
REV. JAMES J. ROME
-
Standing with David
LEWIS C. STRANG
-
"Thou shalt not steal"
ALICE HALE COHEN
-
Divine Selection Utilized
MARY I. MESECHRE
-
"Forgetting those things which are behind"
CATHERINE YOUNG
-
"Instant in prayer"
JOHN M. DEAN
-
As reported in the Herald an evangelist has taken occasion...
John L. Rendall
-
Under the heading of "Talks for a Quiet Hour," the statement...
Thomas Jennings
-
That Christian Science is both Christian and scientific has...
Thomas F. Watson
-
A Seattle clergyman goes out of his way to assert of a...
Charles F. Kraft
-
Christmas Giving
FRANCIS C. GEORGE
-
"An opening wedge"
Archibald McLellan
-
Habitual Meditation
John B. Willis
-
Transformation
Annie M. Knott
-
The Lectures
with contributions from Joseph F. Wingebach, Albert E. Barnard, Neoma Check
-
When less than three years old I met with an accident...
Edwin F. Hammond
-
About four years ago I became interested in Christian Science
Alexander M. Morrison
-
Six years ago I had what materia medica called a structural...
Sue M. Monckton with contributions from C. J. Monckton
-
I wish to testify most gratefully to the benefits I have...
Sadie Marion Becker
-
I have been healed through Christian Science of a bowel...
Sarah B. Trimble
-
It is with love and thankfulness to God, and gratitude to...
Awdrey L. Haskett
-
I am very grateful for having the ever operative spiritual...
Marie J. Feldes
-
The writer is one of those "that go down to the sea in...
Wilfred S. Iliff
-
You will not compass your poor ends...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
-
From Our Exchanges
with contributions from James Mudge, George Rowland Dodson, Alfred Williams Anthony, Mary E. Woolley, Canon J. G. Adderley