Editorial April 19, 1919 Issue

"Risen with Christ"

Annie M. Knott

At this season of the year all Christian peoples turn in thought to the resurrection of Christ Jesus and in many churches celebrate with imposing ritual their concept of the marvelous event of two thousand years ago. After a strenuous argument against material ordinances (in his epistle to the Colossians) Paul has this to say: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." We are left in no doubt at this point as to what is meant by his idea of resurrection, or the immediateness of the demand that we give up without reserve all that is not Christlike.

It has been largely held among professed Christians that one's resurrection cannot be experienced until he has submitted to death, but the apostle's words right here are deeply significant. He says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." From the Christian Science viewpoint this means that, as we read in the "scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468), "there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." On page 337 of this textbook we also read that "perfection is the order of celestial being which demonstrates Life in Christ." Life in Christ implies an unceasing realization of the divine presence and protection. It means that the Love which clothes the lilies of the field with grace and beauty will fittingly feed and clothe all those whose faith grasps an enlarged understanding of the Master's promise and serenely rests upon it.

Let no one suppose that when Christians of other denominations are commemorating in varying ways the resurrection of the Master, Christian Scientists forget to turn in lowly love and reverence to the record of Jesus' triumphs over sin, sickness, death and the grave, first in the case of others, then in his own experience, these demonstrations all leading up to what Mrs. Eddy calls "his mighty, crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the flesh" (Science and Health, p. 117). Well do they know that his way is the only way, and as the Christ-healing comes to them they appreciate in ever larger measure what it means to be risen with Christ. It is not enough to measure ourselves by past attainments, even by those of last year, but we should ask ourselves to what extent we have risen above all impurity, idolatry, hatred, or malice in thought, word, or deed. If we have indeed "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," we must have clearer vision and with it more of the "signs" of healing which prove the correctness of our Leader's declaration on page 92 of the Manual of The Mother Church to the effect that healing is better than teaching. As we strive to fit ourselves for this Christly work we are reminded of John's words in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Does not this point to the complete obliteration of sin, disease, and death?

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