Article May 22, 1920 Issue

"Come forth"

ANNE H. THOMAS

The command, "Come forth," is as imperative to-day as when given by Jesus, the master Metaphysician, to Lazarus; for is not the so-called Christian world of to-day mentally bound by the graveclothes of materiality—the belief of life, substance, and intelligence apart from God, and in matter—as surely as was Lazarus physically bound by the graveclothes of his day? The greatest bondage from which Lazarus needed to "come forth" was not apparent to those around him, for it was their belief in the reality of death by which he was bound, and to which Jesus referred when he said, "Loose him, and let him go."

In "Rudimental Divine Science" (p. 2) Mrs. Eddy says: "Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness." The bugle call of Christian Science to the world to-day is, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead," "come forth" from the belief of a power apart from God, from the subtle arguments and suggestions of the carnal mind, and awaken to your true being as the son of God. As a result of the teachings of Christian Science, mortals are awakening to the bondage which obedience to the carnal mind, to false appetites and passions, to "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," imposes. Is not prohibition an illustration of an awakening, or coming forth, from false appetite, from the lust of the flesh, from one of the beliefs of pleasure in matter, and is it not far more significant, much farther reaching than the mere refraining from the use of intoxicants would indicate? In its larger sense prohibition is the result of purification, the spiritualization of thought due to the activity of good in the world to-day, in the individual or so-called human consciousness. In the words of Paul, it is putting off the old man and his deeds and letting that Mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus.

Jesus' mission was not finished when he raised the dead. He had yet to "come forth" from the world's belief in life apart from God, and prove for all time and all peoples the unreality of death. His raising the dead through the understanding of God as Life was but another step toward his next demonstration, known as the resurrection, which was followed by his final demonstration, which has been called the ascension. Jesus' whole human experience was that of hourly having part in the ascension, for was he not with each overcoming of sin, sickness, and death, for those around him, rising in the scale of being—his conscious at-one-ment with God? None but he knew that his work was not finished with the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, and the resurrection of his own material body; for he said to Mary, on the morning of his resurrection, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

"Come forth"

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access