Article December 28, 1918 Issue

The sayings of Jesus are capable of endless application,...

The Christian Science Monitor

The sayings of Jesus are capable of endless application, illustration, and interpretation; and this because these sayings are diamonds of many facets, catching the light of Truth whichever way they may be turned. Thus the symbolism of the vine, the fig tree, and the mustard tree reveal continually new light and new meaning, as the student grows, through demonstration, in some understanding of Truth, the knowledge of which Jesus himself said would make men free. This knowledge must come through demonstration, otherwise it does not come at all, and demonstration, Mrs. Eddy has pointed out, must result in healing the sick. The mere study of textual and doctrinal problems, of the fulfillment of prophecy or the more subtle meaning of texts is, by itself, however fascinating, just so much of love's labor lost, the love being distinctly the love of intellectual gratification. Faith in the efficacy of this sort of mental pabulum never yet healed a case of sickness, and never will. And it is one reason why James declared, "Faith without works is dead."

This intellectual study of the Bible nearly invariably concentrates on the Old Testament to the exclusion of the New, and any person who has ever seriously indulged in it knows, as the awakening comes to the more spiritual demands of the New, and above all, to its demand for demonstration, exactly why this is the case. It is, frankly, the old Adam in human nature, with its demand for "warmth and color." The New Testament, with its "pure severity of perfect light," chills intellectuality, in any and every form, to the bone. It demands a reason not for the value of this reading or the application of that prophecy, but for the faith that is in a man. And this reason must not take the form of some verbal argument, which is the foliage of the barren fig tree, but the fruit of the seed multiplying some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some an hundredfold. That is, surely, what Mrs. Eddy was alluding to when she wrote in Article XXX, Section 7, of the Church Manual, "Healing the sick and the sinner with Truth demonstrates what we affirm of Christian Science, and nothing can substitute this demonstration."

The study of the Bible must, then, have its roots, if it is to be profitable, in no mere intellectual enjoyment, but in the effort to gain more and more the Mind of Christ, in which sensual pleasure has no lodgment, but through which alone the demonstration, to which Mrs. Eddy alludes, can be accomplished. For Mrs. Eddy makes no secret at all of what the particular form of this demonstration must be, but continues straight on from the passage just quoted, "I recommend that each member of this Church shall strive to demonstrate by his or her practice, that Christian Science heals the sick quickly and wholly, thus proving this Science to be all that we claim for it." Now it matters not one atom that a man should be able to forge a cable of prophetical theory or of the theory of salvation by grace or faith. Such cables will part the moment they are subjected to the strain of healing fevers or palsy. It matters not an iota that a man should fashion an Achilles' shield of scholastic theology; he can be wounded to the death in the Achilles' heel after all, his vital, material weak point. But it is of supreme, of overwhelming importance that he should understand what Jesus the Christ meant in his teaching, so that he, too, may gain the Mind of Christ, and he, too, demostrate his knowledge of Truth, by healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking on the waters, since "he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

The sayings of Jesus are capable of endless application,...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access