Article May 11, 1918 Issue

The Ever Present Healing Christ

ROBERT NALL

It was Mrs. Eddy's deep conviction of the presence of the indwelling Christ, won through travail of sense, which led her to testify by her works that spiritual power, the only panacea for the sin and anguish of the world, is in exact proportion to daily submission to and acknowledgment of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which rises above and overrule material sense. For it is true, as we come to know concurrently with our spiritual awakening, that the false human sense can never discern the Christ, the supreme manifestation of the divine allness. More and more does the appeal come to us to recognize always the incorporeal Truth if we would know our individual standing in the kingdom of heaven, and be reflections through whom Love may do its redemptive work in the hearts of humanity. This is the priceless asset which we have in Christian Science, to be used at this moment for the instantaneous and sure destruction of error.

The future has nothing for any one of us that the present does not contain. The expectation of mere future good is a species of will-o'-wisp that may beguile us into the drowsiness and inactivity of mortal sense, and leave us stranded at the door of the castle of indolence. Such a mental condition is, of course, the precursor of the belief that credits evil with the power to withhold the good of to-day. But more than that, if not aroused in time some are so tossed to and fro between the sorrow of having missed the good in the past and the fear that they cannot attain what is promised in the days to come, that the victory, the peace, and the health of this moment are hidden. We may ask ourselves, in words familiar to all lovers of our Hymnal (p. 12), "Why search the future and the past?" We shall have conquered a great error when we are practically cognizant of the truth expressed in the line, "Beneath thy feet, Life's pearl is cast." Does not the pearl here mentioned typify the Christ-idea, whose coming to each one of us means the purification of thought, the cleansing of the mental home, and the substitution for all merely mortal and physical order of that harmony which follows conquest over the flesh.

As we read that touching incident recorded by our Leader on pages 179-180 of "Miscellaneous Writings," when, after being healed in what seemed to be a miraculous way, she was able to declare that Christ had never left earth, for "Christ is Truth, and Truth is always here,—the impersonal Saviour," we shall remember that this is the fulfillment of the promise that Christ Jesus himself made. The royal commission to his followers to teach and observe all things that he had commanded them was followed by the declaration. "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." There need be no confusion of thought here. The moment we have entered upon the experience of the new birth,—the coming to us of the Christ,—that moment we are endowed with power from on high. The personal Jesus is our great exemplar; the Christ is to us the divine idea of God. As Mrs. Eddy says in her article entitled "A Christmas Sermon," which begins on page 161 of "Miscellaneous Writings": "The Science of Christianity, that has appeared in the ripeness of time, reveals the incorporeal Christ; and this will continue to be seen more clearly until it be acknowledged, understood,—and the Saviour, which is Truth, be comprehended."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

The Ever Present Healing Christ

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access