Article April 9, 1921 Issue

Following the Lamb

JAMES C. THOMAS

ALL men must eventually follow the Lamb, whether this year or next year, this century or next century, and that they must do so sooner or later is inescapable. The Lamb is a term used in the Scriptures and accepted and further explained in Christian Science as the spiritual idea of Truth is the Almighty which knows not error, "neither shadow of turning." The idea or representation of such All-power must be and is the exact reflection of its cause and so is also without shadow of turning. In other words, this idea is one thing alone, whole or infinite good. Its wholeness and its simplicity make it entirely intelligible to men, so that they may follow good or the right without turning aside in any way to half good, half right, or indeed, to anything less than what expresses Principle. Since Truth is another name for good, and the spiritual idea is what expresses Him, and is what He has created, this idea is the Son of God, or Christ, the blessed activity of Spirit always present.

Following the Lamb, therefore, is the willingness to leave material pursuits in all their countless forms of false eccle-siasticism, lust for bodily satisfaction, greed for commercial success based on questionable practices, and any desire whatever to temporize with evil and to pursue it just a little longer. It is the willingness to abandon wrong things, and the acceptance of the battle that ensues when a man strives to turn his willingness to do good into good deeds actually done. Following the Lamb, or obeying the more and more clear-cut demands of Principle in this age is not an easy thing for the materially minded person, but it is increasingly easy for the one who desires to do right and who is therefore as spiritually minded as his desire is deeply founded. But doing right is simple, and there is nothing in the process of doing right or following the Lamb, the idea of Mind, that is not clear and direct. It is the winding way of wrong that is devious, complicated, and deceiving. It is not hard to do right. The difficulty comes in having the willingness to turn, and in the actual turning from evil things.

The Lamb, being the expression of infinite good, or Principle, is infinitely gentle, but unyielding in its rightness. The willing man obedient to the demands of the Christ, or Truth, will find the true idea thus communing with him, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." To sup thus is to enjoy the green pastures and the still waters of the twenty-third psalm; but it is also to take part in that "war in heaven" which results when the goodness that men accomplish displaces the suppositional evil that continually disputes progress and denies the salvation of men and of the world. And the goodness that men achieve, they achieve as they perceive that omnipotent good is right here now, and that the Christ or spiritual idea expresses it, and, further, that it is only their false trust in another presence than God and His idea that prevents the demonstration of harmony for them.

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