Regeneration

MANA WILLIS FISHER

Saul of Tarsus was a firm believer in the Jewish faith, and therefore in the law as taught by Moses. He was bitterly opposed to Jesus and his teaching, yet he found eventually that Jesus' teaching was identical with the spiritual utterances of Moses and the prophets, and that the Sermon on the Mount was but a clearer presentation of the ten commandments. Read through continuously in the light of Christian Science, the commandments and beatitudes are the story of humanity coming into man's divine heritage.

While on his way to Damascus to do away with the followers of Jesus, Saul was perchance turning over in his thought the snatches of this new teaching which he had been able to gather, and was pondering upon them. Suddenly he seems to have reached the point where he realized that even though he had studied the Jewish law from his youth up, yet he was "poor" spiritually, and, regardless of the fact that he was in command of a body of soldiers and carried papers from the high priest, that the object of his journey was not really to wipe out the Christian faith, but to learn more of it. With this understanding there must have come a peace and happiness which carried him at once into harmony, and he was indeed "blessed." He doubtless saw that the Christ-teaching was not intended to destroy the law, but to help men to have "no other gods before me"—the one true God. So clearly did Saul see this that he began at once to aid instead of trying to hinder this cause. Our Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 326) that "in humility he took the new name of Paul."

Paul's life at this point shows that he at once experienced repentance; and as he mourned he began to discard all evil,—to cast out all idolatrous thoughts of material knowledge, position, money, body, or human inheritance of any nature, and no longer to bow down to them or serve them. He saw what his heritage really was,—that it consisted of all godlike qualities, and that he inherited only from God. As God is jealous (vigilant in guarding His own ideas), so God's child inherits this vigilance of thought and is able to keep God's law. Meekness took the place of arrogance in Paul's thought, and this humble, teachable attitude of mind strove not to give out false teaching about God; did not pray for what it did not desire; did not antagonize the prayers of others; did not declare that God was the creator of evil. Not taking God's name in vain, Paul was ready to "inherit the earth."

Paul's continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness was manifested in his desire to gain and then to share his treasures of Truth with others. This desire made a Sabbath, or holy day, of each day, and blessed not only himself but all with whom he came in contact, even the stranger who should read his message many centuries later. As he grew more merciful, he was more and more honoring his Father-Mother God, and he thus obtained mercy for himself. Paul had to learn not to grieve over the past, because there was still sufficient time in which to honor God, since the commandment reads, "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

These steps Spiritward made Paul more "pure in heart," and he began to see God as He really is,—as Life, Truth, and Love. Because he saw God as Life, he ceased to think of killing any one or holding thoughts the reverse of Life. Truth swept away all thoughts of stealing, and no adulterating thoughts could remain, but were wiped out by the knowledge of God as Love. The beloved disciple has said, "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." All these blessed experiences made Paul a peacemaker, and he corrected many warring tendencies in humanity. He was called a child of God because he represented Life, Truth, and Love.

Paul had learned not to bear "false witness" against his neighbors, so had ceased to persecute them "for righteousness' sake." Rather had he learned to say to them that "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He was helping to fulfil all the law, for had not the Master whose teaching he had learned to love said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." His awakening to the fact that he need not covet, since man has all good, destroyed his desire to revile, to persecute, and to say all manner of evil. He learned to rejoice, and he found the reward great—even harmony. He found that Christ did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but that through the constant revelation of Truth to the receptive thought, he was daily, hourly, fulfilling it—filling it full.

Jesus' promise to the Christian of yesterday is the promise of comfort to the Christian of today: "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled." O comforting assurance! God's law will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever, until every man has experienced this complete regeneration and has no other gods before the infinite One.

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