Article November 8, 1919 Issue

"He that shall endure"

AGNES M. CLEAVELAND

INTEREST in sacred prophecy has become widespread among Bible students since the Bible has become less of a sealed book and is being recognized for what it really is—a record of the unfolding of the divine idea to human consciousness. Both in its statement of absolute truth and in its record of the transformation which takes place in human lives when this truth is grasped, the Bible has been and will be throughout all time the infallible guide. When this twofold aspect of it is understood, many of the otherwise obscure passages are made plain, for no matter how far from present day standards many of the practices therein recorded may appear to be, nevertheless they are higher expressions of human conduct than obtained before the leaven of Truth wrought its healing effect upon the dense materiality of the age.

With the waning of materiality there comes inevitably a quickened perception of what Truth is and how it will affect the human mind. Knowing what the human mind will do when it is turned toward Truth, is all that is meant by prophesying. Because Jesus so thoroughly understood the action of Truth, he knew, as its inevitable corollary, what the human mind must of necessity do when subjected to this action. In a word, he knew that this so-called human mind would disappear, with all of its material concepts of man and the universe, and in its place would be revealed divine Mind with its true vision of all things.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew is recorded one of the most significant of the many prophecies of the Bible and one that is set forth in such simple, direct language that its meaning is unmistakable. The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses recite: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Truly to-day is witnessing the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world through the spread of Christian Science, and we may therefore properly look for the end which has been foretold. What is this end? Foretelling the end of the world and preparing for it has frequently caused acute fear to many and incited many others to ridicule, yet every Christian knows that the Scriptures abound in references to "the end," "the end of time," et cetera. In the passage just quoted we are bidden to endure unto the end. How many professed Christians have taken this to mean that man is adjured to suffer for an indefinite period, only to be swallowed up finally in some overwhelming cataclvsm !

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