Article January 25, 1919 Issue

"Go unto thine house"

W. EDSON SMITH

The sayings of Jesus were always simple and direct. They searched the very heart of every one and everything at hand. Whether stilling the tempest, healing the sick, or raising the dead, they met the issue, supplied the human need; and it follows that, knowing declaration and doing to be such close companions, he would speak no word lightly, idly. He was, as is stated in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 313), "the most scientific man that ever trod the globe." More than any other, he realized the power characteristic of the right word, at the right time, in the right place. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, speaks of his sayings as "infinitely important" (Science and Health, p. 350), and we must, therefore, transfer not a part but the whole of the truth he spoke into demonstrated, practical living.

In Matthew we are told of a man sick of the palsy, who was brought to Jesus; he was helpless, inert, and was lying on a pallet bed as he had lain year after year; yet there had come to him the surging up of a great desire for healing,—the first beginnings of spiritual activity. He had heard of the Christ, and to draw closer was so vital a necessity that when he could not come near by reason of the restless throng, he caused himself to be lowered through the roof, bed and all. So there he was at length, where he had wanted to be. He had his chance! Of course the words of Jesus touched and healed him of his morbidly weary, sickened sense of life. The Master's command was specific and beyond a doubt pleasant to hear: "Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house."

"Go unto thine house." We are willing enough, we palsied ones of earth, to accept the physical relief afforded by Christian Science treatment. Though we make our own bed of pain, we are usually more than ready to rid ourselves of such ancient evidences of disease,—to put away the old hates and shames, doubts and fears, so that the ragged bundle will not be a stumblingblock. The next necessity is to go unto our own house. For our own house always and ever awaits us. However desolate it may have seemed of old, now indeed it will have a light above the sun; for the activity of divine Truth, the movement which has brought Life and Truth and Love to us, drives out every unclean thing and glorifies its own dwelling. There is our home, our place; there shall we find the peace that Jesus imparted to his disciples; the full content provided by our beloved Leader when she bestowed "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," with all its attendant activity, upon a longing world.

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